, even in our Lord's
day, to invent explanations of many parts of the old Books which quite
altered their true meaning.

After the fall of Jerusalem the learned Jews, shut away in their
colleges and striving to forget their sorrows, began to write down the
Scripture explanations, and to add to them so greatly that it became
more difficult to recall the comments on the Bible than it was to
remember the Bible itself.

[Illustration: MEDAL MADE BY TITUS, THE CONQUEROR OF JERUSALEM. THE
WORDS, IVDAEA CAPTA, MEAN 'CAPTIVE JUDEA.' THE WOMAN WEEPING UNDER A
PALM-TREE STANDS FOR THE CITY OF JERUSALEM]

These explanations, all collected together, are called 'The Talmud.'
Now the learned Jews grew so fond of their Talmud, that they declared a
man to be a blockhead if he knew only the Scriptures and not the Talmud
explanation.

'The law of Moses is like salt, but the Talmud is balmy spice,' they
would say.

Yet although they heeded so little the true meaning of God's Book, they
guarded its _words_ more and more carefully; and the rules for copying
any portion of the holy Books were strict indeed.

'My son,' an old teacher would say to his pupil, 'before you copy a
single word you must wash your body all over, and clothe yourself in
full Jewish dress, preparing your mind with solemn thoughts. The
parchment you write upon must be made from the skins of "clean" animals
only--that is clean according to the Law of Moses.

'The ink you write with must be of a pure black, made only from a
mixture of soot, charcoal, and honey. Though you know the whole Book
of the Law by heart, you must not write a single word from memory, but
raise your eyes to your copy, and pronounce the word aloud before
trusting it to your pen. Before writing any of the names of God you
must wash your pen: before writing His most sacred Name you must wash
your whole body. If, after your copy has itself been examined, three
corrections have to be made, that copy must be destroyed.'

Not satisfied with all these directions, the master taught his scholar
to count the _letters_ of every Book.

One of the letters in Leviticus xi. is the _middle letter_ of all the
five Books of Moses, a word in chapter x. is the middle of all the
words, and a verse in chapter viii. is the very centre of all the
verses. The letter 'A'--that is the Hebrew letter which stands for
'A'--occurs 42,377 times; the letter 'B' 35,218, and so on.

Not only this, but every scribe w