Lazare

“ The pious may argue that this fear of death is only natural on the part of an unbeliever, and that the proper course for Lazare to have pursued was to have sought the consolation of religion. But they have only to visit a few lunatic asylums to find in them extremely devout patients, who, whilst believing in a resurrection and a future life, nevertheless dread death quite as keenly as Lazare Chanteau did. ”

“ Lazare; watching in these degraded souls for the least indication of an aspiration towards good, the least regret for a past criminal life, and encouraging the good tendencies, urging repentance, and, by the potent magic of the words, Duty, Honour, Virtue, withdrawing from time to time one of these abandoned, fallen, degraded, despised creatures, from the depths of utter pollution. ”

“ I assured her that, whatever my fate might be, I would never complain so long as she continued to love me.
"It is not I who am to be pitied," I continued; "a few months' imprisonment has no terrors for me, and, in any case, the Châtelet is preferable to Saint Lazare. It is for you, sweet soul, that my heart is bleeding. What a prospect is this to confront a lovely being like yourself! How, oh! how can Providence wreak such cruelty upon the most perfect of its creations? Why is it that we were not born, you and I, with qualities in keeping with the misery before us? ”

“ Nucingen now carried on business alone, and on his own account, in Paris and elsewhere; he thus prepared by degrees the famous house of the rue Saint-Lazare, and laid the foundation of a fortune, which, under Louis Philippe, reached almost eighteen million francs. At this period he married one of the two daughters of a rich vermicelli-maker, Mademoiselle Delphine Goriot, by whom he had a daughter, Augusta, eventually the wife of Eugene de Rastignac. ”

“ She was like the Spanish high-born dame who insisted upon a tombstone for the grave of a bull, the killing and torturing of which in the ring she had frantically applauded. One day she expressed her wish to M. Boitelle to pay a visit to Saint-Lazare. There is nothing analogous to that institution in England. The "unfortunate woman" who prowls about the streets before or after nightfall is—except in a few garrison towns—tacitly ignored by our legislators, and when she offends against the common law, treated by our magistrates like any other member of society. ”

“ When the Revolution broke out he took a prominent part in the movement, and was elected by the men of a battalion to command them. In May 1793 he was charged with the suppression of the disturbances in the Jura, which he quelled without bloodshed. Under Pichegru he took part in the Rhine campaign of that year as a brigade commander, and at Weissenburg and in the Palatinate won the warm commendation of Lazare Hoche. ”

“ The young Henri was reared by Mademoiselle de Marsay and the Abbe de Maronis. He was on intimate terms, in 1815, with Paul de Manerville, and was already one of the all powerful Thirteen, with Bourignard, Montriveau and Ronquerolles. At that time he found on rue Saint-Lazare a girl from Lesbosen, Paquita Valdes, whom he wished to make his mistress. He met at the same time his own natural sister, Madame de San-Real, of whom he became the rival for Paquita's love. At first Marsay had been the lover of the Duchesse Charlotte, then of Arabelle Dudley, whose children were his very image. ”

“ In 1793 he was employed in breaking up the Federalist movement in Normandy, but he was arrested by the Federalist authorities of Caen, and only released in July 1793 after the defeat of their forces at Vernon. On the 14th of August 1793 he became a member of the committee of public safety, where he allied himself closely with Lazare Carnot in the organization of national defence, being especially charged with the provision of the munitions of war. ”

“ Caiaphas had not seen fit to tell his father-in-law of his midnight journey to Bethany with Nicodemus, when he had hoped, if not to lay hands on Jesus, to get tidings of His movements; when he had also seen the body of Lazarus.
An endless multitude of people thronged all day the road from Jericho; great rabbis, followed by their retinue, mules laden with spices and myrrh, ointment and spikenard. The room in which Lazarus lay, now bound in grave clothes by the tender hands of Martha and Mary, was like an ever-moving panorama. ”

