In course of time Divine inspiration was taught as belonging to the Prophets and the Hagiographa, to the Mishnah, the Talmud, and even to the Haggadah. A very singular _anticipatory_ revelation was believed to have been made on Sinai to the prophets. In “Shemoth Rabba” we read: “What the prophets were about to prophesy in every generation they receive from Mount Sinai.” The revelation was apparently made to the souls of those about to be created. And so Isaiah is represented as saying: “From the day that the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, there I was and received this prophecy,--and now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent me.”[167] The Talmud conta ins a somewhat similar curious teaching as regards “Miracles”--the course of creation was not disturbed by them, _they were all primarily existing, as well as pre-ordained_. They were “created” at the end of all things, in the gloaming of the sixth day. Creation, together with these so-called exceptions, once established, nothing could be altered in it. The laws of nature went on by their own immutable force, however much evil might spring therefrom. THE TALMUD--ITS STORY THROUGH THE AGES The wonderful Jewish book--the Talmud--cannot complain of neglect or of oblivion. Never has any writing in the whole human history been so hated and hunted down. It has been proscribed and burnt again and again. Before the marvellous compilation was fully completed the Emperor Justinian, in A.D. 553, condemned it by name. Then for more than a thousand years anathemas, edicts of the sternest condemnation, were issued against the Jewish sacred volume which has done so much for the Chosen People. Emperors, kings, and Popes in all lands and in every age have warred against it in each succeeding century. It was forbidden, cursed, often publicly burnt. To give an average example of the spirit with which it was universally condemned by Christians, we would refer to a letter of Pope Honorius IV to the Archbishop of Canterbury (A.D. 1286), in which he speaks of the Talmud as “that damnable Book,” desiring him “to see that it is read by no one, since all evils flow out of it.”