Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/293

Rh parting gifts of the Messiah had not yet come. Their hearts were torn with grief, their brains weary with fruitless speculation, their bodies suffering from the fatigue of many watchings and a long day's walk. Besides all this, was the foreboding of their approaching separation from Him who was the centre-piece of their soul's refreshment, the fountain of revivification. It was as though the demon of despair was sifting them as wheat, as though great dark wings of horror were folding gradually about them. Their emotions held them dumb. Then, in the general silence, the Messiah broke forth with the cry: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me.' The mask of hypocrisy was to be torn away, the awe-charged atmosphere that hung about them was to explode with a flash of revelation. The unerring, penetrating bolt of Truth was to crash through the outwork of hypocrisy and expose to view the citadel of greed and unbelief and envy. To-night it should be proclaimed that one sat there a traitor to his friend and to his God; the righteous efforts of the little band of believers should no longer be paralysed and polluted by the presence of one who should for evermore be damned. The vile, corrupted thing should be rooted out, as a cancer is plucked out from the body. On this last night of His living, loving ministry the Christ would exert His right to have about Him only those who loved Him. Only to them would that great commission of love and peace be given. No longer should the words of a God fall on the ears of Satan's emissary.

It seemed to the disciples, at His words, as though the wrath of God had been let loose at last. In