“ Nervously she played with the beads of a girdle of amber she wore round her waist.
"Indeed," she muttered, " 't is not the Nazarene that I would seek; but, if to get sight of Lazarus I must needs find the Nazarene, then go I must."
Proud Rebekah, what hath come to thee, that thou, whom, hitherto, all men have sought, dost follow now one man? What is love, that strange, subtle fire that eateth out the heart and bringeth the mighty low? "Oh, I would that Lazarus did feel for me as I for him! That stern, sweet face, how beauteous must it look when melting into love! O Lazarus, Lazarus!" ”

“ Slay him!" cried the multitude, and some of the soldiers crowded round him and tried to take him prisoner. One man even caught hold of his linen robe; but Lazarus, with a twist of his body, slipped downwards out of his garment and fled away in the darkness. Better so, than die while the Lord had need of him. And all the multitude cried out: ' 'T is yet another miracle. This man shall never die." ”

“ And all the disciples, raising their hands to heaven, as if to call the moon, the whole creation nay, more, God the Father, to witness what they promised, cried: "We will die with Thee! We will die with Thee!"
"Be still," said Lazarus. "Raise not your voices, lest the enemy should hear you."
His warning, breathed on the stillness of the night, fell on their ears with startling force. The hour was indeed close at hand. Anxiously they peered between the olive trees, some even dividing the branches of the fig trees and the pomegranates lest a traitor should be lurking there. ”

“ Had He wished to restore him, He could have done so from Jerusalem. The city is but fifteen furlongs off. He would have sent over one of the twelve with the message of life, or He would have willed him to live from a distance and he would have lived. Lazarus is dead, but were he living, he would not wish to live if his Lord did not so will it; and, except to our mortal eyes, he is not dead, for thou knowest that our Lord hath said that those who believe on Him shall never die. Oh, Martha, trouble not thyself, but kneel with us and pray. ”

“ No one approached the place where Lazarus, miraculously raised from the dead, passed his last days, for his neighbours had long since abandoned their homes. His cursed knowledge, driven by the hot irons from his eyes deep into the brain, lay there in ambush; as if from ambush it might spring out upon men with a thousand unseen eyes. No one dared to look at Lazarus. ”

“ Then at midnight came another spirit to me, that of an old man, and he took me by the hand and said: 'What doest thou here, Lazarus? Why dost thou still stay near thy home and thy riches and thy vessels of silver and gold? Thou hast much to see and hear, for that thou art dead for the glory of God and shalt live again.'
"'And shall I see Him yet again; Him whom my soul delighteth in?' I asked of the old man. ”

“ Gently, in a voice that reached only the two women, the Nazarene murmured: "Where have ye laid him?"
And the crowd, hoping and half believing that, at last, it was to see the miracle the nation had been expecting, howled and shrieked: "Show us Lazarus and we will believe.
Mary, in much humility, entreated the Lord to come and see the tomb where they had laid him.
Then, when the cry grew ever louder, "Show us Lazarus and it sufficeth us," Thomas approached the crowd and, raising his hand to still the tumult: "Men of Israel," he said, "wherefore call ye for Lazarus? ”

“ If He really was all-powerful, what need to suffer and to toil and to preach? All the quibbles of unbelief, the torment of uncertainty, which is the world's greatest curse, which, since the world began, has raised its beguiling voice, like the voice of a siren, to lure men from the path of life; all the demons of despair, had torn at the heart of Lazarus ever since he had heard the preaching of the Nazarene; but the answer to his prayer had been coming, though he knew it not, coming, as it always does, by inward revelation, not as the result of argument. ”

“ If he be the same who, by the mere word of his command, made Lazarus fly away like an eagle from my bosom, when he had already been dead four days, he is not a man in humanity, but God in majesty. I entreat thee not to bring him to me. ”

“ Then Lazarus said: "We must needs watch, or, maybe, He will not even have time to pray."
Then, when Jesus saw the distress of the warm-hearted Peter and James and John, He bade them come with Him; and, with one human cry for sympathy, He said: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with Me."
Who can dare to dwell on that great agony and live. The agony of God brought low. The haunting fear of His humanity that at the last His strength might fail! ”

