“YOUR mother has been telling me of the meeting to which she took you last night, Charley. She said that the gentleman who spoke last mentioned many interesting things about the Jews which he had seen and heard in his missionary travels.”
“Oh, yes; he told us much more than I can remember; but I liked best seeing the curiosities he had brought home. There was a saddle with a very large stirrup, and a queer-shaped horse-shoe, and a bit and bridle not at all like ours. Then there was a plow with one handle, and a pruning-hook shaped just like a spear, only ending in a hook instead of a point.”
“And he showed us a goad," said May: "a long stick, Auntie, with a sharp nail at one end to prick on the oxen, and a little trowel at the other to clear the earth from the plow.”
“But there was one thing we both wanted you to explain to us. Can you tell us what phylacteries are? We were shown a large one and a small one, but they both looked like little square boxes, and I could not understand what Mr. Hall said about them. I know there is something in the Bible about broad phylacteries, but I can't tell where it is.”
“You will find it in the twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew. Let us look. Ah, I see May has found the place. The Lord is here speaking to the people about the Scribes and Pharisees, and among the works which they did ‘to be seen of men,’ He mentions that they ‘made broad their phylacteries.’ Now let us turn to the Book of Exodus. In Exodus 13:1616And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt. (Exodus 13:16), we read, ‘And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt.’ Moses was speaking to the people of that ‘night to be much observed’ when the Lord brought them out of the land of Egypt, and telling them that the mercy of this great deliverance was to be ever before them, and that their little ones were to be told of it in time to come. The language he used we call figurative, and we find the same expressions used about the law and commandments of Jehovah in the Book of Deuteronomy: ‘Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.’
“Do you think, May," continued her aunt, "that if your mother told you to keep her wishes always before your eyes, or her words always in your heart, you would know what she meant?”
“I should know that mother meant me always to remember what she liked me to do, and to do it, Auntie.”
“So I think these directions of God were understood by the Jews at first, but by-and-by they began to forget the real meaning, and at last they took to the plan of actually wearing parts of the Law in little boxes upon their foreheads and arms.”
“I remember Mr. Hall said the Pharisees used to pray in corners of streets with their phylacteries on.”
“Yes, Charley; the Pharisees always wore their phylacteries, while the common people only used them at prayers. In the time when our Lord spoke of them, almost all Jews wore them. The modern Jews wear them only at morning prayers.”
“But you have not told us what they are, Aunt Edith.”
“They are strips of parchment, with four passages of Scripture written upon them, rolled up in a case of black calf-skin, and tied to the left arm, just above the elbow, by a leather thong. If to be worn on the forehead, the four strips were rolled up, and put into four little cells within a square case, on which a Hebrew letter was written, and the ‘frontlet’ was kept in its place by two thongs, inscribed with Hebrew Letters. The Pharisees are supposed to have made their phylacteries ‘broad’ by increasing the size of the leather case in which the passages from the Law were enclosed.”
“What were the passages, Auntie?”
“You can find them out another time, Charley; I will write down the references for you.”
And Aunt Edith wrote upon a slip of paper, "Ex. 13:2-10, 11-172Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. 3And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. 4This day came ye out in the month Abib. 5And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month. 6Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. 7Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. 8And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. 9And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. 10Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year. (Exodus 13:2‑10)
11And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, 12That thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the Lord's. 13And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. 14And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: 15And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem. 16And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt. 17And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: (Exodus 13:11‑17); Deut. 6:4-9, 13-234Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: 5And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4‑9)
13Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. 14Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; 15(For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. 16Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. 17Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. 18And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, 19To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. 20And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? 21Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: 22And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: 23And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. (Deuteronomy 6:13‑23).”
“Thank you; I should like to see what texts a Jewish boy carries about with him," said Charley.
“I must tell you, however, that probably the boy who wears them has no idea what they are; for when once a phylactery is enclosed in its square case, the strips of parchment are never unrolled and read. The Jew of to-day, at least, is well content to wear the letter of the Law without troubling himself further, and it has become a dead letter indeed to him. The word means ‘safeguard,’ and the phylactery is worn as a charm against evil spirits.”
“Auntie, I don't quite know who the Pharisees were.”
“Well, Charley, I will tell you as much as I think you can understand about them; but first I must ask you whether you remember about what time Ezra lived?”
“I don't know, only that it was when the Jews were coming back from Babylon.”
