through Beelzebub,” and is the “friend of publicans and sinners.” The latter accusation was true, but not in their meaning. Jesus was no ascetic. He did not fast as did the Baptist's disciples; yet there never lived a man so far removed from appetites and passions as the Nazarene. He rebuked sinners pointedly and unflinchingly, because he was their friend; hence the cup he drank.
The reputation of Jesus was the very opposite of his character. Why? Because the divine Principle and Reputation and character practice of Jesus were misunderstood. He was at work In divine Science. His words and works were unknown to the world because above and contrary to the world's religious sense. Mortals believed in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine, infinite Love.
The world could not interpret aright the discomfort which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which Inspiring discontent might flow from such discomfort. Science shows the cause of the shock so often produced by the truth, — namely, that this shock arises from the great distance between the individual and Truth. Like Peter, we should weep over the warning, instead of denying the truth or mocking the lifelong sacrifice which goodness makes for the destruction of evil.
Jesus bore our sins in his body. He knew the mortal errors which constitute the material body, and Bearing our sins could destroy those errors; but at the time when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of material life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration of spiritual power.
Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would
