Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-12-08

Roman. from the masses that had
been left like sheep. without q shep-
herd by the official representative of
their religion, prophet who was to
preach as it had never been preached
before. the social conception of reli-
giOn. And this was the burden of his
message to the masses: THE king
dom of God is at hand" Fear not,
little flock" he told them, -for it is
your Fathers. good pleasure to give
to you the kingdom. Blessed are We
poor he told them, for yours is the
aiHgdom of God. Blessed are ye that
munger now; for ye shall be filled.
Blessed are We that weep now, for ye
shall laugh" But woe unto you that
are rich! for We have received your
consolation. Woe unto you, We that
are filled now! for We shall hunger.
Woe unto you, ye that laugh now
II can imagine the self-righteous Phar-
isees standing on the outskirts of a
crowd, laughing at the invectiyes of
this insolent carpenterJ-"Woe unto
you, We that laugh NOW, for We shall
MOURN and weep"
To the multitude of sinners, that is
those who did not observe the elab-
crate ritualistic religion, Jesus was
gentleness itself. His whole message
70 them was to fear not-only to have
faith. God was shortly to bring about
ais kingdom on earth. But to the
Pharisees he was the embodiment of
u righteous INDIGNATION and wrath.
For it was they WHO sat in Moses seat
I and who had left the people like sheep
to go astray. 'Woe unto you, scribes
and Phartsees, hypeerites for .ye
1.-THE mint and anise and =cHmmin,- and
nave left undone the weightier mat
-ers Of the law, justice and mercy and
aith; but these. ye ought. to have
done, and not to have left the other
indone. Ye blind guides, that strain
out the knat and swallow the camelt"
che feeding of the hungry and the
clothing Of the naked-the religion of
,ocial ustice-thees were the weight
er matters Of the law" which they
lad left undone, Here was the reli.
gion of the prophets indeed. Here
was the protest which they had voiced
N the olden days. But added to this,
protest was prophecy. do not
ear he told the masses. "HaYe
confidence in God-he is going TO
change all these things" 1t was not
hope with him-he was sure Of it.
i tell you," he declared, this genera
ton shall not pass before the kingdom
Of God will come. There are some
low listening to my voice who will
zee it." He spoke as one having au
thority, and not as the scribes inter
oreting the scriptures. And the PEG
pie heard him gladly. Fer he spoke
20 them out of deep conviction II
his soul. And what was this convic
ton? 1t was this: Jesus believed
that he himself was to be the instru
ment of bringing in. the kingdom OF
God. Just when this consciousness
came to him 1t is hard to say-but it
was certainly about the same tilne
that he began to realize that he would
have to die for thus depouncing The
Pharisees and the rich. For the first
time he speaks of it to his disciples,
he also speaks of his death. He told
them of this at Caeserea Philippi,
outside Of Herod's territory, whence
he had fed from that ruler. He told
them he was to die, his enemies
would raise him from the dead and
earth could not defeat God. God
would raise him from teh dead land
he would come again and establish
Gods kingdom of righteousness atd
Justice in the earth. But this must be
a secret. We are told that he spoke
sharply" to them, and told them they
should tell no man. He never preach
ed this to the masses, for had he de-
clared openly that he was destined to
be the Messiah, the Pharisees would
not have had SO much trouble in get
ting a charge to bring against him be-
fore the Roman power, They would
not have tried to trap him with the
coin of tribute; they would not have
had to send spies to, listen to. him in
the hope of hearing him use treason
able language. ! No this was g. secret
for shis immediate followers whom he
trusted. He told it to them again and
again and impressed it upon their very
hearts. But, alas, one of them proved
traitor. Whatever were the motives
Of Juads-on one thing scholars are
now agreed, and that Is that 1t was the
secret of the little company regard
ing Jesus relation to the coming king
dom that he betrayed, And so his
enemies, the leaders of the nation, and
the church, secured a charge to make
against him before the Roman power.
'.This man is a pretender to the Jew
ish throne-he. is an enemy of Gaze
sar!" they declared. and thus secured
Pilates consent to his death on the
cross, They killed him-and soon his
little company of trusted disciples
were fleeing, crestfallen and terror
stricken from Jerusalem. But what Of
the promise of his second coming? He
had told them he would be killed.
What now OF his return to usher in
the kingdom of God? i That would not
down. He had told them he would
come again and they believed him.
They must proclaim that to the
u-o.id And 90 we find than hack in