as well as other workmen, were busy in Jerusalem during all those years. The descendants of Herod, who ruled over various parts of Palestine, inherited his taste for building; and they crected many noble buildings, and adorned in various ways the cities in their dominions. Archelaus, Philip, Herod-Antipas, and Herod-Agrippa,

business which, like it, led him who carried it on to have much intercourse with women, was regarded as dangerous to morals. Such occupations were those of the goldsmith, the wool-carder, the dealer in spices, the hairdresser, and such like. A wise man, it was often said, would not educate his son to these trades, for it was placing him in the midst of danger. To this Eastern-all left memorials behind them, in splendid cities, prejudice, which secludes woman from the society of man, our Lord gave no heed. His disciples were surprised that he talked with the woman at the well of Samaria; and no doubt, on other occasions, they wondered that he should disregard the law of the wise rabbis regarding intercourse with women. But women were destined to occupy a place of honour and of service in his Church, which would not have been possible had not Oriental restrictions been laid aside. The pious women who followed Jesus, and ministered to him of their substance, were succeeded by the deaconesses of the ancient Church; and a relationship grew up between the sexes in the Christian community, which was as far removed from the jealous seclusion of Oriental manners, as from the license which this seclusion too often only concealed.

either built from the foundation, or so enlarged and beautified as to render the change of name, which was generally required, not altogether unreasonable. The immediate effect of all this building throughout the land was to make work plentiful, and to give satisfaction to the labouring population; but the nature of many of the edifices erected by the Herods was such as to create serious social discord in Palestine. Herod the Great and his descendants were bent upon introducing into their dominions the amusements no less than the arts of Greece and Rome. A theatre, and an amphitheatre for gladiatorial shows, had been built by Herod the Great in Jerusalem; and Herod- Agrippa spent enormous sums in erecting the same buildings, as well as baths, in Berytus, and in adorning that city with colonnades and statues. We cannot wonder that strict Jews regarded such buildings, and the amusements connected with them, with horror and indignation. A controversy sprung up, in which religious zeal, combined with patriotic feeling, animated one portion of the nation; while others took the part of the Herods, because they were pleased to see Israel looking more like the nations around them. This controversy was still going on in the days of our Lord's ministry, and it is certainly remarkable that he never took any part in it. He probably abstained because, if he had done so, he might have given a false impression to men of his mission and of their own condition. He certainly would not have given his approval to the worldly-minded party, who rejoiced in Greek games and heathen license, and desired to make Israel as one of the Gentile nations; but almost as wide was the gulf which divided him from the selfrighteous zealot, whose zeal for the ancient law made him proud towards God, and cruel towards man. "I thank thee, Lord," said one such zealot, "that thou hast placed my lot among those who visit the house of in

Some occupations were in disrepute among the Jews from accidental causes, simply because those who carried them on had, in some way, won an evil reputation among their fellow-countrymen. "The ass-driver," says a proverb, "is generally godless; the camel-driver generally honest; the sailor pious; the best among the physicians is ripe for hell; the most honest among the butchers is a companion of Amalek." The public sentiment was not, however, altogether consistent; for we find again the ass-driver, the camel-driver, the shepherd, and the shopkeeper all put into the category of rapacious persons. A class of workmen who must have been very numerous in the time of Jesus, and who appear to have been in good repute, were those whose work had to do with building. For many years previously all workmen connected with the building trade had enjoyed good times. With Herod the Great the rearing of large and magnificent edifices was a passion. Cæsarea, with its harbour, its palaces, and its Greek theatre, must have given employment to thousands of workmen for many years. When Herod made known his intention of pull-struction, and not among those who linger in the corners ing down the Temple, and rebuilding it with greater magnificence, the Jews feared that this half-heathen king, with Greek tastes, intended to do away with the Temple of Jehovah altogether, and that his promise to rebuild it was only a blind to cover his real purpose. But these suspicions were unfounded. Herod was in earnest in his purpose to build a magnificent temple to God, whatever may have been the motives with which he was actuated; and eighteen thousand workmen found employment in rearing the structure for which the disciples claimed the admiration of Jesus, and which, as we also learn from the New Testament, was thirty and six years in building. Not only the mason and the carpenter, but the worker in gold, in silver, and in brass,

