Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/32

24 came to pass that I (being now thirty-three years old or a little more) discoursed with a Greek proselyte concerning the Law. He said to me that it seemed to him better to disannul such ordinances as were not convenient (just as a man might prune a too luxuriant vine); and not to say, "I will obey the ordinance, but I will make my obedience the same as disobedience." His words pleased me; but when I reported this saying to some of the Scribes my friends, they with one consent rejected it. Abuyah the son of Elishah said, scoffing at my doubts, "The Law drowneth them that cannot swim." Then said I (repeating a certain saying of the Greek), "But water groweth bad if it be kept long in one vessel." But he straightway put me to silence saying, "Is this likewise the case with the Law? Nay, it is like unto wine which groweth better as it groweth older." Jonathan the son of Ezra also added in a gentle voice, "My son, thou knowest the saying of the Elders, the first of the sayings of the Wise: Be deliberate in judgment, and raise up many disciples, and make a fence to the Law. But thou, O my son, wouldst fain pull down fences. But if we begin to destroy a part of the Law, who shall stay the hand of the destroyer? And in the end we shall be even as the Gentiles, which have no law. Is it not better to be too careful rather than to be too careless? Is it not better to have too many fences rather than to have too few? For to what is the matter like? Even to a man watching a garden. If he watch it from without, it is all watched. But if he watch it from within, the part in front of him is watched; but the part behind him is not watched. Be thou therefore careful to go in thine obedience even beyond the things which the Law requireth at thy hands; and watch the Law not from within, but from without."

There seemed much wisdom in the sayings of Jonathan,