Part 2

Our Lord had not His disciples always with Him yet; John and James and Andrew and Peter had gone back to their boats to fish; but now Jesus wished them to be always with Him, so He called them again. I will tell you how. One day when Jesus was on the sea-shore, such crowds of people came to hear Him speak to them that there was not room, and they pressed upon Him. There were two large boats close to the shore; the fishers had gone out of them and were washing their nets; so our Lord went into one of them, which was Peter's, and asked him to push the boat a little way out from the land. Then He sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when He had done speaking, He said to Peter, "Pull out into the deep water and let down your nets to catch some fish." But Peter said, "Master, we have toiled all night and have not caught one fish; but still at Thy word I will let down the net." Peter thought that it would be of no use to do so, but still he would obey the Lord. So he threw the net into the sea, and heaps and heaps of fishes came into it directly, so many that the net broke.

Then Peter called to the other boat, in which were his partners, James and John, to help him, and they came and filled both boats with fish; there were so many that the boats began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Our Lord's feet, and said, "Go away from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."

For he was afraid. But Jesus said to him, "Fear not; from this time you shall catch men." What did that mean? Peter knew, and James and John knew; it meant that they must not fish any more, but come and try to draw men to the Lord to make them good. They were quite sure now that Our Lord was the Christ, so when they had brought their boats to the shore, they left them and all they had, and went with Jesus, and did not leave Him any more till the end came.

After Our Lord had been away for a time from Capernaum, He went back there. As soon as the people heard it they came in great numbers to the house Jesus was in, to see and hear Him.

Now the houses in that land are not like ours: they have flat roofs, on which you can walk or sit, and a staircase outside the house leads up to it. Most of the houses--all the large ones--have a court in the middle of them. The people crowded into the court of the house where Our Lord was, and He preached to them there. More and more came in till there was no room, not so much as about the door.

Now there was a poor man in the town who was sick of the palsy, so that he could not move; and lay always on a bed. He wished very much to go to Our Lord for help, and his friends who loved him had him carried by four men on a kind of bed to the house where the Lord Jesus was, but they could not come near Him through the crowd. So they carried him up to the roof, and took off enough of the tiles to make room for them to let the bed down by ropes put at each of the four corners, and thus they lowered it down with him on it, right in the front of the Lord. He looked at the sick man, and said, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." Jesus knows all we think, and He knew the poor man wished more to be forgiven for his sins than to be made well. But some of the Jews--lawyers--who hated Our Lord, thought to themselves, "How wickedly this man speaks. Who can forgive sins but God only?" They did not think the Lord could know their thoughts; but He did know them, and He said, "Why do you think this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the sick man, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Arise, take up your bed and walk? But that you may know that (I) the Son of Man have power on earth to forgive sins, I will do so." And then our Lord said to the sick man, who could not move, "Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house." And the sick man rose up and stood, and took up his bed and walked out before them all. And they were amazed, and praised God, saying, "We never saw anything like it before."

After Our Lord had made the sick man well, He walked down to the shore of the beautiful sea of Galilee. The crowd followed Him, and there in the fresh, sweet air, He went on teaching them. Not far off was a place called the Receipt of Custom. I will tell you for what it was used.

The Romans made the Jews pay them money, and this was called a tax. They put men in some places to receive this tax for them, and these men were called Publicans. They were not good men generally, and the priests and great men hated them; but some of them were just and honest. Levi was; and we may be sure he had heard Our Lord preach and loved Him, for one day, as he was sitting at the place where men paid the tax to him, Our Lord went up to him and said, "Follow Me." Levi must have known who spoke to him, for he at once rose and was ready to give up all his riches and go with Jesus. And he was so glad that the Lord had called him that he gave a feast at his house, and asked all his friends to come to it to meet their Saviour. His friends were most of them Publicans like himself, and not all good men; but Jesus and His disciples sat down and ate with them.

Now some of the Jews hated Our Lord; these were the Scribes and Pharisees. The Scribes were men who wrote out the laws--there were no printed books in those days--so they were thought wise; the Pharisees were a set of men who pretended to serve God better than any other people, and made a show of praying, saying their prayers in the streets to be seen of men; but they were not really good. These men came now, and said to Jesus, "How can You sit down to eat with publicans and sinners?" Jesus said, "Men who are well do not want a doctor, but those who are sick do. I am not come to call good men to be sorry for their sins, but bad men." The Pharisees did not know that they and all men were sinners, and that all must be saved by Jesus.

