thou art the Christ, the Son of God, that should come into the world!" Believe ye this? he says to us out of heaven. Yea, Lord! we believe! help thou our unbelief! 332 SERMON XIV. LUKE Vii. 14, 15.-"He came and touched the bier, and they that bare him stood still. Young man! I say unto thee, arise! was dead sat up, and began to speak. livered him to his mother!" And He said, And he that THERE were only three occasions during our Lord's ministry on which the power of giving life to the body went visibly forth from Him, and the dead rose from the grave at his command! And yet, when we consider who and what He was, the infinite love which was laid up in his heart, and gushed out wherever he moved, over man and this sorrowful world, and the almightiness which accompanied it, it seems sometimes surprising that the number of those raised from the dead is not much greater! As these blessed lips never opened without dropping from them the heavenly manna, even the word of God; and as He preached wherever He went; so, wherever the sinful earth was touched by the feet of the Son of God, one would almost have looked to see the graves open around, and the breath of life again animating the dust of death! But it is not so, but far otherwise. And there must, of course, be reasons, just and good, why He was thus sparing of these stupendous proofs of his divinity! Visibly He walked to and fro upon the earth, with many signs and wonders round about Him, but still without compelling the reluctant and unbelieving heart to behold the Godhead in the flesh ! It was his good will and pleasure then, as now, that the assurance of faith should only be given to the humble, childlike spirit. To the pure and meek He was and is visible; to the proud a cloud is round Him! He is invisible! And therefore natural to the human heart as is that hankering after outward, visible signs, such as the eye can see and the hands handle, He always sternly and emphatically repressed it in the Jews! "Give us," they said, "a sign from heaven! such as shall clearly surpass the power of mena star-a blazing cloud-and we will believe! Let Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the cross, and we will believe." But He was deaf to their infidel challenge, and gave, as the crowning sign upon earth, that which his own eternal counsel had proclaimed, even the sign of Jonas the prophet. Again, He did not come upon earth in order to reverse at once those laws of pain and sorrow which God has imposed upon a sinful world! He himself was among men, not exempt from the manifold sorrows which are the lot of flesh and blood, but bearing the burthen of them all, acquainted with our griefs, and watering his path with tears! As He himself was therefore, so, on the whole, did He allow those among whom He lived to remain; neither banishing sickness, nor healing weariness, nor undoing the curse of death! And when we further reflect that his kingdom was in no wise of this world, and that He allures disciples by no promises of present ease, or peace, or glory, but, just the contrary, that He holds forth to them present pain and suffering; it would have been utterly inconsistent with his design to tempt men by hopes of the constant exertion, for themselves or others, of his power to raise the dead! And yet this VISIBLE exercise of AUTHORITY over men and angels, over life and death, was necessary! No doubt! It was the proof of his commission from Almighty God. It awakened men's attention and testified that a mighty prophet was arisen among them! It was a constant proclamation to the sons of men! "Behold, O |