of the streets. I rise up early, and they rise up early; but I apply myself to the words of the law, they to vain things. I work, and they work; but I work to receive a reward, they work to receive none. I run, and they run; I run towards life eternal, they towards the abyss." The man who spoke in such a strain was probably as far from the kingdom of God as the streetlounger whom he despised, and the worldly Sadducee who rejoiced in the theatres and the games of the Herods. Our Lord stood apart from both parties that he might speak to both the words of truth, and call them to that righteousness which exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees no less than that of the frequenter of the theatres and the games.

In a country so thickly peopled as Palestine was in the days of our Lord, the occupation of many of the people consisted in supplying to others the necessaries or luxuries of life. In Jerusalem especially, which was the great centre of the land, and to which people crowded in vast numbers at certain seasons of the year, this was a common and fruitful source of livelihood. We often feel desirous to have a picture before us of the aspect presented by the streets of Jerusalem during those memorable days when they were visited by Jesus. An eminent scholar, from whose pages we have already borrowed many of the facts and quotations of this article, has drawn a picture of a June day in Jerusalem as it appeared in the latter years of the reign of Herod the Great. Although in one sense a fancy picture, it is founded upon such accurate research that we may regard it as giving a tolerably accurate view of the manners and places which it describes. We shall transfer a part of it to our pages.

"In one of the years of the last decade, before the birth of Christ, according to our reckoning, the whole of Palestine and of Syria was thrown into excitement about the issue of a terrible tragedy. Mariamne, the best loved and noblest wife of Herod, descended from the royal Maccabean house, had already fallen a victim to the dark suspicions of her husband. It had now been brought about, by means of intrigues, that the two sons of the murdered Mariamne-Alexander and Aristobulus —who were the darlings of the people, had fallen under the suspicions of the tyrant as engaged in a plot against his life. By means of intimidation, he had obtained their condemnation without a hearing by a tribunal in Berytus. All the world was now asking whether it was possible that a father would command the execution of his own sons-sons, too, so noble, and assuredly innocent. It is in this time of anxious expectation that we place ourselves, and endeavour to describe a day in Jerusalem.

"It is a working day of the month Sivan, answering to our June. The starry night of the cloudless heaven has given place to the early but long morning twilight. The two detachments of the Temple watch, with torches in their hands, have met one another at the place where the meat-offerings are baked, and have shouted to one another that everything is in readiness. The priests who have been able to spend this night in sleep, have now arisen, and after washing themselves, have put on their official garments. In the freestone chamber, of which one half formed the place of meeting of the Sanhedrim, are arrangements already made for the coming day. The brasen laver, which has stood filled with water during the night, is now drawn forth, and the priests wash in it their hands and feet. Then the first morning summons for the town below is sounded. Priests blow their trumpets, and their tones in the morning quiet are heard alike in the upper and in the lower, in the old and in the new, town.

the Captain of the Guard of the Gates, open all the gates of the Temple. The preparations for the morning service-the central point of which is the daily offering of the lamb now begin. The altar of burnt-offering is cleansed; the faggots of wood, piled upon the glowing coals, kindle gradually; the musicians fetch their instruments, and take them out of their cases; the watch is dismissed; and the Levites and priests, who had been on duty the previous day, are discharged. All this takes place by the light of the torches.

"In the meantime the captain watches for the break of day. Some priests, by his orders, ascend the pinnacles of the Temple. When day has so far dawned that Hebron can be discerned among the mountains on the south-east, the priests on the height shout, 'It is light as far as Hebron;' and immediately the cry resounds, 'Priests to your service, Levites to your posts, people to your positions.' The last call referred to weekly-changed representatives of the people, who assisted at the sacrifice, and passed the night in the Temple.

