In verse nineteen πρὸς τὰς περὶ Μάρθαν καὶ Μαριάμ is found in A, C3, г, A, A, II, et al. This is endorsed by Tischendorf: πρὸς τὴν Μάρθαν καὶ Μαριάμ is supported by N, B, C*, L, X, and by Westcott and Hort.

The ancient village of Bethany was situated to the eastward of Jerusalem, nearly two miles distant. See A Diary of My Life in the Holy Land. In that village Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus had a permanent domicile. In fact, the Gospel seems to warrant that it was their native village. These three persons were close friends of Jesus. Friendship is one of the higher and better things of human life, and Jesus is our model in this also. As Saviour and Redeemer, he is the friend of all men; but without detracting aught from this universal love, as a mortal man he entertained for this family of Bethany a human friendship, the finest human friendship ever felt by human heart. By this event in his life, he draws closer still to our human hearts. We have already been introduced to the two sisters Martha and Mary in the beautiful episode narrated by St. Luke X. 38-42. But in the present passage a further description is given of Mary, as the one who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair." The only anointing which has been narrated for us up to the present time is that written by St. Luke VII., 37, 38. That anointing was wrought by the woman of sin in the house of one Simon, a Pharisee. Hence there arises again the old question of the identity of the three women, the woman of sin, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the sister of Lazarus. former treatise we have discussed this question at length, and we there formulated our judgment that there is question of three distinct women. Although the second verse of the present text of John is somewhat perplexing, we yet adhere to our former judgment, and we hope to find in this very account corroboration of our judgment.

In our

We need not open up the whole question again, but simply treat of the specific relation of this verse.

We believe therefore that St. John in this verse does not refer to the event mentioned by St. Luke, but to another event which is mentioned in the opening verses of the twelfth chapter of St. John. This event had not been narrated at the time of

the writing of the eleventh chapter, but it had been enacted, and it was one of the facts of Mary's life that was widely known. Hence by a slight anachronism John alludes to this well known fact, in narrating a preceding event.

At his writing both events were in past time. Most probably the anointing was more known than any other event in the life of Mary. To confirm our opinion on this subject, we have a clear precedent in the Gospels themselves. Long before the treason of Judas is narrated, the Gospels in speaking of him, declare that he it was who betrayed the Lord. Thus St. Matthew, X. 4, in giving the names of the Apostles, adds of Judas, "who also betrayed him." In like manner Matthew, XXVI. 25: "And Judas, who betrayed him, answered and said." Wherefore we believe that St. John here refers to an event which he describes in the next chapter.

Mary, the sister of Lazarus, was of Bethany; it was her city. Whenever the Gospels speak of her, they associate her with Bethany. She is of honorable family, attested by the fact that many of the Jews had come to the sisters to console them concerning their brother. Mary's home is the restingplace of the Lord. There he was pleased to receive entertainment and shelter. He was the familiar friend of the family. And Mary is the contemplative, the one who is happy to sit at Jesus' feet, and listen to him. And the advocates of the old traditional opinion tell us that we must take this woman up into Galilee, give her the Galilean name of Magdalene, and identify her with the public prostitute of Naim or Capharnaum. It is impossible; it can not be. That sinful woman comes into the Gospel like the adulteress of St. John. They are both nameless and unknown. They obtain forgiveness, and then lapse into the great ocean of unwritten history.

But Mary of Bethany is known well. She is of a very honorable family which enjoys the matchless privilege of furnishing to the Lord lodging and entertainment. Whenever Mary is mentioned in the Gospels, an air of sinlessness and pure love surrounds her. How different her innocent childlike love from the wild agony of repentance of the woman of sin? When, we consider the severe laws of the Jews against whoredom, setting aside all other arguments, it becomes a moral impossi

bility that a member of this highly respectable family of Bethany should have been a public prostitute in Galilee only a little more than a year previous to this event, and then should be restored to her family, and thus honored by Jesus and the Jews.

It was but natural that when Lazarus fell sick, the sisters should send to their dear friend Jesus. In sorrow of such nature we long for the sympathy of a human friend. The Holy Gospel does not tell us whether at this time Martha and Mary believed that Jesus was the Son of God, but certainly they must have considered him a great prophet.

There is a similarity between the message sent to Jesus by Martha and Mary and the words addressed to Jesus by Mary at Cana. They do not ask for anything: they only make known in pathetic terms their sorrow, and leave the whole affair to Jesus. They appeal to Jesus' love, and simply express their need. This is an example in human petition. Our petition should be animated with great earnestness and love, and then we should commit ourselves without reserve to the kind mercy of Jesus, and accept his disposition in our regard.

