We need not pursue these thoughts. We may well believe, however, that
when the first day of the week had come--and the glad announcement
spread from disciple to disciple, "_The Lord is risen indeed_,"--on no
home in Judea would the tidings fall more welcome than on that of
Lazarus of Bethany. Martha and Mary had, a few weeks before, experienced
the happiness of a restored _Brother_. Now it was that of a restored
_Saviour_! Whether He revisited these, His former friends, the days
immediately after His resurrection, we cannot tell. It is more than
probable He would. May not some hallowed _unrecorded_ "Memories of
Bethany" be included in the closing words of John's gospel--"There are
also many OTHER things which Jesus did?" On the way to Emmaus He joined
Himself to two disciples, and "caused their hearts to burn within them
as He talked by the way." So may He not have joined Himself to the
friends with whom He had so oft held sacred intercourse during the days
of His humiliation--breathing on them His benediction, and discoursing
of those covenant blessings which He had died to purchase, and which He
was about to bestow, "set as king on His holy hill of Zion." With what a
new and glorious meaning to Martha must her Saviour's words have now
been invested, "_I am the Resurrection and the Life_--he that believeth
on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."

As the God-man, He had power over her brother's life--He had now
demonstrated that He had "power over His own;"--"power" not only to "lay
it down," but "power to take it up again." Her Lord had "spoken _once_,
yea _twice_ had she heard this, that _power_ belongeth unto God."

The Grave of Bethany was thus in her eyes inseparably connected with the
grave at Golgotha. But for the rolling away of the stone from a more
august sepulchre, her brother must still have been slumbering in the
embrace of death. "But now had Christ risen from the dead, and become
the first-fruits of them that slept."

The Almighty Reaper had risen Himself from the tomb, with the sharp
sickle in His hand. In the person of His dearest earthly friend He
presented an earnest-sheaf of the great Resurrection-reaping-time--when
the mandate was to be carried to the four winds of heaven, "Put ye in
the sickle, for the harvest is ripe;--Multitudes--multitudes in the
Valley of Decision."

Can we participate in the joy of the family of BETHANY? Have we, like
them, followed Christ to His cross and His tomb