Bethany

“ If this be so, we can think of the palm-groves of Bethany again bared of their branches;—these waved in triumph as a new and nobler “Hosannah” awakes the ancient echoes of Olivet—“Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!” As the regenerated children of Abraham build up the waste places in and around Zion, which for ages have been “without inhabitant,” and whose names are still dear to them—think we, amid other scenes of hallowed interest, they will not love oftentimes to take the old “Sabbath-day’s journey” to the site of “the Home of Mary and her sister Martha.” ”

“ Wondrous close to a wondrous life! We have traversed in thought many other memorials of Bethany. We have stood by the gate where Martha met her Lord—the silent sepulchre which listened to the voice of Omnipotence—the holy home where friendship was realised such as earth never before or since beheld. But surely not less sacred or hallowed than any of these is the scene presented on the green ridge rising to the west of the village, overlooking its groves of palm. ”

“ So, amid the hallowed haunts of Palestine, the homes of Judea, the cities of Galilee, there was but one Bethany. It is delightful thus to think of the heart of Jesus in all but sin as purely human, identical and identified with our own. He was no hermit-spirit dwelling in mysterious solitariness apart from His fellows, but open to the charities of life;—in all His refined and hallowed sensibilities “made like unto His brethren.” Friendship is itself a holy thing. The bright intelligences in the upper sanctuary know it and experience it. ”

“ Life is too short—their Apostolic work too solemn and momentous, to suffer them to consume their hours in unavailing sorrow. We may imagine them taking their last look upwards to heaven, and then bending a tearful eye down upon Bethany—its hallowed remembrances all the more hallowed, that the vision is now about to pass away for ever! The Angels, too, have sped away, and the eleven pilgrims begin their solitary return back to the city and temple from which the true Glory had indeed departed! ”

“ Even in this world perplexing paths may be made plain, and slippery places smooth, and judgments “bright as the noonday;” but if not here, there is at least a glorious day of disclosures at hand, when the reign of unbelieving doubt shall terminate for ever, when the archives of a chequered past will be ransacked of their every mystery;—all events mirrored and made plain in the light of eternity; and this saying of the weeping Saviour of Bethany obtain its true and everlasting fulfilment, “Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?” ”

“ It was on a Sabbath evening, the last Sabbath but one of the waning Jewish dispensation, when Spring’s loveliness was carpeting the Mount of Olives and clothing with fresh verdure the groves around Bethany, that our blessed Redeemer was seen approaching the haunt of former friendship. He had for two months taken shelter from the malice of the Sanhedrim in the little town of Ephraim and the mountainous region of Perea, on the other side of the Jordan. But the Passover solemnity being at hand, and his own hour having come, he had “set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem.” ”

“ The reserve hitherto maintained as to His kingly power is now to be set aside. “The hour is come in which the Son of man is to be glorified.” Bethany is one of the few places associated with recollections of the Redeemer’s royalty. The “despised and rejected” is, for once, the honoured and exalted. It is a glimpse of the crown before He ascends the cross; a foreshadowing of that blessed period when He shall be hailed by the loud acclaim of earth’s nations—the Gentile hosannah mingling with the Hebrew hallelujah in welcoming Him to the throne of universal empire. ”

“ It is only the teachings and influences of that divine religion which made Bethany the centre of true social banquetings to the wandering and isolated Man of Sorrows, which can keep the soul alive amid the cares, the burdens, and the duties which bend down every son and daughter of Adam, however gilded may be the outward life. ”

“ While seated nigh the reputed burial-place, with the Gospel in their hands, reading, through their tears, the story of their fathers’ impenitency, and of their Saviour’s compassion and sympathy at the grave of His friend, will not a new and impressive truthfulness invest one of the old Bethany utterances, “Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him!” ”

“ But, if Christians indeed, the sphere in which we move will, like the Bethany home, be redolent with the ointment perfume. A holy life is a silent witness for Jesus—an incense-cloud from the heart-altar, breathing odours and sweet spices, of which the world cannot fail to take knowledge. ”

“ Heracleon, Nonnus and Beza are referred to in defense of Bethany; and among moderns, Mill, Simon and others, are quoted by Wolf on the same side. Campbell and Bloomfield also defend this view. Scultetus, Grotius and Casaubon, argue in favor of Bethabara. Lightfoot makes a long argument to prove that Bethany, the true reading, means not any village or particular spot of that name, but the province or tract, called ♦Batanea, lying beyond the Jordan, in the northern part of its course,――a conjecture hardly supported by the structure of the word, nor by the opinion of any other writer. ”

“ I GO TO BETHANY One afternoon when we were driving about the busy semi-modern streets that lie outside the walls of Jerusalem we suggested to Jamil, our guide, that some afternoon we walk to Bethany. He answered briefly that it was too far and turned to call our attention to the well-equipped postoffice, the modern looking shops, the Italian hospital, the well-built hospices of the French, Italians and Russians which before the war were thronged at the feasts with devout pilgrims. There was an atmosphere of western life about the outer city. ”

“ It is better," she added addressing Javan, as Hannah hastily left the room, "it is better to dismiss that simple creature. She is well-intentioned; but we must not trust any one too unreservedly in these days. You might be sorry to have it known that you confessed yourself a Christian, even to the aged and despised Mary of Bethany." ”

“ What a picture of the fickleness and treachery of the heart!—That excited populace who are now shouting their hosannahs, are ere long to be raising the cry, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Four days hence we shall find the palm branches lying withered on the Bethany road, [Pg 190] and the blazing torches of an assassin-band nigh the very spot where He is now passing with an applauding retinue! “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils.”
It does not belong to our narrative to record the remaining transactions of this day in Jerusalem. ”

