[Footnote 2: Isaiah i. 11, and following. Compare ibid., lviii. entirely; Hosea vi. 6; Malachi i. 10, and following.] [Footnote 3: _Pirke Aboth_, i. 2.] [Footnote 4: _Ecclesiasticus_ xxxv. 1, and following.] [Footnote 5: Talm. of Jerus., _Pesachim_, vi. 1. Talm. of Bab., the same treatise 66 _a_; _Shabbath_, 31 _a_.] [Footnote 6: _Quod Deus Immut._, Sec. 1 and 2; _De Abrahamo_, Sec. 22; _Quis Rerum Divin. Haeres_, Sec. 13, and following; 55, 58, and following; _De Profugis_, Sec. 7 and 8; _Quod Omnis Probus Liber_, entirely; _De Vita Contemp._, entirely.] [Footnote 7: Talm. of Bab., _Pesachim_, 67 _b_.] [Footnote 8: Talmud of Jerus., _Peah_, i. 1.] An exquisite sympathy with Nature furnished him each moment with expressive images. Sometimes a remarkable ingenuity, which we call wit, adorned his aphorisms; at other times, their liveliness consisted in the happy use of popular proverbs. "How wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."[1] [Footnote 1: Matt. vii. 4, 5. Compare Talmud of Babylon, _Baba Bathra_, 15 _b_, _Erachin_, 16 _b_.] These lessons, long hidden in the heart of the young Master, soon gathered around him a few disciples. The spirit of the time favored small churches; it was the period of the Essenes or Therapeutae. Rabbis, each having his distinctive teaching, Shemaia, Abtalion, Hillel, Shammai, Judas the Gaulonite, Gamaliel, and many others, whose maxims form the Talmud,[1] appeared on all sides. They wrote very little; the Jewish doctors of this time did not write books; everything was done by conversations, and in public lessons, to which it was sought to give a form easily remembered.[2] The proclamation by the young carpenter of Nazareth of these maxims, for the most part already generally known, but which, thanks to him, were to regenerate the world, was therefore no striking event. It was only one rabbi more (it is true, the most charming of all), and around him some young men, eager to hear him, and thirsting for knowledge. It requires time to command the attention of men. As yet there were no Christians; though true Christianity was founded, and, doubtless, it was never more perfect than at this first period. Jesus added to it nothing durable afterward. Indeed, in one sense, he compromised it; for every movement, in order to triumph, must make sacrifices; we never come from the contest of life unscathed. [Footnote 1: See especially _Pirke Aboth_, ch. i.] [Footnote 2: The Talmud, a _resume_ of this vast movement of the schools, was scarcely commenced till the second century of our era.]