How Christ said the first mass, By Rev. James L. Meagher, D.D. Part 33.

Sandals

SHOES: VARIOUS FASHIONS AND CUSTOMS. 

From Egypt the Hebrews brought the shoe. Wealthy people of both sexes wore richly ornamented shoes covering the whole foot. Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, and other monuments show that kings wore sandals and shoes before the time of Abraham. Isaias mentions "The latchet of their shoes," 1 and numerous texts of the Old Testament show they were very common. 2
Sometimes they were of cheap material. 3 But noble Hebrew ladies wore elaborate shoes 4 of violet color, 5 with woven greaves coming up almost to the knees. They were worn walking outside the house, but put off at the door when entering Temple or house, following Moses' example, whom God total to put off his shoes when approaching the burning bush. 6 In Jericho's plains Josue took off his shoes at the angel's orders. 7 Fleeing from Absalom, David took off his shoes as a sign of a penance. 8 Wealthy women wore the costly shoes spoken of in Canticles, 9 which God mentioned to the prophet. 10 Judith wore these beautiful shoes, or sandals, when she cut off Holofernes' head. 11 Afterwards brides presented costly shoes to their betrothed.
Poor Jews of Christ's time wore sandals or shoes made of straw, rushes, etc., tied on with strings, and these are the "poor man's shoes," of the prophet Amos. 12 But shoes were generally made of leather, the latter being placed in the street to be trampled on till tanned. You may see these skins in the streets of Jerusalem to-day trampled over by passing people.
Peculiar customs rose. The wife put on and took off her husband's shoes at the door. The widow, whose brother-in-law would not marry her, "Shall take off his shoe from his foot." 13 Servants and disciples dressed and undressed their master's feet, 14 and carried their shoes after them. 15 As a sign of the contract, the seller gave his shoe to the buyer. 16 After the shoes were removed the feet were washed at the door by the wife, child or servant. But if the master wished to honor his guest he did this himself, following the example of Abraham when the angels visited his tent. 17 To go barefooted was a sign of sorrow, of which the prophet says, "Keep thy foot from being bare." 18
God forbade the prophet to take off his shoes as a sign of sorrow, when his wife died, and told Isaias to go barefooted.

VILE PAGAN RITES.

Temple priests always ministered barefooted, and they complained continually of the cold pavements. Thus we see how the shoe figured in Hebrew history.
Some writers hold that Christ went barefooted, others that he wore sandals, still others that he wore shoes. The latter seems the most probable opinion, for he dressed as a noble Jew of his day, and John the Baptist protested he was not fit to loose the "latchets of his shoes." The Jews celebrating the Passover were to wear shoes by order of God himself. 19 This law was strictly followed in the time of Christ. Therefore we conclude that the Lord and his apostles put on their shoes before beginning the Passover. This perhaps is the reason the bishop puts on his shoes in the Church before his other vestments when he is about to pontificate. Sandals and shoes were commonly worn by the early Christians, and Clement of Alexandria 20 severely condemns the men and women who wore highly ornamented ones. 21
The Jews of the days of Christ wore clothes copied from the Temple vestments or followed Greek and Roman styles. They were clothed in many different garments, because of the changes of climate. 22
Why did God order the priests to wear drawers? We must go back to those days when paganism spread over the nations, and to which the Hebrews were so addicted. Every Friday pagan priests and people worshiped the goddess Venus with vile ceremonies, for she was the patron of immodest love. Herodotus writes that every woman of Babylon had to worship her by committing adultery once in her life. There she was called Beltis; in Syria she was Astarte; in Greece Athene, in Rome Venus; but she was known by other names, and unmentionable wickedness was committed in her honor. Going up and coming down the stairs from her altars, her votaries lifted up their clothes exposing themselves. 23 As a protest against these public immoral ceremonies, God told Moses to clothe the Hebrew priests, who had to ascend to the high sacrificial altar, in linen drawers, and the custom
spread among the people and has come down to our day.

THE CASSOCK: ITS COLORS AND STYLES.

The Jews of the days of Christ clothed themselves in a long seamless garment like a cassock, which they called the cutoneth and the Greeks the xiton. 24 Josephus writes that it was made of a single piece of cloth without seams, with or without sleeves, and was closed at the neck with a string. The priests always wore it without seams, and this was the seamless robe of Christ.
A modification of it of fine linen worn next the body became the shirt. Made of wool, covering the person from the neck to the feet it was opened in front, but closed with little buttons and gathered at the waist with the girdle. It was of the same form of the priest's cassock of our time. All men of the Orient wear it in our day, and it has the very same form as the clergyman's cassock.
Rulers wore this garment of different colors. That of the high priest was white, and he wore it all the time, putting over it his priestly vestments. This is the reason the Pope's cassock is white, for he is the High Priest of mankind. Jewish Rabbis still wear a white cassock the Day of Atonement.
The Roman emperor's cassock was of brilliant red and this color is seen in the cardinal's red cassock. Kings and members of royal families wore a purple cassock— purple being the mark of authority and dominion. Hence high officials of courts wore purple. Members of royal families dressed in purple even if their dynasty did not sit on the throne. Christ, being a Prince of the House of David, highest honored of the Hebrew kings, wore this purple garment. He is often represented in art as clothed in a purple robe, the cutoneth or xiton. This is the reason bishops wear a purple cassock, for that was the color of Christ's cassock at the Last Supper.
The Temple priest's cassock was of linen. But laymen wore a white woolen cassock called the simehah. The desert Arabs, who never change, still wear it as an everyday garment. This gave rise to the white alb the priest wears at Mass; it was always put on as a sign of gladness at feasts and when celebrating the Passover. Christ and his apostles, it seems probable, were clothed in it at the the Last Supper. This cassock was worn by both sexes at time of Christ. It was sometimes white or of various colors. It was the nuptial garment mentioned in the Gospel. 25

USEFULNESS OF THE CASSOCK.

