112 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
wished to receive of him was theirs to receive. His joys and his sorrows alike might be shared by them. Some men are at their best in public ; others, among their intimates. The first come dangerously near acting ; the latter are seldom insincere. Jesus belonged emphatically to the second class. He would not cast his pearls before swine. 1 Thus it came about that while he was followed by multitudes, he was loved by only a few.
III.
Jesus does not recognize the existence of social classes in the new order of society. His limitations of intimacy were not based upon accidental differences. Such anomalies as exist within an unhealthy society were naturally impossible within a society composed of normal men. So long as men were bad, so long they could not be other than selfish. All of their efforts could be only for private advantage. Wealth could not fail to be other than a means for ungenerous enjoyment. 2 Prayer would lengthen itself immoderately that the Creator might be wearied into submission to the more persistent will. 3 Social customs would be only new agencies for forcing an indebted acquaintance to repay hospitality in kind. 4 Jesus saw all this clearly ; and he saw its inevitable outgrowth : the stratification of men according to their ability to fulfill these purely material- istic conditions. With such stratification fraternity would be impossible. Therefore in the kingdom no man was to be called master, for they were all brethren, 5 serving one another. No more striking lesson of humility was ever given than that of the Christ going about with a towel washing the feet of his followers. 6 So emphatically does Jesus preach the gospel of equality as to say that in the coming order, the last should be first, and the first last.7
Yet he does not, like some modern champions of equality,
'Matt. 7:6. 3 Matt. 7:7. s Matt. 23:8.
2 Luke 12: 16-20. Luke 14:12. 6 John 13 : i-io.
7 Matt. 19:30. No sentence of Jesus seems to have made deeper impression on his hearers. It is constantly repeated in the gospels.
