Of course Lazarus was going to die
again, but can you think his two sisters either loved him less, or
wept as much over him the next time he died?"
"No; it would have been foolish."
"Well, if you think about it, you will see that no one who believes
that story, and weeps as they did the first time, can escape
reproof. Where Jesus called Lazarus from, there are his friends, and
there are they waiting for him! Now, I ask you, Davie, was it worth
while for Jesus to do this for us? Is not the great misery of our
life, that those dear to us die? Was it, I say, a thing worth doing,
to let us see that they are alive with God all the time, and can be
produced any moment he pleases?"
"Surely it was, sir! It ought to take away all the misery!"
"Then it was a natural thing to do; and it is a reasonable thing to
think that it was done. It was natural that God should want to let
his children see him; and natural he should let them know that he
still saw and cared for those they had lost sight of. The whole
thing seems to me reasonable; I can believe it. It implies indeed a
world of things of which we know nothing; but that is for, not
against it, seeing such a world we need; and if anyone insists on
believing nothing but what he has seen something like, I leave him
to his misery and the mercy of God."
If the world had been so made that men could easily believe in the
maker of it, it would not have been a world worth any man's living
in, neither would the God that made such a world, and so revealed
himself to such people, be worth believing in.
Pages:
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506