Men of the Roman empire wore it covering the whole person. In the middle ages it was cut short coming down to the knees, and became the frock-coat or "Prince Albert" of our day. The buttons in the back were used to fasten on the sword when nearly all men went armed. But although the sword has been laid aside the buttons have remained. The women's cassock became the gown or dress. The women of the Orient still wear it, having over it a skirt which they raise up and cover their head and upper part of the body with it when they appear in public. 26
To shield the shoulders from the fierce desert sun they let the ends of the turban fall down on the back behind. You will find the sons of the desert still wearing the garment falling down that way. The desert heat is so great, and the sunlight reflected from the dry sands so piercing, that the skin would be blistered if not shaded. This is seen in the Scotch cap, sailor hat, and perhaps bands of bishop's miter.
They came to feast with head and upper part of the body protected that way. 27 It was a relic of the patriarchal period, when their fathers, as shepherd sheiks, pastured their flocks on the borders of the desert. The Hebrews celebrating religious, civil, and family feast wore it on their shoulders. After the banquet they took it off. 28 Rulers and wealthy persons wore these amices made of costly materials.29 Sometimes it was made as large as a tunic, and covered the upper part of the body to the knees. This was the origin of the amice.
When the cincture was first used Ave know not. We first find it in the consecration of Aaron's sons to the priesthood. 30 In the house the Hebrews in the days of the Kings laid it off and put it on when they went out. But by lapse of time the Jews wore it all the time. 31

GIRDLE AND ALB DISTINCTIVE VESTMENTS.

They wore two kinds of girdles in Asia, one was a sash about six inches wide, which was fixed with a clasp in front the ends hanging down. It was of leather, 32 wool, linen, or other material. John the Baptist was clothed with a tunic of camel's wool bound up with a leather girdle, such as you see today worn by the Bedouin of the deserts. The wealthy wore girdles of wool, linen, or costly material, sometimes of silk woven, embroidered and tied in front or at the side. 33
Women wore the girdle fastened in front with a buckle, brooch or other ornament, 34 often they were made of costly material. 35 Being wide the folds served as pockets. Arabs stick swords, daggers, etc., in the girdles. 36 These vestments can be seen in the sculptured figures on the great platform of Persepolis where stood the palaces of the great Persian kings before Alexander conquered that country. The girdle survives in the waistbands and belts women wear in our day.
The priestly girdle called the Abnet was a linen band three fingers broad, very long, with tassels adorned with various colored embroidery work. 37 Wound around the body during his ministry, the priest threw the ends over his shoulders as the clergymen of the Oriental Rites still do. 38 Josephus says "the ends were tied in a knot in front, and hung down to the feet,'' as the celebrant ties the girdle in our day. The men of Palestine still wear the girdle wound around their waist many times.
Girdle and alb are fundamental religious vestments of earth and heaven. The beloved apostle saw the Son of God thus clothed. "And in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about near the paps with a golden girdle." 39 "And the seven angels came out of the temple having the seven plagues, clothed in clean white linen, girded about the breasts with golden girdles." 40 The Church, Bride of the Lamb, thus clothes her clergy at her altars as she is vested in heaven. "And to her it hath been granted that she should clothe herself with fine linen glittering and white. For fine linens are the justifications of saints." 41 Thus all down the ages the white vestments represent the purity and innocence of those who minister at our altars.

TUNICS: HOW THEY WERE WORN.

The tunic called in Hebrew chaluk or kethoneth, in Greek chiton is found first in history as the garment of skins God made for Adam and Eve after the fall. 42 When weaving was invented, it was made of woven wool or linen and bound round with a girdle. The Temple priest's tunic was woven without seam, worn next the skin as a shirt, covering the linen drawers and flowing down to the knees. The shoes they wore in Moses' day were laced up to the knees, and youths of both sexes wore long tunics failing to the ground like a priest's cassock. John's Greek Gospel says Christ wore a tunic which he calls the xiton, which was under the seamless garment. 43
The first tunics had no sleeves, but soon short ones were added, and later they were made to cover the arms to the wrist. Babylonians, Persians, Jews, etc., wore the tunic as a shirt, and over it another garment of more costly material like a cassock. 44
Rabbis, leaders in Israel and wealthy people of Judea wore two tunics, the inside one serving as a shirt. The over tunic was called the sarbalin. We find no record, but it seems reasonable to suppose, that Christ conformed to this custom and wore two tunics at the Last Supper, for four times the Gospels mention the two tunics translated "coats." This is perhaps the reason that the bishop wears two tunics when pontificating. The inside vestment is now called the tunic and the outside one the dalmatic, because the Dalmatians wore the latter as a national distinctive garment. 45
Over the two tunics they wore a large flowing square garment called the Talith in Hebrew, or Imatian in Greek. It was one of the oldest garments worn by man, and is pictured on the monuments of Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, etc., as a priestly garment the kings vested in when offering sacrifice.

THE TALITH OR GREAT CLOAK.

Wealthy and noble Jews wore it five or six feet wide and it hung down behind forming a train. At the neck it was fastened with a clasp. In fine weather the front ends were thrown back over the shoulders and hung down the back, these being called wings. 46 Often they threw the two front angles or corners over the left shoulder, and carried the trail on the right arm.
This garment was worn by the Hebrews when leaving Egypt, and we read that they carried the dough of the Passover in their cloaks. 47 The folds of this great mantle or cloak, were often used as a pocket. 48 The poor rolled themselves in its ample folds, folded up their girdle, laid it on a stone to serve as a pillow, thus they slept either on the floor, or on the ground outside—a custom still followed in Palestine and other parts of Asia. For this reason God forbade money-lenders to keep this garment overnight when pledged for a loan. 49 "But thou shall restore it to him presently before the going down of the sun, that he may sleep in his own raiment." 50
In the translations of the Old Testament, this garment is rendered by the words cloak, mantle, vestments, etc., and is mentioned hundreds of times. At the time of Christ money-lenders got around the law by taking the tunic as a security. 51
This great cloak, or cope, changed in size and shape by the lapse of time, so that when Christ walked the earth and wore it, it had become the Meil, a garment falling to the knees with holes for the arms and head.
Formed of two parts covering the back and breast, it was fastened on the sides with clasps of gold adorned with jewels. 52 Later, sleeves were added to the garment. Although it belonged to the high priest, by lapse of time noble and famous men wore it. 53 Ezechiel mentions it ornamented with embroidered work. 54 The vestment was worn in the days of the prophets, for Daniel says a modification of it was used as an inside shirt, and the sculptures of Babylonia prove his words. 55
This was the prophet's mantle the Hebrews named the talith, the Greeks the imatian or elisus. It was a great cloak falling from the shoulders to the ground, and covering the whole person like the cope worn at vespers. 56

EMBROIDERY AND DECORATION OF VESTMENTS.

