The log cabin Democrat., 1908-04-09
THE RAISING
 OF LAZARUS
 Sunday School Lesson for April IF, 1908 Specially Prepared for This Paper
Specially Prepared for This Paper

LESSON TEXT.-John 11:1-57. Memory verses 43. A.
 GOLDEN TEXT.-"I am the resurrec- ton and the lfe."-John 11:25. TIME-January or February, A. D. 30. One or three months after the last les son. And two or three months before Jesus crucifixion.
 PLACE.-Bethabara R. w.. Bethany Tn Perea. Bethany, small village on the Mount of Olives, about two miles from Jerusalem.
 Comment and Suggestive Thought. At the feast of the dedication, in De- cember, Christ had so plainly assert ed his deity that the Jews had sought to stone him for blasphemy; but he | had escaped to Bethabara (Bethany) in Perea, the country east of the Jor- dana town in the north over against | Galilee.
 Christ's promise of resurrection did not satisfy Martha. It was too general, too vague, too far ahead. She wanted her brother back-that min- ute. Christ met that longing by one of the most magnificent of his utter
 
 which has carried hope and triumph | to millions of the dying and bereaved, and will do so while time and nor tality endure. ."-Geikie.
 I-the living, breathing friend, whom you love.
 AM-Am now; no vague sometime; no postponement.
 THE RESURRECTION-The power | of the resurrection, the resurrection embodied.
 AND THE LIFE-to conquer that grim DEATH which has come so ter ribly to your home.
 HE THAT BELIEVETH IN ME believing what Martha hastened to confess, that Christ was Gods Son, his messenger of love to the world. 1 THOUGH HE WERE DEAD-as to his mere body.
 YET SHALL HE LIVE-in every point that constitutes life, having even body, and a far better one. | AND WHOSOEVER-yes, though he were the chief of sinners. LIVETH-with this higher life in him.
 AND BELIEvETH IN ME - "on me-" says the Revised Version. SHALL NEVER DIE-No, NEVER; for, though his body may perish, that | will be but .n incident in his continuing and triumphant LIFE. | Jesus, Our Resurrection and Our Life.-1. By preserving our lives daily, through countless unseen perils that | surround us-perils of the disease germs floating everywhere; perils | of earthquake on this thin earth-crust over hidden fires; perils of accident in our complicated life. "A thousand times, yea, every perilous moment, God saves us from dying. g."-Phillips Brooks. 2. By turning our minds away from | the physical death we must all die at | length, to him and his life. We are all passing into the likeness of that in | which we believe. A man who wor- ships money comes to wear the like | ness of money-w -worshiper down to the tips of his fingers. The Hindu who worships Brahma sleeping on the stars in immovable calm, gets to wear a fixed expression. "-Theodore T. Munger, D. D. So the continual thought of Christ, who overfiowed with invincible life, implants that life within us.
 8. By upholding us in the very hour of physical death. When a con- | munity of religious women in Paris, | during the fury of the French Revolu- | tion. were condemned to the guillo- tine, the youngest victims passed to | their execution raising in serene
 voices the sublime hymn, "Veni Gre ator." The celestial song did not cease
 when they ascended the stairs of the scaffold, and the work of butchery went on Voice after voice had to drop from the chorus, as face after
 face bent under the ax; and at length | one voice was heard alone sustaining g
 the holy strain, even while the bloody blade fell and sealed the last mar.
 tyr's testimony. Bishop Huntington.
 4. By awaking us, when we die, into
 endless life. "The time will seem no
 longer than the four days which
 passed before he awakened Lazarus.
 We shall have no consciousness of his
 tarrying. He comes as in a moment,
 to awake us out of sleep.
 Arnold, the head of Rugby school.
 D. By freeing us from the spiritual
 death, from sin. Massillon, the great
 French preacher, justly sees in the
 dead Lazarus an image of the sin.
 ner: Become a mass of worms and
 and corruption, he spreads infection
 and stench; and behold the profound
 corruption of soul in habitual sin l A gloomy napkin covers his eyes and
 his face: and behold the fatal blind
 ness of a soul in habitual sin. He
 appears in the tomb bound hand and
 foot: and behold the melancholy sub | jection of a soul in habitual sin" Free
 dom from this dead body" of .sin | oc Dau1 caI1od if ic tha moCt diff ou1t