eave off, for manner's sake,
And be not insatiable, lest thou offend."=

Surely courtesy at the table is one of the things which make life
happy and noble. Truly civilized people do not eat like pigs in a
trough.

As they looked out upon the lives of men what made the wise men most
sorry was the hatred and bitterness which they so often saw between
those who should have been friends. One of their most frequent
teachings was the need for the control of one's anger and for charity
and forgiveness.

="A fool uttereth all his anger,
But a wise man keepeth it back."=
(=Proverbs 29. 11.=)

="He that covereth a transgression seeketh love:
But he that harpeth on a matter separateth chief friends."=
(=Proverbs 17. 9.=)

=Their condemnation of tale-bearing.=--Since the wise men felt so
strongly on this point, it is not surprising that they kept their most
scathing denunciations for tale-bearers and troublemakers. Too often
they saw men who were formerly dear friends passing by each other with
dark looks. Some liar had been sowing his evil seed. If you have
anything to say against a man, the wise men urged, say it to his face.
Don't talk against him behind his back.

="A froward man scattereth abroad strife:
And a whisperer separateth chief friends."=
(=Proverbs 16. 28.=)

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHING OF THE WISE MEN

There came a time, perhaps a century or two after Nehemiah, when the
wise men were the chief moral and religious leaders of the Jewish
nation. The people had lost faith in the prophets, for there were no
more prophets like Amos or Isaiah. And these practical teachers with
their warm sympathy and kind hearts had many true words to speak about
the God of wisdom and of love. The book of Job in the Bible, one of
the greatest books of history, was written by one of these wise men.
It is a story of a man who found God although both his own misfortunes
and also the false ideas of his friends had made him think that God
was his enemy. He found God at last because he was brave enough to
think for himself.

So these teachers gave their pupils the best kind of education. They
too, like the prophets and all the leaders about whom we have studied,
helped to prepare their pupils for the life of loving brotherhood with
God as their common Father, which was the goal toward which all this
history we have studied was slowly but surely moving.

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