as ushered him; when he begins to
live in God; when the things of God are the things among which and for
which he lives; when his spirit is in daily and free communication with
God; when he partakes of the Divine nature, finding his joy in
self-sacrifice and love, in those purposes and dispositions which can be
exercised in any world where men are, and with which death seems to
have no conceivable relation. But, on the other hand, for a man to live
for the world, to steep his soul in carnal pleasures and blind himself
by highly esteeming what belongs only to earth,--for such a man to
expect to have any intelligent sense or perception of immortality is out
of the question.

2. Another question, which may, indeed, be inquisitive, but can scarcely
be reprehended, is sure to be asked: What was the experience of Lazarus
during these four days? To speculate on what he saw or heard or
experienced, to trace the flight of his soul through the gates of death
to the presence of God, may perhaps seem to some as foolish as to go
with those curious Jews who flocked out to Bethany to set eyes on this
marvel, a man who had passed to the unseen world and yet returned. But
although no doubt good and great purposes are served by the obscurity
that involves death, our endeavour to penetrate the gloom, and catch
some glimpses of a life we must shortly enter, cannot be judged
altogether idle. Unfortunately, it is little we can learn from Lazarus.
Two English poets, the one fitted to deal with this subject by an
imagination that seems capable of seeing and describing whatever man can
experience, the other by an insight that instinctively apprehends
spiritual things, and both by reverential faith, have taken quite
opposite views of the effect of death and resurrection upon Lazarus. The
one describes him as living henceforth a dazed life, as if his soul were
elsewhere; as if his eye, dazzled with the glory beyond, could not
adjust itself to the things of earth. He is thrown out of sympathy with
the ordinary interests of men, and seems to live at cross purposes with
all around him. This was a very inviting view of the matter to a poet:
for here was an opportunity of putting in a concrete way an experience
quite unique. It was a task worthy of the highest poetic genius to
describe what would be the sensations, thoughts, and ways of a man who
had passed through death and seen things invisible, and been "exalted
above measure," and become certified