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==130:8. ON THE WAY TO NAPLES AND ROME==

==130:8. ON THE WAY TO NAPLES AND ROME==

130:8.1 The first stop on the way to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy Italy] was at the island of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta Malta]. Here [[Jesus]] had a long [[talk]] with a downhearted and discouraged young man named Claudus. This fellow had contemplated [[Suicide|taking his life], but when he had finished talking with the [[scribe]] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus Damascus], he said: " I will face life like a man; I am through [[playing]] the coward. I will go back to my people and begin all over again. " Shortly he became an enthusiastic preacher of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynics Cynics], and still later on he joined hands with [[Peter, the Apostle|Peter]] in proclaiming [[Christianity]] in [[Rome]] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naples Naples], and after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter#Martyrdom death of Peter] he went on to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Spain] preaching the [[gospel]]. But he never knew that the man who [[inspired]] him in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta Malta] was the [[Jesus]] whom he subsequently [[proclaimed]] the world's Deliverer.

130:8.1 The first stop on the way to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy Italy] was at the island of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta Malta]. Here [[Jesus]] had a long [[talk]] with a downhearted and discouraged young man named Claudus. This fellow had contemplated [[Suicide|taking his life]], but when he had finished talking with the [[scribe]] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus Damascus], he said: " I will face life like a man; I am through [[playing]] the coward. I will go back to my people and begin all over again. " Shortly he became an enthusiastic preacher of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynics Cynics], and still later on he joined hands with [[Peter, the Apostle|Peter]] in proclaiming [[Christianity]] in [[Rome]] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naples Naples], and after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter#Martyrdom death of Peter] he went on to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Spain] preaching the [[gospel]]. But he never knew that the man who [[inspired]] him in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta Malta] was the [[Jesus]] whom he subsequently [[proclaimed]] the world's Deliverer.

130:8.2 At [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_Sicily Syracuse] they spent a full week. The notable [[event]] of their stop here was the rehabilitation of Ezra, the backslidden [[Jew]], who kept the tavern where [[Jesus]] and his companions stopped. Ezra was [[charmed]] by [[Jesus]]' approach and asked him to help him come back to the [[faith]] of [[Israel]]. He [[expressed]] his hopelessness by saying, " I want to be a true son of [[Abraham]], but I cannot find [[God]]. " Said Jesus: " If you truly want to find God, that [[desire]] is in itself [[evidence]] that you have already found him. Your trouble is not that you cannot find [[God]], for [[the Father]] has already found you; your [[trouble]] is simply that you do not know [[God]]. Have you not read in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah Prophet Jeremiah], `You shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart'?[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Jeremiah#Chapter_.29] And again, does not this same prophet say: `And I will give you a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and you shall belong to my people, and I will be your God'?[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Jeremiah#Chapter_.24] And have you not also read in the [[Scriptures]] where it says: `He looks down upon men, and if any will say: I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not, then will God deliver that man's soul from darkness, and he shall see the light'? "[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Job#Chapter_.33] And Ezra found [[God]] and to the [[satisfaction]] of his [[soul]]. Later, this [[Jew]], in [[association]] with a well-to-do [[Greek]] [[proselyte]], built the first Christian church in Syracuse.

130:8.2 At [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_Sicily Syracuse] they spent a full week. The notable [[event]] of their stop here was the rehabilitation of Ezra, the backslidden [[Jew]], who kept the tavern where [[Jesus]] and his companions stopped. Ezra was [[charmed]] by [[Jesus]]' approach and asked him to help him come back to the [[faith]] of [[Israel]]. He [[expressed]] his hopelessness by saying, " I want to be a true son of [[Abraham]], but I cannot find [[God]]. " Said Jesus: " If you truly want to find God, that [[desire]] is in itself [[evidence]] that you have already found him. Your trouble is not that you cannot find [[God]], for [[the Father]] has already found you; your [[trouble]] is simply that you do not know [[God]]. Have you not read in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah Prophet Jeremiah], `You shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart'?[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Jeremiah#Chapter_.29] And again, does not this same prophet say: `And I will give you a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and you shall belong to my people, and I will be your God'?[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Jeremiah#Chapter_.24] And have you not also read in the [[Scriptures]] where it says: `He looks down upon men, and if any will say: I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not, then will God deliver that man's soul from darkness, and he shall see the light'? "[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Job#Chapter_.33] And Ezra found [[God]] and to the [[satisfaction]] of his [[soul]]. Later, this [[Jew]], in [[association]] with a well-to-do [[Greek]] [[proselyte]], built the first Christian church in Syracuse.