"I have seen the Lord! He calleth for thee, Mary. Come and see him as he sits by Isaiah's fountain, near the market-place."
Mary rose quickly and went out. Certain of her Jewish friends from Jerusalem at that moment met her at the door, and began to comfort her, and to ask her if they also should go with her to weep at the grave of Lazarus, for they said one to another:
"She goes unto the grave to weep there!"
"She goes to see Jesus, the friend of Lazarus, for he calleth her," answered Martha, smiling with eagerness, and speaking with an animation that presented a singular contrast to her late deep grief.
Mary hastened to where Jesus sat by the fountain bathing his dusty and wounded feet.
"Lord," she said, in her sister's words, and with deep emotion, "if thou, Lord, hadst been here, my brother had not died!"
Then bowing her head to the edge of the marble basin, she wept very heavily. The Jews, men and women, who stood about, being touched with her sorrow, also wept, while glittering tears coursed their way down the face of the beloved John, his disciple, who stood near.
Jesus sighed deeply and groaned in spirit as he beheld her grief and their mourning with her. His sacred countenance was marred with the anguish of his soul.
"Rise, let us go to the grave where he lieth," he said to them. "Where have ye laid him?"
"Come, dear Lord, and see," answered Mary, holding him reverently by the sleeve of the robe, and gently yet eagerly drawing him towards the place of the tombs in the vale of Olivet.