Study Desk

"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.

And if it is by the power of Baal-zebul that I expel the demons, by whom do your disciples expel them? They therefore shall be your judges.

Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more malignant than itself, and they enter and dwell there; and in the end that man's condition becomes worse than it was at first.

"Nay rather," He replied, "they are blessed who hear God's Message and carefully keep it."

There will stand up men of Nineveh at the Judgement together with the present generation, and will condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and mark! One greater than Jonah is here.

It follows that you bear testimony to the actions of your forefathers and that you fully approve thereof. They slew, you build.

"For this reason also the Wisdom of God has said, `I will send Prophets and Apostles to them, of whom they will kill some and persecute others,'

Meanwhile the people had come streaming towards Him by tens of thousands, so that they were trampling one another under foot. And now He proceeded to say to His disciples first, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is to say, beware of hypocrisy.

And when they are bringing you before synagogues and magistrates and governors, do not anxiously ponder the manner or matter of your defence, nor what you are to say;

"But God said to him, "`Foolish man, this night your life is demanded from you; and these preparations--for whom shall they be?'

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!

Observe the lilies, how they grow. They neither labour nor spin. And yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was as beautifully dressed as one of these.

and be yourselves like men waiting for their master--on the look-out till he shall return from the wedding feast--that, when he comes and knocks, they may open the door instantly.

And whether it be in the second watch or in the third that He comes and finds them so, blessed are they.

They will come from east and west, from north and south, and will sit down at the banquet in the Kingdom of God.

They gave Him no answer; so He took hold of the man, cured him, and sent him away.

Also to His host, who had invited Him, He said, "When you give a breakfast or a dinner, do not invite your friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbours, lest perhaps they should invite you in return and a requital be made you.

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.'

"So the servant came and brought these answers to his master, and they stirred his anger. "`Go out quickly,' he said, `into the streets of the city--the wide ones and the narrow. You will see poor men, and crippled, blind, lame: fetch them all in here.'