eautiful it is when our lamp
shines steadily in the tempest, and when our spiritual confidence remains
unshaken like a gloriously rooted tree. Beautiful it is when in our
midnight men can hear the strains of the "even now"!

And let me consider the wonder of the Divine response. "_I am the
resurrection and the life._" A faith like Martha's will always win the
Saviour's best. And here is an overwhelming best before which we can only
bow in silent homage and awe. He is the Fountain in whom the stagnant
brook shall find currency again. He is the Life in whom the fallen dead
shall rise to their feet again.

And what is this? "Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me _shall never
die_!" We shall go to sleep, but we shall never taste the bitterness of
death. In the very act of closing our material eyes we shall open our
spiritual eyes, and find ourselves at home!

MARCH The Fifteenth

_JESUS AT A GRAVE_

JOHN xi. 32-45.

Here is Jesus weeping. "Jesus wept." Why did He weep? Perhaps He wept out
of sheer sympathy with the tears of others. And perhaps, too, He wept
because some of our tears were needless. If we were better men we should
know more of the love and purpose of our Lord, and perhaps many of our
tears would be dried. Still, here is the sweet and heartening evangel. He
sympathizes with my grief! Never a bitter tear is shed without my Lord
sharing the tang and the pang.

Here is Jesus praying! "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me."
Then it is not so much a prayer as a thanksgiving. He gives thanks for
what He is "about to receive." Is this my way? Perhaps I do it before I
take a meal. Do I do it before I begin to live the day? In the morning do
I thank my God for what I am about to receive? Can I confidently give
thanks before I receive the gifts of God, before the dish-covers are
removed? Can I trust Him?

And here is Jesus commanding, clothed in sovereign power: "Lazarus, come
forth!" That is the same voice which "in the beginning created the heavens
and the earth."

MARCH The Sixteenth

_THE NEMESIS OF BIGOTRY_

JOHN xi. 46-57.

A fearful nemesis waits upon the spirit of bigotry. Oliver Wendell Holmes
has said that bigotry is like the pupil of the eye, the more light you
pour into it the more it contracts. The scribes and Pharisees became
smaller men the more the Lord revealed His glory. In the raising of
Lazarus they saw nothing of the glory of the resurrection life, nothing of