Page:Hebrew tales; selected and translated from the writings of the ancient Hebrew sages (1917).djvu/47

Rh prived of the light of day. Ye hands that would not reach him timely relief, Oh! may ye have no more your wonted use. Ye legs that did not quickly run to his assistance, may ye no more be able to perform your usual office. May this body, too, which did not feel compassion for the wretchedness and misery of that lifeless body, feel the affliction it would not relieve.' As I said, so it happened. This, then, is the cause of my misery." The disciples, moved by this sad recital, but still more by their master's dreadful sufferings, exclaimed: "Woe be to us, to see thee in a condition so deplorable!" "It would be much worse for me," replied their heroic instructor, "were you not to see me in this condition." Intimating that he willingly endured his present sufferings, as an atonement for his former sins, in the hope of enjoying, in the next world, that bliss which is reserved for the good and the righteous.

Ta'anit, 21a.

The Seven Ages

are few persons who have not read Shakspeare's beautiful description of the Seven Ages of Man. An ancient Hebrew sage has given us his thoughts on the same subject. His language may not appear so elegant as