in darkness, and has no light,” must “trust in the Lord, and stay himself upon his God.”  For the ways of Christ to His suffering friends in Bethany, when absent from them beyond the Jordan, are a revelation of His ways to us now, when He is in glory beyond the tomb.  Now, as then, He never forgets us, never overlooks the least circumstance in our history, and never ceases for one moment to have that interest in us which is possible only for such a Brother or Saviour to possess.  But now, as then, He has manifold interests to consider; ten thousand times ten thousand complex and crossing consequences to weigh.  While we, perhaps, have our thoughts wholly occupied with but one desire, our own individual comfort, our own deliverance from this or that trial, the wise and all-loving Jesus has to provide for much more than this.  Our own good and growth in grace—­the good of those in sickness—­the good of children, relations, friends, yea, it may be of generations yet unborn, who may be affected at this crisis in our family history by what Jesus does or does not,—­all this must be considered by Him who loves all, and seeks the good of all, and who alone can trace out the marvellous and endless network of influence by which man is bound to man from place to place and from age to age.  No one, therefore, but the Lord of all can decide what is best to be done in the circumstances of each case, in order that most good may be done, and that God may be glorified thereby.  He alone knows how this link of “sickness unto death” is connected with other links in the mysterious chain of human history.  And if so, then surely it becomes us, poor, ignorant, blind, selfish creatures, to bow before His throne with holy reverence; to yield ourselves and all our concerns meekly and lovingly into His hands, in the full assurance of faith that our interests are there in best and safest keeping; to feel that it is our first duty and noblest privilege to trust Him when we cannot trace Him, being persuaded that He does all things well, and that what we know not now we shall know hereafter.

Amidst all darkness, perplexity, and apparent confusion, remember the certainties which abide unmoved, and “shine aloft as stars.”  It is certain that “all things work together for the good of those who love God;” that “thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose soul is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee;” and that “nothing can separate us from the love of Christ,” (His love to us.) It is certain that our Christian dead are in His presence; and that no one knows them or loves them as that Saviour does, who made them with His own hands, and redeemed them with His own blood.  It is certain that if we are believers in Christ, we are still united to those departed ones, in labour, in worship, in love, in hope, and in joy; for, “whether we wake or sleep, we live together with Him.”  It is certain, that if “we are Christ’s,” “all things are ours, whether life or death, things present or things to come!”