Study Desk

"Now his elder son was out on the farm; and when he returned and came near home, he heard music and dancing.

"Then he was angry and would not go in. But his father came out and entreated him.

but now that this son of yours is come who has eaten up your property among his bad women, you have killed the fat calf for him.'

He said also to His disciples: "There was a rich man who had a steward, about whom a report was brought to him, that he was wasting his property.

"So he called all his master's debtors, one by one, and asked the first, `How much are you in debt to my master?'

"And the master praised the dishonest steward for his shrewdness; for, in relation to their own contemporaries, the men of this age are shrewder than the sons of Light.

Every man who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries her when so divorced from her husband commits adultery.

while at his outer door there lay a beggar, Lazarus by name,

covered with sores and longing to make a full meal off the scraps flung on the floor from the rich man's table. Nay, the dogs, too, used to come and lick his sores.

And in Hades, being in torment, he looked and saw Abraham in the far distance, and Lazarus resting in his arms.

So he cried aloud, and said, "`Father Abraham, take pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.'

"`Remember, my child,' said Abraham, `that you had all your good things during your lifetime, and that Lazarus in like manner had his bad things. But, now and here, he is receiving consolation and you are in agony.

Jesus said to His disciples, "It is inevitable that causes of stumbling should come; but alas for him through whom they come!

It would be well for him if, with a millstone round his neck, he were lying at the bottom of the sea, rather than that he should cause even one of these little ones to fall.

Does he thank the servant for obeying his orders?

Then, turning to His disciples, He said, "There will come a time when you will wish you could see a single one of the days of the Son of Man, but will not see one.

For just as the lightning, when it flashes, shines from one part of the horizon to the opposite part, so will the Son of Man be on His day.

"On that day, if a man is on the roof and his property indoors, let him not go down to fetch it; and, in the same way, he who is in the field, let him not turn back.

Any man who makes it his object to keep his own life safe, will lose it; but whoever loses his life will preserve it.

And will not God avenge the wrongs of His own People who cry aloud to Him day and night, although He seems slow in taking action on their behalf?