days nobody preached such doctrines,--or indeed any doctrines with such
power to convince and persuade earnest men. The people heard him gladly,
and followed him from place to place, and could not hear enough of
him and his new form of religion,--so much did it commend itself to
simple-hearted women and men. Some of them wanted to make him their
king.

But while the people loved him, the great men of his time--the great
Ministers in the Hebrew church, and the great Politicians in the
Hebrew state--hated him, and were afraid of him. No doubt some of
these ministers did not understand him, but yet meant well in their
opposition; for if a man had all his life been thinking about the "best
manner of circumcision," or about "the mode of kneeling in prayer," he
would be wholly unable to understand what Jesus said about love to God
and to man. But no doubt some of them knew he was right, and hated him
all the more for that very reason. When they talked in their libraries,
they admitted that they had no faith in the old forms of religion; but
when they appeared in public they made broad their phylacteries, and
enlarged the borders of their garments; and when they preached in their
pulpits, they laid heavy burdens on men's shoulders, and grievous to be
borne. The same thing probably took place then which has happened ever
since; and they who had no faith in God or man, were the first to accuse
this religious genius with being an infidel!

So, one night they seized Jesus, tried him before daylight next morning,
condemned him, and put him to death. The seizure, the trial, the
execution, were not effected in the regular legal form,--they did not
occupy more than twelve hours of time,--but were done in the same wicked
way that evil men also used in Boston when they made Mr. Simms and Mr.
Burns slaves for life. But Jesus made no resistance; at the "trial"