b148 (영한)

accommodate = 편의를 제공하다, 수용하다 (숙박 시설)

P.1657 – §3 While Andrew continued in general charge
of the apostolic activities, Peter was in full charge of the school of
the evangelists. The apostles all did their share in teaching groups of
evangelists each forenoon, and both teachers and pupils taught the people
during the afternoons. After the evening meal, five nights a week, the
apostles conducted question classes for the benefit of the evangelists.
Once a week Jesus presided at this question hour, answering the holdover
questions from previous sessions.

holdover, 이월된 것, 미루어 놓은 것

P.1657 – §6 Peter, James, and Andrew were the committee
designated by Jesus to pass upon applicants for admission to the school
of evangelists. All the races and

P.1658 – §0 nationalities of the Roman world and
the East, as far as India, were represented among the students in this
new school of the prophets. This school was conducted on the plan of learning
and doing. What the students learned during the forenoon they taught to
the assembly by the seaside during the afternoon. After supper they informally
discussed both the learning of the forenoon and the teaching of the afternoon.

P.1658 – §3 These evangelists, though they taught
and preached the gospel, did not baptize believers until after they were
later ordained and commissioned by Jesus as the seventy messengers of
the kingdom. Only seven of the large number healed at the sundown scene
at this place were to be found among these evangelistic students. The
nobleman’s son of Capernaum was one of those trained for gospel service
in Peter’s school.

P.1658 – §4 In connection with the seaside encampment,
Elman, the Syrian physician, with the assistance of a corps of twenty-five
young women and twelve men, organized and conducted for four months what
should be regarded as the kingdom’s first hospital. At this infirmary,
located a short distance to the south of the main tented city, they treated
the sick in accordance with all known material methods as well as by the
spiritual practices of prayer and faith encouragement. Jesus visited the
sick of this encampment not less than three times a week and made personal
contact with each sufferer. As far as we know, no so-called miracles of
supernatural healing occurred among the one thousand afflicted and ailing
persons who went away from this infirmary improved or cured. However,
the vast majority of these benefited individuals ceased not to proclaim
that Jesus had healed them.

infirmary < infirmus (ill), 병원

P.1658 – §5 Many of the cures effected by Jesus in
connection with his ministry in behalf of Elman’s patients did, indeed,
appear to resemble the working of miracles, but we were instructed that
they were only just such transformations of mind and spirit as may occur
in the experience of expectant and faith-dominated persons who are under
the immediate and inspirational influence of a strong, positive, and beneficent
personality whose ministry banishes fear and destroys anxiety.

P.1658 – §6 Elman and his associates endeavored to
teach the truth to these sick ones concerning the “possession of
evil spirits,” but they met with little success. The

P.1659 – §0 belief that physical sickness and mental
derangement could be caused by the dwelling of a so-called unclean spirit
in the mind or body of the afflicted person was well-nigh universal.

P.1659 – §2 The camp disbanded a short time before
the season for the increase in chills and fever drew on.

P.1659 – §3 Throughout this period Jesus conducted
public services at the encampment less than a dozen times and spoke only
once in the Capernaum synagogue, the second Sabbath before their departure
with the newly trained evangelists upon their second public preaching
tour of Galilee.

P.1659 – §4 Not since his baptism had the Master
been so much alone as during this period of the evangelists’ training
encampment at Bethsaida. Whenever any one of the apostles ventured to
ask Jesus why he was absent so much from their midst, he would invariably
answer that he was “about the Father’s business.”

P.1659 – §5 During these periods of absence, Jesus
was accompanied by only two of the apostles. He had released Peter, James,
and John temporarily from their assignment as his personal companions
that they might also participate in the work of training the new evangelistic
candidates, numbering more than one hundred. When the Master desired to
go to the hills about the Father’s business, he would summon to accompany
him any two of the apostles who might be at liberty. In this way each
of the twelve enjoyed an opportunity for close association and intimate
contact with Jesus.

P.1659 – §6 It has not been revealed for the purposes
of this record, but we have been led to infer that the Master, during
many of these solitary seasons in the hills, was in direct and executive
association with many of his chief directors of universe affairs. Ever
since about the time of his baptism this incarnated Sovereign of our universe
had become increasingly and consciously active in the direction of certain
phases of universe administration. And we have always held the opinion
that, in some way not revealed to his immediate associates, during these
weeks of decreased participation in the affairs of earth he was engaged
in the direction of those high spirit intelligences who were charged with
the running of a vast universe, and that the human Jesus chose to designate
such activities on his part as being “about his Father’s business.”