"In the meantime all is life in the town and around it. In the citadel of Antonia military signals resounded. Under the cedars of the Mount of Olives the stalls of Beth-Hini are opened. In the Temple street, which runs from the citadel place to the western wall of the Temple, we see cattle-dealers and changers of money hastening to the bazaar in the Court of the Heathen, that they may be there before the visitors to the Temple. But also those who have to do with the morning service issue from the Upper Town, through the Xistus Gate, from the New Town, through the Market Gate, and by other ways, to the ascent of the Temple mountain. Specially crowded is the bridge which connects the Xistus terrace with the Temple district. Here and there one remains standing for a little and looks to the left towards the splendid theatre, or on the other side towards the Tyropæum, or Cheesemakers' Ravine, in order to breathe the fresh country air which comes from the dairies of the farms below.

"But all do not go up to the Temple to morning prayer. There are hundreds of synagogues in Jerusalem. Those two fine gentlemen, who are dressed in Greek fashion, and are talking Greek to one another, go towards the synagogue of the Alexandrians. That honest citizen, who carries under his arm his prayer-mantle and tefillin, goes to the synagogue of the coppersmiths, where he pays for his place; while that lady, whose hair bears traces of the art of the hairdresser, and who carries a bouquet of roses, does not mean to hide her costly toilette in the place behind the rails, where the women sit in the synagogue, but is moving with tripping step towards the Temple mount, in order to show herself there in the court of the women. Those going to prayer thus scatter in all conceivable directions; most bear a thoughtful expression; and when two walk together in conversation, they do it with a half-guilty look. A dignified cld man with a long beard and white locks mutters to him"The Levites now, at the word of command, given by self as he passes the theatre, 'I thank thee, my God

and my Father, that thou hast given me my lot among those who frequent the house of instruction and the synagogue, and not among those who find their pleasure in the theatre and the circus.' His wife, who walks along with him, or rather a step behind him, murmurs gently, Amen ;' and looking with tears towards the Tower of Mariamne, says in a whisper, Thou hast overcome; well for thee that thou livest no more, noble Mariamne.'

but the master says to him, 'Bread and pease, you shall have nothing more to eat from me.' There, at the Market Gate, right in the middle of the town, stands the knowing group of ass-drivers, who have had the good fortune to be chosen to transport the bedstead and other articles of furniture, with the indispensable flutes, for an approaching marriage in Bethany. Here is a knot of men, through which one can scarcely pass without hearing some offensive remark. A grave man, with a meditative and somewhat pained expression, passes them. That gentleman,' says one of the ass-drivers, must have had a bad dream; I wonder to which of the twenty-four dream-interpreters he is going?' A surgeon passes through the throng. Good morning, Mr. Surgeon,' says one to him; how does the business get on?' 'A hundred blood-lettings for a penny,' is the reply. A portly scribe, with a copper countenance, pushes an old woman out of his path not very gently. 'Old man, old man,' she screams scornfully, 'how red thou art; either thou art a wine-bibber, or a pawnbroker, or a swine-feeder.'

