Bear Vent

What a moment that was when the Lord, looking up to heaven, stood before Lazarus' open tomb! All was quiet inside the cave, for death was there; and all must have been quiet outside, while the Son of God prayed to His Father in heaven. The first sentence shows His faith. “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.” ( John 11:41 ) The next showed His confidence in His Father's love — “I know that You always hear Me.” (v. 42 ) The last displayed His own love to sinful people — “Because of the crowd standing here I said this, so they may believe You sent Me.” He knew their unbelief, and He wanted to convince them that He and the Father were One. Who can conceive the breathless expectation that filled every heart when He uttered the words, “Lazarus, come out?” (v. 43 ) If that voice had not been obeyed, it would have been little wonder that the sisters had never again seen their brother; the hopes of all the dead, the hopes of all the living, the hopes of future generations, were ...

All God's children desire to be with their Father, and their Father desires to have all His children with Him. Sin, like a cruel tyrant, has scattered His family abroad. Death divides them from each other, and even divides their souls from their bodies. But Christ's death on the cross has taken away the guilt of sin, and has destroyed the power of death. At the sound of the last trumpet, the bodies that lay rotting in the graves, or forgotten in the depths of the sea, shall be glorified and united to the happy spirits of the righteous ones. Those who were born in different ages of the world, or who were separated by wide oceans, shall see each other for the first time in their Father's everlasting home.

It was a happy day when the foundation of the earth was laid, for then the morning stars sang together for joy. ( Job 38:6-7 ) It was a happy day when Adam and Eve first beheld this fair creation, and sang their earliest praise to its great Maker. It was a joyous night when the shepherds heard the angels announce the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem. ( Luke 2:8-14 ) It was a happy morn when the women who visited the sepulchre heard angels say, “The Lord is risen.” ( Matthew 28:1-8 ) But no day nor night has yet been seen as happy as that last day shall be, when the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion singing, and crowned with everlasting joy. ( Isaiah 51:11 ) Of all the happy multitude then assembled, not one will feel so vast a tide of happiness springing up in his soul as the Lord Himself as He will be the fountain of all the joy flowing in every heart. Then He will see all that is accomplished by His anguish, and be satisfied; satisfied that He left His throne of glory...