Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/22

10 on Jesus; but Pilate, it seemeth, doth but laugh and say: 'Let this madman alone. He doeth no harm, but rather good, seeing that ye high priests can neither give eyes to the blind nor make the lame to walk.'"

Softly as they spoke, Mary came across the springy grass, and stood close listening; then, when Nicodemus had finished speaking, she exclaimed with fervour: "'T is indeed the Messiah who hath come. Nathaniel wrote truly of the miracle in Cana. It is the Lord."

"How knowest thou, sister?" answered Lazarus, amazed at the earnestness of her words, which yet seemed an echo of his own thoughts.

"An inward voice doth speak to me day and night, day and night, saying: 'This is the Lord, hear Him, hear Him'; and when I look upon His face in the Temple, and then around on this vast crowd, methinks that only He who made the flowers and birds and sunshine could have made a man so fair, for His look is like a sunbeam lying over a peaceful lake; and the thought within me doth grow and grow and grow; and, with the Magdalene, I have read and re-read the Scriptures, and every word doth testify how this Christ would come; and it grieveth me now that ever we spoke slightingly of His mother, or could dream it possible that she had sinned, for the prophet Isaiah saith: 'Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign, Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.' Had I but minded me of these words, I had first cut out my tongue ere I had breathed a word against her purity."