s: Blessed is anyone who
believes in me, and takes me just as I am!"

Jesus never heard what John thought of this message. For John did not
live much longer. One night King Herod gave a birthday party, and a
pretty girl danced so well that the king offered to give her anything
she asked. The girl went to her mother, to find out what she ought to
say. Her mother hated John the Baptist because he had spoken the
truth, and so she told her daughter:

"Ask for the head of John the Baptist to be brought in here on a
platter!"

[Illustration]

The girl went to the king, and asked for John's head. The king was
sorry then that he had made that promise, for he was half afraid of
John. However, he had to keep his word. And so he sent servants to the
prison, and they cut off the head of John the Baptist with a sword,
and brought it back to the palace on a platter.

When Jesus heard what had happened, he felt very sad. He said,

"Let us go out to some quiet place, and rest awhile."

[Illustration]

Things were not going very well. John the Baptist was dead, and Herod
might be planning to kill Jesus next. Some men, in fact, came one day
to warn him to get out of Herod's kingdom.

"Go and tell that fox," he said, "that I am busy curing the sick and
conquering evil, and neither Herod nor anybody else is going to stop
me until I have finished my work!"

But things were going badly, just the same. Jesus saw that there were
not many of the people who understood his message or knew who he was.
A few believed in him, but others soon lost interest in him, if they
ever cared at all. Only once in a long while did he see any results
from all his work.

He explained this in one of his stories when he said:

"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some of the seed fell
in the pathway, and people walked on it, or the birds ate it up. Some
fell on a rock, and this seed began to grow; but no sooner had it
sprung up than it died, because it did not have deep roots. Some fell
among thornbushes; and the thorns grew faster than the seed, and
choked it. But some of the seed fell on good ground, and there it grew
into a good harvest."

When the disciples were alone with him, they asked Jesus to tell them
what this story meant. He said that the seed stood for the words that
he spoke to them. Some people heard him, but they soon forgot what he
said. That was like seed falling on the pathway.

Others were very excited about what h