PRESENTED TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BY f/ivs. Rle^andep Pi^udfit. "■■'<■:■ THE SHEPHERDS IN THE STABLE AT BETHLEHEM. [See page 16. J THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL; OR, OUR SAVIOUR'S LIFE ON EARTH. WRITTEN FOR CHILDREN. BY THE AUTHOR OF 'THE STORY OF THE BIBLE.' : CWks TosTer PUBLISHED BY CHARLES FOSTER, PHILADELPHIA. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by CHARLES FOSTER, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. ELECTROTYPE D BY MACKELLAR, SMITHS A JORDAN, PHILADELPHIA. TO PARENTS AND TEACHERS. In this little book an attempt is made to tell the Story of our Saviour's Life, in such simple language that it may be understood by young children, even though they have had no previous religious instruction. In preparing it the author has followed the same Harmony of the Gospels, that he used in preparing his former work, "The Story of the Bible;" and such passages in that book as seemed suitable to this, he has not hesitated to iusert without change. For the most part, however, the matter is expressed differently, with the view of making it still more intelligible to the un- tutored mind. This book differs, also, from "The Gospels" in "The Story of the Bible," in not presupposing that the pupil has a knowledge of the Old Testament, All references to that part of Scripture are explained when made, the design being to have this little work complete in itself. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. GOD MAKES THE EARTH AND THE SKY: HE MAKES THE FIRST MAN AND WOMAN, AND PUTS THEM IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN. SATAN TEMPTS THEM TO DISOBEY GOD. JESUS IS BORN 7 CHAPTER II. MARY AND JOSEPH BRING JESUS TO THE PASSOVER. JOHN THE BAPTIST PREACHES IN THE WILDERNESS, AND BAPTIZES JESUS. JESUS IS TEMPTED. HE CHANGES WATER INTO WINE. JOHN THE BAPTIST IS PUT TO DEATH. . 24 CHAPTER III. JESUS TALKS WITH THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. HE CURES THE NOBLEMAN'S SON ; TEACHES THE PEOPLE ; CASTS AN EVIL SPIRIT OUT OF A MAN ; CURES PETER'S WIFE'S MOTHER, AND A MAN WITH THE PALSY. . 40 CHAPTER IV. JESUS CALLS MATTHEW TO BE HIS DISCIPLE. HE CURES THE SICK MAN AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA, AND THE MAN WITH A WITHERED HAND. HE CHOOSES THE TWELVE APOSTLES, AND PREACHES THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 55 CHAPTER V. JESUS SPEAKS PARABLES TO THE PEOPLE. HE STILLS THE STORM ON THE SEA. HE CURES THE SICK ; RAISES THE DEAD TO LIFE, AND GIVES SIGHT TO THE BLIND. . . 70 CHAPTER VI. JESUS FEEDS FIVE THOUSAND PERSONS. HE WALKS ON THE WATER ; HEALS A BLIND MAN ; IS TRANSFIGURED ; CASTS OUT AN EVIL SPIRIT; HEALS TEN LEPERS, AND SPEAKS PARABLES TO THE PEOPLE 86 V • vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. JESUS COMES TO BETHANY. HE TEACHES THE DISCIPLES THE LORD'S PRAYER ; SENDS OUT THE SEVENTY DISCIPLES ; HEALS THE BLIND MAN AT THE POOL OF SILOAM ; RAISES LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD 103 CHAPTER VIII. JESUS CURES THE SICK WOMAN IN THE SYNAGOGUE; HE SPEAKS THE PARABLES OF THE GREAT SUPPER, THE PRODIGAL SON, THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS, AND THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN 117 CHAPTER IX. JESUS GOES TO THE HOUSE OF ZACCHEUS. HE RIDES INTO JERUSALEM; CURSES THE BARREN FIG-TREE; SPEAKS THE PARABLE OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN ; EXPLAINS WHICH IS THE PRINCIPAL COMMANDMENT, AND SPEAKS OF THE WIDOW'S MITE. . . . . 132 CHAPTER X. JESUS SPEAKS THE PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS, AND TELLS WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON THE JUDGMENT DAY. MARY ANOINTS HIS HEAD. HE EATS THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER WITH HIS APOSTLES 147 CHAPTER. XI. JESUS AND HIS APOSTLES GO TO THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE ; HE IS BETRAYED ; THE APOSTLES FLEE AWAY ; HE IS MOCKED AND CROWNED WITH THORNS; HE IS CRUCI- FIED. . 163 CHAPTER XII. PILATE SENDS SOLDIERS TO KILL JESUS. JOSEPH BURIES HIM IN HIS NEW SEPULCHRE. SOLDIERS WATCH THERE. JESUS RISKS PROM THE DEAD. HE SHOWS HIMSELF AT DIF- FERENT TIMES TO THE APOSTLES. HE ASCENDS TO HEAVEN. 181 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL CHAPTER I. GOD MAKES THE EARTH AND THE SKY: HE MAKES THE FIRST MAN AND WOMAN, AND PUTS THEM IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN. SATAN TEMPTS THEM TO DISOBEY GOD. JESUS IS BORN. GOD lives up in heaven, where we cannot see him, but he looks clown and sees us who live in this world. He sees everything we do, and hears every- thing we say, and knows even what we think. For He is the One who knows all things. It is God who made this world, and heaven, and everything that is in them. He made the sun to shine in the day, and the moon and the stars to shine in the night. He made the animals, the birds, and the fishes; the trees, the grass, and the flowers. 8 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. And after he had made all these things, he made the first man. The name of the first man that God made was Adam, and the name of the first woman was Eve. There were no other jDersons in the world when God made them; these two were all alone. And God j)lanted a garden for Adam and Eve to live in. A garden, you know, is a beau- tiful place with flowers in it. But this garden, that God planted for Adam and Eve, was more beautiful, we snppose, than any other garden that was ever in the world. It was called the garden of Eden. It not only had flowers in it, but trees that bore fruit good to eat. There was some of every kind of fruit growing in the garden of Eden. And God told Adam and Eve they might eat of all these different kinds, except one. But of that one, he said, they must not eat, for if they did, they should surely die. This one tree was very little for them to go without, when there were so many they might have. And God told Adam and Eve the name of this one tree; it was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he showed them where it grew, in the middle of the gar- THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 9 den, so that they could not forget it, or take any fruit off of it by mistake. I have told you that God lives up in heaven. But he does not live there alone. The angels live there with him. God made the angels to live with him in heaven. They are not like us; they are always happy, for they never do wrong. They do only those things that God tells them to do. But we read, in the Bible, that a great while ago, some of the angels did do wrong. They were not satisfied with the things that God had given them, and they were not willing to obey him. Then God sent them out of heaven and would let them live there no more. And these angels that w r ere sent out of heaven, are alive yet, for angels, or spirits, never die. But now they are not good angels, like those who are living up in heaven with God. They are bad angels. The chief one among them is named Satan. He is their king, and they do as he tells them. And Satan and his bad angels will never go up to heaven again. For no one who is wicked can go there. But there is a day coming, named the Judgment Day, when all the wicked will be sent away to be punished. The place they will 10 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. be sent to is called Hell. And at the Judgment Day, Satan and his bad angels will be sent into Hell, and they will stay there forever. But at the time I am now telling you about, when God made Adam and Eve, and put them in the beautiful garden, Satan saw them there. And they were, both of them, very happy in the garden, because they were good, and obeyed God. And Satan saw that they were good and happy, and he was not pleased. For he is wicked and unhappy himself, and he wants every one else to be like him. So, when he heard God tell Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree that stood in the middle of the garden, he thought he would try and persuade them to eat of it, and disobey God, as he had done. Now there was a serpent, or snake, in the garden of Eden. And Satan went into the serpent; for as I have told you, he is a spirit, and spirits have not bodies as we have, and they can go where we cannot go. So Satan went into the serpent, and while he was in the serpent, he came to Eve and spoke to her. He said, Has God said you shall not eat of every tree in the garden? Eve answered they might eat of all the trees except one, but THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 11 of that one God had commanded them not to eat, lest they might die. Then Satan told her that even if they did eat of the tree, they should not die. And he said that God had forbidden them to eat of it because it would make them wise, that is, would make them know a great deal. And Eve listened to what Satan said. When anybody persuades us to do wrong, we ought not to listen to him. Then there would be no danger of our doing as he tells us to. But Eve listened to Satan. And when she saw that the tree was a beau- tiful tree, and that the fruit seemed good to eat, and remembered that the serpent had said it would make her wise, she took some of the fruit and did eat of it, and she gave some to Adam, her husband, and he did eat. So they both disobeyed God and sinned; for when we disobey God, that is sin. Then God drove them out of the garden of Eden, and would let them live there no longer. And he sent some of his good angels down from heaven, to watch that they did not go in there again. It was to punish them that God sent them away from the beautiful garden. While they 12 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. were there, they had everything that they wanted. The fruit that they ate, grew by itself, without their working to make it grow. But in the place where they came to live now, the fruit would not grow by itself. Adam had to plant it in the ground, and then he had to dig around it, and work very hard to get enough food for himself and Eve to eat. But something worse than this happened to them on account of their sin. Before they had disobeyed God their hearts were good, but after they had disobeyed him their hearts grew wicked. Our heart is that part of us that makes us want to do right, or wrong. When we have a good heart, that loves God, we want to do right; but when we have a bad heart, that does not love God, we want to do wrong. And now Adam and Eve made their hearts bad, and wicked, by sin. And they not only made their own hearts wicked, but after a while, when their little chil- dren were born, these children had wicked hearts, too, because children must be like their parents. And this is the reason why all the little children, and all the men and women in the THE STOBY OF THE GOSPEL. 13 world, were born with wicked hearts; because Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and ate of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. It is the reason why you and I have wicked hearts, which so often make us want to do wrong. But now I will tell you who came down from heaven to change our wicked hearts, and make them good hearts, so that we shall love God and want to do right. Far across the great ocean, where the big ships sail, there is a land that used to be called the land of Israel. In that land, more than eighteen hundred years ago, a young woman lived whose name was Mary. And God sent one of his good angels down from heaven to speak to Mary. When she saw the angel she was afraid. But he told her not to be afraid, for he said that God was pleased with her, and would give her a little son whose name should be Jesus. And Jesus should be a King, the angel said, greater than any king in the world, because he would be the Son of God. After the angel had told Mary this, he went up to heaven again. Now Mary was not rich, or great, she was only a poor young woman. 14 THE STORY OF THE OOSPEL. And her husband was j)oor, too; his name was Joseph, and he was a carpenter. After these things Mary and Joseph came to a city named Bethlehem. They did not live in Bethlehem; it was not their home. They came there to stay only a little while, so they went to the inn, or place where travelers stopped, to sleep. But the inn was full of people and there was no room for them. Then they went into the stable to sleep. And while they Avere there, God gave Mary the little son that the angel had j>romised her. It was not in a beautiful house, such as rich people have, that Jesus was born. He was born in the stable in Bethlehem. Perhaps the cows and oxen were around him, lying down asleep, or eating their food out of the troughs, or mangers. And his mother had no nice bed, or cradle, to lay him in, there in the stable. So, when she had wrapt some clothes around him, she laid him in one of the mangers for his cradle. Now in that country the people used to have a great many sheep, and these sheep stayed out in the fields to eat the grass. But the fields THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 15 had no fences around them, to keep the sheep from getting lost. And beside the danger of getting lost, there were wild beasts in that country, such as wolves and bears, that sometimes came into the fields to kill the sheep. Therefore somebody had to stay with them all the time, to keep them from getting lost, or killed. The men who stayed with them were called shepherds. They stayed with the sheep not only in the day, but in the night, too, for that was the time when the wild beasts would come to kill them. And on the night that Jesus was born, some shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks out in the field. And, all at once, a bright light shone around them, and an angel came down from heaven and spoke to them. The shep- herds saw the angel, and heard his voice, and they were very much afraid; for, I suppose, they had never seen an angel before. But the angel told them not to be afraid, for he had come to bring good news to them, and to all the people. There had been born for them, he said, in the city of Bethlehem, a little child, to be their Saviour, that is, to save them from being punished for their sins. And they 16 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. would know this little child by finding him laid in a manger. As soon as the angel had told the shepherds this, there came a great many more angels from heaven, and they all began to speak, and to praise God, and to tell how good and kind he is to the people who live in this world. Then the angels went away, up into heaven again. When they were gone, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this Saviour, that God has sent his angel to tell us about. So they left their sheep in the field and made haste to Bethlehem, and they came into the stable. There they found Mary, and Joseph her husband, and the little child lying in a manger. And they were glad when they saw Jesus. Afterward they went out and told other per- sons what the angel had said to them about him. And all the people wondered at what they told them. Then the shepherds went back to their sheep in the field. And, as they went, they thanked God, because he had sent his angel to tell them about Jesus, and had let them 2:0 to see him in the stable in Bethlehem. Now there was in the land of Israel another city, named Jerusalem. It was a larger city THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 17 than Bethlehem; it had many more houses, and a great many more people living in it. The king of the land lived there. His name was Herod. He was king over all the people who lived in the land of Israel. These people were called Israelites, or Jews. But Herod, their king, was a wicked and cruel man. After Jesus was born, some men who lived in a far country came to Jerusalem. These men were wise men, that is, they knew a great deal. They used to spend a great deal of time in looking up at the sky, and watching the stars, trying to learn all about them. And while they were in their own country, they saw a star up in the sky that was dif- ferent from all the other stars they had ever seen before. God had sent that star for the wise men to see, so they might know that Jesus was born. And because they wanted to see Jesus, and worship him, they left their own homes and their own land, to come to the land of Israel. It was a long journey, over mountains, arid rivers, and lonely deserts, but they did not turn back because they were tired of the way ; they kept on, until they came to Jerusalem. But when they came there they could not 18 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. find Jesus. Therefore they spoke to the peo- ple, and said, Where is the little child that is born to be king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in our own land, and have come to worship him. When Herod, the king, heard what the wise men said, he was troubled. He did not like to hear them call the little child, King. It made him afraid that, some day, this little child would grow up and be king over the Jews instead of himself. Therefore Herod was jealous of the little child, and he told some of his servants to find out for him where Jesus was born. When he heard it was in Bethlehem, he called the wise men to him, and asked them all about the star they had seen in their own land. Then he commanded them to go to Bethle- hem, and look for the young child, and, when they had found him, to come back and bring him word. For Herod said that he wanted to go there and worship Jesus too. But he said this not because he really wanted to worship him; it was because' he wanted to put him to death. So the wise men left Jerusalem, and started to go to the city of Bethlehem. And, as they THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 19 were going, they saw the same star that they had seen in their own land. AVhen they saw the star they were very glad; for instead of standing still up in the sky, like other stars, it moved on before them and showed them the way, till it led them to Bethlehem. And there it stood still, right over the house where the young child was. And the wise men went into the house and saw the young child, with Mary his mother, and they bowed down and worshipped him. In those days persons who came to visit kings, brought presents with them; and these wise men brought presents for Jesus. And now they took out their presents and gave them to him. They gave him three things — gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Gold, you know, is taken out of the ground. Many beautiful things are made of it, such as earrings, and bracelets, and necklaces; money, too, is made of gold. Frankincense and myrrh are gums that come out from the sides of trees. When they are burned they send up a smoke that is sweet and pleasant to smell. The people in that land thought a great deal of frankincense and myrrh, and loved to have 20 THE SffORY OF THE GOSPEL. them. Therefore the wise men brought them as presents for Jesus, when they wanted to honor him as a king. But, while they were in Bethlehem, the wise men had a dream. In that dream God spoke to them and told them not to go back to Jerusalem, to tell Herod where Jesus was, as he had com- manded them to. So when they left Bethlehem, they went back to their own land by another way. When Herod found they had disobeyed him, he was angry, and then he did a very wicked and cruel thing. He sent his servants to Bethlehem, to kill all the little children there who were not more than two years old. He did this because he thought that among them Jesus would be killed. But, although the other little children were killed, Jesus was not. For before Herod's servants came to Bethlehem, God sent an angel there, to tell Joseph that he should take the young child and his mother, and flee away into another country, called Egypt, where Herod could not find them. So Joseph got up in the night, when no one could see him, and he took Mary, and the young child, and fled away into Egyj)t. There he stayed till Herod was dead. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 21 9 Then God sent his angel, again, to Joseph, to tell him, that now he should go back into the land of Israel. So Joseph brought Mary and the young child back into that land, and they came into a city named Nazareth and lived there. I have told you about the city of Jerusalem, that it was a large city, with a great many peo- ple, and a great many houses in it. But there was one house in Jerusalem more beautiful than all the rest. This was the tem- ple, or church, where the Jews used to come to worship, and pray to God. It stood on the top of a hill, and was built of stones of white marble. The gates that led up to it, were covered with silver and gold. The Jews who lived in Jerusalem often went up to the temple. But once every year, all the men who lived in the land of Israel used to go there ; and then they had a feast called the feast of the Passover. God had told the people of Israel to have this feast. It was to make them remember something. I will tell you what it was to make them remember. A great many years before this time, the people of Israel had been slaves. To be a 22 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. slave is to belong to some person, so that he can make you do whatever he chooses, just as if you were his horse, or his dog. And a great many years before this time, the people of Israel had been slaves to the king of Egypt. And this king was very cruel to them. He told his servants to make them work very hard, and to beat them, and even to put their little children to death. Then God was displeased with the king, and commanded him to let the people of Israel go out of his land ; but he would not. Therefore God sent many punishments on him. But one of these punishments was more dreadful than all the rest. It was this : In the middle of the night God came into the king's land, and he sent an angel into the king's house, and into all the houses where his ser- vants lived. And the angel made the king's oldest son to die, and the oldest sons of all his servants, so that in every house there was one dead. But God did not send his angel into the houses where the people of Israel lived. He told the angel to pass over their houses, and not to hurt any one in them. Then the king of Egypt was in great trouble, THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 23 and was very much afraid, at what the angel had done. And, because he was afraid, he let the people of Israel go out of his land, as God had commanded him to. They went out that same night and were his slaves no more. But before they went, God told them to have a supper, or feast. At this feast they ate a lamb that was roasted with fire. They ate a lamb in every house where the people of Israel lived, just before they started to go out of Egypt, And because God wanted the people of Israel to remember that night, and how kind he had been to them in setting them free from the king of Egypt, he told them to have that feast, on that same night, every year afterward. This was the feast that all the men in the land of Israel came to eat in Jerusalem. It was called the feast of the Passover, be- cause, as we have read, the angel passed over their houses in Egypt and did no harm to any one in them. But he went into the houses of all the Egyptians and made their oldest sons to die. 24 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. CHAPTER II. MARY AND JOSEPH BRING JESUS TO THE PASSOVER. JOHN THE BAPTIST PREACHES IN THE WILDERNESS, AND BAPTIZES JESUS. JESUS IS TEMPTED. HE CHANGES WATER INTO WINE. JOHN THE BAPTIST IS PUT TO DEATH. T\7E have read that when Mary and Joseph ' ' came back from Egypt, into the land of Israel, they went to live in the city of Naza- reth. And at the time I am now telling you about, they still lived in that city. Nazareth was a long way from Jerusalem — as much as seventy miles from there. Yet Mary and Joseph used to come up to Jerusalem every year, to eat of the feast of the j^assover. But they would not come this long way alone. Some of their friends, and neighbors, who wanted to eat of the feast, would come with them, and they would travel together. It was pleasanter for them to travel together, and keep each other company. And beside this, they could help each other, THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 25 if enemies, or robbers, should try to do them harm while they were on their journey. For seventy miles was a long journey in that country. It took several days to go so far. They had no railroads, or stages, to ride in, as we have now. There were no such things in those days, and the people, very often, walked all the way. So, as we have read, Mary and Joseph used to go up every year to Jerusalem, to keep the feast of the j)assover. And when Jesus was twelve years old they took him with them. And they came to Jerusalem and stayed there seven days. Then they started, with their friends, to go back to their home in Nazareth. And they thought Jesus was in the company that went with them: so they journeyed all that day. But at night, when they stopped to rest and sleep, they looked for him and could not find him. Therefore Mary and Joseph were anxious about him, and they went all the way back to Jerusalem to seek for him. When they came there they found him in the temple. He was talking with the teachers, and wise men, hearing what they said and asking them questions. And all the people 26 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. who heard him, were astonished at the way he could talk with them; for he was only a child, but they were men of great learning. And Mary came to him and asked him why he had stayed behind in Jerusalem, and not gone with them, when they left to go back to their home in Nazareth. For she said, that Joseph and she had been anxious and troubled about him. But Jesus asked her if she did not know that he must be doing the things, which his Father had sent him into this world to do. His Father, that is, God, had sent Jesus down into this world to save us from being punished for our sins. But he sent him not only for this, but also to teach us how to do right, and to please God. And now, although Jesus was only tAvelve years old, he was beginning to speak with the people about these things. Yet, when Mary and Joseph came for him, he went back with them to their home in Naza- reth. And he lived with them, and obeved all that they said to him. And there in Nazareth he grew up to be a man ; and the persons who were with him loved him. But the people in the land of Israel did not THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 27 know that he was the Son of God, for the time had not yet come for them to be told this. There was, in the land of Israel, a man called John the Baptist. He was a prophet. A prophet is a person who can tell what things are going to happen. You and I cannot tell what is going to happen. We can tell what happened yesterday, and the day before, but we cannot tell what will happen to-morrow, or the day after that. We cannot tell till the time comes. But God's prophets w r ere able to tell what things w r ould happen, before the time came. They were able to do this, because God told them about those things. And John was a prophet, and he was a very good and holy man. He lived out in the wil- derness, that is, in the lonely country where very few persons lived. He had lived there ever since he was a little child. He was dressed in a garment, or coat, made out of the coarse hair that grows on the backs of camels. This coat was fastened around his waist with a girdle, or belt, of leather. For his food he had locusts, and wild honey. Locusts are an insect something like a grass- hopper. There were great numbers of them 28 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. in