Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/301

 sleep weighing down the sleepers, he sleeps not and watches. And when you travel by sea and are in danger and there is none to help, he walks upon the waters and helps. I am now about to go from you, and it is uncertain whether I shall see you again in my body. Be not like the people of Israel, which fell when left alone for a short time by its shepherd. I leave with you in my place deacon Xenophon, for he also preaches Jesus like myself. For neither am I something, nor he, but Jesus. For I also am a man, clothed with a body, a son of man, like one of you. I have also no riches, as some, which convince also the possessors of their entire uselessness, since they are left behind on earth, whence it came. But the trespasses which men take upon themselves on their account, and the filth of sin, they take with them. The rich are seldom found in the practice of mercy. But the merciful and the meek of heart—the^ shall inherit the Kingdom of God. Even beauty remains not with man. For they which rely upon it, when old age comes, shall suddenly be confounded. Everything has its time. There is a time to love, a time to hate. Let the hope, therefore, be on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is always loved and desired, and remember us, as we remember you. For we also (Thomas and Xenophon), unless we carry the burden of the commandments, we are not