"I am sending you like sheep among wolves. B« wik
as serpents and pure as doves. First of alt, have nothing of your own, take nothing with you; no bag, no bread, no money, only the clothes on your bodies and the shoes on your feet. And do not make distinctions between people. Do not choose the house in which you will stay, but stay at the first house you come to. When you enter, greet the inmates. If they receive you, go in; if not, go to the next house.
"People will hate you for what you say, and will attack and drive you from place to place, but do not be dismayed. When you are driven from one village go to another; and if you are turned out of that, go to a third. You will be hunted, as sheep are hunted by wolves, and will be beaten, and will be taken before the rulers, to justify yourselves to them. And when you are brought before the judges and before the rulers, do not think about what you are gtMng to say, but know that within you lives the spirit of your Father, and He will say what Is necessary.
"People may kill your body, but they cannot do anything to your soul, so do not be afraid of men. But be afraid only of your soul perishing with your body, if you swerve from fulfilling your Father's will. That is what you should fear. Not one little bird perishes without your Father's will. Without His will, not a hair falls from your head; and if you are in His care, what have you to fear?" Luke X, 1-7; Matt. X. 7-12; 16-31.
XVI.
And the disciples he sent out went one way, while Jesus with the other disciples went another way, through Ihe villages and hamlets. And once he came into a village, and a woman named Martha asked him to her house. He went in and began to speak, and Martha's sister Mary sat
at his feet, listening, while Martha busied herself getting food ready.
And Martha saw that her sister sat at the feet of Jesus, listening to him; and she came to Jesus and said: "I am doing all the work alone, while my sister sits listening to you. Tell her to come and work with me."
And Jesus said:
"Martha, Martha! You are busy and anxious about many things, but only one thing is necessary. And Mary has chosen that one thing that is necessary, and which no one can take from her. For true life, not food for the body, but food for the soul is needed.'
And Jesus told a parable about it:
"A man once had a very good harvest; and thought, Now I will rebuild my barns, and will put up larger ones, and will gather all my goods into them. And I will say to my souclass="underline" 'Here, soul, is plenty of everythii^. Rest, eat, drink, and live for your pleasure.' But God said to him, 'You fool; this night your soul shall be taken from you, and all you have collected will belong to others,'
"Sn it happens to everybody who prepares for the life of the body, and does not live for the soul.
"Only he lives a real life who gives up his own will, and is always ready to do the will of God. But he who is anxious about his bodily life destroys his real life."
LMke X. 38-42; ХП, 15-21; IX, 23-5.
XVII.
Tesus happened to hear some pec^Ie telling how Pilate had killed some Galileans, and also how a tower had fallen and crashed eighteen men. And Jesus asked the. ^wwjJ*.-,
"Do you think those men were particularly guilty of anything? No; we all know that they were not at all worse than we are. And what has happened to them might at any moment happen to us. All of us may die, to-day or to-morrow. We cannot escape death, so there is no need for us to take care of our bodily life. We know that it must soon end. We must take care of that which does not die—^the life of the spirit."
And he explained this by a parable:
"A master had in his garden an apple tree that bore no fruit; and he said to his gardener, 'It is now three years that I come looking for fruit, and this tree has still no fruit. It must be cut down, for it only takes up room uselessly.' But the gardener said, 'Let us wait a little longer, master, and I will dig round it and manure it, and we shall see next summer. Perhaps it will bear fruit. If it has no fruit next year, then we will cut it down.'
"So it is with us. While we live only in the body, and do not bear the fruit of the spirit, our Master does not cut us down, does not put us to death, because he expects fruit from us—the life of the spirit. But if we do not bear fruit, we cannot escape destruction. To understand this, no wisdom is needed; every one can see it for himself. For not only about household matters, but even about things that happen in the whole world, we know how to reason and guess what will happen. When the wind is from the west we say it will rain; when it is from the south we say it will be fine; and so it is. How is that we can foretell the weather, but cannot foresee that we must all die, and that it is not our mortal bodily life, but the immortal spiritual life, that we must preserve?"
LukeXHI, 1-9; Х/Л 54-7.
XVIII.
Another time Jesus told the people a parable of what man's life is like. He said:
"There was a rich man who had to go away from home. And before he went he called his slaves and gave them ten pounds of silver, one pound to each, and he said: 'Work, each of you, while 1 am away, with what I have given you.' Having said that, he started on his journey. And when he had gone the slaves felt free, and did as they liked. But when the master returned, he called his slaves, and ordered each of them to tell him what he had done with the silver. The first came and said: 'With your pound of silver I have earned ten pounds.' And the master said to him, 'That is well, good servant; you have been faithful in a small thit^, so I wilt give you great things to manage. Be my equal, sharing all my wealth.'
"The second slave came, and said: 'Master, with your pound of silver I have earned five.' And the master said to him: 'You have done well, good slave. You too shall be my equal in the whole of my estate.'
"Then came the third slave, and said: "Here is your pound of silver, Lord; I wrapped it up in a handkerchief, and kept it, because I know you—you are a severe man. You take where you did not put anything, and reap where you did not sow; and I was afraid of you.' And the master said: 'Foolish slave, I will judge you by your own words. You say that for fear of me you kept my silver and did not use it. If you knew that I am severe, and take where I have not put, why did you not do as I ordered? Had you used my silver, my wealth would have increased, and you would have done what I told you. But now you have not done the very thing I gave you the silver for; so you must not keep it'
I "And the master ordered them to take the silver from him who had not used it, and to give it to them who had worked most. Then the servants said to the master: 'Lord, they already have so much/ But the master said, 'Give it to those who have worked much, for those who use what is given them get more; but those who do not use it have everything taken away from them/
"So it is with the life of men," said Jesus. "The rich master is the Father. His slaves are people. The silver is the spirit of God in man. As the master did not himself work with his silver, but told each of his slaves to work with what was entrusted to him, so our heavenly Father has given men His spirit that they should increase it in themselves, and should use what has been given them. And wise men understand that the life of the spirit is given them to do the will of the Father, and they increase in themselves the life of the spirit, and become sharers in the life of the Father. But unwise people, like the foolish slave, fear to lose their bodily life, and do only their own will, and not the will of their Father; and so they lose the true life.
"Such people lose that which is most precious—^the life of the spirit. And so there is no more harmful mistake than to consider one's life to be of the body and not of the spirit. One must be at one with the spirit of life. He who is not with it is against it. One must serve the spirit of life, and not one's own body."