This plan was put into execution, and on the morrow their venerable friend was established under their roof. For many years Mary had not left her humble dwelling, to which she was fondly attached. It was but a portion of the house in which she and her sister and Lazarus had been wont to receive the visits of the Redeemer, that now remained in her possession; for poverty, and a desire for obscurity, had led her to relinquish the greater part of the range of low buildings that surrounded the courtyard, and to retain only two small apartments that opened into a narrow and unfrequented street. But the spot was dear to her heart, and she hoped to live and die in that once happy home. She had therefore hitherto declined all the requests of Amaziah and Judith that she would spend the remainder of her days with them; and it was only the hope of being useful to the young convert that now induced her to leave her obscure abode to spend some days in the spacious and beautiful villa of her Christian friends. "What are these marble pavements and rich furniture to me," she observed one day to Naomi, "compared with the ground on which my Saviour has stood, and the seat on which he rested while I sat at his feet and listened to his words?--and what are these lofty pillars and gilded ceilings, compared with the rocky cave where once I saw him stand and call my dead brother to life with a voice of almighty power? Nothing but the consciousness that I have been permitted to assist you, my child, in the path towards eternal life, and the hope of being yet serviceable to you, could have drawn me from my beloved retreat even for a few days." "Have you then dwelt entirely at Bethany ever since your brother was restored to life?" asked Naomi. "Yes: both during the years that were added to his mortal life, and since he descended a second time to the grave, it has been my constant and my cherished home. For some time after my brother's resurrection we suffered much persecution and much alarm on his account. The chief priests and the Pharisees saw how many of the people believed in Jesus after he had performed that astonishing miracle; and as they could not deny the fact that Lazarus had been dead and was alive again; they sought to kill him, that by his presence and his words he might no longer bear witness to the power of the Son of God." "Could they suppose," exclaimed Naomi, "that He who had exerted that power to restore your brother to life, would suffer his work of love and mercy to be frustrated by their malice? Oh! how could they themselves refuse to believe in Him, when so undeniable a proof of his Godhead was before their eyes!"