kle. Bland
and aloof, he pursued his own affairs, meeting the congregation only
in synagogue, and then more bland and aloof than ever.

At last the Minister received a presidential command to preach upon
the subject forthwith.

'But there's no text suitable just yet,' he pleaded. 'We are still in
Genesis.'

'Bah!' replied the _Parnass_ impatiently, 'any text can be twisted to
point any moral. You must preach next Sabbath.'

'But we are reading the _Sedrah_ (weekly portion) about Joseph. How
are you going to work Sabbath-keeping into that?'

'It is not my profession. I am a mere man-of-the-earth. But what's the
use of a preacher if he can't make any text mean something else?'

'Well, of course, every text usually does,' said the preacher
defensively. 'There is the hidden meaning and the plain meaning. But
Joseph is merely historical narrative. The Sabbath, although mentioned
in Genesis, chapter two, wasn't even formally ordained yet.'

'And what about Potiphar's wife?'

'That's the Seventh Commandment, not the Fourth.'

'Thank you for the information. Do you mean to say you can't jump from
one Commandment to another?'

'Oh, well----' The minister meditated.

IV

'And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured. And it came to
pass that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph....'

The congregation looked startled. Really this was not a text which
they wished their pastor to enlarge upon. There were things in the
Bible that should be left in the obscurity of the Hebrew, especially
when one's womenkind were within earshot. Uneasily their eyes lifted
towards the bonnets behind the balcony-grating.

'But Joseph refused.'

Solomon Barzinsky coughed. Peleg the pawnbroker blew his nose like a
protesting trumpet. The congregation's eyes returned from the balcony
and converged upon the _Parnass_. He was taking snuff as usual.

'My brethren,' began the preacher impressively, 'temptation comes to
us all----'

A sniff of indignant repudiation proceeded from many nostrils. A blush
overspread many cheeks.

'But not always in the shape it came to Joseph. In this congregation,
where, by the blessing of the Almighty, we are free from almost every
form of wrong-doing, there is yet one temptation which has power to
touch us--the temptation of unholy profit, the seduction of
Sabbath-breaking.'

A great sigh of dual relief went up to the balcony, and Simeon Samuels
became now the focus of every eye. His face