“Yes; that was about 450 years before the birth of Christ. For a thousand years they had had the Law which God gave by Moses; but you must remember that when they came back from the Captivity they were a very different people from what they once had been. The ark was lost, and not only were copies of the Law very scarce, but the language in which it was written would be very little understood.”
“Oh, now I know why Ezra had the Book of the Law read aloud, and explained to the people; it was because they could not make out the sense for themselves, wasn't it?”
"Yes, May; the Scripture of that time was explained to the people, who had come from Babylon so ignorant that they almost needed to be educated afresh in the ordinary dialect of the day. It is believed, too, that Ezra was allowed by God to undertake the important charge of arranging the Books of the Law, and, as some think, of compiling the Books of Chronicles. He is also said to have instituted synagogues, for the reading of the Law and for prayer, for it is not likely that there were any before the Captivity, and to have founded the great college, or great synagogue, which was the beginning of that Supreme Court or Council of the Sanhedrim, which managed all the affairs of the Jews in the time of our Lord. This was the ‘council’ of which Caiaphas, the high priest, was a member; you know he spoke those remarkable words, ‘It is expedient that one man should die for the people, that the whole nation perish not.’”
“I remember it says, ‘This spake he, not of himself.’ But was it not a good thing that the people should be taught the Law?”
“Yes, indeed, it was; but you know, Charley, how soon we spoil the best things if we are left to ourselves. By-and-by this reading and explaining the Law grew to be a regular business, and those who professed to interpret the Scripture added to it their own interpretation, wherever they thought they could explain it better by doing so. By degrees they began to teach what the people were not slow to believe, that, besides the written law, there was an oral law to complete and explain it. The grand doctrine of the Pharisees was that there was no precept of which God had not given full explanation to Moses, to hand down by word of mouth, and this ‘oral’ or unwritten law constituted the ‘tradition of the elders,’ of which the Lord so often spoke.”
“Can you tell me who was the first Pharisee?”
“No, May; but I can tell you the names of two great Jewish doctors or rabbis who lived not long before the birth of our Lord—Hillel and Shammai. There were many differences between them, but they both agreed in giving great authority to traditions. Gamaliel, who was the teacher of St. Paul, was the grandson of Hillel, but it is said that he was not so strict a Pharisee.”
“I don't understand how they pretended to have got the ‘oral law,’ Aunt Edith.”
“The Mishna, a book in which the traditions were collected, Charley, has this sentence: ‘Moses received the oral law from Sinai, and delivered it to Joshua; Joshua delivered it to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets to the men of the great synagogue.’”
“Is there anything else in the Mishna?”
“There are many things that even a child like you, May, would laugh at, but which were part of the ‘heavy burdens, grievous to be borne,’ laid upon the poor people by those who professed to guide them. Washing the hands before meat was the grand test of a true Pharisee, for they had made an ordinary Syrian custom into an act of worship. I will only tell you some of the rules about this one thing. ‘How much of the hand must be washed?—To the wrist, some said; but was a disputed point.’ ‘What kind of water must be used?—Not sea water, not mill water, not water which has done any kind of work.’ ‘How much water for both hands?—A certain measure; a drop short of it would make the washing a sin.’ ‘How must the water be poured?—With a certain degree of force.’ When I tell you that even about these rules they had endless differences and disputes, and that they held that until the hands were cleansed an evil spirit rested upon them, so that if a man rubbed his eyes on first awaking he was in danger of losing his sight, you will see how terrible a system of bondage this oral law became, and will not wonder at the way in which the Lord denounced it, and bade the people beware of the doctrines of the Pharisees.”
“But Nicodemus was a Pharisee.”
“Yes, dear children, but a Pharisee drawn by the mighty power of God outside his religion of the commandments of men to seek, even by night, Him who spake as never man spake, and whose kingdom was not of this world.”
“I suppose," said Charley, "it was not only about such things as washing their hands that the Pharisees were particular.”
“That was one thing about which their traditions were very explicit; they also very strictly observed alms giving, prayer, fasting, and keeping, the Sabbath.”
“Don't you remember, Charley," said May, "how the Pharisee, when he went to the temple to pray, said, ‘I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess'? What did he mean, Aunt Edith; was that giving to the poor?”
