enter the Kingdom of God!" Jesus stooped and laid his hand on the
man lying before him.

"O Father," he prayed, "heal this man of his suffering, in order that he
may know thy truth and enter thy Kingdom." Jesus straightened up and
held out his arms to all the people. "Come to me, all of you who labor
and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest!"

The disciples felt the power of their Master as they heard him call on
the people to repent. They had never known anyone like him; they had
never heard a message like his. Again and again they heard Jesus say:
"Do you understand why you have been healed? This is a sign that the
power of God has come among you."

It was after midnight when the last person left. Jesus was very tired.
He looked at the black sky. There was no moon. The stars shed a faint
light on the hills above Capernaum. Jesus turned to Simon. "It is time
to rest." He went into the house.

"The people had no fear of evil night spirits," remarked James.

"They know he has power over them," commented Simon.

In the morning, long before dawn, Jesus rose in order to pray outside
the city. A few yards from Simon's home the street dwindled to a path,
and Jesus had to push through the stiff, dry grass which grew knee-high
all over the hillside. As he climbed, he walked around large rocks. When
he reached the crest of the hill, Jesus stood for a long while gazing
down at Capernaum, barely visible in the starlight. There was a little
breeze from the east. It smelled of both lake and desert.

The memory of the sick and lame people filled Jesus with sorrow. Some of
these people really thought that everything would be all right if their
bodies could be healed! What a terrible mistake! Had they understood
what he had told them?

Would they realize that they were thinking only of themselves? Perhaps
their lives were too cluttered with little hopes and ambitions to see
the will of God. How dearly they loved worthless things! Jesus found a
hollow where the bushes sheltered him from the wind and knelt to pray.

Dawn was turning the gray sky to blue when Simon was aroused from sleep
by the noise of a crowd outside his house. He dressed hastily.

"Where is the Healer?" shouted the people. Simon waved his hand for
silence.

"He is not here." His words were instantly drowned by a hundred voices.
"Where is he?" everyone demanded at once.

"I don't know where he is," answered Simon.

"Will he be back? Where did he go?"