jealousy, and trouble, and disquiet, and fear of death, and anger, and strife; and in the time of rest upon his bed his night sleep doth change his knowledge. A little or nothing is his resting, and afterward in his sleep, as in a day of keeping watch, he is troubled in the vision of his heart, as one that hath escaped from the front of battle. In the very time of his deliverance he awaketh, and marvelleth that the fear is nought. It is thus with all flesh, from man to beast, and upon sinners sevenfold more. Death, and bloodshed, and strife, and sword, calamities, famine, tribulation, and the scourge; all these things were created for the wicked, and because of them came the Flood.

As a sequel to the foregoing 'essay' may fitly be placed Ben Sira's 'sonnet' on Death. It strikes the sombre and yet manly note of one who has no expectation of any life beyond the grave, and has no fear to say so. The last stanza breathes a noble resignation and a fine, whole-hearted trust in the will of God. But we feel that whatever may befall us, there is more to say about death than this, and the simple utterance of a later sage appeals to us more cogently: The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God: they are in peace.'

O Death,

How bitter is the remembrance of thee
To a man that is at peace in his possessions,
Unto the man that hath nothing to distract him,

And hath prosperity in all things,

And that still hath strength to receive meat!

O Death,

Acceptable is thy sentence

Unto a man that is needy, and that faileth in strength,

That is in extreme old age,

And is distracted about all things,

And is perverse, and hath lost patience!

Fear not the sentence of Death;

Remember them that have been before thee,

And that come after:

This is the sentence from the Lord over all flesh:

And why dost thou refuse,

When it is the good pleasure of the Most High?

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Whether it be ten, or a hundred,

Or a thousand years,

There is no inquisition of life in the grave.

§ 20. The Works of God and his Praise.-Ben Sira is full of reverential admiration towards God in his aspect of Creator, and some of his finest essays are devoted to the praise of the divine Ruler and Creator of nature and of man. These I will now put together. In the first of them he passes almost insensibly from Man in general to Israel in particular, and then back again from Israel and his Law to Mankind as a whole.

My son, hearken unto me, and learn knowledge, and give heed to my words with thy heart. I will shew forth instruction by weight, and declare knowledge exactly.

In the judgement of the Lord are his works from the beginning; and from the making of them he disposed the parts thereof. He garnished his works for ever, and the beginnings of them unto their generations: they neither hunger, nor are weary, and they cease not from their works. No one thrusteth aside his neighbour; and they shall never disobey his word. After this also the Lord looked upon the earth, and filled it with his blessings. All manner of living things covered the face thereof; and into it is their return.

The Lord created man of the earth, and turned him back unto it again. He gave them days by number, and a set time, and gave them authority over the things that are thereon. He endued them with strength proper to them; and made them according to his own image. He put the fear of man upon all flesh, and gave him to have dominion over beasts and fowls. Counsel, and tongue, and eyes, ears, and heart, gave he them to understand withal. He filled them with the knowledge of wisdom, and shewed them good and evil.

He set his eye upon their hearts, to shew them the majesty of his works. And they shall praise the name of his holiness, that they may declare the majesty of his works. He added unto them knowledge, and gave them a law of life for a heritage.

He made an everlasting covenant with them, and shewed them his judgements. Their eyes saw the majesty of his glory; and their ear heard the glory of his voice. And he

said unto them, Beware of all unrighteousness; and he gave them commandment, each man concerning his neighbour. Their ways are ever before him; they shall not be hid from his eyes.

For every nation he appointed a ruler; and Israel is the Lord's portion. All their works are as the sun before him; and his eyes are continually upon their ways. Their iniquities are not hid from him; and all their sins are before the Lord. With him the alms of a man is as a signet; and he will keep the bounty of a man as the apple of the eye. Afterwards he will rise up and recompense them, and render their recompense upon their head.

Howbeit unto them that repent he granteth a return; and he comforteth them that are losing patience. Return unto the Lord, and forsake sins: make thy prayer before his face, and lessen the offence. Turn again to the Most High, and turn away from iniquity; and greatly hate the abominable thing. Who shall give praise to the Most High in the grave, instead of them which live and return thanks? Thanksgiving perisheth from the dead, as from one that is not: he that is in life and health shall praise the Lord. How great is the mercy of the Lord, and his forgiveness unto them that turn unto him! For all things cannot be in men, because the son of man is not immortal. What is brighter than the sun? yet this faileth: and an evil man will think on flesh and blood. He looketh upon the power of the height of heaven: and all men are earth and ashes.

