The Yale expositor., 1900-04-27
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TIMELY DISCOURSE ON RELIC
IOUS DOCTRINES.
He Would Free Humsaity From the
Graveclothes of Old Ecclesiastical Dog
mas - Faith In Christ the Test of
True Christianity.


marks made at Bethany on the ruins
of the house of Mary and Martha and
Lazarus. We dismounted from our
horses on the way up from Jordan to
the Dead sea. Bethany was the sum-
mer evening retreat of Jesus. After
spending the day in the hot city Of
Jerusalem he would come out there al
most every evening to the house Of
his three friends. l think the occu-
pants OF that house were orphans, for
the father and mother are not men
toned But the son and two dauSh-
tiers must have inherited property, for
it must have been, judging from what
saw of the foundations and the size
of the rooms, an opulent home. Laza-
rus, the brother, was now at the head
OF the household, and his sisters de-
pended on him and were proud of him,
for he was very popular, and every
body liked him, and these girls were
splendid girls-Martha a first rate
housekeeper and Mary spirituelle,
somewhat dreamy, but affectionate
and as good a girl as could be found
in all Palestine. But one day Lazar-
us got sick. The sisters were in con-
sternation. Father gone, and mother
gone, they feel very nervous lest they
lose their brother also. Disease did
its quick work. How the girls hung
over his pillow! Not much sleep
about that house-Do sleep at all.
From the characteristics otherwise
developed, I judge that Martha pre-
pared the medicines and made tempt
ing dishes of food for the poor appe-
tite of the sufferer, but Mary prayed
and sobbed. Worse and worse gets
Lazarus until the doctor announces
that he can do no more. The shrek
that went up from that household
when the last breath had been drawn
and the two sisters were being led by
sympathizers into the adjoining room
all those of us can imagine who have
had our own hearts broken. But why
was not Jesus there as he so often had
been? Far away in tho country dis
tricts, preaching, healing other sick,
how unfortunate that this omnipotent
Doctor had not been at that domestic
crisis in Bethany. When at last Jesus
arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been
buried four days and dissolution had
taken place. In that climate the
breathless body disintegrates more
rapidly than in ours. If, Immediately
after decease, the body had been
awakened into life, unbelievers might
have said he was only in comatose
state or in a sort of trance and by
some vigorous manipulation or power
full stimulant vitality had been re-
newed. No! Four days dead.
The sepuicher of Christ
At the door of the sepulcher is
crowd of people, but the three most
memorable are Jesus, who was the
family friend, and the two bereft sis
tiers. We went into the traditional
tomb one December day, and it is deep
down and dark, and with torches we
explored it. We found it all quiet that
afternoon of our visit. but the day
spoken of in the Bible there was pres
emit an excited multitude. l wonder
what Jesus will do? He orders the door
of the grave removed, and then he be-
gins to descend the steps, Mary and
Martha close after him, and the crowd
after them. Deeper down into the
shadows and deeper The hot tears
of Jesus roll over his cheeks and
splash upon the back of his hands
Were ever so many sorrows com
pressed into so small a space as in
that group pressing on down after
Christ, all the time bemoaning that he
had not come before?
Now all the whispering and all the
crying and all the sounds of shuhling
feet are stopped 1t is the silence OF
expectancy. Death had conquered, but
now the yanquisher of death confront
ed the scene. Amid the awful hush Of
the tomb, the familiar name which
Christ had often had upon his lips in
the Inequalities of the village home
came back to his tongue, and with q
pathos and an almightiness of which
the resurrection of the last day shall
only be an echo he cries, Lazarus,
come forth" The eyes of the SUM
berer open, and he rises and comes to
the foot of the steps and with great
difficulty begins to ascend, for the
cerements of the tomb are yet on him.
and his feet are fast and his hands are
fast and the impediments to all his
movements are so great that Jesus
commands: Take off these cere-
ments Remove these hindrances
Unfasten these graveclothes! Loose
him, and let him go!"
Oh, am so glad that after the Lord
raised Lazarus he went on and com
manded the loosening of the cords that
bound his feet so that he could walk
and the breaking off of the cerement
that bound his hands SO that he could
stretch out his arms in salutation and
the tearing off of the bandage from
around his jaws so that he could speak
What would resurrected life have been
to Lazarus If he had not been freed
from all those cripplements of his
hodv1 am Glad that Christ oom.