Volume 2

132
Life of Jesus Christ
cures; indeed, there were no sick nor cripples. The people
here were lank and lean, but very tall. Jesus gave an instruction
on Baptism, and promised to send some of His
disciples hither to baptize. Accompanied by the master of
the house, He went out on the road by which the slaves
had returned from their work. He spoke to them, encouraged
them, and explained to them a parable. There
were many good people, who were very much touched.
They again received food and wages. It reminded me of
the parable that speaks of the lord of the vineyard paying
the day laborers. The slaves dwelt in a row of huts about
a quarter of an hour from Simeon's. It was some kind of
serfdom that they were discharging by their labor for
Simeon.
On one of the following days, after Jesus had been
preaching from early morn and the Jews had gone away,
about twenty pagans came to Him. For several days they
had been asking to be allowed to do so. Simeon's was
about half an hour from the city, and the heathens dared
not approach beyond a certain tower or arch. But Simeon
himself brought these newcomers to Jesus, whom they
saluted reverently and begged Him to instruct them. He
spoke for a long time with them in a hall, so long indeed
that the lamps were lighted before He finished. He consoled
them, told them in a parable of the holy Three
Kings, and said that light would one day shine upon the
heathens.
When the two disciples whom Jesus had sent to
Capharnaum returned to Him at Sichor, they told Him
that the four disciples whom He had summoned were
coming. Jesus went a journey of from three to four hours
over a mountain to meet them, and came up with them at
an inn on Galilean territory. There were, besides those
that He had called, seven others and among them John.
Some women also had come with them, of whom I recognized
Mary Marcus of Jerusalem and the maternal aunt of