glad to be reverenced by the people, to interpret the law for them
"binding heavy burdens and grievous to be borne;" but showed little
genuine interest in them. Jesus, on the other hand, not only had the
reverence of the multitudes, but welcomed them. First his words and his
works drew them, then he himself enchained their hearts. Outcasts, rich
and poor, crowded into his company, and found him not only a teacher, a
prophet of righteousness rebuking their sins and calling to repentance,
but a friend, who was not ashamed to be seen in their homes, to have them
among his closest attendants, and to be known as their champion. It was
when such as these were pressing upon him to hear him that Jesus replied
to the criticism of the scribes in the three parables of recovered
treasure which stand among the rarest gems of the Master's teaching (Luke
xv.).

225. One class only in the community failed of his sympathy,--the
self-righteous hypocrites, who thought that godliness consisted in
scrupulous regard for pious ceremonies, and that zeal was most laudable
when directed to the removal of motes from their brothers' eyes. For these
Jesus had words of rebuke and burning scorn. It has been common with some
to emphasize his friendship for the poor as if he chose them for their
poverty, and the unlettered for their ignorance. Yet Jesus had no faster
friends than the women who followed from Galilee and ministered to him of
their substance, and the two sanhedrists, Joseph whose new tomb received
his body, and Nicodemus whose liberality provided the spices which
embalmed him; for these, and not the Galilean fishermen, were faithful to
the last at the cross and at the grave. In no home did Jesus find a fuller
or more welcome friendship than in Bethany, where all that is told us of
its conditions suggests the opposite of poverty. The rich young ruler, who
showed his too great devotion to his possessions, would hardly have sought
out Jesus with his question, if he was known as the champion of poverty as
in itself essential to godliness. The demand made of him surprised him,
and was suited to his special case. Jesus saw clearly the difficulties
which wealth puts in the way of faith, but he recognized the power of God
to overcome them, and when Zaccheus turned disciple, the demand for
complete surrender of possessions was not repeated. On the contrary Jesus
taught his disciples that even "the unrighteous mammon" should be used to
win friends (