e said, "We were
journeying together, and I saw a shining stone lying in the road, and
pointed it out to this man; and because he was swifter on his feet
than I, he got to it first. And now he says he will keep it for
himself, but I say it belongs to me, for I saw it first." Then said
the traveller, "What is the value of the stone?" They said, "We do
not know." And he said, "Will you take these two pieces of money for
it and let me have it?" And to this they consented. So when the man
got to Jerusalem, he took the stone to a jeweller and showed it to
him; and no sooner had the jeweller seen it than he fell on his face
and gave thanks to God. And then he said to the man, "Where did you
find this? For three whole years all Jerusalem has been ransacked
for this stone. Go quickly to the High Priest and give it to him, and
see what he will give you!" At the same hour there came an angel to
the High Priest, and said to him, "Within a few moments there will
come to you a man bringing the gem which three years ago was lost out
of the breastplate of Aaron the priest. Receive it at his hands, and
give him for it a great sum of gold; and when you have given it,
smite him lightly upon the cheek and say, 'Be not distrustful in thy
heart, and slow to believe the word which says, 'He that hath pity
upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord.' For thus saith the Lord,
'Have I not now in this present world repaid thee many times over that
which thou didst lend to Me? And, if thou have faith, thou shalt in
the world to come receive a recompense yet many times greater than
this.'" And when the man came, the High Priest did and said as he had
been commanded; and the man's heart was moved, and he left in the
temple all that great sum which had been given him, and for the rest
of his life put his whole trust in the promises of God.

The other short story is taken out of an apocryphal book under the
name of the prophet Ezekiel, and is a parable of the soul and the
body of man at the day of judgment.

There was a certain king, it says, who made a marriage feast for his
eldest son, and invited all his soldiers to his palace to share it.
Now every one of his subjects was a soldier and served in his army,
except only two, one of whom was blind and the other lame; and these
two were not invited to the feast, but remained in their huts--which
were near to one another--very angry and disappointed. After a while
the blind man called to the lame man, "It