Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/221

Rh " 'T is because He is the Son of God that He must die."

"Oh, I would see Him yet again," moaned the loving Mary. "My Saviour, my God, my Christ, my Life, would I could die for Thee!"

And, now and then, it seemed as though across the night there stole the tender words: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love."

Oh, to know that the Son of God was there, and that they were powerless! At these times, Lazarus would go into quiet places and pray, as if his heart would break; and all was gloom and grief within their souls, not for themselves, but for what the Saviour was to endure.

"To think that I, I, Lazarus, a sinner, should live, and that He should die. Oh, gladly would I give each one of my possessions, that once it would have grieved me to resign, that I might die for Him, or, by following Him, spare Him one brief hour of pain."

At Jerusalem the commotion of the people kept increasing. Messengers arrived almost daily at the doors of Caiaphas with the news that they could gain no tidings of Him, and the prisons were becoming thronged with men punished by Caiaphas for not bringing Him.

Strange were the tales that gained report as, one after another, the messengers returned. Some said that Pilate had forbidden his capture, others that many times they had laid hold on Him, but that He had slipped through their hands and seemed to vanish into air. Caiaphas could not fail to see that the latest miracle had weakened his position; and,