Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/395

Rh he must leave Judæa; for, everywhere, a price was offered for his capture.

He had hoped to carry away with him the living Magdalene, but the Lord had willed it otherwise. Perhaps she had deserved a better fate, a rest for all her taunts and trials.

In the beautiful garden of Bethany, where the almond tree and pomegranate were now just putting forth their buds, where the feet of the Lord had so often stood, they buried her, and Martha and Mary combed with loving tenderness the tresses that had wiped the feet of Jesus. And on her bosom Lazarus placed a little cross of cedarwood, the first that had been made in record of the Christ's shameful death; the symbol that was to become the only staff of comfort in the valley of death, that dark, terror-beset ravine that must be traversed; the dark shadow thrown across eternal sunshine. And over the grave they planted the myrtle in token of love, and little cypress trees.

And then the two who had so loved the Lord left Bethany and Judæa for ever, and sailed forth to preach to other nations the great truth of salvation that had been rejected by the Jews.