Lazarus Laughs.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17804, 31 August 1929, Page 13 (Supplement)

Lazarus Laughs.

By ” Darius.”

IN The Star Review there is a notice of a drama that has lately been written, though not for presentation from the stage, which deals with the resurrection of Lazarus. In it the one returned from the dead is represented as inarticulate with laughter at the foolishness of those who sorrowed at his death and had reproached the Man of Mystery for not being at the little cottage in Bethany to prevent his demise. The cause of his laughter was in the fact that while sorrow had been all abroad through the village at his passing, he had discovered, beyond the place of the body’s silence, there was no death at all . . . but only life everlasting and felicitous. Questioned concerning the beyond he merely replies, “0, curious ones, is not a world in which you have not learned enough for you?” And so the one returned from the bourne from which none has been called except by the Worker of Miracles goes through his second time of life with laughter in his heart . . .

Putting the merriment aside, however, the question asked is a very pertinent one. We do not know how to order our lives rightly in this sphere and yet we are con-> sumed with curiosity about the other world. Yet let this also be said, for all we know to the contrary the investigators of to-day may have right on their side, and those who mock at and ridicule them may be, in this age, of a kindred mind to those who persecuted men who suddenly revealed astounding truth to a world that would have nine of it. The longer one lives the less prone is one. to judgment . ... ...

The Ghost of K

When we do not wish to disclose a real name for fear of offending the living we use Mr X as a designation. In order therefore' to keep sacred the identity of the dead I shall call my friend Mr K. He was indeed 7 a very close friend; so much so that there was little of his business he did not disclose'to me. It was not I sought his confidence but that strong man and all as he was, he had to confide in some one ... He had more than enough of this world’s goods and with wealth he had what we considered robust health also. However none of us knows how life’s citadel, apparently set high upon a favouring and sunfronting hill may be threatened by the sapping and the mining that goes on beneath the surface and the flowers pearled with dew mark well that the passing was not such a great matter for regret, as he had added well to the number of his days and had seen the rncrry : go-round of many seasons.

There are many persons who do not believe in dreams, but the wise know there are anticipatory ■ dreams, ■ prophetic dreams and also dreams that ure„np.t of, psychic but of biological cause. For "myself I have learned much in dreams, for, when the physical being is dead asleep, sometimes with the swiftness of the lightning flash the soul darts from it and captures a gleam of the “ light that never was on sea or land,” and as swiftly returns to the body of its bondage.

In regard to the coming of the 'ghost of K. however, there was nothing of startling phenomena. It might have been an ordinary night—visit in the flesh.

Let Jove Uncurtain Heaven.

Death Unrealised.

We were sitting, six of us in a room not large but sufficiently commodious There were wine and tobacco to hand for a . talk was on ordinary everyday matters or politics, sport and literature. This was no seance There was not an honest spi 1 tialist among us. Then suddenly came a knock at the door and K. was admitted.

An Embarrassed Circle.

I see him as plainly now, sitting on the one chair that was vacant at his commg, as plainly as I saw him then. e 1 round the embarrassed circle with the old, half-cynical smile on his lips that I knew so well. I am not quite sure that the smile came from a real cynic heart, lor there was a sort of tilt about the upper lip, just the shadow of a deformity, that showcd'more of teeth at the one end of the smile than at the other . • . Also he had the old double-note chuckle which seemed to suggest that although we thought ourselves clever fellows there was always • a suspicion that we were rather raw in many respects . . . Coming as he did from the grave with that smile and that preluding chuckle I felt ill at ease and I sensed the same feeling in the others. What should we do? How were we to entertain him. Obviously we could scarcely offer a noncorporeal being food and drink and tobacco, and yet there seemed an incongrous suggestion In his eye that he should be asked to join us in a round-the-table-toast to each other. He was not in any way disturbed by us sitting rather uneasily in our chairs .. . . We did not know what subjects to mention. He had been absent for some time. We had grown away from -him altogether.

We had no common interest and yet when he did speak his speech was as if he had never died. It was not of spiritual but of earthly things and so. I thought I might remind him of a promise to attend to his will, and he had not done so. A past resetitment was awakening in me, and so I bluntly said, 11 you did not leave that money to the cause that wanted and now lacks vour assistance?” Again he sounded that double chuckle, and replied: “ There is time enough for that yet.” “ But,” I said, “all the estate has been willed away.. . ." “Oh No,” he answered, “there is still plenty left for that purpose and it shall be attended to . . . ”

I could not argue further, so I turned to the friend seated next to me with a feeling of awe and whispered to him, “ How dreadful. K. does not even know that lie is dead . . . ”’ This assurance he must have had in common with Lazarus: There is no death.

That is the way, most probably, beyond the Bourne: There is no realisation of death, as indeed why should there be a realisation of what is not? One may, however, understand - how- different conditions rather alienate those who have gone west from those living on earth. If one cannot understand the laughter of Lazarus one can easily understand how his experience gave him, to all the curious, a spiritual aloofness that drew the respect of all. Where had he been and what had he seen during those three days? It would have been a breach of immortal confidence had he given away the secrets of the hereafter. So let them remain for me, at least, inviolate and inviolable.