that country, and the poor people there used to eat them. They eat them still in the coun- tries in that part of the world. They roast them in an oven, or over the fire, and mix a little salt with them, and so make them ready for food. John ate locusts and he ate wild honey also. Wild honey was the honey that the bees made in the woods, in hollow trees, or in holes in the rocks. John could find both the locusts and the wild honey, out in the wilderness where he lived. And there, while he was alone, he had plenty of time to think about God, and to pray to him, and to read in God's Book. But now Jesus was grown up from being a little child in the manger in Bethlehem, to be a man. And the time had come when the Jews, that is, the people who lived in the land of Israel, were to be told that he was the Son of God. And God chose John the Baptist as the one who should tell them of this. Then John went to a place in the wilderness that was near to a river, called the river Jordan. And great numbers of the Jews came there to hear what he would say. And John told them that very soon the THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 20 Son of God was coming among them, and that they should make ready for him to come, not by putting on their best clothes, or by putting their houses in order, but by repenting of their sins. To repent of anything is to be sorry for it. But there are different ways of being sorry. Once there were two men taken to prison, and shut up in a small room called a cell. This cell had an iron door to it, and iron bars in the window, so that the men could not get out. They were put there because they had taken what did not belong to them ; they had stolen something. And they were both of them very sorry for what they had done. But one was sorry only because he had to be punished. As soon as he should get out of prison, he intended to steal again. The other was sorry because he had done wickedly, and he determined when he got out, to be an honest man and steal no more. Now this last man was the one who repented of his sin. And John told the Jews who came out in the wilderness to hear him, that they must make ready for Jesus to come among them by repenting of their sins. And the Jews did as John told them : thev 30 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. repented of all the sins they had done, that is, they were sorry for doing them, because it displeased God, and was wicked, and they determined to do them no more. And after they had repented, John took them down with him into the river Jordan, where the water was not too deep, and he baptized them in the water. Being baptized means the washing away of our sins. It means that as water washes away what soils our bodies, so God's Holy Spirit washes away the sin from our hearts.. And when the Holy Spirit does this, our wicked hearts are made new, and good, and clean. And now, while John was baptizing the people, Jesus left his home in Nazareth and came out into the wilderness, for John to baptize him also. But when John saw him he did not want to baptize him. For John knew that Jesus was the Son of God, and that his heart was without any sin, and had always been clean. But Jesus told him that although he could not understand it now, yet it was right for John to baj:>tize him. Then John went down with him into the river Jordan and baptized him there. Perhaps you may say, Why did Jesus want THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 31 to be baptized, when his heart was without any sin, and had always been clean? I will tell you. He did not want to be baptized for him- self, but for us, and to set us an example of what we ought to do. And after he had been baptized, as he was coming up out of the water, Jesus prayed. And then a very wonderful thing happened. The sky above him opened, and there came down from heaven what seemed to be a dove. But it was not a dove, it was the Holy Spirit in the form, or shape, of a dove. And the dove rested on the head of Jesus. At the same time there was a voice spoke out of heaven. It was God's voice, and it said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And Jesus left the place where John was baptizing, and went out into the lonely wilder- ness ; and he stayed there forty days and forty nights, praying to God. And no one was with him but the wild beasts; but the wild beasts could not hurt him, for he had power over them to keep them from doing him any harm. And through all those forty days and forty nights, Jesus fasted, and ate no food, and after- ward he was hungry. 32 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. We have read how Satan tempted Eve to sin in the garden of Eden, and so our hearts were made wicked. This had happened long before the time we are reading about now, and Adam and Eve had been dead for many hundreds of years. But Satan, that wicked spirit, was not dead ; for, as, I have told you, spirits never die. And now, when Jesus had come down from heaven to make our hearts good again, Satan thought he would tempt him to sin, as he had tempted Eve in the garden. So he went out into the wilderness, where Jesus was, to tempt him. Now whenever Satan is going to tempt any person to do wrong, he finds out what thing it is that person wants most. Then he tries to make him do wrong to get that thing. He knew that Jesus had fasted, and wanted food, and he thought he would make him do wrong to get it. And when he came to the place where Jesus was, Satan looked down on the ground and saw some stones lying there. Then he spoke to Jesus, and told him, if he were the Son of God, to change those stones into bread, so that he might have food to eat, because he was hungry. But Jesus knew why Satan had come, and THE STORY OF THE' GOSPEL. 33 although he could have changed the stones into bread by only telling them to be changed, he would not do it to obey Satan. He told Satan that the Bible says we must be more careful to obey God, and do right, than we are even to get bread when we are hungry. Eemember this children, if you should ever be hungry, and be tempted to sin to get food; think how your Saviour did, when he was hungry, and rather go without food than do wrong to get it. When Satan found that Jesus would not change the stones into bread, he tried another way to tempt him. He brought him away from the wilderness into the city of Jerusalem, and took him up to a very high place on the wall, or roof, of the temple. And as he stood with Jesus on the edge of this high place, Satan told him to throw him- self down from there, because, if he were the Son of God, the angels would come and catch him, so that he should not be dashed to pieces in falling. You know what it is, children, to have some one dare you to do wrong. It was this that Satan did to Jesus. He dared him to throw himself down from that high place, because, 34 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. he said, that if he were God's Son, he need not be afraid of getting hurt in the fall. But, though Jesus knew that he could easily step off from that high place, and throw him- self down, and not be hurt at all, yet he knew too, that it would be wrong to do this only because Satan told him to do it. So he refused to throw himself down, and answered Satan, that the Bible says we must not put ourselves in danger, just to try whether God will save us from harm. Then -Satan tempted Jesus once more. He took him away from the temple, and brought him up on to a very high mountain. And from the top of that mountain, Satan showed Jesus all the nations, and kingdoms, that were in the whole world. Jesus could see their beautiful cities, and their great riches, and everything that was in them. Then Satan said that if Jesus would only kneel down and worship him, he should be king over all those nations and have them for his own. It was to try and persuade him to do this, that Satan had come out into the wilderness. He did not care that Jesus should turn the stones into bread, or that he should throw THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 35 himself down from the high place on the temple. He asked Jesus to do these things only to get him in the way of obeying him. What he did care for was, that Jesus should be willing to mind him, and take him for his master. That was the reason he promised him all those kingdoms for his own, if he would only kneel down and worship him. But when he promised this, Jesus told Satan to go from him, because the Bible said that God was the only one to be worshipped, and that we must obey him alone. When Satan saw that he could not make Jesus obey him by this, his principal tempta- tion, he went away and left him. And then angels came and waited on him. Let us thank Jesus for not doing as Satan tempted him to do. Eve did as he tempted her, and so she caused us all to have wicked hearts and be sinners. But Jesus would not do as Satan tempted him, and now he is able to give us new and good hearts and to make us God's children. After this Jesus went back to the place where John was baptizing the people in the river Jordan. And some men came to him there, and they stayed with him that he might 36 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. teach tliem. Therefore these men were his disciples; for a disciple is a person who comes to learn something from another. And Jesus took his disciples and went to a city called Cana. And there was a marriage in that city. The mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the marriage. And a feast was made ready for the persons who should come. Food was put on the table for them to eat, and wine for them to drink. But, before the end of the feast, the wine was all gone. And the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no more wine. Then she told the servants who were there, to do whatever he should say to them. Now there were in the house six large stone jars, or water-pots, such as the Jews kept to hold water. Jesus said to the servants, Fill the water-pots with water. And they brought water and filled them up to the brim. Then he said, Take some out now, and carry it to the chief man of the feast. And the servants took some out and carried it to the chief man, or governor, of the feast, and the governor tasted it, and found it was wine. Jesus had changed the water into wine. He THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 37 had not touched it, or put anything into it, but had only told it to be wine ; and, in a moment, it was wine. This was a miracle; for a miracle is some wonderful thing which only God can do. Jesus could do miracles because he was the Son of God, and had power like God. This was the first miracle he did to show the people that he had this power. We shall read afterward of many miracles that he did for the people to see. You remember that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the king who ruled over the land of Israel was named Herod. It was he who sent his servants to kill all the little children in Bethlehem, because he hoped that, among them, Jesus would be killed. But God sent an angel to tell Josej)h that he should take the young child and his mother, and flee away, into the land of Egypt, where Herod's servants could not find him. And Joseph took the young child and his mother, and fled into Egypt ; and while they were there, King Herod died. After Herod was dead his son was made king. This son's name was Herod, too. He was a bad man, like his father, and at the time I am now telling you about, he did a very wicked thing. 38 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. He persuaded his brother's wife, whose name was Herodias, to leave his brother, and come and be his wife. This was disobeying God. Then John the Baptist came to Herod and told him he had done wickedly. When Herodias heard what John said, she was very angry ; for she wanted to be the king's wife, because that made her rich and great. And she went to the king and asked him to put John to death. But Herod was afraid to put John to death; for he had heard him preach, and knew that he was a good man. Yet to please his wife, Herod took John and bound him with ropes, or chains, and put him in prison. While John was in prison Herod's birth- day came. Then Herod made a great feast and invited the captains in his army, and many other great men, to come to it. Now Herodias had a daughter whose name was Salome, and Salome knew how to dance very well. So, while Herod and all the great men sat at the feast, Salome came into the room and danced before them. And Herod was so pleased with her beautiful dancing, he promised to give her anything she wanted. It was foolish and wicked in Herod to make this promise to Salome. She had not done any- THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 39 thing to deserve it; yet he made it to her. Then Salome went to her mother, and said, What shall I ask King Herod to give me ? And now, I am sure, you could not think, if I did not tell you, what it was this wicked woman said. She told Salome to go back to Herod and tell him, that she wanted him to send to the prison and have John the Baptist's head cut off, and brought to her, at once, in a large dish. So Salome made haste back to the king, and asked as her mother had told her. Then Herod was very sorry, for he did not want to put John to death. And he should have told her that he would not do it. For when we have promised to do a thing that is wicked, we should ask God to forgive us for making the promise, and not do the wicked thing, because that would only make our sin the worse. Yet, because the great men at the feast had heard him promise, and because he was ashamed to seem afraid to do it, Herod sent a man to the prison who cut off John's head, and brought it in a large dish to Salome, and she took it to her mother. When John's disciples heard what Herod had done, they came and took up his dead body and buried it in a sepulchre; and then they went and told Jesus. 40 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. CHAPTEE III. JESUS TALKS WITH THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. HE CURES THE NOBLEMAN'S SON ; TEACHES THE PEOPLE ; CASTS AN EVIL SPIRIT OUT OF A MAN; CURES PETER'S WIFE'S MOTHER, AND A MAN WITH THE PALSY. JESUS and his disciples went to a part of the land called Galilee. And, as they were going, they came to a city named Sychar. A little way out of this city was a well, where the people came to draw water. For, in that country, they had not so many rivers and streams as we have in ours, and the people had to draw water from wells that were dug deep in the ground. It was in the hot part of the day, and Jesus, being tired with his journey, sat down by the well. His disciples went into the city to buy food, and left him alone. And a woman came out of the city, carrying her water-pot, to draw water. Now this woman did not love God in her heart, and she had THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 41 done many things to disobey him. And Jesus knew this; for he can see all our hearts, and he knows of everything that we have done. And he talked with the woman, and told her of some of the things she had done, long ago, to disobey God. Then she was astonished, when she found that he knew of these things. And she said, Sir, I see thou art a prophet. She meant that he was a person whom God told of things which other people did not know. And she said to Jesus, I know that the Saviour is coming into the world, and, when he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I that speak to thee, am He. Then the woman left her water-pot and made haste back to the city, and spoke to the people there, saying, Come and see a man that told me all the things that ever I did. Is not this the Saviour? And the people went out to see Jesus, and they begged him to come into their city. So he came there, and stayed with them three days. And they listened to the things that he taught them. Then they said to the woman, Now we believe on him, not from what thou didst tell us about him, but because we have 42 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. heard him, ourselves, and know that he is the Son of God, who has come down from heaven. After this Jesus went again to the city of Cana, where he had changed the water into wine. And a nobleman, that is, a great and rich man, came to him there. This nobleman had a son who was very sick, and he came and asked Jesus to make him well. He wanted Jesus to go to his home, where his son was. He said, Come quickly, before my child dies. He said this because he thought that Jesus would have to go and see his son, before he could make him well. But Jesus told the nobleman to go back to his home, for his son should get well. And the nobleman believed what Jesus said, and started to go back to his home, which was a good way off. But, before he reached there, some of his servants came out and met him, and told him, that his son was well. Then the nobleman asked them when he began to get better. They answered, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the nobleman knew that it was at the same time when Jesus said to him, Thy son shall get well. And when he and his family saw this miracle THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 43 which Jesus had done, they all believed that he was the Son of God. And Jesus came to the city of Nazareth where he used to live when he was a child, with Mary and Joseph. I have told you that in the city of Jerusalem there was a beautiful temple, or church, where the Jews came to worship God. But those Jews who lived in other cities, far away from Jerusalem, could not go there every Sabbath clay to worship ; it was too far. There- fore they built smaller churches in the cities where they lived. These smaller churches were called synagogues. There was a synagogue in the city of Na- zareth, where Jesus had now come. And he went into it on the Sabbath day, and many of the Jews were there. Then Jesus spoke to them, and told them, that he was the Saviour whom God had sent down from heaven. But the Jews were angry when he said this, for they would not believe that he was the Saviour. And they took hold of him and led him out of the synagogue, to the top of a steep hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down from there, and kill him. But because he had the power of God, they were 44 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. not able to do him any harm. And he left them, and went away from their city. And he came to another city, called Caper- naum, which was built on the sea-shore. As he stood on the shore, near to the water, the peoj3le crowded around him to hear what he would teach them. And Jesus saw two boats on the shore, which belonged to men who sailed out on the water to catch fish. These men were fishermen; they sold the fish they caught to other people, and in this way made their living. They were not in their boats now, but were a little way <3ff, mending their nets. Nets are made of twine. They are what fishermen let down into the water to catch fish with. But sometimes the fish, after they are caught in the net, try so hard to get out of it, that they break, or tear, the net. Or, sometimes, branches of trees that are floating in the water, or stones lying at the bottom, catch in the net and tear it. And the nets that these men had been fish- ing with, were torn, and now they were a little way off, on the shore, mending them. One of the men was named Peter, and he had a brother, named Andrew, who helped him. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 45 And the j^eople crowded around Jesus, on the shore, to hear him, so that he went into Peter's boat and asked him to push it out a little way from the land. When Peter had done this, Jesus sat down in the boat and taught the people, while they stood listening to him on the shore. After he had done teaching them, he told Peter and Andrew to sail out on the sea, and let down their net into the water to catch fish. Then Peter told Jesus they had been trying to catch some all night, but had caught nothing. Yet, he said, as Jesus commanded it, they would let down their net. And when they had done this they caught a great many fishes — so many that their net began to break, because it could not hold them all. Then Peter and Andrew beckoned to two other fishermen, named James and John, who were near, that they should come and help them. And James and John came in their boat, and helped them draw up the net out of the water. And when they had taken the fish out of the net, they loaded both boats with them; and there were so many that the boats began to sink. 46 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. It was Jesus who made the fish come to the place where the fisherman could catch them. This was a miracle, like turning the water into wine, and like curing the nobleman's son. Jesus did this miracle on purpose for Peter and Andrew, and James and John, to see, be- cause he wanted them to believe on him, and be his disciples. And he said to them, Come with me. Then they left their boats, and their nets, and all that they had, and went with him. And on the Sabbath day Jesus went into the synagogue that was in the city of Capernaum, and he taught the j)eople who were there. Among them was a man who had an evil spirit. I have told you, before, about evil angels, or spirits, that we believe they were once good angels who lived up in heaven. But they dis- pleased God and he sent them out of heaven. And now they are bad angels, or spirits. They hate everything that is good and try to work against it. Satan is their king and they do as he tells them. At the time I am telling you about, when Jesus was on earth, these evil spirits used to go into persons; into men, and women, and even into little children. And the persons they THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 47 went into, had to do whatever the evil spirits made them do. And now one of these spirits had gone into a man that was in the synagogue. And the man could not make him go out, for spirits will not obey men. But when the spirit saw Jesus, he cried out that he knew Jesus was the Son of God. And Jesus spoke to him, and said, Be still, and come out of him. Then the evil spirit cried out with a loud voice, and made the man fall down on the ground, but afterwards he came out of him. And the people who were in the synagogue were astonished. They said to each other, What does this mean, that even the wicked spirits obey him? And all the people who lived in that part of the land of Israel heard about this miracle that Jesus had done. And Jesus came out of the synagogue and went into the house where his two disciples, Peter and Andrew, lived. And Peter's wife's mother was sick with a great fever. And they begged Jesus to make her well. Then he stood by the bed and took her by the hand, and lifted her up, and at once the fever left her and she was well, so that she rose 48 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. up and waited on the persons who were in the house. And in the evening, when the sun had gone down, the people in the city brought many persons who were sick, and who had evil spirits in them. And Jesus made every sick person well, and he made the evil spirits go out of all those who had them. The next morning he rose up very early, before it was light, and went out, by himself, to a lonely place in the wilderness, and there he kneeled down on the ground and prayed to God. For, although he was God's Son, and had lived up in heaven, yet now he had come down on the earth to be a man, like us. And while he lived on the earth, as a man, he had many things to give him trouble and pain, as men have; and therefore he prayed to God for help, as men do. But after he had gone out into the wilder- ness, the people who lived in Capernaum came to Peter's house to find him ; and hearing he was not there, they went to look for him. And they came to him and begged him not to go away from their city. But Jesus told them he must go and preach to the people who lived in other cities also. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 49 After this he went through all the cities in that country, preaching the gospel to the people who lived there. Gospel means good news. The good news that Jesus preached was, that he had come clown from heaven to save us from being punished for our sins. For we have all disobeyed God, and sinned ; we have done so many times. And God says that those persons who disobey him shall be punished. How then could Jesus save us from being punished, when we had disobeyed God and deserved to be punished? There was only one way, and that was to be punished in our place. We shall read afterward how he took this way, and was punished in our place. And yet this will do us no good, unless we repent of our sins, and take him for our Saviour. And there came to Jesus a man who had the leprosy. The leprosy was a disease, or sickness, which -caused sores to come on a per- son's skin, and, at the same time, made his skin look white, like snow. Sometimes it came on one part of a person's body only, and some- times it came not only on a part, but over his whole body, from his head to his feet. It was a very dreadful disease. As soon as any man among the Jews got it, he had to 50 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. leave his home and his family, and go to some place where he would be alone, or else with other persons, only, who had the leprosy like himself. And he could not come back to his home until he was well. But no one, except God, could make him well. Sometimes God sent the leprosy upon wicked men to punish them for their sins. He sent it once upon a king, that we read about in the Bible, whose name was Uzziah. God sent it upon him for disobeying his command. And Uzziah was never cured, but was a leper for twenty-eight years, until he died. And all that time he lived in a separate house, away from other persons, and his son had to rule over the people for him. And now a man who had this dreadful dis- ease, came to Jesus, and kneeled down on the ground before him, and said, Lord, if thou art willing to do it, thou canst make me clean ; that meant, well. And Jesus pitied the man, and put out his hand and touched him, and said, I will do it: be clean. And as soon as Jesus had sj^oken these words, the leprosy went from the man and he was well. And Jesus commanded him not to tell any one who had cured him. But the man was so THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 51 full of joy at being made well, that he went out and told all the people. Then such great numbers of persons came to Jesus, and crowded around him, that he could not stay in that place. And he went away into the wilderness where he would be alone, and there he prayed to God. And he came again to the city of Capernaum. This city, as we have read, was built on the sea-shore, near to the water. The houses in Capernaum were not like ours, three, or four, stories high ; most of them were only one story high. And their roofs were flat, so that persons could go up, of a pleasant summer evening, and walk there. Around the edge of the roofs a low railing, or wall, was built, to keep persons from falling off. But there was one room in these houses that had no roof over it at all. It was in the middle of the house, and was called the court. Any person who was in that room, could look up, and see the sky above him, just as if he were not in the house at all. Yet, when it rained, or was very hot, they spread an awning, or covering of some kind, over this room to keep out the sun, or the rain. Jesus had gone into a house that had a room like this. 52 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. And many of the people of the city came there to hear him. So many came that they could not all of them get in ; but some had to stand outside, around the door. And some men brought a sick man who had the palsy. The palsy is a disease which makes persons weak, and unable to walk. And this man could not walk; therefore, his friends brought him lying on his bed, or mattress. They brought him to Jesus because they had heard that Jesus could do miracles, and cure persons whom no doctor could cure. But when they brought the sick man to the house where Jesus was, they could not come in, because of the crowd. Then they got up on to the roof in some way ; perhaps they went into the next house and got up through that. And they carried the sick man up with them. And when they had taken off the covering, or roof, they let him down, on his bed, into the room below where Jesus was. When Jesus saw their faith he was pleased. Faith means belief. This sick man and his friends believed that Jesus could make him well. They showed their belief, or faith, by taking so much trouble to come to Jesus. And when Jesus saw how much faith they THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 53 had, he determined to do something for the sick man that was better, even, than to make him well of his palsy. Jesus determined to forgive his sins, so that God would not be angry with him, or punish him for them. Men cannot forgive sins, only God can do that. But Jesus can do it, because he is the Son of God and has power to do the things that God can do. And now Jesus spoke to the sick man and told him, that all his sins were forgiven. Now, there were among the people in the house, some men who were called Scribes, and others called Pharisees. These Scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites, that is, persons who pretended to be good, while in their hearts they were wicked. And when they heard Jesus tell the sick man that his sins were forgiven, they were displeased, and they said to themselves, Who is this that pretends he is able to forgive sins, as if he were God ? But Jesus knew their thoughts, and he said to them, Why do you think these things in your hearts? To show you that I have power to forgive this man his sins, I will now make him well of his palsy. Then he said to the 54 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. sick man, Stand up on thy feet, and take up thy bed, and go to thy home. And, just by speaking those words, Jesus made the man well. And at once he arose from his bed, or mat- tress, and took it up and carried it out of the house, so that all the people could see him. Then the people were very much astonished, and they said, We never saw such things done before. