TRUTH is radical, authoritative, absolute. It proceeds from eternal, divine Principle. Truth annihilates error and corrects and reforms human thinking and doing. Because it largely applies to human conduct, it has almost invariably been rejected, when first presented by its prophets, only to be accepted later in some modified form when humanity was able to bear it. Thus his contemporaries crucified Jesus, while their posterity made the cross their symbol. There seems to be a false law in human consciousness which causes men to vilify their prophets and venerate their own conceptions of the past. Jesus apprehended this with keenest disappointment, and administered the most stinging rebuke to the Pharisees and scribes, who identified themselves with Abraham's religion without having its spirit. He said. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets." The God of Abraham and Moses was "holy," and the children of Israel had been shown how they might be "perfect with the Lord;" but, as Jesus said, they rejected the commandment of God, that they might keep their own tradition, "making the word of God of none effect" through their tradition
The Master proclaimed, with the authority of spiritual insight and grace, the "word of God," for which human will would always flaunt its substitute. He had an infinitely clearer understanding of the God who is Truth and Love than either Abraham or Moses claimed to have, for he was the prophet Moses had declared would come after him, who should declare the truth in its entirety. And then the human will and pride of the scribes and Pharisees, which was usurping the authority of the word of God of the previous dispensation, was enraged at the superior authority of Jesus, who rebuked it both in word and deed. His youth was spent in pondering the things of God, and even at the age of twelve the earnest lad was about his Father's business. The Galilean boy was admired and loved, but the mature leader became a menace to the rule of the scribes and Pharisees.
The attitude of sincere love and spiritual understanding which the Master brought to every situation was far removed from the self-righteousness and critical conventionality of his opponents. Their opinions were readymade, handed-down, professional. His convictions were the result of an inner perception, the outcome of his earnest preparation for a consecrated career. His impetuous aspiration broke through encrusted complacency, and mortal sense rebelled at the jolt. He was therefore pronounced an enemy. But Truth will rebuke error in every age, and the denunciation of material sense by prophet and seer is only the logical outcome of spiritual quickening. Today the world nominally accepts the government of Christ Jesus, but human will rebels as ever against the rule of Truth and Love. According to the Revelator, it has added to "the words of the book" of the new dispensation, and the promised "plagues" are certainly upon us.
