ted that they be applied to the problems of
every-day life and conduct. He brought down the teachings of the
Kaballah from the cloudy heights, and set them before the people in
plain, practical form. He bade them aspire to great spiritual heights,
forsaking the base ideals to which they had clung. He ran counter to
every custom and prejudice of the people before Him, and showed a lack
of reverence for all of their petty forms and traditions. He bade them
leave the illusions of material life and follow the Light of the
Spirit wherever it might lead them. These and many other things told
He them.

And then arose a disturbance among the congregation. They began to
interrupt and question Him, and many were the contradictions and
denials hurled at Him from the benches. Some began to sneer at His
pretensions as the Bearer of the Message, and demanded that He work a
wonder or "miracle" and give them a sign. This demand He flatly
refused to grant, not deeming the same proper, or in accordance with
the occult custom which always frowned upon wonder-working in response
to such a demand. Then they began to abuse Him and cries of
"charlatan" and "fraud" began to resound from the walls of the
synagogue. They reminded Him of His humble birth and condition of His
parents, and refused to believe that any such person as He had any
right to claim extraordinary powers or privileges. Then came from His
lips the famous saying, "A prophet is not without honor, save in his
own country."

Then He began a fresh assault upon their prejudices and narrow
views--their pet superstitions and bigotry. He stripped from them
their garb of hypocrisy and assumed piety, and showed them their naked
souls in all their ugliness and moral uncleanliness. He poured burning
invective and vitriolic denunciations into their midst, and spared no
terms that could properly be applied to them. In a short time the
congregation was beside itself with rage, and the pretended righteous
indignation of a flock of hypocrites and formalists who had heard
themselves described in disrespectful terms by one they regarded as an
upstart young man from the lower classes of their virtuous community.
They felt that they had bestowed a flattering honor upon Him, as a
mark of consideration for a young townsman upon His return from a
foreign and domestic missionary tour. And now to think that He had
thus basely betrayed their courtesy and showed in how little esteem He
really held the