After further consideration Jesus said:
*^If my disciples are not convinced that
I really live, and if I do not go forth among
them, they will think me an apparition
and a delusion of their imagination."

Joseph answered him and said: ''Let
us advance John to the higher degrees of
our Order, that he may be convinced of
thy living, and may execute thy directions
and inform the other disciples concerning
thee."

But the elders of the brethren were not
willing that John should be admitted into
all the secrets, inasmuch as he was yet
only in the lowest degree, and they feared
that in his ardor he might inform others
that Jesus was here.
102 The Crucifixion

While they were yet in council consid-
ering, a novice of our Order arrived, who
had been sent to the city. He reported that
John, with his friends, had hastened to
Bethania to comfort the women in Lazarus *
house, and inform them that Jesus was
yet alive and had rested upon his bosom.
And John had wondered that Jesus had
not directed him to go to Galilee, as he
had ordered the women to do. He did not
think, therefore, that it was the intention
of his Master, and that the disciples ought
to wait for coming events.
And Jesus remained all that day with
the Esseer friends; but when night came
on we all departed by the secret road —
Joseph, Nicodemus and the elders of the
Order — and having passed the valley of
Eephaim, we arrived at Masseda at the
breaking of day; and following a narrow
path known only to the Esseers, we came
at last to the brethren in that wild valley.
