Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/124

112 : "Satan, Satan, trouble me not, for I seek the Lord."

Then, filled with the terrors of the vision, if vision it were, and lest the Lord should disappear, he had cried out appealingly: "Lord, help me! Lord, help me!"

That is a cry that hath ever reached the Holy One. Full of His own meditations, sad and troubled as they were, the Lord had checked His steps. In the glowing gloom His white garments had seemed to gleam and His eyes to blaze like two burning coals; and as the glow in the western skies had illumined his features with its dying rays, Lazarus had thought he had never seen anything so radiantly glorious yet so solemn. Then, as the Lord had stretched out His arms towards him, His shadow had made a faint cross on the red sand behind. Then, as human sympathy springs into being one knows not how, Jesus, in whom it was as strong as His divinity, deigned to be drawn to the young ruler who thirsted so for knowledge, and who was so near to the truth; who, by his own effort, had thus prepared himself for revelation.

Seeing the young ruler approach, the disciples, who from respect to their Lord were walking apart from Him, lest they should raise the dust upon their Master, had moved on, as though to leave the two alone.

Then, kneeling down before that glorious image of a perfect Man who, without the added glory of angels or pomps or kingdoms, could, by the power of His own purity, force men into obeisance, Lazarus had cried out: "Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"