and do not imagine that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our forefather,' for I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones.

"*You* are the salt of the earth; but if salt has become tasteless, in what way can it regain its saltness? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown away and trodden on by the passers by.

"No man can be the bondservant of two masters; for either he will dislike one and like the other, or he will attach himself to one and think slightingly of the other. You cannot be the bondservants both of God and of gold.

Which of you by being over-anxious can add a single foot to his height?

"Can the bridegroom's party mourn," He replied, "as long as the bridegroom is with them? But other days will come (when the Bridegroom has been taken from them)

And when He had gone indoors, they came to Him. "Do you believe that I can do this?" He asked them. "Yes, Sir," they replied.

And the crowds of people were all filled with amazement and said, "Can this be the Son of David?"

Again, how can any one enter the house of a strong man and carry off his goods, unless first of all he masters and secures the strong man: then he will ransack his house.

O vipers' brood, how can you speak what is good when you are evil? For it is from the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks.

"Where can we," asked the disciples, "get bread enough in this remote place to satisfy so vast a multitude?"

"It is not every man," He replied, "who can receive this teaching, but only those on whom the grace has been bestowed.

These words utterly amazed the disciples, and they asked, "Who then can be saved?"

"None of you know what you are asking for," said Jesus; "can you drink out of the cup from which I am about to drink?" "We can," they replied.

"If therefore David calls Him Lord, how can He be his son?"

Intensely grieved they began one after another to ask Him, "Can it be I, Master?"

Then Judas, the disciple who was betraying Him, asked, "Can it be I, Rabbi?" "It is you," He replied.

They twisted a wreath of thorny twigs and put it on His head, and they put a sceptre of cane in His right hand, and kneeling to Him they shouted in mockery, "Long live the King of the Jews!"

Then they spat upon Him, and taking the cane they repeatedly struck Him on the head with it.

One of them ran forthwith, and filling a sponge with sour wine put it on the end of a cane and offered it Him to drink;

"You can have a guard," said Pilate: "go and make all safe, as best you can."

"Why does this man use such words?" they said; "he is blaspheming. Who can pardon sins but One--that is, God?"

"Can a wedding party fast while the bridegroom is among them?" replied Jesus. "So long as they have the bridegroom with them, fasting is impossible.

For if civil war breaks out in a kingdom, nothing can make that kingdom last;

Nay, no one can go into a strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.

There is nothing outside a man which entering him can make him unclean; but it is the things which come out of a man that make him unclean."

"Where can we possibly get bread here in this remote place to satisfy such a crowd?" answered His disciples.

You have eyes! can you not see? You have ears! can you not hear? and have you no memory?

So He took the blind man by the arm and brought him out of the village, and spitting into his eyes He put His hands on him and asked him, "Can you see anything?"

He looked up and said, "I can see the people: I see them like trees--only walking."

"and often it has thrown him into the fire or into pools of water to destroy him. But, if you possibly can, have pity on us and help us."

"'If I possibly can!'" replied Jesus; "why, everything is possible to him who believes."

"An evil spirit of this kind," He answered, "can only be driven out by prayer."

They were astonished beyond measure, and said to one another, "Who then *can* be saved?"

"David himself calls Him 'Lord:' how then can He be his son?" And the mass of people found pleasure in listening to Jesus.

For you always have the poor among you, and whenever you choose you can do acts of kindness to them; but me you have not always.

and whatever house he enters, tell the master of the house, 'The Rabbi asks, Where is my room where I can eat the Passover with my disciples?'

Then they began to beat Him on the head with a cane, to spit on Him, and to do Him homage on bended knees.

Then a man ran to fill a sponge with sour wine, and he put it on the end of a cane and placed it to His lips, saying at the same time, "Wait! let us see whether Elijah will come and take him down."

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

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.

Then the Scribes and Pharisees began to cavil, asking, "Who is this, uttering blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?"

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

He also spoke to them in figurative language. "Can a blind man lead a blind man?" He asked; "would not both fall into the ditch?

How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take that splinter out of your eye,' when all the while you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? Vain pretender! take the beam out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.

Every tree is known by its own fruit. It is not from thorns that men gather figs, nor from the bramble that they can get a bunch of grapes.

Then the other guests began to say to themselves, "Who can this man be who even forgives sins?"

"But to you who are my friends I say, "'Be not afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do nothing further.

Sell your possessions and give alms. Provide yourselves with purses that will never wear out, a treasure inexhaustible in Heaven, where no thief can come nor moth consume.

No one who does not carry his own cross and come after me can be a disciple of mine.

Just as no one of you who does not detach himself from all that belongs to him can be a disciple of mine.

"No servant can be in bondage to two masters. For either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will cling fast to one and scorn the other. You cannot be bondservants both of God and of gold."

Being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God was coming, He answered, "The Kingdom of God does not so come that you can stealthily watch for it.

"Who then can be saved?" exclaimed the hearers.