"The sun has now risen, and the hour of prayer, during which the offering is made in the Temple, has arrived. That Pharisee yonder, who has allowed himself to be surprised in the street by the time of prayer, suddenly arrests his steps, and places the phylacteries on his head and arms. The labourer who finds himself in the fruit-tree with his basket, ceases gathering the fruit, and offers his morning prayer in a natural temple amid the branches. Everywhere is prayer offered. After the morning service, and before it is at an end in the Temple and in the synagogues, there arises the stir of varied life in the great market | and in the New Town. We must not, however, think of the market as a square, with a town-hall: the townball of Jerusalem stood on the terrace of the Xistus; the market was a long broad street, such as we call in our German towns the Long Row,' or the Broad Way.' On both sides are ranged shops, and booths, and stalls fine pastry, made of wheat from Ephraim, about which hucksters are higgling, who intend to sell it at a profit in the more remote parts of the town; cakes made of figs and raisins, which that poor little girl there surveys so eagerly; all sorts of fishes from the Lake of Tiberias, which excite the curiosity of those young students who are going to the school of Simeon, the son of Schetach; ornaments of all kinds, room-decorations, and even false teeth with fastenings of gold and silver wire, are to be had here. Here one calls his grapesyrup, there another recommends his Egyptian lentils as of the first quality, a third has cumin cheap, and drives the pepper-mill. Where the spaces are free from houses, workmen, the nature of whose work allows it, have made the streets their workshop, and are working so diligently that they will not lift their heads even when Hillel or some other learned scribe passes them. Here a shoemaker joins the upper leather to the sandal sole; there a tailor is giving beautiful fringes to a splen-ponding to our backgammon, offer us a place beside did prayer garment; there a smith forms the handle of a sword from Syrian iron. In the less crowded and more shaded side lanes, as in the lanes of the butchers and the wool-carders, work is still more largely carried on in the open street; even flax is scutched in the street.

"The market becomes more lively. From all sides of the gates buyers and sellers, as well as strollers, come. In a corner under the Market Gate, and where the streets meet which come from the North Gate and the gate of the Women's Tower, stand the labourers who work for hire; one is now engaged to work at flax,

"The sun of Sivan becomes ever more burning hot. The crowds disappear from both markets. We also are thirsty, and somewhat hungry besides. What shall we drink? Median or Babylonian beer, or Egyptian zithos, or native cider? In the lane of the wool-carders we have observed a large pitcher standing before a house, and exposed to the sun. There is wine in it; for the sun will cause the wine to ferment. We enter and ask, in order to increase our knowledge of the land, while satisfying our hunger, whether we can obtain a dish of locusts either roasted with meal or honey, or pickled. But how full the place is, and what a hubbub! Before the host has time to answer our question in the affirmative, a coppersmith, whom we know by his leather apron, raising his wine-cup to his lips, shouted to us, Fools, to eat without drinking destroys the blood.' A soldier came towards us and said, 'The sirs appear learned men ;' and when he had said so, he and the coppersmith joined their cups, and shouted until our ears tingled, 'This glass to the health of the gentlemen and their scholars.' 'Ass!' shouted a third; 'what do you know of the learned?' Two quieter personages, who were playing in a corner a game corres

them, which we accept. The noise becomes more and
more frantic as time goes on. One can observe, as an
effect of the despotic government, that even this rabble
is divided into Herodians and liberty men.
'How goes
it with Aleph and Aleph?' asks one, meaning Alex-
ander and Aristobulus. 'Dog,' says his neighbour,
'silence is best spice.'

"It is now about three o'clock in the afternoon. A crowd of people, composed especially of the young, comes running from the direction of the North Gate, and another crowd runs towards the same direction. People ask from the houses what is astir. A biccurim-train, is

