_THE RAISING OF LAZARUS._ A.D. 30. WHILE the Lord was in Peræa, and apparently in the neighbourhood of Bethabara, a messenger reached Him from the sisters Martha and Mary[421], announcing that their brother Lazarus was sick (Jn. xi. 13). On receiving this intelligence, He replied in the hearing of His Apostles, but chiefly to the messenger, and for him to bring back to those that had sent him[422], _This sickness is not unto death_ (Jn. xi. 4), _but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby_. Whatever amount of hope this announcement may have raised in the minds of the sisters was for the present at least dashed to the ground. For He, to whom they had sent their simple message, and who had so often healed others at a distance by simply uttering a word, now neither spoke the word of power, nor came to them, but _remained still two days in the same place where He was_ (Jn. xi. 6), and in the meantime Lazarus died, and was laid in a rock-hewn sepulchre. At the close, however, of the two days, the Holy One proposed to His disciples that they should go into Judæa again. But the trembling Apostles, recollecting the extreme danger He had so lately incurred at Jerusalem, ventured to expostulate: a short time back the Jews were seeking to stone Him (Jn. xi. 8), and for the sake of safety He had been constrained to seek the seclusion of the region where He now was, would He venture then, so soon to incur afresh the malice of His foes? Thereupon He calmed their apprehensions, and announced that their friend Lazarus _was asleep_, but He intended to _wake him out of sleep_ (Jn. xi. 12). This announcement perplexed the Apostles still more. If Lazarus slept, it indicated a favourable crisis of his illness, and the perilous journey was unnecessary. Perceiving that they understood His words literally, He now told them plainly that _Lazarus was dead_, but still declared His intention of going to Bethany (Jn. xi. 15), on which the Apostle Thomas, betraying the tendency to misgiving and despondency which distinguished him[423], and convinced that his Master would fall into the hands of His deadly enemies, proposed to the rest that at least they should accompany Him, and share His end (Jn. xi. 16). With these sad forebodings the Apostles accompanied their Lord, and on reaching Bethany found that Lazarus had been already dead four days[424], and as the village lay only three quarters of an hour’s journey from Jerusalem, many Jews (Jn. xi. 19) had come thither over the Mount of Olives, to pay the customary visit of condolence to the two sisters[425].