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 are by  nature  fault-finders  and  detractors. " Whereunto  shall  I  esteem  this  generation?" says Christ. "They are  like  children  sitting  in  the  market-place, who,  crying  to  their  companions,  say:  We  have piped  to  you  and  you  have  not  danced;  we  have  lamented and  you  have  not  mourned.  For  John  came neither  eating  nor  drinking,  and  they  say:  He  hath a  devil:  the  Son  of  man  came  eating  and  drinking, and  they  say:  Behold  a  man  that  is  a  glutton and  a  wine-bibber,  a  friend  of  publicans  and sinners."

Even when  uninfluenced  by  envy  or  hatred  or race  prejudice  or  religious  bigotry,  our  opinions  of others  are  likely  to  be  superficial  and  wrong. " Man looketh  upon  the  outward  appearance." Who of  us, were he  present  that  day  in  the  porch  of  the  Temple, would have  hesitated  for  an  instant  as  to  the  respective merits  of  the  Pharisee  and  the  publican? Would we not,  in  the  words  of  St.  James,  have  deferred  to  the proud Pharisee  with  his  golden  ring  and  his  fine  apparel and  his  stately  self-importance,  and  said  to  him: "Sit thou  here  well;"  and  to  the  humble  publican in his  mean  attire  would  we  not  have  answered roughly: "  Stand  thou  there,  or  sit  under  my  footstool! "  For  the  publicans  were  Jewish  traitors  who had sold  themselves  into  the  service  of  their  Roman conquerors, for  whom  they  harvested  the  public  revenues, and  such  was  their  genius  for  avarice  and  extortion that  their  name  soon  became  a  synonym  for all that  was  base  and  despicable. Even Christ  classes them with  harlots. I know  nothing  in  modern  soci-