Letters from Adina - #26

Letter XXVI. The Sister’s Sorrow.

“The place where they were to lay him was the cave in which both his father and mother were buried."

My Dear Father,

In my last letter I told you that Lazarus was dead! I write now to say that he that was dead is alive! Lazarus liveth!

He whom I saw dead and buried, and shut up within the rocky cave of the tomb, is returned to us again from the dead; and even now, while I am writing you, I hear his voice in the porch, as he is telling with profoundest awe what the Lord hath done for him, to a crowd of wondering people from Jerusalem.

Even Pilate the Roman Procurator, stopped his chariot at the door this morning, to see Lazarus that was dead, and to have speech of him.

You have already been told by me how quickly the sickness of Lazarus increased upon him; and how he soon died; and likewise that Jesus was sent for at the first to come to him, in the hope he might avert death. But Bethabara was a long day’s journey, and ere the messenger reached Him the soul of His friend had fled.

The next day Lazarus was buried. A very large concourse of people from the town of Bethany, and from Jerusalem, came to his burial; for he was well beloved.

Even the chariot of the noble lady, Lucia Metella, the good and virtuous wife of Pilate, was there to do honor to the funeral of him who had no other renown than his virtues.

The funeral train was very long, that strangers pausing, asked what great master in Israel, or what person of note, was being carried to the sepulchre.

The place where they were to lay him was the cave in which both his father and mother were buried. It was in a deep, shady vale, thickly shaded by cypress, palm, and pomegranate trees; and a large tamarind grew, with its stately branches, spreading over the summit of the quiet place of sepulchre, while an abrupt cliff of Olivet hung impending above.

Aemilius, the Centurion, was also present, wearing a white scarf above his silver breastplate, in token of grief; for he also loved Lazarus.

When the train came to the grove, they raised the body of the dead young man from the bier, and four youths, aided by Aemilius to support it at the head, carried it into the cavern.

A moment they lingered on the threshold, that Mary and Martha might take one more look, imprint upon its icy cold lips one last kiss, press once more the unconscious head to their loving and broken hearts.

I also gazed upon him, weeping at their sorrow, and mourning to behold so noble a face, beautiful as chiseled alabaster, about to be given up to the loathsome worm of the charnel-house.

He was so good, and excelling all his companions in all things great and pure, so lofty in character; that my tears flowed freely. 

The young men slowly moved forward into the gloom of the cave. Mary rushed in, and with disheveled hair, cried -

“Oh, take him not away forever from the sight of my eyes! Oh, my brother, my brother, would that I had died for thee! I were willing to lie down with the worm and call it my sister, and sleep in the arms of death, as on the breast of my mother §o thou couldst live! Thou wert happy and honored, and shouldst lived!

Oh, brother, brother, let them not take thee forever from the sight of my eyes! Without thee, what good shall my life be to me!”

Aemilius entered the tomb, and tenderly raising her from the body, of which she had cast herself in the bitterness of her wild grief, he led her forth, and beckoning to me, placed her in my arms,

Martha bore her own grief with more composure, but her face expressed how deeply she mourned, thus to say adieu for ever to her only brother - her beloved Lazarus, who had been the strong rock which had stood firmly against the shock of the stormy billows of this life, as they threatened her and Mary; who was a tower of strength to them in the day of trouble; and a rich fountain of delight in their home.

The body being placed in a niche hollowed out in the rock, was decently covered with a grave clothes, all but the calm face, which was bound about by a snow-white napkin.

Maidens of the village came forward and cast flowers upon his head, and many, many were the sincere tears, which bore tribute to his worth, both from manly eyes and from those of virgins.

When the burial ceremonies were ended, five strong men rolled the heavy stone door before the entrance to the cave, and so fastened it by fitting it into a socket that it would require a like number to remove it.

As we were returning with heavy hearts from paying this last duty to the beloved dead, the sun sank beyond the blue hills of Ajalon in the west, in a lake of gold.

To behold the sunset and to seek rest for our hearts, I walked apart with Mary to the top of the hill, from whence I beheld the sun gilding the pinnacle of the Temple, and making it seem like a gigantic spear pointed to the sky.

In this letter, dearest father, I intended to relate to you the manner of recalling Lazarus to life, but it is filled with so much, that I defer the history till I write again.

Your loving daughter, Adina

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LADY DONNA PROGRAM

The new Lady Donna Immersion in Spirituality, Academics and Citizenship @ the "I AM" School will study abridged excerpts of the Letters from Adina taken from Reverend Ingraham's original edited version of 'The Prince of the House of David', published by Cassell & Co. Ltd (1903), that reveal remarkable insights into the Living Etheric Record left by Beloved Jesus's Ministry in the Holy Land.