Job saw the Lord walking upon the sea. Jeremiah said: "Seek
and ye shall find." Isaiah bid those that sorrowed come and be
consoled. In the poem of that poet the servant of the Lord had vinegar
when he thirsted, he was spat upon and for his garments lots were
cast.

In an effort to fill in a picture of which the central figure had
passed from the real to the ideal, these things may have been
suggestive. So also, perhaps, was the _Talmud_. The redaction of that
chaos began in the second century. But the Vedas, the Homeric poems,
the Tripitaka as well, existed in memory long before they were
committed to writing. The same is true of the _Talmud_. Orally it
existed prior to the Christ. Considered as literature, if it may be so
considered, it is the reverse of endearing. But of the many maxims
that it contains there are some of singular charm. Among others is the
Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.[65] The origin of that,
as already indicated, is traceable to the _Tripitaka_, which,
parenthetically, were so well known in Babylon that Gotama was there
regarded as a Chaldean seer. That abridgement of the Law which is
called the Golden Rule is also in the _Talmud_,[66] as also, before the
_Talmud_ was, it was in the _Tripitaka_. The injunction to love one's
enemies is equally in both. So is the very excellent suggestion that
one should consider one's own faults before admonishing a brother
concerning his defects. But the perhaps subtle intimation that the
desire to commit adultery is as reprehensible as the act, and the
rather extravagant statement that it is easier for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven, these, originally, were perhaps uniquely Talmudic.
Currently cited with multiple others they were all so many common
sayings, which, strung together in the Gospels, became a rosary of
most perfect pearls.

[Footnote 65: Talmud Babli: Baba bathra, 11 _a_.]

[Footnote 66: Schabbath, 37 _a_.]

In a passage of Irenaeus it is stated that the _Gospel according to St.
Matthew_ was arranged by the Church for the benefit of the Jews who
awaited a Messiah descended from David. A Syro-Chaldaic evangel, known
as the _Gospel to the Hebrews_, had then appeared. So also had the
_Gospel according to St. Mark_. But these offered no evidence that
Jesus was the one they sought. Another was then prepared. Written in
Greek and bearing the authoritative name of Matthew, it