MORAL DUTIES.

A. Duties towards God.

"And now, O Israel, what doth the Lord thy God ask of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul?" (Deut. X. 12).

אַהֲבַת) and the love of God (יִרְאַת הַשֵׁם) The fear of God

D) are the fundamental duties towards God, and are, in fact, the source of all our duties.

1. The fear of God is not a fear of punishment. We do not fear God because He has the power to harm and torture us. Our fear of God is a fear of displeasing by our deeds, words, and even by our thoughts, Him who loves us and whom we love.

2. The love of God finds expression in our eagerness to do everything that pleases Him, and to abstain from everything that displeases Him, and to sacrifice willingly all we possess, even our life, if the Will of God demands it. Our own wishes and desires must be subordinated to His Will and guided by it.

The fear and the love of God create in our heart a feeling of reverence. This is strengthened by reflections on the infinite kindness, wisdom, and power displayed in His works. Reverence of God finds an outward expression in the manner we speak of Him and of everything connected with His name; in the manner we behave in the House of God, or during Divine Worship, or when studying the Word of God. When we enter the House of God we should feel "how

fearful is this place! this is nothing but the House of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. xxviii. 17).

Reverence of God makes us feel ashamed if any frivolity enters our thoughts or passes over our lips, or if we are guilty of any impropriety in our conduct. It makes us cautious with regard to the mentioning of God's name, and keeps us from doing whatever is prohibited in the third commandment. (See p. 6.)

3. Faith in God's Kindness and Justice.-We show this faith chiefly in times of trouble. However heavy a trouble may visit us, we must not murmur against God and imagine that we have been wronged by Him. On the contrary, it is our duty to patiently submit to the Will of God. When, therefore, sad news "Blessed be He who is a true Judge," and bear in mind that the All-wise and Omnipotent knows best what we deserve and what is good for us.

בָּרוּךְ דַיִן אֶמֶת ,reaches us we say

4. Implicit Obedience to His Commands.-With regard to the Divine commands, we must bear in mind that God is not in want of our service, of our praises and prayers; that it is solely for our good and our true happiness that He made His Will known to us and gave us the opportunity to serve Him and to evidence our love of Him. If we do so, it will give us pleasure to do what He commanded us, however great the sacrifices may be that are demanded of us.

5. Devotion.-Part of our time must be devoted to communion with God in prayer, in reflections on Him and His works, in the study of His Will and Word, and in meditating how we can best show ourselves worthy of God's love.

6. Longing for reconciliation with God, when we become aware of having acted contrary to His Will. We regret our sins, and with a firm resolve not to repeat them, we return to Him, ask His pardon, and fervently hope that He will grant our petition; for He tells us, "Let him (the sinner) return unto the

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Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Isa. lv. 7). See p. 20, "Day of Atonement."

B. Duties to our Fellow-creatures. L

I. Duties to our Fellow-men.

(a.) General Duties to our Fellow-men.

"Love thy neighbour as thyself" (Lev. xix. 18). When once a proselyte came to Hillel, the famous rabbi, with the request to teach him in a few words the principles of Judaism, the rabbi taught him this very precept (T. B. Shabbath 31a.) This love is a fundamental principle of Judaism, because it is implied in the doctrine of God's Unity, which it is the mission of Judaism to teach. "Have we not all one Father? has not one God created us? why should we deal treacherously a man against his brother?" (Mal. ii. 10). This principle involves the following rules of conduct:

(1.) That which is displeasing to thee, do thou not to thy fellow-men. We do not like to have our life. endangered or our health injured. We must not do anything by which the health of our neighbour might be injured, or his life endangered, or pain and grief be caused to him.

(2.) "Let the property of thy neighbour be as dear to thee as thy own, and let the honour of thy neighbour be as dear to thee as is thy own" (Aboth ii. 17, 15). In the same way as we wish our own property to be safe from injury and loss, and our honour from base attack, so is it our

duty to protect the property and the honour of our neighbour, and to be most careful lest we cause him injury by any deed or word of ours.

(a.) We must not appropriate that which belongs to our neighbour by robbery, theft, or dishonesty, or by assistance and encouragement given to robbers, thieves, or dishonest persons in the pursuance of their unlawful acts. He who buys stolen goods is worse than the thief; the latter only injures the one whom he robs, whilst the former, in addition to this, corrupts the thief, driving him from bad to worse, and makes the way of repentance more difficult for him.

(b.) It is base and disgraceful for a man to take ad. vantage of the ignorance or embarrassment of his neighbour for the increase of his own property. Usurers frequently belong to this wicked and disgraceful class of men.

(c.) We must not, by falsehood and slander, or by spreading false reports, damage the repute of our neighbour. An "evil tongue" (i) is a great calamity to society, and separates those who ought to be united in friendship and good-will. It has been said that "calumny kills three,-the slanderer, the one who listens to the slander, and the person slandered."

NOTE. "Thou shalt not curse the deaf" (Lev. xix. 14), who does not hear what is said, and cannot defend himself. The same is the case with the dead. It is a want of decency and piety to speak ill of the dead, who cannot contradict what is spoken to their discredit or defend themselves.-"Before the blind thou shalt not put a stumbling-block" (Ibid.). We must not, in any sense of the word, mislead our fellow-men. When asked by them for advice we must conscientiously counsel what we think best for them.

(d.) It is our duty to protect our neighbour's property and honour. "If thou meetest the ox of thine enemy or his ass going astray, bring it back to him" (Exod. xxiii. 4). If we hear an innocent person slandered, it is our duty to defend him and prove his innocence. Even if we have been wronged by our neighbour, we must not conceive plans of revenge, nor constantly keep the injury in our memory; we must reason with our neighbour and try to convince him of his error or misdeed. "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; thou shalt surely reprove thy neighbour, but not bear sin against him. Thou shalt not revenge, and thou shalt not keep a grudge against the children of thy people, but love thy fellowman like thyself: I am the Lord" (Lev. xix. 17. 18).

(e.) There is a more positive form of our love for our fellow-man, and that is charity; in Hebrew it is called p lit. "justice," because the Hebrew considered charity as an act of justice. The general object of charity is to promote, as far as is in our power, the well-being of our fellow-men.

There is one kind of charity which can be extended to rich and poor alike: it is called in Hebrew "an

(2.) Comforting the mourners (AMI).

(3.) Accompanying the dead to their last resting