Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/226

214 "And thou dost minister to her?" asked Lazarus with gentle tenderness.

"How could I otherwise? She hath no one but this Son, and Him she dares not claim as hers, in that He is the Son of God. Methinks her state is more piteous than the poor woman's who can hold her children to her breast and know they are her own."

"Nay, but she is blessed above all women," answered Lazarus reverently. "Nations shall worship her and think that, through her, they shall obtain salvation."

"Is she then as a saint?" asked Mary innocently.

"Nay, she is naught but woman like thyself; but she was chosen for her pure simplicity."

"Like me!" exclaimed the Magdalene. "Like me! Would I were indeed like her, pure and sinless. To be with her is like sitting in the Temple when they sing psalms."

But thou art forgiven; and a sinner forgiven is no more a sinner."

The Magdalene looked at him with gratitude and joy. "Dost know all things now, Lazarus? Why this earth was made, and why that God did let sin enter, and why the Christ must die; and didst thou go to heaven and to hell? And when will the end of all things come?"

Woman-like, she asked one question after another without waiting for an answer. Woman-like, she thought that the knowledge of these things was death's requital; the end to be attained by it.

In breathless silence, as though yet hoping that their brother would tell the secrets that their hearts