CHAPTER 74.
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Levi
Jesus heals on the Sabbath, and is censured by the Pharisees. Restores a drowned child. Rescues a wounded dog. Cares for a homeless child. Speaks on the law of kindness.
It was the Sabbath day, and Jesus stood among the surging masses of the people in the temple courts and sacred halls.
2 The blind, the deaf, the dumb, and those obsessed were there, and Jesus spoke the Word, and they were healed.
3 On some he laid his hands, and they were healed; to others he just spoke the Word, and they were full restored to health; but others had to go and wash in certain pools; and others he anointed with a holy oil.
4 A doctor asked him why he healed in divers ways, and he replied,
5 Disease is discord in the human form, and discords are produced in many ways.
6 The body is a harpsichord; sometimes the strings are too relaxed, and then inharmony results.
7 Sometimes we find the strings too tense, and then another form of discord is induced.
8 Disease is many-formed, and there are many ways to cure, to tune anew the mystic harpsichord.
9 Now when the Pharisees were told that Jesus healed the people on the Sabbath day they were enraged, and they commanded him to quit the place.
10 But Jesus said, Was man designed to fit the Sabbath day, or was the Sabbath day designed to fit the man?
11 If you had fallen in a pit and, lo, the Sabbath day had come, and I should pass your way, would you cry out,
12 Let me alone; it is a sin to help me on the Sabbath day; I’ll swelter in this filth until another day?
13 You Pharisees, you hypocrites! you know you would be glad to have my help upon the Sabbath day, or any other day.
14 These people all have fallen into pits, and they are calling loud for me to help them out, and man and God would curse me should I pass along and heed them not.
15 And then the Pharisees returned to say their prayers, and curse the man of God because he heeded not their words.
16 Now, in the evening Jesus stood beside a pool; a playful child had fallen in, and it was drowned, and friends were bearing it away.
17 But Jesus called the carriers to stop; and then he stretched himself upon the lifeless form, and breathed into its mouth the breath of life.
18 And then he called aloud unto the soul that had gone out, and it returned; the child revived and lived.
19 And Jesus saw a wounded dog; it could not move; it lay beside the way and groaned with pain. He took it in his arms and bore it to the home where he abode.
20 He poured the healing oil into the wounds; he cared for it as though it were a child till it was strong and well.
21 And Jesus saw a little boy who had no home, and he was hungry; when he called for bread the people turned away.
22 And Jesus took the child and gave him bread; he wrapped him in his own warm coat, and found for him a home.
23 To those who followed him the master said, If man would gain again his lost estate he must respect the brotherhood of life.
24 Whoever is not kind to every form of life—to man, to beast, to bird, and creeping thing—cannot expect the blessings of the Holy One; for as we give, so God will give to us.