as to God's instruments, for the support of their unprovided families, destitute of other aid. Thus we who remain are the guardians of the widows and the orphans; appointed to that sacred office by no violable testaments of mortal men, but by the inviolable will of the Ever-living God. Let us see that we be faithful, as the deceased were in their day, to a trust which we may not decline; looking forward to the joys of that great day when tears shall be wiped from every eye, and "he that hath received a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward," when his recompense in nowise shall be lost" who shall have given but a cup of cold water only to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple." In that day shall these sons and daughters of the prophets be gathered round the Son of Man, seated on his throne of glory; and, in the presence of the angelic host, bear their testimony to this day's work of love. What then shall be the joy of those to whom the King shall say- "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; naked, and ye clothed me; sick,

and ye nursed me. nursed me.

as much as ye have

Verily, I

Verily, I say unto you, done it to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world!" O rich requital of an easy service!-love the duty; heaven the reward! Who will not strive to be the foremost to minister to the necessities of the saints; secure of being doubly repaid, here, in the delight of doing good; hereafter, in a share of this glorious benediction !

SERMON XXXVI.

JOHN, xi. 25, 26:

I am the resurrection and the life: He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this?

EXCEPT the cure of the two blind men at Jericho, some cures in the temple in the Passion-week, the malediction of the figtree, and certain manifestations of our Lord's power upon the seizure of his person in the garden of Gethsemane, except these, the raising of Lazarus from the dead was, I think, the last public miracle performed by Christ during his abode in the flesh. It was undoubtedly among the most

considerable which we read of in the whole course of our Lord's ministry; and was an apt prelude to that greatest miracle of all, the seal of his mission and of our hope, his own resurrection from the dead, Accordingly, we find him preparing himself for this exhibition of his power on the person of his deceased friend with particular care and solemnity. He was at at a distance from Bethany, the place of Lazarus's residence, when Lazarus first fell sick; the alarm of the Jewish rulers, excited by his cure of the man born blind, and by his open claim to be the Son of God and One with the Father, having obliged him to retire to Bethabara. When he received the news of his friend's illness, notwithstanding his affection for Lazarus and his sisters, he continued two days in the place where the message found him; that the catastrophe might take place before his miraculous power should be interposed. He had indeed already restored life in two instances: The daughter of Jairus was one; and the widow's son of Nain was the other. But in both these instances, the evidence of the previous fact, that death had really taken

place, was not so complete and positive as our Lord intended it should be, and as it really was, in the case of Lazarus. Accordingly, it.is remarkable, that our Lord's apostles, although they had been witnesses to these miraculous recoveries of Jairus's daughter and the widow's son of Nain, entertained not at the time of Lazarus's death the most distant apprehension that their Master's power went to the recovery of life once truly and totally extinguished. This appears from the alarm and the despair indeed which they expressed, when he informed them that Lazarus was dead, and declared his intention of visiting the afflicted family. They had so little expectation that the revival of Lazarus could be the effect, or that it was indeed the purpose of his journey, that they would have dissuaded him from leaving the place of his retirement; conceiving, as it should seem, that the only end of his proposed visit to Bethany would be to gratify the feelings of a useless sympathy at the hazard of his own safety. "Master," they say unto him, "the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?" And when they found him