Having expressed her surprise at his delay, Martha intimated to Jesus that she well knew that God would now grant every thing he might see fit to request, and if he had been present before, the death of her brother might have been prevented. Compassionating her distress, he replied, "Thy brother shall rise again;" to which she answered, that she had the fullest conviction of this fact, as she believed the doctrine of the final resurrection. Her heart, however, was still overwhelmed with grief at her present calamitous bereavement; and it was not without extreme reluctance, that she admitted the idea of never seeing him more till that distant period. Jesus then gave her the assurance of his being "the resurrection and the life," and of the mighty power which he as the agent in accomplishing this work, would display in elevating all his people to the felicities of another and a better existence; in consequence of which death ought not to be regarded with terror, but merely as the season of repose previous to the morning of eternity, which would soon break with ineffable splendour upon the tomb. Martha declared her full persuasion of this sublime truth, founded upon her knowledge of him who addressed her as the true Messiah, the Son of God, to whom all power in heaven and earth was intrusted. Upon this, she went by desire of Jesus to call her sister. As she had communicated the information to Mary in a whisper, her friends who were present supposed, when she rose up hastily, that she was going to visit the sepulchre of Lazarus, there to renew her griefs and bewail her bereavement. As soon as she found Jesus, she prostrated herself at his feet, and expressed herself in terms similar to those of Martha, indicative of a conviction that the death of her beloved relative might have been prevented, if he had but hastened to Bethany upon the news of his dangerous illness. This afflicting scene excited the deepest concern in him, who, though he had every passion under the most perfect control, now chose to indulge and to manifest his tenderness for Lazarus. He inquired where they had laid him, and, as they conducted him to the spot, he wept. Remembrance of the dead, sympathy for the living, and pity for the impenitent Jews, drew forth his tears, which, while they sanction the grief of his people at the loss of earthly connections, do not justify its excess.