26 But when your son, this profligate, who has gone forth and squandered half your wealth in ways of sin, comes home, because he could do nothing else, you kill for him the fatted calf and make a wondrous feast. 27 His father said, My son, all that I have is yours and you are ever with us in our joys; 28 And it is well to show our gladness when your brother, who is near and dear to us, and who we thought was dead, returns to us alive. 29 He may have been a profligate; may have consorted with gay courtesans and thieves, yet he is still your brother and our son. 30 Then Jesus said so all might hear: He who has ears to hear, and hearts to understand will comprehend the meaning of this parable. 31 Then Jesus and the twelve came to Capernaum. CHAPTER 145. _Jesus speaks on the establishment of the Christine kingdom and the future coming of the Lord in power. Exhorts to faithfulness. Parable of the unjust judge. Parable of the Pharisee and the publican._ A company of Pharisees came up to speak with Jesus and they said, Rabboni, we have heard you say, The kingdom is at hand. 2 We read in Daniel that the God of heaven will form a kingdom, and we ask, Is this the kingdom of the God you speak about? If so, when will it come? 3 And Jesus said, The prophets all have told about this kingdom of the God, and it is just at hand; but men can never see it come. 4 It never can be seen with carnal eyes; it is within. 5 Lo, I have said, and now I say again, None but the pure in heart can see the king, and all the pure in heart are subjects of the king. 6 Reform, and turn away from sin; prepare you, O prepare! the kingdom is at hand. 7 And then he spoke to his disciples and he said, The seasons of the son of man are past. 8 The time will come when you will wish above all else to see again one of these days; but you can see it not. 9 And many men will say, Lo, here is Christ; lo, there is Christ. Be not deceived; go not into their ways. 10 For when the son of man will come again no man need point the way; for as the lightning lights the heavens, so will the son of man light up the heavens and earth. 11 But, lo, I say, that many generations will have come and gone before the son of man shall come in power; but when he comes no one will say, Lo, here is Christ; lo, there. 12 But as it was before the flood in Noah’s day, so shall it be. The people ate, they drank, were filled with merriment and sung for joy, 13 And did not know their doom until the ark was done and Noah entered in; but then the flood came on and swept them all away. 14 So, also, in the days of Lot; the people ate and drank; they bought, they sold, they planted and they reaped, they went their ways in sin, and they cared not; 15 But when the righteous Lot went from their city’s gates the earth beneath the city shook, and brimstone fires fell from heaven;