Article January 3, 1914 Issue

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[The Universalist Leader]

When Jesus came along and so frankly and firmly criticized and deliberately set aside some of the cherished notions of the older times, he shocked and disturbed all of those people who believed that the system under which they lived was necessary to the safety and permanence of society itself. Take the Sabbath. Two thousand years have almost passed away, and still there are many followers of Jesus who are greatly troubled when his attitude toward that problem is even mentioned. All of the morality and ethics of ancient society was inseparable from the ceremonial and ecclesiastical law as this had developed. The mighty moral precepts of Moses had become interwoven with the eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life practical social justice of the times. How, then, could one set aside the principle underlying the practise of justice without disturbing the very foundations of society? The conservatives of our own times get excited, frightened, and even angry over suggestions of modifications of our own contemporary administration of justice which are far less revolutionary than were the ideas of Jesus.

The purpose of these comments is not to defend the critics of Jesus,—they are indefensible so far as their personal attitude toward him is concerned; but they were no more guilty than are many of those who score them unmercifully. Therefore let us understand them. Let us appreciate their position, their point of view, and their honesty of conviction, They were really afraid, most of them, that this man would wreck society if he had his way. . . .

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