IT was not by chance, brethren, as the Church teaches us by the words of St. Gregory, read in the matins of this festival, that St. Thomas was not with the other Disciples when Jesus came. His Divine Master permitted him for a time to doubt, as He also permitted Lazarus, whom He loved, to die, of whom He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God; that the Son of Man may be glorified by it." In the unbelief of Thomas there were, as we now see, deep purposes of grace both to him and to us.