It is

the reply, has arrived at the North Gate. The biccurim | ministry of our Lord; but Jerusalem had not changed are the first-fruits of the land, which are consecrated to greatly from what it was in the days of Herod the God, and have to be brought to the Temple. The land | was divided into twenty-four districts; and at a fixed time those who desired to bring the first-fruits to Jerusalem, came together in the chief town of the district, where, without retiring to rest, they spent the night on the streets, in order to be prepared to march in the early morning, when the voice of the captain was heard, saying, Arise, let us go up to Zion-to the house of the Lord our God!' Such a procession had halted before the North Gate, in order that its arrival might be made known in the Temple, and that they might put the first-fruits in order, and form a crown of the most beautiful among them. Already the delegates of the Temple are meeting them,-the representatives of the priests and Levites on duty, and the keepers of the treasures of the Temple,-and already one hears in the distance the joyous notes of the flutes. A better interruption of the mood in which Jerusalem is at present could not be conceived. The Israelitish national feeling, cowed by tyranny, rises again in sympathy with this spectacle, and we feel that it answers better to the mind of the people than the stage-play, the Greek music of the theatre, the gladiatorial combats or wildbeast conflicts of the amphitheatre, which Hercd has given to Jerusalem. Those who come from the vicinity bear in their golden, silver, or willow baskets, fresh figs, and, although it is only the end of June, also grapes; those who come from a distance bring dried figs and other fruits, and on the baskets hang doves with bound wings, destined for offerings. An ox, which is the common thank-offering for all, forms the head of the procession. Its horns are adorned with gold, and on its head it bears a crown of olive twigs. When the procession, amid the sound of flutes, arrives at the Temple mountain, every one takes his basket upon his shoulder. When they come to the court of the men, the Levites sing to the sound of music, saying, in the words of the psalm, "I praise thee, Lord, that thou hast heard me, and sufferest not my foes to triumph over me." The doves hanging upon the baskets are taken to the altar of burnt-offering, and the other gifts which they bring they give to the priests, repeating, as they do so, the words prescribed in the Book of Deuteronomy.* All this takes place at the hour of evening service. A great multitude of men, women, and children have assembled at the Temple, and crowd around the strangers as they pass out. Some find lodgment with relatives and friends, and the others are entertained by the people of the town."+

The scene thus depicted, with we believe as great approach to accuracy as is possible at this distance of time, belongs to a period somewhat earlier than the

Deut. xxvi. 2, 3.

Handwerkerleben Zur Zeit Jesu. Ein Beitrag Zur Neutestamentlichen Zeitgeschichte, von Franz Delitzsch, Erlangen. 1868.

Great, when Jesus visited it. The same scenes were to
be observed in its streets; nor had the political parties
and social controversies which divided the people
greatly altered, although a foreign governor had sup-
planted the king whose foreign tastes and sympathies
had been so distasteful to the true Israelites.
certainly remarkable, as we have said already, that
Jesus should here so consistently have avoided taking any
part in the political and social controversy going on around
him. The admirer of Greek buildings, and the frequenter
of Greek and Roman games, could not, certainly, claim
him as an advocate; but the stern denouncer of all these
things, and the praiser of the olden times, could with
as little truth regard Jesus as his partizan. No word
ever dropped from his lips which would entitle us to
say that Jesus regarded Roman rule as a usurpation, or
that the introduction of Greek civilization and amuse-
ments was likely to destroy the faith and morality of
the people. In the apparent unconcernedness with
which our Lord looked upon the life of his nation in its
political aspects, his conduct forms a marked contrast
to that of the ancient prophets, who were constantly
delivering messages from Jehovah to his people re-
garding wars, alliances, and all great national concerns.
But when Jesus lived the time was gone by when it was
any longer possible to save Israel as a nation; and his
mission was not to reform Israel, but to form a new
Israel to establish a new kingdom, in which Jew and
Gentile might be safe and blessed, although Jerusalem
was trodden down and the sanctuary of God a desola-
tion. There was a numerous class of men in Palestine
in the time of Jesus to whom we have scarcely as yet
alluded. We mean the learned class, the doctors of the
law. One cannot read the New Testament without
noticing that there were in all parts of Palestine a
number of men who were reputed learned, and who were
looked up to by the people for this reason. The learned
men of Palestine at this period did not give their whole
time to their books. Many of them at least were engaged
in the labours of ordinary life. They were students of
the law and teachers of it, but they were also masons or
carpenters, bakers or shoemakers. This union of study
with manual labour had its origin in the first instance
in necessity, as the presents which the doctor of the law
received from his disciples would not have sufficed for
his support; but there were those among the learned
men who defended it upon the highest grounds, and
maintained that labour was a great safeguard to the
learned man, and that it preserved him from vanity and
sin. Every scholar, they maintained, ought to have an
eccupation by which he might earn his bread, in addi-
tion to his labour in the law, which ought to be a labour
of love. There were some learned men, it is true, who
regarded with disfavour the union of study with labour,
and maintained that it prevented justice being done to
either. "How can a man," says one of the opponents

