Whereupon one of them answered timidly:  “No, sir, we are not the righteous.  But you yourself said that there was more rejoicing in heaven over penitents than over righteous men.”

“There is rejoicing over penitents when they are humble.  But do you know over whom there is greater rejoicing in heaven?”

By this time a crowd had formed round Him.  Women had come up leading little children by the hand and carrying smaller ones in their arms in order to show them the marvellous man.  Some of the boys got through between the people’s legs to the front in order to see Him and kiss the hem of His garment.  The people tried to keep them back so that they should not trouble the Master, but He stood under the fig-tree and exclaimed in a loud voice.  “Suffer the little ones to come unto Me!” Then round-faced, curly-headed, bright-eyed children ran forward, their skirts flying, and crowded about Him, some merry, others shy and embarrassed.  He sat down on the grass, drew the children to His side, and took the smallest in His lap.  They looked up in His kind face with wide-opened eyes.  He played with them, and they smiled tenderly or laughed merrily.  And they played with His curls, and flung their arms round His neck.  They were so trustful and happy, these little creatures hovering so brightly round the Prophet, that the crowd stood in silent joy.  But Jesus was so filled with blessed gladness that He exclaimed loudly:  “This is the Kingdom of Heaven!”

The words swept over the crowd like the scent of the hawthorn.  But some were afraid when the Master added:  “See how innocent and glad they are.  I tell you that he who is not like a little child he shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!  And woe to him who deceives one of these children! it were better he tied a millstone round his neck and were drowned in the sea!  But whosoever accepts a child for My sake accepts Me!”

Then the disciples thought they understood over whom there was joy in heaven, and they disputed no longer over their own merits.

CHAPTER XX

Galilee was rich in poor men and poor in rich men.  And it might have been thought that Jesus, the friend of the poor, was the right man in the right place there.  And yet His teaching took no hold in that land.  A few rich men among a multitude of poor have all the more power because they are few, and they used all their influence with the people to dethrone the Prophet from His height, and to undermine His career.  These illustrious men found their best tools in the Rabbis, who circulated the sophism that the people who followed the teaching of this man must quickly come to ruin.  For the poor, who willingly gave up their last possessions, must become poorer, and the rich, who pursued their advantages, must become still richer, which implied that not the rich but only the poor would accept the Prophet’s teaching,