comment by-and-by, seems to put a bit of bravado on to help the backsliders as much as to say :-If we die by this venture we shall die in good company. We have no scruple about this adverse comment on S. Thomas, because he was such a difficult subject for the inoculation of the faith of the Resurrection.

'That he was sick.-The original means a very serious illness from which he was not expected to recover.

Two days.-Our Lord never stirred. He taught the people who came out to Him, and wrought good work upon their souls.

Into Judea again.-We remember How he left Judea before. He had to use His divine power to escape from the hands—aye even the hands laid upon Him-of His enemies.

4 Sought to stone Thee.-The poor Apostles were afraid for Him. Oh, could not his miraculous escape open their eyes! They were very ignorant and yet chosen, by supernal wisdom, to be the light of the world.

Twelve hours.-The Jews since the captivity divided the day and the night into twelve parts. The hours were not all of the same length; but in latitude 32° this would scarcely be perceptible except in June and December.

In the day. Our Lord was the Day, the Light of the world, but His followers could not yet see it.

"The night. This means-to our seeing-in the light of bare human

reason.

Sleepeth. This was a mild Hebrew word for death. Those who believed in the Resurrection, considered the interval a term of repose. A very sweet idea for survivors.

"He shall do well.-They took Our Lord's figure literally-as they generally did.

Our Lord's indifference:

Ist. Tries our confidence.

2nd. Proves our virtue.

3rd. Rewards our hopes abundantly.

Courage in God's work:

Ist. He protects.

2nd. He can defend us.

3rd. He can get us out difficulties.

4th. Let us only trust Him.

13. Dixerat autem JESUS de morte ejus; illi autem putaverunt quia de dormitione somni diceret.

14. Tunc ergò JESUS dixit eis manifestè: "Lazarus mortuus

est:

15. "Et gaudeo propter vos, ut credatis, quoniam non eram ibì. Sed eamus ad eum."

16. Dixit ergò Thomas, qui dicitur Didymus, ad condiscipulos : "Eamus et nos, ut moriamur cum eo."

17. Venit itaquè JESUS, et invenit eum quatuor dies jàm in monumento habentem.

13. But Jesus spoke of 'his death: and they thought that he spoke of the 'repose of sleep.

14. Then, therefore, Jesus said to them plainly: 'Lazarus is dead.

15. And I am glad for your sake 'that I was not there, that you may believe: but let us go to him.

16. Then Thomas, who is called 'Didymus, said to his fellow-disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him.

17. So Jesus came, and found that he had been four days already in the sepulchre.

There is a deep reproof in the language of Our Lord to His disciples. Their faith was far from being perfect, although their devotion was all that could be wished. They could not see His wonderful nature in the way He escaped from those who wanted to stone Him. A great miracle was requisite (for the world to be sure), principally for his Apostles. They must see a great thing. He took care, therefore, to wait until Lazarus was buried, until decomposition set in, until, in fact, he was the food of worms; before He would give this grand proof of His Divinity. The resurrection of the widow's son and Jairus' daughter happened shortly after their deaths, and if we may judge from the conduct of the Apostles after the Resurrection of Our Lord Himself, they were not given to believing more than they were forced to by the most conclusive evidence. Our Lord wished to put before them an indubitable proof, the last and the greatest before their defection.

Thomas's big courage reveals to us the state of Our Lord's disciples' minds. They seemingly were afraid of the consequences.

He let the seed He had sown germinate, and waited for the coup de grace which He was about to give. They did not like to brave the fury of the Jews; they knew right well what awaited them; they knew how much Lazarus was known and respected, and

what a number of Pharisees were sure to be at the funeral. All this they knew, and visions of Sanhedrim, lashes, prisons (and perhaps worse), danced before their eyes. It would seem as if they held a council amongst themselves, and debated whether they should let Our Lord go alone or accompany Him.

