Seeing that many have attempted to draw up a narrative of the facts which are received with full assurance among us

that you may fully know the truth of the things which you have been taught by word of mouth.

"I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God," answered the angel, "and I have been sent to talk with you and tell you this good news.

When, however, he came out, he was unable to speak to them; and they knew that he must have seen a vision in the Sanctuary; but he kept making signs to them and continued dumb.

But the angel said, "Do not be frightened, Mary, for you have found favour with God.

"How can this be," Mary replied, "seeing that I have no husband?"

to have himself registered together with Mary, who was betrothed to him and was with child.

Because mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,

When they saw Him, they were smitten with amazement, and His mother said to Him, "My child, why have you behaved thus to us? Your father and I have been searching for you in anguish."

"Why is it that you have been searching for me?" He replied; "did you not know that it is my duty to be engaged upon my Father's business?"

Live lives which shall prove your change of heart; and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our forefather,' for I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones.

"Doubtless," said He, "you will quote to me the proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself: all that we hear that you have done at Capernaum, do here also in your native place.'"

"Ha! Jesus the Nazarene, what have you to do with us? I know who you are--God's Holy One!"

But He said to them, "I have to tell the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, because for this purpose I was sent."

"Rabbi," replied Peter, "all night long we have worked hard and caught nothing; but at your command I will let down the nets."

Amazement seized them all. "Glory to God!" was the abiding feeling. Yet fear flashed through their minds and they said, "We have seen strange things to-day."

I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners."

"Can you compel the bridal party to fast," replied Jesus, "so long as they have the bridegroom among them?

"Have you never read so much as this," answered Jesus--"what David did when he and his followers were hungry;

"But alas for you rich men, because you already have your consolation!

"Alas for you who now have plenty to eat, because you will be hungry! "Alas for you who laugh now, because you will mourn and weep aloud!

"Alas for you when men shall all have spoken well of you; for that is just the way their forefathers behaved to the false Prophets!

And behave to your fellow men just as you would have them behave to you.

And they, when they came to Jesus, earnestly entreated Him, pleading, "He deserves to have this favour granted him,

For I too am a man obedient to authority, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this or that,' and he does it."

Jesus listened to the Captain's message and was astonished at him, and He turned and said to the crowd that followed Him, "I tell you that not even in Israel have I found faith like that."

Then He answered the messengers, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. Blind men receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are purified, deaf persons hear, the dead are raised to life, the poor have the Good News proclaimed to them.

But the Pharisees and expounders of the Law have frustrated God's purpose as to their own lives, by refusing to be baptized.

They are like children sitting in the public square and calling out to one another, 'We have played the flute to you, and you have not danced: we have sung dirges, and you have not shown sorrow.'

In answer to his thoughts Jesus said to him, "Simon, I have a word to say to you." "Rabbi, say on," he replied.

"I suppose," replied Simon, "the one to whom he forgave most." "You have judged rightly," Jesus rejoined.

Those by the way-side are those who have heard, and then the Devil comes and carries away the Message from their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

Those on the rock are the people who on hearing the Message receive it joyfully; but they have no root: for a time they believe, but when trial comes they fall away.

That which fell among the thorns means those who have heard, but as they go on their way, the Message is stifled by the anxieties, wealth and gaieties of time, and they yield nothing in perfection.

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, and said in a loud voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of God Most High? Do not torture me, I beseech you."

Jesus heard the words and said to him, "Have no fear. Only believe, and she shall be restored to life."

And He commanded them, "Take nothing for your journey; neither stick nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have an extra under garment.

And Herod said, "John I have beheaded; but who is this, of whom I hear such reports?" And he sought for an opportunity of seeing Jesus.

"You yourselves," He said, "must give them food." "We have nothing," they replied, "but five loaves and a couple of fish, unless indeed we were to go and buy provisions for all this host of people."

Why, what benefit is it to a man to have gained the whole world, but to have lost or forfeited his own self.

For whoever shall have been ashamed of me and my teachings, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own and the Father's glory and in that of the holy angels.

I tell you truly that there are some of those who stand here who will certainly not taste death till they have seen the Kingdom of God."

"Rabbi," replied John, "we have seen a man making use of your name to expel demons; and we forbad him, because he does not come with us."

"The foxes have holes," said Jesus, "and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

"Alas for thee, Chorazin! Alas for thee, Bethsaida! For had the miracles been performed in Tyre and Sidon which have been performed in you, long ere now they would have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

"I have given you power to tread serpents and scorpions underfoot, and to trample on all the power of the Enemy; and in no case shall anything do you harm.

For I tell you that many Prophets and kings have desired to see the things you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things you hear, and have not heard them."

"Which of those three seems to you to have acted like a fellow man to him who fell among the robbers?"

And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him in the middle of the night and say, "'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;

for a friend of mine has just come to my house from a distance, and I have nothing for him to eat'?

"When a foul spirit has left a man, it roams about in the Desert, seeking a resting-place; but, unable to find any, it says, 'I will return to the house I have left;"

As He thus spoke a woman in the crowd called out in a loud voice, "Blessed is the mother who carried you, and the breasts that you have sucked."

