was that of a young man, represented in the simple and affecting language of the evangelist, as "the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." The meeting was apparently casual; but Jesus was instantly and deeply impressed with the circumstances: he in particular felt compassion for the weeping parent--addressed her in kind and gentle terms--remanded the spirit from its eternal flight, to inhabit again for a season the body from which it had so lately departed, and delivered the reanimated youth to _his mother_. He blended his tears with those of Martha and Mary, at the sepulchre of their brother; and after instructing them upon the subject of the resurrection from the dead, restored him to their wishes and affections." Women "ministered unto Jesus of their substance,"--"the daughters of Jerusalem" bewailed him when he was led to crucifixion--and the "women that followed him from Galilee were deeply interested spectators of his sufferings, observed his sepulchre, and prepared spices and ointments. It was Mary Magdalene who enjoyed the honour and happiness of a first manifestation after Jesus was risen from the dead, and she was commissioned to go and inform the rest of his sorrowing disciples. "The frequent mention," says Doddridge "which is made in the evangelists of the generous and courageous zeal of some _pious women_ in the service of Christ, and especially of the faithful and resolute constancy with which they attended him in those last scenes of his suffering, might very possibly be intended to obviate that haughty and senseless contempt, which the pride of men, often irritated by those vexations to which their own irregular passions have exposed them, has in all ages affected to throw on that sex, which probably, in the sight of God, constitute by far the better half of mankind; and to whose care and tenderness the wisest and best of men generally owe and ascribe much of the daily comfort and enjoyment of their lives."