But these Jews did it to carry out Moses' command to bind the words of the law for a sign on their arms, their heads and their doorposts.
The writing on these phylactrys is so perfect that you can hardly believe that it is done with a pen. The Jews are extremely careful in copying the oracles of God. They still write copies of their Old Testament Scriptures, and every page must have jest so many lines, and jest the same number of words and letters.
Robert Strong said that this was a great proof of the truth of the Scriptures. Sez he: "Our Saviour said that one jot or tittle of the law shall not fail."
Tommy wanted to know what that meant, and Robert told him that "jot" wuz the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and "tittle" meant the little horn-shaped mark over some of the letters.
And I sez: "I never knew what that meant before." But Miss Meechim said she did--she always duz know everything from the beginning, specially after she's hearn some one explain it. But to resoom: We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many different religious sects come to worship. The place where many think the body of our Lord wuz lain when he wuz taken down from the cross is covered with a slab worn down by the worshippers, and in the little chapel round it forty-three lamps are kep' burning night and day.
But I felt more inclined to think that the place where the body of our Lord wuz lain wuz outside the city where the rocky hill forms a strange resemblance to a human skull, answering to the Bible description. Near there a tomb, long buried, has been found lately that corresponds with the Bible record, which sez: "Now in the garden was a new tomb wherin no man had been lain." There wuz places in this tomb for three bodies, but only one had been finished, and scientists say that no body has ever crumbled into the dust that covers this tomb. Ruins show that ages back an arched temple once covered this spot. But what matters the very spot where his body lay, or from where he ascended into the heavens. Mebby it can't be told for certain after all these years; but we know that his weary feet trod these dusty roads. And as we travelled to Bethlehem and Bethany and Nazareth, his presence seemed to go before us.