Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For, if the Miracles which have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have sat in sackcloth and ashes and repented long ago.

And Jesus replied: "I have had visions of Satan, fallen, like lightning from the heavens.

Remember, I have given you the power to 'trample upon serpents and scorpions,' and to meet all the strength of the Enemy. Nothing shall ever harm you in any way.

Yet do not rejoice in the fact that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been enrolled in Heaven."

"You have answered right," said Jesus; "do that, and you shall live."

For a friend of mine has arrived at my house after a journey, and I have nothing to offer him;'

Only give away what is in them in charity, and at once you have the whole clean.

But alas for you Pharisees! You pay tithes on mint, rue, and herbs of all kinds, and pass over justice and love to God. These last you ought to have put into practice without neglecting the first.

Alas for you Pharisees! You delight to have the front seat in the Synagogues, and to be greeted in the markets with respect.

Alas for you Students of the Law! You have taken away the key of the door of Knowledge. You have not gone in yourselves and you have hindered those who try to go in."

Hence all that you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear, within closed doors, will be proclaimed upon the housetops.

And he began to ask himself 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?

And I will say to myself, Now you have plenty of good things put by for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.'

But God said to the man 'Fool! This very night your life is being demanded; and as for all you have prepared--who will have it?'

Think of the ravens--they neither sow nor reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn; and yet God feeds them! And how much more precious are you than birds!

This you do know, that, had the owner of the house known at what time the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into.

You will not, I tell you, come out until you have paid the very last farthing."

"Do you suppose," replied Jesus, "that, because these Galileans have suffered in this way, they were worse sinners than any other Galileans?

So he said to his gardener 'Three years now I have come to look for fruit on this fig tree, without finding any! Cut it down. Why should it rob the soil?'

'Leave it this one year more, Sir,' the man answered, 'till I have dug round it and manured it.

Then, if it bears in future, well and good; but if not, you can have it cut down.'"

But this woman, a daughter of Abraham, who has been kept in bondage by Satan for now eighteen years, ought not she to have been released from her bondage on the Sabbath?"

Then you will begin to say 'We have eaten and drunk in your presence, and you have taught in our streets,' and his reply will be--

But Jesus answered: "Go and say to that fox 'Look you, I am driving out demons and shall be completing cures to-day and to- morrow, and on the third day I shall have done.'

Jerusalem! Jerusalem! she who slays the Prophets and stones the messengers sent to her--Oh, how often have I wished to gather your children round me, as a hen takes her brood under her wings, and you would not come!

"When you are invited by any one to a wedding banquet, do not seat yourself in the best place, for fear that some one of higher rank should have been invited by your host;

They all with one accord began to ask to be excused. The first man said to the servant 'I have bought a field and am obliged to go and look at it. I must ask you to consider me excused.'

The next said 'I have bought five pairs of bullocks, and I am on my way to try them. I must ask you to consider me excused';

And, on reaching home, he calls his friends and his neighbors together, and says 'Come and rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'

So, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over one outcast that repents, than over ninety-nine religious men, who have no need to repent.

And, when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, and says 'Come and rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I lost.'

But, when he came to himself, he said 'How many of my father's hired servants have more bread than they can eat, while here am I starving to death!

'No,' he said to his father, 'look at all the years I have been serving you, without ever once disobeying you, and yet you have never given me even a kid, so that I might have a merry-making with my friends.

But, no sooner has this son of yours come, who has eaten up your property in the company of prostitutes, than you have killed the fattened calf for him.'

'Child,' the father answered, 'you are always with me, and everything that I have is yours.

'What am I to do,' the steward asked himself, 'now that my master is taking the steward's place away from me? I have not strength to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

His master complimented this dishonest steward on the shrewdness of his action. And indeed men of the world are shrewder in dealing with their fellow-men than those who have the Light.

So, if you have proved untrustworthy with the 'dishonest money,' who will trust you with the true?

And, if you have proved untrustworthy with what does not belong to us, who will give you what is really our own?

For I have five brothers to warn them, so that they may not come to this place of torture also.'

'They have the writings of Moses and the Prophets,' replied Abraham; 'let them listen to them.'

And so with you--when you have done all that you have been told, still say 'We are but useless servants; we have done no more than we ought to have done.'"

And God--will not he see that his own People, who cry to him night and day, have justice done them--though he holds his hand?

He will, I tell you, have justice done them, and that soon! Yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Meanwhile the tax-gatherer stood at a distance, not venturing even 'to raise his eyes to Heaven'; but he kept striking his breast and saying 'O God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

"I have observed all these," he replied, "from childhood."

Hearing this, Jesus said to him: "There is one thing still lacking in you; sell everything that you have, and distribute to the poor, and you shall have wealth in Heaven; then come and follow me."

But Zacchaeus stood forward and said to the Master: "Listen, Master! I will give half my property to the poor, and, if I have defrauded any one of anything, I will give him back four times as much."

