hours? What was the hour of noon or twelve o'clock called? What o'clock was the third hour? The ninth? The eleventh? What is the readiest method of harmonizing the Jewish time with ours? Give some examples. How many stated hours of prayer had the Jews? At what hours were they? What hours of our time? What is said about eating and drinking before the hour of morning prayer? How does this explain Peter's language on the day of Pentecost, in reply to the charge, that the disciples were drunken? What is said of the use of the word hour in Scripture? Examples.

3. 4. At what time did the Jews begin their day? What day was the Jewish Sabbath? Did they consider it lawful to heal on that day? Can you give an instance? Luke xiii. 14. Why did the people wait till after sunset before they brought their sick to be healed? When did the Sabbath end? What is said of evenings? What evidence is there named? How did the Jews divide the night in earlier times? What is the passage, - Psalm cxxx. 6? How many watches in the time of the Roman power? Give the hours of each. How is the word day used in Scripture? Give an example. What did Christ mean by Abraham's rejoicing to see his day? What is meant by night and day in Rom. xiii. 12? How do you explain, "Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation"? What is the meaning of Acts xvii. 30, 31 ? How do you understand "the day of judgment" of Sodom and Gomorrah in Matt. x. 14, 15? Explain "the great day of the Lord," "the day of wrath," &c. in Zeph. i.

5-8. What is said of the Jewish week? What was the day before the Sabbath called? What was the week of years? What other week was there? And what followed it? What of the Jewish months? How many days had they? What of their names? What of the

year? What were the two years recognised by the Jews? When did the civil year begin, - and why? What was computed by this? When did the ecclesiastical year begin, and why? What was reckoned by this? Into how many seasons was the year divided? In which of our months did the seed-time come? The winter? The harvest? The cold season? The hot season? The summer? In counting time, how did the Jews reckon parts of times, as days and years? Give an example. Supposing a child were born on the last hour of the day? Is there an eastern custom similar to this, and what? Can you explain by this custom the fact, that Jesus rose on the third day, and yet was said to have been dead three days?

CHAPTER XXI.

Jewish and Roman Judicature.

Arecpagus.

1. JEWISH JUDICATURE. In the early ages of the world, the gate of the town or city was not only the place of trade and business, but also the seat of justice, or the court, where complaints were made, trials held, and sentence passed by the elders of the people, who, in those primitive times, were generally the judges. See Gen. xxiii. 10, 18; xxxiv. 24. 2 Kings vii. 1, 17, 18. Also, Ruth iv. 1-10, where Boaz declares his intention of marriage in the gate of Bethlehem. The palace of Constantinople, or the Ottoman court, is to this day called the Porte, in allusion to this custom of administering justice at the gate of the city. And one of the gates of the Moorish Palace, called the Alhambra, is still known as the "Gate of Judgment." This practice will render intelligible such passages as these,-The wicked "shall be crushed in the gate" (Job v. 4), that is, condemned or sentenced. "The elders have ceased from the gate" (Lam. v. 14); or, justice is no longer done. "Rob not the poor, -nor oppress the afflicted in the gate." Prov. xxii. 22. husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth Prov. xxxi. 23. He

among the elders of the land." is known as an upright judge.

"Her

"Hate the evil, and

love the good, and establish judgment in the gate." Amos v. 15. They turn aside the poor in the gate from his right." v. 12.

2. There was also a court among the Jews, composed of twenty-three judges, who are said to have tried cases of murder, and other capital offences, and to have inflicted the punishment of strangling, beheading, &c. Superior to this, was the famous council of seventy-two elders, or judges, and called the sanhedrin. This was the supreme court, and received appeals from all lower tribunals, its own decision being final, previous to the subjection of the Jews to the Romans. The Saviour alludes to these two courts in Matt. v. 21, 22; the former under the name of the judgment, and the latter of council. In the time of the Roman power, neither of these courts could inflict the punishment of death, the Jews being deprived of that power, which resided in the governor alone. Hence, when Christ was tried by the sanhedrin, and judged worthy of death (Matt. xxvii. 57, 59, 66), they brought him before Pilate, that he might sentence him (xxviii. 1, 2), for, said they, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." John xviii. 81. The stoning of Stephen was the act of a mob, and not the result of a judicial proceeding. Acts vii. 57-59.

8. In matters of common suit, or controversy, it appears that the person aggrieved, or the plaintiff, either himself sent the proper officer to seize the offender and bring him before the judge, or made his complaint to the judge, who sent the officer to

do this. The complaint was then presented, the accused was heard in his defence (John vii. 51), and the case decided according to the wisdom of the judge. In the Old Testament, there is no mention of advocates, or lawyers, every one pleading his own case; but in the New Testament times they appear, and the practice of employing them was probably borrowed from the Romans. Of this class was Tertullus, who was employed by the Jews to plead against Paul. Acts xxiv. 1-8. See also Deut. xxv. 1. &c.; Matt. v. 25, where Christ warns his hearers to avoid lawsuits, and endeavour to settle their disputes privately. John seems to allude to these advocates in his first Epistle ii. 1, where he says, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 4. ROMAN JUDICATURE. In former times, and among many people of more modern times, it was the practice to seek confession of his crime from the accused, by torture. This was strictly forbidden in reference to Roman citizens, to bind or torture whom was unlawful, and was severely punished in any magistrate who was guilty of it. Accordingly, when the centurion had given orders to have Paul bound, and "examined by scourging, that he might know wherefore the Jews so cried against him," and Paul had declared himself a Roman citizen, he was greatly "afraid because he had bound him," for he knew there was a law against such proceedings, and he might be made to suffer for it. Acts xxii. 24-29. Scourging was regarded