his soul in his rage! Should the earth be deserted for you? And the rocks be removed from their place? Yes! The light of the bad is put out, and the gleam from the flame of his fire! And the light in his tent shall be dark, and the lantern above it be quenched! His vigorous striding will halt, and his tactics will lead to defeat, for his feet will be caught in his net, and himself bound about in his toils! His heel will be caught in a hole, a noose will be flung over him; a rope be concealed in the earth; and a trap for him laid on the road, be harassed by terrors all round, and his feet shall be broken to bits! A famine shall come on his strength, and destruction shall fix to his flank devouring the skin of his limbs, and the first-born of death gnaw his frame; his guard will be driven from his tent,-and the King of the Terrors march in;-who will dwell in his tent,-no more his, and lightning be poured on his home. His root will be dried up below, and his branches be withered above; his memory will perish from earth; and his fame not remain in the streets! He be driven from dawn to the dark, and hunted away from the world! Without son, or grandson, in his tribe, and none to survive in his home. The Westerns will wonder at his day,-and the Easterns be seized with a fear. Yes! Such are the homes of the bad, such the place not acknowledging God!

WISDOM OF TALMUD

SELECTIONS FROM THE TALMUD

Once, as the Rabbis tell us, the Roman Government issued a decree forbidding Israel to study the law. Whereupon Pappus, the son of Yehudah, one day found Rabbi Akiba teaching it openly to multitudes who had gathered around him to hear it. "Akiba," said he, “art thou not afraid of the Government?" "List," was the answer, "and I will tell thee how it is by a parable. It is with me as with the fishes whom a fox, walking once by a river's side, saw darting distractedly to and fro in the stream; and, addressing, inquired, 'From what, pray, are ye fleeing?' 'From the nets,' they replied, 'which men have set to ensnare us.' 'Why, then,' rejoined the fox, 'not try the dry land with me, where you and I can live together, as our fathers managed to do before us?' 'Surely,' exclaimed they, 'thou art not he of whom we have heard so much as the most cunning of animals, for herein thou art not wise, but foolish. For if we have cause to fear where it is natural for us to live, how much more reason have we to do so where we needs must die!' Just so," continued Akiba, "is it with us who study the law, in which (Deut. xxx. 20) it is written, 'He is thy life and the length of thy days'; for if we suffer while we study the law, how much more shall we if we neglect it?" Not many days after, it is related, this Rabbi Akiba

was apprehended and thrown into prison. As it happened, they led him out for execution just at the time when "Hear, O Israel!" fell to be repeated, and as they tore his flesh with currycombs, and as he was with long-drawn breath sounding forth the word "one," his soul departed from him. Then came forth a voice from heaven which said, "Blessed art thou, Rabbi Akiba, for thy soul and the word 'one' left thy body together."

Once a Gentile came to Shamai, and said, "Proselytize me, but on condition that thou teach me the whole law, even the whole of it, while I stand upon one leg." Shamai drove him off with the builder's rod which he held in his hand. When he came to Hillel with the same challenge, Hillel converted him by answering him on the spot, "That which is hateful to thyself, do not do to thy neighbor. This is the whole law, and the rest is its commentary." (Tobit iv. 15; Matt. vii. 12.)

When Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai and his son, Rabbi Elazar, came out of their cave on a Friday afternoon, they saw an old man hurrying along with two bunches of myrtle in his hand. "What," said they, accosting him, "dost thou want with these?" "To smell them in honor of the Sabbath," was the reply. "Would not one bunch," they remarked, "be enough for that purpose?" "Nay," the old man replied. "One is in honor of 'Remember' (Exod. xxii. 28), and one in honor of 'Keep' (Deut. v. 8)." Thereupon Rabbi Shimon remarked to his son, “Behold how the commandments are regarded by Israel!"

Not one single thing has God created in vain. He created the snail as a remedy for a blister; the fly for the sting of a wasp; the gnat for the bite of a serpent; the serpent itself for healing the itch (or

the scab); and the lizard (or the spider) for the sting of a scorpion.

When a man is dangerously ill the law grants dispensation, for it says, "You must break one Sabbath on his behalf, that he may be preserved to keep many Sabbaths."

Once when Rabbi Ishmael paid a visit to Rabbi Shimon, he was offered a cup of wine, which he at once, without being asked twice, accepted, and drained at one draught. "Sir," said his host, "dost thou not know the proverb, that he who drinks off a cup of wine at a draught is a greedy one?" "Ah!" was the answer, "that fits not this case; for thy cup is small, thy wine is sweet, and my stomach is capacious."

At the time when Nimrod the Wicked had cast our Father Abraham into the fiery furnace, Gabriel stood forth in the presence of the Holy One-blessed be He!-and said, "Lord of the universe, let me, I pray thee, go down and cool the furnace, and deliver that righteous one from it." Then the Holy One-blessed be He said unto him, "I am One in my world and he is one in his world; it is more becoming that He who is one should deliver him who is one." But as God does not withhold His reward from any creature, He said to Gabriel, "For this thy good intention, be thine the honor of rescuing three of his descendants." At the time when Nebuchadnezzar the Wicked cast Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into the fiery furnace, Yourkami, the prince of hail, arose before God and said, "Lord of the universe, let me, I pray thee, go down and cool the fiery furnace, and rescue these righteous men from its fury." Whereupon Gabriel interposed, and said, "God's power is not to be demonstrated thus, for thou art the prince of hail, and

everybody knows that water quenches fire; but I, the prince of fire, will go down and cool the flame within and intensify it without (so as to consume the executioners), and thus will I perform a miracle within a miracle." Then the Holy One-blessed be He! said to him, "Go down." Upon which Gabriel exclaimed, "Verily the truth of the Lord endureth forever!" (Ps. cxvii. 2.)

One peppercorn to-day is better than a basketful of pumpkins to-morrow.

For the sake of one righteous man the whole world is preserved in existence, as it is written (Prov. x. 25), “The righteous man is an everlasting foundation."

Rabbi Meyer saith, "Great is repentance, because for the sake of one that truly repenteth the whole world is pardoned; as it is written (Hosea xiv. 4), ‘I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him."" It is not said "from them," but "from him."

He who observes one precept, in addition to those which, as originally laid upon him, he has discharged, shall receive favor from above, and is equal to him who has fulfilled the whole law.

One wins eternal life after a struggle of years; another finds it in one hour. (See Luke xxiii. 43.)

The greatness of God is infinite; for while with one die man impresses many coins and all are exactly alike, the King of kings, the Holy One-blessed be He!--with one die impresses the same image (of Adam) on all men, and yet not one of them is like his neighbor. So that every one ought to say, "For myself is the world created."

"He caused the lame to mount on the back of the blind, and judged them both as one." Antoninus said