P.1659 – §7 Many times, when Jesus was alone for
hours, but when two of his apostles were near by, they observed his features
undergo rapid and multitudinous changes, although they heard him speak
no words. Neither did they observe any visible manifestation of celestial
beings who might have been in communication with their Master, such as
some of them did witness on a subsequent occasion.

P.1659 – §8 It was the habit of Jesus two evenings
each week to hold special converse with individuals who desired to talk
with him, in a certain secluded and sheltered

P.1660 – §0 corner of the Zebedee garden. At one
of these evening conversations in private Thomas asked the Master this
question: “Why is it necessary for men to be born of the spirit in
order to enter the kingdom? Is rebirth necessary to escape the control
of the evil one? Master, what is evil?” When Jesus heard these questions,
he said to Thomas:

P.1660 – §1 “Do not make the mistake of confusing
evil with the evil one, more correctly the iniquitous one. He whom you
call the evil one is the son of self-love, the high administrator who
knowingly went into deliberate rebellion against the rule of my Father
and his loyal Sons. But I have already vanquished these sinful rebels.
Make clear in your mind these different attitudes toward the Father and
his universe. Never forget these laws of relation to the Father’s will:

P.1660 – §2 “Evil is the unconscious or unintended
transgression of the divine law, the Father’s will. Evil is likewise the
measure of the imperfectness of obedience to the Father’s will.

P.1660 – §3 “Sin is the conscious, knowing,
and deliberate transgression of the divine law, the Father’s will. Sin
is the measure of unwillingness to be divinely led and spiritually directed.

P.1660 – §4 “Iniquity is the willful, determined,
and persistent transgression of the divine law, the Father’s will. Iniquity
is the measure of the continued rejection of the Father’s loving plan
of personality survival and the Sons’ merciful ministry of salvation.

P.1660 – §5 “By nature, before the rebirth of
the spirit, mortal man is subject to inherent evil tendencies, but such
natural imperfections of behavior are neither sin nor iniquity. Mortal
man is just beginning his long ascent to the perfection of the Father
in Paradise. To be imperfect or partial in natural endowment is not sinful.
Man is indeed subject to evil, but he is in no sense the child of the
evil one unless he has knowingly and deliberately chosen the paths of
sin and the life of iniquity. Evil is inherent in the natural order of
this world, but sin is an attitude of conscious rebellion which was brought
to this world by those who fell from spiritual light into gross darkness.

P.1660 – §6 “You are confused, Thomas, by the
doctrines of the Greeks and the errors of the Persians. You do not understand
the relationships of evil and sin because you view mankind as beginning
on earth with a perfect Adam and rapidly degenerating, through sin, to
man’s present deplorable estate. But why do you refuse to comprehend the
meaning of the record which discloses how Cain, the son of Adam, went
over into the land of Nod and there got himself a wife? And why do you
refuse to interpret the meaning of the record which portrays the sons
of God finding wives for themselves among the daughters of men?

P.1660 – §7 “Men are, indeed, by nature evil,
but not necessarily sinful. The new birth–the baptism of the spirit–is
essential to deliverance from evil and necessary for entrance into the
kingdom of heaven, but none of this detracts from the fact that man is
the son of God. Neither does this inherent presence of potential evil
mean that man is in some mysterious way estranged from the Father in heaven
so that, as an alien, foreigner, or stepchild, he must in some manner
seek for legal adoption by the Father. All such notions are born, first,
of your misunderstanding of the Father and, second, of your ignorance
of the origin, nature, and destiny of man.

P.1660 – §8 “The Greeks and others have taught
you that man is descending from godly perfection steadily down toward
oblivion or destruction; I have come to show

P.1661 – §0 that man, by entrance into the kingdom,
is ascending certainly and surely up to God and divine perfection. Any
being who in any manner falls short of the divine and spiritual ideals
of the eternal Father’s will is potentially evil, but such beings are
in no sense sinful, much less iniquitous.

P.1661 – §1 “Thomas, have you not read about
this in the Scriptures, where it is written: `You are the children of
the Lord your God.’ `I will be his Father and he shall be my son.’ `I
have chosen him to be my son–I will be his Father.’ `Bring my sons from
far and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one who is
called by my name, for I have created them for my glory.’ `You are the
sons of the living God.’ `They who have the spirit of God are indeed the
sons of God.’ While there is a material part of the human father in the
natural child, there is a spiritual part of the heavenly Father in every
faith son of the kingdom.”

