ready to obey his master; then his master would pat him and call him a good dog, although he had just torn another dog in pieces, or had done something else to please his master.
This was the way with the Christian church: to be good was to persecute all who would not bow the knee to the leaders. All who had the boldness to speak their opinions were heretics or infidels. The priests patted the heads of their dogs and set them on the swine or those who opposed them, so that to steal from or rob one of these sceptics was a virtue rather than a wrong.
I have seen this effect in my own practice. There are people who are honest according to their religion who will come and tell me a lie, as I call it, to deceive me into a belief that they mean just what they say. I have just the same confidence in their honesty that I have in a bull dog who looks as innocent as a lamb when you have something that he wants, and when he gets it will bite you as soon as your back is turned. This all arises from smothering the Science or charity, or revelation from God. And this is done by the priest. The priests make their goodness a matter of self-interest, and charge people a fee to pardon their sins, which the honest part of the community would look upon as a wrong. The priest flatters them with the idea that they are doing just right. So they worship the priest as the masses worship the leaders, and every person knows that a leading demagogue will uphold any crime his party is guilty of, and applaud the actor for his honesty or goodness.
Charity has no friend with any of these leaders. It finds no foothold. Therefore, like the dove of the ark, after trying to find a place to rest it returns to its house and is gone to the world. This was the case in the days of Jesus. He came to establish this Science or charity. This word Science not being used to explain this truth, it was called by Jesus “Christ,” and by Paul it was called “charity.” By the wise who admitted it, it was called a power or gift, but it was never admitted to have an identity with the teaching to which the senses were attached. This was Jesus' religion, so that He talked His religion, instead of talking about it. To talk wisdom is Wisdom, whereas to talk about wisdom is to talk an unknown God.
Jesus tells just where the people stood in regard to this truth. There were none who understood it, but many who
