"What were they saying, Peter?"
"They said that the Prophet was a man of fair words, but that He did nothing. He never once healed the sick who came to Him from great distances."
"They say that?"
"Yes, sir, that's the kind of thing they say."
Jesus raised His head, and looked cheerfully round the circle. While He rocked one of the little girls on His knee, He said calmly: "So they say I only talk and do nothing. In their sense they are right. I don't pray, they mean, because they don't see Me do it. I don't fast, because we can't eat less than a little, except when we sit at a luxurious table like Martha's. I don't give alms because My purse is empty. What good do I do, then? I don't work, because in their eyes My work doesn't count. I don't work miracles on their bodies, because I am come to heal their souls. Amon, say, would you exchange the peace of your heart for sound legs?"
"Lord!" exclaimed Amon vivaciously, "if they say you do nothing good, just let them come to the house of old Amon at Bethany. You came under my roof, and my soul was healed."
"And you brought me resurrection and life," shouted Lazarus passionately from the other end of the room.
"And me, more than that," said Magdalen, looking up at Him with moist eyes. And then she bent down and kissed His feet.
And Peter exclaimed: "I was a mere worm, and He made me a man. He does more than all the Rabbis and physicians and generals put together."
Then John turned to him and asked: "Brother, why didn't you talk like that to the people in Jerusalem? Were you afraid of them?"