P.1661 – §2 All this and much more Jesus said to
Thomas, and much of it the apostle comprehended, although Jesus admonished
him to “speak not to the others concerning these matters until after
I shall have returned to the Father.” And Thomas did not mention
this interview until after the Master had departed from this world.

P.1661 – §3 At another of these private interviews
in the garden Nathaniel asked Jesus: “Master, though I am beginning
to understand why you refuse to practice healing indiscriminately, I am
still at a loss to understand why the loving Father in heaven permits
so many of his children on earth to suffer so many afflictions.”
The Master answered Nathaniel, saying:

P.1661 – §4 “Nathaniel, you and many others
are thus perplexed because you do not comprehend how the natural order
of this world has been so many times upset by the sinful adventures of
certain rebellious traitors to the Father’s will. And I have come to make
a beginning of setting these things in order. But many ages will be required
to restore this part of the universe to former paths and thus release
the children of men from the extra burdens of sin and rebellion. The presence
of evil alone is sufficient test for the ascension of man–sin is not
essential to survival.
P.1661 – §5 “But, my son, you should know that the Father does
not purposely afflict his children. Man brings down upon himself unnecessary
affliction as a result of his persistent refusal to walk in the better
ways of the divine will. Affliction is potential in evil, but much of
it has been produced by sin and iniquity. Many unusual events have transpired
on this world, and it is not strange that all thinking men should be perplexed
by the scenes of suffering and affliction which they witness. But of one
thing you may be sure: The Father does not send affliction as an arbitrary
punishment for wrongdoing. The imperfections and handicaps of evil are
inherent; the penalties of sin are inevitable; the destroying consequences
of iniquity are inexorable. Man should not blame God for those afflictions
which are the natural result of the life which he chooses to live; neither
should man complain of those experiences which are a part of life as it
is lived on this world. It is the Father’s will that mortal man should
work persistently and consistently toward the betterment of his estate
on earth. Intelligent application would enable man to overcome much of
his earthly misery.

P.1662 – §1 “Nathaniel, it is our mission to
help men solve their spiritual problems and in this way to quicken their
minds so that they may be the better prepared and inspired to go about
solving their manifold material problems. I know of your confusion as
you have read the Scriptures. All too often there has prevailed a tendency
to ascribe to God the responsibility for everything which ignorant man
fails to understand. The Father is not personally responsible for all
you may fail to comprehend. Do not doubt the love of the Father just because
some just and wise law of his ordaining chances to afflict you because
you have innocently or deliberately transgressed such a divine ordinance.

P.1662 – §2 “But, Nathaniel, there is much in
the Scriptures which would have instructed you if you had only read with
discernment. Do you not remember that it is written: `My son, despise
not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction, for
whom the Lord loves he corrects, even as the father corrects the son in
whom he takes delight.’ `The Lord does not afflict willingly.’ `Before
I was afflicted, I went astray, but now do I keep the law. Affliction
was good for me that I might thereby learn the divine statutes.’ `I know
your sorrows. The eternal God is your refuge, while underneath are the
everlasting arms.’ `The Lord also is a refuge for the oppressed, a haven
of rest in times of trouble.’ `The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed
of affliction; the Lord will not forget the sick.’ `As a father shows
compassion for his children, so is the Lord compassionate to those who
fear him. He knows your body; he remembers that you are dust.’ `He heals
the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.’ `He is the hope of the poor,
the strength of the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, and
a shadow from the devastating heat.’ `He gives power to the faint, and
to them who have no might he increases strength.’ `A bruised reed shall
he not break, and the smoking flax he will not quench.’ `When you pass
through the waters of affliction, I will be with you, and when the rivers
of adversity overflow you, I will not forsake you.’ `He has sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to
comfort all who mourn.’ `There is correction in suffering; affliction
does not spring forth from the dust.'”

P.1662 – §3 It was this same evening at Bethsaida
that John also asked Jesus why so many apparently innocent people suffered
from so many diseases and experienced so many afflictions. In answering
John’s questions, among many other things, the Master said:

P.1662 – §4 “My son, you do not comprehend the
meaning of adversity or the mission of suffering. Have you not read that
masterpiece of Semitic literature–the Scripture story of the afflictions
of Job? Do you not recall how this wonderful parable begins with the recital
of the material prosperity of the Lord’s servant? You well remember that
Job was blessed with children, wealth, dignity, position, health, and
everything else which men value in this temporal life. According to the
time-honored teachings of the children of Abraham such material prosperity
was all-sufficient evidence of divine favor. But such material possessions
and such temporal prosperity do not indicate God’s favor. My Father in
heaven loves the poor just as much as the rich; he is no respecter of
persons.

