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 yearsat His father's home in Nazareth when John the Baptist began to preachand prepare the people for His coming, as it had been foretold by anAngel before His birth that he should do, and we are told that all theland of Judea, and the people of Jerusalem, roused by his preaching, went to be baptized by him in the river Jordan, after confessing theirsins. John told them that One much greater than he was to come after him, Onewhose shoes he was not worthy to unloose, for he could only baptize themwith water and exhort them to repent of their sins while there was yettime, but He who was to come after would baptize them with the HolyGhost. 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 graciousSaviour insisted till John led Him into the river and baptized Him. As they returned to the land a very wonderful thing happened, for theheavens 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, andtelling every one who would listen to him of the marvellous thing he hadseen; whilst Christ went away by Himself into a lonely place called awilderness, where, for forty days, and forty nights, He was tempted bythe devil in all manner of ways, but finding that, by the help of GodHis Father, Jesus was enabled to resist all temptation to sin, and wouldworship and serve none but the true God, the devil at length left Him, and "Angels came and ministered unto Him. " [Illustration] From that time, Jesus being then about thirty years of age, He beganto preach, and exhort to repentance as John had done before Him. Oneday as He walked beside the sea of Galilee He saw two brothers namedSimon-Peter and Andrew, fishing by the shore. These men He called to Himand bade them follow Him for He would make them fishers of men, and theyimmediately left their nets and followed Him. Presently, as they walkedalong 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 calledthem also, and they too left their nets and their father and followedHim. They were the first four of the twelve disciples whom Jesus bydegrees gathered about Him, and who were His companions and assistantsin His future work. With His disciples Christ travelled over the wholeland of Syria, now called the Holy Land, teaching in the churches andpreaching about the Kingdom of His Father, and healing all manner ofdiseases and sicknesses amongst the people, until the fame of Hissayings and doings spread every where, and the sick and suffering anddiseased were brought to Him from all quarters that He might heal them. This He never refused to do, for His heart was so overflowing withdivine love and pity for mankind that He could not see suffering ormisery without healing it. [Illustration: Jesus is Baptized. ] [Illustration] But so immense grew the multitude of people who began to followand press about Him, that He had no room to teach or to preach, noopportunity to rest and talk quietly with His disciples either nightor day. Seeing this He went up a mountain side, and sat down, and His disciplescame to Him, and there He began to instruct the people by preachingto them that most grand and beautiful sermon called the Sermon on theMount, which contains not only the lessons taught by the series ofblessings called "The Beatitudes", at the commencement, but that prayerof prayers known to every child as the "Lord's Prayer", because it isthe only one which Christ Himself taught word for word with His ownlips, and which has remained unaltered through the nineteen hundredyears which have gone by since He lived on earth. [Illustration] The people were very much astonished, not only at what Christ preachedto them, but because He spoke as if He had direct authority for whatHe said, and this they could not understand, because they had notforgotten that He was the Son of Joseph the Carpenter of Nazareth. When Jesus came down from the mountain side, great multitudes followedHim, many of whom were sick and entreated Him to heal them, and He notonly did so, but performed many yet greater miracles, such as makingthe blind to see and the deaf to hear, and even restoring to life somethat were dead, always however, impressing on those about Him, that itwas not by His own power that He did these things, but by faith in theSpirit of God His Father who moved within Him. After having sufficiently taught His disciples by quiet talks, byspeaking to them through parables and letting them behold the miraclesHe Himself performed, until they thoroughly believed in His Divinepower, Christ called the whole twelve around Him and gave them also thepower to perform miracles, to heal all manner of sickness and disease, and then sent them forth to teach and preach in all the cities ofIsrael. He laid upon them many injunctions as to their conduct asthey travelled, how they were to give offence to no one, and to teachbrotherly love and the forgiveness of injuries between man and man asfreely 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 backto Jesus to report to Him what they had done and how they had beenreceived, and how the fame of His Name and teaching was spreading farand wide; and so it happened that He was seldom without one or two ofthese loved and trusted followers about Him as He journeyed, sometimesstopping a few days in one place, sometimes crossing the inland sea ofGalilee, 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 hisFather, and winning men, women, and children to follow Him. Our Saviour had no comfortable home such as you have; often and often Hehad nowhere to lay His head at night, but weary and hungry after a longday's ministry, He would stretch Himself on the ground wherever He mightbe at the time, and sleep with the grass for His bed, and the starry skyfor His curtains. [Illustration] All through His life, which He spent in loving service towards men, ourSaviour was specially kind and tender to little children. One day He wasso much inconvenienced by the number of women with children in theirarms pressing upon Him, and entreating Him to bless their