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JESUS TO BETHANY.

in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said unto her, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" She saith unto him, "Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world."

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And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister. Mary came quickly; and the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her, followed her, thinking that she was going to the grave of Lazarus to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, "Where have ye laid him?" They said unto him, "Lord, come and see.' They thought he only wished to see the grave; for it was too late to give any help. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, "Behold how he loved him!" And some of them said, "Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, "Take ye away the stone." Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, "Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days." Jesus saith unto her, "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?"

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THREE VISITS OF JESUS TO BETHANY.

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe

that thou hast sent me." And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth." And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, "Loose him, and let him go."

After this Jesus remained for a long time in retirement. Then, six days before the passover, he came again to Bethany, and they made him a supper in the house of a certain man named Simon. And Martha served, and Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

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Then said one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who afterwards betrayed him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. said, "Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

b John xi. 1-44.

Then Jesus

CHRIST'S ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM.

She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." c

27. CHRIST'S ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM.

On the following day Jesus went from Bethany up to Jerusalem. The way lay by a village called Bethphage. When he came near that place, he sent forward two of his disciples, saying unto them, "Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them." (All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. .) And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, "Hosanna" (that is, Save Lord)" to the son of David!" (that is, to the Messiah.)

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Matt. xxvi. 6-13; Mark xiv. 3-9; John xii. 1 – 9.

CHRIST'S ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM.

"Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" a

And when Jesus beheld Jerusalem, he wept over it and said, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."

And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; saying unto them, "It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made

it a den of thieves." b

When the chief priests and the scribes heard the children crying in the temple, and saying, "Hosanna to the son of David," they were displeased, and said unto him, "Hearest thou what these say ?" And Jesus saith unto them, "Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ?" And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany, and he lodged there.

And on the morrow, (on the Monday,) as he entered into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon but leaves only; and he

a Matt. xxi. 1-9.
b Luke xix. 41--46.
c Matt. xxi. 15, 16.

PARABLE OF THE HUSBANDMEN.

said unto it, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever." And presently the fig tree withered away. This fig tree is an image of the Jewish people, which brought forth no fruit unto God.

28. PARABLE OF THE HUSBANDMEN, AND OF THE KING'S WEDDING FEAST.

ON the same day, at Jerusalem, he spake the following parables: "There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?

"They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons."

d Matt. xxi. 17-22.

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