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 55 CHAPTER IV. JESUS CALLS MATTHEW TO BE HIS DISCIPLE. HE CURES THE SICK MAN AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA, AND THE MAN WITH A WITHERED HAND. HE CHOOSES THE TWELVE APOSTLES, AND PREACHES THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. WE have read that the land where the Jews lived was called the land of Israel. God had given them this land for their own. And many hundreds of years before the time we are now reading about, they used to have kings of their own nation to rule over them. But, because they disobeyed God, he had sent the kings of other nations against them. These kings came with soldiers and fought with them and gained the victory over them, and made the Jews their servants. Then the Jews had to obey the kings of those other nations, and they had kings of their own no longer. At the time we are now reading about, while Jesus was on earth, the Jews were servants to a nation called the Romans, and they had to 56 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. obey whatever the emperor of Rome com- manded. And he commanded them to pay him money. Every man among the Jews had to pay a part of the money that he earned to the emperor of Rome. Now the emperor did not live in the land of Israel, and he did not come himself to get the money which the Jews paid him; but he had men there who took this money for him. These men were called Publicans, and the money which they took for the emperor was called taxes, or tribute money. And as Jesus was passing by, he saw a Publican, named Matthew, sitting at the place where the people came to pay him the tribute money. And Jesus spoke to Matthew and told him to come with him. Then Matthew rose up, and left everything, and went with Jesus. He might have had more money by staying where he was. Perhaps he might have grown rich; for sometimes the Publicans came to be rich men. But he chose rather to go with Jesus, even though he might be poor. And from that time he stayed with him, and was one of his disciples And Jesus went up to the city of Jerusalem. In that country the cities had great walls THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 57 around them, which the people built to keep out their enemies when they came with soldiers to fight against them. There was such a wall around Jerusalem. In this wall were large gates for the people to pass through. One of these gates was called the sheep gate, because sheep were driven through it into the city. Near the sheep gate was a pool, or little pond, of water, called the pool of Bethesda, and around this pool were built five lurches. In these porches a great number of people were gathered together who were sick, or blind, or lame. They were waiting here because, sometimes, an angel came down and stirred up, or troubled, the water. Then whoever went into it first, after the angel had troubled it, was made well of whatever disease, or sickness, he had. And Jesus came to the pool of Bethesda, and walked among the poor, sick people, who were waiting in the porches. And a man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. He was too weak to walk, or even to stand, and - he was lying upon his bed. Now Jesus knew how long he had been sick and he pitied him, and said to him, Dost thou want to be made well ? Then the sick man, 58 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. because he thought he must get into the water to be made well, answered Jesus, and said, I have no one, after the angel has troubled the water, to help me into the pool. But while I am trying to get down to it, another person steps in before me and I am too late. Then Jesus said to him, Rise, and take up thy bed, and walk. And at once the man was made strong and well, and he rose and took up his bed and walked. Now it was the Sabbath day when Jesus did this. And when the Jews saw the man carry- ing his bed, they said to him, It is wrong for thee to carry thy bed on the Sabbath day. They said this because God had commanded them not to work on the Sabbath day. But this man was not working on the Sab- bath. Yet they said he was doing wrong. Then he answered them, saying, He that cured me told me to take up my bed and walk. They said, Who is it that told thee this ? The man said it was Jesus. Then the Jews said that Jesus ought not to have cured the man on the Sabbath day. They pretended he had worked and disobeyed God's commandment, by doing so. And they were angry at him and wanted to kill him. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 59 But Jesus talked with them, and told them, that the miracles which he did showed that God had sent him, and yet, he said, the Jews would not believe on him. But he told them that he was God's Son, and that he had power not only to make sick people well, but dead people alive again. And the time was coming, he said, when all those persons who were dead, would hear him call to them, and would rise up out of their graves. Then those who had done right would be rewarded, but those who had done wickedly would be sent away to be punished. And Jesus and his disciples walked, on the Sabbath day, through the fields where the grain was growing. As they walked the disciples picked some of the grain and rubbed it in their hands, to separate it from the straw on which it grew. They did this so that they might eat the grain, because they were hungry. Then some of the Pharisees who saw them, found fault, as the Jews had done when Jesus cured the sick man at the pool of Bethesda. The Pharisees said that the disciples were doing work on the Sabbath day. But Jesus told them that he was the Lord, or Master, of the Sabbath day. He meant 60 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. that tliey were not to judge, or blame, him, for what he did, or what he allowed his disciples to do, on that day. For whatever he did on that day, it was right to do. On another Sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue, where the people had gathered together to hear the Scriptures read, and to pray. And a man was there whose right hand was withered, or shrunk up, so that he could not open it, or stretch it out. And some of the Scribes and Pharisees who were in the synagogue, watched Jesus to see whether he would make the man well on the Sabbath ; for they wanted to find fault with him as they had done before. But Jesus knew their thoughts, and he told the man who had the withered hand to stand out, where the rest of the people could see him. Then Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees, If one of you had a sheep that should fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, would you not take hold of it and lift it out? And if it be right to do good to a sheep, how much more is it to do good to a man. Therefore I tell you it is right to do good on the Sabbath day. Then he said to the man whose hand was withered, Stretch out thy hand. And the man THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 61 stretched it out and immediately it was made well like the other. Then the Pharisees were filled with anger against Jesus, and they went out of the synagogue and talked with one another about some way of putting him to death. When Jesus knew of it, he went away from that place with his disciples; and they came to the sea of Galilee. And many people, who lived in cities far away, followed him. And those that were sick, or lame, or had evil spirits in them, crowded around him to touch him, so that, just by his touch, they might be made well. And Jesus cured them all. After this he went out to a desert place, that is, to a place that was lonely and wild, and he stayed there all night praying to God. When it was morning he called his disciples to him, and he chose twelve of them whom he named apostles. Apostles means messengers. Jesus called these twelve disciples apostles, because he intended to send them out as mes- sengers among the people, to teach them. The names of the twelve apostles were these : Peter and Andrew, his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James, the son of Alpheus, Simon 62 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. and Judas, the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot. And Jesus went up on to a mountain, and when he was set down, he taught the people who came to him there. He told them what persons were truly happy ; he called those per- sons the blessed ones, He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit. A person is poor in spirit when he is humble on account of his sins. Instead of being proud and thinking himself very good, he remembers the wicked things he has done, and he repents of them and asks God to forgive them. And Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. To hunger and thirst is to want food to eat, and water to drink. And Jesus says we ought to want to do right and to please God, as much as we want food when we are hungry and water when we are thirsty. And if we want to do right as much as this, God will help us to do it. And he said, Blessed are those who are merciful to others, for they shall have mercy shown to them. To be merciful is to be kind. God tells us to be. kind to other persons. And if we obey THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 63 him, he will make other persons kind to us. And he himself will be kind to us. And Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart. A pure heart is a clean and good heart. I have told you we are all born with wicked hearts that make us want to do wrong. But when our hearts are changed and made good, and pure, we want to do right and to please God. And then, Jesus says, we are blessed, or happy. And he said, Blessed are the peacemakers. A peacemaker is a person who will not quarrel himself, and who does all he can to keep others from quarreling. Or, when they have quarreled already, he tries to make them friends again. And Jesus told his disciples that when other persons were unkind, or cruel, to them, they must not be unkind to those persons again. Instead of this, they must do good to them, and pray for them; then, he said, they would be like their Father in heaven ; for he is kind even to those who do not obey him, or love him. And Jesus told the people who were listening to him, and he tells you and me, that whatever G4 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. we want other persons to do to us, we must do to them. If we want them to treat us kindly and justly, we must treat them kindly and justly, too. And he said to his disciples that when they did what was right, they must be very careful not to do it only for others to see them and praise them. For that was not the reason why they should do right. They should do it to please God. When they gave any of their money to a person who was poor, they were not to go around telling others about it, and boasting about it. When they said their prayers they must not do like the Pharisees, whom we have read about, and who were hypocrites. For they used to say their prayers out in the streets, on purpose that others might hear them, and think them very holy. But the disciples of Jesus must choose a place where no one but God could hear them. Then Jesus said, God would answer their prayers. And he said to the people, Try to go in at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. By the narrow gate Jesus meant the good way that leads up to heaven. By the broad THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 65 gate lie meant the bad way that leads down to hell, iind he told the people that a great many persons went in at the broad gate ; but not nearly so many took pains to find the narrow gate, that is, to obey God and do right, so that they might be taken to heaven after they die. Then Jesus told his disciples about two men who each of them built a house. One chose a strong rock to build his on. When it was done there came a great storm and beat against the house. But the rain could not move the rock that it stood on, nor the wind blow it away. Therefore the house stood firm and the storm did it no harm. The other man built his house in a place where there was nothing but sand to build it on. And the storm came against this house, too. And the rain washed the sand away from underneath it, and the wind blew against it, and the house fell and was broken to pieces. Then Jesus said that all those persons who obeyed what he told them, were like the wise man who built his house on the rock. But those who disobeyed him were like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. For these two men meant the righteous and the wicked — that is, the good people and the bad 66 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. ]3eople; and the storm meant the Judgment Day. Jesus came again to the city of Capernaum. And a man lived there who was a captain in the Roman army. He was captain over a hundred soldiers, and was called a Centurion, for captains in the Roman army were called by that name. And this Centurion had a servant whom he loved, but the servant was sick and going to die. Now the Centurion had been told how Jesus could make sick people well by only speaking to them, and telling them to be well. And when he heard that Jesus was in the city, he sent some of the elders, or chief men among the Jews, who were his friends, to ask Jesus if he would not come and heal his servant, that is, make him well. And the men came and begged Jesus to do it. They told him that although the Centurion was not a Jew, but a Roman, yet he was a good man and very kind to the Jews, for with his own money he had built them a synagogue. Then Jesus went with the men toward the Centurion's house. But when he came near it, the Centurion sent some more of his friends with a message to Jesus. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 67 The message was this: that the Centurion had not come to speak with Jesus, at first, because he thought he was not good enough. And now he sent word that he did not think himself good enough even for Jesus to come into his house. But if Jesus would only say that his servant should get well, without coming, the Centurion was sure he would get well. For the Centurion said that he had soldiers under him who obeyed what he said to them. If he told one of them to go to any place, he would go. And if he told another to come to him, he would come. And just as the soldiers obeyed him, he was sure the disease would obey Jesus, and go out of his servant, if Jesus would command it to. When Jesus heard the Centurion's message, he was astonished, and he said, that he had not found any one else who trusted in him so much as this Centurion did. And because he trusted in him, Jesus said, his servant should get well. And when the Centurion's friends went back to his house, they found the servant was well. The next day Jesus went into a city called Nain. As he came near to the gate of the city, 68 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. he met some people who were carrying out a dead man laid upon a bier. A bier is what dead persons are carried on to the grave. And this man was being carried to his grave, to be buried. He was the only son that his mother had, and she was a widow, for her hus- band was dead. And now she was following after the bier, weeping, and many people of the city were with her. When Jesus saw her weeping he pitied her, and told her not to weep. Then he came to the bier on which her son lay and touched it; and the men who were carrying it stood still. And Jesus said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. Then he that was dead came to life again, and sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. And when the people saw the dead man come to life again, they were afraid. And they said that Jesus was a great prophet, and that it was God who had sent him to them. After this Jesus went through the villages and cities preaching to the people who lived there. And the twelve apostles were with him. And he was poor; for though he might have been rich (for everything in the world was his) , yet he chose to be poor, and to suffer punish- THE STOKY OF THE GOSPEL. 69 ment, and trouble, so that he might save us from being punished. And some of the women that he had cured of sickness, and of evil spirits, gave to him such things as he needed. One of these women was named Mary Magdalene, and another Joanna, and beside these there were many others that helped him. 70 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. CHAPTER V. JESUS SPEAKS PARABLES TO THE PEOPLE. HE STILLS THE STORM ON THE SEA. HE CURES THE SICK J RAISES THE DEAD TO LIFE, AND GIVES SIGHT TO THE BLIND. AND while great numbers of the people - were around him, listening to what he said, Jesus spoke a parable to them. A parable is a story which has a meaning to it, and which helps us to understand and remember something we are learning. Jesus told the people this parable to make them understand how foolish and wicked it was in any person to think that if he were only rich, then he would be happy, whether he obeyed God or not. The parable was about a rich man who had fields with grain and fruit growing in them. When the time came for these to be ripe, his servants went out and gathered them. But so much had grown in the rich man's fields that his barns would not hold all his servants THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 71 gathered. Then he said to himself, What shall I do? For I have no room to put away my grain and my fruits. And he answered, This is what I will do. I w T ill pull down the barns that I have now, and build larger ones. And there I will put away all my grain, and my fruits. Then I will say to myself, Now I can do as I choose, and enjoy myself, for I am rich, and have enough fruits laid up to last me for many years. But as soon as the rich man had spoken these words, God said to him, Thou foolish man, this night thou must die. Then who shall have all those riches that are laid up to last thee for many years? And this is the way, Jesus said, it would be with all those persons who care for nothing else but to be rich in this world, and do not care to please God. Like the man in the parable, they will die when they are not expecting to, and then they will have to leave their riches for other per- sons, and go away themselves to a world where no riches have been laid up for them. Then Jesus told his disciples not to be anx- ious because they were poor, for fear they would have no food to eat, or clothes to wear. 72 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. Think of the birds, he said, they do not plant grain out in the field, and, when it grows ripe, cut it down and carry it to the barn, to save it up there. Yet the birds always have enough to eat, because God feeds them. And look at the flowers, how they grow. They do not work and make clothes for them- selves like men. Yet they have brighter colors on them, and more beautiful dresses, than even kings wear. And if God gives such beautiful dresses to the flowers, that are worth so little, surely, Jesus said, he would give clothes to his disciples, though now they were afraid to trust in him. Therefore Jesus told them not to be afraid that they would want food to eat and clothes to wear; for their heavenly Father knew that they wanted these things. But they should be careful, he said, to obey God and to be his children, and then God would give them every- thing they needed. And as Jesus was walking on the shore of the sea of Galilee, a great multitude of iDeoj^le came to hear him, so that he went into a boat, as we read he did before, and sat down and taught the people out of the boat, while they stood listening to him on the shore. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 73 And he spoke a parable to them about a farmer who went out into the field to sow his seed. This farmer carried the seed in a great pocket, or bag; and the way he sowed it was to take out handfuls of it, and scatter it before him over the ground. He did this so that the seed might take root, and grow up, and bear grain for him. And some of the seed that he scattered in this way, fell on the pathway where the people walked when they came in and out of the field. And because the ground was hard there, the seed did not sink down into it, where it could take root and grow, but it lay on the top of the ground. And presently the birds saw it, and flew down and ate it. And some more of the seed that the farmer scattered, fell on stony ground where there was only a little earth. Then it quickly took root and began to grow up, but because there was not room for it to make larger roots, it soon withered away and died. And some of the seed fell in a place where weeds and briars were growing; and the weeds and briars grew faster than the seed did, and they choked it, and killed it. But the rest of the seed fell on good ground, 74 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. that the farmer had ploughed and made all ready for it. And the rain fell on it and watered it there, and the sun shone on it, and the seed grew up and bore grain, a great deal more than the farmer had planted. When Jesus was alone his discij)les asked him to explain to them what this parable meant. Then he told them that the seeds meant the words that he preached to the people. When the people heard him, some of them did not listen to his words, or obey what he said to them. These people were like the ground where the seed would not grow. They were like the hard ground on the pathway, and like the stony ground, and the ground that had briars and weeds in it. But some of the people attended to his words, and obeyed what he told them. These were like the good ground, where the seed took root and grew. The words that Jesus spoke meant the seeds, and the ground meant the peo}:>le's hearts. And the ground means your hearts too. When you are being taught the things that Jesus said, then his words are being sown in your hearts. If you do not listen to them THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 75 and mind them, you are like the bad and stony ground. But if you obey them, you are like the good ground, where the seed took root, and bore plenty of grain. And Jesus spoke another parable, about a man who sowed wheat in his field. But after it was sown and the work was all done, his servants, instead of keeping watch, lay down and slept. And, while they were sleeping, an enemy came into the field and sowed tares, or weeds, among the wheat. He did this so softly that the servants did not hear him. Then he went away and they knew nothing of it. And after a good many days, when the wheat had grown up, the servants went out and looked at it. And there they saw tares growing among the wheat. Then they were surprised, and they came back to the owner of the field, and said to him, Sir, was it not good seed that was sowed in thy field? He answered, Yes. And they asked him how it was that tares were growing among the wheat. Then the owner of the field knew who had done it, and he told his servants that an enemy had been there and sowed the tares. Then the servants asked him whether they should not go and pull up the tares. But he 76 THE STOEY OF THE GOSPEL. said No, for fear, while you are pulling up the tares, you may pull up the wheat also with them. Let both the tares and the wheat grow together until harvest, that is, until the time when the wheat is ripe. Then, the owner said, I will tell my reapers, when they cut down the wheat, to gather the tares together, and bind them in bundles and burn them. But the wheat they shall carry to my barn, and put it away safely there. And Jesus explained this parable to his disciples also. The wheat and the tares mean all the people who live in this world. The wheat means the good people, and the tares mean the wicked people. The enemy who sowed the tares is Satan, that is, he is the one who tempts and persuades j)eople to be wicked. And the good and the bad people, will live together in the world till the Judgment Day. Then God will send his angels to take the good up to heaven, but the bad will be sent away to the' place of punishment. And Jesus told a parable about a merchant- man, or man who bought things to sell them again. This man in the parable bought pearls. Pearls are beautiful little stones that are worn THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 77 in rings, and bracelets. And this merchant- man was looking for some to buy. At last he saw one that was more beautiful than any he had ever seen before. But the person it belonged to asked so much for it, that the merchantman had not enough money to buy it. Therefore he went away and sold everything he had, so that he might come back and buy that one precious pearl. And this is the way persons feel who want to have their sins forgiven. They want it so much that they cannot be happy till it is done ; and they are willing to stop doing everything that displeases God, so that they can go to him, and ask him to forgive their sins for them. For until we stop doing the things he has forbidden, we cannot expect God to forgive us, no matter how often we may ask him. And Jesus spoke another parable to his disciples, about the fishermen who fish with a net. They sail out in their boat, taking their net with them. When they get out a good way, they let their net down into the water to catch the fish that are there. Then they turn the boat around and row it slowly back to the shore, dragging the net after them. When they reach the shore, the fisher- 78 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. men draw the net up out of the water, and take out the fish that have been caught in it. But the fish are of different kinds. Some are good; these the men put in baskets to keej>. And some are bad; these they throw away. And Jesus said that so it would be at the Judgment Day. For he told his discrples again, that the angels would come down from heaven on that day, and would separate the righteous from the wicked, and take the wicked to the place where they should be jmnished. And when it was evening, Jesus and his disciples went into a boat to sail over to the other side of the sea. As they were going, there came a storm on the sea, and the great waves dashed into the boat and filled it with water, so that is was ready to sink. But Jesus was asleep in another part of the boat, with his head resting on a pillow. And the disciples were greatly afraid, and they came and wakened him, saying, Lord save us, or we shall be lost. And Jesus rose up and spoke to the winds and the waves, and he said to them, Peace, be still. And at once the winds stopped and blew no more, and the waves grew still and smooth. