"And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean." —Mark, 1, 41.

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O GREAT was the pressure of the people about Jesus on that divine evening at Capernaum, that He left the city during the night, and went forth quietly to a solitary place to pray. There Peter and the other disciples, seeking, found Him, bringing news that the whole city was searching for Him. But Jesus insisted on pressing onward to other towns. Since the people of Capernaum believed, His mission there was accomplished. Always He had to face this difficulty: people crowded to Him chiefly to be relieved of bodily ills; but while He healed them out of divine compassion, His real mission was not to their bodies but to their souls. His miracles of healing were only a means to a greater end.

Yet all three of the "synoptic" Evangelists pause to dwell on what was apparently considered a more striking miracle than any before. Fevers He had assuaged; devils He had cast out; but such evils had been sometimes healed by others. Next He cured the supposedly incurable, that most dreaded of all diseases in the East, leprosy. To Him and His followers came a leper who knelt and said, "If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Christ touched the sufferer, a thing no other Hebrew would have ventured; for not only was the disease terribly contagious, but the Jewish religion forbade the faintest association with lepers. Yet Christ touched him: and at once the man was well.

MARK XIV-PETER DENIES CHRIST

1591

62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

63 Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?

64 Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.

65 And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.

66¶ And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest:

67 And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.

68 But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch; and the cock crew. 69 And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them.

70 And he denied it again. And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto.

71 But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.

72 And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

Chapter 15

1 Jesus brought bound, and accused before Pilate. 15 Upon the clamour of the common people, the murderer Barabbas is loosed, and Jesus delivered up to be crucified. 17 He is crowned with thorns, 19 spit on, and mocked: 21 fainteth in bearing his cross: 27 hangeth between two thieves: 29 suffereth the triumphing reproaches of the Jews: 39 but confessed by the centurion to be the Son of God: 43 and is honourably buried by Joseph.

ND straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him

to Pilate.

2 And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it.

3 And the chief priests accused him of many things: but he answered nothing.

4 And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against thee.

5 But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marvelled.

6 Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired.

7 And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.