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OUR SAVIOUR


Father Tuck's NEW TESTAMENT Series.



[Illustration: Our Savior.]

Our Saviour.

[Illustration]

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had been quietly living for many years
at His father's home in Nazareth when John the Baptist began to preach
and prepare the people for His coming, as it had been foretold by an
Angel before His birth that he should do, and we are told that all the
land of Judea, and the people of Jerusalem, roused by his preaching,
went to be baptized by him in the river Jordan, after confessing their
sins.

John told them that One much greater than he was to come after him, One
whose shoes he was not worthy to unloose, for he could only baptize them
with water and exhort them to repent of their sins while there was yet
time, but He who was to come after would baptize them with the Holy
Ghost. This he did till Jesus Himself came from Nazareth to the Jordan,
and desired John, the companion of His childhood, to baptize Him also.
John objected, saying that he himself had need to be baptized of Jesus,
and was not worthy to perform the office for Him, but our gracious
Saviour insisted till John led Him into the river and baptized Him.

As they returned to the land a very wonderful thing happened, for the
heavens opened above, and the Spirit of God, in the form of a dove,
descended, and alighted upon Jesus, whilst a voice was heard saying
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Then John went on his way, preaching more and more to the people, and
telling every one who would listen to him of the marvellous thing he had
seen; whilst Christ went away by Himself into a lonely place called a
wilderness, where, for forty days, and forty nights, He was tempted by
the devil in all manner of ways, but finding that, by the help of God
His Father, Jesus was enabled to resist all temptation to sin, and would
worship and serve none but the true God, the devil at length left Him,
and "Angels came and ministered unto Him."

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From that time, Jesus being then about thirty years of age, He began
to preach, and exhort to repentance as John had done before Him. One
day as He walked beside the sea of Galilee He saw two brothers named
Simon-Peter and Andrew, fishing by the shore. These men He called to Him
and bade them follow Him for He would make them fishers of men, and they
immediately left their nets and followed Him. Presently, as they walked
along the shore, they saw two other fishermen brothers--James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, in a boat with their father, mending the great,
brown nets with which they caught fish on the Syrian coasts, and called
them also, and they too left their nets and their father and followed
Him. They were the first four of the twelve disciples whom Jesus by
degrees gathered about Him, and who were His companions and assistants
in His future work. With His disciples Christ travelled over the whole
land of Syria, now called the Holy Land, teaching in the churches and
preaching about the Kingdom of His Father, and healing all manner of
diseases and sicknesses amongst the people, until the fame of His
sayings and doings spread every where, and the sick and suffering and
diseased were brought to Him from all quarters that He might heal them.
This He never refused to do, for His heart was so overflowing with
divine love and pity for mankind that He could not see suffering or
misery without healing it.

[Illustration: Jesus is Baptized.]

[Illustration]

But so immense grew the multitude of people who began to follow
and press about Him, that He had no room to teach or to preach, no
opportunity to rest and talk quietly with His disciples either night
or day.

Seeing this He went up a mountain side, and sat down, and His disciples
came to Him, and there He began to instruct the people by preaching
to them that most grand and beautiful sermon called the Sermon on the
Mount, which contains not only the lessons taught by the series of
blessings called "The Beatitudes", at the commencement, but that prayer
of prayers known to every child as the "Lord's Prayer", because it is
the only one which Christ Himself taught word for word with His own
lips, and which has remained unaltered through the nineteen hundred
years which have gone by since He lived on earth.

[Illustration]

The people were very much astonished, not only at what Christ preached
to them, but because He spoke as if He had direct authority for what
He said, and this they could not understand, because they had not
forgotten that He was the Son of Joseph the Carpenter of Nazareth.

When Jesus came down from the mountain side, great multitudes followed
Him, many of whom were sick and entreated Him to heal them, and He not
only did so, but performed many yet greater miracles, such as making
the blind to see and the deaf to hear, and even restoring to life some
that were dead, always however, impressing on those about Him, that it
was not by His own power that He did these things, but by faith in the
Spirit of God His Father who moved within Him.

After having sufficiently taught His disciples by quiet talks, by
speaking to them through parables and letting them behold the miracles
He Himself performed, until they thoroughly believed in His Divine
power, Christ called the whole twelve around Him and gave them also the
power to perform miracles, to heal all manner of sickness and disease,
and then sent them forth to teach and preach in all the cities of
Israel. He laid upon them many injunctions as to their conduct as
they travelled, how they were to give offence to no one, and to teach
brotherly love and the forgiveness of injuries between man and man as
freely as God had promised to forgive them.

[Illustration: By the Sea of Galilee.]

Now and then, by twos and threes, some of the disciples came back
to Jesus to report to Him what they had done and how they had been
received, and how the fame of His Name and teaching was spreading far
and wide; and so it happened that He was seldom without one or two of
these loved and trusted followers about Him as He journeyed, sometimes
stopping a few days in one place, sometimes crossing the inland sea of
Galilee, or going from city to city along the coast in a boat or ship,
but always doing good wherever He went, preaching the Gospel of his
Father, and winning men, women, and children to follow Him.

Our Saviour had no comfortable home such as you have; often and often He
had nowhere to lay His head at night, but weary and hungry after a long
day's ministry, He would stretch Himself on the ground wherever He might
be at the time, and sleep with the grass for His bed, and the starry sky
for His curtains.