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 79 Then Jesus said to his disciples, Why were you afraid? How is it that you have no faith? He meant to ask them how they could be afraid, while he was with them, that the winds or the waves would do them any harm. And they sailed over to the other side of the sea. When Jesus came out of the boat, there met him a man who had an evil spirit. And the evil spirit made the man act like a person who had lost his senses, and was crazy. He had torn off his clothes and was very fierce, so that every one was afraid to pass by that way. His friends had often put chains on him, to keep him at home, but he broke the chains and went and lived in the caves, that had been hollowed out of rocks, to bury dead persons in. And always, both in the night and in the day, he was wandering in the caves and in the mountains, crying out with a loud voice, and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus a good way off, he knew who it was. And he ran to him, and bowed down at his feet, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? I beg thee not to punish me. Now there was, near the mountain, a great herd of swine, feeding on the grass, or bushes, 80 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. that grew there. There were about two thou- sand of them. And the evil spirits that were in the man, (for more than one spirit had gone into him,) begged Jesus that if he made them go out of the man, he would let them go into the herd of swine. And Jesus said to them, Go. And when the spirits had come out of the man, they went into the herd of swine, and at once the whole herd ran down a steep place into the sea, and were all drowned in the waters. And the men who took care of them fled away into the city that was near, and told the people of all that had happened. Then the people came out and they saw Jesus, and the man who before had the evil spirits; but now the man was sitting quietly, with his clothes on, and in his right mind. But when the men who took care of the swine told the people of what Jesus had done, and how the swine had been drowned in the sea, the people were afraid, and they begged Jesus to go away from their city. Then he went into the boat to go back to the other side of the sea. And the man, out of whom he had cast the evil spirits, came and begged that he might go with him. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 81 But Jesus told him to go to his home and his friends, and to tell them how he had been made well. Then the man went and besan to tell all the people in that country what Jesus had done for him. Jesus went again into the city of Caper- naum. And one of the rulers, or chief men, of the synagogue in that city, came to him, in great trouble, and kneeled down at his feet, and said, My little daughter is sick, and going to die. I pray that thou wilt come and lay thy hands on her, that she may get well. And Jesus went with the man, and so did his disciples; and many other persons followed after him and crowded around him. Anions- them was a woman who had been sick for twelve years, with a disease which no doctor could cure. For she had tried many, and given them all the money she had, but instead of getting better she rather grew worse. When she heard that Jesus was there, she said to herself, If I can only come behind him, in the crowd, and put out my hand and touch his clothes, I shall get well. So she came in the crowd behind Jesus and touched him, and as soon as she did it she felt that her sickness was cured. 6 82 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. Then Jesus turned round toward the people that followed him, and said, Who touched me ? His disciples, who had not seen the woman touch Jesus, answered him, saying, Thou seest how many persons are pressing against thee, and dost thou ask, Who touched me? But Jesus knew that some one had touched him and been made well, and he looked round to see her who had done this thing. When the woman saw that he knew it, and that she could not hide herself from him, she came trembling with fear, and kneeling down at his feet, told before all the people why she had touched Jesus, and how in a moment she was made well. Then Jesus spoke kindly to her and told her not to be afraid, for he said, because she had faith in him, and believed he could make her well, she was cured of her sickness. While he was yet speaking to the woman, there came a messenger from the ruler of the synagogue's house, who brought him word that his daughter was dead. Therefore it w T as not worth while, the messenger said, to bring the Master any further. But when Jesus heard this, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not be afraid ; only THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 83 trust in me, and thy daughter shall be made alive again. So they went on to the ruler's house. When they came there, all the people were weeping and crying out, because the child was dead. Jesus said to them, Why do you weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping. He meant that she would soon rise up from the dead, like one who awakes from sleep. But when he said this the people would not believe him, and they mocked him and laughed at what he told them. Then Jesus put them all out, and took three of his disciples, Peter, and James, and John, and also the father and mother of the child, and he went with them into the room where she lay. And he took her by the hand, and said, I say to thee, Arise. And as soon as he had spoken these words, she came to life again, and rose up from her bed and walked. For she was twelve years old. And Jesus commanded that some food should be given to her. As Jesus went away from the ruler's house, two blind men followed him. And they cried out after him, saying, Have mercy on us. They meant that he should make their eyes well, so that they might see. 84 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. Jesus asked them whether they believed he was able to do this. They answered, Yes, Lord. Then he told them that because they had faith, and believed he was able to do it, he would make them well. And he put out his hand and touched their eyes, and at once they could see. Then he commanded them not to tell any one who had cured them. Yet, when they went out of the house, they told the people in all that country what he had done for them. And some persons brought to him a man who had an evil spirit. And the man was dumb, because the spirit would not allow him to speak. But Jesus cast out the evil spirit, and, after that, the man was able to speak. And all the people who had known that he was dumb, were surprised when they heard him speaking, and they said they had never seen such a thing done before in the land of Israel. And Jesus went into the cities and villages where the Jews lived, and he preached the gospel to them. I have told you before, that gospel means good news. And the good news of the gospel is this: That Jesus came down from heaven to THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 85 be punished for our sins, so that, if we repent of those sins, and take him for our Saviour, we shall not be punished for them at the Judg- ment Day. We deserve to be punished for them, and we should be punished, if he had not been punished in our place. But he knew how dreadful that punishment would be, and because he loved us, he was willing to bear it for us. And now Jesus went through the villages and cities, preaching the gospel to the Jews who lived there. Yet he could not, by him- self, preach to all the Jews in the land of Israel; there were too many of them. There- fore he called his twelve apostles to him, and sent them out also to preach to the people. Before they went he gave them power to do miracles; to cast out evil spirits, to make sick people well, and dead people alive again. Jesus gave them this power, so that when the people saw them do these wonderful works, they might believe the things that the apostles preached to them. Then the apostles went out into the different cities and towns, and preached to the people. Afterward they came back to Jesus and told him of everything they had done. 86 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. CHAPTEK VI. jesus feeds fbi: thousand persons. he walks on the water; heals a blind man; is transfigured; casts out an evil spirit | heals ten lepers, and speaks parables to the people. A* ND Jesus said to his apostles, Come, let»us go to some place alone, that you may rest awhile. For there were so many persons around them, coming and going, that they had not time to themselves even to eat. Then they went with Jesus in a boat, and sailed over to the other side of the sea of Galilee. But when the people heard of their going, they followed after Jesus, not in boats on the water, but on foot, walking around by the side of the sea, until they came to the place where Jesus was. So many followed him in this way, that a great multitude of men, and women, and children, came to that place. In the evening the apostles spoke to Jesus, and said, This is a lonely place where there is THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 87 nothing to eat, and it is now near night ; there- fore send the people away, that they may go into the villages that are near and buy them- selves food. Jesus said, They need not go away ; give you them something to eat, The apostles answered, Shall we go and buy as much as two hundred pennyworth of bread for them ? And even this would not be enough to give each one a little. Jesus said to the apostles, How many loaves of bread have you? Go and see. When they knew, they answered, Five loaves of bread, and two small fishes. And Jesus commanded the apostles to make all the people sit down on the green grass. And he took the five loaves and the two fishes into his hands, and looked up to heaven, and thanked God for them. Then he broke the loaves in pieces, and gave the pieces to the apostles ; the fishes he gave them also. And the apostles gave them to the people. And Jesus made those five loaves and two fishes, to increase, and grow to be more and more, as the apostles were giving them to the people, until there was enough for all that great multitude. When they had done eating, Jesus told the apostles to gather up what was left, so that 88 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. nothing should be wasted, or lost. And the apostles did as Jesus commanded, and they gathered up of the pieces that were left, twelve baskets full. Those that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside the women and children who were there. When the })eople saw this great miracle which Jesus had done, they wanted to take him and make him their king. But he left them, and went up on a mountain, alone, to pray. The apostles he sent away in a boat, to sail over to the other side of the sea to the city of Capernaum. And in the evening they were out in the middle of the sea, rowing the boat with oars, because the wind was against them, but Jesus stood on the shore. From there he could see them working at the oars, for the waves were rough and stormy. And in the night he went out to them walking on the sea. But when the apostles saw him coming, they were afraid, and said, It is a spirit. And they cried out with fear. But Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be not afraid, it is I. Then Peter answered out of the boat, and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 89 Jesus said to him, Come. And Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he heard the noise of the wind, and saw the great waves dashing around him, he was afraid and began to sink, and he cried out, Lord save me. And Jesus stretched out his hand, and caught him, and kept him from sinking. Then Jesus asked him why he had not faith ; that is, why he did not trust in him to keep him from harm. For if Peter had trusted in Jesus, and believed, in his heart, that Jesus would take care of him, he would not have sunk down into the water. Then Jesus and Peter came into the boat, and, at once, the wind was still; and, in a moment, the boat came to the shore at the place where the apostles wanted to be. It was Jesus who had stilled the wind, and made the boat come to the shore. And when the apostles saw this miracle, they bowed down and worshipped him, and said, Truly thou art the Son of God. As soon as they had come out of the boat, on to the land, the men who lived there knew that it was Jesus. And they ran through all that country, telling the people he had come. 90 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. Then they began to carry sick persons, on beds, to the place where Jesus was. And wherever he went, into cities and villages, they brought those who were sick, and laid them in the streets, and begged him to let them only touch his clothes; and every one who touched him was made perfectly well. And Jesus fed the people again with only a few loaves and fishes. For a great multitude of persons had come to hear him, and they had now been with him three days and had nothing to eat. And he said to his disciples, If I send them away to their homes without any food, they will grow tired and weak on the way, for many of them have come from far. And he asked the disciples, How many loaves have you? They answered, Seven, and a few small fishes. Then Jesus commanded the people to sit down on the ground: And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and thanked God for them; and he broke the loaves in pieces, and gave the pieces to the disciples, and they gave them to the people. And Jesus made the loaves and the fishes to increase (as he did before when he fed the multitude) until every one had enough. And THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 01 they gathered up, of the pieces that were left, seven baskets full. The persons who had eaten were about four thousand; and after he had fed them, Jesus sent them away. And he came to a city called Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man to him and begged Jesus to touch him, that he might be made well. And Jesus took him by the hand and led him out of the town. And he spat on his eyes, and put his hands on them, and asked the blind man whether he could see. He answered that he saw men, yet they did not look like men, for they were so tall, and high, that they looked like trees walking. Then Jesus put his hands again on the man's eyes and made him look up, and now he could see every thing clearly. After this Jesus took three of his apostles, Peter and James and John, and went up on a lonely mountain to pray. And while he was praying, his face was changed, so that it shone bright like the sun; and his clothes looked white as snow. And all at once two men were with him. They had come from that world where the righteous go after they die. Their names were Moses and Elijah; they had been prophets 92 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. when they lived on the earth, and good and holy men. And now they came back for a little while to talk with Jesus about his dying at Jerusalem for all the people's sins. When the apostles saw these two men they knew who they were; for they did not look like men who live in this world. They looked beautiful and glorious, as we suppose the righteous may look, up in heaven. And presently there came a bright cloud that covered the apostles, and a voice spoke out of the cloud. It said, This is my beloved Son; hear him. It was God's voice, telling the apostles that Jesus was his Son, and com- manding them to obey what he said to them. When the apostles heard it they bowed down with their faces to the ground; for they were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, and told them to rise up and not be afraid. And they rose up and looked round, and Moses and Elijah were gone. And Jesus told the apostles not to tell any one of what they had seen, until after he had died arid had risen up again from the dead. Then the apostles asked one another what he could mean by saying he would rise up from the dead. We THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 93 shall read afterward what Jesus meant by saying this. The next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a man came to Jesus, and kneeled down before him, and said, Master, I pray thee help my son; for he is my only child. And an evil spirit has gone into him that makes him fall, sometimes into the fire, and sometimes into the water, trying to kill him. And I took him to thy apostles, for them to make the evil spirit go out of him, but they could not. Jesus answered, Bring thy son to me. As they brought him, the spirit threw him down, and he rolled on the ground and foamed at the mouth. And Jesus said to the evil spirit, I command thee to come out of him, and go no more into him. Then the spirit cried with a loud voice, and came out of the young man, but he shook him greatly, and left him weak and not able to move? like a person who is dead, so that many who saw him lying on the ground, said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up, and he stood on his feet and was well. And Jesus gave him to his father. 94 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. Now the men who lived in the different cities of the land of Israel, used to send money to the priests who were staying at the temple in Jerusalem. Each man sent a piece of silver money to them every year. And while Jesus and his apostles were in the city of Capernaum, some men came and asked Peter whether his Master, (that was, Jesus,) would give them some money to send to the priests. Jesus knew they had asked this. And when he came into the house, he told Peter to go to the seashore, which was not far off, and to throw a hook and line into the water; and as soon as a fish was caught on it, to take the fish up and look into its mouth. There, Jesus said, Peter would find a piece of money; and he said to him, Give that to the men for me and for thee. And Peter did as Jesus told him, and he found the piece of money in the fish's mouth, and took it and gave it to the men. And Jesus told the disciples that if one of them should do wrong to another, and after- ward should come and confess his fault, the one he had done wrong to must forgive him. Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive THE STOBY OF THE GOSPEL. 95 him, whether it should be as many as seven times. Jesus told him that they should forgive one another, not only seven times, but seventy times seven : he meant that they should do it always. And he spoke a parable about a king whose servants owed him money ; and the king wan- ted them to pay this money. And one of the servants was brought that owed him a great deal, as much as many thousands of dollars. But he had nothing to pay the king with. Now, in that country, when a man owed money and could not pay it, the person he owed it to might take him, and his wife, and his children, and sell them for slaves. And because this servant could not pay what he owed the king, the king commanded that he, and his wife and his children, should be sold. And the money that was paid for them was to be given to the king. But when the servant heard what the king had commanded, he was in great trouble, and he kneeled down at the king's feet, and said, that if he would only wait awhile, and have patience with him, then he would pay him all that he owed him. He would work and earn the money, or he 96 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. would get it from persons who owed money to him : and then, he said, he would come back and pay the king. And when the king heard what he said, and saw what trouble he was in, he pitied him so much that he forgave him the debt altogether, and told him that he need not pay it at all. But after the king had forgiven him, this same servant went out and met a fellow-servant, that is, another of the king's servants, who owed him some money. It was not much this fellow- servant owed him, only a hundred pence. Yet he was so poor he had nothing to pay it with. Then the king's servant was very angry with his fellow-servant, and he caught him by the throat, and said to him, Pay me what thou owest. Then his fellow-servant kneeled down at his feet and begged that he would have patience with him, and wait awhile, for then, he said, he would pay him all. But the king's servant would not wait. He took his fellow-servant to prison, to be shut up there until he should pay the debt. When the other servants that were in the king's house saw what had been done, they were very sorry, and they went and told the king. Then the king, when he had called his THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 97 servant, said to him, O, thou wicked servant, I pitied thee and forgave thee, when thou didst ask me; and shouldest thou not have pitied thy fellow-servant, as I pitied thee? And the king was greatly displeased, and sent him to be punished till he should pay all that he owed him. In this parable the king means God, and the servant who owed him so much, means us, because we have sinned so often against him. And as the king punished that servant, because he would not forgive his fellow-servant, so God will punish us if we do not forgive one another our trespasses, or sins. And as Jesus and his apostles were journey- ing toward the city of Jerusalem, they came near to a village, where some people lived who were called Samaritans. And Jesus sent two of his apostles, named James and John, into the village, to ask the Samaritans if they would not let him stop there and rest, and have food to eat. Now the Samaritans had quarreled with the Jews and were enemies to them. Arid because Jesus was a Jew, they would not allow him and his apostles, to stop at their village. Then James and John were very angry, and they 98 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. came to Jesus and asked him, if he would not let them call down fire from heaven, to burn up the Samaritans. But Jesus was displeased with James and John for asking him this; he told them that he had not come into the world to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And he did nothing to punish the Samaritans for their unkindness, but he went on to another village and stopped there to rest. I have told you about the leprosy, that it was a dreadful disease, or sickness, which no one but God could cure ; and that any person who got it had to leave his family and his home, and go away to live alone, or else with other persons, only, who had the leprosy like himself. And as Jesus and his apostles were going toward Jerusalem, there met him ten men who had the leprosy. These men were not allowed to touch, or even come near to, persons who were well. Therefore they did not come near to Jesus and his apostles, but they stood a good way off, and cried out with loud voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. They meant that he should make them well. Now when any person had been sent away THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 99 from his home, because he had the leprosy, even if he got well, he could not come back until he went to the priest. Then the priest looked at him, to see if he was really well, and if he was, the priest gave him permission to go back to his home and live with his family again. And when Jesus heard these poor men cry- ing out to him, he told them to go and show themselves to the priest. And they went, and while they were going, were all made well. And one of them, when he saw that he was well, came back to Jesus, and kneeled down at his feet, and thanked him for curing him. Then Jesus said, Were there not ten who were cured? Where are the other nine? Only this one comes back to thank God for what has been done to him. Let us remember, children, whenever we have been sick and got well again, to thank God for it. For no matter what doctor we had, or what medicine we took, they could not have cured us unless God had made them able to do it. And Jesus spoke a parable about a man who went on a journey from the city of Jerusalem to another city a good way off, named Jericho. 100 THE STOEY OF THE GOSPEL. Now the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was very lonely and wild, and there were rocks and caves along it where thieves used to hide. And as this man was going on his journey, suddenly some thieves came out from their hiding place, and stopped him. And they robbed him of all that he had, and took even his clothes from him. They not only did this, but they beat him and wounded him, and then went away and left him half dead. And while he was lying on the ground, too weak to get up, there happened to come a priest that way. Now the wounded man was a Jew, and the priest was a Jew also. Beside this, the priest was one of God's ministers, who stayed at the temple and taught the people to be kind to each other, and to love each other. Therefore we should think that the priest would surely be kind to this poor wounded Jew. But he was not; for when he came near him he pretended not to see him, and crossed over to the other side of the road and passed by. He did this because he did not want to take care of him himself, or to pay any one else for taking care of him. And after the priest had passed by, a man, THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 101 called a Levite, came that way. This Levite was a Jew too; and he was one of the men who helped the priests in teaching the people to obey God and love one another. Yet he did not help the wounded man either, but he passed on, as the priest had done, and left him alone in the place where he found him. But after the priest and the Levite had gone, a man who was a Samaritan came to that place. Now I have told you that the Jews and the Samaritans were not friends with each other, but they had quarreled and were enemies. Therefore we should not be surprised to hear that this Samaritan had gone by without help- ing the wounded Jew. But he did not do so. For when he saw him he pitied him, and went to him and tied up his wounds and poured oil and wine on them to make them well. Then he lifted him up on the beast that he rode, and took him to an inn that was near, and he nursed him there that night. The next day the Samaritan had to go on his journey, but, before he went, he took out some money and gave it to the man who kept the inn, and told him to take care of the 102 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. wounded Jew. If it should cost any more than the money he gave him, the Samaritan said he would pay it when he came to the inn at another time. In this parable we learn what it is that makes us a friend, or neighbor, to another person. It is not belonging to the same country, or nation, that makes us his neighbor. Even belonging to the same church does not. The priest and the Levite belonged to the same nation and the same church with the wounded Jew, yet neither of them was his neighbor. But the Samaritan, who belonged to another nation, was his neighbor, because he was kind to him. And Jesus meant to teach us by this parable that we should be like the Samaritan, that is, we should be a neighbor, or a friend, to every person we can do any good to, no matter if he be a stranger, or even an enemy to us. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 103 CHAPTER VII. JESUS COMES TO BETHANY. HE TEACHES THE DISCIPLES THE LORD'S PRAYER j SENDS OUT THE SEVENTY DISCIPLES | HEALS THE BLIND MAN AT THE POOL OF SILO AM; RAISES LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD. AND Jesus came to a village called Bethany, -^- which was a little way from the city of Jerusalem. A woman named Martha lived there, and she asked him to come to her house. Martha had a sister named Mary. And when Jesus came into the house, Mary sat down by his feet that she might listen to the things that he taught. Then Martha, because she had all the work to do, was displeased with her sister. And she came to Jesus and asked him if he would not bid Mary come and help her. But Jesus told Martha that Mary did right in attending to the things he taught her. There was one thing, he said, it was more important we should have, than anything else; and Mary 104 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. had chosen that one thing, and it should never be taken from her. Jesus meant that Mary had chosen to have a new and good heart, so that she might be one of God's children. And a new and good heart is what all of us need to have. And when we have it, no- body can take it from us. Other things can be taken from us. Suppose we are rich and have a great deal of money — boxes full of silver and gold — some one may come and rob us, and take it all away. Or even. if nobody takes it from us, when we die we must go away and leave it. But if we have a new heart, nobody can rob us of that. And when we die we will not have to leave it; but we will take it with us to that world where we are going, and where we shall see Jesus, who gave this new heart to us. . And one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them what they should say when they prayed to God. And he said, When you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our tres- passes, as we forgive those who trespass against THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 105 us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. This is called the Lord's Prayer because the Lord Jesus taught it to the apostles. It was meant not only for them to say, but for us, too. But when we say it we must think of what it means. For unless we do this, and really want the things we ask for, God will not give them to us. And now I want you to attend while I try and explain to you, what the words in the Lord's Prayer mean. Our Father who art in heaven. When we say these words we are speaking to God: we are calling him our Heavenly Father. And if he is our Heavenly Father, then we are his children. We have a father and a mother in this world who love us and are kind to us. But our Father in heaven loves us more and is kinder to us than they can be; and we should love him better than them, or any one else. Hallowed he thy name. God's name is hallowed when we always re- member to speak it carefully, because it is His great and holy name. Sometimes we do not 106 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. remember this. But when we say, Hallowed be thy name, we are asking God to make us remember it, so that we may never speak his name carelessly, or thoughtlessly, again. Thy Kingdom come. God is not only our Father, but he is our King. All the people who serve him belong to his Kingdom. But many peoj3le serve Satan, and take him for their king. So that Satan has a kingdom in this world, too. Now, when we say in the Lord's Prayer, Thy Kingdom come, we are asking God to put down Satan's kingdom, and to make all the people belong to his Kingdom. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's will is done when people obey him. We know it is done up in heaven, for the angels live there and they always obey God. And we'say, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, because we want all the people on earth to obey God, as the angels do in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Every day we need food to eat. No matter how much we ate yesterday, we need more to- day, and we will need more to-morrow, and every day as long as we live. The food we need each day is called our daily bread. When THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 107 we say, Give us this clay our daily bread, we ask God for it. Perhaps it may seem as if it did not come from God, because our parents, or our friends, give it to us. But they could not give it to us if God did not give them the strength to work for it, or the money to buy it with. So that God is the One who really gives us our daily bread, and he is the One we should ask for it, and thank for it when we get it. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Our trespasses mean our sins. If we ask God to forgive us for our sins, we ought to be willing to forgive those j)ersons who sin against us. And in this Prayer we ask God to forgive us just as we forgive them. So that unless we forgive other persons, we cannot expect God to forgive us our trespasses, or sins. And lead us not into temptation. When a person persuades us to do anything that will displease God, then he tempts us, or leads us into temptation. Very often Satan leads us into temptation; and sometimes our own wicked hearts, or our wicked companions do it. But when we say, Lead us not into tempta- 108 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. tion, we are asking God not to let Satan, or any one else, tempt us to displease, or offend, him again. But deliver us from evil. There are two kinds of evil: one is doing wrong, that is, sinning. This is the worst kind. The other kind is having sickness, and pain and trouble. God is willing to deliver, or save, us from both kinds of evil if we love and obey him. For thine is the Kingdom. A kingdom is a country that is ruled over by a king. There are a great many different countries and kings in this world. But God is King over all these countries and all these kings; for he is the King of kings. And he is King in heaven, too. That is the reason we say, Thine is the Kingdom. And thine is the power. God is the only one who is able, and has the power, to give us the things we ask for in the Lord's Prayer. No one else can keep Safan from tempting us, and can save us from sick- ness and trouble, and can forgive our sins. And thine is the glory forever. Amen. Glory means praise and honor. Sometimes when a king rides through a city, all the THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 109 people come out into the streets, or stand at their windows, waving flags and banners, and shouting out his name, to show how glad they are to see him. Then the king has praise, and honor, and glory. We do not praise God in this way. But we praise him in our hearts, and sing hymns to him, because he is so good and great and kind to us. And all the angels up in heaven praise and honor God. So we see how he has praise, and honor, and glory. And he will have these things forever. The last word in the Lord's Prayer is, Amen. Amen means, So may it be. And when we say, Amen, we mean that we hope God will make everything to be, as we have asked it may be, in the prayer we have just said to him. And Jesus not only taught the disciples to say the Lord's Prayer, but he taught them to pray for all the things that they needed. And he said that God would give them those things. For he asked them whether they did not give their children the things that they asked for. Suppose one of them should ask for a piece of bread, he said, would they give it a stone to eat? Or if it should ask for a fish, would they give it a serpent, or snake, instead ? 110 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. Then Jesus told the disciples that if they gave good things to their children, surely God would give good things to his children, when they prayed to him for them. And Jesus chose seventy more of his dis- ciples, beside the twelve apostles, to go and preach the gospel to the people. And the seventy disciples went and preached as Jesus commanded them to. Afterward they came back to him, and told him of all they had done. And they were full of joy because they had been able to cast out evil spirits from persons who had them. For Jesus had given them power to do this, when he sent them out to preach to the people. And the seventy dis- ciples rejoiced Avhen they found that the evil spirits had to obey them. But Jesus told them not to rejoice for this, but rather to rejoice because God had forgiven their sins, and because their names were written in God's Book, up in heaven. And as Jesus came from the temple there was a blind man sitting in the street, begging. And Jesus stopped and spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he put the clay on the blind man's eyes. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. Ill Then he told him to go and wash his eyes in a pool of water, called the pool of Siloam. The blind man went, therefore, and washed, and when he came back he could see. But it was not the clay, nor the water in the pool, but Jesus himself, who had made him able to see. Then the neighbors who had known the blind man before, were astonished when they saw him walking by himself, like any other person, with no one to lead him. And they said, Is not this the blind man that used to sit in the street and beg? Some answered, Yes, this is he. Others said, It is not the blind man, but another man that looks like him. But the man himself said, I am he. Therefore they spoke to him, and asked him how it was that he could see. He answered, A man that is named Jesus, made clay and put it on my eyes, and said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And I went and washed, and after that I could see. But the men who talked with him were not satisfied with what he told them about the way he was made able to see; so they brought him to the Pharisees. Now the Pharisees, as we have read, were not good men, but were hypocrites, that is, 112 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. persons who pretended to be good, while, in their hearts, they were wicked. And they hated Jesus because he could see their hearts; and knew of their wickedness. And when the people brought the man who had been blind, to the Pharisees, they asked him how he had been made well. He told them that Jesus had made him well. Then the Pharisees began to find fault with Jesus, and because he had cured the man on the Sabbath day, they said that Jesus had worked on that clay, and disobeyed God's commandment. Then the Pharisees went to the father and mother of the man who had been blind, and said to them, Is this your son who, you say, was born blind ? How is it then that he can now see ? His father and mother answered, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how it is that he can now see, we know not. He is old enough to tell, himself, ask him. His parents said this because they were afraid the Pharisees would be angry with them, and punish them, if they said that Jesus had cured their son. Then the Pharisees called the man again, and they told him not to thank Jesus for THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 113 making him well, but to thank God for it, because they knew that Jesus was a sinner. The man answered that this was a strange thing for them to say about Jesus; for if he were a sinner, God would not have helped him to make him well. And if God had not helped him, Jesus could not have done it ; for such a miracle was never heard of before, as to cure a person who had been born blind, and make him able to see. Then the Pharisees were very angry with the man, when he said this; and they forbade him to go and visit his friends, or to come with them into the synagogue. They did this to punish him. Jesus heard what they had done to the man. And when he found him, he said to him, Dost thou believe in the Son of God? The man answered, Who is he Lord that I may believe in him ? The man asked this because he did not know who Jesus was; he knew only that Jesus had cured him of his blindness. Then Jesus said to him, It is the Son of God who is speaking to thee. When Jesus said this, the man answered, Lord, I believe. And he kneeled down and worshipped him. We have read that when Jesus was in the 8 114 THE STOKY OF THE GOSPEL. town of Bethany, a woman named Martha asked him to her house. And Martha had a sister named Mary, who, when Jesus came, sat down by his feet and listened to the things that he taught. Now Martha and Mary had a brother named Lazarus. And after Jesus had gone away from Bethany, Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent word to Jesus, to tell him their brother was sick. Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus, yet when he heard their message, he did not go to them at once, but stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then he said to his disciples, Let us go to Bethany for our friend Lazarus is sleeping, and I will go and waken him out of his sleep. Jesus meant that Lazarus was dead, and that he was going to raise him up from the dead. So Jesus and his disciples came to the town of Bethany. And Martha, as soon as she heard he had come, went out to meet him, but Mary sat still in the house. Then Martha, when she met Jesus, said to him, Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother would not have died. She meant that Jesus, because he had the power of God, could have saved Lazarus from dying. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 115 Then she went back to the house and told Mary that Jesus had come. And Mary rose up quickly and went out to meet him ; and she was weeping for sorrow because her brother was dead. When Jesus saw her weeping, and her friends weeping with her, he was troubled. And he, too, wept. And the people who were there said, See how he loved Lazarus. Jesus asked where they had buried him. And they brought him to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone was rolled to the door of it. Jesus said, Take away the stone. Now the Jews when they buried a dead person, wrapped his body in linen, with sweet smelling spices, and fastened a napkin, or towel, about his head. In this way they had buried Lazarus. And after the stone was taken away from the mouth of the cave, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, Come forth ! And as soon as he had spoken these words, Lazarus came out, alive, with his hands and his feet bound in grave clothes, and his face tied around with a napkin. And Jesus said to the persons who were standing by, Unloose him and let him go. 116 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. Then many of the people, when they saw this great miracle which Jesus did, believed in him, that he was the Son of God. But some of them went and told the Phari- sees what they had seen. And the Pharisees were not pleased. They did not want any one to believe in Jesus. And they said to one another, What shall we do? If we let him alone, all the people will believe in him. And from that time they tried to find out some way of putting him to death. THE STOEY OF THE GOSPEL. 117 CHAPTER VIII. JESUS CURES THE SICK WOMAN IN THE SYNAGOGUE ; HE SPEAKS THE PARABLES OF THE GREAT SUPPER, THE PRODIGAL SON, THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS, AND THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. ON the Sabbath day, Jesus went into the synagogue and taught the people w ho were there. Among them was a woman who had been sick for eighteen years, and her sick- ness had bent down her body so that she could not straighten herself, or lift herself up. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said, Woman thou art made well of thy sickness. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she lifted herself up and was made straight. As soon as she found she could do this she was so glad, that she spoke out loud and thanked God because she was made well. But the chief man, or ruler, of the syna- gogue, was angry because Jesus had done this 118 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. miracle. Like the Pharisees, he did not want the people to believe in Jesus. And, because Jesus had cured the woman on the Sabbath day, the ruler said he had worked on that day, and disobeyed God. And the ruler told the people there were six days in the week when it was right to work. If any of them were sick, he said, and wanted to be made well, they should come then, and not on the Sabbath day. But Jesus asked the ruler of the synagogue, and the other Jews who found fault with him, whether they did not go on the Sabbath day, and untie the oxen and the asses in the stable, and lead them out to drink. And if it were right to do this for the dumb beasts, and to be kind to them, was it not right, Jesus asked, to make this poor woman well on the Sabbath day. When he said this, the men who had found fault with him were ashamed, but the rest of the people were glad for the miracles he had done. On another day Jesus went into the house where one of the Pharisees lived. And while he was there he spoke a parable, about a man who made a great supper. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 119 When the food had been put on the table and everything was ready, the man sent out his servant to tell the persons who were invited that it was time for them to come. But they did not want to come to his supper, and they all began to make some excuse for staying away. The first one said he had bought some land and must go and see it, and therefore he asked to be excused from coming. Another said he had bought Q.ve pairs of oxen, and that he was going to try whether they worked well, and he asked if he might not be excused. Another said he had just been married, and therefore he could not come. And the servant came back and told his master what the men said. Then his master was very angry at the men who were not willing to come to the supper, which he had been so kind as to make ready for them. And he told his servant to go out into the streets and lanes of the city, and to bring in all the persons he should meet. He told him to bring in even those who were poor, and blind, and lame, that they might eat of his supper. For those men who were invited first, he said, should not come to it at all. 120 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. I have told you that every parable Jesus spoke means something. For he did not tell them only to amuse and interest us, but to make us understand and remember better, the things that he wanted us to learn. In this parable the master who gave the supper means God. The good things that were set on the table mean the good news of the gospel, which tells us how we may be made God's children, and have our sins forgiven. The men who were first invited, and would not come, mean the Jews, because they had the gospel preached to them first, and they would not believe it. And the men who were invited afterward, mean other persons who have heard the gospel since that time, and have believed and obeyed it. If you and I have believed the good news of the gospel, and have taken Jesus for our Saviour, then we are among those persons who have been brought into the supper. And Jesus told the people who came to listen to his teaching, that, if they wanted to be his disciples, they must take up their cross and follow him. He meant that they must follow his example and do what is right, no matter how hard and unpleasant that might be. THE STOEY OF THE GOSPEL. 121 Very often it is easier and pleasanter to do the thing that is wrong, than the thing that is right. Then if we do the thing that is right, we are taking up the cross. To do any unpleasant thing, just because it is right, and will please God, is taking up our cross. And Jesus says we cannot be his disciples, that is, his children, unless we are willing to do this. And there came to Jesus some men who before that time had been wicked. All the people knew that they were wicked men. And now they came to Jesus for him to teach them. But when the Scribes and Pharisees saw them coming, they found fault with Jesus for letting them come, and they said that he made friends of men who were sinners. But Jesus told the Scribes and Pharisees that he would not send these men away because they were sinners; he would rather persuade them to come to him, so that he might teach them to repent of their sins. For he said that whenever any wicked man repented of his sins and began to obey God, even the angels, that live up in heaven, rejoiced at it. Then he spoke a parable about a man who had two sons. And one day the younger son 122 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. came to his father, and asked him to give him his share of the money that his father had saved up for his children. And his father gave him his share. Not many days after this, the younger son took all that his father had given him, and he went away to a country that was far off, and there he chose wicked persons for his friends and companions, and he went with them and wasted his money in sinful pleasures, and in doing wickedly. And after his money was all gone, there came a great famine in that land. It is a famine in any place when the corn and the wheat do not grow there, so that the people have not food enough to eat. And now there was a famine in the land where the younger son had gone, and he had not enough money to buy even a piece of bread. His wicked companions had left him when he came to be poor, and there was no one to give him help. So he went and hired himself to work for a man who lived in that country, and the man sent him out into the field to feed his swine. And the younger son was so hungry that he would have been glad to get as much as he THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 123 wanted, even of the coarse food that the swine ate, but the man did not give it to him. And after he had suffered for many days, he said to himself, In my father's house at home, how many hired servants there are who have plenty to eat, and more than they want, while I stay here starving with hunger. I will leave this country and go back to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against God and done wickedly to thee, and I do not deserve any more to be thy son. If I may only come back to thy house, I am willing to be treated as if I were one of thy hired servants. So he left that country to go back to his father. But as he came toward the house, while he was yet a good way off, his father saw him coming. And as soon as he saw him, he did not wait for him to come nearer ; but he ran out to meet him, and he put his arms around him, and kissed him. Then the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against God and done wickedly to thee, and I do not deserve any more to be thy son. But when he had said this much, his father was so glad that he would not let him say any more, but he called to his servants to bring 124 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. out new clothes to put on him, instead of the soiled and torn ones that he wore; and to put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And go get the fatted calf, the father said, and kill it, and let us have a feast and be happy ; because this my son who had gone away and left me, has come back again — he was lost and is found. So they sat down to the feast and were happy together. Now the older son was out in the field at work. And when it was time for him to come home, as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing there. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. The servant answered, Thy brother has come and thy father has had the fatted calf killed, and made a feast for him, because he is so glad that he has come back safe and sound. Then the elder brother, instead of being pleased, was jealous and angry, and he would not come into the house. So his father went out and begged him to come in. But he answered his father, and said, For a great many years I have done all that thou hast told me, and I have never disobeyed thy commandments, yet thou didst never make a THE STOKY OF THE GOSPEL. 125 feast for me and my friends. But as soon as this thy son has come, who has wasted thy money in doing wickedly, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. Then his father answered him, saying, My son, I have always loved thee, and everything I have is the same as if it were thine. Yet, although thy brother did wickedly, it is right we should be glad and rejoice. For he had gone away and left us, and now he has come back again; he was lost, and now he is found. In this parable the father means God, and the son who went away and left him, means wicked men. And Jesus meant, in this jDara- ble, to teach the proud Scribes and Pharisees, who blamed him for preaching to wicked men, that God still loves those men, and that he is willing to take them back for his children again, if they will only leave off their sins and love and obey him. And Jesus spoke another parable. It was about two men. One of them was rich, and was dressed in the most beautiful clothes, and ate the nicest of food, every day. The other was a beggar, named Lazarus, who was sick, and his body was covered with sores. And because he was poor and had nothing 126 THE 8TORY OF THE GOSPEL. to eat, his friends brought him, and laid him down by the rich man's gate, that he might get the pieces of food that were left from the rich man's table. And even the dogs in the street seemed to pity him, for they came and licked his sores. And the beggar died, and tin; angels carried him up to heaven. He was not poor there, and he did not have to wait for the pieces of food that were left from the table. He sat down at the table himself with the good men who hud gone to heaven before him. He sat next to the great and good Abraham, and leaned on Abraham's bosom. And after awhile the rich man died also, and he was buried; but his soul went to the place where the wicked go. The Bible tells us that in that place a fire is burning, and that the wicked are cast into it. And while the rich man was there, being punished for his sins, he looked up and saw Abraham a great way off and Lazarus leaning on his bosom. And he cried out, and said, Father Abraham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus to dip his finger in water, and then let him come and put a drop of it on my tongue, to cool it, for I am burning in this flame. THE STORY OF Tin; GOSPEL. 