"Where is Ruth?" he cried. "Oh, where is she! Let me make her happy with my presence!"
I gazed upon him with awe, as if I had seen a spirit.
Ruth no sooner heard his voice than she uttered a shriek of joy. "He lives—he indeed lives!" and springing forward, she was saved from falling to the ground by being clasped to his manly breast.
"Let us kneel and thank God!" he said.
For a few minutes the scene was solemn and touching beyond any spectacle ever exhibited on earth.
When he had performed this first sacred duty, he rose to his feet and received all our embraces. Hundreds came in to see his face, and every tongue was eloquent in praise of the power of Jesus.
"And where is the holy Prophet?" I asked of Mary. "Shall he be forgotten amid all our joy!"
"We thanked him there with all our hearts, and bathed his hands with tears of gratitude," she answered, "but when they would have brought him into the city in triumph he conveyed himself away in the confusion, and no one could see aught of him. But John, who was with him, told me he would come into the city after quiet was restored, by and by, and he would bring him to our abode."
"Oh, I shall then behold him and thank him also!" I cried. "Make known to me, Mary, the particulars of this wonderful miracle."
"As we went weeping forth," said Mary, "slowly following the bier, and had passed the gate, we saw coming along the path through the valley leading to Tabor, a party of twelve or thirteen men on foot. They were followed by a crowd of men, women and children from the country, and were so journeying that they would meet us at the crossing of the stone bridge. Hearing some one say aloud, 'It is the Prophet of Nazareth, with his disciples,' I looked earnestly forward, and joyfully recognized Jesus at their head, with John walking by his side.