Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Appendix- What do the Christians do that makes them like Pharisees?
What do the Christians do that makes them like Pharisees
What do the Christians do that makes them like Pharisees
From the text:
The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose
votaries it may be as truly said, as it was of the ancient scribes
and Pharisees, "They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be
borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves
will not move them with one of their fingers. All their works
they do for to be seen of men.—They love the uppermost rooms
at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, . . . . . . and to be
called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.—But woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye
them that are entering to go in. Ye devour widows’ houses, and
for a pretence make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the
greater damnation. Ye compass sea and land to make one
proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the
child of hell than yourselves.—Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and
cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and
not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides! which strain at a
gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup
and of the platter; but within, they are full of extortion and
excess.—Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for
ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear
beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and
of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous
unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass