1 Christ miraculously widens or contracts the gates, milk pails, sieves, or boxes, not properly made by Joseph,

4 he not being skilful at his carpenter's trade.

5 The King of Jerusalem gives Joseph an order for a throne.

6 Joseph works on it for two years in the king's palace, and makes it two spans too short. The king being angry with him,

10 Jesus comforts him,

13 commands him to pull one side of the throne, while he pulls the other, and brings it to its proper dimensions.

14 Whereupon the bystanders praise God.

AND Joseph, wheresoever he went in the city, took the Lord Jesus with him, where he was sent for to work to make gates, or milk-pails, or sieves, or boxes; the Lord Jesus was with him, wheresoever be went.

2 And as often as Joseph had anything in his work, to make longer, or shorter, or wider, or narrower, the Lord Jesus would stretch his hand towards it.

3 And presently it became as Joseph would have it:

4 So that he had no need to finish anything with his own hands, for he was not very skilful at his carpenter's trade.

5 On a certain time the King of Jerusalem sent for him, and said, I would have thee make me a throne of the same dimensions with that place in which I commonly sit.

6 Joseph obeyed, and forthwith began the work, and continued two years in the king's palace before he finished it.

7 And when he came to fix it in its place, he found it wanted two spans on each side of the appointed messure.

8 Which when the king saw, he was very angry with Joseph;

9 And Joseph afraid of the king's anger, went to bed without his supper, taking not any thing to eat.

10 Then the Lord Jesus asked him, What he was afraid of?

11 Joseph replied, Because I have lost my labour in the work which I have been about these two years.

12 Jesus said to him, Fear not, neither be cast down;

13 Do thou lay hold on one side of the throne, and I will the other, and we will bring it to its just dimensions.

14 And when Joseph had done as the Lord Jesus said, and each of them had with strength drawn his side, the throne obeyed, and was brought to the proper dimensions of the place:

15 Which miracle when they who stood by saw, they were astonished, and praised God.

16 The throne was made of the same wood which was in being in Solomon's time, namely, wood adorned with various shapes, and figures.

CHAP. XVII

1 Jesus plays with boys at hide and seek. 3 Some women put his playfellows in a furnace, 7 where they are transformed by Jesus into kids. 10 Jesus calls them to go and play, and they are restored to their former shape.

ON another day the Lord Jesus going out into the street, and seeing some boys who were met to play, joined himself to their company.

2 But when they saw him, they hid themselves, and left him to seek for them;

3 The Lord Jesus came to the gate of a certain house, and asked some women who were standing there, Where the boys were gone?

4 And when they answered, That there was no one there; the Lord Jesus said, Who are those whom ye see in the furnace?

5 They answered, They were kids of three years old.

6 Then Jesus cried out aloud, and said, Come out hither, O ye kids, to your shepherd;

7 And presently the boys came forth like kids, and leaped about him; which when the women saw, they were exceedingly amazed, and trembled,

8 Then they immediately worshipped, the Lord Jesus, and beseeched him, saying, O our Lord Jesus, son of Mary, thou art truly that good shepherd of Israel! have mercy on thy handmaids, who stand before thee, who do not doubt, but that thou, O Lord, art come to save, and not to destroy.

9 After that, when the Lord Jesus said, the children of Israel are like Ethiopians among the people; the women said, Thou, Lord, knowest all things, nor is any thing concealed from thee: but now we entreat thee, and beseech of thy mercy, that thou wouldest restore those boys to their former state.

10 Then Jesus said, Come hither, O boys, that we may go and play; and immediately, in the presence of these women, the kids were changed, and returned into the shape of boys.

CHAPTER XVIII

1 Jesus becomes the king of his playfellows, and they crown him with flowers; 4 miraculously causes a serpent who had bitten Simon the Cananite, then a boy, to suck out all the poison again; 16 the serpent bursts, and Christ restores the boy to health.

IN the month Adar Jesus gathered together the boys, and ranked them as though he had been a king.

2 For they spread their garments on the ground for him to sit on; and having made a crown of flowers, put it upon his head, and stood on his right and left as the guards of a king.

3 And if any one happened to pass by, they took him by force, and said, Come hither, and worship the king, that you may have a prosperous journey.

4 In the mean time, while these things were doing, there came certain men, carrying a boy upon a couch;

5 For this boy having gone with his companions to the mountain to gather wood, and having found there a partridge's nest, and put his hand in to take out the eggs, was stung by a poisonous serpent, which leaped out of the nest; so that he was forced to cry out for the help of his companions; who, when they came, found him lying upon the earth like a dead person.

