The child called back by Elisha was still a little boy. The daughter of
Jairus was still a little girl. The son of the widow of Nain was a young
man, as was also Eutychus raised by St. Paul. Though we are not told the
age of Lazarus we judge that he was at most no more than in man's
maturity. Dorcas of Lydda may have been of any age, but, judging by the
circumstances, she had not completed her task.
XIV
My point is this, that if these things happened, they seem to bear out
my suggestion that our own inducement of premature death cuts us off
from fulfilling our appointed time and getting our appointed experience.
Only on some such ground can we believe that any would be permitted
to return.
Should this be so we would be in a position to assume that all who go
over ahead of time would be allowed to come back, if we had sufficient
spiritual power to recall them. But that power is of the rarest. Our
Lord, apparently, was in control of it only at times, and on at least
one occasion, that of the raising of Lazarus, its exercise was not what
we should call easy. But that He believed it to be at human command to
some extent is clear from the fact that its use became one of His four
basic principles. "Raise the dead," was the second of the commands with
which He sent out his first seventy disciples.
XV
I dwell on the subject only because of its bearing on the love of God.
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