“He meant that he gave to the service of God the tenth part, not only of his corn and wine and oil, but of the very smallest part of his gains, such as ‘mint and anise and cummin.’ It is said that a strict Pharisee made a point of gathering the tenth sprig of every garden herb, and presenting it to the priest. These trifling observances were of more value in their eyes than judgment, mercy, and the love of God, and the Lord told them so. It is easy to be attentive to outward rules and self-imposed duties, while there may be no thought of doing the will of God from the heart, and seeking to please Him in ways unnoticed by others.”
“I am sure that proud Pharisee had no mercy in his heart to the poor publican who went to pray at the same time with him,” said May. "I always knew the Pharisees were proud, because people say even now, 'as proud as a Pharisee;' but I didn't know what they were proud of.”
“The saddest thing about the Pharisees was this pride, which led them to despise others; the poor and unlearned were looked down upon by them as ‘the brute people of the earth,’ while they counted themselves, and those who were instructed in the Law, the ‘holy people.’ We can almost fancy we see the two men brought into such strong contrast in the parable which the Lord spake to ‘certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous,’ and counted all others as nothing; the one with his long robe, bordered by the deep blue fringe, with his phylacteries bound upon his brow and upon his arm, standing and thanking God that he was not like the rest of mankind, not unjust, not an extortioner, not like this publican; and the man who, feeling that he was indeed in the presence of God who searches the heart, could only as he stood afar off smite upon his breast, with the cry, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner.’”
“I suppose the publican could not hear what the Pharisee said about him, for it says—I have found the chapter, Aunt Edith, it is the eighteenth of Luke—it says, the ‘Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.’”
“It was not the custom of the Jews to pray in silence, Charley, and it certainly would be very unlike the Pharisee in the parable to do so. Some people think that the words, ‘with himself,’ mean that he was as it were praying to himself, making a speech all about himself, as one who felt that he had need of nothing, rather than as one who comes to make known his wants to God.''
“He did not pray exactly," said May: "at least he did not ask for anything, or tell God he was sorry about anything he had done, or thank God for His goodness to him. He could not have any answer to a prayer like that.”
“I am sure," said Charley, "it must have displeased the Lord Jesus very much, that way the Pharisees had of despising others; for He loved the poor, and had compassion upon ignorant people. Still, I suppose they did pity the poor in a sort of way, since they thought so much of giving alms, though that might have been only to get a good name. Was it to them that Christ said, ‘Take heed that ye do not your alms before men,’ Aunt Edith?”
“No, that was not said to the Pharisees, but to His disciples, in the hearing of the people around. The word He then used does not mean simply giving away money, but has a much wider meaning, and is often translated ‘righteousness.’ The meaning of the word ‘alms’ itself is ‘mercifulness;’ so you see, Charley, a man might give away a great deal to the poor, and be counted a great benefactor, and yet not give alms in the true sense.”
“Then, fasting was another thing which the Pharisee was proud of. Had God told the Jews to fast?”
“Under the Law there was one great fast. If you look at the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, Charley, you will see that upon the day of atonement the people were to ‘afflict their souls.’ This was interpreted to mean fasting during the whole day. We read also of fasts being kept during times of distress or sorrow, as when, in the time of Samuel, the people gathered together at Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted, saying, ‘We have sinned against the Lord.’”
“And David fasted for sorrow, Aunt Edith. He said, ‘While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept.’”
“Yes, May, King David's fast was for sorrow for his sin, and that he might humble himself under the mighty hand of God. In the Book of Nehemiah we have an affecting picture of how the people who had returned from the Captivity, after the second temple was finished, assembled ‘with fasting, and with sackcloth and earth upon them,’ and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.”
“I suppose the Pharisee did not fast twice a week for any particular reason?" said Charley. "Perhaps the Mishna had set down some days for fasting.”
“Certain days were appointed—generally days connected with some great national calamity or sad event in the history of the people, such as the breaking of the tables of the law by Moses, the return of the spies, the storming of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The second day of the week was kept as a fast by the strict Pharisee, because upon that day Moses went up to Mount Sinai; and the fifth, because upon that day he came down from the mount.”
“That does seem a foolish reason!”
“Not more foolish, May, than we might expect on the part of people who had given up the word of God that they might keep their own tradition. Their boasted knowledge of the Law and the Prophets might have taught the Pharisees what was the fast which the Lord had chosen: ‘to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke-.’”
“Oh, Aunt Edith! and instead of keeping God's fast they were binding heavy burdens upon people, and not touching them with one of their fingers! But you said they prayed ‘to be seen of men,’ as well as fasted; I should have thought to stand praying in the corners of the streets would not have been so much for other people to see them as if they had gone upon the housetop, as Peter did, when he saw the vision of the great sheet let down from heaven.”
