party man like the Pharisees and the doctors of
law. He called both the Pharisees and their enemies to follow Him. He
went to the temple to pray, but He also prayed alone in the desert. He
kept the Sabbath and He broke the Sabbath by healing the sick and doing
good on this sacred day. He came not to destroy the Law, but He brought
something which was higher than the Law and even included the law
itself, i.e. love and mercy.

He rebuked people who used to pray and say. "Lord, Lord!" And yet He
prayed very often Himself. He rebuked those who were fasting, and yet He
used to fast Himself. What He really looked for was neither prayer nor
fasting, but the spirit in which one prayed or fasted.

He commanded the people to give to Caesar things which were Caesar's,
and to God that which was God's. He did not criticise this or that form
of government, nor did He accentuate Monarchism, Republicanism, or
Socialism as one form preferable to another. Under His scheme all forms
of government were included as equally good or evil according to what
place they reserved for God, what gifts they duly gave to God, and by
what spirit they were inspired.

He followed the customs of His nation, and did not break them or evade
them purposely. He took food according to the Law, and washed hands
according to the Law, and went to the Holy City and took part in worship
in the temple (though He was "greater than the temple"), according to
the Law. It seems that He excluded no form of worship or social life,
though He despised the unclean and petty spirit with which the
hypocrites filled these forms. And when it came to a dispute He, the
Messenger of a new spirit, naturally tried to save rather the pure
spirit even without a form than a form filled with an impure spirit.
Therefore He felt bound to say: "Not that which goeth into the mouth
defileth a man," or "to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man," or
"thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet," etc.

Even so, too, He embraced all nationalities and races. Nothing was for
Him unclean that God had created, nothing but unclean spirits. When the
Roman centurion asked help from Him, He gave it. And when the people
beyond the Israelitish boundaries, from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon,
cried after Him, He did not listen to the exclusivistic warnings of His
disciples, but He distributed even there His divine mercy. He was
mindful even of the people of Nineveh. And when He sent His disciples,