127 But Abraham told the rich man to remember that, when he was alive, he had good things, but Lazarus had evil tilings. And now, Abra- ham said, Lazarus is comforted and happy, but thou art in pain. And, beside this, between us and von there is a wide, deep place that no one can pass over; so that persons who want to go from US to von cannot go, and those who want to come from you to us cannot come. Then the rich man said, If Lazarus cannot come to me, I pray thee -end him to my father's house, for I have five brothers living there, that he may tell tbem to repent of their sin- and obey God, bo that, when they die, they, may not come to this dreadful place. Abraham answered the rich man, and said, Thy brothers have the Bible to read, let them learn to repent from it. The rich man answered, But Father Abraham, if some one should rise up from the dear! and L r o and tell them, they surely would repent Abraham answered, If thy brothers will not obey what God says to them in the Bible, they will not obey him and repent of their sins, even if some one should rise up from the dead and go and speak to them. 128 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. From this parable we learn that the good are happy after they die, but the wicked are punished for their sins. We learn, too, that it is far better to serve God and have him for our Father, even though we be poor and sick, than it is to have all the riches in the world, and yet not be one of his children. And Jesus spoke a parable to those persons who thought themselves better than others. The parable was about two men who went up to the temple to pray. One of them was a Pharisee, and the other was a Publican, or tax-gatherer. The Pharisee chose a place to.say his prayers where other people could see him, and hear him, saying them. And this is what he said when he prayed, Lord, I thank thee that I am not wicked, like other men, and that I am not as bad as this Publican whom I see standing, afar off, over there. I always say my prayers, and I fast twice every week, and I give a part of all the things that I get to the priests, who stay at the temple. This is what the Pharisee said when he was praying, and he was careful to say it so that other persons might hear him, because he wanted them to think he was very good. THE STOKY OF THE GOSPEL. 129 But the Publican when he prayed, did not want other persons to hear him. He wanted God only to hear him. So he went to a place by himself and there heibowed down his head, because he was troubled, and he said, God forgive me, for I feel that I am a sinner. Then Jesus told the people who were lis- tening to this parable, that God was more pleased with the Publican than he was with the Pharisee; because the Pharisee was proud and thought much of himself, but the Publican was sorry for his sins, and confessed them, and asked to be forgiven. And some of thejDeople brought little children to Jesus, for him to put his hands on them, and pray for them, and bless them. But his disciples thought this would be troublesome to Jesus, and they found fault with the persons who brought them, and wanted to send them away. But Jesus was much displeased with his disciples for this. He told them to let the little children come to him, and not to forbid them, for he said it was only those persons who were humble and loving, like little children, that should come into the kingdom of heaven. And he took the little children up in his arms and put his hands on them and blessed them. 130 THE STOKY OF THE GOSPEL. And as Jesus and his twelve apostles were going uj3 to Jerusalem, he took them to a place alone and told them what would happen to him when he came there. f He said that the people would mock him, and scourge him, and spit upon him; and afterward they would crucify him, that is, they would kill him by nailing him to the cross. The cross was made of two large j^ieces of wood fastened together, one across the other. In that country men who were to be punished by being put to death, were nailed to this cross, by great nails driven through their hands and their feet. And after being nailed to it, they were left hanging there until they died. And this is what Jesus said would be done to him. We have read how he came down to this world to save us from being punished for our sins, and that the only way he could do this was, to be punished in our place. And now he was going to be punished by being nailed to the cross. And he knew that when he came to Jerusalem this would be done to him. Yet he did not turn back, but he went on, because he was willing to die for us. And on the way to Jerusalem he passed through the city of Jericho. And a great THE BTOBY OF THE GOSPEL. 131 multitude of people followed him. As they were passing along, a poor blind man, named Bartimeus, sat by the wayside, begging. When he heard the noise of the people, he asked what it meant. Now Bartimeus had been told how Jesus could make blind persons see. So as soon as he knew that Jesus was there, he began to cry out with a loud voice, saying, Jesus have mercy on me. When the people heard him crying out they told him to be still. But, he cried a great deal the more, Jesus, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded that he should be brought to him. When the blind man heard this, he rose up in haste to go to Jesus; and he threw away his outer garment, or coat, so that he might get to him the sooner. And Jesus asked him what it was that he wanted. He said, Lord, that thou wouldst make me able to see. Then Jesus told Bartimeus that because he had faith, and believed that Jesus was able and willing to make him w r ell, he should be made well. And at once he was able to see. And he followed Jesus, and spoke out loud, thank- ing God for what had been done to him. 132 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. CHAPTER IX. JESUS GOES TO THE HOUSE OF ZACCHEUS. HE RIDES INTO JERUSALEM; CURSES THE BARREN FIG-TREE; SPEAKS THE PARABLE OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN; EX- PLAINS WHICH IS THE PRINCIPAL COMMANDMENT, AND SPEAKS OF THE WIDOW'S MITE. THERE was living in the city of Jericho a man named Zaccheus. He was the chief one among the Publicans, or tax-gatherers, and he was rich. And as Jesus passed through the city, Zaccheus tried to see who it was, but he could not, for the crowd, because he was not so tall as the rest of the people. Therefore he ran on before and climbed up into a sycamore tree, because Jesus was to pass by that way. When Jesus came to the place he looked up and saw Zaccheus, and he said to him, Zaccheus make haste and come down, for I must go to thy house and stay there to-day. Then Zac- cheus made haste and came down. And he THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 133 went with Jesus and took him to his house joyfully. Now Zaccheus, as I have told you, was a Publican, or tax-gatherer. He was one of the men who took taxes, or tribute money, from the Jews to send it to the emperor of Rome. For, as we have read, the Jews had to give a part of tiie money that they earned to the emperor, because they were his servants. But very often these Publicans, who took the tribute money, were unjust and cruel men. They were unjust to poor persons, taking more from them then it was right to take. And it is very likely that Zaccheus did this before Jesus came to his house. But when he saw Jesus, he believed that God had sent him, and he obeyed what Jesus said. And Zaccheus stood up before all the people who were there and told Jesus that he would be unjust no more. He would be kind to the poor, he said, and would give them half of all the money that he had. And if he found he had taken anything that did not belong to him, he would give back four times as much to the person he took it from. When Jesus saw how Zaccheus repented of his sins, and believed in him, Jesus told Zac- cheus that all his sins were forgiven. 134 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. And if we want to be forgiven we must believe in Jesus, and repent of our sins, as Zaccheus did. We too must be kind to per- sons who are poorer than we are. If we have no money to give them, we must help them in any way that we can. And if we have ever taken anything that did not belong to us, we must give back, or pay for, the thing we have taken. It is no matter though the person we took it from has never missed it, and knows nothing of it. God knows it and we cannot expect him to forgive us while we are disobeying him, by keeping for our own what belongs to another. And now the time was near for having the feast of the Passover. For, as you remember, God had told the Jews they must have this feast once every year. And they were not allowed to have it in any other city, but must come to Jerusalem to eat of it. And many of the Jews had come there at this time. And they went up to the temple, and while they were there, they talked about Jesus, and said to each other, Do you think he will come to the feast? For the chief priests and the Pharisees had told all the people, that if any of them knew where Jesus was, they should THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 135 tell them, because they wanted to take him that they might put him to death. And Jesus came to the village of Bethany where Martha and Mary lived, with their brother Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. The Jews knew that Lazarus was there, and many of them came to Bethany, not to see Jesus only, but Lazarus too. Then the chief priests talked with one another about some way of putting Lazarus, also, to death ; because many of the Jews after they had seen him, believed on Jesus that he was the Son of God. And Jesus left the village of Bethany to go to Jerusalem, which was not far off. And when he came to the mountain, called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples to a village that was near. He told them that as soon as they came into the village, they would find, tied there, a colt, on which no man had ever yet ridden. And Jesus told the disciples to unloose the colt and bring it to him. If any man should ask them why they did this, they were to answer, that the Lord had need of him. Then, Jesus said, the man would send the colt. And the disciples did as Jesus commanded 136 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. them. Thev went into the village and there they found the colt tied. As they unloosed it the persons who owned it, asked them, Why do you unloose the colt ? And they answered, saying, The Lord has need of him. Then they let them take the colt, and they brought it to Jesus. And the disciples took off their outer gar- ments, or coats, and put them on the back of the colt, and Jesus sat on him. And as he rode toward Jerusalem a great multitude of people took off their outer garments, and spread them on the ground, for him to ride over them. And others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way. They did this to honor Jesus, for so they used to do when a king rode through their streets. And the multitude that went before and that followed after him, cried out with loud voices, saying, Blessed is he that has come to us, sent by the Lord. But, although the Jews did these things to praise and honor Jesus, and seemed so glad to have him come into their city, he knew that they did not love him in their hearts, and that in a few days they would be crying out to crucify him. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 137 And he came into Jerusalem and went up to the temple, and persons who were lame and blind were brought to him there, and he made them well. In the evening he went again to the village of Bethany, which was about two miles from Jerusalem, and he slept at Bethany. The next morning as he came back to Jeru- salem, he was hungry, and seeing a fig-tree on the way, he went to it that he might eat some of the figs; but he found only leaves on the tree. When he saw there were no figs on it, he spoke to the tree, and said, Let no more fruit grow on thee forever. And the disciples who were with him heard what he said. The next clay, as they passed by the tree, they looked at it and saw that it was withered, and dead, all the way up from the roots. Then they remembered the words which Jesus had spoken, and they said, How soon has the fig- tree withered away. It was the words that Jesus spoke to the tree that made it wither and die ; and this was a miracle. And Jesus spoke a parable to the people about a man who planted a vineyard. A vine- yard is a large garden, or field, where grape- vines grow. This man, in the parable, planted a vineyard and set a fence around it, and made 138 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. a wine -press in it. The wine-press is the place where the grapes are taken when they are ripe, to have the juice pressed out of them, to make wine. For wine, you know, is made out of the juice of grapes. After the man had made the fence and the wine-press, he built a strong house, or tower, in his vineyard. This was for the men who should stay there to guard it from robbers and wild beasts. Whenever there was danger they could go into the tower and shut to the door, and be safe. Now the owner of the vineyard did not want to attend to his vineyard himself. So, when it was all done, he let it out to some husbandmen, that is, men who work in the field. These husbandmen were to stay in the vine- yard and to take care of it, and attend to the vines. And when the grapes should get ripe they were to pick them and give some of them to the owner of the vineyard, for letting them have the use of his vineyard; the rest of the grapes they were to keep for themselves. So, after the husdandmen had gone into the vineyard to take care of it, the owner went away to a far country. And when the time came for the grapes to be ripe, he sent his ser- THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 139 vant to get his share. But, instead of giving him his share, as they had promised to do, the husbandmen caught the servant and beat him, and sent him away without any. Then the owner sent another servant, but the husbandmen threw stones at him, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away cruelly treated. And the owner sent still more of his servants, and some of these they beat and some they put to death. Then the owner of the vineyard said, What shall I do? Now he had one son whom he loved very much. And he said to himself, This is what I will do. I will send my beloved son, for they will be afraid to harm him. But when the husbandmen saw his son coming, they said to each other, This is the son, who, when his father dies, will get the vine- yard. Come, let us kill him, and take it for our own. So they caught him and took him out of the vineyard and killed him. Then Jesus said to the people who were listening to him, What will the owner of the vineyard do to those wicked husbandmen when he comes back from the far country, and goes into his vineyard ? And the people said, He will destroy those wicked men and let out his 140 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. vineyard to others, who will give him his share of the fruit. In this parable the owner of the vineyard meant God, and the wicked husbandmen meant the Jews. For God had been very kind to the Jews. They were slaves, as we have read, in the land of Egypt, and God brought them up into the land of Israel and gave it to them for their own land. But when they came there they would not obey him. Then God sent good men, and prophets, to tell them to repent of their sins. But they would not listen to the prophets. Instead of this they treated them cruelly and killed them. And now God had sent his own Son, Jesus, and they were going to kill him, too, like the wicked husbandmen in the parable. And the Pharisees and chief men among the Jews were displeased when they heard this parable, for they knew that the wicked hus- bandmen meant them. And they wanted to take Jesus and punish him; but they were afraid of the people, for many of them believed that God had sent him to teach them. And one of the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked him which was the principal command- ment in the Bible. The Pharisee knew there THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 141 were many commandments in the Bible which he ought to obey, but he wanted to know which was the principal one of them all. Jesus said to him, This is the first and prin- cipal commandment, Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And Jesus did not mean that this was the principal commandment for the Pharisee only, but he meant that it was for you, and for me and every one, to obey. It means that we are to love God as much as we can love, and more than we love anything else. You may say, How can I love God so much when I cannot see him? I know you cannot see him, but you do not always have to see the person that you love, and that you feel thankful to. Suppose you were all alone, and were far away from your home, and had to go a long way to reach it. Your clothes were soiled and torn, your shoes were worn out, and you were very hungry, yet you had no money to buy food with. And you lay down in a shady place by the road to rest, and fell asleep. And suppose, when you woke up, you found at your side new clothes, and new shoes, and 142 THE STOKY OF THE GOSPEL. nice food to eat, that some one had left for you. Though you did not know who left them, you would thank him for being so kind. Or suppose on some dark, stormy night, you got lost, and because you did not know the way you fell into a deejD river. And just as you were sinking under the water, a strong man jumped in and swam to you and held you up, and brought you to the shore. You could not see him, it would be too dark; and he might go away in the dark, so that you would never see him. Yet you would love him for saving your life. Now God gives you your clothes, and your food, and every good thing that you have. And he has sent his Son to save you, not from drowning, which would give you pain for only a few moments, but to save you from bearing punishment and pain forever. Ought you not to love him for these things, even though you cannot see him ? We shall never see God while we are living; in this world, yet we must love him, or we can- not be his children. After Jesus had told the Pharisee about the first and principal commandment, to love God, he said there was another commandment which THE STOBY OF THE GOSPEL. 143 came next to this one. These are the words of it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Our neighbor means any one. All the people in the world that we can do any good to, are our neighbors. And God says we must love them as we love ourselves. This means that we must be as careful to do what is kind and just to them, as we are to do what is kind and just to ourselves. And Jesus spoke to the Scribes and Phari- sees and called them hypocrites. I have told you that a hypocrite is a person who pretends to be good while, in his heart, he is wicked. These Scribes and Pharisees used to go into the synagogues on the Sabbath days, and sit in the first seats, where every one could see them, and they said their prayers out loud, so that every one could hear them. But on other days they were unjust and wicked, taking for their own things that did not belong to them. This is the reason why Jesus called them hypocrites. It does us no good to go to church and pray, if we come away from church to do wickedly. God sees us not only in church and Sunday- school, but all the time. And Jesus told the Scribes and Pharisees that because they pre- 144 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. tended to serve God, while they were really disobeying him, God would punish them the more at the Judgment Day. In the court, or yard, of the temple in Jeru- salem, there stood some chests, or boxes, which had openings in the top. These boxes were put there for the people to drop money in. This money the priests took, to buy such things as were needed at the temple. Therefore it was the same as if the money were given to God, because the things it bought were used in worshipping him. And one day Jesus was sitting near to the place where these boxes stood, and he saw the jDeople coming and dropping their money into them. And many persons, who were rich, put in a great deal. But a poor woman who was a widow, whose husband was dead, and who had not any body to work and earn money for her, came and dropped in two very small pieces of money, called mites, which were worth verv little. The two together were worth less than a penny. But these were all that she had, and Jesus knew they were all. And he called his disciples to him and told them, that these two mites, which the poor THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 145 widow dropped into the chest, seemed more to God, that is, God thought more of them, than he did of all that the rich men had given. For the rich men, he said, even after they had given so much, had a great deal still left for themselves. But this poor widow had nothing left for herself, because she gave all that she had, and did not save enough even to buy herself bread with. From this we learn that God thinks more of a little that we give to him, when it is hard for us to part with it, than he does of a great deal when we have so much that we do not miss it.' For the harder it is to give anything, or to do anything, for him, the more it shows that we love him. And that is what God wants us to do most of all, to love him. Xow, although Jesus had so often preached to the Jews and had done so many miracles for them to see, on purpose that they might believe, and know, he was the Son of God, yet they would not believe this, because their hearts were wicked. Our heart, as I have told you, is that part of us which makes us want to do right, or wrong; and it is that part of us which loves and hates persons. 10 146 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. If we have new and good hearts, we will love Jesus, and want to do all that he tells us to do. But the Jews had wicked hearts, and because Jesus told them of their sins they hated him and were not willing to believe in him, or to take him for their Saviour. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 147 CHAPTER X. JESUS SPEAKS THE PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS, AND TELLS WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON THE JUDGMENT DAY. MARY ANOINTS HIS HEAD. HE EATS THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER WITH HIS APOSTLES. JESUS told his disciples to be always ready for the Judgment Day, because they could not tell how soon that day might come. Then he spoke a parable to them about ten virgins, or young women, that went out to meet a man who had just been married, and who was bringing his wife to his home. For in that country, when a man was married, he brought his wife home to his house in the night, and some of his friends, each one of them carrying a lamp, or torch, used to go out to meet him. And these ten virgins in the parable had made ready to go out and meet the bridegroom, that is, the man who had been married. They had lighted their lamps and were all ready, but 148 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. because the bridegroom stayed longer than they expected, they sat down to wait till he should come. And they all fell asleep. Now, five of the virgins were wise and brought some more oil with them, beside the oil that was in their lamps. They did this so that if their lamps should go out, they would have enough oil to fill them again. But the other five virgins were foolish, and brought no oil except what was in their lamps. So, as we have just read, they all fell asleep while they were waiting for the bridegroom. And in the middle of the night the people who were watching, saw him coming, and they cried out, The bridegroom is coming, go you out to meet him. Then all the virgins rose up in haste, but they found that while they were asleep, their lamps had burned up the oil that was in them, and gone out. Then the foolish virgins, who had no more oil, came to the wise virgins, and said, Give us some of your oil for our lamps have gone out. But the wise virgins answered them, saying, We have not enough for our- selves and you, too; therefore go you to the persons who have oil to sell, and buy more for yourselves. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 149 So the foolish virgins went to buy some more oil. And while they were gone the bridegroom came. Then the wise virgins, who were ready and had their lamps burning; went with him into his house and sat down to the marriage feast. And after awhile the foolish virgins came. But now it was too late, the door had been shut, and though they stood calling outside, they were not allowed to come in. In this parable the bridegroom, coming in the night, means Jesus coming at the Judgment Day. The wise virgins mean those persons who have loved and obeved him, and who will be ready to meet him when he comes. Jesus will take them with him up into heaven. But the foolish virgins mean those persons who have not loved and obeyed Jesus, and who will not be ready to meet him at the Judgment Day. They, too, will want to be taken up into heaven, and they will see others taken up, but they, themselves, will never be allowed to go in there. And Jesus told his disciples what would happen on the Judgment Day. On that day, he said, he will come down to this world again, and all the holy angels will be with him. 150 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. And he will sit on his throne, and all the people who are dead, will rise up and stand before him, for him to judge them, that is, for him to decide whether they shall be re- warded, or punished. The people that have been drowned in the sea, and those that have been buried in the ground, will all rise up and be there. And then he will separate them into two great companies. One company will stand on his right hand; they will be the good. The other company will stand on his left hand; they will be the wicked. Then Jesus will speak kindly to those on his right hand and call them God's children. And he will tell them to come with him to the happy place, that God made ready for them when he first made the world. Afterward he will speak to the wicked on his left hand, but he will tell them to go from him into that dreadful place that was made for Satan and his evil spirits. Then the wicked will go into that place, that is, into hell, to be punished always. But the good will go up to heaven to be happy forever. After Jesus had told his disciples about these THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 151 tilings, he said, that in two days would be the feast of the Passover, and then he would be betrayed to be crucified. We betray a person, when we turn against him, and go and tell his enemies where to find him, so that they can take him and do him some harm. This is what Jesus meant would be done to him. He meant that while he was at Jeru- salem, keeping the feast of the Passover, some one would turn against him and give him to his enemies, so that they could take him and nail him to the cross, and crucify him. Jesus knew who would do this. It was Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles. Now in the land of Israel the people used to put oil, or ointment, on their heads, and on their beards, and sometimes they put it over their whole bodies. This was called anointing. They did it because the ointment made their skin soft and smooth, and because it had a sweet and pleasant smell. They thought, too, that it kept away sickness. Sometimes when a person went to visit a friend, while he sat in his house, his friend would come to him and put ointment on his head, and anoint it. And this was thought to be very kind. 152 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. And Jesus came to Bethany, the town where Mary and Martha lived. It was their brother Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. And they made a supper for Jesus at Bethany. Martha waited on him, but Lazarus was one of those who ate at the table. And while Jesus was at the table, Mary brought a jDOund of very precious ointment, called spikenard. It was in a box made of alabaster, or marble. And she came to Jesus while he was at the table, and broke the box, and poured the precious ointment on his head. And the house was filled with the sweet smell of the ointment. Mary did this to show how much she loved Jesus for coming down from heaven to be her Saviour. But Judas, the wicked apostle, who was going to betray him, found fault with her, and said, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and the money given away to persons who are poor? He said this not because he really cared for the poor, but because he was the one who carried the bag that the money was kept in, and he was a thief, and wanted the three hundred pence put into the bag, so that he could take them for his own. