honor; what is this glory, this honor ?

His imperfections, over which he mourns, and changes into perfections, whilst yet he is sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

G. G.

II.

The two natures in Man.

Who can know his errors? Cleanse Thou me, God, from secret faults! Keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me; then shall I be upright altogether, and innocent of great transgressions.-Psalm xix. 12, 13.

'HE divine mind dwells with the man of humble spirit, and he who keepeth himself lowly doth as much, as though he offered up all the burnt-sacrifices that ever were enjoined.

It is because man is half angel, half brute, that his inner life witnesses such bitter war between such unlike natures. The brute in him clamors for sensual joy and things in which there is only vanity; but the angel resists and strives to make him know that meat, drink, sleep, are but means whereby the body may be made

sufficient for the

the will of God.

study of the truths and the doing of

Not until the very hour of death can

it be certain or known to what measure the victory has been won. He who is but a novice in the fear of God will do well to say audibly each day, as he rises: This day will I be a faithful servant of the Almighty; will be on my guard against wrath, falsehood, hatred and quarrelsomeness, and will forgive those who wound me. For whoso forgives is forgiven in his turn: hard-heartedness and a temper that will not make up quarrels are a heavy burden of sin, and unworthy of an Israelite. MOSES BEN JACOB OF COUCY,

III.

(XIII. Century).

Fellowmen-Fellow-Sinners.

There is not a just man on earth that doeth good always and sinneth not.-Eccl. vii. 20.

HE Pharisees taught: Judge not thy neighbor before thou hast placed thyself in his stead; after

that, try to justify and defend rather than to condemn him. They point to Eli, the priest, as an impressive warning, since he mistook for a drunken woman one who had come to pour out the bitterness of her heart before the Lord, simply because "her lips only moved, but her voice was not heard." In her defence she used the phrase: "Not so, my lord;" words which the rabbis construed into a bitter rebuke, reading it in this way: Thou art not a true lord and master in Israel, since thou didst rashly condemn me instead of judging me on the side of innocence. Strange and passing strange it is that whilst men insist upon the utter sinfulness of man as the cornerstone of the kingdom of the grace of heaven, the same fact so rarely avails to open the gates of man's own kingdom of mercy towards his fallen brother! In a sinking ship or a burning house or a pest-stricken city we stop not to ask who, amongst the imperilled, is an adopted child of God, and who is notwe save whom we can. We are all surrounded by the same dangers whilst we dwell on earth, and travel towards "the unknown and yet well-known gate." Why does not the same generous impulse, which wakes up only sometimes, dominate our hearts always and make us merciful towards our fellow-sinners?

G. G.

RAIL creatures are we all! To be the best

Is but the fewest faults to have :

Look thou, then, to thyself, and leave the rest
To God, thy conscience, and the grave.

IV.

The Pure Heart.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and a firm spirit renew within me.-Psalms li. 12.

THERE is a well-known saying of our sages.

"The

thoughts about committing a sin are a greater evil than the sin itself." I can offer a good explanation of this strange dictum. When a person is disobedient, this is due to certain accidents connected with the corporal element in his constitution; for man sins only by his animal nature; whereas thinking is a faculty connected with his higher and essential being. A person who thinks sinful thoughts sins, therefore, by means of the nobler portion of his self; just as he who causes an ignorant slave to work unjustly, commits a lesser wrong than he who forces a free man or a prince to do menial labor. That which forms the true nature of man, with all its properties and powers, should only be employed in suitable work, in endeavoring to join higher beings, and not to sink to the condition of lower creatures. MOSES MAIMONIDES.

OU can never tell what your thoughts will do

You

In bringing you hate or love;

For thoughts are things, and their airy wings

Are swifter than carrier dove.

They follow the law of the universe

Each thing must create its kind;

And they speed o'er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind.

ง.

The Pure Lips.

Then I said: woe is me, I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amidst a people of unclean lips and mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.-Isaiah vi. 5.

OU know we condemn lowness of speech, and justly

You

so; for the gift of speech is peculiar to man, and a boon which God granted to him, that he may be distinguished from the rest of living creatures. This gift, therefore, which God gave us in order to enable us to perfect ourselves, to learn and to teach, must not be employed in doing that which is for us most degrading and disgraceful. We must not imitate the songs and tales of ignorant and lascivious people. It may be suitable to them, but it is not fit for those who are told: "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”—(Exodus xix. 6.)

MOSES MAIMONIDES.

In the last Day man shall have to render an ac count for every word he has spoken, even in his most intimate relations, as that of husband and wife.—

The Pharisees.