tain proofs of Christ's divinity, abounding with consolation to those who tremble lest that divinity should be merely an imagination, or theory, or fanciful vision, and abounding also with warnings and heart searching denunciations against any continuance in sin.

1st. We open this chapter, and the first proof of Christ's divinity that breaks on us from it, is the fact of his prescience and providence. When the disciples told Jesus that his friend Lazarus was sick he replied "this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby." Jesus knew beforehand that the sickness of Lazarus should not hold him in the hands of death; he knew before hand that his disease should eventuate in bringing glory to God; and it would also seem from the whole context, that by his providence Jesus had arranged, that the sickness should befall him at such a time, and take its regular course; for when he afterwards informed the disciples that Lazarus was dead, he added, “I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent ye may believe, nevertheless let us go unto him." We perceive then in his own language, an assertion of his providence and foreknowledge, "this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." Granting Jesus then, credit for veracity, for common honesty, having asserted indirectly that he was God, we are bound to believe him such and recognise in his foreknowledge and providence the attributes of the true Jehovah.

Having thus looked hastily at this first evidence in favor of the divinity of Christ, let us for a moment turn our thoughts to the consolations that may be hence derived. There was a power of providence, you perceive, here engaged: "Lazarus sleepeth," said the Lord, "but I go that I may awake him out of sleep." He speaks not there as a deputy, as an agent, a prophet, or an inspired man, favored with visions from heaven like Elijah; he might have learned that Lazarus was sick, that Lazarus should rise again by his instrumentality; but he does not use the language of an agent, he speaks in his own proper person. "I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." This is the language of conscious divinity alone.

Now the sickness of Lazarus had not fallen on him fortuitously; it had not reached him in the common course of events. It seems to have been directed by "the finger of God," and ruled by the providence of Jesus Christ. From that sickness Lazarus was subsequently delivered, after it had been

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consummated by death, and that sickness did end in bringing honor to Christ, proving his deity, confounding Christ's enemies and comforting his disciples. What was Lazarus? No more than a believer, a follower of Jesus in faith; we take him merely for an example of divine mercy, compassion, and providence; and we have the assurance from the whole history before us that the same Jesus who loved Lazarus, loves every one here present that believes in his truth, who has cast on him the burden of his guilt, and confessed his sole power to save. Now, there is not a single circumstance which has been ordained from the foundation of the world, that has not been ruled and regulated by the providence of Jesus Christ. "He upholds all things by the word of his power," by him all things consist; well may we believe that he exercises special providence over his people, as his people, his "brethren," as those whom he loves. In sickness or health, riches or poverty, the multiplying of enemies, or the bereavement of our friends-in all these circumstances, we may know that the Lord will be with us. Here, then is comfort to the mourning believer. Have you fallen into troubles? Are you laid on the bed of languishing and brought down to the gates of death? In all this remember that Christ is at hand, and that your sickness shall not be a sickness unto eternal death, but the means of a conveyance to a life of eternal joy. Count not yourselves in that weak and debilitated state, out of the service and beyond the power of bringing honor to your God. Your meek submission to his providence brings him honor. Recollect though there may not be fixed on you, in the time of patient suffering, the eye of any mortal, yet the eyes of exalted intelligences are on you, when you submit without a murmur, saying, "the Lord's will be done."

2d. The second proof of Christ's divinity is opened to us in his own saying, "I am the resurrection and the life." Now what is resurrection? It is not merely re-animation, it is re-construction, re-creation, it is the taking up of the dissipated atoms that once composed the human frame, placing them together, joining every member, casting life into every function, restoring the equilibrium of mind, and fixing the spirit once more in its habitation-this is resurrection. And it means something more, it means besides, restoring and reviving the glorifying of man. Such is resurrection from the dead, but resurrection of which Jesus was the first fruits and Jesus too the author. Now if resurrection, which is the overturning of the realm of death, the destruction of the power of death, be,

as it most plainly is, a re-construction, a re-action is not this an evident proof of Christ's essential divinity? Satan may mar the fair works of God, and death may produce havoc among us, scattering the visible elements of our body, dissipating its several parts and portions. But Satan, death, and every change that takes place in this world cannot annihilate, cannot destroy. To him alone who created, belongs the power really to destroy, and to him who made, at the first, man in all his fair proportions, belongs the power to remake and to restore. Thus then, Christ comes before us as the mighty Creator, as Jehovah, with all his power to restore all things. "Behold, I make all things new," a new heaven and a new earth, when the redeemed of the Lord will be brought together in new and glorious order.

What comfort is there in this evidence of Christ's divinity! It tells us, beloved friends, to fear not death, neither the slow wasting of our present tenements; it tells us that the God who intended man for an eternity of bliss, an immortality of soul and body, hath determined that that intention shall be fulfilled; he will raise the corrupt body of man to incorruption and immortality, and glory; no part of his plan, not one of his purposes ever could, or ever shall be thwarted. Furthermore, you have here the promise that you shall never die "he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." Never shall the believing soul lose its consciousness, lose its enjoyment of Christ, its assurance of eternal peace, and favor with God.

