"Yea, my sister," Mary answered, as she arranged her choice lily in a vase and put it near the place of the guest.
"Hurry, Mary," Martha urged. "The sun is down, soon will our guest appear, and he is rich. Lazarus doth say the richest man in Arimathea."
"Content would I be with half his possessions," observed Joel.
"To-day in the Temple I did see him," Lazarus said. "He too is given to the wisdom of the Galilean Prophet."
"A member of the Great Sanhedrin taken with strange teachings!" Joel exclaimed in surprise.
"Elizabeth hath declared him the Messiah," Mary said thoughtfully.
"Women are given to vain words," was Joel's answer. "It is said this Galilean Prophet is no prophet at all, but the son of a carpenter in a poverty-ridden fishing town."
Lazarus reflected a moment before saying, "I know not from whence the King of the Jews shall come to restore again the throne of David, but if this Jesus is he, and need wealth, mine shall he have."
"Thou wouldst give to him but not to the poor? A great head hast thou for business, my friend Lazarus!" and Joel laughed.
"Aye, but for the establishment of the Kingdom, what man of Israel would not give of his riches, even of his life?"