way for his reception; or if they had gone, those who attended the funeral were Jews, and of course would never have connived at any fraud to aggrandise the name of Christ. From this it is plain, that the meeting the procession was owing to no preconcerted measures between Jesus and his friends. It was solely a circumstance thrown in the way, by the arrangements of Providence, in order to evince the power and grace of Christ, and to promote his cause and interests in the world. We are therefore certain, that the young man was actually in the state of death; and in the fact of his being restored to life, we are thus constrained to admit the reality of the miracle, and to admire that divine power by which such an astonishing effect was produced.

The Evangelist informs us, that when Jesus had nearly reached the gate, he met the funeral coming forth from the city; it being a custom strictly observed by the Jews and other nations of antiquity, to deposite their dead at a distance from their dwellings and all places of public resort, We are further told, that

it was attended by "much people." This may in some measure be accounted for, from a law esteemed binding among the Jews, (founded, as they alleged, on a precept of Moses their legislator, although, in fact, it was nothing more than a tradition of their elders,) that all persons who happened to meet a funeral procession, should return and join in the lamentation. But there are other circumstances that would probably increase the number of the mourners on the present occasion. It was the corpse of a young man just about to enter on the business of life which was to be laid in the grave, and amongst the crowd was one whose presence could not fail to draw from the inhabitants of Nain every expression of sympathizing tenderness: This was the disconsolate mother of the departed youth. "He was her only son, and she "was a widow."-Words few and simple, but expressive of a thousand tender sentiments, and calculated to touch the heart more forcibly than the most laboured description. They exhibit, with great elegance, and, at the same time, with much simplicity, that anguish which

we may naturally suppose would arise in the mind of an affectionate parent for the loss of an only son, whose presence once enlivened and doubled every joy, but now can enliven and double them no more. By the additional expression, " she was a widow," the picture of distress is heightened, and we are led almost insensibly to become sharers in her sorrow. Think of her situation, ye who have experienced a similar trial, for you only can form any adequate conception of the anguish she endured. What must she have felt, when employed in performing the last tribute of respect and affection due to her departed son? The emblems of grief for her husband, perhaps, had not yet been thrown aside; and the present scene would doubtless awaken the recollection of the former partner of her life. The wounds which had been inflicted on her heart, when death closed his eyes, would now bleed afresh; and the remembrance of joys that were past would serve only to aggravate her sorrow.

This is not all; she is not only bereaved of the society of a beloved son, but of

all those kind offices and attentions which qualified him, in some measure, to act to her the part of a second husband. In him, all her worldly comforts had centered; he was the solace of her affliction, the soother of her cares, and to him she looked forward as the instrument in the hand of God of supplying her future wants. Often, no doubt, had she praised the Almighty that she had been blest with such a son; and often had she requested, with a fervour known only to a mother's heart, that God would be pleaed long to preserve such a valuable life. And heaven was so far indulgent to her prayers. But, ah! how fleeting and unstable are all worldly enjoyments! At the very time her hopes of happiness to be derived from this source are most sanguine, are they blasted. The king of terrors receives his commission. Her youthful son is snatched from her embraces, and forced to pay that debt which nature claims from all her children. Those hands, which before were employed in ministering to her wants, are now incapable of action. That soothing voice which had often made her evenings and mornings to re

That youthful

joice, is heard no more. form which was once the delight of her eyes, is about to be consigned to the si

lent grave.

Does she contemplate futurity, how joyless are her prospects? The bier reminds her that the staff is broken on which she hoped to have leaned when her steps were tottering and her head silvered over with age. Does she look forward to a less distant period, when the Feast of Tabernacles called upon all the males to go up to Jerusalem? Her anguish is increased. In imagination she views mothers attended by

their sons, sons, wives conducted by their husbands, and friends rejoicing in one another, travelling to the house of God.

But,

alas! no son, no husband remains to her. Destitute and forlorn, she is doomed to the remainder of her days in dreary pass solitude, without a friend to soothe or share her sorrows. But in the depth of her distress, lo! the Saviour and the Friend of Man approaches: he beholds in her case a fate deserving the deepest commiseration, and the most merciful interposition he kindly enters into her sorrows, and has