Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/519

 what is  good. And what  doth  the  Lord  require  of thee  but  to  do  justly  and  to  love  mercy  and  to  walk humbly with  thy  God? 99 But,  notwithstanding  all this, the  Pharisees  had  gone  on  multiplying  laws,  and surrounding every  trivial  circumstance  of  life  with absurd rules  and  regulations. They were  greatly concerned about  phylacteries  and  fringes,  and  long prayers, and  tithing  of  mint  and  anise  and  cumin,  and hand-washing, etc.,  but  the  weightier  things  of  the law, such  as  judgment  and  mercy  and  faith,  they  neglected. They strained  at  a  gnat  and  swallowed  a camel;  they  made  clean  the  outside  of  the  cup  and of the  dish,  but  not  the  inside;  for  within  they  were full of  rapine  and  iniquity. Such were  the  proud, conceited hypocrites  against  whom  Our  Lord  pronounced  a  woe  and  a  heavy  judgment,  for  that  they neither entered  heaven  themselves  nor  allowed others to  do  so,  nor  moved  with  a  finger  of  their  own the insupportable  burdens  with  which  they  loaded others.

But it  was  on  the  question  of  Sabbath  observance that the  Pharisees  outdid  themselves. In their  hands that simple  precept :  "  Thou  shalt  keep  holy  the  Sabbath day  "  grew  and  dilated  into  twenty-four  long and inconceivably  intricate  chapters  of  the  Talmud. No journey  over  2,000  cubits  in  length  should  be  undertaken, no  meal  prepared,  no  candle  or  fire  lighted, no forbidden  food  greater  than  the  size  of  an  olive partaken of,  no  labor  done  heavier  than  the  lifting  of a  fig.  Then  follows  such  a  mass  of  cases,  suppositions, difficulties,  and  evasions  that  one  wonders  how