little ones, that the disciples who were with Him rebuked the mothers; but Jesus saidto them "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid themnot, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. " Then He told those about Himthat if only they would receive His teaching of the Kingdom of God, andbelieve in Him as simply and entirely as little children did, they wouldinherit Eternal Life; and He would take the little ones who clusteredround His feet into His loving arms and bless them. [Illustration] On another occasion when His disciples were disputing as to who shouldbe the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus called a little childand set him in the midst of them, and said whoever should be as meek andhumble as a little child should be the greatest; and whoever received alittle child with love and reverence in His Name, received Him, and thenHe warned them to take heed and not despise little children, and neverto say or do anything that should stain the innocency of their mindsbecause "In Heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father. "You, little children who read this book, must remember that you are justas much the care of your Good Shepherd now, as were those privilegedones of old who actually saw Him face to face, you must have faith inHim as they had, and believe that though you cannot see Him now, He isstill, 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 yousafely to the Home in Heaven which He has gone to prepare for those thatlove 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 calledJacob'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, Heasked her to draw Him some water: when He had drunk, He said that if sheknew who He was she would have asked Him for water instead, for He couldgive her the Living Water of Everlasting Life. Then He told her who Hewas, and she went away to the city telling every one she met Whom shehad seen: some of the disciples then joined Him, and Jesus remained twodays in the city preaching so that many believed in Him, and on the wayback into Galilee He healed a nobleman's son of a mortal sickness. [Illustration] On returning to Bethany, Jesus heard that Lazarus, the brother of Marthaand Mary, two sisters whom He loved, had died during His absence. Marthamet Him weeping, and told Him of their grief saying "Lord, if Thou hadstbeen here, my brother had not died, " for she knew Jesus would have savedhim. Jesus Himself wept to see their sorrow, and going to the graveordered the stone to be rolled away and called Lazarus to come forth;Lazarus did so, and many of those present believed in Jesus, but otherswent 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 Hisadherents will become too powerful, and will take our nation away fromus. " The people of Bethany made a supper for our Lord, and Lazarus and Marthaand Mary were there, together with the disciples; the Feast of thePassover was near, and Jerusalem was crowded, and the Chief Priestsbecame still more uneasy for more and more of the people every daybelieved in Christ, and when they heard He was coming to Jerusalem wentout to meet Him with branches of palm, crying "Hosannah--Blessed is Hethat cometh in the Name of the Lord, " and the people said "Behold, theworld is gone after Him. " [Illustration] Jesus knew that the time was now come when He should depart from thisworld and go to His Father, and told His disciples so, saying they mustnot be troubled, for there were many mansions in His Father's House andHe was but going before to prepare a place there for them. Then, beingsorrowful at heart, our Lord went up to a garden called Gethsemane, andprayed to His Father that the souls of all mankind might be saved andcome at last to share the glory of Heaven. Whilst He prayed, one of Hisdisciples, who knew where He was, wickedly betrayed Him to the ChiefPriests, and guided a band of soldiers to the garden, who bound Him andled Him to the High Priest Caiaphas, who in turn sent Him to be judgedby Pontius Pilate the Governor. [Illustration: The Ascension. ] Pilate, when he had heard of what the people accused Jesus, knew thatit was for envy they were excited against Him, and washed his handsbefore the multitude, saying he found no fault in Him, and he would havenothing to do with shedding the blood of an innocent man. "His blood beon us and our children" cried the people and they roughly dragged Himaway, and beat Him, and made Him carry a heavy cross of wood up MountCalvary where they crucified Him, by nailing Him to the cross. Now Marythe Mother of Jesus, and another woman, also named Mary, and many of thedisciples had followed in the crowd; they could not save our Lord fromHis cruel death, but when He was dead, they, together with a good mancalled Joseph, were allowed to take His body down from the cross, andlay 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 Jesusshould rise again on the third day, so, fearing that His disciplesshould steal away the body, and pretend that He had risen, the ChiefPriests set keepers to guard the tomb. [Illustration] Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the other Mary, went to visit the tombearly in the morning of the third day, and there was a great earthquakeand the Angel of God descended and rolled back the stone and sat uponit, so that the keepers shook with afright, but the Angel said "Fearnot, for Jesus is not here, He is risen, as He, said. " so the two Marysran to tell His disciples the great news, and on their way met JesusHimself, and they fell at His feet and worshipped Him. He told them togo and tell His disciples to go into Galilee and He would meet themthere. This He did, and for the last time He met them on a hill side inBethany, and again taught them, telling them still to go out into theworld and preach repentance and the remission of sins in His Name. ThenHe lifted up His hands, and blessed them, and even as He did so, He wassuddenly carried up into Heaven and hidden from their sight. Helen Marion Burnside. [Illustration]