FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421  
422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   >>   >|  
scales, lividly seamed, nearly blind, its limbs and extremities swollen to grotesque largeness, familiar eyes however sharpened by love could not have recognized the creature of childish grace and purity we first beheld her. "Is it Amrah, mother?" The servant tried to crawl to her also. "Stay, Amrah!" the widow cried, imperiously. "I forbid you touching her. Rise, and get you gone before any at the well see you here. Nay, I forgot--it is too late! You must remain now and share our doom. Rise, I say!" Amrah rose to her knees, and said, brokenly and with clasped hands, "O good mistress! I am not false--I am not wicked. I bring you good tidings." "Of Judah?" and as she spoke, the widow half withdrew the cloth from her head. "There is a wonderful man," Amrah continued, "who has power to cure you. He speaks a word, and the sick are made well, and even the dead come to life. I have come to take you to him." "Poor Amrah!" said Tirzah, compassionately. "No," cried Amrah, detecting the doubt underlying the expression--"no, as the Lord lives, even the Lord of Israel, my God as well as yours, I speak the truth. Go with me, I pray, and lose no time. This morning he will pass by on his way to the city. See! the day is at hand. Take the food here--eat, and let us go." The mother listened eagerly. Not unlikely she had heard of the wonderful man, for by this time his fame had penetrated every nook in the land. "Who is he?" she asked. "A Nazarene." "Who told you about him?" "Judah." "Judah told you? Is he at home?" "He came last night." The widow, trying to still the beating of her heart, was silent awhile. "Did Judah send you to tell us this?" she next asked. "No. He believes you dead." "There was a prophet once who cured a leper," the mother said thoughtfully to Tirzah; "but he had his power from God." Then addressing Amrah, she asked, "How does my son know this man so possessed?" "He was travelling with him, and heard the lepers call, and saw them go away well. First there was one man; then there were ten; and they were all made whole." The elder listener was silent again. The skeleton hand shook. We may believe she was struggling to give the story the sanction of faith, which is always an absolutist in demand, and that it was with her as with the men of the day, eye-witnesses of what was done by the Christ, as well as the myriads who have succeeded them. She did not question the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421  
422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

mother

 

wonderful

 
Tirzah
 

silent

 

question

 

beating

 

witnesses

 
succeeded
 
myriads
 

penetrated


eagerly

 

Christ

 

Nazarene

 
listened
 

lepers

 

sanction

 

struggling

 
skeleton
 

listener

 

travelling


possessed

 

believes

 

prophet

 

absolutist

 

demand

 

awhile

 
addressing
 

thoughtfully

 

expression

 

touching


forbid

 

imperiously

 

servant

 

remain

 

forgot

 

beheld

 

extremities

 

swollen

 

grotesque

 

largeness


scales

 
lividly
 

seamed

 

familiar

 

childish

 
purity
 

creature

 

recognized

 

sharpened

 

Israel