'Serve the King of Babylon, and
ye shall live;' and they also command us to 'seek the
peace of the city whither the Almighty has caused us to be
carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it'
(Jer. xxix., v. 7). The reverence we are enjoined to
testify towards our earthly sovereign is further shown in
our glorifying the Almighty Power for conferring a
similitude of His boundless Majesty upon a mortal. We are
enjoined not to swear against the King even in thought
(Kohelit ch. x., v. 20), and to regard the decrees of the
Monarch as inviolable ('Tract Baba Kama,' p. 112). We are
distinctly ordered not to act in opposition to the King's
laws relating to the customs and excise, _even though the
Israelite be the most heavily taxed_ ('Baba Kama,' 112;
'Pesakhim,' cxii. p. 2; Maimonides, 'Halakhot Melakhim,'
ch. iv., sec. 1; 'Khoshen Mishpat,' ch. ccclxix., sec. 6);
and from the same authority it is incumbent on us to show
the same veneration to those who are representatives of
the monarch as to himself ('Tract Shebuot,' xlvii. p. 2).

"The high esteem in which the Israelite holds every human
being who is distinguished by moral and mental qualities,
is clearly stated in Maimonides, 'Halakhot Shemita
Weyobel,' ch. xiii., sec. 13, and of this the most
striking confirmation is found in the words of our Talmud
('Baba Kama,' xxxviii. p. 1), where we are told that a
Gentile who applies himself to the study of the sacred law
is to be held in equal esteem with the High Priest, which
is likewise declared in the book 'Tana debe Eliyahoo,' in
the beginning of the ninth chapter.

"I had another most gratifying instance of the sound and
clear perceptions which they have of the pure doctrines of
our religion and the traditional commentary to the sacred
Scripture, in the sublime elucidation which they gave to
that most important point in our creed which refers to the
Messiah.

"'We are praying for a time,' said they, 'when the ideas
of mankind at large are to be noble and sublime; for a
time when, as the prophet describes, Gentiles will come to
the light of Zion and kings to the brightness of her
rising (Isaiah lx., v. 3); when nations will fear the name
of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth His glory
(Psalms ch. cii., v. 10; Daniel ch. vii., v. 27).

"Our sentiments are more distinctly stated by the immortal
Maimonides in the followin