Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/279

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PHILOCHRISTUS.
271

ing Jesus. But the greater part of our friends, as we understood, were not to go with us, but to meet us at the going in to Jerusalem, or at some place nigh unto Jerusalem.

When we were come to a certain village in the road (the name of the village is Beth-Gader) where a man journeying towards Jerusalem from Samaria leaveth the Lake of Gennesareth behind him and seeth it no more, then it came to pass that our Master turned him round to look his last upon Capernaum, and Bethsaida, and Chorazin, and upon all the cities of the Lake, wherein he had taught and wrought. And he stood and gazed a long time, and cried out that it should be ill for those cities in the day of Judgment; for if the mighty deeds that had been wrought there, had been wrought in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented a long while ago in sackcloth and ashes. But when he saw Capernaum, and the fields thereof, and the gardens which compass it round, all bright with the greenness of spring, and the lake, still and peaceful, whereon were fishing-boats and ships innumerable, then he lifted up his voice and prophesied evil against the place, saying, "Thou also, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be brought down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day." Then spake he to us, saying, that it should be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for that city. When he had said these words, he turned his back upon Capernaum and upon all the country of the lake; and he departed and saw it no more.