Page:Traditions of Palestine (microform) (IA traditionsofpale00martrich).pdf/82

 sepulchre had closed over me. Would it were even so!”

“Alas! we are brethren,” replied Philip: “our lot is cast in the same place, and the days of our years must we fulfil in like sorrow of spirit. But we will endure, even as Job laid his finger on his lips and bowed himself.”

“The latter end of Job was greater than the beginning,” replied Jotham, “and the Lord recompensed unto him for all that he had borne. With us, shall it not be so. Our bones and our flesh decay as if we were already dead, and there is no hand that can heal us. Therefore mourn I that I have lived, and sigh for the day of my death.”

“Let us rather give thanks for the peace of former days.”

“Thou canst do thus, Philip, because thy spirit is not sunk as mine. Thou camest forth but of late; I have lingered here too long. The voices of glad spirits are yet in thine ear; but to me they are as a dream; and the dark thoughts of my heart are alone with me in the night seasons. Thou canst meditate on the teachings of the synagogue, though thy foot shall not again pass the