AT the edge of the little town of Bethany in old Judea there once gathered a group of people mourning the passing of their friend Lazarus, who had died, so it seemed, because Jesus had come too late to heal him of his illness. When his two sisters learned that the Master was coming, they hastened in turn to him with this lament:: "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Then Jesus, looking about him at the Jews, who also wept with the bereaved women, groaned at the dismal picture of sad materialism. "Where have ye laid him?" he asked. "Come and see," they replied, taking him to the sepulcher.
Jesus' commanding cry, "Lazarus, come forth," accompanied by Lazarus' instant restoration to activity, is well known to Bible students. This story of triumphant power, recorded in John's Gospel, has revealed many vivid lessons to students of Christian Science, but perhaps none bears more vitally upon our daily progress than the simple query, "Where have ye laid him?"
Jesus' question may have been far more than a mere inquiry as to the physical whereabouts of a mortal body. Possibly it was directed pointedly at Mary and Martha, the two sisters, who had listened to his teachings, and who had apparently forgotten his gospel of eternal life and had lowered their gaze to the level of the mortal belief that a material body is capable of possessing or relinquishing life. Where had they laid their faith? That was the important question. But his query apparently touched no awakening response in their grief-laden hearts, so completely for the time were their thoughts buried in material evidence.
