The Montgomery tribune., 1908-04-10
THE RAISING
OF LAZARUS
Sunday School Lesson for April IL, 1908
Specially Prepared for This Paper


One or three months after the last les
son. And two or three months befor-
Jesus cruclhxion
PLACE.-Bethabara (R. W, Bethany
In Perea. Bethany, n 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
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.
ances that wondrous sentence
which has carried hope and triumph
to millions of the dying and bereaved,
and will do so while time and NOR
tality endure. ."-Geikie
1.-THE living, breathing friend,
whom you love.
AM-Am now; no vague sometime;
no postponement.
THE RESURRECTION 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.
\ THOUGH HE WE'RE DEAD-as to
his mere body.
YET SHALL HE LIVE-in every
point that constitutes life, having even
q 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- - ION
me-" says the Revised Version.
SHALL NEVER DIE--No, NEVER;
for, though his body may perish, that
will be but an 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
N~I
dying. Brooks.
2. BY turning our minds away from
the physical death we must all die at
length, to him and his life. I'VE 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 yworshiper down to
the tips Of his fingers. The Hindu who
worships Brahma sleeping on the
fixed expression. on."-Theodore T..
Munger, d. d. So the continual
thought of Christ, who overflowed
with invincible life, implants that life
within US.
8. BY upholding us in the very
hour of physical death. when COM
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 ak; and at length
one voice was heard alone sustaining
the holy strain, even while the bloody
blade fell and sealed the last mar
tyr's testimony. 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."-Thomas
Arnold, the head of Rugby school,
5. BY freeing us from the spiritual
death, from sin. Massillon, the great
French preacher. Justly sees in the
| 0Cdu A%dLdi uS OH imuSC Vi t-i0 Oil
ner: Become mass of worms and
and corruption, he spreads infection
and stencil; and behold the profound
corruption of a soul In h2bitual sin.
A gloomy napkin covers his eyes and
his face: and behold the fatal blind.
ness of soul in habitual sin. He
appears in the tomb bound hand and
foot: and behold the melancholy sub.
lection of soul In habitual SIM" Free.
dom from this dead body" of Gin,
as Paul called 1t, is the most difficult
resurrection; but Christ accomplishes
even this. He comes into our soul. and
sin must flee. "'Christ in you is the
hope of glory
"Isidore of Pelusium thinks that our
Saviour did not mourn for his friend