tious reverence for Privilege and its irreverence for People. Her first thought was for vested rights. And in saving those rights she lost them. Perhaps there are no sadder words in literature, both in the heartbreak that uttered them and in the omen of ill which their utterance boded, than the lamentation of The Carpenter when the disappointment was upon him: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings; and ye would not!"

CHAPTER IX

COLLISION

IT WAS characteristic of The Carpenter, as soon as one edifice of hope crumbled, to begin the construction of another. His first plan, that of winning the officialdom of the capital city to the liberation movement, was miscarrying. The tenure of his own life, amid the daily hazards by which he was surrounded, was becoming uncertain, so bitter was the exploiter class because of his inflammatory work among the people. He must provide against every contingency. An accident to himself must not stop the work. Accordingly he makes provision for the propaganda of The Kingdom if he should be taken away. Some time before this he had sent forth a band of seventy emissaries on a preaching tour. On their return they reported a measure of success. He was overjoyed, for it was proof that the kingdom of selfrespect had vitality in itself was not dependent on his immediate presence. So that he exults, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven!" He now strengthens his followers to stand alone. He draws in to himself a few chosen spirits, and prepares them, should anything happen to himself, to take the leadership. Little by little he accustoms them to the thought that sometime or other he must be taken from them; saying, “the Son

of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes." Knowing the holding power of a personal attachment, he seeks to fasten his following to himself by the ligature of a personal loyalty. His death is to make no difference in their relations with him, for he states that he will still be with them.

It is undeniable, from any study of the record, that The Carpenter assumed a divine title, and sought from his followers a degree of loyalty which amounted to nothing less than worship. This has scandalized many since, and was indeed an offence to some in that day. For we read, "from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." There were those in his own Nazareth who were offended at his assumption of a so great title; and for a time a coolness was threatened even from some of his own family. Nevertheless he persisted in the claim; and a grateful world to-day declares him to have been in the right. In taking the step, he had in the imperator Octavius a notable precedent. The title "augustus," which that emperor assumed, carried with it an implication of divineness. Much what the term "augustus" meant to the Roman of that day, the term "christ" meant to the Jew. The habit of deifying mortals was familiar. An inscription carved to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Augustus reads: "Not only has he surpassed the good deeds of men of earlier time, but it is impossible that one greater than he can ever appear. The birthday of God has brought to the world glad tidings that are bound up in him. From his birthday a new era begins." Heaven

was thought of as very close to the earth they were in such an intimate relationship one with the other that each sent to and received from the other duly accredited ambassadors.

The step of assuming the title "christ" seems to have caused The Carpenter pause for a while. We find him sounding his disciples as to the sentiment of the general public toward him. He gets a various reply. "But whom say ye that I am?" Outspoken, loyal-hearted Peter exclaims, "Thou art the Christ!" It is the deciding moment. With an exultant committal, Jesus exclaims his gratitude to Peter for so orotund a confidence: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah: thy name means Rock; and upon this rock I will build my cause." From that time he is to his followers more than a man; he is the divine man. Rome had buttressed its "Empire of the Rights of Property" by surrounding it with a religious sanction the idolatry of the Cæsars! "To the genius of the divine Julius, father of his country, whom the senate and Roman people placed among the number of the gods," ran the senate's decree. The Carpenter meets them on their own ground. He also assumes the title and prerogatives of divinity, thereby investing his "Empire of the Rights of Man" with a sanction equally high, equally authoritative. Rome's empire enforced the worship of her emperors by the drawn sword. Democracy's empire does not enforce the worship of The Carpenter by the drawn sword. To the query, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" it answers, 'come and see."

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As his career advances and the opposition intensifies in bitterness, Jesus hardens his note of austereness in treating of the privileged class. He perceives that a man pickled and tanned in the all-sacredness of property rights, and this through a lifetime, has lost the social conscience, is practically in hopeless case, and must be treated as an enemy of the human race. Therefore he draws a sharp line, marking off these unregenerate ones. He pricks them for proscription. He announces that men of a persistently anti-social spirit are not to be dealt with mercifully forever, but are after a while to be cast out from the company of the socially minded and to be destroyed. In the Dives parable, Abraham's nonchalant conversation with the chap in hell is almost creepy in its gruesomeness. The patriarchal father in heaven is exquisitely courteous to the poor fellow, but denies to his torments one whit of mitigation. The sheep and the goats in the parable are sharply divided; so must a stern dealing be dealt to every one who “layeth up treasure for himself" and is regardless of the treasure of social solidarity. To hawk and tear at the fabric of society's oneness by means of economic wrong, was to him the great sin; he could not acquit it of blood-guiltiness. Jesus was lenient toward sins of the flesh. The fact that it was his enemies who brought before him the woman taken in adultery, "that they might have to accuse him," whispers that his general attitude toward this class of offenders was notoriously one of tenderness. Sins of the flesh are never long in coming to light; individual mistreadings, they bring their own punishment swiftly, surely. Small need, therefore, that society step