Washington; but some think he will be a Whig, and support the Fugitive
Slave Bill; some, a Democrat, and favor the enslavement of Kansas; while
others are sure he will be a Republican, and prohibit the extension of
Slavery; while yet others look for some Anointed Politician to abolish
that wicked institution clear out of the land.
When the nation was in great peril, the people said, "the Messiah
will soon come and restore all things;" but probably they had no very
definite notion about the Deliverer or the work he was to do.
When Jesus was about thirty years old, he began to speak in public.
He sometimes preached in the Meeting-Houses, which were called
Synagogues,--but often out of doors, wherever he could gather the people
about him. He broke away from the old established doctrines and forms.
He was a come-outer from the Hebrew church. He told men that religion
did not consist in opinions or ceremonies, but in right feelings and
right actions; that goodness shown to men was worth more than sacrifice
offered to God. In short he made Religion consist in Piety, which is
Love to God, and Benevolence, which is Love to Men. He utterly forbid
all vengeance, and told his followers "love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you and persecute you." He taught that the soul was
immortal,--a common opinion at that time,--and declared that men who
had been good and kind here would be eternally happy hereafter, but the
unkind and wicked would be cast "into everlasting fire prepared for the
devil and his angels." He did not represent religion as a mysterious
affair, the mere business of the priesthood, limited to the temple and
the Sabbath, and the ceremonies thereof; it was the business of every
day,--a great manly and womanly life.
Men were looking for the ANOINTED, the Messiah, and waiting for him to
come. Jesus said, "I am the Messiah; follow me in the religious life,
and all will be well. God is just as near to us now, as of old time to
Moses and Elias. A greater than Solomon is here. The Kingdom of Heaven,
a good time coming, is close at hand!"
No doubt he made mistakes. He taught that there is a devil,--a being
absolutely evil, who seeks to ruin all men; that the world would soon
come to an end, and a new and extraordinary state would miraculously
take place, in which his followers would be abundantly rewarded, and his
twelve most conspicuous friends would sit "sit on twelve thrones judging
the twelve tribes of Israel." Strange things were to happen in this good
time which was coming. But spite of that, his main doctrine, which he
laid most stress upon, was, that religion is piety and benevolence; for
he made these the chief commandments,--"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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