d to be baptized by him;[1020] and as
these recalled the impassioned call to repentance, the stirring
proclamation of the kingdom by the now murdered and lamented Baptist,
they remembered his affirmation of One mightier than himself, and saw in
Jesus the realization of that testimony. "John," they said, "did no
miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true."

The duration of this sojourn in Perea is nowhere recorded in our
scriptures. It could not have lasted more than a few weeks at most.
Possibly some of the discourses, instructions, and parables already
treated as following the Lord's departure from Jerusalem after the Feast
of Tabernacles in the preceding autumn, may chronologically belong to
this interval. From this retreat of comparative quiet, Jesus returned to
Judea in response to an earnest appeal from some whom He loved. He left
the Bethany of Perea for the Judean Bethany, where dwelt Martha and
Mary.[1021]

LAZARUS RESTORED TO LIFE.[1022]

Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, lay ill in the family home at
Bethany of Judea. His devoted sisters sent a messenger to Jesus, with
the simple announcement, in which, however, we cannot fail to recognize
a pitiful appeal: "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." When
Jesus received the message, He remarked: "This sickness is not unto
death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby." This was probably the word carried back to the sisters, whom
Jesus loved. Lazarus had died in the interval; indeed he must have
expired soon after the messenger had started with the tidings of the
young man's illness. The Lord knew that Lazarus was dead; yet He tarried
where He was for two days after receiving the word; then He surprized
the disciples by saying: "Let us go into Judea again." They sought to
dissuade the Master by reminding Him of the recent attempt upon His life
at Jerusalem, and asked wonderingly, "Goest thou thither again?" Jesus
made clear to them that He was not to be deterred from duty in the time
thereof, nor should others be; for as He illustrated, the working day is
twelve hours long; and during that period a man may walk without
stumbling, for he walks in the light, but if he let the hours pass and
then try to walk or work in darkness, he stumbles. It was then His day
to work, and He was making no mistake in returning to Judea.

He added: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him
out of