"David himself therefore calls Him Lord, and how can He be his son?"

and say to the master of the house, "'The Rabbi asks you, Where is the room where I can eat the Passover with my disciples?'

Pilate said to the High Priests and to the crowd, "I can find no crime in this man."

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" replied Nathanael. "Come and see," said Philip.

Two days later there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there,

This, the first of His miracles, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee, and thus displayed His glorious power; and His disciples believed in Him.

He came to Jesus by night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God; for no one can do these miracles which you are doing, unless God is with him.

"How is it possible," Nicodemus asked, "for a man to be born when he is old? Can he a second time enter his mother's womb and be born?"

You yourselves can bear witness to my having said, 'I am not the Christ,' but 'I am His appointed forerunner.'

"Sir," she said, "you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; so where can you get the living water from?

"Come," she said, "and see a man who has told me everything I have ever done. Can this be the Christ, do you think?"

So the disciples began questioning one another. "Can it be," they said, "that some one has brought Him something to eat?"

So He came once more to Cana in Galilee, where He had made the water into wine. Now there was a certain officer of the King's court whose son was ill at Capernaum.

"In most solemn truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "that the Son can do nothing of Himself--He can only do what He sees the Father doing; for whatever He does, that the Son does in like manner.

"I can of my own self do nothing. As I am bidden, so I judge; and mine is a just judgement, because it is not my own will that guides me, but the will of Him who sent me.

"no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; then I will raise him to life on the last day.

This led to an angry debate among the Jews. "How can this man," they argued, "give us his flesh to eat?"

Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard it, said, "This is hard to accept. Who can listen to such teaching?"

So He added, "That is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it be granted him by the Father."

But here he is, speaking openly and boldly, and they say nothing to him! Can the Rulers really have ascertained that this man is the Christ?

And yet we know this man, and we know where he is from; but as for the Christ, when He comes, no one can tell where He is from."

We must do the works of Him who sent me while there is daylight. Night is coming on, when no one can work.

So the Pharisees renewed their questioning as to how he had obtained his sight. "He put clay on my eyes," he replied, "and I washed, and now I can see."

"Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How is it then that he can now see?"

but how it is that he can now see or who has opened his eyes we do not know. Ask him himself; he is of full age; he himself will give his own account of it."

"Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know," he replied; "one thing I know--that I was once blind and that now I can see."

Others argued, "That is not the language of a demoniac: and can a demon open blind men's eyes?"

"Have I been so long among you," Jesus answered, "and yet you, Philip, do not know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can *you* ask me, 'Cause us to see the Father'?

Continue in me, and let me continue in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself--that is, if it does not continue in the vine--so neither can you if you do not continue in me.

I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who continues in me and in whom I continue bears abundant fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

So they asked one another repeatedly, "What can that 'little while' mean which He speaks of? We do not understand His words."

Simon Peter was with Thomas, called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zabdi, and two others of the Master's disciples.

A third time Jesus put the question: "Simon, son of John, am I dear to you?" It grieved Peter that Jesus asked him the third time, "Am I dear to you?" "Master," he replied, "you know everything, you can see that you are dear to me." "Then feed my much-loved sheep," said Jesus.

They were all astounded and bewildered, and asked one another, "What can this mean?"

It is His name-- faith in that name being the condition--which has strengthened this man whom you behold and know; and the faith which He has given has made this man sound and strong again, as you can all see.

"I can see Heaven wide open," he said, "and the Son of Man standing at God's right hand."

"Perish your money and yourself," replied Peter, "because you have imagined that you can obtain God's free gift with money!

"Why, how can I," replied the eunuch, "unless some one explains it to me?" And he earnestly invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

"Can any one forbid the use of water, and object to these persons being baptized--men who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?"

So the jailer brought Paul word, saying, "The praetors have sent orders for you to be released. Now therefore you can go, and proceed on your way in peace."

His reply was, "What can you mean by thus breaking my heart with your grief? Why, as for me, I am ready not only to go to Jerusalem and be put in chains, but even to die there for the sake of the Lord Jesus."

Associate with these men and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses so that they can shave their heads. Then everybody will know that there is no truth in these stories about you, but that in your own actions you yourself scrupulously obey the Law.

as the High Priest also and all the Elders can bear me witness. It was, too, from them that I received letters to the brethren in Damascus, and I was already on my way to Damascus, intending to bring those also who had fled there, in chains to Jerusalem, to be punished.

Nor can they prove the charges which they are now bringing against me.

But when he dealt with the subjects of justice, self-control, and the judgement which was soon to come, Felix became alarmed and said, "For the present leave me, and when I can find a convenient opportunity I will send for you."

"Therefore let those of you," he said, "who can come, go down with me, and impeach the man, if there is anything amiss in him."

I have nothing very definite, however, to tell our Sovereign about him. So I have brought the man before you all--and especially before you, King Agrippa--that after he has been examined I may find something which I can put into writing.