We may be calling, in our blind unbelief, as we point to some ruined fabric of earthly bliss--some tomb which has become the grave of our fondest affections and dearest hopes--"Shall the dust praise thee, shall _it_ declare thy truth?" _Believe! believe!_ God will not give us back our dead as He did to the Bethany sisters; but He will not deprive us of aught we have, or suffer one garnered treasure to be removed, except for His own glory and our good. _Now_ it is our province to _believe_ it--in _Heaven_ we shall _see_ it. Before the sapphire throne we shall _see_ that not one redundant thorn has been suffered to pierce our feet, or one needless sorrow to visit our dwelling, or tear to dim our eye. Then our acknowledgment will be, "We have _known_ and _believed_ the love which God hath to us." "Oh, weep not though the beautiful decay, Thy heart must have its autumn--its pale skies Leading mayhap to winter's cold dismay. Yet doubt not. Beauty doth not pass away; His form departs not, though his body dies. Secure beneath the earth the snowdrop lies, Waiting the spring's young resurrection-day."[9] Be it ours to have Jesus _with_ us, and Jesus _for_ us, in all our afflictions. If we wish to insure these mighty solaces, we must not suffer the hour of sorrow and bereavement to overtake us with a Saviour till _then_ a stranger and unknown. St Luke tells us the secret of Mary's faith and composure at her loved one's grave:--_She had, long before her day of trial, learned to sit at her Redeemer's feet. It was when in health Jesus was first resorted to and loved_. In prosperity may our homes and hearts be gladdened with His footstep; and when prosperity is withdrawn, and is succeeded by the dark and cloudy day, may we know, like Martha and Mary, where to rush in our seasons of bitter sorrow; listening from His glorified lips on the throne to those same exalted themes of consolation which, for eighteen hundred years, have to myriad, myriad mourners been like oil thrown on the troubled sea. Jesus is with us! The Master is come! His presence will extract sorrow from the bitterest cup, and make, as He did at Bethany, a very home of bereavement and a burial scene to be "hallowed ground!" IV. THE MESSENGER.