“He that wonders shall reign, he who reigns shall find rest. My secret is for me, and for those that are mine are the things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. Those who wish to see me, and wish to cling to the kingdom, must take me through affliction and suffering. For he that is near me is near the fire, he that is far from me is far from the kingdom. Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be. As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself. “They that love me shall receive the crown. I will choose me the good, those good whom my Father in the heavens hath given me. Let the lawless continue in lawlessness, the just be justified. Behold, I make the last as the first, and all things new. In whatsoever state I find you, in that also will I judge you.” Never heard I any who spoke of himself as this man did. For days and days afterwards some of his words came to me again and again. Whenever I was alone I seemed to hear his voice saying, “Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be.” Whenever I gazed on the running stream or looked on the polished steel of the mirror, again I seemed to hear him say, “As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.” And, in truth, at times my features seemed to fade away, and the face of Jesus gaze upon me. Others thought not as I. When we assembled after the sermon, to talk over it, as is our custom, I found that most had been chiefly touched by certain sayings at the end of the sermon, in which Jesus seemed to speak of the future life and the last judgment. Thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that with regard to these matters I incline more to the teaching of the Sadducean sect, who hold that Holy Scripture speaketh not of these things, and that, therefore, we need not and should not think thereon. But there were few who held that doctrine in the synagogue that day, and these thought most of the words in which Jesus seemed to claim the prerogatives of the Divine Judge. “I was amazed,” quoth Serachyah ben Pinchas, “when he spoke of judging us himself in the last days: it wanted but a little that I had rent my garments at the blasphemy. But surely, thought I to myself, the man will shortly tell us, ‘These are the words of the Lord,’ and so I refrained.”