p.

* * * * *

Rabbi Hunnah said, "He who is proud in heart is as sinful as the
idolater."

Rabbi Abira said, "He who is proud shall be humbled."

Heskaiah said, "The prayers of a proud-hearted man are never heard."

Rabbi Ashi said, "He who hardens his heart with pride, softens his
brains with the same."

Rabbi Joshua said "Meekness is better than sacrifice"; for is it not
written, "The sacrifices of God are a broken heart--a broken contrite
spirit, Thou, oh Lord, will not despise?"

The son of Rabbi Hunnah said, "He who possesses a knowledge of God's
law, without the fear of Him, is as one who has been intrusted with the
inner keys of a treasury, but from whom the outer ones are withheld."

Rabbi Alexander said, "He who possesses worldly wisdom and fears not the
Lord, is as one who designs building a house and completes only the
door, for as David wrote in Psalm 111th, 'The beginning of wisdom is the
fear of the Lord.'"

When Rabbi Jochanan was ill, his pupils visited him and asked him for a
blessing. With his dying voice the Rabbi said, "I pray that you may fear
God as you fear man." "What!" exclaimed his pupils, "should we not fear
God more than man?"

"I should be well content," answered the sage, "if your actions proved
that you feared Him as much. When you do wrong you first make sure that
no human eyes see you; show the same fear of God, who sees everywhere,
and everything, at all times."

Abba says we can show our fear of God in our intercourse with one
another. "Speak pleasantly and kindly to everyone"; he says, "trying to
pacify anger, seeking peace, and pursuing it with your brethren and with
all the world, and by this means you will gain that 'favor and good
understanding in the sight of God and man,' which Solomon so highly
prized."

Rabbi Jochanan had heard Rabbi Simon, son of Jochay, illustrate by a
parable that passage of Isaiah which reads as follows: "I, the Lord,
love uprightness; but hate robbery (converted) into burnt-offering."

A king having imported certain goods upon which he laid a duty, bade his
officers, as they passed the custom-house, to stop and pay the usual
tariff.

Greatly astonished, his attendants addressed him thus: "Sire! all that
is collected belongs to your majesty; why then give what must be
eventually paid into thy treasury?"

"Because," answered the monarch, "I wish travelers to learn from the
action I now order you to perform