No. They had the key of
knowledge; and no man could enter in, unless they chose to open the
door. Nothing new could be true. John the Baptist came neither
eating nor drinking, and they said, 'He hath a devil.' The Son of
Man came eating and drinking, and they said, 'Behold a gluttonous
man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.' And
meanwhile the poor, the ignorant, those whose hearts were really in
earnest, were looking out for a prophet and a deliverer--often going
after false prophets, with Theudas and Barcochab, into the
wilderness; but going, too, to be baptized with the baptism of John,
and crowding in thousands to hear our Lord preach to them of the
living God of whom Moses had preached of old; while the scribes and
Pharisees sat at home, wrapped up in their narrow, shallow book-
divinity, and said, 'This people, who knoweth not the law, is
accursed.' Nothing new could be true. It must be put down,
persecuted down, lest the Romans should come and take away their
place and nation.
But they did not succeed. Our Lord and his truth, whom they
crucified and buried, rose again the third day and conquered; and
the Romans came after all, and took away their place and nation.
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