23 This loathing and this scorn is mockery, for if the tinseled coat of reputation could be torn away, the loud professor would be found to revel in his lust, deceit, and many forms of secret sin. 24 The man who spends his time in pulling other people’s weeds can have no time to pull his own, and all the choicest flowers of life will soon be choked and die, and nothing will remain but darnel, thistles, burs. 25 And Jesus spoke a parable: he said, Behold, a farmer had great fields of ripened grain, and when he looked he saw that blades of many stalks of wheat were bent and broken down. 26 And when he sent his reapers forth he said, We will not save the stalks of wheat that have the broken blades. 27 Go forth and cut and burn the stalks with broken blades. 28 And after many days he went to measure up his grain, but not a kernel could he find. 29 And then he called the harvesters and said to them, Where is my grain? 30 They answered him and said, We did according to your word; we gathered up and burned the stalks with broken blades, and not a stalk was left to carry to the barn. 31 And Jesus said, If God saves only those who have no broken blades, who have been perfect in his sight, who will be saved? 32 And the accusers hung their heads in shame; and Jesus went his way. CHAPTER 28. _Udraka gives a feast in Jesus’ honor. Jesus speaks on the unity of God and the brotherhood of life. Criticises the priesthood. Becomes the guest of a farmer._ Benares is the sacred city of the Brahms, and in Benares Jesus taught; Udraka was his host. 2 Udraka made a feast in honor of his guest, and many high born Hindu priests and scribes were there. 3 And Jesus said to them, With much delight I speak to you concerning life--the brotherhood of life. 4 The universal God is one, yet he is more than one; all things are God; all things are one. 5 By the sweet breaths of God all life is bound in one; so if you touch a fiber of a living thing you send a thrill from center to the outer bounds of life. 6 And when you crush beneath your foot the meanest worm, you shake the throne of God, and cause the sword of right to tremble in its sheath. 7 The bird sings out its song for men, and men vibrate in unison to help it sing. 8 The ant constructs her home, the bee its sheltering comb, the spider weaves her web, and flowers breathe to them a spirit in their sweet perfumes that gives them strength to toil. 9 Now, men and birds and beasts and creeping things are deities, made flesh; and how dare men kill anything? 10 ’Tis cruelty that makes the world awry. When men have learned that when they harm a living thing they harm themselves, they surely will not kill, nor cause a thing that God has made to suffer pain. 11 A lawyer said, I pray you, Jesus, tell who is this God you speak about; where are his priests, his temples and his shrines?