The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1914-12-27
"a Friend Of the Family

Sermon by the Rev. DIR. H. II. McClelland.

he did but to get sick and die, and
be raised again and come to the feast
that is all. There was nothing about
his character as an individual which
impressed itself upon the evangelist,
but we are not, therefore, to say that
he was not possessed Of those quali-
ties which endear one to those who
know him. Besides that, love is hard
to give a reason for. 1t sufices for
the present to know that whatever
Lazarus was, his sisters loved him
Tor they were, according to the rec
old. seriously alarmed by his sickness
and almost heart broken with grief at
his death. And Jesus loved him. We
must not complain that our curiosity
! is not gratifed by a detail Of his
unique experience Of being four days
in the other world and of then being
called back to this. Even. SO great
a character as the apostle Paul tells
OF "a man-yery probably Paul HIM
self-in Christ" who was caught up
into paradise and heard unspeakable
words which 1t is not lawful for a
man to utter. lazarus was doubtless
subject to the same restrictions.
when Lazarus left his charnel-caye,
And home to Mary's house returned,
Was this demanded-if he yearned
To hear her weeping by his grave?
Where vert thou, brother, those four
There lives no record Of reply, ..
Which telling what 1t is to die
Had surely added praise to praise.
From every house the neighbors met,
The streets were filled with joyful
sound,
A solemn gladness ever crowned
The purple brows Of Olivet.
fasEN1
Behold a man raised up by Christ!
|" The rest remaineth unrevealed;
He told 1t not; or something scaled
The lips of that Evangelist"
Robert Browning in his poem en-
titled IAN Epistle containing the
strange medical experience of Kar-
shish an Arab physician draws an
imaginary picture of Lazarus years
after his resurrection from the dead,
paints him as man
"as harmless as a lamb;
Only impatient, let him do his best,
at ignorance and carelessness and
SIM"
Tennyson hits the secret of the i'm
spired silence about the personal
characteristics of Lazarus in the
verse, Behold a man raised UP by
Christi" Let there be no distracting
elements in the picture. Let the
sheer fact be set out in single point
OF light. To be susceptible Of the eff
fects OF the resurrection power of
Jesus Christ 1t is only necessary that
one be man. Individual differences
go for nothing here. The most OBJ
scure and neutral character of all the
unknown millions of God is Just as
much within the range Of the omni-
potent love Of Him who delivers from
the hand Of death as the most gifted,
or the most famous OF the sons Of
men. Let no one be in fear OF being
nobody in the eyes Of Jesus. He over
looks no one. AS in the case of this
characterless Lazarus 1t may often
appear in the light Of the perfect day
that the glory OF God does not at all
depend upon the sons of fame. The
fact that so great and so good one
as Jesus loves mine and me and in
due time will glorify God in me and
mine is as much as need for com
Portable travelling along my pilgrim
way. The nobodies OF this evil world
are the somebodies Of God. Who knows
how responsible place Lazarus. may
now hold in the kingdom OF Heaven?.
Who can tell how conspicuous
he Is among all the children In our
Fathers house? At any rate Jesus
love him then and loves him now
and evermore. And who became the
means Of greater Joy to that family
than Lazarus, the obscure? Christ
raised him up, Christ raised him up.
The intimate friendship Of Jesus
must have been most grateful to that
household. 1t was, as so many house
holds are in this vale OF tears, only
the fragment OF family. Two sis
tiers and one brother-that was all.
Remnants as pathetic as this are ali
about Is. How many times had death
entered that home? And now as a
balm to their bruised hearts comes
this blessed Friend. How intimate
that friendship wis the Gospels