“The word does not mean what we should call the corners of the streets, but rather broad, open spaces in the city; there the Pharisee would be very conspicuous, standing with his tallith or praying-veil upon his head, and with his hands ‘spread abroad to heaven.’”
When Christ was warning His disciples not to be like the hypocrites, who prayed so that every one might see them, He said—it is a little further down in the sixth of St. Matthew, May—'Use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.' Does that mean just saying the same words over and over, Aunt Edith, as the false prophets in the time of Elijah did, when they called out, ‘O Baal, hear us!’ from morning till noon?”
“The rabbis had laid down such rules as these about prayer, Charley: ‘Every one who multiplies prayer shall be heard; the prayer which is long shall not return empty.’ This alone would show us how far from the knowledge of God they were; for God had said, ‘Before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear.’ The word translated ‘vain repetitions’ means saying the same thing over and over in a mechanical way, as a stammerer who was trying to speak plainly might do, the lips moving while the heart was far away. We are all in danger of falling into the same snare, dear children, and while we see so clearly where others were wrong let us distrust our own hearts, and ask the Lord to deliver us from all hypocrisy.”
“I think I know what you mean, Aunt Edith, but I never quite understood what a hypocrite was.”
“A hypocrite first of all only meant a man who answered in a dialog, May; but very soon, from one who acted a part in a play, it came to mean one who played a part, pretending to be what he was not.”
“Then the scribes were people who pretended, too, for Jesus said, ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!’ Who were the scribes?”
“I know—Ezra was one," said Charley, "and there was Shebna, the scribe, who came out to speak to the King of Assyria's messengers.”
“The scribes, in the times of the kings, were probably what we should now can their chief secretaries, whose office it was to write the royal letters or edicts. It was after the return of the exiles from Babylon that the name took a new meaning, and was applied to those who copied or edited the sacred books, and taught them to the people. Of Ezra himself, we read that he was ‘a ready scribe in the law of Moses, for he had prepared his heart to seek the law of Jehovah, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.’”
“You told us of how Ezra put the Books of Moses in order, but after that did the scribes still go on copying in the New Testament times?" asked May.
“They were rather regarded as the interpreters of Scripture, and were very much looked up to as students of the Law and the Prophets; the lawyers devoted themselves especially to the interpreting of the Law; they, as well as the Pharisees, tried to 'set a fence' around the Scriptures, as something too holy to be meddled with, and too dark and mysterious to be understood by the common people. If you look at the eleventh chapter of St. Luke, Charley, you will see that the Lord, as He sat in the Pharisee's house, addressed the words which you quoted just now, about laying grievous burdens upon others which they did not touch themselves, to the lawyers.”
“I see, Aunt Edith; and further on in the same chapter there is, ‘Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.’ That means that they would not let the people read for themselves, and that what they interpreted for them was wrongly explained, doesn't it?”
“The custom of a key, as the symbol of his authority to interpret the Scripture, being given to one who had himself studied at the feet of some learned teacher, may be alluded to in the verse you read, Charley.”
“I wonder whether any of the people, who heard what Jesus said to His disciples when He taught them upon the mountain, thought He was a scribe!”
“It would seem very likely, May; the name ‘Master,’ by which He was so often called, means Teacher, and we are expressly told that the people were astonished at His teaching, ‘for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.’ They were accustomed to hear those whom they regarded as their teachers begin their discourses by quoting what Hillel or Shammai had said, but the Lord Jesus said ‘I say unto you.’”
“Perhaps, when the chief priests and scribes came to Jesus, and asked Him by what authority He did those things, they wanted to know whether any ‘key of knowledge’ had been given to Him. But now will you tell us about the Sadducees, Aunt Edith?—they were not friends of the Pharisees, were they?”
“No, Charley; the two parties were constantly opposed, except when we find them making common cause against Him whom they both alike hated—the One who, as the Light and the Truth, had exposed their dark and deceitful ways.”
“I suppose the Sadducees were worse than the Pharisees, for they said there was no resurrection; but how did they first begin? I don't remember anything about them in the Old Testament.”
“As the Pharisees, from their name, were ‘the separated people,’ so the Sadducees might be called the ‘Zadokites,’ for they took their name from Zadok, who was high priest in the time of Solomon.”
