THE OLD PATHS THE OLD PATHS, OR THE TALMUD TESTED BY SCRIPTURE; BEING A COMPARISON OF THE PRINCIPLES AND DOCTRINES OF MODERN JUDAISM, WITH THE RELIGION OF MOSES AND THE PROPHETS. BY THE REV. ALEXANDER McCAUL, D.D., LATE PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON; AND LATE PREBENDARY OF ST. PAUL’S. LONDON: LONDON SOCIETY’S HOUSE, 16, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. 1880. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND CHARLES JAMES, LORD BISHOP OF LONDON, ETC., ETC., WHOSE APPROBATION OF HIS LABOURS HAS BEEN AN ENCOURAGEMENT AND A REWARD, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED, BY THE AUTHOR. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. Nine years have now elapsed since “The Old Paths” appeared as a volume. They have been translated, in the meantime, into Hebrew, German, and French; and their merits discussed by the learned and unlearned of the Jewish people, in all the countries of their dispersion. The reception has in general been favourable, and the effect upon the Jewish mind perceptible. Since their first appearance, the West London Synagogue and the Liturgies of the British Jews, both renouncing that which “The Old Paths” pronounced objectionable, have started into existence. The assembled rabbies at Brunswick and Frankfort have discussed topics similar to some treated in “The Old Paths,” and in some cases come to similar conclusions respecting the value of Rabbinic Traditions. The Reform Societies of Germany have commenced a formidable attack upon the Oral Law, and a free discussion is now carried on in the numerous Jewish periodicals of that country, of which the results are easily foretold. The promised German translation of the Talmud, if ever completed, must, without any discussion, overthrow Talmudism. Its exhibition in any European language is the most fatal attack that can be made on its authority. It needs only to be seen as it is, in order to be rejected. The reader is again warned against mistaking this discussion of the merits of Rabbinism for an attack upon the Jewish people, or the rabbies of the present day. The reproach attaches not to the victims, but to the authors of tradition. The Jews are a great and a noble people, and the majority ignorant of the details of the system, by which they have been