Now I must tell you that Levi had two names, as you have. His first name was Matthew, and a long time after, he wrote the story of Our Lord's life. It is called the Gospel--that means good news--of St. Matthew, and it is in the Bible.

Now just as the feast was ending there came a ruler and he threw himself down at Jesus' feet, and said, "My daughter is dying, but come and lay Your hands on her and she shall live." This ruler's name was Jairus; he had great faith. And Jesus rose up at once and went with him, and so did His disciples. And as they went along the road a poor woman who had been ill for years and had spent all her money to pay doctors, who did her no good, crept softly up behind Our Lord and just touched the hem of His robe, for she said, "If I may but touch His robe I shall be well." There was a great mob of people at the time and they pressed up against Jesus, but He stopped, and said, "Who touched Me?" Then Peter and the rest said, "Master, all the people press on You; why do You ask 'who touched Me?'" And Jesus said, "Some one has touched Me." Then the woman came and knelt down, and said, "I did," and Jesus was pleased with her faith and told her to go in peace, and she was quite cured. Then they went on to Jairus' house. The little girl was dead; but Jesus took the father and mother and Peter, James, and John with Him and went in where she lay and took her little hand, and said, "Maid, arise." And the little girl came to life and got up, and Jesus told them to give her something to eat.

How glad her father and mother must have been to have their dear child again, alive and well! How they must have thanked and blessed Our Lord! All her friends would always believe in Him now; and do you not think the little girl--she was only twelve years old--must have loved the Lord Jesus very much, and tried to be good to please Him.

When Jesus left the house where He had raised the child from the dead, two blind men followed Him crying, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on us." When they called the Lord the Son of David, they meant that they believed He was the Christ. And they followed Him into the house. And Jesus said to them, "Do you believe I can make you see?" They said, "Yes, Lord." Then he touched their eyes and said, "As your faith is so be it unto you." And their eyes were opened and they could see. They had told the truth, they did believe in Jesus; if they had said they did untruly they would not have been cured. Our Lord told them not to let any one know it; but when they were gone they told about it everywhere.

When Jesus went out again they brought to Him a dumb man; Our Lord ordered him to speak and he did so. Indeed no poor sick man came to Him in vain. He made lepers well, and cured a man with dropsy; and made a crooked woman straight. He made the dumb speak, the deaf hear, the blind see, the cripple walk. We cannot in this little book tell you half the kind, good, and wonderful things Our Lord did while He was on earth.

And He sent His apostles also to teach the people, and made them able to heal the sick and to do other miracles. One day the disciples were angry because one who was not a disciple cured a man in Christ's Name, but Our Lord said, "Forbid him not, for even he who gives you a cup of water in My Name, shall not lose his reward."

About this time there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there was at Jerusalem by the sheep-market a pool of water which was called Bethesda, that means House of Mercy. Round it were five porches or doorways, and in these lay a great many poor sick men.

There was something wonderful about the pool. At times in the year the water bubbled up--the Jews said an angel made it do so. The first person who stepped into the pool as it bubbled was cured at once. So many sick men waited for the chance. One man was there who had been crippled for thirty-eight years. The Lord Jesus walked down one day to this pool, and when He saw the poor man and heard how long he had been thus, He said to him, "Will you be made well?" The helpless man thought Our Lord meant, "Will you not go into the pool," for he answered, "Sir, I have no man who will put me in when the pool is bubbling, and while I try to get to it another man steps down before me." It was, as you know, only the first who stepped in after the water was troubled that was cured. Then Jesus said, "Take up your bed and walk."

And the man who could not move at all at once rose, took up his bed--a rug most likely--and walked.

Now it was the Sabbath day, and you know how strict the Jews were about it. They said at once to the man who was cured, "Why do you carry your bed on the Sabbath day? it is forbidden by the law."

The man said, "He that made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'"

When they asked him, "What man was it who told you to do so?" But the man did not know, because Jesus had gone away with the crowd.

Afterwards Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, "You are well now; do not sin again lest a worse thing come on you."

The man must have been a sinner, and Jesus told him to take care to be a better man, or God might punish him with a worse illness, but he was so ungrateful that, though he must have known the Jews would be angry with Our Lord for making him well on the Sabbath day, he went at once to them and told them that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The priests were very angry, but Jesus said to them, "My Father works on the Sabbath and so do I." Then they wanted to kill Him, because he had not only done a miracle on the Sabbath, but said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

And so, you know, He was; but these wicked Jews would not believe it; they were jealous of Him because the people loved Him, and angry because He told them how wicked they were.

Our Lord told His disciples one day this pretty parable. The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure--that is, something precious like gold or gems--hid in a field, and a man who knows about it, and wishes to get it, sells all that he has and buys the field; the treasure is then his and he digs it up. In that country much gold had been hidden in the ground by men who fled from their enemies, and never came back to dig it up again, and there were many who sought for it.

This parable means that the kingdom of God, the love of Christ, and His help to make us good are so precious that we should give up anything for them, and try as hard as we can to gain them.

Our Lord and His disciples were poor, and sometimes wanted food. One Sabbath day they were walking through the corn-fields, and the disciples were hungry, so they picked some ears of corn, rubbed them in their hands, and ate the wheat.

The Jews might eat corn in the fields on week-days, but the Pharisees had made many hard and silly rules about the Sabbath day. God had said that they must keep the seventh day holy; but He meant it to be a rest from work and a day for men to pray to Him, not a day such as they made it.

The Pharisees said that no fire might be lighted on the Sabbath day, no food cooked, not one thing might be done; they might only walk a little way on that day; and doctors might not cure or help the sick. So it was a day when men, and children too, were not happy, as God meant them to be.

Now, when the Pharisees saw the disciples eat the corn, they said, "Why do you do that which is not right on the Sabbath day?" Our Lord answered, and told them that there was no harm in His disciples eating the corn, for men must eat on the Sabbath day, and that we might do needful things on it. Then He went into the synagogue, and He saw there a man with a withered hand. And the Jews said to Christ, "Is it right to make men well on the Sabbath day?" And Jesus said, "Yes, it is; for if a sheep fell into a pit on the Sabbath day you would take it out, and a man ought to be helped more than a sheep." And He told the poor man to stretch out his hand; he did so, and found that Jesus had made it well, and just like the other hand. And the Pharisees were so angry because He had told men that they were wrong, that they began to talk about killing Him. But Jesus went away when He knew it; and a great crowd of people followed Him, and He made all the sick ones well.

One day, when He saw how many there were following Him, He wished to teach them, and, that they might hear Him well, He went up on a mount close by, and sat down. The Jews always sat down to preach. And when He was seated, His disciples came to Him, and the words He then spoke are called the Sermon on the Mount. You will read it when you are older; it is too hard for you now, but we may tell you a few things out of it. Jesus told them that God would bless those who were humble--that is, not proud--and the meek and gentle. He said that God would comfort those who were sad; that He would bless those who were kind; that the pure in heart should see God, and that those who made up quarrels should be called God's children. He told them that they need not "take thought" about how they should get food and clothes. "See," He said, "the birds of the air: God feeds them; He will also feed you; and look at the lilies: they toil not, neither do they spin, yet the grandest king in all his glory was not arrayed--that is, dressed--like one of them. Seek to please God, and He will take care of you." Then He taught them to say the prayer "Our Father," just as you do now at your mother's knee.

When Jesus had ended the Sermon on the Mount, He came down, and a great many people followed Him; and there came a leper, and knelt down to Him, and said, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean."

A leper was a man whose flesh was eaten away by disease; sometimes the fingers and feet of the leper would fall off. No one could cure him, and men might catch the complaint, so the lepers were kept in a place by themselves; and if they went into the town, they had to cry as they went, "Unclean! unclean!" We are sure that, when this leper came to Christ, all the people got out of his way, and would not touch the poor man. But Our Lord put out His kind hand and touched him, and said, "I will; be thou clean;" and in a moment the leper was quite well; and Our Lord told him to go to the priest and offer a gift of thanks to God. No one but God can cure a leper; but Jesus is God, and He could.

