with the Divine study which thou lovest. "How highly does the Maker of the world

value trades," is another saying. Here are some more: "There is none whose trade God

does not adorn with beauty." "Though there were seven years of famine, it will never

come to the door of the tradesman." "There is not a trade to which both poverty and

riches are not joined; for there is nothing more poor, and nothing more rich, than a

trade." "No trade shall ever disappear from the world. Happy he whom his teacher has

brought up to a good trade; alas for him who has been put into a bad one." Perhaps

these are comparatively later Rabbinical sayings. But let us turn to the Mishnah itself,

and especially to that tractate which professedly embodies the wisdom and the sayings

of the fathers (Aboth). Shemaajah, the teacher of Hillel, has this cynical saying (Ab. i.

10)--perhaps the outcome of his experience: "Love work, hate Rabbiship, and do not

press on the notice of those in power." The views of the great Hillel himself have been

quoted in a previous chapter. Rabbi Gamaliel, the son of Jehudah the Nasi, said (Ab. ii.

2): "Fair is the study of the law, if accompanied by worldly occupation: to engage in

them both is to keep away sin; while study which is not combined with work must in the

end be interrupted, and only brings sin with it." Rabbi Eleazar, the son of Asarjah, says,

among other things: "Where there is no worldly support (literally, no meal, no flour),

there is no study of the law; and where there is no study of the law, worldly support is

of no value" (Ab. iii. 21). It is worth while to add what immediately follows in the

Mishnah. Its resemblance to the simile about the rock, and the building upon it, as

employed by our Lord (Matt 7:24; Luke 6:47), is so striking, that we quote it in

illustration of previous remarks on this subject. We read as follows: "He whose

knowledge exceeds his works, to whom is he like? He is like a tree, whose branches are

many and its roots few, and the wind cometh, and uproots the tree and throws it upon

its face, as it is said (Jer 17:6)...But he whose works exceed his knowledge, to whom is he

like? To a tree whose branches are few, but its roots many; and if even all the winds that

are in the world came and set upon such a tree, they would not move it from its place, as

it is written (Jer 17:8)." We have given this saying in its earliest form. Even so, it should

be remembered that it dates from after the destruction of Jerusalem. It occurs in a still

later form in the Babylon Talmud (Sanh. 99 a). But what is most remarkable is, that it also

appears in yet another work, and in a form almost identical with that in the New

Testament, so far as the simile of the building is concerned. In this form it is attributed to

a Rabbi who is stigmatised as an apostate, and as the type of apostasy, and who, as

such, died under the ban. The inference seems to be, that if he did not profess some

form of Christianity, he had at least derived this saying from his intercourse with

But irrespective of this, two things are plain on comparison of the saying in its

Rabbinical and in its Christian form. First, in the parable as employed by our Lord,

everything is referred to Him; and the essential difference ultimately depends upon our

relationship towards Him. The comparison here is not between much study and little

work, or little Talmudical knowledge and much work; but between coming to Him and

hearing these sayings of His, and then either doing or else not doing them. Secondly,

such an alternative is never presented by Christianity as, on the one hand, much

knowledge and few works, and on the other, little knowledge and many works. But in

Christianity the vital difference lies between works and no works; between absolute life

and absolute death; all depending upon this, whether a man has digged down to the

right foundation, and built upon the rock which is Christ, or has tried to build up the

walls of his life without such foundation. Thus the very similarity of the saying in its

Rabbinical form brings out all the more clearly the essential difference and contrariety in

spirit existing between Rabbinism, even in its purest form, and the teaching of our Lord.

The question of the relation between the best teaching of the Jewish sages and some of

the sayings of our Lord is of such vital importance, that this digression will not seem out

of place. A few further quotations bearing on the dignity of labour may be appropriate.

The Talmud has a beautiful Haggadah, which tells how, when Adam heard this sentence

of his Maker: "Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee," he burst into tears,

"What!" he exclaimed; "Lord of the world, am I then to eat out of the same manger with