This was the sign of the prophetic office of these seers of old who went before the Lord clothed in this garment often made of skins, wandering over Judea, pouring out burning words of the Holy Spirit relating to the Redeemer of whom the world was not worthy. 57 With it Elias, "My God is Jehovah," divided the waters of the Jordan. 58 Often it was made of sackcloth as a sign of penance. 59
Did Christ wear this prophetic cope at the Last Supper? It was the border of his imatian the woman touched when she was healed. 60 The sick touched his imatian on the shores of Galilee and were cured. 61 In the transfiguration his imatia, translated vestments, became white as snow. 62 When they got through mocking him after the flagellation they put on him his imatia 63 the very vestments the soldiers divided among themselves on Calvary. 64
The Prophet's talith, or in Greek imatian, modified became the Greek sindon, which wealthy Hebrews wore as a large over-tunic often mentioned in the Old Testament 65 and in the Greek Gospels. Often made of fine linen it was worn next the body by the wealthy as a night shirt, and became the shroud. It was the great grave-cloth in which the wealthy Nicodemus and Joseph wrapped the body of the dead Christ. 66
According to the custom of a noble Jew celebrating the Passover, Christ put on this Prophet's mantle, in Latin the Pluvial, in Greek the imatian, in Hebrew the Taleth, 67 its four corners being covered with embroidery called Ciccilh, "Fringes," to remind them of the Law of Moses. "Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt tell them to make to themselves fringes in the corners of their garment, putting in them ribbons of blue. That when they shall see them, they may remember all the commandments of the Lord." 68 This was the origin of the embroideries and decorations of Church vestments. These decorations on our vestments represent Christ, his Passion, etc., to remind the people of the crucifixion, and religious truths.

ORIGIN OF THE STOLE.

This great garment covered the whole person, like a cloak, and was ab0ut the shape and form of the cope. In this form it is still worn by the Greek, Russian, and Oriental clergy as a chasuble. This was its form in the early Latin Church. The deacon had to lift up the garment so the celebrant could put out his hands. But about the twelfth century they cut the sides, because they did not always have a deacon to serve Mass. That has been the form of the chasuble till our day. But as a remnant of the deacon holding up the great chasuble, the altar boys and the ministers at Mass still hold up the chasuble when incensing the altar and at the Consecration. The tunic and dalmatic tied or pinned up during Lent are a survival of that custom of the middle ages.
The people, especially the women of that time, wore a garment like a cloak the Greeks called the Stole and the Romans the Stola. 69 The front was an ornamental band adorned with embroidered work. They often sent this band to friends they wished to honor, who sowed it on their stole. By lapse of time, and because they wore so many other vestments, this band was worn alone and became the stole. As the Hebrews wore this at the Passover and feasts, it came to pass that the clergy of the early Church always wore it during religious functions. This is the stole of today which the higher clergy wear in their ministry.
In the Syro-Chaldaic spoken by the common people of Christ's day it was the Arbah Canphoth, "The Four Corners." According to the words of God to Moses it also had fringes. "Thou shalt make strings in the hem at the four corners of thy cloak." 70 The "fringes" or "strings" called ciccith or Zizith were to remind them of the Law. For that reason they were first of blue, the color of the covenant between God and Israel. Later Talmudic writers allowed them to be made of white cloth. 71 These had an influence on the embroideries, ornaments, and figures of our vestments. 72


1 Isaias v. 27.

2 Jud. x, 4; Matt. iii. 11, x. 10; Mark i. 17; vi. 9; John i. 27; Migne, S. Scripturæ iii. 918.

3 Amos ii. 6.

4 Jud. x. 3.

5 Ezech. xvi. 10.

6 Exod. iii. 5.

7 Josue v. 16.

8 II. Kings xv. 30.

9 Cant, of Cant. vii. 1.

10 Ezech, xxiv. 23

11 Judith x. 3, xvi. 11.

12 Amos ii. 6.

13 Deut. xxv. 9; Isaias xx. 2.

14 Mark i. 7.

15 Matt. iii. 11.

16 Ruth iv 7, 8.

17 Gen. xviii. 4.

18 II. Kings xv. 30; Jeremy ii. 25; Ruth iv. 7, 8.

19 Exod. xii. 11.

20 In Padog. Book II., Cap. ii.

21 See Migne, S. Scripturæ ii. 1153, 1157. 1158; iii. 918; Edersheim, Life of Christ, i. 624, 626, gives a description of the clothing Christ wore.

22 Geikie, Life of Christ, vol. i. pp. 151. 152, 171. 180, etc; Migne, Cursus Comp. S. Scripturæ, vol. iii. p. 1025, etc.

23 Geikie, Life of Christ, i. 26. etc.

24 Farrar, Life of Christ, II., 281; Edersheim, Temple, p. 73.

25 Matt. xxii. 11.

26 Benedict XIV. in his great work, De Missae Sacrificio, Book I., Cap. vii. to Book II. elaborately treats of the vestments and their mystic meanings.

27 Gen. xxvii. 27; Psalm xlv. 9; Cant. of Cant. iv. 11.

28 Ezech. vii 20

29 IV. Kings v. 5; Matt, x. 10; James v, 2.

30 Exod, xxix. 8.

31 See Migne, S. Scripturæ, iii. 908.

32 IV. Kings i. 8.

33 Jeremy xiii. 1.

34 Cant. vii. 3.

35 I. Kings.s xxv. 13; II. Kings xviii. 11, etc.

36 II. Kings xx. 8.

37 see Migne. iii.908.

38 Exod. xxviii. 8, xxxix. 29

39 Apoc. i-13.

40 Apoc. xv. 6.

41 Apoc. xix. 8.

42 Gen. iii. 21.

43 John xix. 23.

44 Prov. xxxi. 21; Matt. x. 10; Luke ix. 8; Mark vi. 9.

45 Benedict XIV. De Sacrificio Missæ, C. vii. n. 6; Migne, Cursus Completus, S. Scripturæ, v, iii. 1250.

46 Aggeus ii. 13; Zach. viii. 23; II. Kings xv, 20.

47 Exod. xiii. 34.

48 IV. Kings iv. 89.

49 Exod. xxii. 26.

50 Deut. xxiv. 18.

51 Matt. v. 40.

52 Exod. xxviii. 6,7, etc.

53 Job xxix. 14; I. Kings xviii. 41; I. Kings vi. 14.

54 Ezech. xxvi. 16.

55 Dan, iii. 21.

56 Geikie. Life of Christ, i. 180. 549.

57 Heb. ii. 36, 37.

58 B. C. 896. IV. Kings ii. 8.

59 Zach. xiii. 4.

60 Matt. ix. 20, 21.

61 Matt. xiv. 36.

62 Matt. xvii. 2.

63 Matt, xxvii. 21.

64 Matt, xxvii. 35.

65 Judges xiv. 12; Prov. xxi. 24; Isaias iii. 23.

66 Luke xxiii. 53.

67 See Geikie, Life of Christ, i. 567 aud ii. 386.

68 Numb. xv. 38, 39.

69 See Geikie, Life of Christ, i. 508.

70 Deut. xxii. 12; Numb. xv. 38.

71 Talmud, Mem. iv. 1.

72 Geikie, Life of Christ, i. 180.

How Christ said the first mass, By Rev. James L. Meagher, D.D. Part 31.

