My Dear Father:

I seize my pen, which I laid down an hour ago in order to follow to his burial the son of our hostess, to recount to you one of the most extraordinary things which ever happened. I fear my trembling fingers will scarcely express legibly what I have to tell you.

When the burial train of Samuel had formed to go to the grave, the deep grief of poor Ruth overcame her wholly and I led her to her room, where she sank insensible upon her couch. I could not leave her in her situation, and the procession went forth from the house without me.

As the funeral train passed the lattice, it seemed endless, but at length it passed by, and I was left alone with the motionless Ruth. As I gazed on the marble countenance of the bereaved maiden, I could not but pray that she might never recover from her swoon, to revive to the bitter realization of her loss.

Suddenly I heard a great shout. I started and hastened to the lattice. It was repeated louder and with a glad tone. It seemed to come from beyond the city walls, and from a hundred voices raised in unison. I knew that the house-top overlooked the walls, and seeing Ruth moved not, I ascended rapidly to the parapet, the shouts and glad cries still increasing as I went up. Upon reaching the flat roof and stepping on the parapet, I saw coming along the street towards the house, with the speed of the antelope, Elec, our Gibeonite slave. He was waving his hands wildly, and crying out something which I could not distinctly hear. Behind him I saw two youths running also, appearing to be the bearers of some great tidings.

I knew something wonderful must have occurred, but could not divine what it could be. On looking towards the gate, from which direction the shouts at intervals continued to approach, I discovered on the hillside of the cemetery many people crowded together, and evidently surrounding some person in their midst, for the whole order of the procession was broken up. The bier I could not discern, nor could I comprehend how the solemnity of the march of the funeral train was suddenly changed to a confused multitude, rending the sky with loud acclamations. The whole body of people was pressing back towards the city. The persons whom I had first seen running along the street, now made themselves audible as they drew nigher.

"He is alive! He is alive!" shouted Elec.

"He has risen from the dead!" cried the young man next behind him.

"He lives, and is walking back to the city!" called the third.

"Who—who is alive?" I eagerly demanded of Elec, as he passed beneath the parapet. "What is this shouting, O Elec?"

He looked up to me with a face expressive of the keenest delight, mixed with awe, and said:

"Young Rabbi Samuel is come to life! He is no longer dead! You will soon see him, for they are escorting him back to the city, and everybody is mad with joy. Where is Ruth, the maiden? I am come to tell her the glorious news."

With emotion that I cannot describe, hardly believing what I heard, I hastened to Ruth, in order to prevent the effects of too sudden joy. Upon reaching the apartment, I found that the voice of Elec, who had shouted the news of which he was the bearer into her ears, had aroused her from her stupor of grief. She was looking at him wildly and incomprehensively. I ran to her, and folding her in my arms, said:

"Dear Ruth, there is news—good news! It must be true! Hear the shouts of gladness in all the town!"

"Lives!" she repeated, shaking her head. "No—no—no! Yes, there!" she said, raising her beautiful, glittering eyes to heaven and pointing upward.

"But on earth also!" cried Elec, with positiveness. "I saw him sit up, and heard him speak, as well as ever he was!"

"How was it? Let me know all!" I cried.

"How? Who could have done such a miracle but the mighty Prophet we saw at Jerusalem!" he answered.

"Jesus?" I exclaimed, with joy.

"Who else could it be. Yes, he met the bier just outside the— But here they come!"

Elec was interrupted in his narrative by the increased noise of voices in the streets and the tramp of hundreds of feet. The next moment the room was filled with a crowd of the most excited persons, some weeping, some laughing, as if beside themselves. In their midst I beheld Samuel walking, alive and well! his mother clinging to him, like a vine upon an oak.

"Where is Ruth?" he cried. "Oh, where is she! Let me make her happy with my presence!"

I gazed upon him with awe, as if I had seen a spirit.

Ruth no sooner heard his voice than she uttered a shriek of joy. "He lives—he indeed lives!" and springing forward, she was saved from falling to the ground by being clasped to his manly breast.

"Let us kneel and thank God!" he said.

