“I was told by my own servant and the other Orientals there, that this plea ‘at the gate,’ accompanied as it was by the readiness to ‘kill a sheep,’ was one which no man in Morocco would dream of disregarding. I made some inquiry on the subject afterwards, and found that the habit of sitting at the gate waiting for a man of supposed influence or authority, while absent, to return to his house, often actually accompanied, though less frequently at present, by the slaughter of a sheep, whose blood is poured across the road over which he must pass, was a form used only in cases of dire necessity, and one to which a man with whom other pleas would avail nothing, felt compelled to give attention. I am glad to add that in my own case this ancient rite was not without its fruits to those who had used it.”[164] See the Bible references to this idea. Moses stood “in the gate of the camp,” at a crisis hour in Israel’s history, when he would execute judgment in the Lord’s cause.[165] All Israel was aroused to do judgment against the sinning Benjamites because of the appeal of the dying woman who fell at the door of the house, “with her hands upon the threshold.”[166] Boaz “went up to the gate,” to meet the elders there, when he would covenant to do justice by Ruth and the kinsman of Naomi.[167] Absalom sat in “the way of the gate” when he would show favor to those who came there with their appeals for justice.[168] And when Absalom was dead, David as king was again sitting in the gate.[169] Zedekiah, the king of Judah, was sitting in the gate of Benjamin when Ebed-melech appealed to him in behalf of Jeremiah.[170] Daniel’s post of honor in Babylon was “in the gate of the king,” as a judge in the king’s name.[171] Wisdom, personified, says of him who would seek help where it is to be obtained: “Blessed is the man that heareth me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors.”[172] The Lord’s call to Israel, through the prophets, was: “Establish judgment in the gate,”[173] and “Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.”[174] A reference to a just and righteous man is to “him that reproveth in the gate.”[175] Lazarus in his need is laid daily at the gate of the rich Dives, seeking help.[176] So, again, the poor man who was a cripple from his birth was “laid daily at the door of the temple ... called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple.”[177]