Now, when Our Lord had come to Capernaum, there came a Roman, the captain of a hundred men, and begged Him to make his servant well, for he was very ill with the palsy. Our Lord said at once, "I will come and heal him." But the Roman captain said, "Lord, I am not good enough for You to come to my house, but speak the word only, and my servant will be well." You see, this Roman had even more faith than the rich man, whose son was ill. "For," the Roman went on, "if I tell my servants to do anything, they do it; and You, who rule all things, need only speak to be obeyed." And Jesus wondered at the Roman's words, and said, "Verily, I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel," and He said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed so be it done unto you." And the man went home, and found his servant well.

Then Jesus went to Peter's house, and made his wife's mother well of a fever, and healed many more sick, and made the blind see and the deaf hear. We cannot, in this little book, tell you half of the good and kind things Our Lord did.

Jesus sometimes told His disciples lovely tales that meant something more than just the story, so they were called Parables. One of these was that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant who wanted to buy good pearls. You know what pearls are, do you not? They are pure white shining beads that men find in the shell of the oyster. To get them the fishers have to go down to the bottom of the sea; so, of course, they sell the pearls very dear. Now, when the pearl-fishers had found a very large pearl of great price, they took it to the merchant; it would cost a great deal, but he knew it was worth even more; so he sold all he had and bought it. Now this story means that God's Kingdom is such a beautiful place, and that it is so good for us to serve Christ here, that we should give up all that we most care for to gain the love of God.

One day, Our Lord, with His disciples and a great crowd who followed Him, came near a little town called Nain. And just as He drew near the gate of the city a dead young man was brought out to be buried. His mother was walking by the side of the bier and crying very much, for her husband was dead, and she had no other son. And when Our Lord saw her He had pity on her, and said, "Weep not," and He came and touched the bier, and the men who were carrying it stood still. And Jesus said, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!" And the dead man came to life and sat up and began to speak, and the Lord gave him to his mother. And there came a great fear on all who saw it, and they said, "God has visited His people."

Another parable Jesus told them was of a sower who went out to sow seed. And as he cast the seeds about some of them fell by the wayside; and the birds came and ate them up; some fell on stony places where they had not much earth to grow in, and they sprang up fast, because they were not deep in the ground; but when the sun came out, it burned them up quite dry, for they had no root; and some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them--that is, did not leave them room to grow. But some fell on good ground, and grew up and brought forth much fruit.

The Apostles did not quite know what hidden meaning there was in this Parable, so Jesus told them.

The seed meant the Word of God; the sower, a servant of God who had to teach the Word. The seed that fell by the wayside meant that the words had not been cared for by those who heard them, and the Wicked Spirit then made them forget all they had heard. That which fell on stony places and had no depth of earth, meant those who at first are glad to hear of God's love, and seem as if they would be His children; but their goodness has "no root," and so a little trouble makes them give up trying. We must all ask God to keep us Christ's children. The seed that fell among thorns meant that sometimes when men have been taught about God, they let the love of money and the cares of life and its pleasures fill their minds so that they have no time or thought to give to God, or to read and pray. Those seeds that fell on good ground meant the children or men who listen to God's Word, and read it, and pray to Him for help, and try to obey it. These grow better and better, and God will love and help them.

Our Lord was often very tired when He had been making sick people well and teaching them by these lovely stories; and then He would go up a mountain alone and pray to His Father in Heaven, or cross the sea to some other place, for He had hardly time to eat or sleep. One day He was very tired and the sun had set, so He said to His disciples, "Let us cross to the other side." Then they sent away the crowd of people and took Jesus in the ship, and put out to sea, and there were with them many other little ships.

And there arose a great wind; the waves were high and beat into the boat, so that it was full of water and going to sink; but Our Lord was fast asleep, with his head on a pillow, in the stern of the ship. The disciples were much afraid, and they woke him, saying, "Lord, do you not care that we perish?" Then Jesus rose and stood up and spoke to the wind and waves, and said, "Peace"--that is, Hush!--"be still." And the wind stopped blowing, and the waves grew still, and there was a great calm. Then the disciples said to each other, "What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" They ought to have known, for they had seen Him raise the dead. You know, do you not? He was the Son of God.