“ Let Me cleanse thy soul of all its filth. Return to Me; I am still here waiting, waiting. Time is passing quickly, a life's remorse awaits thee in this world, a dreadful death; in the next an eternity of pain. Draw back."
All that it seemed to say; but Judas shifted uneasily on his seat, as though the touch of Jesus scorched his nerves, and he kept his eyes down, as though searching the water in the copper basin, that in the light of the lamp shone more ruddily than his own red hair.
And Lazarus, in grief and wonder, murmured to himself: "His own familiar friend, His own familiar friend." ”

“ Lazarus also smiled as though in assent, and bowed his head a little before he spoke.
“I am obedient to your judgment. It is yours to command and mine to obey. If you say that he must die, let him die. He is my son. Take him. Did not our father Abraham lay Isaac upon the altar and offer him as a burnt sacrifice before the Lord?”
“Let him die,” said the rabbis.
“Then let him die,” answered Lazarus. “I am your servant. It is mine to obey.”
“His blood be on our heads,” they said. And again, the evil smile went round. ”

“ He had known that he had led such a life, in regard to purity and uprightness, as the Nazarene preached; but this, to give up his possessions—for Lazarus was a rich man—this would mean ceasing to be a ruler of the Synagogue, a lawyer, and a great man in Bethany and Jerusalem. Was this then the spirit of a little child, to be the possessor of nothing, to look to the Father for everything?
Surely this thing was not so easy. A life of believing and uprightness, yes; but poverty? pitiful poverty, to a man who had worn purple robes and been greeted in the market place with the cry of Rabbi, Rabbi! ”

“ In that one moment, while the voices drew ever nearer, grew ever louder, and, in the darkness, a still darker line of approaching crowds of men was streaked, Lazarus seemed able to measure his own stature, and to grasp its nothingness against the boundless stretches of creation. One man among so many, one tiny atom at the feet of mountains! ”

“ Claudia stretched out her hands in awe and horror to her husband, but, the while, a darkness, a solid darkness, with no faint glimmerings of struggling light, had fallen between her and him.
Lazarus!" she cried, "Lazarus, Pilate, what meaneth this?"
And Lazarus's voice beside her said: "Fear not, 't is but God's earth mourning for the Son of God. Pray, lady, pray that thou and Pilate may yet believe." ”

“ To Lazarus, who believed that Judas Iscariot was about to betray the Lord, the presence of the traitor seemed unbearable. All were paralysed with wonder, expectant of something, yet they knew not what. How could they tell that evening, that repentance and eternal life would be offered to a soul so cramped by greed and avarice that it would reject heaven for hell, and all for thirty pieces of silver? Surely a sorry price for such a crime!
Then, when Jesus saw that none performed the kindly office of washing of the feet, He rose from the table and sent one of the disciples to fetch water. ”

“ Neither could we keep Lazarus, but he like an eagle shaking himself leaped forth with all agility and swiftness, and departed from us, and the earth also which held the dead body of Lazarus straightway gave him up alive. Wherefore now I know that that man which was able to do these things is a God strong in command and mighty in manhood, and that he is the saviour of mankind. And if thou bring him unto me he will set free all that are here shut up in the hard prison and bound in the chains of their sins that cannot be broken, and will bring them unto the life of his godhead for ever. ”

“ There were people living far away who never saw Lazarus and only heard of him. With an audacious curiosity which is stronger than fear and feeds on fear, with a secret sneer in their hearts, some of them came to him one day as he basked in the sun, and entered into conversation with him. ”

“ Gradually, almost imperceptibly, Lazarus grew weaker, but, as day by day his body became more feeble, his faith seemed to strengthen. Never was man tended with more devotion, Martha seeing to his bodily wants, while Mary sat and read to him, or prayed with him in his moments of despondency. Moreover, during the first stages of his illness he had been daily cheered by the presence of the Nazarene; but this was before the Jews had grown so virulent in their persecutions. ”

“ Lazarus said.
"He will eat the Passover at Jerusalem, according to the law of Moses, yet surely they will there surprise Him."
"How can it be," asked Martha, "that Judas, who doth follow Him day and night, doth compass to betray Him? Methinks that even Satan himself would not act thus."
"Nay, Satan doth make others to sin for him," answered Lazarus; "but 't is greed with Judas, the love of money that is the curse of all our nation; that doth even overwhelm the world. ”