Page:As others saw Him.djvu/116

 110 and a high, thin voice cried out, "Where is this kidnapper of souls? where is this filcher of young lives? where is Jesus the Nazarene?"

"Behold me," said Jesus, turning towards the voice; and an old man, with the rent garment of the mourner, and with hair all distraught, came up to the Nazarene with arms outstretched and clutching fingers.

"Give me my son, my Elchanan!" he cried. "Thou hast taken him from me last Passover, saying, 'Father and mother, yea, all that a man hath, shall he give up to follow me.' He left me to follow thee; what hast thou done with him?—my Elchanan! my Elchanan!"

"He died, and is at peace."

"Then give him back to me again. Thou canst do all things, men say: make whole the sick, let see the blind, cause the lame to walk, and give peace to the troubled mind. Give me, then, back my Elchanan thou hast taken from me."

"There is One alone that can quicken the dead," said Jesus, and walked sternly past him.