He that liveth for ever created all things in common. The Lord alone shall be justified. To none hath he given power to declare his works: and who shall trace out his mighty deeds? Who shall number the strength of his majesty? and who shall also tell out his mercies? As for the wondrous works of the Lord, it is not possible to take from them nor add to them, neither is it possible to track them out. When a man hath finished, then he is but at the beginning; and when he ceaseth, then shall he be in perplexity. What is man? and whereto serveth he? What is his good? and what is his evil? The number of man's days at the most are a hundred years. As a drop of water from the sea, and a pebble from the sand; so are a few years in the day of eternity.

For this cause the Lord was longsuffering over them, and

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poured out his mercy upon them. He saw and perceived their end, that it is evil; therefore he multiplied his forgiveness. The mercy of a man is upon his neighbour; but the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh; reproving, and chastening, and teaching, and bringing again, as a shepherd doth his flock. He hath mercy on them that accept chastening, and that diligently seek after his judgements.

There are several matters in this essay,' which I have given without any omission, that need a little explanation or comment. 'He garnished his works for ever.' More probably, 'he ordered or arranged, he made them into a cosmos, a universe of system and order.' The Greek word is ekosmêsen, the verb of which kosmos is the noun. The 'beginnings' should rather be 'the highest powers of them'; the word seems to refer to the stars that 'rule by night.' 'He set his eye upon their hearts' may either mean simply 'he took care so to dispose their hearts as to make them susceptible to the majesty of his works'; or, 'he set his own discerning capacity in their hearts.' The law of life' is the Mosaic law, and the author here rather incoherently passes away from Man in general to Israel in particular. To him the 'Mosaic' law was the crowning glory of God's relations with man. The true law of life was given through Israel to mankind. Their eyes saw,' &c., refers to the revelation of Sinai. For every nation he appointed a ruler,' &c. This alludes to a curious idea which the Jews of Ben Sira's time had invented with regard to the special relation of God to them. selves. They believed that God had assigned a separate angel to every nation, but that he had reserved Israel for himself. For us this notion is not merely fantastic, but irreligious; for, in spite of all difficulties, we cling and cleave to the belief that God does not 'care' more, to use a very human word, for one race of men than for another. Observe, however, that a most notable feature of the special relation of Israel to God is that their iniquities are not hid from him.' We recall a famous and epoch-making utterance of Amos (Part I, p. 354). At the words, 'With him the alms of man is as a signet,' the special reference to Israel fades away again. Man's 'alms and bounty' is a comprehensive phrase for his good deeds of all good deeds benevolence is the best. God does not forget men's sins, but he still more closely guards and remembers their virtues. But the words from 'With him the alms' down to 'apple of the eye' seem interpolated or in their wrong place, for the next sentence, 'Afterwards he will rise up,' follows on to the words, all their sins are berore the Lord.' Once more we note the sad view of death and its issues. Man is weak and frail (such seems to be the meaning of the perhaps corrupt words, 'all

things cannot be in men') because he is mortal. If even the undecaying sun suffers eclipse,' is it wonderful that evil men follow the desires of the flesh? 'In common' in this place merely means 'universally,' or 'without exception.' This last part of the essay is very touching and fine: the conception of God in his mercy upon all flesh, 'reproving, and chastening, and teaching, and bringing again, as a shepherd doth his flock,' lingers long in our memory.

As to the deeper problems of existence, the author has no philosophical explanation. It is the will of God': this is his reply to every perplexity, and in the last resort there is hardly another or a better even for us to-day. Things seem to go in pairs, thought Ben Sira. Day is set over against night, life over against death, good over against evil. The notion of these pairs seems to give him some pleasure, as all categories and arrangements do to those who observe or invent them. But though he bids us 'thus to look upon all the works of God,' we are hardly brought any forwarder by such divisions. A wise friend has suggested to me that by his theory of 'pairs,' Ben Sira may imply a theory of compensation: what may seem evil to us may have its unseen counterpart of good. And another helpful counsellor suggests that the 'pairs' imply the doctrine that while there is such a thing as absolute goodness (i.e. God), evil is only 'relative.' The word 'relative' has a consoling sound to some, and so far as it implies the teaching that the final drift and purpose of the world are set towards goodness, I too am its disciple. But for us on earth evil is made no whit more shadowy by being dubbed as 'relative.' It is horribly and appallingly real. We can only venture to hope that it may be relative' in the eyes of God.

Why doth one day excel another, when all the light of every day in the year is of the sun? By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished; and he varied seasons and feasts: some of them he exalted and hallowed, and some of them hath he made ordinary days.

And all men are from the ground, and Adam was created of earth. In the abundance of his knowledge the Lord distinguished them, and made their ways various: some of them he blessed and exalted, and some of them he hallowed and brought nigh to himself: some of them he cursed and brought low, and overthrew them from their place. As the clay of the potter in his hand, all his ways are according to his good pleasure; so men are in the hand of him that made them, to render unto them according to his judgement.