Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/265

Rh countenance. If I be not that same Lazarus, where then is he?"

Then one, a lawyer, came up to him.

"Noble ruler," he began, "I will speak for this multitude. We believe verily that thou art Lazarus, but we would hear whether thou wert really dead, and if so be, how thou didst return to life?"

"How can I persuade ye, my brethren?" replied Lazarus, tears rising to his eyes in the intensity of his emotion. "I was indeed dead. Ask the physician Kishish; ask them who embalmed me, and them who bore me to the tomb. In truth, I was dead, and if I be alive again, 't is by the power of Jesus the Christ, whom ye call the Nazarene."

Some seemed willing to believe, others shrugged their shoulders, but none molested Lazarus or those with him any more. But some amongst the crowd cried out: "He is bewitched, or he dreameth, and knoweth not what he saith. Maybe he was in a trance."

Their supper in the house of Simon was a happy meeting. Though all were troubled by forebodings of sad events to come, there was in each a spirit of patience and resignation that enabled them to enjoy the present.

Although supper had been laid for all the family of Simon, only one couch had been provided, all having intended to wait on Jesus; but, with gracious condescension, as though what Lazarus had gone through gave him a higher claim to His friendship, Jesus bade him be seated at the same table. With what zeal and tenderness those loving women waited on the two they loved best in the world, though