JEWS LEAVE BEQUESTS FOR PRAYERS.

Prayers to the Saints in Church services were copied from the Jewish Church at the time of Christ.
The New York Ghetto has many queer trades, one of them being the saying of the Kaddish for the repose of the souls of the dead. Sons or members of the family say them morning, afternoon and evening, every day for a year after the funeral, as long as a male member of the deceased lives. The Kaddish must be recited in a congregation of minyan "ten or more men" in synagogue, or house. If no male issue survives, a professional band of Kaddish prayers are paid to say the prayers.
Often Jews on their deathbed make provision by leaving money for "a Kaddish of their own," as Christians leave bequests for Masses for their souls. Usually a friend of the sick is appointed to see that these prayers are said, and he is specially remembered in the will. This provision for prayers for the repose of the soul is the pious wish of every Jew.
The professional Kaddish sayers, called "batlonim" are mostly beggar students of the Torah and Talmud, wishing to become Rabbis, law students or enter the learned professions, but who have not the money for their education, and take this means of continuing their studies of the Laws of Moses, their "dear bride."
There is no fixed stipend and they offer their services to the family not blessed with sons, during the time of mourning, and agree to pray the soul of the dead from purgatory into Paradise. These prayers have come down in Judaism from far beyond the days of Christ, and on them was founded the Masses, stipends and prayers for the repose of the dead.
Nov. 23, 1905, it seemed that almost the whole Jewish population of New York turned out in a vast procession through the streets of the east side, to mourn the massacres of their brethren in Russia. The streets for blocks around the headquarters in Grand Street were filled, fairly packed, with one mass of surging, pushing, gesticulating Hebrew humanity, as four men passed through bearing on their shoulders an empty coffin, covered with a black velvet silver embroidered pall, typifying the dead, as the catafalque does in our churches at a requiem Mass, when the body is not present. This is one of the oldest of the Jewish ceremonials coming down from Moses or the kings. These prayers lived side by side in both the Christian and Jewish faiths whose members were often hostile in the middle ages.

MOURNING CEREMONIAL.

All branches of the Semitic race were well represented. Jews from Germany, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Spain, and countries of the Orient were there, crowding sidewalks, massing in the middle of the streets, mounting steps of business and private dwellings—all united in heart and mind, as every tongue uttered the prayers for the repose of the souls of their murdered Russian brethren.
Patriarchs with velvet skull-caps, waist-long white beards, every hair of which was precious, shoved and talked with younger generations, with women with wigs and shawls showing their widowhood, with girls be-plumed, products of the sweatshops, and with young men born in freedom, who hardly showed the Jewish features.
But the bearing of the vast crowds was different, from that which usually turns out for a parade. There was no laughter, no jokes were heard, no good-natured nudging as they marched, headed by black flags, red union banners, each wearing black badges on their arms, or draped in deep mourning. They went four abreast, stretching along five blocks, moving like a vast human flood, soon swelling into a mighty stream, filling the streets as though they would mount the high walls of buildings, through which they passed as through a canyon.
In mournful music they sang the dirge of sorrow and prayers for the souls of the dead, accompanied by bands of music. As the sound of the band reached ahead, windows would go up, women with heads covered with black mourning prayer shawls would appear, hold up their hands with distorted faces, eyes filled with tears, and mingle their cries with the vast crowds in the streets. From the heart of every Israelite came the cry: El Male Rachnin, "God have mercy on their souls," repeated over and over again.

ORIGIN OF OUR WEDDING CUSTOMS.

When they came to a synagogue, the whole procession stopped before the crowded steps. In the place reserved, the Rabbi, and lending men of the congregation, led in prayer for eternal rest for the departed, part song, part chant, part wail: "God have mercy on their souls:" "God have mercy on their souls:" "God have mercy on their souls." The band struck up the Kim Allel Eclun, "the mourning song of Solomon," and they began over again the touching prayers for the repose of the dead. They stopped for the longest time before the Beth Hamedrish, "The House of Prayer," the synagogue where the famous Rabbi Joseph used to preach, that leader in Israel most learned in the Talmud, whose funeral produced almost a riot against the Jews. There the men and women sang in separate ranks, for they do not think it seemly for the sexes to mingle in divine worship, even in our day. It was a weird chant the singing made. The differences in tone and pitch met in the middle, and made a half gruff, half shrill, wholly strange sound, that rose and fell, swelled and diminished in a cadence, as different from the Christian choir, as Arab singing. We have given this incident of our day, with customs of the ancient synagogue, to show that in all his history the Jew prayed for the repose of the souls of his dead, and that from him the Church fell heir to that doctrine, the human heart cry for the dead we loved in life, which has been, perhaps, the most attacked.
Now let us see the origin of our wedding customs and the nuptial Mass.
The Talmud forbade marriage in the case of a male under thirteen years and a day, and in the case of a girl under twelve years and a day. Wednesday was the day of the betrothal of a virgin, and Thursday of a widow. 1 Modern Jews appoint Wednesday and Friday for the former, and Thursday for the latter. The parents choose the wife for their son. Modern Jews often employ a matchmaker, a schachun who acts as a friend between the parties. 2
Consent of bride and parents having been obtained, the betrothal followed. This was not like our "engagement," but a very solemn and formal agreement ratified by presents to the bride called mohar, the word occurring thrice in the Hebrew Bible. 3 Her father gave her a dowry, which after the Captivity was bestowed by a written ketubah, "a writing," which dowry her husband controlled.

HEBREW WEDDING RITES.

