The great characteristic, so far as the present subject is concerned, of this secondary text, or Pharisaic recension,[324] of Ecclesiasticus is that of the closeness of God to those who love Him; personal religion, that religious individualism which did so much to foster spiritual worship, finds true expression here; not that the original writer was wanting in deep piety, in spite of what often strikes one as a somewhat worldly spirit, but as compared with the Pharisaic ideal of the beginning of the first century B.C. it is not surprising to find that the book was considered in some respects wanting, and that it seemed to the more ardent religious temperament of the Pharisees as not sufficiently expressive of the close relationship between God and His pious ones. This may be illustrated by one or two examples of the way additions are made to the original text. In i. 12 Ben-Sira says: The fear of the Lord delighteth the heart, And giveth gladness, and joy, and length of days; but the Pharisee deepens the sentiment by adding: The fear of the Lord is a gift from the Lord, For it setteth men upon paths of love. Another example is found in the addition to xvii. 20. Ben-Sira says: Their iniquities are not hid from Him, And all their sins are inscribed before the Lord; to this the Pharisaic glossator adds: But the Lord, being merciful, knowing also that they are made in His own image, Spared them, and forsook them not, nor cast them off. The closeness of God to those who love Him is again brought out in the addition to xvii. 26^_a_: For He Himself will lead thee out of darkness unto the light of salvation.[325]