P.1663 – §1 “Although transgression of divine
law is sooner or later followed by the harvest of punishment, while men
certainly eventually do reap what they sow, still you should know that
human suffering is not always a punishment for antecedent sin. Both Job
and his friends failed to find the true answer for their perplexities.
And with the light you now enjoy you would hardly assign to either Satan
or God the parts they play in this unique parable. While Job did not,
through suffering, find the resolution of his intellectual troubles or
the solution of his philosophical difficulties, he did achieve great victories;
even in the very face of the breakdown of his theological defenses he
ascended to those spiritual heights where he could sincerely say, `I abhor
myself’; then was there granted him the salvation of a vision of God.
So even through misunderstood suffering, Job ascended to the superhuman
plane of moral understanding and spiritual insight. When the suffering
servant obtains a vision of God, there follows a soul peace which passes
all human understanding.

P.1663 – §2 “The first of Job’s friends, Eliphaz,
exhorted the sufferer to exhibit in his afflictions the same fortitude
he had prescribed for others during the days of his prosperity. Said this
false comforter: `Trust in your religion, Job; remember that it is the
wicked and not the righteous who suffer. You must deserve this punishment,
else you would not be afflicted. You well know that no man can be righteous
in God’s sight. You know that the wicked never really prosper. Anyway,
man seems predestined to trouble, and perhaps the Lord is only chastising
you for your own good.’ No wonder poor Job failed to get much comfort
from such an interpretation of the problem of human suffering.

P.1663 – §3 “But the counsel of his second friend,
Bildad, was even more depressing, notwithstanding its soundness from the
standpoint of the then accepted theology. Said Bildad: `God cannot be
unjust. Your children must have been sinners since they perished; you
must be in error, else you would not be so afflicted. And if you are really
righteous, God will certainly deliver you from your afflictions. You should
learn from the history of God’s dealings with man that the Almighty destroys
only the wicked.’

P.1663 – §4 “And then you remember how Job replied
to his friends, saying: `I well know that God does not hear my cry for
help. How can God be just and at the same time so utterly disregard my
innocence? I am learning that I can get no satisfaction from appealing
to the Almighty. Cannot you discern that God tolerates the persecution
of the good by the wicked? And since man is so weak, what chance has he
for consideration at the hands of an omnipotent God? God has made me as
I am, and when he thus turns upon me, I am defenseless. And why did God
ever create me just to suffer in this miserable fashion?’

P.1663 – §5 “And who can challenge the attitude
of Job in view of the counsel of his friends and the erroneous ideas of
God which occupied his own mind? Do you not see that Job longed for a
human God, that he hungered to commune with a divine Being who knows man’s
mortal estate and understands that the just must often suffer in innocence
as a part of this first life of the long Paradise ascent? Wherefore has
the Son of Man come forth from the Father to live such a life in the flesh
that he will be able to comfort and succor all those who must henceforth
be called upon to endure the afflictions of Job.

P.1663 – §6 “Job’s third friend, Zophar, then
spoke still less comforting words when he said: `You are foolish to claim
to be righteous, seeing that you are thus afflicted. But I admit that
it is impossible to comprehend God’s ways. Perhaps there is

P.1664 – §0 some hidden purpose in all your miseries.’
And when Job had listened to all three of his friends, he appealed directly
to God for help, pleading the fact that `man, born of woman, is few of
days and full of trouble.’

P.1664 – §1 “Then began the second session with
his friends. Eliphaz grew more stern, accusing, and sarcastic. Bildad
became indignant at Job’s contempt for his friends. Zophar reiterated
his melancholy advice. Job by this time had become disgusted with his
friends and appealed again to God, and now he appealed to a just God against
the God of injustice embodied in the philosophy of his friends and enshrined
even in his own religious attitude. Next Job took refuge in the consolation
of a future life in which the inequities of mortal existence may be more
justly rectified. Failure to receive help from man drives Job to God.
Then ensues the great struggle in his heart between faith and doubt. Finally,
the human sufferer begins to see the light of life; his tortured soul
ascends to new heights of hope and courage; he may suffer on and even
die, but his enlightened soul now utters that cry of triumph, `My Vindicator
lives!’

