taken me-my brother is dead; and what avails it that He is here now?

Beware of all such impatience, such natural irritability of grief. Reject not the Saviour's visit of sympathy now, because he did not come to you exactly as you in your ignorance would have had him to come, and do for you exactly what you would have had him to do. It is enough that He is with you now, to speak comfortably to you-to bind up your broken heart-to fill the aching void in your affections, and be to you instead of all that you have lost. True, if he had been here before, your brother might not have died, and your brother, alas! is dead. But He is here now;he who is better than a thousand brothers-He who hath the words of eternal life; who can speak a word in season to the weary soul, and, when flesh and heart faint, will be the strength of your heart and your portion for ever.

Such might be the feelings common to the two sisters-such are the feelings of nature mingled with grace, common to all sanctified grief—as indicated in the affecting address, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."

XI.

MARTHA AND MARY-DIFFERENT MODES OF GRIEF DIFFERENTLY TREATED.

"Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. . . . . Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."-JOHN xi. 21, 32.

PART SECOND.

THE simple and pathetic exclamation that bursts from the lips of the two bereaved sisters, as they separately meet with Jesus, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died," cannot but find an echo in every breast that has ever mourned over a loss like theirs. The feeling it expresses is so natural, that we may almost call it the very instinct of grief to reflect on what has happened, with a vague idea of its having been possible somehow to avert it. Nor is the expression of the feeling always sinful, if it be to God himself that we express it. He would have us, indeed, to open our minds and hearts, without reserve, to him; for it is better that our complaint should be poured into his ear, than that it should be pent up in our own

bosoms; and the relief which the utterance of it gives may lead to calmer and holier thoughts. Thus, in the present instance, the mourners, amid their very upbraiding of Jesus, as some might count it, were warm and cordial in the welcome they gave him. And as they spoke the language common to all deep and recent grief when they bewailed the untoward accident but for which the event might have been otherwise-so they gave evidence of their being under the influence of genuine faith in Jesus, and tender love, when they hailed his visit so affectionately as they did, and with meek resignation sought his fellowship and sympathy.

Thus far, we trace in their conduct the working of a common grief.

But the sisters differed in their sorrow, as they did generally in the leading features of their characters, and their manner of thinking and acting in the ordinary affairs of life. They were persons of very different tempers and dispositions; and this difference is uniformly and strikingly brought out in their treatment of the Lord Jesus. Both looked up to him with reverence; both regarded him with full confidence and tender affection; and both were equally earnest and eager in testifying their esteem and love. But each in doing so followed the bent of her own peculiar turn of mind.

Martha was distinguished by a busy, if not bustling activity in the dispatch of affairs. She seems to have possessed great quickness, alertness, and energy, together with a certain practical ability and good sense, qualifying her both for taking a lead herself, and for giving an impulse to others; so that she was well fitted

for going through with any work to be done, and always awake to the common calls and the common cares of the ordinary domestic routine of life. Mary, again, was evidently characterised by more depth of thought, more devotedness and sensibility of feeling. She was more easily engrossed in any affecting scene, or any spiritual subject; more alive at any time to one single profound impression, and apt to be abstracted from other concerns.

Hence we find it stated, when on a former occasion our Lord was received in their house, that, while Mary sat at his feet and heard his word, Martha was cumbered with much serving. She was assiduous, and even officious, in her hospitable attempts to provide for the accommodation of her guest; and if Jesus had come to be ministered unto, he would have been best pleased with Martha's attention to all his wants. But as he came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, he found greater delight in her sister Mary, who, with the meekness of a disciple, and the earnestness of a spiritually awakened soul, listened to the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. For when "Martha said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me?"—" Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke x. 40, 41, 42). Thus the sisters showed their respective characters as they waited upon the Divine Visitor whom it was their privilege to entertain in their house.

And as their ways of testifying regard to the Lord

Jesus in prosperity differed, so also did their demeanour towards him in adversity, (John xi.)

Martha was evidently the first to receive information of his approach (ver. 20), either because to her, as the mistress of the house, the message was brought, or because, going about the house in her usual manner, she was in the way of hearing intelligence. She went out in haste, impatient to meet the Lord, and to render to him the offices of courtesy and respect. She is ready to be up and doing; she can turn at once from the conversation in which her friends from Jerusalem have been seeking to interest her, and disengage her mind for active exertion. Mary again is more absorbed in her grief; her sorrow is of a deeper and more desponding character; for while "Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, Mary sat still in the house" (ver. 20). This more absorbing intensity of Mary's grief, "the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforted her," seem to have remarked,-when they said of her, as they saw her at last rise hastily and go out, "She goeth unto the grave to weep there" (ver. 31). They had not said this of Martha when she went forth. She might be bent on other errands. Mary could go-only to weep. And at first her feelings so overpower her as to prevent her from going at all. The sudden arrival of her brother's friend is a shock too great for her; it tears the wound open afresh, and recalls bitter thoughts. She is plunged by the tidings into a fresh burst of sorrow, and can only "sit still in the house."

Thus, in different circumstances, the same natural temper may be either an advantage or a snare. Martha