3d. The text, "Jesus wept," opens to us the divinity of Christ. You might imagine perhaps that the phrase is descriptive rather of his humanity. On the subject of his humanity, I purpose addressing you next Sabbath from the same text; but here, at present, I do think that the text shows us much of the Deity of Christ. Whenever you read in Scripture, that Jesus did weep, it was with sorrow for the sins of the people. Thus, "when he was come near Jerusalem, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes." Again, you find the surrounding multitude objected against the divinity of Jesus saying, "What! could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" And the Lord "again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave." This insinuation against his power and against his Godhead, this expression of infidelity it was, that wrung the heart of

Jesus with grief, and caused him to groan and weep afresh. Take any cause from Scripture of an ambassador from God into whose power it was put to speak for the divine majesty, and to plead the cause of heaven against sinners; and where he is brought face to face with the blaspheming multitude, you discover, in most cases, yea, almost always, that natural indignation predominates, rather than sorrow of heart and anguish of spirit such as Jesus betrayed, "Master," said the disciples, James and John, "wilt thou that we call down fire from heaven upon them?" because they did not receive Jesus of Nazareth. You even find Paul, zealous as he was, and forward in the cause of the Gospel, speaking at times with severity and indignation rather than exhibiting a tenderness of spirit that could weep over hardness of heart and unbelief. Angels show not this same tenderness, they are God's host, they are God's warriors against the spiritual powers of the air their language is, "The Lord rebuke thee;" Christ's language was tears of sorrow. This, therefore, speaks to us with more eloquence than man was ever endured withal, upon the danger, upon the ruin that must involve every unbeliever. If God mourned over this world in its defection and rebellion, if he compassionated it so, as to send his Son to be its Redeemer; if God, in human form, visited this world, inspected every scene of woe, and ministered to every affliction with his own hand, gave honor to whom honor was due, censure to whom censure, and tears to whom tears; then, Christ's lamentation over unbelief, does testify to us that unbelief is the last, the deadliest condition of crime. There is for that, at the final state of man, no remission, no salvation.

There is a form of address suited to every state of man in the word of God. The persons around Jesus were infidel, as to his divinity, because of their ignorance; they had not searched the Scriptures, they had not observed the correspondence between the prophetic accounts of Scripture and Jesus, therefore they were ignorant or unbelieving, and the Lord mourned over them, as lost.

Now, are there among us this day some "who know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?"-who passing along the common course of time, and mixed up with the cares of this world, are content with a bare nominal profession of christianity, and with the assemblies and services of religion from Sabbath to Sabbath, and who have not yet rolled the burden of their sins on Christ, and given themselves wholly up to

the Lord-what is your state? Why, the Lord weeps over you as lost, and expresses your condition to be, of all conditions, the most miserable. Oh sinners! who have hitherto stood aloof from God, and have not embraced his salvation, can you withstand the tears of the Son of God? Can you resist that argument? Here is a God of all tenderness and compassion beseeching you to approach him, to make one with him through faith; to become, through him saved, that he may rejoice over you, as he did in the conversion and salvation of others, "now is the Son of man glorified, now is the prince of this world cast out."

4th. Lastly, we find Jesus at the grave of Lazarus speaking as God, when he uttered the words "Lazarus come forth!" Immediately, he that had been dead rose up from the tomb in his grave clothes, and came forth in the perfect possession of all his mortal powers. Observe the whole circumstance of this miracle, it was not a mere experiment; it was not the resuscitation of one whose life might have been for a time only suspended; four days had Lazarus been dead, corruption had set in, and sealed him for its own. Jesus stood among his enemies and friends, commanded the dead to rise, and the dead came forth; corruption was put back; all injury sustained in the person of Lazarus was removed, he was restored completely, and was received into the arms of those who had mourned him as lost for ever. This was a full proof of Christ's divinity, on his own authority he commanded the grave to give up its possession, and it obeyed. It is said in Scripture, that "the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God." That was a word of mercy; for the Lord lived among them that were dead in trespasses and sins, and, preached to them the gospel of salvation, conveyed to them the life of his spirit. There is a day coming again however when the dead in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. It shall be the last day, the day of judgment, the day when mercy shall have ceased, the day of the "second resurrection" when the sea and the earth shall give up their prey, when all the unbelieving and ungodly shall "stand before the judgment seat of Christ." There are two appeals, one now is, and the other is yet to come to the dead. Christ now speaks to you from his word. Oh, hear him and your souls shall live. Hear him not, and when he speaks the second time you must both hear and obey! That is a time of vengeance to the ungodly and to the unbelieving, when he shall shake the heavens and the