Excerpt from The Gospel of Jesus and the Problems of Democracy

The man who to-day proclaims the Gospel of Jesus in the spirit of his Master must expect misunderstand ing, abuse and perhaps persecution. Why not? Shall the disciple be above his Master?

Still in heaven's name the deeds of hell are done Still on the high-road, 'neath the noonday sun The fires of hate are lit for them who dare Follow their Lord along the untrodden way.

I am not suprised or disquieted, therefore, that I am accused of being a dangerous heretic. And it is with no expectation of getting rid of that reputation that I here protest that I have no quarrel with ortho doxy. The kernel of it I believe to be truth, as firmly as the most orthodox. I find nothing false in it, save that kind of falsity which results from a lay ing of the emphasis in the wrong place. The change of emphasis that I urge, from the metaphysics of Paul to the ethics of Jesus, involves such a difference of perspective, such a readjustment of magnitudes and values, as appears like heresy to the more conservative. But after a time they will learn to make the adjust ment, and will perceive that nothing valued by the old orthodoxy has been lost, though its form may have been not a little altered.