“But how did they come to believe that no one would rise from the dead?”
“They especially opposed the Pharisees in this respect, that they denied the oral law; they believed the Law of Moses, but they said nothing about the resurrection could be found there.”
“But that was not true, Aunt Edith.”
Although the great fact of a future life is recognized all through the Bible, Charley, there is very little direct teaching as to the resurrection in the Old Testament, except as light from the New falls upon it. A teacher among the Sadducees once said to his disciples, ‘Men should not be servants who do their Master's will for reward.’ That sounded very well; but soon the pupils of this man improved upon what he had said, and began to teach that, as we ought not to look for the reward of piety, so there was no life to come where rewards could be given.”
“I think, all the same, when he came to die, he would feel sure in himself that there was a life to come.”
“I think so, too, May, for life and death become very real to the departing soul. Many of the Sadducees were priests, and they were especially disliked by the Pharisees because they courted King Herod, and tried to obtain favor and influence under him. The most bitter enmity, however, was between the Pharisees and the Herodians, a set of men who held the doctrine of the Sadducees, but looked up to Herod as if he were to be the one to save the nation from the Romans. Yet we find that the Pharisees took counsel even with these their enemies ‘how they might destroy’ Jesus.”
“It was very dreadful to hate the One who came to give His life, to lay it down willingly, that He might save us," said May; "but there is one thing I have been wanting to ask, Aunt Edith. When the Lord Jesus was twelve years old, and stayed behind in Jerusalem, His parents found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors—you know that lovely Picture, where the grave men, with their long beards, are sitting round, and Jesus is in the midst of them, and there are doves flying about. Who were those ‘doctors’?”
“A room in the temple was set apart for a school, to which scholars might come and be taught by the learned men or teachers of the law. You know doctor means teacher. The learned men sat upon a high seat, then the older students upon a bench below, and the younger upon the ground, literally at the ff.et ' of those who taught them.”
“I wonder what kind of things the children learned," said Charley.
"When a Jewish boy was seven years old his mother began to teach him the Scriptures, chiefly passages from the Book of Deuteronomy, and what were called the Festival Psalms. One of them was the psalm you are so fond of repeating, May: ‘O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever.’”
"Oh, Aunt Edith, it does seem strange that the Jewish children should learn the same psalms as we do, and yet, in one way, they belong almost more to them. But do go on.”
“It was when a boy was thirteen that he for the first time put on his phylacteries; he had then become ‘a child of the Law,’ and was expected to study it under the direction of the great teachers. I have read that among the favorite questions in the temple-school were these, and others like them: ‘What is the great commandment of the Law-?’ ‘What may or may not be done on the Sabbath?’”
“The first one reminds me of how one of the scribes asked the Lord Jesus, ‘Which is the first commandment of all?’ And you know, Aunt Edith, how they were always finding fault with Him for doing cures on the Sabbath day.”
“Yet we read, Charley, that when our Lord, in the presence of the sick man at the table of one of the chief Pharisees, Himself put the question, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?’ they held their peace; and when, after he had healed the poor man, he again turned to them with the question, 'Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day?' they could not answer.”
“I suppose they would not have counted it breaking the Sabbath to pull the ox or ass up out of the pit, would they?”
“One of the questions gravely discussed among them turned upon this very point, and it had been decided that food might be let down, so that the poor beast should not starve, but that he might not be released until the Sabbath was over; how far their practice corresponded with their interpretation of the Law we cannot tell,—but we must not talk any longer to-night, dear children.”
“Just one question more, Auntie; was any one who liked allowed to go into the synagogue to read and preach, as Jesus did when He came to Nazareth?”
“Yes, Charley; any one known by the ruler of the synagogue to be a good man, having some knowledge of the Scriptures, might read the lessons appointed for the day, one from the Law and one from the Prophets, and he might also address a ‘word of exhortation’ to those present. Have you ever thought how startled the congregation at Nazareth must have been on that day when the Man whom they knew as the son of Joseph, the One who had grown up, living His holy life among them, and whose father and mother they knew, after unrolling the volume of the Prophet Isaiah and reading from it the wonderful prophecy concerning Himself, rolled up the book and gave it to the attendant, and sat down, with the words, ‘This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears’?”
“I think I can say the verses which He read," said May; and she repeated, "‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’ And Jesus Himself was the One who was doing all that," she added, softly; "no wonder the eyes of all those in the synagogue were fastened on Him.”