This last mentioned portion of the covenant was well understood by the Jews and acted upon by them, even though they had cringed from obedience to the fullness of the gospel, and were living under a lesser law of bondage and carnal commandments. The manner in which the Israelites received and treated proselytes is certainly not one of the least interesting features of their policy and history, and may here be glanced at, without wandering far from the question under consideration. There appears to have been two classes of proselytes recognized among the ancient Jews. The first, known as Proselytes of Righteousness, or Proselytes of the Covenant, became perfect Israelites, and, according to the Talmud, were admitted to the household of Abraham by circumcision and baptism. The other class were termed Proselytes of the Gate ("the stranger that is within thy gate.") It is said converts of this class were not bound by circumcision and the other special laws of the Mosaic code. It was enough for such to observe the precepts against idolatry, blasphemy, bloodshed, uncleanness and theft, and of obedience, also, to that precept against eating "flesh with the blood thereof." Of this latter class were converts who embraced Judaism for other than the purest motives; for instance, for the sake of a lover, a husband or a wife, to court favor and promotion, or in dread of some calamity or threatened judgment. Such converts were regarded by the Jews of old very much in the same manner as their counterparts are regarded among the Latter-day Saints. Again, the Jews sometimes spread their faith with the same weapons as those with which they had defended it. The Idumeans, after their conquest by John Hyrcanus, had the alternative of death, exile or circumcision offered to them. They chose the latter. The Iturians were converted (?) in the same way by Aristobolus. In the days of Jesus, when the light of truth shone but dimly in the Jewish creed, and the vices of the degenerate Jews had been engrafted on those of the profligate heathen, the Savior cried, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves." (_Matt. xxiii: 13_.)