pluck bright leaves and scatter across the pathway. A
merry party it was, singing and laughing. Then lo, did the funeral
procession make its sad way. Rough was the road toward which it tended
and gloomy the valley with gaping tombs. And through this dark valley
did the sad note of the funeral dirge sound and with great sobbing and
wailing did the mourners march beside the bier whereon lay the dead son
of the widow. Thus did the march of Life and the march of Death make
toward each other and the way was wide enough but for one of them to
pass. On, on they marched, the one passing to the hilltop and blue
sky, the other to the bat-ridden place of corruption. When they did
meet, on the bier Jesus placed his hand--a hand throbbing with the life
of a strong man. And the Death march did stop. "Weep not," said he to
the weeping mother. And to the dead did he say, "Young man, arise!"
Then did the eyelids of the dead quiver; the set jaw move in its grave
napkin; the gray face show the tinge of running blood. Hands stirred
underneath the shroud and the dead awakened. It was wonderful! And a
young man that had hold of the bier, when he saw the eyes of the dead
open and the jaw fall apart, dropped his corner of the bier and ran.'
And Anna doth say he is running yet."

Mary's story ended with a laugh in which her listener joined. "This is
one of the greatest of thy miracles--so they say."

There was a moment of silence. Then the young man said, "There are no
miracles. There is only Knowledge, and lack of it. When a soul is
born of the Spirit, he cometh into the Light. Of Light cometh
Knowledge and of Knowledge, Power. And as all life is one life, so is
all power one power. Power and the Father's will to work bringeth the
consciousness that '_I and my Father are one_.' There are no miracles."

"By thy wisdom thou doeth away with miracles. Yet do men call thy
mighty works miracles and dispute much as to who he is that doeth them."

"Who do men say that I am?"

"Some say thou art Elias. Some say Jeremiah. Some say John. Some say
that with a camel train didst thou go to the Far East while thou wert
yet a lad and in the schools of the Magi, far beyond the Punjab valley
and the Indus, did learn to work wonders."

"And some say I am Beelzebub," he added.

Mary made no reply to this.

"And to turn back into its fleshy form a few waves of the universal sea
of life--is this a miracle, think you? Thy life abou