Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/86

74 that those who believe on Him shall never die. Oh, Martha, trouble not thyself, but kneel with us and pray."

"What should I pray for now, seeing that he is dead?" replied Martha almost impatiently. Then, with a sudden resolve, she raised her head, and, drawing her cloak around her, stepped out into the cool morning air, and hurried down the road to Jerusalem.

Many were the thoughts revolving in her brain when she walked forth, a brave, strong-minded woman, to entreat the Lord, whom she failed to understand. Of an energetic, indomitable spirit, full of self-reliance, she had a horror alike of mystification and of sentiment, with a full belief in the power of coercing events. To sit down and wait for the workings of God to take effect would have been beyond her. She was always fretting lest she had left some machinating stone unturned. She was imbued with the idea that there was power in a multitude of prayers, and that one moment's inaction would reap its reward of infruition. She had been a careful housewife, and much responsibility had devolved on her, for the three had been left without a mother at an early age. She, Martha, had had to be mother and father to the two younger ones, Lazarus and Mary. This had given her an irritability of temperament and a certain domineering manner which, to her credit be it said, she strove hard to master.

For a long time she had shut ears and heart against the strange rumours that were bruited abroad respecting Jesus of Nazareth; she had disbelieved the reports about His birth and had even