"But alas for you Pharisees! for you pay tithes on your mint and rue and every kind of garden vegetable, and are indifferent to justice and the love of God. These are the things you ought to have attended to, while not neglecting the others.

"Alas for you expounders of the Law! for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you yourselves have not entered, and those who wanted to enter you have hindered."

Whatever therefore you have said in the dark, will be heard in the light; and what you have whispered within closed doors will be proclaimed from the house-tops.

"And I tell you that every man who shall have acknowledged me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God.

and he debated within himself, saying, "'What am I to do? for I have no place in which to store my crops.'

and I will say to my life, "'Life, you have ample possessions laid up for many years to come: take your ease, eat, drink, enjoy yourself.'

Observe the ravens. They neither sow nor reap, and have neither store-chamber nor barn. And yet God feeds them. How far more precious are you than the birds!

"Have your girdles on, and let your lamps be alight;

Of this be sure, that if the master of the house had known what time the robber was coming, he would have kept awake and not have allowed his house to be broken into.

But I have a baptism to undergo; and how am I pent up till it is accomplished!

Never, I tell you, will you get free till you have paid the last farthing."

So he said to the gardener, "'See, this is the third year I have come to look for fruit on this fig-tree and cannot find any. Cut it down. Why should so much ground be actually wasted?'

"But the gardener pleaded, "'Leave it, Sir, this year also, till I have dug round it and manured it.

As soon as the Master of the house shall have risen and shut the door, and you have begun to stand outside and knock at the door and say, "'Sir, open the door for us' --"'I do not know you,' He answers; 'you are no friends of mine.'

"Then you will plead, "'We have eaten and drunk in your company and you have taught in our streets.'

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou who murderest the Prophets and stonest those who have been sent to thee, how often have I desired to gather thy children just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not come!

Then He turned to them and said, "Which of you shall have a child or an ox fall into a well on the Sabbath day, and will not immediately lift him out?"

"When any one invites you to a wedding banquet, do not take the best seat, lest perhaps some more honoured guest than you may have been asked,

and you will be blessed, because they have no means of requiting you, but there will be requital for you at the Resurrection of the righteous."

"But they all without exception began to excuse themselves. The first told him, "'I have purchased a piece of land, and must of necessity go and look at it. Pray hold me excused.'

"A second pleaded, "'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and am on my way to try them. Pray hold me excused.'

Then coming home he calls his friends and neighbours together, and says, 'Congratulate me, for I have found my sheep--the one I had lost.'

I tell you that in the same way there will be rejoicing in Heaven over one repentant sinner--more rejoicing than over ninety-nine blameless persons who have no need of repentance.

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, and says, "'Congratulate me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.'

"But on coming to himself he said, "'How many of my father's hired men have more bread than they want, while I here am dying of hunger!

I will rise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you:

"'Father,' cried the son, 'I have sinned against Heaven and before you: no longer do I deserve to be called a son of yours.'

"'All these years,' replied the son, 'I have been slaving for you, and I have never at any time disobeyed any of your orders, and yet you have never given me so much as a kid, for me to enjoy myself with my friends;

but now that this son of yours is come who has eaten up your property among his bad women, you have killed the fat calf for him.'

If therefore you have not proved yourselves faithful in dealing with the wealth that is tainted with fraud, who will entrust to you the true good?

And if you have not been faithful in dealing with that which is not your own, who will give you that which is your own?

The Law and the Prophets continued until John came: from that time the Good News of the Kingdom of God has been spreading, and all classes have been forcing their way into it.

For I have five brothers. Let him earnestly warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'

"'They have Moses and the Prophets,' replied Abraham; 'let them hear them.'

and will not rather say to him, 'Get my dinner ready, make yourself tidy, and wait upon me till I have finished my dinner, and then you shall have yours'?

So you also, when you have obeyed all the orders given you, must say, "'There is no merit in our service: what we have done is only what we were in duty bound to do.'"

Have none been found to come back and give glory to God except this foreigner?"

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

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

On receiving this answer Jesus said to him, "There is still one thing wanting in you. Sell everything you possess and give the money to the poor, and you shall have wealth in Heaven; and then come, follow me."

Then Peter said, "See, we have given up our homes and have followed you."

Zacchaeus however stood up, and addressing the Lord said, "Here and now, Master, I give half my property to the poor, and if I have unjustly exacted money from any man, I pledge myself to repay to him four times the amount."

"'Well done, good servant,' he replied; 'because you have been faithful in a very small matter, be in authority over ten towns.'

"The next came. "'Sir,' he said, 'here is your pound, which I have kept wrapt up in a cloth.

why then did you not put my money into a bank, that when I came I might have received it back with interest?

"It is written," He said, "'And My house shall be the House of Prayer,' but you have made it a robbers' cave."

But as for those who shall have been deemed worthy to find a place in that other age and in the Resurrection from among the dead, the men do not marry and the women are not given in marriage.

Then some of the Scribes replied, "Rabbi, you have spoken well."