Volume 2

Jes us Cures the Sick
309
revenger ," and He delivered a powerful discourse upon
these texts. No one dared oppose a word to His teaching.
He said: "John lived solitary in the desert. He mingled
not with men, and ye blamed the life he led. I go from
place to place, I teach, I heal, and that too ye blame!
What kind of a Messiah do ye want? Each one would
like to have a Messiah according to his own ideas! Ye
reserrlble children running in the streets. Each makes for
himself the instrument he likes best. One brings forth
low, bass notes from the horn he has twisted out of bark,
and another screeches high on his flute of reeds." Then
Jesus named all kinds of playthings used by children,
saying that His hearers were like the owners of those
toys. Each wanted to sing upon his own note, each was
pleased with his own toy alone.
Toward evening, when Jesus left the synagogue, He
found a great crowd of sick waiting for Hinl outside.
Some were lying on litters over which awnings had been
stretched. Jesus, followed by His disciples, went from one
to the other, curing them. Here and there appeared some
poor possessed, raging and crying after Him. He
delivered them as He passed, and commanded them to be
silent. There were paralytics, consumptives, the deaf, the
dumb, and the dropsical with tumors or scrofulous swellings
on their neck. Jesus healed all, one after the other,
by the imposition of hands, though His manner and touch
were different in different cases. Some were entirely
cured at once, a little weakness alone remaining; others
were greatly relieved, the perfect cure following quickly
according to the nature of the malady and the dispositions
of the invalid. The cured moved away chanting a
Psalm of David. But there were so many sick that Jesus
could not go around among them all. The disciples lent
their aid in. raising, supporting, and diserrlbarrassing them
of their wrappings and covers. At last Jesus laid His
hands on the head of Andrew, of John, and of Judas Bar­