6 After which his neighbours came and carried him back into the city.

7 But when they came to the place where the Lord Jesus, was sitting like a king, and the other boys stood around him like his ministers, the boys made haste to meet him, who was bitten by the serpent, and said to his neighbours, Come and pay your respects to the king;

8 But when, by reason of their sorrow, they refused to come, the boys drew them, and forced them against their wills to come.

9 And when they came to the Lord Jesus, he inquired, On what account they carried that boy?

10 And when they answered that a serpent had bitten him, the Lord Jesus said to the boys, Let us go and kill that serpent.

11 But when the parents of the boy desired to be excused, because their son lay at the point of death; the boys made answer, and said, Did not ye hear what the king said? Let us go and kill the serpent; and will not ye obey him?

12 So they brought the couch back again, whether they would or not.

13 And when they were come to the nest, the Lord Jesus said to the boys, Is this the serpent's lurking place? They said, It was.

14 Then the Lord Jesus calling the serpent, it presently came forth and submitted to him; to whom he said, Go and suck out all the poison which thou hast infused into that boy:

15 So the serpent crept to the boy, and took away all its poison again.

16 Then the Lord Jesus cursed the serpent, so that it immediately burst asunder, and died;

17 And he touched the boy with his hand to restore him to his former health;

18 And when he began to cry, the Lord Jesus said, Cease crying for hereafter thou shale be my disciple;

19 And this is that Simon the Canaanite, who is mentioned in the Gospel.

CHAPTER XIX

1 James being bitten by a viper, Jesus blows on the wound and cures him. 4 Jesus charged with throwing a boy from the roof of, a house, 10 miraculously raises the dead boy to acquit him; 12 fetches water for his mother, breaks the pitcher and miraculously gathers the water in his mantle and brings it home; 16 makes fish pools on the Sabbath, 20 causes a boy to die who broke them down, 22 another boy runs against him, whom he also causes to die.

ON another day Joseph sent his son James to gather wood, and the Lord Jesus went with him;

2 And when they came to the place where the wood was, and James began to gather it, behold, a venemous viper bit him, so that he began to cry, and make a noise.

3 The Lord Jesus seeing him in this condition, came to him, and blowed upon the place where the viper had bit him, and it was instantly well.

4 On a certain day the Lord Jesus was with some boys, who were playing on the house-top, and one of the boys fell down, and presently died.

5 Upon which the other boys all running away, the Lord Jesus was left alone on the house-top.

6 And the boy's relations came to him and said to the Lord Jesus, Thou didst throw our son down from the house-top.

7 But he denying it, they cried out, Our son is dead, and this is he who killed him.

8 The Lord Jesus replied to them, Do not charge me with a crime of which you are not able to convict me, but let us go and ask the boy himself, who will bring the truth to light.

9 Then the Lord Jesus going down stood over the head of the dead boy, and said with a loud voice, Zeinunus, Zeinunus, who threw thee down from the housetop?

10 Then the dead boy answered, thou didst not throw me down, but such a one did.

11 And when the Lord Jesus bade those who stood by to take present praised God on account of that miracle.

12 On a certain time the Lady St. Mary had commanded the Lord Jesus to fetch her some water out of the well;

13 And when he had gone to fetch the water, the pitcher, when it was brought up full, brake;

14 But Jesus spreading his mantle gathered up the water again, and brought it in that to his mother;

15 Who, being astonished at this wonderful thing, laid up this, and all the other things which she had seen, in her memory.

16 Again on another day the Lord Jesus was with some boys by a river, and they drew water out of the river by little channels, and made little fish-pools.

17 But the Lord Jesus had made twelve sparrows, and placed them about his pool on each side, three on a side.

18 But it was the Sabbath day, and the son of Hanani a Jew came by, and saw them making these things, and said, Do ye thus make figures of clay on the Sabbath? And he ran to them, and broke down their fish-pools.

19 But when the Lord Jesus clapped his hands over the sparrows which he had made, they fled away chirping.

20 At length the son of Hanani coming to the fish-pool of Jesus to destroy it, the water vanished away, and the Lord Jesus said to him,

21 In like manner as this water had vanished, so shall thy life vanish; and presently the boy died.

22 Another time, when the Lord Jesus was coming home in the evening with Joseph, he met a boy, who ran so hard against him, that he threw him down;

23 To whom the Lord Jesus said, As thou hast thrown me down, so shalt thou fall, nor ever rise.

24 And that moment the boy fell down and died.