[Illustration]

All through His life, which He spent in loving service towards men, our
Saviour was specially kind and tender to little children. One day He was
so much inconvenienced by the number of women with children in their
arms pressing upon Him, and entreating Him to bless their little ones,
that the disciples who were with Him rebuked the mothers; but Jesus said
to them "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them
not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Then He told those about Him
that if only they would receive His teaching of the Kingdom of God, and
believe in Him as simply and entirely as little children did, they would
inherit Eternal Life; and He would take the little ones who clustered
round His feet into His loving arms and bless them.

[Illustration]

On another occasion when His disciples were disputing as to who should
be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus called a little child
and set him in the midst of them, and said whoever should be as meek and
humble as a little child should be the greatest; and whoever received a
little child with love and reverence in His Name, received Him, and then
He warned them to take heed and not despise little children, and never
to say or do anything that should stain the innocency of their minds
because "In Heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father."
You, little children who read this book, must remember that you are just
as much the care of your Good Shepherd now, as were those privileged
ones of old who actually saw Him face to face, you must have faith in
Him as they had, and believe that though you cannot see Him now, He is
still, and always at your side, seeing all you do, hearing all you say,
watching over you, and, if you will only let Him, willing to guide you
safely to the Home in Heaven which He has gone to prepare for those that
love Him and try to do His will.

[Illustration: The Last Supper.]

Feeling that He must go through Samaria, where He had not yet preached,
our Saviour travelled on alone and came to a well which is called
Jacob's well; being very weary He seated Himself on the edge to rest.
He was very thirsty also, and on a woman coming up with a pitcher, He
asked her to draw Him some water: when He had drunk, He said that if she
knew who He was she would have asked Him for water instead, for He could
give her the Living Water of Everlasting Life. Then He told her who He
was, and she went away to the city telling every one she met Whom she
had seen: some of the disciples then joined Him, and Jesus remained two
days in the city preaching so that many believed in Him, and on the way
back into Galilee He healed a nobleman's son of a mortal sickness.

[Illustration]

On returning to Bethany, Jesus heard that Lazarus, the brother of Martha
and Mary, two sisters whom He loved, had died during His absence. Martha
met Him weeping, and told Him of their grief saying "Lord, if Thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died," for she knew Jesus would have saved
him. Jesus Himself wept to see their sorrow, and going to the grave
ordered the stone to be rolled away and called Lazarus to come forth;
Lazarus did so, and many of those present believed in Jesus, but others
went away and told the High Priests and rulers, who were much troubled,
for they said "If we let this man go many will believe in Him, and His
adherents will become too powerful, and will take our nation away from
us."

The people of Bethany made a supper for our Lord, and Lazarus and Martha
and Mary were there, together with the disciples; the Feast of the
Passover was near, and Jerusalem was crowded, and the Chief Priests
became still more uneasy for more and more of the people every day
believed in Christ, and when they heard He was coming to Jerusalem went
out to meet Him with branches of palm, crying "Hosannah--Blessed is He
that cometh in the Name of the Lord," and the people said "Behold, the
world is gone after Him."

[Illustration]

Jesus knew that the time was now come when He should depart from this
world and go to His Father, and told His disciples so, saying they must
not be troubled, for there were many mansions in His Father's House and
He was but going before to prepare a place there for them. Then, being
sorrowful at heart, our Lord went up to a garden called Gethsemane, and
prayed to His Father that the souls of all mankind might be saved and
come at last to share the glory of Heaven. Whilst He prayed, one of His
disciples, who knew where He was, wickedly betrayed Him to the Chief
Priests, and guided a band of soldiers to the garden, who bound Him and
led Him to the High Priest Caiaphas, who in turn sent Him to be judged
by Pontius Pilate the Governor.

[Illustration: The Ascension.]

Pilate, when he had heard of what the people accused Jesus, knew that
it was for envy they were excited against Him, and washed his hands
before the multitude, saying he found no fault in Him, and he would have
nothing to do with shedding the blood of an innocent man. "His blood be
on us and our children" cried the people and they roughly dragged Him
away, and beat Him, and made Him carry a heavy cross of wood up Mount
Calvary where they crucified Him, by nailing Him to the cross. Now Mary
the Mother of Jesus, and another woman, also named Mary, and many of the
disciples had followed in the crowd; they could not save our Lord from
His cruel death, but when He was dead, they, together with a good man
called Joseph, were allowed to take His body down from the cross, and
lay it in a tomb belonging to Joseph, hewn out of a rock in a garden,
and they set a great stone upon it. It had been foretold that Jesus
should rise again on the third day, so, fearing that His disciples
should steal away the body, and pretend that He had risen, the Chief
Priests set keepers to guard the tomb.

[Illustration]

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the other Mary, went to visit the tomb
early in the morning of the third day, and there was a great earthquake
and the Angel of God descended and rolled back the stone and sat upon
it, so that the keepers shook with afright, but the Angel said "Fear
not, for Jesus is not here, He is risen, as He, said." so the two Marys
ran to tell His disciples the great news, and on their way met Jesus
Himself, and they fell at His feet and worshipped Him. He told them to
go and tell His disciples to go into Galilee and He would meet them
there. This He did, and for the last time He met them on a hill side in
Bethany, and again taught them, telling them still to go out into the
world and preach repentance and the remission of sins in His Name. Then
He lifted up His hands, and blessed them, and even as He did so, He was
suddenly carried up into Heaven and hidden from their sight.

Helen Marion Burnside.

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