P.1664 – §2 “Job was altogether right when he
challenged the doctrine that God afflicts children in order to punish
their parents. Job was ever ready to admit that God is righteous, but
he longed for some soul-satisfying revelation of the personal character
of the Eternal. And that is our mission on earth. No more shall suffering
mortals be denied the comfort of knowing the love of God and understanding
the mercy of the Father in heaven. While the speech of God spoken from
the whirlwind was a majestic concept for the day of its utterance, you
have already learned that the Father does not thus reveal himself, but
rather that he speaks within the human heart as a still, small voice,
saying, `This is the way; walk therein.’ Do you not comprehend that God
dwells within you, that he has become what you are that he may make you
what he is!”

P.1664 – §3 Then Jesus made this final statement:
“The Father in heaven does not willingly afflict the children of
men. Man suffers, first, from the accidents of time and the imperfections
of the evil of an immature physical existence. Next, he suffers the inexorable
consequences of sin–the transgression of the laws of life and light.
And finally, man reaps the harvest of his own iniquitous persistence in
rebellion against the righteous rule of heaven on earth. But man’s miseries
are not a personal visitation of divine judgment. Man can, and will, do
much to lessen his temporal sufferings. But once and for all be delivered
from the superstition that God afflicts man at the behest of the evil
one. Study the Book of Job just to discover how many wrong ideas of God
even good men may honestly entertain; and then note how even the painfully
afflicted Job found the God of comfort and salvation in spite of such
erroneous teachings. At last his faith pierced the clouds of suffering
to discern the light of life pouring forth from the Father as healing
mercy and everlasting righteousness.”

P.1664 – §4 John pondered these sayings in his heart
for many days. His entire afterlife was markedly changed as a result of
this conversation with the Master in the garden, and he did much, in later
times, to cause the other apostles to change their viewpoints regarding
the source, nature, and purpose of commonplace human afflictions. But
John never spoke of this conference until after the Master had departed.

P.1664 – §5 The second Sabbath before the departure
of the apostles and the new corps of evangelists on the second preaching
tour of Galilee, Jesus spoke in the

P.1665 – §0 Capernaum synagogue on the “Joys
of Righteous Living.” When Jesus had finished speaking, a large group
of those who were maimed, halt, sick, and afflicted crowded up around
him, seeking healing. Also in this group were the apostles, many of the
new evangelists, and the Pharisaic spies from Jerusalem. Everywhere that
Jesus went (except when in the hills about the Father’s business) the
six Jerusalem spies were sure to follow.

P.1665 – §1 The leader of the spying Pharisees, as
Jesus stood talking to the people, induced a man with a withered hand
to approach him and ask if it would be lawful to be healed on the Sabbath
day or should he seek help on another day. When Jesus saw the man, heard
his words, and perceived that he had been sent by the Pharisees, he said:
“Come forward while I ask you a question. If you had a sheep and
it should fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, would you reach down, lay
hold on it, and lift it out? Is it lawful to do such things on the Sabbath
day?” And the man answered: “Yes, Master, it would be lawful
thus to do well on the Sabbath day.” Then said Jesus, speaking to
all of them: “I know wherefore you have sent this man into my presence.
You would find cause for offense in me if you could tempt me to show mercy
on the Sabbath day. In silence you all agreed that it was lawful to lift
the unfortunate sheep out of the pit, even on the Sabbath, and I call
you to witness that it is lawful to exhibit loving-kindness on the Sabbath
day not only to animals but also to men. How much more valuable is a man
than a sheep! I proclaim that it is lawful to do good to men on the Sabbath
day.” And as they all stood before him in silence, Jesus, addressing
the man with the withered hand, said: “Stand up here by my side that
all may see you. And now that you may know that it is my Father’s will
that you do good on the Sabbath day, if you have the faith to be healed,
I bid you stretch out your hand.”

P.1665 – §2 And as this man stretched forth his withered
hand, it was made whole. The people were minded to turn upon the Pharisees,
but Jesus bade them be calm, saying: “I have just told you that it
is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, to save life, but I did not instruct
you to do harm and give way to the desire to kill.” The angered Pharisees
went away, and notwithstanding it was the Sabbath day, they hastened forthwith
to Tiberias and took counsel with Herod, doing everything in their power
to arouse his prejudice in order to secure the Herodians as allies against
Jesus. But Herod refused to take action against Jesus, advising that they
carry their complaints to Jerusalem.