of manual labour for the student, "who ploughs, or a
man who sows or reaps, while he is doing so, occupy
himself with the law in obedience to the command,
"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; |
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night'? No;
let Israel only truly fulfil the law of God, and the lower
duties which at present fall upon them will devolve upon
others, as Isaiah says, 'Strangers shall stand and feed
your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your
ploughmen and your vine-dressers."" The learned men
of Palestine do not seem to have been preserved from
caste pride by their humble occupations, and the con-
nection into which these occupations must have brought
them with the people. Indeed, they appear rather to
have been peculiarly distinguished by this evil quality.
Their learning was probably not of very profound or
original character. They did not, in Palestine at least,
study to any extent the writers of Greece and Rome;
and as they appear to have acquired their knowledge of

on.

the law and of the opinion of men upon it, not by independent study, but by sitting at the feet of some doctor of the law, their learning was more an echo of traditional opinions than independent knowledge. But if scientific acuteness and clearness of thought were absent, there was abundance of party zeal; and the sects into which they were divided fought their battles with the weapons with which such combats are generally carried Our limits forbid our attempting to give any description at present of the various opinions and controversies which divided their schools. Like the political parties, some stood nearer in sentiment to the ancient law, while others were tinged with the thoughts of the Gentile nations. But Jesus did not find his disciples among the learned adherents of any sect, but among the fishermen of the Lake of Galilee, a class proverbially ignorant and simple, but therefore the better fitted to be the vessels to receive the new revelation.

Apologetics for the People.

BY DR. R. PATERSON, CHICAGO.

VII.

INFIDELITY AMONG THE STAR S.

PART I.

A little or superficial knowledge of philosophy may incline a man's mind to Atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."-BACON.

so willing to employ his gigantic powers in the assault upon Heaven, and able to overwhelm the Bible and the Church under the ruins of former worlds. But now that sceptics have discovered the proofs he gives of the presence of the Almighty on this world of ours, they are getting shy of his acquaintance, and are cultivating the society of some new and juvenile visitors from the chambers of animal magnetism and biology. The same scene will doubtless be acted over again; and these infantile strangers, when able to give distinct utterance to the facts of their developed consciousness, will bear testimony to the truth of God.

HEN sceptics, who are determined not to believe in the Bible, find the historical evidences of its genuineness, authority, and inspiration, impregnable against the assaults of criticism, they turn their attention to some other mode of attack, and of late years have selected their weapons from the physical sciences. The argument thus raised is, that the Bible cannot be the word of God, because it asserts facts contrary to the teachings of science. Of this warfare Voltaire may be considered the leader, in his celebrated attack on the chemical processes recorded in Scripture; in which he exposed himself to the ridicule of all the chemists and metallurgists in Europe, by denying the possibility of dissolving the golden calf: the solution of gold being actually found in every gilder's shop in Paris, and known even to coiners and forgers for hundreds of years before he made this notable discovery. The result was ominous. The whole circle of the sciences has been ransacked for such arguments, and especially has every new dis-school-room, or the editorial sanctum of an unsuccesscovery been hailed by sceptics as an ally to their cause, until further acquaintance has demonstrated that the stranger, too, was in alliance with religion. Thus, when Geology began to upheave his Titanic form, he was eagerly greeted as a being undoubtedly not of celestial, but rather of subterranean, or even infernal origin, and

Such objections to the Bible are very rarely brought forward by truly scientific men. It is a phenomenon, like the advent of a great comet, to find a man profoundly versed in any science attack the Bible. Your third or fourth-rate men of learning attain distinction in this field. An anti-Bible writer or lecturer always has been promoted to that high eminence from the

ful newspaper; or his patients have not sufficiently appreciated his physic, or he has failed in getting a patent-right for his wonderful perpetual motion, or possibly he has enlarged his practical knowledge of science in the laboratory of some western college, and had his head turned by being asked to hear the mathematical