us." So they remained on shore until they saw the ship
moving; then in wild haste they swam after it and scrambled up the
sides, but the bruises and injuries which they encountered in so doing
were not healed during the remainder of the voyage. But, alas, for the
fifth party. They ate and drank so deeply that they did not even hear
the bell, and when the ship started they were left behind. Then the wild
beasts hid in the thickets made of them a prey, and they who escaped
this evil, perished from the poison of surfeit.
The "ship" is our good deeds, which bear us to our destination, heaven.
The "island" typifies the pleasures of the world, which the first set of
passengers refused to taste or look upon, but which when enjoyed
temperately, as by the second party, make our lives pleasant, without
causing us to neglect our duties. These pleasures must not be allowed,
however, to gain too strong a hold upon our senses. True, we may return,
as the third party, while there is yet time and but little bad effect,
or even as the fourth party at the eleventh hour, saved, but with
bruises and injuries which cannot be entirely healed; but we are in
danger of becoming as the last party, spending a lifetime in the pursuit
of vanity, forgetting the future, and perishing even of the poison
concealed in the sweets which attracted us.
Who hath sorrow? Who hath woe?
He who leaves much wealth to his heirs, and takes with him to the grave
a burden of sins. He who gathers wealth without justice. "He that
gathereth riches and not by right in the midst of his days shall he
leave them." To the portals of eternity his gold and his silver cannot
accompany the soul of man; good deeds and trust in God must be his
directing spirits.
Although God is merciful and pardons the sins of man against Himself, he
who has wronged his neighbor must gain that neighbor's forgiveness
before he can claim the mercy of the Lord. "This must ye do," said Rabbi
Eleazer, "that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. The
Day of Atonement may gain pardon for the sins of man against his Maker,
but not for those against his fellow-man, till every wrong done is
satisfied."
If a man is called upon to pardon his fellow, freely he must do it; else
how can he dare, on the Day of Atonement, to ask pardon for his sins
against the Eternal? It is customary on this day for a man to thoroughly
cleanse himself bodily and spiritually, and to array himself in white
f
|