t, but
not in the street, with false hair."

These are only instances of regulations which were so numerous as
severely to tax the memory of those who did little else but study to
observe them. We are sure that they could not have characterized the
common Jewish life; yet there was not a man, however loose in conduct or
humble of birth, who was not well versed in the moral precepts of Moses
and in the exalted national ideals of the Prophets. In the cases--and
they were many--where this wisdom was not justified of her children, the
punctilious observance of outward forms, conjoined with the most extreme
arrogance of race, laid the Jew open to the contempt of both Greek and
Roman. Yet there was enough latent impetus and genuine religious life in
Israel to form the basis of that Christianity which was destined to
overreach Greek philosophy and to revolutionize Rome; and there are many
indications in the Gospels that the credit for the incalculable service
of preserving alive the smouldering embers of piety must, to a
predominant degree, be awarded to the mothers and daughters of Israel.
Elizabeth, no less than Zacharias her husband, was a type of many who
"walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless."
There was also one Anna whose devotion was so great that she seemed to
make the temple her constant home. Nevertheless, in religion, as in
other things, the Jewish women, as all of their sex in the ancient
world, were obliged to be content with an inferior position. In the
great temple at Jerusalem they were allowed to occupy only the second
court: to the Court of Israel, where their male relatives worshipped,
they could not penetrate. They had no occasion, however, to complain of
lack of space, for in this Court of the Women there was room for over
fifteen thousand persons; and, for their convenience, the priests had
very considerately placed therein the treasury chests. It was here that
the poor widow whom Christ eulogized cast in her "two mites." In this
court also was Solomon's Porch, where the Master, recognizing no
inequality, taught both sexes alike. In the synagogues, the women of
Palestine were obliged to occupy as inconspicuous a position as
possible, and on the way thither it was required of them that they
should take the back and less frequented streets, in order that the
minds of the men might not be diverted from sacred meditations by their
presence. This bit of hypocritical phariseeism