For a few minutes the scene was solemn and touching beyond any spectacle ever exhibited on earth.

When he had performed this first sacred duty, he rose to his feet and received all our embraces. Hundreds came in to see his face, and every tongue was eloquent in praise of the power of Jesus.

"And where is the holy Prophet?" I asked of Mary. "Shall he be forgotten amid all our joy!"

"We thanked him there with all our hearts, and bathed his hands with tears of gratitude," she answered, "but when they would have brought him into the city in triumph he conveyed himself away in the confusion, and no one could see aught of him. But John, who was with him, told me he would come into the city after quiet was restored, by and by, and he would bring him to our abode."

"Oh, I shall then behold him and thank him also!" I cried. "Make known to me, Mary, the particulars of this wonderful miracle."

"As we went weeping forth," said Mary, "slowly following the bier, and had passed the gate, we saw coming along the path through the valley leading to Tabor, a party of twelve or thirteen men on foot. They were followed by a crowd of men, women and children from the country, and were so journeying that they would meet us at the crossing of the stone bridge. Hearing some one say aloud, 'It is the Prophet of Nazareth, with his disciples,' I looked earnestly forward, and joyfully recognized Jesus at their head, with John walking by his side.

"'Oh, that Jesus had been in Nain when thy son was sick!' I said to the widow, pointing him out to her, as he and his company stopped at the entrance to the bridge. Recollecting how he might have prevented her son's dying had he been in Nain, the poor lady could no longer command her grief, and covering her face with her veil, she wept so violently that all eyes were piteously fastened upon her. I observed that the holy Prophet's gaze rested upon her with compassion, and as she came opposite where he stood, he advanced towards us and said, in a voice of thrilling sympathy:

"'Weep not, mother. Thy son shall live again!'

"'I know it, O Rabboni, at the last day,' she answered. 'Oh, if thou hadst been here my son need not have died! Thy word would have healed him! But now he is dead! dead! dead!'

"'Woman, weep not! I will restore thy son!'

"'What saith he?' cried some Pharisees who were in the funeral. 'That he will raise a dead man? This is going too far. God only can raise the dead.' And they smiled and scoffed.

"But Jesus laid his hand upon the pall over the body, and said to those who bore the corpse:

"'Rest the bier upon the ground.'

"They instantly stood still and obeyed him. He then advanced amid a hushed silence, and uncovering the marble visage, touched the hand of the dead young man, and said, in a loud and commanding voice:

"'Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!'

"There was a moment's painful stillness through the vast multitude. Every eye was fixed upon the bier. The voice was heard by the spirit of the dead and it came back to his body. There was at first visible a living, trembling emotion of the hitherto motionless corpse! Color flushed the livid cheek; the eyelids opened and he fixed his eyes on Jesus; then he raised his hand and his lips moved! The next moment he sat up on the bier, and spake aloud in his natural voice, saying:

"'Lo, here I am!'

"Jesus then took him by the hand, and assisting him to alight upon his feet from the bier, led him to his mother, and delivered him to her, saying:

"'Woman, behold thy son!'

"Upon seeing this miracle the people shouted with joy and wonder, 'God has indeed visited his people Israel! A great Prophet is risen up among us! The Messias is come, and Jesus is the very Christ, with the keys of death and hell!'

"I sought out Jesus to cast myself at his feet, but he shrunk from the homage and gratitude which his mercy to us had awakened. Thus humility is an element of all power."

Such, my dear father, is the narrative of the restoration to life again of Samuel, the son of Sarah, widow of Nain. This miracle has caused hundreds this day to confess his name, and to believe in Jesus as the anointed Shiloh of Israel.

Many of the doctors have been to see Samuel through the day, and have put profound questions to him touching the state of the soul out of the body, but he could give them no satisfaction, all appearing to him like shining fragments of a gorgeous vision.

Mary is to-morrow to become the bride of John, and Jesus will be present at the wedding, for while he severely rebukes sin and folly, he sanctifies by his presence the holy rite of marriage.

On the eve of the eighth day from this I shall depart hence, with John and Mary, for Jerusalem, whence I will write you again.

Your loving daughter,

Adina.