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are foolish customs, of course, but these apart, manners and usages are the silent compact, the unwritten law which preserve the proprieties of civilized life, and piety is thus the fruit of religious customs.

G. G.

The very sooth of it is that an ill habit is an ill fate. L'ESTRANGE.

VIII.

The Spiritual Life.

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: not by hosts, not by power, but by My spirit.

-Zechariah iv. 6.

WHO are the great men and what are the great na

tions of the world? What is left of all human history? The only things that are alive to-day of all the product of the world of the past are the spiritual things. Did not Paul speak the truth when he said: "The mind of the spirit is life?" Where is Phoenicia, Babylon, Egypt? All that is left of Egypt are a few pyramids and the sphinx, which testify to an intolerable tyranny over millions of slaves. What is left of Tamerlan, of Xerxes, the great oriental conquerors? Nothing. What is left of little tiny Palestine?-Imperishable treasures that the world would not part with for all the material fruits of civilization together. What is left of Greece? The literature, the art, the truth, the beauty. What is left of Rome? Her magnificent

thoughts embodied in law, her arts. It is the spiritual things that live and wherein resides all human great

ness

MINOT J. SAVAGE.

'HE heights by great men reached and kept,

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

IX.

Ancient Prayers.

At the close of the service of the great Day of atonement the High-priest offered this prayer:

May it please Thee, O God, God of our fathers, that we may not be forced to emigrate; but if it be so decreed by Thee, may it not be to a place where the knowledge of Thy Law is not found; and may we suffer no want; but if it be so decreed by Thee, may it not be a want of means to do good works; and may it please Thee to let this year be one in which righteousness prevails; also a year of plenty; of trading, of rain, warmth and shade in due proportions, so that no one may need the help of his fellow-man, and no one be tempted to lord it over his neighbor.

TALMUD.

WHEN Rabbi Eleazar had finished his devotions, he added this petition: May it please Thee to let dwell within our borders Love, Brotherliness, Peace and Amity; grant that the disciples may increase, our work

for all lawful ends be blessed with happy issues, and that we finally obtain our portion in Paradise; that we may be armed for the good fight by the fellowship of the wise, and the prevailing of the good spirit within us; that every morning may find us cheered by hope, and governed by the fear of Thy name; and mayest Thou fulfill our wishes for the abiding good of our souls.

TALMUD.

X.

The Grace of Repentance.

Who can say: I have made my heart clean, I am pure from sin ?—Prov. xx. 9.

He that covereth up his sins (to hide them from himself) shall not prosper; but he that confesses and forsakes them shall find mercy.—Prov. xxviii. 13.

REPENTANCE is likewise an indispensable ele

ment in the belief of the followers of Israel's Law. For it is impossible for man to be entirely free from error and sin; he either does not sufficiently understand the opinion which he chooses, or he adopts one, not for its own merits, but in order to gratify his desire or his passion. If we were convinced that we could never make our crooked ways straight, we should forever continue in our errors and, perhaps, add other sins to those we have committed, because we do not see that there is a way of escape left to us; whilst the belief in the effi

cacy of repentance causes us to improve ourselves, to reach out for the best of ways, and to become better than we were before we sinned.

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MOSES MAIMONIDES.

ND day by day I think I read more plain
This crowning truth, that, spite of sin and pain,

No life that God has given is lived in vain ;
But each poor, weak, and sin-polluted soul
Shall struggle free at last, and reach its goal,
A perfect part of God's great perfect whole.

XI.

Israel's Heritage.

"O ye, that love the Eternal, see that ye hate the thing that is evil; to him that ordereth his conversation right, shall be shown the salvation of God." [AS QUOTED BY M. A.]

WHETHER we consider this revelation in respect to human affairs at large, or in respect to individual happiness, in either case its importance is so immense, that the people to whom it was given, and whose record is in the Bible, deserve fully to be singled out, as the Bible singles them: "Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the nations; but the Eternal shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee." For, while other nations had the misleading idea that this or that, other than righteousness, is saving, and it is not; that this or that, other than conduct, brings happiness, and it does not; Israel had the true

idea, that righteousness is saving and that to conduct belongs happiness. Nor let it be said that other nations, too, had at least something of this idea. They had, but they were not possessed with it; and to feel it enough to make the world feel it, it was necessary to be possessed with it. Israel and the Bible are filled with religious joys: "Eternal, what love have I unto Thy Law? All the day long is my study in it." This is why the testimonies of righteousness are Israel's heritage forever, because they were the very joy of his heart. MATTHEW ARNOLD.

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XII.

What Was Revealed to Moses.

If there be a prophet among you, I will make Myself known to him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses who is faithful in all my house, with him will I speak mouth to mouth and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.Numbers xii. 6, 7.

...

NTO Moses the veil of the senses, of appearances,

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was lifted: he, too, looked through the show of

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