Tuesday Morning in the Temple

174:0.1About seven o’clock on this Tues­day morn­ing Je­sus met the apos­tles, the women’s corps, and some two dozen other promi­nent dis­ci­ples at the home of Si­mon. At this meet­ing he said farewell to Laz­a­rus, giv­ing him that in­struc­tion which led him so soon to flee to Phil­a­del­phia in Perea, where he later be­came con­nected with the mis­sion­ary move­ment hav­ing its head­quar­ters in that city. Je­sus also said good-bye to the aged Si­mon, and gave his part­ing ad­vice to the women’s corps, as he never again for­mally ad­dressed them.

174:0.2This morn­ing he greeted each of the twelve with a per­sonal salu­ta­tion. To An­drew he said: “Be not dis­mayed by the events just ahead. Keep a firm hold on your breth­ren and see that they do not find you down­cast.” To Pe­ter he said: “Put not your trust in the arm of flesh nor in weapons of steel. Es­tab­lish your­self on the spir­i­tual foun­da­tions of the eter­nal rocks.” To James he said: “Fal­ter not be­cause of out­ward ap­pear­ances. Re­main firm in your faith, and you shall soon know of the re­al­ity of that which you be­lieve.” To John he said: “Be gen­tle; love even your en­e­mies; be tol­er­ant. And re­mem­ber that I have trusted you with many things.” To Na­than­iel he said: “Judge not by ap­pear­ances; re­main firm in your faith when all ap­pears to van­ish; be true to your com­mis­sion as an am­bas­sador of the king­dom.” To Philip he said: “Be un­moved by the events now im­pend­ing. Re­main un­shaken, even when you can­not see the way. Be loyal to your oath of con­se­cra­tion.” To Mat­thew he said: “For­get not the mercy that re­ceived you into the king­dom. Let no man cheat you of your eter­nal re­ward. As you have with­stood the in­cli­na­tions of the mor­tal na­ture, be will­ing to be stead­fast.” To Thomas he said: “No mat­ter how dif­fi­cult it may be, just now you must walk by faith and not by sight. Doubt not that I am able to fin­ish the work I have be­gun, and that I shall even­tu­ally see all of my faith­ful am­bas­sadors in the king­dom be­yond.” To the Al­pheus twins he said: “Do not al­low the things which you can­not un­der­stand to crush you. Be true to the af­fec­tions of your hearts and put not your trust in ei­ther great men or the chang­ing at­ti­tude of the peo­ple. Stand by your breth­ren.” And to Si­mon Ze­lo­tes he said: “Si­mon, you may be crushed by dis­ap­point­ment, but your spirit shall rise above all that may come upon you. What you have failed to learn from me, my spirit will teach you. Seek the true re­al­i­ties of the spirit and cease to be at­tracted by un­real and ma­te­rial shad­ows.” And to Ju­das Is­car­iot he said: “Ju­das, I have loved you and have prayed that you would love your breth­ren. Be not weary in well do­ing; and I would warn you to be­ware the slip­pery paths of flat­tery and the poi­son darts of ridicule.”

174:0.3And when he had con­cluded these greet­ings, he de­parted for Je­ru­sa­lem with An­drew, Pe­ter, James, and John as the other apos­tles set about the es­tab­lish­ment of the Geth­sem­ane camp, where they were to go that night, and where they made their head­quar­ters for the re­main­der of the Mas­ter’s life in the flesh. About half­way down the slope of Oli­vet Je­sus paused and vis­ited more than an hour with the four apos­tles.