JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES IN THE CORN-FIELD.
Our Lord and His disciples were poor, and sometimes wanted food. One Sabbath day they were walking through the corn-fields, and the disciples were hungry, so they picked some ears of corn, rubbed them in their hands, and ate the wheat.
The Jews might eat corn in the fields on week-days, but the Pharisees had made many hard and silly rules about the Sabbath day. God had said that they must keep the seventh day holy; but He meant it to be a rest from work and a day for men to pray to Him, not a day such as they made it.
The Pharisees said that no fire might be lighted on the Sabbath day, no food cooked, not one thing might be done; they might only walk a little way on that day; and doctors might not cure or help the sick. So it was a day when men, and children too, were not happy, as God meant them to be.
Now, when the Pharisees saw the disciples eat the corn, they said, "Why do you do that which is not right on the Sabbath day?" Our Lord answered, and told them that there was no harm in His disciples eating the corn, for men must eat on the Sabbath day, and that we might do needful things on it. Then He went into the synagogue, and He saw there a man with a withered hand. And the Jews said to Christ, "Is it right to make men well on the Sabbath day?" And Jesus said, "Yes, it is; for if a sheep fell into a pit on the Sabbath day you would take it out, and a man ought to be helped more than a sheep." And He told the poor man to stretch out his hand; he did so, and found that Jesus had made it well, and just like the other hand. And the Pharisees were so angry because He had told men that they were wrong, that they began to talk about killing Him. But Jesus went away when He knew it; and a great crowd of people followed Him, and He made all the sick ones well.
One day, when He saw how many there were following Him, He wished to teach them, and, that they might hear Him well, He went up on a mount close by, and sat down. The Jews always sat down to preach. And when He was seated, His disciples came to Him, and the words He then spoke are called the Sermon on the Mount. You will read it when you are older; it is too hard for you now, but we may tell you a few things out of it. Jesus told them that God would bless those who were humble—that is, not proud—and the meek and gentle. He said that God would comfort those who were sad; that He would bless those who were kind; that the pure in heart should see God, and that those who made up quarrels should be called God's children. He told them that they need not "take thought" about how they should get food and clothes. "See," He said, "the birds of the air: God feeds them; He will also feed you; and look at the lilies: they toil not, neither do they spin, yet the grandest king in all his glory was not arrayed—that is, dressed—like one of them. Seek to please God, and He will take care of you." Then He taught them to say the prayer "Our Father," just as you do now at your mother's knee.
When Jesus had ended the Sermon on the Mount, He came down, and a great many people followed Him; and there came a leper, and knelt down to Him, and said, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean."
A leper was a man whose flesh was eaten away by disease; sometimes the fingers and feet of the leper would fall off. No one could cure him, and men might catch the complaint, so the lepers were kept in a place by themselves; and if they went into the town, they had to cry as they went, "Unclean! unclean!" We are sure that, when this leper came to Christ, all the people got out of his way, and would not touch the poor man. But Our Lord put out His kind hand and touched him, and said, "I will; be thou clean;" and in a moment the leper was quite well; and Our Lord told him to go to the priest and offer a gift of thanks to God. No one but God can cure a leper; but Jesus is God, and He could.
