May 23

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear, shall live.—John 5:25.

THE Lord's deeds are not only deeds, but signs. If then they be signs, besides being wonderful, they are doubtless significant of something: and to find out the signification of these deeds, requires more pains than to read or hear them. With wonder we read, just as if the spectacle of the mighty miracle were before our eyes, how Lazarus came to life again. If we mark well what are more wonderful works of Christ,—every one who believes undergoes a resurrection: if we mark well, all of us, and understand, what are more dreadful deaths,—every one who sins dies. But the death of the flesh every man fears, few the death of the soul. Though the death of the flesh without doubt must come at last, all men have a care that it may not come: this is that they take pains for. Man destined to die, takes pains that he may not die, he takes them to no purpose; for his aim is that death may be a long while deferred, not that it may be escaped from: whereas, if he refuse to sin, he will have no pains, and will live for ever. Oh that we could rouse men, and with them be like aroused, to be such lovers of the life that abideth, as men are of the life that fleeteth! What is there that a man will not do in peril of death? To whom was it ever said, Labor, that thou mayest not die, and he was idle? They be easy things that God bids us do, that we may live for ever, and yet we neglect to obey. God saith not to thee, lose whatever thou hast, that thou mayest live a poor brief life in labor, full of care; but, give to the poor of what thou hast, that thou mayest live for ever without labor, free from care. They that are enamored of this temporal life accuse us, albeit they have it neither when they would, nor for so long as they would: and yet we do not accuse ourselves, so sluggish are we, so lukewarm in laying hold of life eternal, which, if we be willing, we shall have, and having, shall not lose: whereas this death which we dread, although we be unwilling, we shall have.

If then the Lord by his great grace and his great mercy raiseth souls to life again, that we may not die eternally, we do well to understand those three dead persons whom he raised to life again in their bodies, to be signs and figures of something concerning the resurrections of souls, which are effected by faith. He raised the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, while yet she lay in the house; raised the young man, the widow's son, as he was carried out at the gates of the city; raised Lazarus, when he had been four days buried. Let each look into his own soul: if it sins, it dies: sin is a death of the soul. But sometimes the sin is in thought. That which is evil hath delighted thee: thou hast consented thereto, hast sinned; that consenting slew thee: but the death is within, because the evil conceived in thy thought has not yet come forth into a deed. To signify his raising a soul in this condition, the Lord raised that girl who was not yet carried out to her burial, but lay dead in the house: that was, so to say, sin latent. If, however, thou hast not only consented to evil delight, but also done the evil itself; thou hast as it were, carried thy dead out at the gate: now art thou abroad, and art the dead man carried out to burial. Yet even him, the Lord raised, and restored to the widow his mother. The third dead is Lazarus. There is a dreadful kind of death, it is called evil custom. For it is one thing to sin, another to make a custom of sinning. He that sins and is forthwith corrected, soon comes to life again; because he is not yet entangled with a custom, he is not buried.

But he that has accustomed himself to sin, is buried, and it is well said of him, He stinketh: for he is beginning to have a very ill report, which is a most noisome odor. Such are all that are inured to crimes, men of abandoned manners. Thou sayest to him, Do not so! How should he hear thee, while the earth lies so heavy upon him, and he is rotting away in corruption, and weighed down by the load of custom? And yet was there no less virtue in Christ even to raise him. We have known, have seen, do daily see, men brought by thorough change from most evil custom, to live better lives than they did who reproved them. We see many, we know many. Let none despair, none be self-confident. It is evil both to despair and to be self-confident. Despair not, but so that thou make him thy choice in whom thou oughtest to be confident.