The Story of the Bible
- Автор: Hurlbut Jesse Lyman
- Год: 1904
- Язык: английский
- Год: Heritage History
- Жанр: Культурология
Электронная книга - «The Story of the Bible». Краткое содержание книги:
Jesus turned away from these people, and went again to the boat on the shore; and then the man who had been set free from the evil spirits pleaded with Jesus that he might go with him. But Jesus would not take him into the boat. He sadi:
"Go home to your friends, and tell them how the Lord has had mercy on you, and has done great things for you."
The man went home and told all the people in the land of Decapolis the great things that Jesus had done for him.
And Jesus went on board the boat, and crossed over the lake, and came again to his own city of Capernaum.
The Little Girl Who Was Raised to Life
Matthew ix: 18 to 38; x: 1 to 42; Mark v: 22 to 43; Luke viii: 41 to 56; ix: 1 to 5.
When Jesus and his disciples landed at Capernaum, after their sail across the lake, they found a crowd of people on the shore waiting for them. And a man came forward from the throng and fell down at the feet of Jesus. He was one of the chief men in the synagogue, and his name was Jairus. He said:
"O Master, come to my house at once! My little daughter is dying; but if you will come and lay your hands upon her, she will live."
And Jesus went with Jairus, and his disciples followed him, and also many people, who thronged around Jesus. In the crowd was a poor woman who had been ill for very many years from a sore out of which her blood ran, so that she was very weak. Many doctors had tried to help her, but they could not; and she had spent all her money, so that she was now very poor.
This woman had heard of Jesus; and she tried to come to him, but she could not reach him in the throng of people. She said to herself, "If I can only touch his garment, I know that the touch will make me well." And as Jesus passed by, she reached out her hand and touched the hem of his robe. At that instant she felt in her body that she was cured. Jesus himself felt her touch, and turning around, said, "Who touched me?"
THE WOMAN TOUCHING THE HEM OF JESUS' ROBE
Peter said to him, "Master, the crowd throngs around you and pressed upon you. How can you ask, 'Who touched me?' "
But Jesus said, "Some one has touched me; for I feel that power has gone out from me."
And he looked around to see who it was. Then the woman came forward, fearing and trembling over what she had done. She fell down before Jesus, and told how she had touched him and had been made well. But Jesus said to her, "Daughter, be of good comfort; your faith has made you well; rise up and go in peace."
And from that hour the woman was free from her disease. All this time, while Jesus was waiting, Jairus, the father of the drying child, stood beside Jesus in great trouble, for he feared that his child would die before Jesus could come to his house. And at that moment some one came to him and said, "It is too late; your daughter is dead; you need not trouble the Master any more."
But Jesus said to him, "Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will yet be saved to you."
Soon they came to the house where Jairus lived; and they could hear the people weeping and crying aloud. Jesus said to them, "Why do you make such a noise? The little girl is not dead, but only asleep."
Jesus meant by this that we need not be filled with sorrow when our friends die, for death is only a sleep for a time until God shall awake them. But they did not understand this; and they would not be comforted, for they knew that the child was dead.
Jesus would not allow any of the crowd of people to go into the room where the dead child was. He took with him three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the child, and shut out all the rest of the people. On a couch was lying the dead body of a girl, twelve years old. Taking the hand of the child into his own, he said to her, "Little girl, rise up!"
JESUS RAISING JAIRUS' DAUGHTER TO LIFE
And the life of the little girl came again. She opened her eyes, and sat up. Jesus told them to give her something to eat; and he said to them, "Do not tell any one how the little girl was brought to life."
Already the crowds following him were so great that he could not teach the people in the city; and if it became known that he could raise the dead to life, the throng and the press of the multitudes would be greater. His great work was to teach and to bring life to the souls of men, rather than to heal, or to raise the dead.
And he went out once more among the villages of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, and healing the sick people who were brought to him. He pitied the people, because there was no one to give them the gospel; and they were like sheep wandering and lost without a shepherd. He said to his disciples:
"The harvest truly is great, but the workers to gather the harvest are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out reapers into these harvest-fields."
JESUS HEALING THE SICK
And after this Jesus sent out his twelve disciples to different places to preach in his name to the people. He sent them forth in pairs, two of them together, so that they could help each other. And he gave them power to heal the sick, and to cast out evil spirits from men. He said to them:
"Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out the evil spirits; freely you have received, freely give. Do not take any money with you; but at every place ask for some good man, and stay at his house.
"And if any people will not listen to your words, when you go out of that house or out of that city, shake off the dust from your sandals, as a sign; and God will judge that house or that city.
"He that hears you, hears me; and he that hears me, hears him who sent me. And if any one will give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciples, he shall not lose his reward."
The twelve disciples went out in pairs, as Jesus had commanded them, and preached in all the cities of Galilee, that men should cease from their sins and turn to God.
A Dancing Girl, and What Was Given Her
Matthew xi: 2 to 19; xiv: 1 to 12; Mark vi: 14 to 29; Luke vii: 18 to 35.
You remember that just before Jesus went from Jerusalem to Galilee, as we read in Story Eight of this Part, John the Baptist was put in prison by the king, Herod Antipas. Jesus stayed in Galilee for a year, and nearly all that time John the Baptist was alone in his prison near the Dead Sea. His followers, who were now very few, came to see him, and told him of the works that Jesus was doing. These were wonderful, but they were not what John had expected Jesus to do; and in his prison, with no one to explain what Jesus was saying and doing, John began to doubt a little whether Jesus were the Saviour who had been promised so long. Then, too, John's followers were inclined to feel jealous, because their master was now left alone, and all the people were seeking Jesus. John sent two of his followers to Jesus, to ask him this question, "Are you really the Saviour who is to come, or are we to look for some other as the promised Christ?"
When these men came with this message from John the Baptist they found Jesus in the midst of a great company of suffering people. They saw him making the sick well by his touch, giving sight to the blind, and casting out the evil spirits; and they listened to the words of Jesus as he taught the people.
When his work for the time was done, Jesus turned to the men who had come from John, and said to them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard, how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is that man who believes in me without doubting."