Chapter XXXI

The mind of the poet has now taken a more strictly religious view of the situation; and he would like to learn the secrets of the grave from the experience of Lazarus.

Did Lazarus in death yearn to hear his sister Mary weeping for him? If she asked him, when restored to life, where he was during his four days of entombment;

"There lives no record of reply,"

which, if given, might have "added praise to praise"--that is, might have sealed and confirmed the promise that "blessed are the dead which die in the Lord."

As it was, the neighbours met and offered congratulations, and their cry was,

"Behold a man raised up by Christ!
The rest remaineth unreveal'd;
He told it not; or something seal'd
The lips of that Evangelist."

It is only St. John who records the miracle.