Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/261

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LAZARUS.
249

"And I saw that Jesus wept for the love He bore me and the love He bore Jerusalem, and for its unbelief; and I knew that He would I had not died, and that, having died, I should not live again to die a second death. Yet would I live and die daily, if I could serve the Lord forever; for I know that, beyond here and Hades, there are things reserved for them which love the Lord that pass man's understanding. Then I prayed as I had never prayed before, for I knew for a very certainty that Jesus was the Christ, and that men with their vain imaginations are but as worms before the Lord, and are without understanding. At last, when night was past, I heard the voice of Jesus calling me, as it were, across great waters; and my spirit hastened to the voice of God, and I stood inside the sepulchre ye had prepared for me; and I saw a body lying there, and I shuddered at the thought of that which was before me, and of the power of the flesh; and I would indeed that it were not so that I must live again. Yet I longed to see the face of the Christ once more, and to show forth His glory to all men, for I thought that then, indeed, all could not but believe. So I laid me down once more on the body that had pained me so in life, and I cried, 'Not my will, but Thine, be done on earth, O Lord!' Then I heard the voice of the Christ—that sounded like silver trumpets on the mountain tops mingling with summer fountains—cry out: 'Lazarus, come forth!' And at those words of Jesus I stood once more on my feet. Yet still the people believed not in Him."