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 153 But Jesus told Judas not to find fault with Mary ; for .what she had done to him was good and kind. And he said, that wherever his disciples went, over the whole world, to preach the gospel to the people, they would tell them of Mary's kind act, that it might be remem- bered of her. I have told you about the priests who stayed at the temple in Jerusalem, attending to God's worship there. Now some of these priests were called chief priests, because they were the chief, or principal ones. And yet, although they were the chief ones among the priests, they were not good men. And when they heard Jesus teaching the people to do right and obey God, they hated him. And now Judas went to the chief priests and asked them how much money they would give him, if he would betray Jesus to them, that is, if he would, some time, bring them to the place where Jesus was, so that they could take him and put him to death. And the chief priests said they would give Judas thirty pieces of silver. And from that time Judas watched Jesus, to find him alone, so that he could bring the chief priests to the place, and betray him to them. 154 THE STOKY OF THE GOSPEL. And now the day had come when the Jews made ready for the feast of the Passover. Every man killed a lamb to eat at this feast, and it was roasted with fire, and the man and his family ate of it in the night; for, as we have read, the feast of the Passover was eaten in the night. And Jesus and his apostles were going to eat this feast together. And the apostles came to him and asked him where they should make it ready. He told them to go into the city of Jerusalem, and they would meet a man carry- ing a pitcher of water. And they should follow him into the house where he was going. There, Jesus said, they would see the man who was the owner of the house : and they were to say to him, The Master wants thee to show us the chamber, where he shall come to eat the feast of the Passover with his apostles. Then, Jesus said, the man would show them a large room, up stairs, that was ready furnished ; and in that room they should make ready the feast. And the apostles did as Jesus commanded. They went into Jerusalem and met the man carrying a pitcher of water. And they fol- lowed him to the house where he was going, THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 155 and the owner of the house, showed them a large upper room, as Jesus had said that he would, and the apostles made the feast ready there. And in the evening Jesus came with the twelve apostles and sat down with them at the table. Then he told them it was the last time he would eat the feast with them. He said this because he knew he was soon to die. But the apostles did not think he was going to die. They thought, because he was the Son of God, he was soon going to be very great, and to sit on a throne and be a king. And then, they thought, that they would be great too. And they began to dispute with one another about which of them should be greatest. But Jesus told them that the one who would be the greatest in his kingdom, would be the one who was the most humble, and willing to wait on the rest. Then he rose up from the table and took a towel, and fastened it around him. After that, he poured some water into a basin, and he went from one aj)Ostle to another, washing their feet and wiping them with the towel he had taken. Now, in that country, no one but the lowest servant, or slave, used to do this. But Jesus did it to the apostles to set them an example 156 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. of being humble and willing to serve one another. So after he had washed their feet, he came and sat down at the table again. Then he told the apostles that they should be willing to do to one another as he had done to them. And, as they were eating together, he said to them, Truly, I tell you, that one of you is going to betray me. But when the apostles heard Jesus say this, they were much surprised and very sorry ; and they looked at each other and wondered whom he could mean. Now one of the apostles whom Jesus loved very much, was leaning on his bosom. And this apostle spoke to Jesus, and asked him, which one of them he meant. Then Jesus said it was the one he would give a piece of bread to, after he had dipped it in the dish. And when he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot. Then Judas rose up from the table, and went out of the house where Jesus and the apostles were. And it was night. When he was gone, Jesus said to the apostles, I will be with you only a little while. Then he told them that he would give them a new commandment. It was this: That they THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 157 should love one another. As he had loved them, he said, so they should love one another. And in this way all the people would know that they were his disciples, if they had love one for another. And Jesus told the apostles they would all be tempted to go away and leave him that night. He said this because Judas was coming with a band of men to take him, and the apos- tles would be afraid when they saw these men. Jesus knew they were coming, for he knows all things, but the apostles did not know it. And when Jesus told them they would be tempted to leave him, they could not believe it. And Peter answered that he would never leave Jesus. Though all the rest shall leave thee, he said, I never will; for I am ready to go to prison with thee, and to be put to death with thee. But when Peter said this, Jesus told him that on that very night, before the cock should crow twice, Peter would say three times that he did not know him. You have seen, sometimes, as it grows dark, how the chickens fly up to the branch of a tree, or to some other place high above the ground, where they think they will be safe 158 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. from harm. And there they stay together all night. And sometimes, in the middle of the night, the cock stands up on the branch, and crows out loud. And very early in the morning, when the light first begins to show a little in the sky, he crows again. He crows several times as he sits up there on his perch. And when Peter said he would never leave Jesus, Jesus told him that on that very night, before the cock should crow twice, Peter w T ould not only go away and leave him, but he would say, three times, that he did not even know him. When Jesus told him this Peter was more astonished than ever, and he said, again, that he would never leave him ; and so all the aj)ostles said. And while they were at the table, eating the feast of the Passover, Jesus took some bread in his hands, and after he had thanked God for it, he broke it in pieces, and gave the pieces to the apostles. And he said to them, Take it and eat it, for this is my body which is broken for you. He meant that the bread was like his body, and that it meant his body, because his body was very soon to be broken and wounded on the cross for them, and for us all. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 159 And after he had given them the bread, he took some wine in a cup, and when he had thanked God for it, he handed it to the apostles and told them to drink of it. And he said, This wine is my blood which is shed (or poured out) for the forgiveness of sins. He meant that the wine was like his blood, and that it meant his blood, because his blood was very soon to be poured out from the wounds in his hands and his feet, while he was being; nailed to the cross. And the reason he would be nailed there was, so that the apostles, and all the people in the world, might be forgiven their sins. And he told the apostles that after he was dead, they should meet together, and eat of the bread, and drink of the wine, in the same way that he had shown them; and whenever they did it, he said, they should remember him. This is the Communion, the Lord's Supper, that we have in church now. It was Jesus who told us to have it. Whenever we see the broken bread in that supper, it means his body, wounded and nailed to the cross. And when- ever we see the wine, it means his blood poured out of the wounds in his hands and his feet. The persons who love him will keep on 160 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. having this supper, till he comes to the earth again. Every time they eat of it they think of the sins they have done, and that he was punished for ; and they repent of those sins, and determine to do them no more. And, as they sat at the table, Jesus talked with the apostles. He told them not to be troubled because he was to be taken away from them. He was going to his Father, he said, to make a place ready for them in his Father's house : he meant in heaven. For no one could come to his Father, lie said, that is, to God, unless Jesus should bring him. And he promised the apostles that after he had made a place ready for them in heaven, he would come back and take them, so that where he was they might be. Jesus meant that he would come back and take them at the Judgment Day. And he told them to obey the command- ments he had given them, for that was the way to show that they loved him. And if they loved him, he said, his Father would love them. And he promised the apostles that after lie was gone from them, his Father would send the Holy Spirit into their hearts. And the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, would make them re- THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 161 member everything he had taught them, and would teach them, also, the things that they were to teach others. And now, Jesus said, the apostles had sorrow, because he was to be taken from them, and put to death. But he would rise up from the dead, and they should see him again, and then their sorrow should be turned into joy. And he told them that, whenever they prayed to God for anything, they should ask God to give it to them for Jesus' sake. We ask to have a thing given us for another person's sake, when he deserves to have it and we do not. We, ourselves, do not deserve to have anything from God, because we have sinned against him. Therefore we cannot ask him to give us anything for our own sake. But if we ask it for Jesus' sake, God will give it to us, because Jesus has never sinned against God, and yet he has borne the punish- ment for our sins. And after Jesus had talked with the apostles, he lifted up his eyes toward heaven and prayed for them. And not only for them, but for all the men, and women, and little children, who should believe on him from hearing the words that the apostles preached. 11 162 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. You and I can never hear the apostles preach, for they are dead. But we can read the words that they preached about Jesus, in the Bible, for those words are written down there. And if we learn to believe on Jesus, and love him, from reading those words, then we are among the persons that he prayed to his Father for. He prayed that his Father would keep them from doing evil, and would make them to be holv, and to love one another. And he told his Father that he wanted them to come up to heaven and be with him. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 163 CHAPTEK XL JESUS AND HIS APOSTLES GO TO THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE; HE IS BETRAYED; THE APOSTLES FLEE AWAY; HE IS MOCKED AND CROWNED WITH THORNS; HE IS CRUCI- FIED. A FTER he had prayed for these tilings, Jesus -^- and his apostles sang a hymn together. Then they went out from the house where they had eaten the Passover, to the mountain called the Mount of Olives, which was not far from Jerusalem. And they came into a garden that was there, called the Garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus went a little way from the apostles, to a place by himself, and kneeled down on the ground and prayed. And the Bible says that while he prayed he was in an agony. This means that he was in great suffering, and distress. Why did Jesus have to bear this suffering? It was because he was being punished for our sins. 164 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. For sin is a dreadful thing. God is angry at it and always punishes it. And we had sinned, and were to be punished for it, but Jesus asked God to let him be punished in our place, because he loved us, and wanted to save us from punishment. And after he had prayed to his Father, he rose up from the ground and went back to his apostles, but he found they had fallen asleep. Then he said to them, Why do you sleep? Rise up and pray, for fear you may be tempted to do wrong. For Jesus knew how soon they would be tempted to go away and leave him alone. And he went away and prayed again, but afterward he came back to them, and said, Let us go, for the one who will betray me is coming near. We have read that Judas, the wicked apostle, had gone to the chief priests, and asked them how much money they would give him if he brought them to the place where Jesus was ; and they promised to give him thirty pieces of silver. Ever since they promised him this, Judas had been watching for a time when he could betray Jesus to them. And now Judas knew that Jesus had gone into the garden. And THE STOKY OF THE GOSPEL. 165 because it was night, and the garden was a lonely place, and only the apostles were with Jesus, Judas thought this was the best time to betray his Master. • So he went to the chief priests, and the Pharisees, and told them where Jesus was. Then they called together a band of men and gave them swords and clubs to fight with, and sent them with Judas to take Jesus. And now Judas was bringing these men to the garden, and Jesus knew they were coming, yet he did not flee away, but waited to let them take him, because he knew that the time had come, for him to die. And while he was yet speaking to the apos- tles, and telling them that the one who would betray him was coming near, Judas came, and the band of men with him, carrying swords and clubs and lanterns. Now Judas had told these men how they should know which one was Jesus. He said to them, The one I shall kiss is he ; take him and hold him fast. Then Judas came to Jesus and pretended he was glad to see him ; and he said, Master, Master, and kissed him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, dost thou betray me with a kiss? Then the men, when they saw Judas kiss him, 166 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. took hold of Jesus and bound him with fetters, or ropes, to take him away. When the apostles saw them do this they wanted to fight against them ; they said to Jesus, Lord, shall we fight them with swords ? And Peter, who had a sword, drew it out of the sheath, or cover, that it was in, and struck one of the men and cut off his ear. But Jesus told Peter to put his sword back again into its sheath. His Father, he said, would send thousands of angels to fight for him and save him from dying, if he would ask for them. But Jesus would not ask for them. Because, unless he died, we could not be forgiven. Therefore, he was willing to be taken, and put to death, for our sakes. And he put out his hand and touched the man's ear that Peter had struck with the sword, and made the place well again. And when the ajDOstles saw the band of men taking Jesus, they were afraid lest they might be taken with him, and they all left him and fled away. We have read how Jesus told them at the table, while they were eating the Passover together, that they would be tempted to leave THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 167 him that night. And they said, No, we will never leave thee. And Peter said, Though all the rest should leave thee, I never will. But now Peter and all the others fled away and left him with his enemies. I have told you that some of the priests at the temple were called chief priests, because they were the chief, or principal ones. But there was one priest who was greater, even, than the chief priests ; he was called the high priest. He was over all the other priests, and was a great man among the Jews, for he was one of the rulers over the j3eople. And now the men who had taken Jesus brought him to the high priest's house, and all the chief priests and the other rulers of the Jews were there. Now when Peter saw the band of men lead- ing Jesus away from the garden, he followed them ; yet he did not follow close after them, but a good way off, hoping no one would notice him. And when they brought Jesus into the high priest's house, Peter came in too. And he sat down, with the servants, by a fire that was burning there, and warmed himself. He wanted to see what would be done to Jesus, but 168 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. he did not want any one to know that he had been with him, and was one of his disomies. And while he was sitting there, a young woman, who was a servant, came and looked at him and asked if he was not one of Jesus' disciples. But Peter said he was not. And he rose up and went out on to the porch. And while he was there the cock crew; for it was now about the middle of the night. And presently another young woman saw him, and said to the men who were standing by, This fellow was also with Jesus. And Peter said, again, that he was not. And after awhile another servant, that was a relation to the man whose ear he had cut off, came to Peter, and said, Did I not see thee with him in the garden ? Then Peter pretended to be very angry at being asked so often if he was not with Jesus ; and he said, I do not know the man you are speaking about. And as soon as he said this, the cock crew a second time. Now Jesus was where he could hear what Peter said, and when he heard him say, the third time, that he had not been with him, and was not his disciple, Jesus turned and looked at Peter. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 169 And Peter saw him looking, and it made him remember how Jesus had said, that before the cock should crow twice, Peter would say, three times, that he did not know him. And when Peter remembered this, and thought how wicked he had been, he went out of the house to a place alone, and wept bitterly. Now the high priest and the other men who were the rulers over the Jews, used to meet together in a room near the temple. And there they held a court to try persons, and punish them, when they had done anything against the law. And as soon as it was morning, they took Jesus before this court to try him. And they brought false witnesses, that is, persons who would tell lies against him, and say that he had done wickedly. They brought them because they wanted an excuse for punishing Jesus, by putting him to death. But though the false witnesses spoke against him, they could not prove that he had done anything wrong. Then the high priest spoke to Jesus, and asked him if he w r ere the Son of God. And Jesus said that he was. And he told the high priest and the rulers, that at the Judgment Day, they should see 170 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. him sitting at the right hand of God, and coming down to this world again, in the clouds, from heaven. Then the high j3riest was very angry, and said, that Jesus had spoken wickedly about God. And he asked the rulers in the court, how they thought he ought to be punished, and they all said that he ought to be put to death. Then they mocked Jesus, and did spit upon him. And they bound a cloth, or bandage, around his eyes, so that he could not see, and struck him with their hands. Then they asked him who it was that struck him, because, they said, that if he were the Son of God, he could tell who it w T as without seeing him. Now the rulers of the Jews had different ways of punishing persons who had broken the law. But whenever they wanted to punish any one by putting him to death, they had to ask permission of the Roman governor. For, as we have been told, the Jews were servants to the Romans. And they were not allowed to put any one to death without asking the governor's consent. Therefore, the rulers, and all the Jews who were in the court with them, rose uj} and took Jesus to the Roman governor, whose name was Pilate. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 171 And when they had brought him into Pilate's house, they began to speak against him. They told Pilate that he taught the Jews to disobey the Romans, and said he was a king himself. Then Pilate asked him if he was a king. Jesus answered, I am. And yet, he said, he was not like the kings of this world. Jesus is not like the kings of this world because he rules in the hearts of the people who love him, and has his kingdom there. And Pilate spoke to the Jews and told them that although they had brought Jesus to him, and said he had done wrong, yet when he had questioned him, he could not find any fault in him. And Pilate said that Jesus had not done anything for which he deserved to die. Now every year, at this time, when the feast of the Passover was being held in Jerusalem, if any of the Jews were shut up in prison for disobeying the Romans, the Roman governor used to set one of them free. And he allowed the Jews to say which prisoner it should be. He did this to please them and make them willing to let him rule over them. And, now, because it was the time for the Passover, the Jews came to Pilate and asked him to do as he had always done before, and 172 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. set one of the prisoners free. Pilate asked them which one it should be ; whether it should be Jesus. They said, No, it shall be Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a wicked man, who had been put in prison for murder ; he had killed some one. Yet the Jews chose him as the one for Pilate to set free. Pilate said, What then shall I do with Jesus ? And they all cried out, Crucify him, crucify, him. Pilate said, Why, what evil has he done? But they cried out the more, Crucify him. Now Pilate did not want to crucify Jesus, and yet he was afraid of offending the Jews by refusing to do as they asked him. So when they cried out to crucify him, Pilate took some water and washed his hands before all the people, and he said to them, I will have nothing to do with j^utting this good man to death ; see ve to it. Pilate meant, by washing his hands, to put the sin away from himself, just as if it had been some spot that he could wash from his hands with water. But the sin was not on Pilate's hands ; it was in his heart, because, when he knew that Jesus was innocent, he would not let him go, but gave him up to the Jews to be crucified. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 173 Now, the Romans, before they crucified a man, used to scourge, or beat, him. They took off his clothes, down to his waist, and tied his hands fast to a low post, or ^pillar, in front of him. This made him stoop forward a little. And while he stood stooping in this way, they beat him cruelly on the bare back with rods, or cords. Pilate, therefore, took Jesus and scourged him. Afterward, the soldiers who were going to put him to death, took him into a room in Pilate's house, and they called there all the soldiers that belonged to their band, or com- pany. Then they began to mock Jesus. Because he had said he was a king, they took off his own coat and put on him a j^urple robe; for kings were dressed in purple. And when they had plaited a wreath of thorns, they put it on his head instead of a crown. And instead of a golden sceptre, or rod, such as kings held, they put a reed, or stick, in his right hand. Then they bowed down before him, pre- tending he was a king, and saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they did spit on him, and took the reed from him and struck him on the head, and they struck him also with their hands. 174 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. And now, after all these things had been done to Jesus, Pilate thought he would try again to save him from being crucified. He hoped that the Jews would be satisfied with his being scourged, and mocked, and treated so cruelly. So after the soldiers had done these things to him, Pilate brought Jesus out where the Jews could see him, with the crown of thorns on his head, and wearing the purple robe. And Pilate said to the Jews, I have brought him out to you to tell you, once more, that I find no fault in him. When the chief priests and all the Jews saw him, they cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, You may take him yourselves, then, and crucify him, for I do not find any fault in him. But, instead of saying this, Pilate ought to have told the Jews that they should not harm Jesus, for he knew that he had not done any- thing wrong. And Pilate was the governor and had the power to set him free. Yet for fear the Jews would be offended and want some other man for their governor, he gave Jesus to them, and sent soldiers also with them, to put him to death. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 175 Now when Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him, saw that Jesus was really to die, he was greatly afraid for what he had done. And he came to the chief priests and rulers with the thirty pieces of silver they had given him, and he asked them to take the money back ; for he said, I have sinned in taking it, because I have betrayed a person who has done nothing wrong. But the chief priests and rulers answered him, saying, What is that to us? Do thou attend to that. And they would not take the money back, because they did not want to let Jesus go. Then Judas threw down the silver pieces on the ground, and he went away and hanged himself, by a cord, or rope, around his neck, until he was dead. For he could not bear to think of his great sin in betraying his Master. Then the chief priests took the silver pieces and bought with them a field, called the Potter's Field. And that field was used afterward to bury strangers, who died in Jerusalem, and who had no other place where they might be buried. And the soldiers, after they had mocked Jesus, took off the purple robe from him, and 176 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. And because the cross that he was to be nailed to, was too heavy for him to carry alone, they made a man named Simon, whom they met coming out of the country, help Jesus carry it. And they brought him to a place called Calvary, which was a little way out of Jeru- salem. There they nailed him to the cross, driving the great nails through his hands and his feet, and so they crucified him. And while they were crucifying him, Jesus ]3rayed for them to his Father in heaven. He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He meant that they did not know they were crucifying the Son of God. And they gave Jesus to drink some vinegar, mixed with a bitter stuff called gall. They gave him this because it would make him sleep, and feel his pains less. But when he had tasted it he would not drink of it, for he did not want those pains made less, because he was bearing them for us, to save us from being in pain forever. And at the same time they crucified Jesus, they crucified two men with him, one on a THE STOKY OF THE GOSPEL. 