Afflicted one! if the brother or friend whom you now mourn be a brother in glory--if he be now among the white-robed multitude--his last tear wept--for ever beyond reach of a sinning and sorrowing world--can you upbraid your God for his early departure? Would you weep him back if you could from his early crown?
Fond nature, as it stands in trembling agony watching the ebbing pulses of life, would willingly arrest the pale messenger--stay the chariot--and have the wilderness relighted with his smile.
But when all is over, and you are able to contemplate, with calm emotion, the untold bliss into which the unfettered spirit has entered, do you not feel as if it were cruel selfishness alone that would denude that sainted pilgrim of his glory, and bring him once more back to earth's cares and tribulations?
"We sadly watch'd the close of all, Life balanced in a breath; We saw upon his features fall The awful shade of death. All dark and desolate we were; And murmuring nature cried-- 'Oh! surely, Lord! hadst _Thou_ been here Our brother had not died!'
"But when its glance the memory cast On all that grace had done; And thought of life's long warfare pass'd, And endless victory won. Then faith prevailing, wiped the tear, And looking upward, cried-- 'O Lord! Thou surely _hast_ been here, Our brother has _not_ died!'"
We have already had occasion to note the impressive and significant silence of the Saviour to Mary. We may just again revert to it in a sentence here. Martha had, a few moments before, given vent to the same impassioned utterance respecting her departed brother. Jesus had replied to her; questioned her as to her faith; and opened up to her sublime sources of solace and consolation. With Mary it is different. He responds to her also--but it is only in silence and in tears!
Why this distinction? Does it not unfold to us a lovely feature in the dealings of Jesus--how He adapts Himself to the peculiarities of individual character. With those of a bolder temperament He can argue and remonstrate--with those of a meek, sensitive, contemplative spirit, He can be silent and weep!
The stout but manly heart of Peter needed at times a bold and cutting rebuke; a similar reproof would have crushed to the dust the tender soul of John. The character of the one is painted in his walking on the stormy water to meet his Lord; of the other, in his reclining on the bosom of the same Divine Master, drinking sacred draughts at the Fountain-head of love!