there! They had brought their sick friends, and laid
them down at the door. And Jesus put His hands on the sick people, and
healed them all.

In the east there is a dreadful illness called leprosy, and the people
who have it are called lepers. No doctor can cure it. At the time
when Jesus lived on the earth, lepers were not allowed to come into
cities. And they had to go about with nothing on their heads, and with
their dresses torn, and with their mouths covered over; and when they
saw anybody coming, they had to call out, 'Unclean! unclean!'

One day when Jesus went into a town a leper saw Him. The poor man came
to Jesus and knelt down before Him, and fell on his face. And he said,
'If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.' And Jesus put out His hand,
and touched him, and said to him, 'I will; be thou clean.' And as soon
as Jesus had said that, the leper was well.

Sin is just like leprosy. A baby's naughtiness does not look very bad;
but that naughtiness spreads and gets stronger as baby gets older, and
nobody but Jesus can take it away.

Jesus Christ's body must often have felt very tired, for crowds
followed Him about all the time. They came from Perea, and from
Judaea, and from other places too, to see the wonderful new Teacher.
And Jesus preached to them all, and healed their sicknesses. The most
wonderful sermon that was ever preached in all the world is called the
Sermon on the Mount, because Jesus sat down on a hill to preach it.

After a time Jesus went up again to Jerusalem. In or near Jerusalem
there was a spring of water which was as good as medicine, because it
made sick people well if they bathed in it often enough. This spring
ran into a bathing-place called the Pool of Bethesda. Numbers of sick
persons came to bathe in that pool. One Sabbath day Jesus saw quite a
crowd there. Some were blind, some were lame, some were sick of the
palsy. They were sitting, or lying, by the side of the pool. Jesus
was very sorry for one poor man there. He had been ill thirty-eight
years. So Jesus said to the man, 'Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.'
And at once the sick man was well, and took up his mattress and walked.

Now the Rabbis had a number of very silly rules about the Sabbath day.
Even if a man broke his arm or his leg on the Sabbath the Rabbis would
not allow the doctor to put the bone right till the next day. So they
were very angry when they found that Jesus had made that poor man we