by attending their Sabbath service on a day most
inconvenient to me. But no sacrifice is too great to achieve prayerful
communion with one's brethren.'

'But if your views were to prevail there would be an end of Judaism!'
the minister burst forth.

'Then Heaven forbid they should prevail!' said Simeon Samuels
fervently. 'It is your duty to put the opposition doctrine as strongly
as possible from the pulpit.' Then, as the minister rose in angry
obfuscation, 'You are sure you won't have some whisky?' he added.

'No, I will take nothing from a house of sin. And if you show
yourself next Sabbath I will preach at you again.'

'So that is your idea of religion--to drive me from the synagogue. You
are more likely to drive away the rest of the congregation, sick of
always hearing the same sermon. As for me, you forget how I enjoy your
eloquence, devoted though it is to the destruction of Judaism.'

'Me!' The minister became ungrammatical in his indignation.

'Yes, you. To mix up religion with the almanac. People who find that
your Sabbath wall shuts them out of all public life and all
professions, just go outside it altogether, and think themselves
outside the gates of Judaism. If my father--peace be upon him--hadn't
had your narrow notions, I should have gone to the Bar instead of
being condemned to shop-keeping.'

'You are a very good devil's advocate now,' retorted the minister.

Simeon Samuels stroked his beard. 'Thank you. And I congratulate
_your_ client.'

'You are an _Epikouros_ (Epicurean), and I am wasting my time.'

'And mine too.'

The minister strode into the shop. At the street-door he turned.

'Then you persist in setting a bad example?'

'A bad example! To whom? To your godly congregation? Considering every
other shop in the town is open on _Shabbos_, one more or less can't
upset them.'

'When it is the only Jewish shop! Are you aware, sir, that every
other Jew in Sudminster closes rigorously on the Sabbath?'

'I ascertained that before I settled here,' said Simeon Samuels
quietly.

XI

The report of the pastor's collapse produced an emergency meeting of
the leading sheep. The mid-day dinner-hour was chosen as the slackest.
A babble of suggestions filled the _Parnass's_ parlour. Solomon
Barzinsky kept sternly repeating his _Delenda est Carthago_: 'He must
be expelled from the congregation.'

'He should be expelled from the town altogether,' said Mendel. 'As it
is written: "And remove S