"Consider the ravens; they neither sow nor reap; they have no storehouse nor barn. And yet God feeds them. How much more are you worth than the birds?

"For all these things the nations of the world are seeking; but your Father knows that you have need of these things.

"Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves with purses which do not grow old, a treasure inexhaustible in the heavens, where no thief draws near, nor does moth destroy.

"However, you know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not have allowed his house to be broken into.

"Would it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it is accomplished!

"You shall by no means come out of there until you have paid the very last farthing."

"Do you suppose," he answered them, "that those Galileans were worse sinners than the rest of the Galileans because they have suffered thus?

So he said to the gardener. "'See, for years I have come looking for fruit on this tree, and found none. Cut it down. Why should it actually cumber the ground?'

"But the gardener answered him. 'Lord, let it alone this year also, till I have dug around it, and fertilized it.

"and this woman, who is the daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound these eighteen years, ought she not have been loosened from bondage, though the day be the Sabbath?"

"Then you will begin saying, 'But we have eaten and drunk in your presence, and you have taught in our streets.'

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!

"Then you will be blessed, because they have no means to repay you, but you shall be paid in the Resurrection of the Just."

"And they all, without exception, proceeded to excuse themselves. The first told him. 'I have bought a field, and must needs go and see it. Pray have me excused.'

"The second said: 'I have bought five yolk of oxen and am on my way to try them. I pray that you will have me excused.'

"'I have taken a wife,' said the another, 'and for that reason I am unable to come.'

"And the slave said, 'My master, your orders have been carried out, but yet there is room.'

"Salt is good, but if even the salt have lost its flavor, with what shall it be seasoned?

"When he gets home he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'

"And when she has found it, she calls together her woman friends and neighbors and say, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.'

"When he came to himself he said: "'How many of my father's hired men have bread enough and to spare, while I am perishing of hunger!

"'I will rise and go to my father, and say to him. "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and in your sight,

"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no more worthy to be called your son.'

"'All these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed a command of yours. Yet you never gave me even a kid so that I might make merry with my friends.

"'But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with harlots, you have killed him the fatted calf.'

"If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will trust to you the true riches?

"And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham have mercy on me; and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'

"'I beg you then, father,' he said, 'send him to my fathers house. For I have five brothers.

"But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets, let them listen to them.'

"and will not rather tell him, 'Get ready something for me to eat, and gird yourself to wait on me until I have eaten and drunken. Then you shall eat and drink.'

"Even so, you also, after you have done all the things that are commanded you, should say, 'We are but slaves, we have only done what it was our duty to do.'"

"For a while he would not, but afterwards he said to himself, 'Though I have neither reverence for God nor regard for man,

"All of these," he replied, "I have kept from my youth up."

And receiving this reply, Jesus said to him. "One thing you are still lacking. Sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me."

Jesus looked at him and said: "How hard it is for those who have money to enter into the kingdom of God!

Then Peter said, "Look! we have left our homes and followed you."

But Zaccheus stood up and said to the Lord, "I give half my property to the poor, Lord, and if I have defrauded any man of anything I am restoring it to him fourfold."

"And he said to him, 'Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'

"'Then why did you not put my money into the bank, so that at my coming I might I might have gotten it back with interest?'

saying, "It is written, ??he house of God shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers."

Day after day he continued to teach in the Temple. The high priests and scribes tried to have him put to death, so did the rulers of the people.

"for these men have all contributed to the offering out of their surplus, but she, out of her want, contributed all she had to live on."

He answered. "No sooner will you have entered the city than you will meet a man carrying a water-jug. Follow him into the house were he is going.

and he said to them. "With desire have I longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

and he said to them. "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have who have authority over them are called Benefactors.

"You, however, are those who have stood by me in my trials.

"Simon, Simon," said the Lord, "behold, Satan has asked to have you all that he might sift you like wheat.

"But I made supplication for you that your own faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned again, must strengthen your brothers."

Then Jesus said to the corps of priests and captains of the temple and elders who had come out to arrest him. "Have ye come for me with swords and clubs to arrest me like a robber?

