"And there was no stench?" said Joseph, turning to Martha.
"None save the odor of grave spices."
"Then of a fact there must be death from which there is an awakening."
"Yea, surely." It was Lazarus who answered. "In days of old did not the prophets make some to sneeze and sit up on their biers while others might not sneeze for all the prophets?"
"Much have I heard of prophets raising the dead. Yet had none turned to corruption."
"Even Jesus doth make no claim of bringing back to life those whose flesh hath turned black."
Joseph made no reply to the last speech of Lazarus, but turned to Mary and said, "What thinketh thou?"
"As my brother hath spoken," she replied. "There is one death, and there is another death. Into one hath corruption entered. Into the other it hath not. Hath not Jesus made this plain? Yet because of their ignorance do the people not understand. When he did enter the house of Jarius, synagogue ruler at Capernaum, to raise his daughter, did he not tell them plainly the damsel was not dead? Yet wept they and howled. And when he sought to quiet them by again saying, 'She sleepeth only,' did they laugh him to scorn. But when he did take the little damsel by the hand and bid her arise, she awakened. Then did the shout go up, 'A miracle! A miracle!' The Master doth thus teach there is a death from which the sleeper may be awakened. How cruel it is to seal such dead in the tomb!"
"Thou hast spoken, Mary," Joseph answered. "Fearful it is." Then he turned to Lazarus. "Canst tell how thy soul did feel as thou didst pass into the state of the dead?"
"Of feeling I had no knowledge. The incantations of the physician grew feeble as the buzzing of a bee. The pleading of Martha reached my ears like a child's call over a vast mountain, and the eyes of Mary, rimmed in tears, did sink into darkness like stars in a far sky and then go out. Yea, sight, sound, feeling, even knowledge of my own soul faded away—for how long I know not. They do tell me it was four days. Once as I lay asleep I did feel something like a cold flutter and faint touch across my cheek as in a dream, and from a great distance seemed to come the scent of spice. Then did something startle me. Aye, the blood in my veins which had refused to run, gave a mighty leap forward, there came a flood of air and a great burst of sunlight which did shine through my being, and I awoke and did walk from the tomb in obedience to the voice that called me forth—it was the voice of Jesus."