The betrothal, called by the Romans the espousal, was celebrated with a great feast, where the groom placed the wedding ring on her finger, as a token of fidelity and of adoption into his family. She was now regarded as a wife. 4 If she was unfaithful, among the Hebrews before her father's house she was stoned to death, 5 but the man could put her away by quietly getting rid of her, if he did not want to have her killed. This is what Joseph thought of doing when he found the Virgin with child. 6
The essence of marriage was in the removal of the bride to her future home. This was a great public ceremony. The bridegroom clothed himself in his festive dress and put on his head the handsome turban the prophet calls the peer 7 formed like a crown. 8 Myrrh and frankincense was offered before him, or he was incensed by a servant as the clergy are incensed at a high Mass. The bride prepared herself the day before with a bath, 9 robed herself in her bridal garments, and a little before the appointed time covered her whole person with the bridal veil called the tsa'iph; the Romans called it nubere, "to veil," whence covering not only her face, but her whole person 10 it was a sign of submission to her husband. The Greeks called the bridal veil exoysia, "authority." She bound up her waist with a costly sash called the kishshurim, "the attire," which Romans named zona. On her head she placed the callah, "bride," a crown of pure gold, or gilded if the family was rich, but of orange blossoms if the family was poor. After the destruction of the Temple under Titus, in A. D. 70, this gold crown was forbidden as a token of humiliation.
If the bride were a virgin, she wore her hair hanging down her back; 11 but a widow tied up her hair. The virgin's bridal robes were white, often embroidered with gold thread, a widow was dressed in colored garments and the ceremonial was short and simple.
When the hour fixed arrived, usually late in the evening, the bridegroom came to her house attended by his groomsmen, called in Hebrew mere'im, waited on by his paranymph, we now call his "best man," and preceded by a procession, surrounded by a band of musicians and singers, with men bearing torches, they went to the bride's home, who with her virgins waited for them. Bride, parents and friends, with the bridegroom formed a great procession, and with music and song they marched back to the groom's house, near which a party of virgins, ten with lighted lamps, met them in the street and all marched to the house. 12 At the house they held a great feast, all the friends of both families attending, each guest having on a white wedding garment. 13 If she was a virgin, parched wheat and grain was distributed, the origin of rice at our weddings, as a sign of prosperity and happiness for the couple. The festivities lasted for seven days sometimes for a fortnight, but in the case of a widow for only one night.

ORIGIN OF THE BISHOP'S RING.

From the Hebrew wedding we copy the bishop's ring, for he is wedded to his diocese, the orange blossoms, the bridal veil, the nuptial Mass, the blessing of the bride. But the widow is not blessed at her second marriage. Among the Oriental Christians the bride and groom wear metal crowns during the wedding ceremonies.
The wedding feast was very elaborate in wealthy families, the ceremonial and etiquette being the same as at the feast of unleaven bread.
Moses made a covenant, the Old Testament, between God and the Israelites, who broke that covenant when they fell into idolatry under their Kings. But the prophet foretold that, "the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, the covenant which they made void," etc.14 Moses made the covenant with blood of animals, foretelling the New Testament, the covenant made with the blood of the Victim of Calvary, 15 "of the New and eternal Testament the mystery of faith." The Greek text says, diathekn,"in his blood." "And they shall not break bread to him that mourneth, to comfort him for the dead, neither shall they give them to drink of the cup to comfort them, for their father and mother." 16

MASS SAID AT NIGHT IN APOSTLES' DAY.

"Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will profane my sanctuary the glory of your realm." 17 At Christ's death the Old Testament passed away, the New had begun. The synagogue was rejected, the Church was established on Pentecost.
The Lord broke the Eucharistic bread to the doubting disciples at Emmaus and only then they knew him. 18 The apostles went forth from house to house, breaking the Eucharistic bread of the Mass with prayers; 19 "continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house, they took their meat with gladness and simplicity of heart." 20 "On the first day of the week when we assembled to break bread," 21 "going up and breaking bread and fasting." The Greek words of the original, "eulogia" and "eucharistia" show that the breaking of bread was the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass. The first word, eulogia, "praise," shows that they began with the synagogue praise and prayers, following Christ's example at the Last Supper, and finished with the consecration and the distribution of the Eucharist. 22
Following the example of the Last Supper, the meetings were held in the evening, in the synagogues, on the Sabbath, and the instructions took up the time till after midnight. 23 Psalms and Prayers of the synagogue were sung, the members of the infant Church saluted each other with a holy kiss. 24 St. Paul mentions four times 25 the kiss of friendship and of love, a Hebrew custom continued in the Church, and was the origin of the ceremony of the "kiss of peace," the clergy give during Mass.'' 26
The apostles following the Lord's example went into the synagogues in all the lands where Jews were found, and preached first to the Hebrews. As the synagogue the Sabbath service on Saturday was the best attended, they preached that day, and in the evening said the Mass. The services were protracted into the night, and later Mass was said in the early morning hours of Sunday. Whence, in apostolic times, Sunday took the place of Saturday of the Jew's. When at last the Church broke with the synagogue, it was called the "Lord's day," in memory of the resurrection and of the corning of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost Sunday. 27

DISPUTES BETWEEN CHRISTIANS AND JEWS.

Thousands of candles lighted the Temple courts, lights burned in synagogues during services, numerous lights you will find in the synagogue of today as candles illuminated the Cenacle during the Last Supper; "and there were a great number of lamps in the upper chamber where we were assembled," says the Acts. 28 Mass being said at night in the Apostles' day, candles burned on the altars. The candles burning on our altars came down, not from the catacombs, as some writers hold, but from Temple, synagogue and Last Supper.
This synagogue service—singing Psalms, reading the Law and the Prophecies before the Eucharistic Sacrifice, developed into the Matin-Lauds with their Psalms, Nocturns, "By night," prayers, versicles, responses, vespers and offices of our breviaries. The peculiar divisions and arrangements show they came down from the apostolic age. The Last Supper began with the synagogue services which Avere always said at night before beginning the Passover feast, and this is the reason of that ancient custom of saying the office, as far as Terce, before saying Mass.
Many were the disputes between Christians and Jews regarding the Crucified; at last the synagogue excluded the apostles, who then went to the homes of converts. They found that the synagogue service would not do for the Eucharistic sacrifice. New elements, the Divinity of Christ, the Real Presence, the sacramental system, and numerous other truths had been added to Judaism.
On the Liturgy of the Last Supper they founded new Rites—Liturgies of the Mass which were handed down by word of mouth till they were later written down. These were in the languages of the people. Oriental Christians claim that their Liturgies have come down to us unchanged from the apostles. Numerous Hebrew terms they incorporate into these Liturgies, as, "Amen;" "Let it be so;" Alleluia, "Praise Jehovah;" Hosanna, "Save, I beseech thee;" Sabaoth, "Hosts;" "The Lord be with thee," "Peace be to thee," etc.


HOW THE FIRST CHURCHES WERE FOUNDED.