When the message of Lazarus' illness came, Jesus turns to his disciples, and declares to them that the sickness of Lazarus is not unto death, but that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. The meaning of this declaration is that Jesus would not permit Lazarus at that time to remain in death, but that he would make use of his sickness and his death to prove his Divinity, that men might by this miracle recognize his character, and give him the glory that is his due.

The message from Jesus' friends was urgent; a man was sick unto death, a man whom Jesus loved. Martha and Mary whom Jesus also loved were torn with grief, and longing for the presence of Jesus; and yet he waits two days before setting out for Bethany. He allows Martha and Mary to suffer alone, and he allows Lazarus to die. Was it due to lack of love? Ah, no; Jesus had a deep reason for this action. He wished to make of this event one of the finest proofs of his Divinity. Hence he stays away from the scene till the man is dead, and four days in the tomb, before coming to his dear friends. The family was prominent. Many Jews from Jerusalem had seen the man die.

They had seen him prepared for burial, and laid in the tomb; and Jesus had not yet come. No man could charge collusion between Jesus and the family of Lazarus.

This action of Jesus is worthy of our deep meditation. It may have been that Martha and Mary felt great disappointment, when they saw that Jesus came not in response to their message; and yet the subsequent event proves that their petition was fully answered. In Jesus' higher wisdom the waiting and the death were necessary for the great work of Jesus, but his dear friends suffered naught thereby. So it is with us. Doubtless we feel great disappointment when Jesus moves not immediately in response to our petition. We grow impatient; we murmur; even it may be that we lose faith, because our prayer is not answered in our way. Jesus is waiting the two days; but he hears our petition, and has care of us. For us the two days may be a lifetime; what does it matter? Our lives are safe in Jesus' keeping; and we can not see the movements of divine wisdom, guiding our lives in mercy and love. We may have trusted other friends, and may have been deceived; but Jesus merits to be trusted absolutely. This trust should not waver, even though he defer the answer to our petition, even till our existence beyond the grave.

After the two days Jesus invites his disciples to accompany him into Judæa, to the village of Bethany. The disciples try to dissuade him, reminding him that the Jews lately sought to stone him. Jesus answers in figurative language. The import of his words is that no man can lay hands on him till his hour shall come. He was like a man walking in the day, and could not stumble. He could not be taken until he offered himself up.

The Lord now speaks figuratively of Lazarus' death as a sleep out of which he will go and awaken him. Lazarus was dead, but with God a man's death is as a sleep, out of which he will be awakened when God wills. Jesus possessed in all its fulness the power of his Father; and therefore in his hands the dead are as those sleeping. We tremble at the awful power of death; that power that spares no one; that power that mocks at all the pomp and glory of the world; that power that is forever writing on the wall in the midst of the world's revel; that power that empties the thrones of kings, and gives their bodies

to the worms of the earth. But the power of death is nothing in comparison to the power of Jesus. Death is banished from his kingdom, and although he allows death to hold empire over mortal man for a time, "the last enemy that shall be abolished is death."-I. Cor. XV. 26. In Adam all men die; and in Christ all are made alive. Hence those who are with Christ need not fear the awful power of death. They close their eyes in sleep, and they awake with Christ. The transition is painful, because it separates us from our foolish loves here; but in that purer light that comes in the future life we shall see the true value of the things that God has prepared for those who love him. Then all things that we have loved on earth shall appear vile and worthless, and we shall love the true good.

Within a hundred yards of where we are sitting lies a city of the dead. Its population is twenty-five thousand, and every year adds a thousand more. Men walk for pleasure through the streets of that great city, and look upon the clustering graves as though they were the most commonplace object. They stand and talk of some light matter upon the very spot where in a little while their own grave will be dug. And yet they are not advised of the great lesson of death. If we could open those mounds, and obtain a response from the dust and bones that are there we should hear that we are fools to think of anything else, or do anything else than to prepare for death. The proportion should be: As time is to eternity, so should the thought and labor for this world be to the thought and preparation for death.

There

Man has no other business on earth save this alone. in that city of the dead we find the infant snatched away from the very threshold of life. The mother had just experienced the ecstacy of feeling for the first time her firstborn's breath; her kiss is warm on its lips, when death reaches out his spectral hand, and snatches the babe from the mother's bosom, and throws it into a grave.

There lies the lover, who had just gone from the delightful presence of his betrothed, thrilling with the vows of love, when death met him, and summoned him away.