Part 28 (1/2)
[Footnote 5: Matt xviii 8, 9 Cf Talmud of Babylon, _Niddah_, 13 _b_]
[Footnote 6: Matt xxii 30; Mark xii 25; Luke xx 35; Ebionite Gospel, entitled ”Of the Egyptians,” in Clem of Alex, _Strom_ iii
9, 13, and Clem Rom, Epist ii 12]
Never, we perceive, would this prireat variety of ger It required more than a century for the true Christian Church--that which has converted the world--to disengage itself from this little sect of ”latter-day saints,” and to become a framework applicable to the whole of hu, indeed, took place in Buddhis would have happened in the order of St Francis, if that order had succeeded in its pretension of beco the rule of the whole of huin, and succeeding by their very exaggeration, the great systems of which we have just spoken have only laid hold of the world by being profoundlytheir excesses Jesus did not advance beyond this first and entirely monachal period, in which it was believed that the impossible could be attempted with impunity He ainst nature, and total severance from ties of blood ”Verily I say unto you,” said he, ”there is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present ti”[1]
[Footnote 1: Luke xviii 20, 30]
The teachings which Jesus is reputed to have given to his disciples breathe the same exaltation[1] He as so tolerant to the world outside, he who contented himself sometimes with half adhesions,[2]
exercised toward his own an extreor He would have no ”all buts” We should call it an ”order,” constituted by the most austere rules Faithful to his idea that the cares of life trouble man, and draw him doard, Jesus required from his associates a complete detachment from the earth, an absolute devotion to his work They were not to carry with them either e of raiment They must practise absolute poverty, live on alive,”[3] said he, in his beautiful language Arrested and arraigned before the judges, they were not to prepare their defence; the _Peraklit_, the heavenly advocate, would inspire theht to say The Father would send theh, which would become the principle of all their acts, the director of their thoughts, and their guide through the world[4] If driven from any town, they were to shake the dust frodonorance ”Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel,” added he, ”till the Son of man be come”
[Footnote 1: Matt x, entirely, xxiv 9; Mark vi 8, and following, ix 40, xiii 9-13; Luke x 3, and following, x 1, and following, xii 4, and following, xxi 17; John xv 18, and following, xvii 14]
[Footnote 2: Mark ix 38, and following]
[Footnote 3: Matt x 8 Comp Midrash Ialkout, _Deut_, sect 824]
[Footnote 4: Matt x 20; John xiv 16, and following, 26, xv 26, xvi 7, 13]
A strange ardor animates all these discourses, which may in part be the creation of the enthusiasm of his disciples,[1] but which even in that case came indirectly from Jesus, for it was he who had inspired the enthusiasm He predicted for his followers severe persecutions and the hatred of mankind He sent theed in the synagogues, and dragged to prison Brother should deliver up brother to death, and the father his son When they were persecuted in one country they were to flee to another ”The disciple,” said he, ”is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of theround without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbered Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows”[2] ”Whosoever, therefore,”
continued he, ”shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven”[3]
[Footnote 1: The expressions in Matt x 38, xvi 24; Mark viii 34; Luke xiv 27, can only have been conceived after the death of Jesus]
[Footnote 2: Matt x 24-31; Luke xii 4-7]
[Footnote 3: Matt x 32, 33; Mark viii 38; Luke ix 26, xii 8, 9]
In these fits of severity he went so far as to abolish all natural ties His require the healthy limits of man's nature, he demanded that he should exist only for him, that he should love him alone ”If any man come to me,” said he, ”and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple”[1] ”So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be e and more than hu life, and reducing everything to a frightful wilderness The harsh and gloo of distaste for the world, and of excessive self-abnegation which characterizes Christian perfection, was originated, not by the refined and cheerful iant who, more and more, out of the pale of humanity We should alitiotten the pleasure of living, of loving, of seeing, and of feeling Ee, he even said, ”If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and follow me He that loveth father or mother more than hter more than me, is not worthy of me He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for ospel's, shall find it What is a ain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”[3] Two anecdotes of the kind we cannot accept as historical, but which, although they were exaggerations, were intended to represent a characteristic feature, clearly illustrate this defiance of nature He said to one o and bury my father” Jesus answered, ”Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God” Another said to hio bid them farewell, which are at ho put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God”[4] An extraordinary confidence, and at ti all our ideas of hierations to be easily received ”Come unto me,” cried he, ”all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls For ht”[5]
[Footnote 1: Luke xiv 26 We eration of Luke's style]
[Footnote 2: Luke xiv 33]
[Footnote 3: Matt x 37-39, xvi 24, 25; Luke ix 23-25, xiv 26, 27, xvii 33; John xii 25]
[Footnote 4: Matt viii 21, 22; Luke ix 59-62]
[Footnote 5: Matt xi 28-30]
A great danger threatened the future of this exalted e and with a terrible energy By detaching man from earth the ties of life were severed The Christian would be praised for being a bad son, or a bad patriot, if it was for Christ that he resisted his father and fought against his country The ancient city, the parent republic, the state, or the law codoerm of theocracy was introduced into the world
From this point, another consequence may be perceived This morality, created for a temporary crisis, when introduced into a peaceful country, and in the midst of a society assured of its own duration, must seem impossible The Gospel was thus destined to become a Utopia for Christians, which feould care to realize These terrible reater nued by the clergy itself; the Gospel erous man The s, a Louis XIV for instance, would find priests to persuade him, in spite of the Gospel, that he was a Christian But, on the other hand, there would always be found holy men ould take the subli placed beyond the ordinary conditions of society, and a co only possible away from the world, the principle of asceticism and of monasticism was established Christian societies would have two moral rules; the one moderately heroic for common men, the other exalted in the extreme for the perfect man; and the perfect man would be the ospel ideal
It is certain that this ideal, if only on account of the celibacy and poverty it imposed, could not become the common law The monk would be thus, in one sense, the only true Christian Couided by it, to demand the impossible, is a e where great matters are in question To obtain little froress which e to the Gospel is the result of its exaggerations It is thus that it has been, like stoicisument for the divine powers in man, an exalted ine that to Jesus, at this period of his life, everything which was not the kingdom of God had absolutely disappeared He was, if we may say so, totally outside nature: fa for him No doubt from this moment he had already sacrificed his life So in his own death a dom, he deliberately determined to allow hiht only afterward became a doctrine, death presented itself to him as a sacrifice, destined to appease his Father and to save ular taste for persecution and torments[3] possessed him His blood appeared to hiht to be baptized, and he seee haste to anticipate this baptism, which alone could quench his thirst[4]
[Footnote 1: Matt xvi 21-23, xvii 12, 21, 22]