ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

"Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? and he was speechless."

11. "At a marriage," says Mr. Ward, "the procession of which I saw some years ago, the bridegroom came from a distance, and the bride lived at Serampore. After waiting two or three hours, at length, near midnight, it was announced, as if in the very words of Scripture, 'Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.' All the persons employed now lit their lamps, and ran with them in their hands to fill up their stations in the procession: some of them had lost their lights, and were unprepared, but it was too late to seek others then, and the cavalcade moved forward to the house of the bride, at which place the company entered a large and splendidly illuminated area, before the house, covered with an awning, where great multitudes of friends, dressed in their best apparel, were seated upon mats. The bridegroom was carried in the arms of a friend, and placed in a superb seat in the midst of the company, where he sat for a short time, and then went into the house, the door of which was immediately shut and guarded. I and others expostulated with the doorkeepers, but in vain. Never was I so struck with our Lord's beautiful parable as at this moment: and the door was shut."

12. Funeral Rites. When death had performed its sad work upon the bodies of their friends, the first duty was to close the eye, and bestow the parting kiss. This was the mournful pri

vilege of the nearest relative or dearest friend; this Joseph performed for his venerable father Jacob, according to God's promise, “Joseph shall put his hands upon thine eyes."

13. The company assembled then rent their garments, as they were wont upon all painful occasions. After this, the face was covered, which it was not lawful afterward to look upon, and the body was bathed and perfumed: thus when Tabitha died, whom Peter raised to life, it is said they washed her body, and laid it in an upper chamber. Acts ix, 37. It was then swathed and shrouded in linen cloths, and the head was bound up with a napkin.

14. The body was sometimes embalmeda process for its preservation discovered and practiced by the Egyptians. It was as follows -the brain was removed, and the cavity of the head filled with strong odoriferous mixtures; the bowels also were taken away, and their place supplied with myrrh, cassia, and other spices.

15. Forty days it was thus embalmed, and then thirty more it lay in nitre, making in all seventy days, during which the mourning continued. After this it was wrapped in bandages of white linen, cemented together with gum, and delivered to the friends entire-all the features, even the very hair of the eyelids, being preserved, and continuing so for even centuries. Thus was the patriarch Jacob embalmed, and the " Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days," or seventy days.

16. There was a more expeditious kind of embalming, in which the body was wrapped up with sweet spices and odors. Thus Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus "took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury." John xix, 40.

17. The common people, as was our Saviour, were interred without a coffin, in their grave clothes. They were often borne upon a bier, somewhat resembling a coffin, to the grave; as was the young man of Nain whom Christ raised.

18. Mourners were hired to wail, and musicians to play plaintive airs, immediately upon the decease of a relative, and to attend also the procession to the grave. Thus was it when Christ went to the house of the ruler Jairus; the minstrels and mourners filling the house with noise and tumult. A mourning feast often followed. Among the Jews their funeral services and mourning lasted a week.

19. Their burial places were outside the walls of their cities: most commonly they were caves excavated in the side of a mountain, the doorway being closed by a heavy stone, as was the hewn sepulchre where the blessed Saviour was laid. These sepulchres were sometimes formed with great care, and rendered very beautiful without-as were the tombs of the kings and prophets. With these Christ compared the Pharisees: beautiful without," but within corrupt.

[ocr errors]

CHAPTER VIII.

SANHEDRIM-INNS-BOOKS.

1. THE Sanhedrim is generally called the council in the New Testament. This institution is not mentioned in the Old Testament, and was not probably founded until the time of the Maccabees.

2. It was composed of seventy or seventytwo members, over whom the priest presided as president, assisted by two vice-presidents. The members were chosen from among the chief priests or heads of the families or courses; the elders, or the head men of the tribes, and the learned scribes. These persons were noted for their high birth, learning, traditionary lore, mature age, competent fortunes, and comely persons.

3. They assembled in a rotunda or circular room, half without and half within the temple. The prince of the council sat upon a throne at the upper end of the room, elevated above the rest, with a vice-president on each side. There were three secretaries, one of whom wrote the decisions in favor of the accused, another the sentence of the condemned, and the third the pleadings of the contending parties.

4. It was the supreme court in all civil and religious matters. Its decisions were final; from them no appeal could be made. Before

this tribunal our Lord appeared to justify his healing upon the sabbath day. Stephen was condemned to be stoned by this council, and Saul commissioned to go down to Damascus and imprison all who believed in the crucified Jesus. Here was Peter arraigned, and his life would have been taken in their rage, had it not been for the advice of Gamaliel.

5. There were other smaller councils besides the sanhedrim. These consisted of twentythree persons, who heard and determined minor and petty causes. To these different courts our Lord alludes when, in his sermon on the mount, he says, "But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."

6. Inns. In the East there are no such places of public entertainment as those known among us by the name of inns. When a person reaches a town, where he has no friends, he seeks accommodation in what are called caravanserais or khans, where ordinarily he can stay as long as he pleases, without payment, being provided only with lodging for himself and beast, and with water from a well upon the premises.

7. The room which he occupies is perfectly bare, and therefore every one who travels takes with him, on his journey, a small carpet or matress of quilted wool or cotton for his bed,

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »