Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/66

54 "Verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And, despairing at his impotence to understand, Nicodemus, wrathful at himself, at his own helplessness, impatient almost with the Saviour for speaking to him in parables; bitterly, cynically, yet half grasping Jesus' meaning, had exclaimed: "How can a man be born when he is old; can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?"

Then the Divine voice had rung out in explanation of His marvellous saying; had shown him that it was no natural birth that He had meant; for all that, a birth not less miraculous, a birth of water and of the spirit, without which no man could enter into the kingdom of God.

Then, wondering and despairing still, mad with his own blindness, as a blinded animal would dash its head against the wall in its impotence and want of comprehension at what had happened to it, so Nicodemus had wailed: "Lord, Lord, how can these things be? I cannot grasp them; they are too wonderful for me."

At which, with a touch almost of irony, the appealing voice had answered: "Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?"

"A master of Israel"; yes, he, Nicodemus, had set himself up as a teacher and ruler of Israel, he who could not even understand the teaching of this carpenter. How poor, how mean he had felt in the presence of this Man, clad in coarse attire and standing barefoot on the shore of the lake! No moon had illumined the dark night around, and the gloom had seemed to Nicodemus an apt setting to the