“ He enlarged upon the fact that Jesus, seeing all the suffering at Bethany, which He could change by a word into gladness, did not interfere, but decreed that the terrible ordeal should be endured to the bitter end.
From this he reasoned that the transient sorrows of the household at Bethany were of little moment, and that God, in the advancement of His own glory and the accomplishment of His great plans, would never turn aside because His human children in their short-sighted weakness would stay His heavy hand if they could. ”

“ He also found a short article on healing in which it was stated that any of the ministers of the church of God would be glad to pray for any sick person. It was evident that Mary was beyond the power of medicine to heal. Dr. Horton had given her up and no more medicine was being given her.
"I wonder if any of the church of God ministers are near Bethany," said Robert to himself. His eyes began to run over the pages in search of a minister close enough to send for. Then he saw a meeting announced for Sayersville, October 1-10. Sayersville was only fifty miles north of Bethany. ”

“ I have run all the way from Bethany to catch up that man thou seest there, Jesus the Nazarene;” and with that he took up his running and left me.
I knew not what to think. I had seen and heard Jesus in my own house in Jerusalem, and lo! at that very same time, as I now learned, he had been at Bethany. What thinkest thou, Aglaophonos,—can a man be in two places at one and the same time? or can it be that the mind of man, and the power of his eye, can go [pg 98] forth from his body and create a vision of another man that hath all the semblance of reality? ”

“ Her feet were stones in weight. Would that they had been as hard! for a sharp pain drew her attention to the fact that one foot had broken its sandal, and was bruised and bleeding. She could not run; she trudged on.
She came out upon the broad road, and passed through Bethany. No one accosted her, for the once happy village was now deserted. Even the dogs had followed the people when they fled from the invaders. ”

“ The Name of the Place Where John Baptized is Not Bethany, as in Most Copies, But Bethabara. Proof of This. Similarly “Gergesa” Should Be Read for “Gerasa,” In the Story of the Swine. Attention is to Be Paid to the Proper Names in Scripture, Which are Often Written Inaccurately, and are of Importance for Interpretation.
“These things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.” [1] We are aware of the reading which is found in almost all the copies, “These things were done in Bethany.” ”

“ The crude ore must go into the furnace, and if there was good metal in it the fact would appear.
"Sooner or later," he said, "God will put every soul into the crucible of affliction. Sooner or later we shall all be passing through scenes like that of the family at Bethany. We may not hope to escape. God means we shall not. As Christ firmly, while seeing all, left events at Bethany to their designed course, so He will as surely and steadily carry out the discipline which He, as the unerring physician of the soul, sees that each one of us requires. ”

“ When Bethany was by this time out of our sight, as we went by the road that lieth between the Tombs of the Prophets and the Mount of Offence, suddenly we heard a shouting as of a mixed multitude, and presently we discerned a great crowd of the disciples coming over the brow of the hill towards us, with many hundreds of the Galileans, all waving palm-branches in their hands, and hailing Jesus as the son of David. ”

“ From them is still supplied the bread of life to thousands. To change from metaphor to facts that are as hard as stone, and as enduring as human character, there are, first in point of time, the Bethany Mission Sunday-school and the Bethany Presbyterian Church; the John Chambers Memorial Church, an offshoot and outgrowth from the Bethany Church ”

“ Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his
disciples,
41:011:002 And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against
you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a
colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him. ”

“ Bethabara or Bethany was about twenty-five miles from Nazareth; and over the plain just across the hill was a road leading down to the river at that place, where people used to cross the Jordan on their way to the land of Decapolis and Perea beyond. Nearly all the people had heard John preach, and most of them had been baptized by him as a sign that they promised to turn from evil and do good and look for the King who was soon to come. ”

“ Nor is it the Sanctuary alone they overshadow with their wings of light. The lowliest homestead of the believer is oftentimes made a Mahanaim (“a Host”) . The dwellers in the world’s thousand Bethany-homes of simple faith and lowly love are “entertaining angels unawares.” In the hour of sickness they are there unseen to smooth [Pg 246] our pillow. In the hour of danger they are at hand to “shut the lions’ mouths.” In the hour of bereavement they are employed bringing messages of solace from the Intercessor within the veil, and enabling us to “glorify God in the fires.” ”

“ Mr Bethany will be perfectly discreet—if he thinks discretion desirable. He is the only available friend we have close enough to ask at once. And things of this kind are, I suppose, if anybody’s concern, his. It’s certain to leak out. Everybody will hear of it. Don’t flatter yourself you are going to hush up a thing like this for long. You can’t keep living skeletons in a cupboard. You think only of yourself, only of your own misfortune. But who’s to know, pray, that you really are my husband—if you are? The sooner I get the vicar on my side the better for us both. ”

“ But God can do without human [Pg 31] agency. His Church can be preserved, though no Moses be spared to conduct Israel over Jordan, and no Lazarus to tell the story of his Saviour’s grace and love, when other disciples have forsaken Him and fled.
We may be calling, in our blind unbelief, as we point to some ruined fabric of earthly bliss—some tomb which has become the grave of our fondest affections and dearest hopes—“Shall the dust praise thee, shall it declare thy truth?” Believe! believe! God will not give us back our dead as He did to the Bethany sisters ”

“ Judith and Amaziah also made frequent visits to the dwelling of Mary; and by their care, a poor Christian woman was discovered in the village, and engaged to attend upon her, and provide for her comfort. Hannah was a humble but most devoted disciple, and she joyfully undertook to watch the declining days of one so holy and so privileged as Mary of Bethany. Her own poverty had prevented her from retiring to Pella at the commencement of the war, and the entire seclusion in which she lived, had caused her to be overlooked by those who would willingly have assisted her ”