Arizona republican., 1904-03-21

sick man grew gra adually worse. How the two women took turns in going into the highway to scan the distance. Then the end-the brother died.
 The hired mourners-the boisterous grief-the services for the dead accord ing to the ritual of the Jewish faith the occupied grave-the sealed stone the return to the empty house-the dead weight of the heart as the sense of loneliness becomes a settled fact: all of these things some of us have passed through.
 But what is the great Healer doing wonder? Waiting the hour when he may most truly answer the prayer that safely reached him
 To these about him he said that Lazarus was taking sleep. You have noticed how often death is spoken of as sleep by those who know what death really is. And death is not the worst thing in human experience. Have you never seen one who has fallen | on sleep" to whom, what we called death was but sweet repose and wei come rest. How beautiful are such in slee9.
 | With silvery hair softly falling about the quiet features; feet that were weary with the rugged way, now at rest; the hands that found so little op- portunity for quiet are generally fold ed across the silent breast; heart aches past fears stilled and tears all wiped away so giveth she his beloved sleep. Such is the picture that ever lives in my own thought of St. Margaret in her humble hillside cottage among the | granite hills after a life Of sweet self sacrifice.
 And yet another who fe,l asleep as | the new life of spring was waking | years ago. like ripened wheat at au- i tumn time, with three score and ten years of toll; never. did our mothers | face seem so fair and full of peace as when we laid her down tc rest covered with the fragrant flowers of May she l loved so well. Have we not often 1 made those words of Mrs. Browning's cur own, when she sang Let ono most 1 lcving of you all say not a tear must OCT her fall He giveth his beloved sleep"
 The purpose of the Master in all the delay was the highest good of them who trusted Him and whom He loved He came to them as He comes to us today, when He can do us the most good.
 1 And when the time is ripe Jesus ! takes His journey into the home coun- ! try again and one anticipated his com ing with the announcement that "the Master is come and calleth for thee" ! You remember the sequel, how the dead was raised and a new hope born into the world as He declared the inn mortal fact T am the resurrection and the life.'
 ! With this drama of human life based on historic facts before us let us note some helpful truths on which we may lay hold for strength and comfort. Many are the calls of the Master we are to hear and head.
 These calls are personal. "Go and l tell Peter" was the command of the risen Lord. If ye abide in me and and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. Christianity is a personal contact with c person. And the sever al and varied calls men hear are indi- vidual. And not only so but all such are in the present. God never calls man to do something in the future, the call is present and the future will at tend to it's own demands. It is quite true as Longfellow has said, "the life of man consists not in seeing visions
 
 charity and willing service" but all the same the active charity and will ing service is brought about by list ening to the appeals of the voice with in-the life of God in the soul
 There is 9 world of hope and cheer in the contemplation that he who calls man to achievement is eternally able to perform in man all his purpose
 Today we hear the voice of the Mas ter in the providences of daily life. True, these are often obscure and we blindly discern their import.
 The coming into the home at Beth eny was with a double purpose-to re- store to life him whom the Master loved and as well to reveal to them all and to us the fathomless tenderness of the heart of God.
 Then also do we hear God speak to us in the inner consciousness-if you please, the sub-consciousness that underflowing stream of mans individ- uality where are born so many of those rare creations even of the most sluggish of men; true many of these children of the deepest self may never see the light of action, but how they l influence the tbings, the baser things men do. Was not this in the. thought of the Teacher when he declared "the kingdom of heaven is within you" The right action is first a right and honest l thought, God speaks to you in your soul. my brother-the still small voice call it what you please. The keen eyed see visions and the open-eared hear voices.
 Then, too, Coes the Master speak tC us by his word. Not merely by tn, printed word but by every word thar proceedeth out of the mouth of God
 The Bible declares it's own inspira
 tion because it inspires you and me
 hence we may safely give it-withou
 comment to the most illiterate, re |. questing merely that they allow tn