We have shown how the Holy Ghost wrote a religious truth in every object and movement of Temple and Passover worship. The Passover Liturgy and ceremonial were loaded with type image and symbol of the Messiah, his Passion and of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. When the apostles founded the Liturgies of the Mass, they followed the lesson God gave in the Jewish ceremonial and worship. Every object, movement and ceremony of the Mass teaches the people truths hidden in the service, so that the Mass is a book written by God himself through the apostles. These rites and ceremonies we have explained in a former work. 29
The apostles carried out the synagogue services, read the Law and the Prophecies and then preached, exhorting the people to live good lives. The "Lord's Table" was prepared with candles, flowers, and ornaments. 30 The twelve priests with the apostle read the prayers of the Liturgy, and thus they celebrated the Eucharist. They took up a collection for the support of religion. 31 Sometimes these offerings were sent to the poor converts of Jerusalem. 32
The apostle remained with them instructing, making converts till a congregation was formed. Then he ordained twelve of them priests, called in Greek presbyters. He laid hands on one of them and anointed him a bishop, consecrating him with the holy oils as was the custom at the ordination of Rabbis and judges of Israel long before the time of Christ. Many works of the early Church mention these facts.
Thus the Clementine Homilies 33 says Peter founded a church in Tyre and set over it as bishop one of the presbyters and then departed for Sidon 34 where he did the same, 35 as at Bayrout and Laodicea. 36 "And having baptized them in the fountains which are near the sea, and having celebrated the Eucharist, and having appointed Maroones as their bishop, and having set apart twelve presbyters, and having designated deacons and arranged matters relating to widows, and having preached on the common good what was profitable for the ordering of the Church, and having counseled them to obey the bishop Maroones, three months being now fulfilled, he (Peter the apostle) bade those in Tripolis of Phoenicia farewell, and took his journey to Antioch of Syria, all the people accompanying him with due honor." 37

HOW THE APOSTLES APPOINTED BISHOPS.

This curious work of antiquity states that they reclined at the table when eating, 38 and shows us that Peter vested like the bishops of our day. When Clement asked that he might go with him, Peter smilingly replied. "For who else shall take care of these many splendid tunics, with all my changes of rings and sandals.'' 39
The Apostolic Constitution says: 40 "Now concerning those bishops who have been ordained in our lifetime, we let you know that they are these:—James the bishop of Jerusalem, the brother of our Lord; 41 the second was Simeon the son of Cleophas, 42 after whom the third was Judas, the son of James. Of Caesarea of Palestine, the first was Zaccheus, 43 after whom was Cornelius and the third Theophilus. Of Antioch Evodius ordained by me Peter, and Ignatius by Paul of Alexandria, Annianus was the first ordained by Mark, the evangelist. Of the Church of Rome, Linus the son of Claudia was the first, 44 and Clement after Linus' death, the second ordained by me Peter. Of Ephesus, Timothy ordained by Paul, and John by me John. Of Smyrna, Aristo the first, 45 after whom Strateas son of Lois. 46 Of Pergamus, Gaius. Of Philadelphia, Demetrius by me. Of Athens, Dionysius.

ORIGIN OF THE PAPAL BENEDICTION.

Of Tripoli, Marathones, etc., These are the bishops who are intrusted by us with the dioceses in the Lord." 47
Saying, "Increase and multiply." 48 God blessed man and animals, that they might propagate their race. Following this example-the patriarch blessed his eldest son, making him heir of his property and priesthood, and on his deathbed he blessed all the members of his family. At the end of the Temple ceremonial the high priest blessed the multitudes, and the Rabbi dismissed the congregation with his blessing.
According to these ceremonies of the Jewish Church, when ascending into heaven, Christ blessed his disciples. "And lifting up his hands he blessed them. And it came to pass that whilst he blessed them, he departed up into heaven." 49 Following these examples, the celebrant blesses the congregation at the end of Mass. This ended Mass in the early Church, and later St. John's Gospel was added. Therefore when the people ask priest or bishop to bless them they follow the old custom of the Hebrew church. This blessing finds it highest form in the Apostolic Benediction of the Pope, which comes down from the days of Apostles and Patriarchs.
Now let us see the vestments Christ and the Apostles used at the Last Supper, for in them we will find the origin of Church vestments.

1 Mishna Ketub. i. sec. 1.

2 Gen. xxiv. 12.

3 Gen. xxiv. 10-22; Exod. xxii. 17; I. Kings xviii. 25.

4 Phil. De Spec. Leg, p. 788.

5 Deut. xxii. 23, 24.

6 Matt. i. 19.

7 Isaias Ixi. 10.

8 Cant. iii. 11.

9 Picart. i. 240.

10 Gen. xxiv. 65, xxxviii. 14,15.

11 Ketub, ii. Sec. 1.

12 Matt. xxv. 6.

13 Matt. xxii. 11.

14 Jeremias, xxxi. 31, 32.

15 Exod. xxiv. 8.

16 Jeremias, xvi. 7.

17 Ezech, xxiv. 21.

18 Luke, xxiv. 30, 35.

19 Acts. ii. 42.

20 Acts, ii. 46.

21 xx. 7.

22 I. Cor. ii. 20, 21, etc.; St. Ignatius, Epist ad Smyr., c. 4.; Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. VII. c. 19, Council of Carthage, Cann. XLI.

23 Acts xx. 7.

24 I. Cor. xvi. 20; II. Cor. xiii. 12.

25 Rom. xvi. 16: I. Cor. xvi. 20; II. Cor. xiii. 12; I. Thes. v.26; I. Peter V. 14.

26 Tertullian, De Orat. c. 14; Justin Martyr, M. Apol. 11; Migne, Cursus Comp. ii. 1348.

27 Acts ii,

28 Acts xx;. 6.

29 Teaching Truth by Signs and Ceremonies.

30 Acts xx. 7-11.

31 II Cor. ix. 1-15; Justin Martyr, Aplogo. I.

32 Ibidem.

33 This work is of doubtful authenticity, mentioned by Origen, Cap. 22 Philocalia and other writers as existing in the beginning of the third century.

34 Hom. VII. Cap. v.

35 Cap. VIII.

36 Cap. XXII.

37 Clementine Homilies. Hom. xi. Cap. xxxvi. See J. lahn ArchæoIogia Biblica De Liturgia Apostolica, etc.

38 Ibidem. Hom. x. Cap. xxvi.

39 Hom. xii. Cap. vi.

40 Some like, Whiston, Bunsen, etc., think that with a few corruptions these come from the apostolic age—others that they come from the second or third centuries. Book VII. Sec. iv.

