The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1912-11-09
DID THE PEOPLE VOTE FOR
CALVARY?

Extracts from sermon delivered
by Rev. Quincy Ewing in Christ
EpiscopaD Church, Napoleonville,
La, Palm Sunday, March 81, 1912;
Can anybody, having read the New
Testament, or a single one of the
Gospels, entertain for a moment :he
thought that the men who brought
Jesus to Plate would have been
willing to refer the question of his
life or death to the mass Of the peo-
ple-the mass of the adult male pop
ulation of Jerusalem?
How absurd such a thought would
be is manifest on this evidence
alone, that during the last week CT
his ministry he taught every day in
the porch of the temple, in the
very face of the highest civil and &C.
clesastical authorities, and not one
of them dared to modest him; not
one of them dared to order his ar
rest anywhere in or out of the city
in daylight. And, surrounded as he
was by only twelve unarmed disci-
pies, what danger would there have
been in arresting him, had the peo-
pie wanted him arrested and put 10
death?
The marvel is not that the people
Of Judea did not prevail and prevent
the crucifixiOn of Jesus. The mar
vel is that they prevailed enough
to force their chief priests to brib-
cry and midnight subtilty, in order to
lay hands on defenceless Prophet
and get him before the bar of their
packed court.
1t is we'll to have the record in
mind when one hears such state
ments as that ascribed to the Kan
sas Congressman 1t is we'll to re-
member at all times that Jesus was
crucified, not because the Jewish
people wanted him crucified, but be-
cause they didn't want him crucified;
not because they rejected him, but
because they accepted him; not be-
cause they were his enemies, but be-
cause they were his friends.
If we must charge the Jewish peo-
pie with responsibility for the cruel
fixion of Jesusy let us do so fairly.
Let us, with the record before us,
confess that it was their approval,
not their condemnation; their hosan-
mas, not their maledictions, that
sent him to the Cross. It is many
thousand times more likely that the
Jew We meet on the street to-day
is descendant of one Of those who
waved his palm branch and cried,
"Hosanna to him who cometh in the
name of the Lord" than that he is
a descendant Of one of those who
made the midnight excursion to the
Garden of Gethsemane, and then sat
as a judge in the Sanhedrin be-
tween midnight and sunrise.
SO, it would seem, the priest or
the politician is treading on danger
GUS ground, who points back to Cal
vary when he decides against the
people the question whether they are
fit to govern themselves, or fit only
to give their consent to being gov
erned. The company of the chief
priests, scribes, and elders is not
good company for any man to place
himself in to-day, who believes that
the people need to be saved from
themselves by official saviors; that
majorities would 90 at once headIong
to selfdestruction, unless restrained
by select minority.
The ancient elders, and scribes,
and chief priests-Who were also
chief politicians-were firmly con-
Einced that the people of their day
needed to be saved from themselves
from the wild foolishness of follow
ing after Jesus of Nazareth with his
terrifying Gospel that threatened to
put down the mighty from their seat
and exalt the humble and meek"
That is why they persuaded their re-
tanners to ask PLATE for the freeing
of Barabbas and the crucifixion of
Jesus. The people could be safely
trusted to deal with the robber.
They could not be safely trusted to
deal with the Prophet.
The modern elders, and scribes,
and chief priests, and chief polite
ians, are as firmly convinced as their
ancient prototypes that the people,
need to be saved from themselves
from the wild foolishness of suppos-
ing that they should have and en-.
clique or a class believe to be good