The supreme egotism of man has been largely corrected through the
influence of education and experience which have made him conscious of
the ridiculousness of his demands for recognition of his supremacy.
Each one of those high, old eastern Emperors had to have his pedestal,
and his title of god, without reference to his real character. Modern
men do not expect to be real head-up gods. They know too much to be so
ridiculous. But there are those who seem to feel that they are at
least "little tin gods on wheels."
When the Nazarene appeared among men possessing godlike qualities, it
was entirely in line with the custom of the time to call him a god.
There was neither logic nor common sense in the role Jesus was to play.
He was God of all gods. He was, at the same time, the Only Begotten
Son of God, and, as the idea of sacrifice to the numerous gods was an
important part of the religious orgies of the time, they could only
bring that into their new scheme for entrapping souls by making the
Son--who was really God--a sacrifice to himself, to propitiate himself,
and keep himself from utterly destroying and damning the folks He
himself had created. So they made it out that this good man should be
a propitiation for the "sins of the race." Silly; improbable;
unlawful; incredible; impossible. The more useless and undeveloped
people were, the more they believed that the sacrifice of a very
God--to their egotistical minds--was not too much for the salvation of
their infinitesimal, pinhead souls.