The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1905-04-07
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
LESSON II, SECOND QUARTER, INTER-
NATIONAL SERIES, APRIL 9.


copyright 1905, by American Press Association
This is one of the saddest, but Ill
timately the most glorious, of all the
events in the ministry Of our Lord.
Back Of it all stands the glorious truth,
Jesus loved Martha, and her sister,
and Lazarus" Verse -. And the great
truth that God is love" is ut the
foundation of and all through the
whole purpose OF God as revealed in all
Scripture Il John iv, g. 1G). We must
ever keep it before us and rest firm
~ upon it, remembering always that
"as for God, His way is perfect Cps.
xviii, 800.
His great desire for us at present is
to conform us to His image ana use
us to make Him known. Hereafter
He will share with us all the glory
which the Father has given Him
Rom. viii, %, 20; John xvii, 22). AS In
the case of the man born blind, SO in
the lesson story of today all was for
the glory of God, that the Son of God
might be slorifed thereby Cverse / and
tx, 81. Notice in verses lii that
Jesus calls death a sleep, but X is al
ways the body and never the so1l that
is said to sleep. Consider tic con
sciousncss Of those in Rev. vi, Oil,
whose bodies had been slain, ma see
also Phil i, Il, 23, and Luke xvi, 22-24,
which is not called parable.
After two days Jesus, knowing that
Lazarus was then dead and buried,
started for Bethany, and when Martha
heard that He was coming she went
out to meet Him and greeted Him
with the words Lord, If Thou hadst
been here my brother had not died.
(verse 2D. Just what she meant by
verse 30 in view of verse % does not
seem very clear, though this may have
been her thought, although l know
that my brother shall surely rise again
at the last day, God can raise him now
if Thou wilt ask him." Yet verse 80
seems against this. Jesus knew her
thoughts ana just what she meant, and
He revealed Himself TO her as the res
direction ana the life, assuring her
that the dead would rise ana the living
be changed without dying at the APP
pointed time Oversees 2i-26). Her grand
testimony, Il believe that Thou art the
Christ the Son of God" must be plac-
ed beside Peters in Matt. xvi, 16; John
vi, Go
Martha returned to the house and
secretly conveyed to Mary the mes
sage, The Master is come and calleth
for thee" after which Mary hurried to
Him and greeted Him with the very
words which Martha had used, but
there may have been a difference in
the way they were said and the
thought back OF them. We like to see
Mary at Jesus feet She had often
been there duke Y, 39), but never be-
fore under similar circumstances, for
truly she had not passed this way here
tofore Josh. iii, II. See others at Jesus
feet in Luke viii, 81, IL; vii, 80.
When Jesus saw Mary and her
friends weeping He groaned in the
spirit and was troubled oversees SO, 3S).
ing for the redemption of the body
Rom. viii, %; II Cor. V, 2, A., and the
Spirit Himself pleads for us with
groanings. But this word in our les
son is wholly different word, and Is
only used three times elsewhere Matt.
tx, 30; Mark /, ID; xiv, -. In the first
two it is translated "straitly charged
and in the last "murmured against"
1t might indicate His indignation
against sin and death, as in Hos. kill,
II, where He says, 20 death, will be
thy plaques; o grave, / will be thy de-
struction-loaking onward to the time
when the last enemy, death, shall be
destroyed. Not only did Jesus groan,
but this shortest verse in the whole
Bible says, Jesus wept" (verse 80.
When He saw the RIGHTEOUSNESS Of
Jerusalem and the woe that would
surely overtake them He wept over the
city.
Coming to the tomb, He orders the
stone removed, but Martha objects,
thinking the case hopeless. Jesus
gently rebukes her unbelief with the
words, said / not unto thee that If
thou wouldest believe thou shouldest
see the glory of GodT Verse 40), re-
minding us that the great thing is to
believe in spite Of everything, in spite
Of sight or feeling or circumstances
"Be not afraid, only believe" MARX V,
3G). The stone being removed, He
talked with His Father in the pres
ence Of them ALL that they might have
another strong evidence that the Fa-
thcr sent Him. for He always glori-
fed the Father. Then He cried with
a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth"
and instantly Lazarus was alive and
well and standing at The graves mouth.
but he was still bound hand and foot
with grave clothes and the napkin was
about his free.
Some one has said that unless lie
had mentioned Lazarus by name ali
the dead had come forth at the sound
Of that voice and by the power of His
word lTobn v % CO How ei1orOpstfvn