177 cross at his right hand, and another on a cross at his left. But these were wicked men ; they were thieves, who were being put to death for the evil things they had done. Now persons who were crucified did not die at once ; they lived sometimes for many hours after they had been nailed to the cross. And so Jesus, although he was nailed to the cross in the morning, did not die until the afternoon. But all that time he was hanging there in the greatest suffering and pain. And the soldiers who had crucified him, sat down and watched him, so that no one might come and draw out the nails from his hands and his feet, and take him down from the cross. And they took his clothes and divided them among themselves ; one soldier taking one part, and another soldier another part. But his coat they cast lots for, to see which soldier should take it. And Pilate, the governor, made a writing, and had it fastened to the cross over the head of Jesus. These were the words that he wrote, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. And many of the Jews read these words as they passed by. For the place where he was 12 178 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. crucified was near the gate of Jerusalem, where the people went in and out of the city. And as they looked up at Jesus, they had no pity for him, but they mocked him and shook their heads at him, and told him, if he were the Son of God, to come down from the cross. And so he might have done, had he chosen to, but he chose to stay there, and die for you and for me. And one of the thieves who were crucified with him, spoke wickedly to him; but the other thief repented of his sins and asked Jesus to forgive him and save him. And Jesus told the penitent thief, that on that very day, as soon as he died, he should go to the happy place where Jesus himself was going. And Mary, the mother of Jesus, was standing by his cross, and so was that apostle whom Jesus loved, the one who leaned on his breast at the table while they were eating the feast of the Passover. And because Jesus was going to die and leave his mother, he wanted that apostle to take care of her. Therefore Jesus spoke to him and told him to love Mary as much, and to be as kind to her, after he was gone away, as if she were his own mother. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 179 And he told Mary to let that apostle be the same to her as if he were her own son. And from that hour that apostle, whose name was John, took Mary to his own home to take care of her and give her everything that she needed. And now, while Jesus was hanging on the cross, there came darkness, and for three hours it was dark over all the land. Yet it was not in the night, it was in the day time. But God sent that darkness because his Son was being put to death for our sins. And Jesus cried out with a loud voice from the cross, to his Father in heaven, and asked his Father why he turned away from him as if he did not love him any more. You know that sometimes your father has turned his face away from you, because he was displeased at you for disobeying him. And so we believe that God was now turning away from Jesus. Yet Jesus had not disobeyed God. But we have done so, many times, and Jesus was taking the blame on himself. Therefore God turned away from him the same as if Jesus himself had sinned. When Jesus saw this it troubled him more than all the pains he had to bear, and he cried out. 180 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. And one of the men who stood near the cross, when he heard Jesus cry, took a piece of sponge and filled it with vinegar, and lifted it up on a long reed, or stick, to the mouth of Jesus, so that he could drink the vinegar. And when he had drunk it, he said, It is finished. He meant that all the punishment which he had come down from heaven to bear for us, was finished. And he bov^ed his head and died. Then the ground shook, and the rocks that were underneath the ground were broken in pieces. And many graves in which good people were buried, opened, and those who were buried in them rose up, and went into the city of Jerusalem, and many persons saw them, alive, there. And when the Roman soldiers who had nailed Jesus to the cross, saw the wonderful things that happened at his death, they were afraid, and said, Surely this man was the Son of God. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 181 CHAPTER XII. PILATE SENDS SOLDIERS TO KILL JESUS. JOSEPH BURIES HIM IX HIS NEW SEPULCHRE. SOLDIERS WATCH THERE. JESUS RISES FROM THE DEAD. HE SHOWS HIMSELF AT DIFFERENT TIMES TO THE APOSTLES. HE ASCENDS TO HEAVEN. NOW, as we have read, Jesus was not crucified in Jerusalem, but at a place a little way out of the city. Therefore the Jews who were in the city did not know that he was dead. They knew that he was nailed to the cross and that he must soon die, but they did not know he had died already. So some of them went to Pilate, the gover- nor, and asked him to send soldiers to kill Jesus and the two thieves that were crucified with him. They did this because they wanted their dead bodies to be taken down from the cross, and buried, before the next day, for that was the Sabbath day. Then Pilate commanded some soldiers to go and do as the Jews asked him. And the 182 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. soldiers went and broke the legs of the two thieves to kill them. But when they came to Jesus they found that he was dead already ; therefore they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers took a spear and "thrust it into his side, and there came out blood and water. Now at the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden was a new sepulchre, or burying-place, where no one had ever yet been buried. It was a cave hollowed out of a rock, and it belonged to a rich man, named Joseph, who lived in the city of Arimathea. Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, and loved him, but before this time he had not let it be known, because he was afraid the Jews would treat him unkindly, and persecute him. But now, after Jesus was dead, Joseph would not keep it a secret any longer. And he went and begged Pilate to let him take the dead body of Jesus, so that he might bury it in his new sepulchre that was in the garden. And Pilate gave him leave. So Joseph took the body of Jesus down from the cross, and wrapped it in some new, fine linen that he had bought, and he laid it in the sepulchre. Then THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 183 he rolled a great stone to the door and shut up the sepulchre, and he left the body of Jesus there. And two women were sitting by the sepul- chre and they saw where the body of Jesus was laid. Both of these women were named Mary, and both of them were disciples of Jesus. And after they had seen where he was buried they went away to their own homes, to stay there the next day, for, as we have read, that day was the Sabbath. But, on the day after the Sabbath, they intended to come back, and bring some oint- ments and spices to put on his body ; for so the Jews used to do to the bodies of persons whom they buried. Now, after he was laid in the sepulchre, some of the Jews came to Pilate, and told him that Jesus had said he would rise up from the dead on the third day. Therefore they asked Pilate to send soldiers to watch at the sepulchre, for fear some of the disciples might come in the night and steal his body away, and then go and tell the people he had risen up from the dead. And Pilate did as the Jews asked him; he sent soldiers to watch at the sepulchre. 184 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. But, in the night, while they were watching, there was a great earthquake, and the ground where they stood was shaken. For God sent an angel down from heaven, and the angel rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre and sat upon it. His face was bright, like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow. And the soldiers, though they were brave men, and ready to go into battle, yet when they saw the angel, they trembled and were so afraid that they fell down, and could not move, and were like dead men. Very early the next morning, as soon as it was light, the two women who sat by the sepulchre, and another woman with them, whose name was Salome, came, bringing the spices and ointments which they had made ready to put on the body of Jesus. As they were coming they said to each other, Who shall roll away the stone from the door for us? For it was very great and heavy. But when they came near, they saw that the stone was rolled away. And they went into the sepulchre, and there they saw an angel dressed in long white garments. And the women were afraid. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 185 But the angel said to them, Be not afraid. You are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, he is risen. Come and see the place where they laid him; and go and tell his apostles that he has risen up from the dead. And the women went out quickly and fled away from the sepulchre, for they were greatly afraid, and yet they were full of joy to know that Jesus had risen again. And as they went to tell the aj3ostles, Jesus himself met them. And they bowed down before him, and held him by the feet and worshipped him. Then he told them not to be afraid, but to tell his apostles that they should go into that part of the land which was called Galilee, and there, he said, he would meet them. So the women went as Jesus commanded them, and they came to the apostles and told them that he was risen, and that they had seen him. But the aj)ostles thought they were speaking only foolish words, and they did not believe them. Yet Peter and John, two of the apostles, made haste and came to the sepulchre. They ran, both of them together, but John ran faster than Peter and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooped down and looked in at the 186 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. door, and saw the linen clothes which Jesus had worn, lying there, but he did not go in. But Peter, when he came, went into the sepulchre. And he saw the linen clothes and the napkin, or towel, which had been wrapt around the head of Jesus. This was not lying with the linen clothes, but was folded together in a place by itself. Then, after Peter had gone in, John went in also, and saw that Jesus was not there, and he believed that he had risen from the dead. And the two disciples went away to their own homes. Now after Jesus had risen, some of the soldiers who had guarded the sepulchre went to the chief priests in Jerusalem, and told them how the angel had come down from heaven and rolled away the stone, and how Jesus had risen uj) from the dead. Then the chief priests gave the soldiers a great deal of money and told them not to tell this to the people, but to say that Lis disci]3les had come in the night, while they were asleep, and stolen his body away. The chief priests asked the soldiers not to tell the people, because they did not want them to know that Jesus had risen up from the dead, THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 187 for then they would believe in him, that he was the Son of God. So the soldiers took the money and did as the chief priests told them. Therefore, ever since that time, the Jews have said that Jesus did not rise up from the dead, but that his disci]3les came in the night, while the soldiers were asleep, and stole his body away from the sepulchre. And on the same day that Jesus arose, two of his disciples were walking along the road together to a village, named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked with one another about the things that had happened. And while they were talking together, Jesus came near and walked with them. But his face was changed so that they did not know him, and they thought he was some stranger. And he asked them what they were talking about that made them look sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleoj^as, asked him if he was only a stranger in Jeru- salem that he had not heard of the things which had happened there. He asked them, What things? They told him how a great prophet, named 188 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. Jesus, had been there and done miracles for the people. Yet the chief priests, and rulers of the Jews, had taken him and crucified him. And this is the third day, the disciples said, since he was crucified. Yes, and some women who belong to our company, and who have been to his sepulchre, have made us astonished, by saying that he was not there, and that they saw angels who told them he was alive. And some of the men, also, who were with us, went afterward to the sepulchre and found it was as the women had said ; but they did not see him. And while the two disciples were talking with Jesus, they came near to the village where they were going. Then Jesus walked on, as though he would leave them and go further. But the disciples, because they thought he was some traveller on a journey, begged him to come to their house and stay with them that night, for they said, It is near evening and the day is almost gone. Then Jesus went with them into the house and sat down with them to supper. And while they were at the table he took bread in his hands, and when he had thanked God for it, he broke it in pieces, and gave the THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 189 pieces to the two disciples. And as lie did tli is they knew him, and saw that it was Jesus. And, in a moment, he was gone away out of their sight. Then they said to each other, Were we not interested in the things that he said to us while he talked with us by the way ? And they rose up quickly from the table and went back to Jerusalem, and came to the house where the apostles were. And they told the apostles how they had seen Jesus and talked with him, and how they had known him while he was breaking bread at the table. And while the two disciples were telling the apostles of these things, suddenly Jesus himself stood among them. And the apostles were afraid when they saw him, for they thought it was not Jesus, but a spirit. But he asked them why they were afraid : he told them to touch him and see that it was he, himself. For he said that a spirit had not a body such as they saw he had. Then he showed them his hands and his feet, with the marks of the nails in them. And while they wondered and could hardly believe it was Jesus, because they were so glad, 190 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. he asked them if they had any food there. And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and some honey; and he did eat before them. When they saw him do this they knew it was not a spirit, but Jesus himself. Then he talked with the apostles and told them why he had died, and risen again on the third day. The reason was that, if he had not done it, our sins could never have been for- given. But now, after he had died for us, God was willing to forgive every person who would repent, and believe in Jesus. And Jesus wanted every person to hear this good news. And because the apostles knew about these things, they were the ones, he said, to go and tell it. They were to tell it not only to the Jews who lived in the land of Israel; but they were to go over the whole world and tell it to all the people. And Jesus commanded the apostles to bap- tize every person who repented and believed in him. Those who believed and were baj)tized, he said, should be saved, but those who would not believe in him should be lost. But one of the apostles, named Thomas, was not with the others when Jesus came. And afterward, when they told him they had seen Jesus, Thomas would not believe them. THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 191 He said, Unless I shall see, for myself, the marks of the nails in his hands, and shall put my hand into the wound that the spear made in his side, I will not believe it was Jesus. And after eight days the apostles were in a room together, again, with the doors shut, and Thomas was with them. Then Jesus came and stood among them as he did before. Now he knew what Thomas had said: and he spoke to him, and told him, to reach out his finger and touch the marks in his hands, and to reach out his hand and touch the wound in his side, and not to doubt any more, but to believe that he had risen up from the dead. When Thomas heard his voice and knew that it was Jesus, he said to him, My Lord, and my God. Thomas called him this because Jesus is God. And his Father, who lives up in heaven, is God. And so is the Holy Spirit. These three are God. They are not three Gods, but the three together are one God. We cannot understand this, for we do not know enough to understand all the things about God. You know that your father has often told 192 THE SToh'Y OF THE GOSPEL. you things that you could not understand. 1 [e understood them, but you could not. Yet you believed them because be told them to you, and he said you would understand them after awhile, when you grew up. Now God tolls us many things in the Bible about himself that we cannot understand. But we believe them because be tells them to us. And after awhile, when wo die and go into thai world where God is, we shall understand them better than wo do now. To believe a thing that wo cannot understand, or see, just because God tells it to us, is to have faith. And God wants us to have faith. Thomas would not believe that Jesus had risen up from the dead until he had seen him. Bui Jesus told Thomas that those persons who were willing to believe without seeing him, j>le;ised ( o)d. Alter these things Peter and lour more of the apostles, were together by the sen. of Galilee. And Peter said, I mil going fishing. The others answered, We will go with thee. Then they went into a, boat and sailed out on the sea, and let their net down into the water. And they fished all that night and caughl nothing. When the morning had come Jesus stood on THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 193 the shore, and the apostles saw him, but they did not know it was Jesus. And he asked them whether they had any fish, They answered, No. Then he told them to let down the net on the right side of the boat, and they should Catch sonic And they did as Jesus commanded, and then were not able to draw n|> the net again because of the great number of fishes thai were caught in it. When the apostles saw this miracle, one of them said, It, is the Lord. Then Peter fastened his fisherman's coat around him and jumped into the sea, that be might make haste to the shore. The other apostles came, rowing the boat, and dragging the net full of fishes. When they came to the land they saw a, fire burning there, with fish laid on it, and bread. And Jesus told them to bring souk- of the fish they had caught. Then Peter went and drew the net up out of the water on to the shore, and it was hill of great fishes. There were a hundred and fifty- three of them, and yet, although there were many, the net was not broken. Then Jesus said to his apostles, Come and eat. And ho gave them some bread, and fish 13 194 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. also; but none of them dared to ask him who it was, for they knew it was the Lord. This was the third time he had shown him- self to them since he rose up from the dead. And not only to the apostles did he show him- self; but after this he was seen by more than five hundred of his disciples at one time. At another time the apostles saw him on a mountain in Galilee, where he had promised to come and meet them. And when they saw him they bowed down and worshipped him. Then he told them to go and teach the people of all nations. They were to teach them to be his disciples, and to obey his words. And Jesus commanded the apostles, again, to baptize all those persons who believed in him. They were to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. To be baptized in this name means, that we promise to love and obey God as our heavenly Father, and Jesus as our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit as our Teacher, who comes into our hearts and teaches us what God wants us to do. And when forty days were past, after he had risen from the dead, Jesus came to the apostles in the city of Jerusalem. And he commanded THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 195 them to stay in Jerusalem until God should send down the Holy Spirit to them from heaven. We have read how Jesus told the apostles, while they were eating the feast of the Passover together, that God would send the Holy Spirit to them, after Jesus, himself, was taken away from them. And now Jesus was to be taken away from them, and God was going to send the Holy Spirit to them. And the Holy Spirit would stay with the apostles, and make them remember what Jesus had told them ; and would teach them, also, what they were to teach the people. And after he had talked with them, Jesus led the apostles out of Jerusalem to the village of Bethany, which was not far off. And when they came there, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it was so, that while he was blessing them, he was taken up from them, and he went into a cloud out of their sight. And while they were looking up after him, two angels, in white garments, came to them, and the angels told the apostles that Jesus had gone up in the clouds to heaven, but that he would come down in the clouds to the earth 196 THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL, again. They meant that he would come down at the Judgment Day. And now, dear children, we have read The Story of the Gospel. Gospel, as you know, means good news. And the good news of the Gospel is about Jesus, how he loved us, and came down to this world to save us from being punished for our sins. We have read how he was born, as a little child, in the stable in Bethlehem, and after- ward lived with Mary, his mother, in the city of Nazareth, until he grew up to be a man. How he was baptized by John in the river Jordan, and then was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. After that he went about doing good to the people, and teaching them to repent and believe in him. Then he died on the cross for our sins, and rose again on the third day. And now he had done all those things for us that he came down from heaven to do. Therefore he went up to heaven again, where he was before. And he is in heaven still, sitting by his Father's side. But he looks down from there and sees all those persons who love and obey THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL. 197 him. He never forgets them. He hears them when they pray to him; he keeps Satan from hurting them; and he helps them to do right. And Jesus will stay in heaven till the Judg- ment Day. Then he will come down to this world, once more, to judge the people. And all the people, as we have been told, will rise up out of their graves, and stand before him, to be judged. And he will separate them into two great companies. One company will stand on his right hand. They will be the righteous. And one company will stand on his left hand. They will be the wicked. Then he will send the wicked away to the place of punishment; but the righteous he will take up to heaven, where they will live with him forever. INDEX. A. Adam 10-12 Andrew 44-61 Angels 9 Anointing 151 Apostles, called 61, 85 B. Baptism 30 Barabbas 172 Bartimeus 131 Beatitudes 62, 63 Bethany 103 Bethesda 57 Bethlehem 14 Bethsaida 91 Bier 68 C. Calvary 176 Cana 36 Capernaum 46 Centurion 66, 67 Cleopas 187 Cross 130 D. Disciple 36 Dove 31 E. Eden 10-12 Egypt 20 Eminaus loJ Eve 10-12 F. Faith ' 191 G Galilee 40 Gall 176 Gates 57 Gethsemane 163 Gospel 49 199 200 INDEX. H. PAGE Herod the Great 17-20 Herod Antipas o7-39 Herodias 3». 3'.) Holy Communion 159 Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus 31 renews our hearts 30 I. Israel, land of 13 Israelites 17 J. James, the apostle, is called 45 is present at raising of ruler's daughter 83 is present at transfiguration 91 is sent to the Samaritans 97 James, son of Alpheus 01 Jericho 99 Jerusalem 16, 17 Jesus is born 13 is worshipped by shepherds 15, 16 is worshipped by wise men 17-20 is carried into Egypt 20 lives in Nazareth 21 goes up to the feast 24-26 is baptized 30, 31 fasts and is tempted by Satan 31-35 turns water into wine 36 talks with woman of Samaria 40-41 cures nobleman's son 42 casts out evil spirits 46,47,79,84,93 cures leprosy 50 cures man with palsy 52-54 cures lame man at Bethesda 57 cures man with withered hand 60 preaches sermon on the mount 62-65 raises widow's son 68 speaks parables 70-78 stills the storm 78 raises the ruler's daughter 81 heals the blind 84.91,110-113 feeds the multitude 87 is transfigured 92 heals lepers 98 raises Lazarus 114,115 speaks in parables 119-129 enters into Jerusalem 136 eats the Passover 156-163 is betrayed 165 is taken to palace of High Priest 167 is mocked 170 is taken before Pilate 171 is scourged 173 is crucified 176 rises from the dead 184 appears to disciples 187-194 ascends into heaven 195 Jews 17 Joanna 69 INDEX. 201 PAGE John, rhe Baptist 27-81, John, the apostle, called 4G at raising of ruler's daughter 8;'» at transfiguration 91 sent to Samaritans D7 is told to care for Jesus' mother 178 visits the sepulchre 18") Jordan 28 Joseph, the husband of Mary 1-1 Joseph, of Arimathea . . . ." 182 Judas, brother of James 62 Judas Iscariot CI complains of waste of ointment 152,153 bargains with the priests 156 betrays his Master 164,165 hangs himself 175 L. Lazarus, Martha's brother 114.115,135 Lazarus, the beggar 125-127 Leprosy 49 Locusts 27. 28 Lord's Prayer • . . 105-108 M. Martha 103, 114, 152 Mary, the Virgin, Jesus' birth foretold to 13 gives birth to the Saviour 14 flees into Egypt 20 goes to Nazareth 21 goes up to the feast 24-26 stands by the cross 178 Mary Magdalene fi9, 182 Man', of Bethany 103,114,152 Matthew 56,61 X. Nain 67 Nets 44 O. Olives, Mount of 135 P. Parable of the rich man 70 sower 73 tares 75 merchantman seeking pearls 76 fishermen and their net 77 king and his servants 95 good Samaritan 100 great supper 118 prodigal son 121 rich man and Lazarus 125 Pharisee and Publican 128 vineyard 138 ten virgins 147 Passover 21-23.1.54 202 INDEX. 'PAGE Peter, is called 46 at raising of ruler's daughter '. ......... '. 83 walks on water ....'....' 88-89 is present at transfiguration .'....' 91 pays tribute ..'..'. 94 cuts off servant's ear and denies Jesus ......' ' 166-169 visits sepulchre ' ' J85 leaves the boat to go to Jesus .... 193 Pharisees „ Philip g* Pilate '.'.'.''' ' 170-1*74 177 Potters' field i/U "MS Priests J™ chief : : ; ; fig high |2s Prophets 27 publicans '''■.'::::::: '56,133 R. Romans « Roofs '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. '. '.'. 51 S. S alom< r 38,39,184 Samaritans ' ' X? Satan '..'.'. 9 Scourging ..[.'..'.'.'.'.' ' ' ' 173 Scribes * Hi Sermon on the Mount ' 6 2_6 5 Sheep gate r-7 Shepherds '.'.'.'. 15 Simon, the apostle ' * 6 1 Simon, of Cyrene i 7fi Siloam ji? sychar :::::::::::: S Synagogues \ '.'.'.'. 48 T Temple 2 i Temptation q'o qq Thomas 6 "\%* Trinity •''.'. ^'. '.'.'.'.'. '.'.''.'.'.'.'.'.[ '.m U. Uzziah 5Q V Vineyard 137 W. Walls ~ weiis ; ; ;::;;; ; % Wilderness ' * 27 Wine press . . ' 138 Wise men .'.'.'. 17-20 Z. Zaccheus t ^32 133 Date Due • AIM TV/ __^— — 4- ^m — r L - — - — — I 1 izzzzti^ 1 ^j