41 He was his cousin who according to the Jewish custom was called his brother.

42 Cleophas was the brother of St. Joseph, the Virgin's spouse. He married Mary the Virgin's sister, by whom he had four sons and and two daughters. His eldest son was named Joseph, the second James called Alpheus, the third Judas Thaddeus, and the fourth Simon. His first daughter was called Mary after her mother; the second, Salome married Zebedei, by whom she had James and John the apostles. It was Cleophas who went with another disciple to Emmaus after the crucifixion, whom the Lord met on the way. See Dutripon, Concordantia S. Scripturæ, word Cleophas.

43 This was the rich publican of Jericho, a tax collector, "little of stature," Luke xix. 3-6, who climbed the sycamore tree to see the Lord, when he was passing through the city on his way up to Jerusalem to die. He entertained the Saviour that Thursday night, and to him Jesus said "This day is salvation come to this house." Luke xix. 9. Rabbinical writings mention a Zaccheus who lived in Jericho at this time who was once a publican.

44 Mentioned by St. Paul, II. Tim. iv. 21.

45 This is a mistake, for Polycarp was the first bishop of Smyrna.

46 She was Timothy's grandmother, II. Tim. i. 5.

47 Apost. Const. B. VII. Sec. iv., xlvi. We give this as a specimen of this peculiar ancient work, not vouching for its authenticity.

48 Gen, i. 22, viii. 17, ix. 1.

49 Luke xxiv. 50.

How Christ said the first mass, By Rev. James L. Meagher, D.D. Part 30.

THREE CHIEF THINGS DONE ON SABBATH.

During this reading, all except the reader sat, and that is the reason that in the church to-day, all sit during the reading of the Epistle at Mass.
As the Scriptures were in the ancient Hebrew, which the people did not understand, one stood by the reader and translated the sentences into the language of the people, into Syro-Chaldaic in Palestine, or into the Babylonian, Greek, Latin, etc., according to the place where the synagogue was. 1 The reader, or Maphtir, covered his head with the prayer-shawl, called the tallith, to which St. Paul alludes. 2 As the Jews considered themselves a nation of priests, anyone could rise in the synagogue and read the Scriptures. 3
After reading the portion of the "Books of Moses" relating to the feast, they read a part of the prophecies. Generally they stood while the prophecies were read, and that gave rise to the custom of standing during the Gospel in our churches. After this they sat while the reader, Rabbi, or one of the congregation preached the sermon from the pulpit. The parts were marked so that the whole Torah, or Pentateuch was read in the course of three years. Later, but before Christ, it was arranged so that they read the whole Torah in one year. That gave rise in the early Church of reading a part of each of the Books of the Bible during the year.
In Scripture and Jewish writings, the word Sabbath, "rest," means not only Saturday, the Jewish day of worship, but any solemnity, festival, or feast. 4
During Sabbath feasts, and Passover, the latter being the highest holiday, all work stopped, they could even walk only half a mile. They worshiped God with solemn synagogue and Temple worship at Passover. The Talmud Tract, 5 under thirty-nine heads, cites things forbidden on Sabbath. Three chief things were done on the Sabbath and feast—trumpets sounded, tables were prepared, lamps and candles lighted, synagogue services held, and Law and Prophets read. But the preparations and services of Passover were most elaborate.

ORDER OF READING IN CHRIST'S DAY.

The Laws of Moses were first read in what the Greeks called Parasca "section," and its appendix, the prophecy, was also sung, as we read first the Epistle, and then the Gospel. The regular prayers were said, and two added for the Passover, the last being a prayer for the king whom they served. 6 St. Paul, asking Christians to pray for and obey their princes 7 followed the synagogue and Temple, where day by day sacrifices were offered for the Roman emperor. After these services they sat or reclined at the table to eat. 8 Some writers claim the custom of reading sections of the Scripture came from Moses, others from Esdras, but the council of Jerusalem defines in these words: "From the most ancient times, Moses had in each city men, who preached the Scripture in the synagogues where every Sabbath it was read." 9
In Babylonia, at the time of Christ, they read the whole Law or Pentateuch once a year. This is still the practice of modern Jews, but in Judea they read the whole of Moses' Books in three years. They were divided into sections 10 not marked in scrolls, but each part was fixed by custom. As the reader read the Hebrew, one stood by with a pointer so the reader might not miss a word. Ordinary Sabbaths six men of the congregation were called up, and on feasts seven men, each reading a portion. Then two other men, called by the Hassan, read two lessons of the Prophets. This gave rise to the nine lessons of Holy Week, and of the Breviary. Holy Week services have remained almost unchanged since the beginning of the Church. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, these lessons are read facing the door of the tomb, and the prophecies are striking when heard in the very place where they take place. People from all nations of the earth fill the ancient building St. Helena erected A. D. 312.
The Talmud tells us how they were read in Christ's day. "When the Sabbath of Shekalim (the time for collecting the half-shekel at Passover) falls due, the portion proper to this Sabbath is Thetzaveh. Six persons should read from verse 20 of xxvii. to verse 11 of xxx., and one from 11 of xxx. to verse 17." Said Abbyi: The people will think the portion is too long, and will not notice that they read the portion Shekalim, and therefore he says six should read from 20 in xxvii., to 17 in xxx., Thetzaveh, and then should come another and repeat from 11 in xxx. to 17. When the first of Adar falls on the eve of Sabbath, said Rahb, the portion Shekalim should be read on the preceding Sabbath, because the tables of money-changers are set up two weeks after the reading, etc. These were the money-changers Christ drove from the Temple. The Temple priests derived a discount of $45,000 from the traffic.

READERS OF THE HOLY SCROLLS.

