Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle/Chapter 45
CHAPTER XLV.
"SELL all that thou hast, take up thy cross, and follow Me," murmured Lazarus, while he bent over the dead body of the beauteous Magdalene, now lying on the very couch on which he himself had died.
She had been found close to Jerusalem, stabbed in the heart by some foul hand. None would ever know the quick, hot words, the madness-given strength of the proud woman who had stabbed her in her jealousy. None would ever know how Lazarus mourned his bride. He had sold all that he possessed; had this too been a possession that would have kept his soul back from the great work of testifying? If so, blessed be the Lord who giveth and taketh away; he, too, must tread the winepress alone.
A ship was waiting to take Lazarus and Mary away to where he could preach the gospel unmolested. Simon could not make up his mind to let both daughters leave him in his old age; so it had been decided that Martha should remain with him. The spirit of the Eternal One had shown Lazarus that he would not have been restored to life only to die again at once. The Lord had commanded him to testify. This he must needs do, and, to do so, 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.
THE END.