1. It was two or three months after the healing of the nobleman's son. Jesus went to Jerusalem to attend a Jewish feast, probably the Passover, which began March 29 that year. 2, 3. It was a resort for the sick as Hot Springs, Ark., is. People believed in the curative properties of the water only when it began to stir and bubble up. They thought God sent an angel at times to stir up the waters and only he who got in first would be healed. Their belief made it so to those who believed. It is common to see springs and waterspouts in the Yosemite which act intermittently, some of them at very regular intervals. Some spout up once every day, some two or three times a day, some every hour. The "troubling" of this pool was a natural phenomenon, but the people thought God sent an angel to stir it up. This belief helped them to be healed. 4. The authenticity of this verse is in doubt. Some think John would not have been so superstitious. He probably only intended to state the general belief of the people. 5, 6, 7. The man had been thirty-eight years probably a paralytic, as the Greek word used means impotent, or helpless. How long he had been there trying to get into the water first, we do not know. Having no one to help him, he always failed to get in first. Sick people are often selfish. Their ailments make them forget others. 8-13. Jesus healed him with a word of command. It is a good way. Command your patient to get up and walk. If you have the faith and bravery to do it and he the belief to attempt it, he will obey and be healed. The Jews began to raise a fuss about the man carrying his bed on the Sabbath. They wanted to find the man who told him to do it. The healed man did not know and Jesus had gone away to avoid the crowd drawn together by the report of the great work done. 14, 15. The implication here is that the man's ailment was caused by his sins. Jesus warns him that a repetition of the sin will make him a sicker man than he was before. I believe this to be peculiarly true of those who have been healed by spiritual treatment. They must not repeat the sin that first made them sick. If they do, look out! 1. How did the water of the pool help people? Was there any chemical virtue in it? 3. Would similar belief in an ordinary bath have the same effect? 4. How did Jesus' command heal? 5. What warning did Jesus give the man? 7. If so, would not regeneration always heal? Lesson IX.-Feby. 26. THE MIRACLE OF THE LOAVES AND FISHES. -John 6:1-14. LESSON KEY-NOTE:-"I am the living bread which came down from the heavens." Time: Almost a year after the events of our last lesson. It was just before the feast of the Passover. which began that year, A. D. 29, on April 16. Place:-An uncultivated grazing region on the outskirts of Bethsaida, called the Plain of Butaiha. It was on the northeast shore of the sea of Galilee, at the foot of the mountains. Two reasons are assigned for Jesus' determination to leave Herod's kingdom. Herod had just murdered John the Baptist and the excitement was great. Jesus and his disciples were in danger. And the disciples needed a rest. So they went away to a quiet place. Mark gives the latter reason. 1, 2. But Jesus did not escape the eager crowds. They followed him, some for curiosity, some to get food, some to ask for healing and some to be taught. 3-6. Jesus and his disciples sought a quiet nook in which to rest and have a talk together. But the crowds found him out and followed. Jesus knew they could not buy food for all; no place of supply, was near, and they had little money. The people had none. It is here stated that Jesus' appeal to Philip for advice was only to test him, as Jesus knew just what he was going to do. 7, 8, 9. Philip said that he believed $32.00 would not buy bread enough that each might have just a little. Andrew said there was a boy there who had brought his lunch along consisting of five barley crackers and two small fishes. The "loaves" here referred to were round, flat cakes like crackers. The fishes were dried and not larger than an ordinary sardine. 10-14. The miracle here recorded is the only one of Jesus' wonderful works which is given by all of the four gospels. John mentions only seven others. Did Jesus so increase, by his thought power, five crackers and two sardines that there was enough to fully feed 5000 hungry people and have twelve baskets full left? (The "baskets" here referred to were the small lunch wallets which the disciples carried swung at the side by a strap over the shoulder.) The wheat stalk reaches up and calls out of the invisible the grain of wheat. The grape vine draws the grape with its vine out of the everywhere. The fishes grow from a tiny egg by a mysterious power. When conditions are right the product appears. If Jesus actually did this work, he did it by putting into action natural law. He simply knew the mystery of growth and by his mind or spirit power put the law into action which produces the wheat grain, the grape and the fishes. We understand neither process. 1. Why did Jesus leave Judea? Why did the crowds follow him? 2. 3. 6. If possible for one man may it not be done again? 7. Is not all growth as unexplainable as this miracle? THE LIFE A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF APPLIED METAPHYSICS. $1.00 Per Year in North America; 5s in Foreign Coun. tries; in Advance. A. P. BARTON-C. JOSEPHINE BARTON, Ralph Barton, Staff Artist. Editors and Publishers. Office 3332 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri. Make checks and money orders payable to A. P. Barton. Terms of advertising made known upon application. Liberal commissions paid agents. We club with other papers. Address all communications pertaining to The Life to A. P. BARTON. Entered at the Kansas City, Mo., Postoffice as second class mail matter NOTICE. Our silent Hours are 6 to 7 a. m. and 7 to 8 p. m., central Standard time. All are requested to observe at least a part of one or both of those hours in the silence with us. THE Key-notes. Feb. 1-14. HE MIRACLE OF HEALING RE-GENERATION IS CONTINUALLY BEING WORKED OUT IN ME. I GROW TOWARD THE STATURE OF THE CHRIST MAN. TH AM. 15-28. HE LOVE OF TRUTH IN ME DRIVES OUT Healing Thoughts "How sweet to stand, when tempests tear the main, Yet sweeter far on WISDOM'S heights serene, To mark the strife for honors and renown, -Lucretius. T IS claimed by some thinkers that this world and It its inhabitants are upon a lower scale of being than are the other planets and people of the solar system; that this is the only plane of night-mare, hallucination, hypnotism and clouded beliefs. It may be comparatively a strange world, in which White-cross Peace and Good-will meet cruel war, beastly fightings, at right angles; where brilliant flowers dare the soil, pierce it and press upward, to express the gladness and hope still in the earth, and to deny the weeds and the thorns that claim nativity here and feel at home. The greatest opposition possible, is expressed in the cross. Hence all crosses stand for crucifixions. We are confidently expecting the Good, the Beautiful, the True to cross out the shadows of |