positive preCept--o<ra Ilv StXnre ;Va TTOiwacv vfuvo, oiirpwTro, ovTia Kai vfxeTi noielrt avruli— Of the Divine Master."
,,,^"' ";'.i"tever may be said of the precept (Matt, vii, 12) as to its being considered as a fresh discovery in moral science, most cer- tainly Hillel cannot claim the merit of orig- inality in re.spect to it. It existed lon<r h%. tore his time. In the Apocryphal book fobit we read words like those which he used (IV, 15): o fxiaeii, fi,j6evi -noiija,)^ ("Do that to no man which thou hatest"):' and in Ecclus.
SXXI, 15: vdenu rov nStfo^iou U aeainov Kui fnl
TTdi/T) 7rp«7/iaTi <5<ui/oor (i. e. "Judge of the dis- position of thy neighbor bv thvself") An- cient history bears ample "testimony to the existence of this maxim among the ancient Greeks hmg before the time of Hillel. Thus Diogenes Laertius relates that Aristotle be- ing asked how we ought to carry ourselves to our friends, answered, "As we wish they would carry themselves to us." Isocrates who lived four bundled years before the publ lication of the Gospel, said : 'd ncicrxoi^rei- ip' tTtftwi' i^pfia-ta^e tuptu Toii- ciAAoic /ui'; Troierxe
1. e. " We must not do to others that which would cause auger if it were done to our- selves." In its negative form the golden rule of our Saviour, which Locke designates as the lonndaticm of all social virtue, is also found among tlie sayings ofC.mfucius: "What you do not wish done to yourselves, do not do to others:'' or, as in the Conversation.^ (bk. xv ch .xxiii), where it appears condensed like a telegram: Ki su pok iik nk .tie n inq — i. e. "Self what not w-ish, not do to man." ■27: " Therefore whosoever heareth these say-
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ings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wis^e man, which built his house upon a rocU," etc. — I'irke Abot/i, iii, 17: " It. Eliezei- beu-Azariah [d. A.D. S'i] said. He whose knowledge s\irpasses his good deeds may be compared to a tree with many branch- es and a scanty root — every wind shakes and uproots it. But he whose good deeds excel his knowledge may be compared to a tree with a few branches and strong roots: if all the hurricanes in the world should come and storm against it, they could not move it from its place."
Ahdthdi R. Nathan,c.-s.-s.\\, Elisha ben-Abu- ■yah [cir. A.D. 138] said : " A man who studies the law, aud acts in accordance with its com- mandments, is likened unto a man who builds a house the foundation of which is made of freestone, and the superstructure of bricks. Storm and flood cannot injure the house. But he who studies the law, but is destitute of good actions, is likened unto the man who builds the foundation of his house of brick and mortar and raises the upper stories with solid stone. The flood will soon undermine and overturn the house."
From these parallels, wViich could be, perhaps, some- what increased, the impartial critic will make his own inferences. From the nature of the case, it would be impossible to give a parallel to each sentence of the Sermon on the Mount; for, in the first place, it contains many allusions to the manner in which Pharisaism dis- charged the religious duties, and, in the second place, our aim was to give the authority of the parallel pas- sage in order to tix the chronology. The date added to each rabbi is the same as that ti.Ked by the Jewish historian Dr. (iriitz ; and the claim that the New Test, copied the Talmud must accordingly be stigmatized, once for all, as a vain glorification of reformed .Judaism, which, on the one hand, rejects the Talmud as a re- ligious code, but, on the other, makes use of it for con- troversial purposes. (B. P.)
Sermonizing, the act or system of constructing sermons. While other forms of religious address have had their successive periods of predominance, the ser- mon has maintained the rank of pre-eminent impor- tance since the time when our Lord delivered his ser- mon on the Mount.
I. History of the Suhjecf. — The age of the Church fathers was that in which the komihj most prevailed. The mediajval period was that of postils. During both these periods the (piality and character of religions dis- courses greatly declined, and the true idea of Christian preaching became at length nearly lost. To speak in the most guarded manner, it was overshadowed amid the ceremonials of worship and the abounding spirit of worldliness.
The reformers availed themselves of preaching as the means of combating the errors and superstitions into which the Church had fallen. They set themselves diligently to proclaiming the essential truths of God's Word, and by them the sermon was restored to its origi- nal importance. That importance has been so fully recognised in modern times that the sermon has come to be generally regarded as the correlate of preaching it- self. The exhortation and the homily still have a place among religious addresses, but it is not said of ministers of the Gospel that they preach exhortations or homilies. If they preach, in any proper sense, they preach ser- mons. Hence none who regard themselves the subjects of the Saviour's injunctions, " Asye go, preach," "Preach the Gospel to every creature," and of the apostolic pre- cept '■ Preach the Word," can be indifferent as to the best methods of constructing sermons.