broad road of sin. This includes every lust of the flesh, everything
the heart desires through the eyes, and all the pride and vanity
of life. I said to this audience: I learn that there is quite a
Calvinistic or predestinarian sentiment in this community; and from
the expression of the countenances of some of you I fancy I hear some
of you saying to yourselves: "How can a dead man hear, except the Lord
first give him life; or a blind man see, except the Lord first open
his eyes?" I will answer your questions in order.

Lazarus had been dead four days. Jesus called to him with a loud voice
to "_come forth_." How could Jesus expect the dead Lazarus to hear?
Why did he call? Why did he not first make him alive; and then after
he found out that he _was alive_, and stirring round in the grave,
call to him and tell him to come out of that dark place? This is
precisely the way a Calvinist would think he ought to have done. But
Calvinism was not known in the Lord's day, and so he took a very
different way. He threw his voice into that cave, and it went right
into the ear of the dead Lazarus, because his power went with the
words, and the very instant they struck the ear of Lazarus the life
was in his body and he heard. Thunder and lightning always go
together; but Calvinists think the lightning must always be first.

The resurrection of Lazarus is a clear exemplification of our Lord's
meaning where he says: "My words are SPIRIT, and they are LIFE." No
sooner did the Lord call to Lazarus than his heart began to beat and
his lungs began to breathe. The Lord's words to him were _life_ and
_breath_. _Spirit_ [in one sense] means breath; and _life_ means a
beating of the heart; for as long as man's heart beats there is life
in him. Is any one here to-night willing to charge our Lord with the
folly, the _madness_ of commanding one of his creatures to do what he