The stone being removed according to the request of Jesus, he uttered a short but expressive prayer to Heaven; and then with a loud voice, cried out, "Lazarus, come forth." The realms of death heard his sovereign mandate, and their gloomy monarch yielded up his captive; "and he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot, with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." The effect of this miracle was considerable; for many of the Jews, who had come to sympathize with the bereaved sister, believed in Christ, though others instantly repaired to the Pharisees, to inflame their malignity by reciting what they had witnessed. With similar diversity of effect, is the Gospel now proclaimed to men; its facts and evidences kindling the resentment of some, or hardening them into increased obduracy; while they convince the minds of others, interesting their best affections, conquering their prejudices, and operating their salvation.
If there were any exception to that universal law which consigns man to the grave, it might be hoped that such as compose the church of God, being redeemed by the blood of his Son, called according to his purpose, and sealed by his Spirit to the day of redemption, would be freed from this calamity; but death extends his dreadful dominion over the families of the righteous, as well as the impious. The people of God might, if he pleased, have been delivered from the present curse: his goodness might have indemnified them from the common evils which afflict human life, and appointed them some favoured region, the Goshen of the universe, where they should have passed their days in a state of rich possession and unmolested tranquillity; but, if he have ordained otherwise, it is for wise reasons; some of which, perhaps, we may succeed in explaining.
Is not such a dispensation, for instance, calculated to impress an awful sense of the malignity of sin? So abominable is it, that the blessed God, who has made an ample provision for the future, felicity of his saints, and who is daily imparting to them on earth the invaluable blessings of his grace, cannot, it seems, consistently with his perfection, exempt them from the stroke of death. It is requisite that his detestation of it should be evinced in a complete and undistinguishing overthrow of the race of mortals, amongst whom even those whose names are written in the book of life, on account of their nature being contaminated with depravity must suffer the punishment of temporal death, and show to admiring immortals, that God is "of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot look upon sin."
Besides, this demolition of the corporeal frame is an essential means of its purification. The leprosy has infected every part of the building, the members of the body have become instrumental to the working of unrighteousness; and, consequently, "the earthly house of this tabernacle must be dissolved."
The infliction of this calamity upon believers in Christ as well as upon others, is calculated also to maintain their faith in vigorous and perpetual exercise. Were it permitted to them to pass into another world, as Enoch or Elijah did, by a sudden transportation beyond the regions of mortality to those of undecaying existence, without undergoing "the pains, the groans, the dying strife," or without experiencing the frightful alteration that occurs in other human beings, there would no longer exist the same opportunity as at present for the display of one of the noblest principles of a renewed mind. Who can contemplate the debased condition of the body, who can realize the amazing change which "flesh and blood is heir to"--the icy coldness, the stony insensibility, the universal inanimation that pervades the whole frame, the putrefaction to which it is subject, and the general loathsomeness of that which once appeared the fairest structure amongst the works of God, without an instinctive shuddering, and without perceiving that faith alone can give the victory over death? There is nothing surely in the state of the body after this event to indicate a future existence, but rather every thing to perplex such a sentiment, and to confound such an expectation. There is nothing in its aspect which seems to foretel life--nothing to predict resuscitation. In general, however desperate the case, hope is sustained by the most trifling circumstances, the feeblest glimmerings of the yet unextinguished lamp; if there be the gentlest breath, or the slightest motion, the solicitude of wakeful tenderness is still maintained, and the possibility at least of a return to health is admitted as a welcome and not irrational idea; but when the breath entirely fails, when motion is paralyzed, when the lamp is extinct, whence can any thought of a revival be obtained? What succeeds the fatal moment, but progressive decay? And who can discover the least trace of an indication that the departed friend will resume his life? Every hour seems to widen the breach, to increase the distance that separates the dead from the living, and to complete the triumph of our mortal foe. All the powers of nature in combination would prove incompetent to produce life in the smallest particle--the most insignificant atom of dust; and hope naturally expires when animation ceases. When Christians, therefore, are required to part with their companions, or to die themselves, their only confidence must be in God; and whoever cannot receive his word, and rely upon the assurances which he has given with regard to the exercise of divine power in the recovery of man from the grave, has no adequate consolation amidst the desolations that await him.
Christians also must pass through the change of death, because the glory of Jesus Christ in the resurrection could not otherwise be so illustriously displayed. Never did the character of the Son of God appear with more commanding majesty than when he recalled the spirit of Lazarus from the invisible state, and at a word raised his body from the sepulchre. "Lazarus," said he, "come forth:" the summons entered the ear of death, and the "last enemy" felt himself "destroyed."
The scene is infinitely cheering. Though we "fade as a leaf," dropping one by one into the tomb like the foliage of autumn; the eternal spring advances, when "they that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth"--renewed in vigour, purified in character, perfected in felicity--to return no more to this sublunary sphere, to descend no more to the dust, to struggle no more with sin and sorrow, to be assaulted no more with the "fiery darts of the devil."
Death is so truly alarming to human nature and to shortsighted reason, so calculated by its external appearances to fill the mind with anxiety, that in order to suppress our fears and cherish our hopes, it seemed requisite to bring another existence into the nearest possible view, to render it in a sense visible, and to embody immortality. In the resurrection of Lazarus, as well as by other miraculous manifestations, this great purpose was effected. We perceive incontestably that death is not annihilation, and that the appearance which it assumes of an extinction of being is not a reality. That power which was exerted in one case, reason says may, and revelation declares shall, be exerted in another; and that, by the voice of Omnipotence, all the saints shall be raised at the last day from the abodes of darkness and silence. It is here Christianity takes her firmest stand--here she discloses her brightest scenes! Glorious expectation of rising to eternal life, and through Jesus, "the first begotten of the dead," becoming superior to our most formidable enemy! What a train of happy beings will then be witnesses of his glory, trophies of his power, and inhabitants of his kingdom! This will be the jubilee of all ages, the anticipation of which is well calculated to suppress our anxieties, and quicken us to every duty.
What mutual congratulations must have circulated through the family of Lazarus, when he was restored to the affectionate embraces of his sisters! What a renewal of love would take place on that happy day! How was their sorrow turned into joy, and their lamentations info praises! What a triumph of mind did they feel over the grave, and what expressions of gratitude to their Deliverer burst from every heart! But who can imagine the transports of that moment, when the same power that raised Lazarus from the tomb, shall be exerted upon every believer in Jesus, who shall "meet the Lord in the air," and be introduced to the eternal society of kindred minds; when the redeemed world shall assemble on the celestial shore, to recount their past labours and mercies, to renew their spiritual fellowship, to hail each other's escape from the conflicts, the temptations, and the diversified evils of mortal life, to behold the glory of Him who has washed them in his blood and saved them by his grace, to take possession of their destined thrones, and to mingle their strains of acknowledgment with the holy by innings of the blest!
How terrible then is death, but how delightful! Death is the end of life; death is the beginning of existence! Death closes our prospects, and death opens them! Death debases our nature--death purifies and exalts it! "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!"