P.1665 – §3 This is the first case of a miracle to
be wrought by Jesus in response to the challenge of his enemies. And the
Master performed this so-called miracle, not as a demonstration of his
healing power, but as an effective protest against making the Sabbath
rest of religion a veritable bondage of meaningless restrictions upon
all mankind. This man returned to his work as a stone mason, proving to
be one of those whose healing was followed by a life of thanksgiving and
righteousness.

P.1665 – §4 The last week of the sojourn at Bethsaida
the Jerusalem spies became much divided in their attitude toward Jesus
and his teachings. Three of these Pharisees were tremendously impressed
by what they had seen and heard. Meanwhile, at Jerusalem, Abraham, a young
and influential member of the Sanhedrin, publicly espoused the teachings
of Jesus and was baptized in the pool

P.1666 – §0 of Siloam by Abner. All Jerusalem was
agog over this event, and messengers were immediately dispatched to Bethsaida
recalling the six spying Pharisees.

P.1666 – §1 The Greek philosopher who had been won
for the kingdom on the previous tour of Galilee returned with certain
wealthy Jews of Alexandria, and once more they invited Jesus to come to
their city for the purpose of establishing a joint school of philosophy
and religion as well as an infirmary for the sick. But Jesus courteously
declined the invitation.

P.1666 – §2 About this time there arrived at the
Bethsaida encampment a trance prophet from Bagdad, one Kirmeth. This supposed
prophet had peculiar visions when in trance and dreamed fantastic dreams
when his sleep was disturbed. He created a considerable disturbance at
the camp, and Simon Zelotes was in favor of dealing rather roughly with
the self-deceived pretender, but Jesus intervened and allowed him entire
freedom of action for a few days. All who heard his preaching soon recognized
that his teaching was not sound as judged by the gospel of the kingdom.
He shortly returned to Bagdad, taking with him only a half dozen unstable
and erratic souls. But before Jesus interceded for the Bagdad prophet,
David Zebedee, with the assistance of a self-appointed committee, had
taken Kirmeth out into the lake and, after repeatedly plunging him into
the water, had advised him to depart hence–to organize and build a camp
of his own.

P.1666 – §3 On this same day, Beth-Marion, a Phoenician
woman, became so fanatical that she went out of her head and, after almost
drowning from trying to walk on the water, was sent away by her friends.

P.1666 – §4 The new Jerusalem convert, Abraham the
Pharisee, gave all of his worldly goods to the apostolic treasury, and
this contribution did much to make possible the immediate sending forth
of the one hundred newly trained evangelists. Andrew had already announced
the closing of the encampment, and everybody prepared either to go home
or else to follow the evangelists into Galilee.

P.1666 – §5 On Friday afternoon, October 1, when
Jesus was holding his last meeting with the apostles, evangelists, and
other leaders of the disbanding encampment, and with the six Pharisees
from Jerusalem seated in the front row of this assembly in the spacious
and enlarged front room of the Zebedee home, there occurred one of the
strangest and most unique episodes of all Jesus’ earth life. The Master
was, at this time, speaking as he stood in this large room, which had
been built to accommodate these gatherings during the rainy season. The
house was entirely surrounded by a vast concourse of people who were straining
their ears to catch some part of Jesus’ discourse.

P.1667 – §0 his friends to procure ladders by which
they ascended to the roof of the room in which Jesus was speaking, and
after loosening the tiles, they boldly lowered the sick man on his couch
by ropes until the afflicted one rested on the floor immediately in front
of the Master. When Jesus saw what they had done, he ceased speaking,
while those who were with him in the room marveled at the perseverance
of the sick man and his friends. Said the paralytic: “Master, I would
not disturb your teaching, but I am determined to be made whole. I am
not like those who received healing and immediately forgot your teaching.
I would be made whole that I might serve in the kingdom of heaven.”
Now, notwithstanding that this man’s affliction had been brought upon
him by his own misspent life, Jesus, seeing his faith, said to the paralytic:
“Son, fear not; your sins are forgiven. Your faith shall save you.”

P.1667 – §2 And it was about this time that the messengers
of the Sanhedrin arrived to bid the six spies return to Jerusalem. When
they heard this message, they fell to earnest debate among themselves;
and after they had finished their discussions, the leader and two of his
associates returned with the messengers to Jerusalem, while three of the
spying Pharisees confessed faith in Jesus and, going immediately to the
lake, were baptized by Peter and fellowshipped by the apostles as children
of the kingdom.