When they reached that portion of the road where it grows wider in front of the park, the pressure became less. But still the crowd increased.
'He goes to the hospital,' they cry, 'to heal the sick with a touch.'
And some ran on to St. George's Hospital, and pushed past the porters up the stairs and into the wards, and began to lift the sick out of their beds. And those who could walk, being persuaded by them that had run on, went out into the streets. So that when He came, He found awaiting Him a strange collection of the sick, who were ill of all manner of diseases. And the people cried:
'Heal them!--heal them with a touch!'
But He replied:
'What is it you ask of Me? I came not to heal the sick, but to call sinners to repentance.'
They cried the more:
'Heal them!--heal them with a touch!'
'If I heal them, what then? Of what shall they be healed? Of what avail to heal the body if the spirit continues sick?'
But they persisted in their exclamations. While still they pressed on Him, an inspector of police edged his way through the crowd.