But his subjects hated him and sent envoys after him to say 'We will not have this man as our King.'

The first came up, and said 'Sir, your ten pounds have made a hundred.'

'Well done, good servant!' exclaimed the master. 'As you have proved trustworthy in a very small matter, I appoint you governor over ten towns.'

When the second came, he said 'Your ten pounds, Sir, have produced fifty.'

Another servant also came and said 'Sir, here are your ten pounds; I have kept them put away in a handkerchief.

For I was afraid of you, because you are a stern man. You take what you have not planted, and reap what you have not sown.'

The master answered 'Out of your own mouth I judge you, you worthless servant. You knew that I am a stern man, that I take what I have not planted, and reap what I have not sown?

Then why did not you put my money into a bank? And I, on my return, could have claimed it with interest.

But as for my enemies, these men who would not have me as their King, bring them here and put them to death in my presence.'"

"Would that you had known, while yet there was time--even you--the things that make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your sight.

Saying as he did so: "Scripture says--'My House shall be a House of Prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"

And addressing him, said: "Tell us what authority you have to do these things. Who is it that has given you this authority?"

"Then I," said Jesus, "refuse to tell you what authority I have to do these things."

"Be on your guard against the Teachers of the Law, who delight to walk about in long robes, and like to be greeted in the streets with respect, and to have the best seats in the Synagogues, and places of honor at dinner.

Be on the watch at all times, and pray that you may have strength to escape all that is destined to happen, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man."

"Listen," he answered, "when you have got into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you; follow him into whatever house he enters;

"I have most earnestly wished," he said, "to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

You are the men who have stood by me in my trials;

But I prayed for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. And you, when you have returned to me, are to strengthen your Brothers."

"I tell you, Peter," replied Jesus, "the cock will not crow to-day till you have disowned all knowledge of me three times."

Then, turning to the Chief Priests and Officers in charge at the Temple and Councillors, who had come for him, he said: "Have you come out, as if after a robber, with swords and clubs?

At this they exclaimed: "Why do we want any more evidence? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!"

So I shall have him scourged, and then release him."

"Why, what harm has this man done?" Pilate said to them for the third time. "I have found nothing in him for which he could be condemned to death. So I will have him scourged, and then release him."

A time, I tell you, is coming, when it will be said--'Happy are the women who are barren, and those who have never borne children or nursed them!'

But the other rebuked him. "Have not you," he said, "any fear of God, now that you are under the same sentence?

Jesus," he went on, "do not forget me when you have come to your Kingdom."

The Roman Captain, on seeing what had happened, praised God, exclaiming: "This must have been a good man!"

And then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, said to Jesus: "Are you staying by yourself at Jerusalem, that you have not heard of the things that have happened there within the last few days?"

And what is more, some of the women among us have greatly astonished us. They went to the tomb at daybreak

Then Jesus said to them: "O foolish men, slow to accept all that the Prophets have said!

Look at my hands and my feet, and you will know that it is I. Feel me, and look at me, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see that I have."

While they were still unable to believe it all for very joy, and were wondering if it were true, Jesus said to them: "Have you anything here to eat?"

And now I am myself about to send upon you that which my Father has promised. But you must remain in the city until you have been invested with power from above."

Out of his fullness we have all received some gift, gift after gift of love;

"Who then are you?" they continued; "tell us, that we may have some answer to give to those who have sent us. What do you say about yourself?"

I myself did not know him, but, that he may be made known to Israel, I have come, baptizing with water."

John also made this statement--"I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of the heavens, and it remained upon him.

This I have seen myself, and I have declared my belief that he is the Son of God."

He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him: "We have found the Messiah!" (a word which means 'Christ,' or 'Consecrated'.)

He found Nathanael and said to him: "We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the Law, and of whom the Prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph's son!"

And, when the wine ran short, his mother said to him: "They have no wine left."

He called the bridegroom and said to him: "Every one puts good wine on the table first, and inferior wine afterwards, when his guests have drunk freely; but you have kept back the good wine till now!"

In truth I tell you that we speak of what we know, and state what we have seen; and yet you do not accept our statements.

That every one who believes in him may have Immortal Life."

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that every one who believes in him may not be lost, but have Immortal Life.

But he who acts up to the truth comes to the light, that his actions may be shown to have been done in dependence upon God.

And the disciples came to John and said: "Rabbi, the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, and to whom you have yourself borne testimony--he, also, is baptizing, and everybody is going to him."

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

It is the bridegroom who has the bride; but the bridegroom's friend, who stands by and listens to him, is filled with joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. This joy I have felt to the full.

"If you knew of the gift of God," replied Jesus, "and who it is that is saying to you 'Give me some water,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you 'living water'."

"You have no bucket, Sir, and the well is deep," she said; "where did you get that 'living water?'