Young Folks' Bible in Words of Easy Reading: The Sweet Stories of God's Word in the Language of ChildhoodPollard, Josephine
Religion
Young Folks' Bible in Words of Easy Reading: The Sweet Stories of God's Word in the Language of Childhood
Pollard, Josephine
Bible -- Paraphrases, English; Bible stories, English -- Juvenile literature; Christian life -- Juvenile literature
Now wa-ter will wash the stains from our clothes, and cleanse our skin,
but it will not wash our sins away. To do this we must have Christ in
our hearts. Some of those who heard John talk thought that he might be
the Christ who was to come, and of whom the proph-ets had fore-told
since the days of Mos-es. Some were quite sure of it; but oth-ers shook
their heads, for they had made up their minds that he who was to come
and rule o-ver them would be dressed like a king, and not in such plain
clothes as John wore.
John heard their words, or guessed their thoughts, and he said to these
Jews, I in-deed bap-tize you with wa-ter, but he who is to come af-fer
me, and who is great-er than I, will bap-tize you with fire.
That meant that Je-sus would be in their hearts like a fire, to burn up
all that was bad, as they burnt the chaff that was blown loose from the
wheat.
Then Je-sus came from his home in Naz-a-reth to have John bap-tize him
in Jor-dan's stream. But John would not. He said there was more need
that Je-sus should bap-tize him. He felt that there was need to have his
own sins washed a-way, but Je-sus had no sins. So why dost thou come to
me? said John.
Je-sus had come on the earth as a man to do God's will, and to teach
man-kind how to walk in the right path and keep their hearts free from
sin. And he told John, that all these things would be made plain to him
some day, and it was right that he should bap-tize him.
So John went with Je-sus in-to the wa-ter, and he bap-tized Je-sus in
the wa-ter. And Je-sus was pray-ing to his Fa-ther in heav-en.
And as Je-sus went up out of the wa-ter, lo, there came a great light in
the sky, that took the form of a dove, and it came down and seemed to
rest on him. And God's voice spoke out of the sky, and said: This is my
dear Son, with whom I am well pleased.
Then Je-sus went out in-to the waste lands, and was there with no one
near him for more than a month. In all that time he ate no food, but
spent the hours in talks with God. At last he felt weak and faint, and
left the waste lands to go in search of some-thing to eat.
Now there is a fiend in this world, as we all know, who has a black
heart, and can take on all sorts of shapes. He came to Eve in the form
of a snake, and to Sam-son with a fair face. He tempts those to do wrong
who have set out to do right, and we have to be on our guard all the
time, and to watch and pray that we may be kept safe from him.
When this fiend saw Je-sus on his way to give new hearts to men, and to
make them good and pure, he thought he would try and put a stop to such
work. So he went out to tempt Je-sus, with the same smooth voice in
which he spoke to Eve.
And he came to him and said, If thou be the Son of God change those
stones in-to bread, so that thou canst eat now that thou hast need of
food.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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