"What need we of further evidence? for we ourselves have heard it from his own lips."

and began to accuse him. "We have found this fellow perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and proclaiming that he is the Messiah and King."

and said to them. "You brought before me this man as one who incited the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence, and I find no fault in this man regarding the charges that you brought against him.

For the third time he appealed to them. "But what crime has he committed? I have found in him nothing that deserves death. I will therefore flog him, and let him go."

"but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they shall say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have never bore children, and the breasts that never suckled.'

But the other, answering, reproved him, saying. "Have you no fear of God even? When you are suffering the same punishment as he?

"We indeed justly, for we are receiving due retribution for what we have done. But he has done no wrong."

They stood still, looking sad. And one of them named Cleopas, answered him, "Do you sojourn alone in Jerusalem, that you do not know what things have been happening there these days?"

"O foolish men," said Jesus, "slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

"Look at my hands and my feet. It is I! Feel me and see; for a ghost has not flesh and blood as I have."

But while they still did not believe it for joy, and were filled with wonder, he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"

For out of his fulness we have all received, yes, grace upon grace.

This I have seen, and I am become a witness to the fact that he is the Son of God."

In the morning he found his brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (a word which means Christ, the Anointed One).

Then Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found him about whom Moses wrote in the Law, as did the prophets??esus of Nazareth, Joseph's son."

And when the wine ran short, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no wine."

"Woman," said Jesus, "what have you to do with me? My time is not yet come."

"Everybody serves first the good wine, and when people have drunk freely, the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now."

If I have told you earthly things and yet none of you believe me, how will you believe if I tell you concerning heavenly things?

in order that every one who believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever trusts in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

but he who does what is true, comes to the light, in order that his actions may be shown to have been wrought in God."

"Rabbi, see! The man who was with you on the other side of Jordan, and to whom you yourself have borne testimony, is now baptizing, and everybody is coming to him."

You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but have been sent before him.'

"How is it," answered the Samaritan woman, "that you who are a Jew ask a drink from me, a woman, and a Samaritan?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

"If you had known the free gift of God," Jesus answered, "and who it is that says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water."

"Sir," said the woman, "you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; whence have you that living water?

"I have no husband," answered the woman. "You are right in saying 'I have no husband,'" Jesus said to her,

"for you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband; in this you have spoken truly."

"Rabbi," they said, "eat something." But he answered, "I have food to eat of which you know nothing."

So the disciples began to say to one another, "Can any one have brought him something to eat?"

I sent you to reap a crop on which you have not toiled. Others have toiled, and you have reaped the benefit of their toil."

"We no longer believe because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard him, and we know that this is certainly the Saviour of the world."

"Sir," answered the sick man, "I have no man to put me into the pool whenever the water is troubled; and while I am trying to come, some one else steps down before me."

Afterward Jesus found him in the Temple, and said to him. "Look! You have become well. Do not go on sinning, lest a worse thing befall you."

"For as the Father has life in himself, so also has he granted to the Son to have life in himself.

"those who have done good into a resurrection of life, and those who have practised evil to a resurrection of condemnation.

"But I have testimony greater than that of John; for the work which the Father has given me to bring to completion??he work which I am doing??ears testimony concerning me, that the Father has sent me.

"You are searching the Scriptures because you suppose that in tem you have eternal life; and though these are they that bear witness concerning me,

"you will not come to me that you may have life.

"that you have not the love of God in yourselves.

"How can you believe when you receive glory from, one another, and have no desire for the glory which comes from the only God?

"But as I told you, you have seen me, and yet you do not believe.

"For this is my Fathers will, that every one who beholds the Son and believes on him, shall have eternal life. and I will raise him up at the last day."

"Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? How is it that he now says, 'I have come down from heaven'?"

"I tell you solemnly," said Jesus, "that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

"The spirit is what gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words which I have been speaking to you, are spirit and are life.

Simon Peter answered. "To whom shall we go Master? You have words of eternal life;

"and we have learned to believe and we know that you are the holy one of God."

In reply Jesus said to them. "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? And yet even of you one is an enemy."

No one, however, was speaking openly about him, for fear of the Jews. "But now I am coming to thee, and I am speaking these things while I am in the world, so that they may have my joy in all its fulness in themselves.