Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/103



HE news that Lazarus was dead spread with the rapidity of lightning. His illness, and the probability or the improbability of his being saved from death, or restored to life, had for so many weeks been a common topic that it was no wonder that his death filled the believers with dismay, and the Pharisees, and, still more, the Sadducees, with joy.

Joanna's tongue had not been silent, nor yet had Rachel's, and when some messenger had come from Jerusalem with some delicacy ordered by Martha, in the hope of tempting the slender appetite of the invalid, he had found himself surrounded, on re-entering the outskirts of the town, by a vociferating, clamouring crowd of inquiring gossips.

There was still greater significance in this death for the chief priests; it renewed their power over the Jews, while it also renewed the controversy between Caiaphas and Pilate as to the expediency of laying hands on the Messiah.

The apparent failure of the expected miracle rendered the Nazarene a less dangerous opponent.

Some anxiety was felt by Caiaphas when he heard of the continued absence of the Nazarene from the house of Martha and Mary. It seemed to him, in his insensate craving for revenge, that his Victim