Bethany, however, claims our present attention chiefly as being the residence of one of the "households of faith," with whom our Saviour was particularly intimate, and with whose history some remarkable circumstances are connected. It was a small but happy family, consisting of only three members, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. The two sisters, though united by the ties of nature, and the still dearer bond of grace, were distinguished by a considerable dissimilarity of character, which will furnish us with some instruction. While charmed into an effort to imitate remarkable persons by a description of their excellences, it is of great importance to notice their defects, not only for the purpose of avoiding them, but that we may not be overawed into despondency and paralyzed into inaction by their superiority. Biography, to be useful, must be brought to our level, capacities, and circumstances. We must see excellence that is _attainable_, and view the same infirmities which are incident to our nature, acting in our sphere, and struggling with perplexities, resistance, vicissitude, and trial, similar to what we ourselves experience. The appeal is powerful when we are called upon to be "followers of them who," though circumstanced as we are, "through faith and patience inherit the promises." "Once they were mourners here below. And wet their couch with tears; They wrestled hard, as we do now, With sins, and doubts, and fears." A history of angels might, indeed, excite our admiration, but would conduce less to our real improvement than a history of our fellow-creatures. We wish to witness the actions, and to be admitted into the secret feelings, of those who, whatever elevation they may have since obtained, were once in the same probationary state with ourselves, and subjected to the same course of moral discipline. In this view it is desirable to be introduced into the privacies of domestic life. It is in the family and at the fireside we all occupy some station, and have some appropriate duties to discharge; and on this account the narrative before us is pre-eminently attractive. We are led to the native village--the chosen residence--the family--the fireside--the _home_--of Martha and Mary. We see them in all the undisguised reality of private life, and participate at once their pleasures and their pains. We join the social circle. We hear the Saviour conversing with them. We see them in affliction--the common lot, the patrimony to which are all born--and while we participate their sorrows, learn to sustain and profit by our own.