Now, when Our Lord said plainly, "Lazarus is dead," could they not see that He intended to raise him to life? They could see nothing but their own danger, and the three years' experience of His wonder-working powers was completely lost upon them.

Such are the singular but wise ways in which Our Lord prepares people for a great work. They are all frightened-unreasonably, to be sure-and Our Lord does not give them the slightest hint of what He is about. We suspect John had an idea of it, from the careful manner in which he notes down every incident. An after endeavour could never be so perfect.

The manner in which recent rationalists have tried to weaken the power of this miracle is simply shocking, and unworthy of honest men. They make out some sort of collusion, e.g.-that Lazarus did not really die; that he did not stink before burial; that S. John invented the tale; that it never happened.

Now the one great solution to all their cavils is this. The Jews were completely possessed by the devil from that moment forward. Our Lord had gained the pinnacle of human reverence and honour, and then they must extinguish Him.

One look at the Fra Angelico's picture of the raising of Lazarus will give us a notion of what was thought of it in the "Ages of Faith." He is standing up like a veritable corpse, bound from head to foot. All are astounded at the spectral appearance of the man, and two or three fat and self-satisfied Pharisees are holding their noses. The stench is intolerable to their delicate nostrils until the death bandages are removed.

This is a good answer to our modern pagans; but then, they intend to die in their sins.

1His death.-The Hebrew sleep had two significations, and Lazarus's temporary death was equivalent to a prolonged sleep.

Repose. They did not seem to be very much interested in the fate of Lazarus.

was.

Lazarus is dead.-They did not even then surmise what His intention

M

4That I was not there.-Had He been there or had He come when summoned, He would not have allowed Lazarus to die. Now He has prepared a striking proof of His Divinity which must be final during His life.

Let us go to him.-He exhorts them, and they seem to think it is like going to the house of mourning of friends.

Didymus.-This is the Greek for a twin. Thomas in Hebrew has the same meaning. Some commentators find allegorical reasons for his name. Are not natural ones enough?

"Let us also go. He was not so fervent and enthusiastic after the Resurrection, when he wanted to put his fingers into Our Lord's wounds before he would believe.

8Four days in the sepulchre.-He was not embalmed, as the fetid smell tells us.

22. "Sed et nunc scio quia quæcumque poposceris à DEO dabit tibi DEUS."

23. Dicit illi JESUS: "Resurget frater tuus.”

24. Dicit ei Martha: "Scio quia resurget in resurrectione, in novissimo die."

25. Dixit ei JESUS: "Ego sum resurrectio et vita: qui credit in me, etiamsi mortuus fuerit, vivet ;

26. "Et omnis qui vivit et credit in me non morietur in æternum. Credis hoc ?"

27. Ait illi: "Utiquè, Domine: ego credidi quia tu es Christus, Filius DEI vivi, qui in hunc mundum venisti."

22. But now also I know that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, "God will give it thee.

23. Jesus saith to her: Thy brother 'shall rise again.

24. Martha saith to him: I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

25. Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, 'although he be dead, shall live:

26. And every one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever. 10Believest thou this?

27. She saith to him: Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art "Christ the Son of the living God, who art come into this world.

The scene presented here by the Beloved Disciple is more touching than any preceding one. Our Lord has come near the house of mourning, and someone tells the elder sister. The Saint does not omit to mention that the house of mourning was full of people (Jews, enemies of Our Lord, for so S. John always calls the Pharisees, who had ceased to be, as a sect, when he wrote), to show in what consideration that family was held.

If we delay in our observations before coming to the miracle there is a good precedent for doing so in the example of Our Lord. He delays and dogmatises whilst the worms are consuming the corpse. He is in no hurry. There is something more important in His eye than the resurrection of the deadthe faith of the living. One man more or less in the world is a matter of small account; but faith is another thing. This is what Our Lord wanted to plant. If one old woman died a few years before her time, or an innocent girl was allowed to be buried before the dust of the world soiled her-it was a small matter.