that prevents us from accepting this assurance and
living in the joy and strength it brings. If Christ raised Lazarus He
has a power to which we can safely trust; and life is a thing of
permanence and joy. And if a man cannot determine for himself whether
this did actually happen or not, he must, I think, feel that the fault
is his, and that he is defrauding himself of one of the clearest guiding
lights and most powerful determining influences we have.

This miracle is itself more significant than the explanation of it. The
act which embodies and gives actuality to a principle is its best
exposition. But the main teaching of the miracle is enounced in the
words of Jesus: "I am the Resurrection and the Life." In this statement
two truths are contained: (1) that resurrection and life are not future
only, but present; and (2) that they become ours by union with Christ.

(1) Resurrection and Life are not blessings laid up for us in a remote
future: they are present. When Jesus said to Martha, "Thy brother shall
rise again," she answered, "I know that he shall rise again in the
resurrection at the last day,"--meaning to indicate that this was small
consolation. There was her brother lying in the tomb dead, and there he
would lie for ages dead; no more to move about in the home she loved for
his sake, no more to exchange with her one word or look. What comfort
did the vague and remote hope of reunion after long ages of untold
change bring? What comfort is to sustain her through the interval? When
parents lose the children whom they could not bear to have for a day out
of their sight, whom they longed for if they were absent an hour beyond
their time, it is no doubt some comfort to know that one day they will
again fold them to their breast. But this is not the comfort Christ
gives Martha. He comforts her, not by pointing her to a far-off event
which was vague and remote, but to His own living person, whom she knew,
saw, and trusted. And He assured her that in Him were resurrection and
life; that all, therefore, who belonged to Him were uninjured by death,
and had in Him a present and continuous life.

Christ, then, does not think of immortality as we do. The thought of
immortality is with Him involved in, and absorbed by, the idea of life.
Life is a present thing, and its continuance a matter of course. When
life is full, and abundant, and glad, the present is enough, and past
and future are unthought of. It is life, therefo