Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/367

 We want the man who loved The poor and the oppressed, Who hated the Rich man and King And the Scribe and the Priest.

We want the Galilean Who knew cross and rod. It's your "good taste" that prefers A bastard "God!"

Life of Jesus

(French philosopher and historian, 1823-1892)

The chosen flock presented in fact a very mixed character, and one likely to astonish rigorous moralists. It counted in its fold men with whom a Jew, respecting himself, would not have associated. Perhaps Jesus found in this society, unrestrained by ordinary rules, more mind and heart than in a pedantic and formal middle class, proud of its apparent morality He appreciated conditions of soul only in proportion to the love mingled therein. Women with tearful hearts, and disposed through their sins to feelings of humanity, were nearer to his kingdom than ordinary natures, who often have little merit in not having fallen. We may conceive on the other hand that these tender souls, finding in their conversion to the sect an easy means of restoration, would passionately attach themselves to Him. Far from seeking to soothe the murmurs stirred up by his disdain for the social susceptibilities of the time, He seemed to