The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy
Religion
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy
Philosophy; Religion
Like all great men, Jesus was fond of common folk, and felt at his ease
with them. He particularly esteemed all those whom orthodox Judaism
disdained. Love of the people, pity for their powerlessness, the feeling
of the democratic leader who has the spirit of the multitude quick
within him, reveal themselves at every instant in his acts and sayings.
He had no external affection, and made no display of austerity. He did
not shun pleasure; but went willingly to marriage feasts. His gentle
gaiety found constant expression in amiable pleasantries. Thus he
journeyed through Galilee in the midst of continual festivities. When he
entered a house, it was considered a joy and a blessing. Children and
women adored him. The children, indeed, were like a young guard about
him, for the inauguration of his innocent kingship, and gave him little
ovations. It was childhood, in fact, in its divine spontaneity, in its
simple bewilderment of joy, that took possession of the earth.
How long did this intoxication last? We cannot tell. But whether it
filled years or months, the dream was so beautiful that humanity has
lived upon it ever since. Happy he to whom it has been granted to behold
with his own eyes this divine blossoming, and to share, if but for a
day, the incomparable illusion! But yet more happy, Jesus would tell us,
shall he be who, by the uprightness of his will, and the poetry of his
soul, shall be able to create anew in his own heart the true Kingdom of
God!
_THE PRIEST IN THE PATH_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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