lo! it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. May God in His mercy show thee and me the right path to serve Him!

Amen.

BECHAI BEN JOSEPH PAKUDAH.
XI. Century.

ORD, teach us so to mark our days

That we may prize them duly :
So guide our feet in wisdom's ways
That we may love Thee truly;
Return, O, Lord! our griefs behold,
And with Thy goodness, as of old,
O satisfy us early.

III.

Here is the Light of Hereafter.

Man is like to vanity; his days are as a shadow that passeth away.—Psalms cxliv. 4.

BOD, the source of life, has placed in our nature the blessed hope of immortality by which we may console ourselves for the vanity of life and overcome the dread of death. If thou art in truth of the higher sphere, why should the thought of leaving this lower region trouble thee? Especially since the very pleasures which thou seekest on earth are, in reality, but briars and thorns. Therefore seek them not; but what should'st thou do? This: Use thy time as thou would'st a doubtful companion; extract the

good and avoid the evil. Avail thyself of the few opportunities of improvement in his company, and use thy discretion so that thou mayest suffer no injury from thy association with him. And remember that the companionship of Time is but of short duration. It flies more quickly than the shades of evening. We are like a child that grasps in his hand a sunbeam. He opens his hand soon again, but, to his amazement, finds it empty and the brightness gone.

WHAT is our duty here? to tend

From good to better, thence to best;
Grateful to drink life's cup-then bend
Unmurmuring to our bed of rest;

To pluck the flowers that round us blow,
Scattering sweet fragrance as we go.

R. JEDAYA PENINI.
XIV. Century.

IV. We Cannot be Where God is not.

JF

Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thy hand upon me. -Psalms cxxxix. 3, 5.

F this dogma of God's omnipresence may enable us to live more worthily, calling out our full capacities, meagre though they be, of hope, of faith and of love, will it not also enable us, when the need has come, to

die worthily, too? For death itself can not separate either ourselves or those we love from God: He has given, He has taken, blessed be the name of the Lord! For, though flesh waste away, God is still our portion and their portion; and if His love and His wisdom are manifested in life, they must also be manifested, whatever and however may be the outcome, in that passage and change which we speak of as death. Those we have honored and loved must die, perchance in the springtime of their youth, perchance in the fulness of their age; an instant more, an instant less; in God's sight it makes no difference. They pass, but they are with Him, even as we; nay, perhaps we may say more truly, both of them and of ourselves: They are with God, where we, too, soon shall be.

OR me, my heart that erst did go

Most like a tired child at a show,

CLAUDE G. MONTIFIORE.

That sees through tears the mummers leap,—
Would now its wearied vision close,

Would childlike on His love repose,

Who giveth His beloved sleep,

And friends, dear friends, when it shall be
That this low breath is gone from me,
And round my bier ye come to weep,
Let one, most loving of you all,
Say "Not a tear must o'er her fall!"
He giveth His beloved sleep.

V.

T

The Insight of Goodness.

Unto the wicked, God saith: What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou should'st take My covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction and castest My word behind thee!—Psalms l. 16, 17.

T is true to say that goodness, on it's own field, can see further, and see more truly, than the mere intelligence which is divorced from moral worth. Goodness can be allied to the deepest ignorance, and we shall always maintain proudly that such goodness is more acceptable to God and more akin to Him than the profoundest knowledge and the most brilliant genius when wedded to a selfish or immoral life. Plato speaks of the character of a good physician, and a good judge, and he urges that a judge should be not young; he should have learnt to know evil, not from his own soul, but from late and long observation of the nature of evil in others; for vice can not know virtue, too, but a virtuous nature, educated by time, will acquire a knowledge, both virtue and vice." There is a divine world of beauty into which the vicious can never enter, the laws of which he can not discern; in that realm the stupidest servant of goodness, the dullest menial of love, is wiser than he. You can not do the works of goodness by sheer intelligence; it is love which must primarily suggest the details of love's service.

'Tis love must see them as the eye sees light,

Day is but Numbre to the darkened sight.

Love can open the eyes of reason, but reason can not command love.

H, loving and forgiving,

Twin sisters of the soul,

In whose celestial living

The passions find control!

Still breathe your influence o'er us,
Whene'er by passions crost,
And angel-like restore us,
The Paradise we have lost.

CLAUDE G. MONTIFIORE.

VI.

The Fear and the Love of God.

And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is thy treasure.-Isaiah xxxiii. 6.

I love the Lord, for He hath heard my voice and my supplications.—Psalms cxvi. 1.

THE heart will never awake to life till the passions

die.

Appear as thou art, or be as thou appearest.

Oblivion of self is remembrance of God.

O God, if I be so happy while I fear Thee, how happy shall I become when I cease to fear Thee, and shall only love Thee.

He who fears not God of his own free will, must fear mankind of necessity.

I saw a stone cast on a road, and thereon was written by the Pen of God's Might: “O son of man, since thou