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 52 themselves Ebionim, or Zaddikim, or Chasidim, that Jesus found his chief adherents, though he seems to give his preference to the Ebionim, who have always been insisting upon the blessedness of the poor. Now, these men consider themselves to be beyond all others the servants of the Lord, and identify themselves with that picture of the servant which has been given by the Prophet Esaias. Thus in all these ways Jesus appealed to the more earnest part of our nation, and in him were conjoined most of the movements that had touched us most deeply. If any had said at this time, "Jesus the Nazarene is a follower of Jochanan the Baptizer, and preaches 'The Two Ways' to the Poor," none could have gainsaid him.

Yet all were wondering what he would say to the other side of our nation's hopes. The life of our nation had begun with a deliverance; our chief national feast recalls that deliverance from Egypt to us every year as the spring comes round. We have become subject to all the great kingdoms that have grown up round us, yet again and again we have been delivered from each.