"Three men are called 11 to read the Holy Scrolls on Mondays and Thursdays, and on the afternoon of the Sabbath, neither more nor less than that number may be called, nor shall any section from the Prophets be then read. He who commences the reading of the Holy Scrolls shall pronounce the first benediction before reading it, and he who concludes the reading shall pronounce the last benediction after reading it. On all days when an additional offering is prescribed, which are not nevertheless festivals, four men are called, five on festivals, six on the Day of Atonement and seven on the Sabbath."
The synagogue service on the afternoon was mostly formed of Psalms, and this gave rise to our Vesper service, when the Gospel is not read. "It is not so with the reading of the Torah (the Law), which can be read only when the congregation sits.
"The scrolls of the Pentateuch one should read, and the other should interpret, but not one read and two translate, but the Prophets one should read and two interpret. One must not read less than ten verses in the house of prayer. To what do these ten correspond? To the ten unemployed men in the synagogue. The beginner shall pronounce the benediction before the reading, and the last reader after."
They kissed the sacred words of the Scrolls before and after reading. In our time they rub the corner of the prayer-shawl worn on their shoulders on the text and kiss that. The Jewish rite of kissing the Scrolls of the law we see when the celebrant of the Mass kisses the beginning of the Gospel after reading it, and pronounces the blessing over the kneeling deacon. This rite comes from the Jewish benediction before reading the law. 12
The Temple service was more elaborate than that of the synagogue. Twelve priests served the high priest, six on either side, and the Segan at his right as assistant priest. "The six men who read on the Day of Atonement, to whom do they correspond? He said, 'To the six who stood on the right and the six on the left of Esdras as is written. 13 The names of the six men who stood on the right and of the six that stood on the left.' "

THE MASS COMES DIRECTLY FROM THE PASSOVER.

The Mass, having come from the Passover or Last Supper only indirectly from the Temple,follows the former in the number of its ministers and ceremonies. Whence the bishop, the high priest of the Church, is served not by twelve priests as the pontiff in the Temple, that by seven ministers as the Rabbi was served in the synagogue. ''The Torah was read by seven men." We find repeated in many places of the Tract Megilla of the Talmud:
"Not less than three verses of the Holy Scrolls may be read in the synagogue by each person. One verse only of the Law may at one time be read to the interpreter. From the Prophets however may be read three also, but if each verse form a separate section, each must be read separately. Passages may be skipped in the reading of the Prophets, but not in that of the Holy Scrolls. Two weeks before the Passover it shall be lectured about the Passover. On the first day of Passover, the portion in Leviticus relating to the festival must be read. 14 On Passover should be read the portions referring to the festival, and the portions from the Prophets should be from Josue v. 9, about Gilgal (Galgal in our version), etc., and at present in exile, when we keep two days as festivals, the first day should be about Gilgal, the second day, from IV. Kings, xxiii, about Josias, and the last day of Passover should be selected small portions, in which it is spoken about Passover."
At all Jewish feasts parts of the Bible relating to the feasts were read in the Temple and synagogues, and from this was derived the custom of reading in the church portions of the Bible relating to the feasts.

HOW THEY BEGAN TO READ THE PROPHETS.

"One shall open the Holy Scrolls and look on them, pronounce the benediction, then read. He who rolls together the Holy Scrolls, shall do it so that the sewn rolls should be in the middle, that it be done easily. They may be rolled together only from the outside, so that the letters should not be seen outside."
Then follow details of rolling and holding the scrolls. Books were first written on long scrolls rolled up, whence perhaps our word volume, "rolled." During the synagogue services the Rabbi and ministers always stood, as the celebrant and his ministers stand while carrying out Church functions. In Temple or synagogue the people prostrated themselves thirteen times on the floor at the name of Jehovah and during the most solemn parts of the services. We see the remains of this at the end of the Gospel, when the standing congregation bend the knee. The celebrant reads the Epistle and Gospel before they are sung. This was also the way in the early Church. St. Augustine tells us that "While Lazarus the deacon read the Acts relating to the coming of the Holy Ghost and gave the book to the bishop, Augustine, the bishop said, 'I wish to read, for the reading of these words gives me more pleasure than to preach.' " 15
When did they begin to read the Prophets? When the Greek king Antiochus forbade all sacrifices and public and private reading of Scripture under pain of death, the Jews divided the prophetic books into sections and began to read them in the synagogues. 16 The Machabees restored and endowed the synagogue worship with greater splendors. The Acts says ''After the reading of the Law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them Paul and Barnabas, asking them to preach to the people." 17 Christ himself read the prophet Isaias in the synagogue of Nazareth. 18
It was the text of the prophet 19 relating to him that he read that day, towards the end of August. Christ read the Nitzauim "Section" of that day. But the Jews, seeing him foretold in it, later changed it for another section which they read in our time on that day lest the people might see the Redeemer it foretold. Reading the Law and the Prophets in the church therefore comes down to us from the Jewish Church which from early times followed the synagogue custom. 20

WHEN CHRIST READ ISAIAS'S PROPHECY.

How did it happen that Christ was called up that day to read Isaias's words relating to himself? Any man in the congregation might be called up to read if he were over thirty years of age. After his fast of forty days on the Lenten mountain, Christ, in his thirtieth year began his public ministry. "And he came to Nazareth where he was brought up, and he went into the synagogue according to his custom on the Sabbath day, and he rose up to read. And the book of Isaias the prophet was delivered to him. And as he unfolded the book, he found the place where it was written:
" 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of reward. 21 And when he had folded the book, he restored it to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him." 22
As one of the men read the Scrolls in the original Hebrew which the Am-ha-Arets, "Country people" did not understand, one stood by and translated it into the Syro-Chaldaic they spoke. Then the preacher addressed them on the text. The man's name who translated the text of Isaias for Christ that day is not given. But Jesus then preached to the people in the synagogue his first sermon. "And they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from his mouth, and they said. Is not this the son of Joseph." 23
If a Jew could not be present at the synagogue services because of sickness, etc., he clothed himself with the taleth, "prayer shawl," place his phylacteries on brow and left arm, stood by his bed, in a quiet corner of his house or in his place of business, and recited the prayers while they were being held morning, noon and afternoon in synagogue or Temple.

DID CHRIST PRAY FOR THE DEAD?

This the Rabbis called "Stirring up in them the kingdom of God" or "of heaven." 24 These services recalled to them the long-looked for kingdom of the Messiah, the Prince of David was to establish for them over all the earth. From these customs came down to us morning and evening prayers.
During Temple and synagogue services the priests praying stretched out their hands, following the example of Moses praying for victory over the enemies of Israel when Aaron and Hur upheld his arms. 25 But during these prayers they were forbidden to hold their hands higher than the Phylacteries on their brows. 26 "Why," say the Talmud,"is it then the custom at present for the priests to raise their hands in the afternoon prayer of the fast day? Because the afternoon prayer is said very near sunset, it is regarded the same as the closing prayer." 27
Isaias in his prophetic description of the Last Supper 28 foretold the Lord during the first Mass on Sion, as we will later explain. He continues, "As he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hand to swim," etc.
Following Temple, synagogue, and Last Supper, at the Mass the celebrant still stretches forth his hands, with his body forming a cross. For the Jewish ceremony related to the Crucified who stretched forth his hands on the cross when he would redeem our race. And the celebrant who now offers the Mass as a memorial of the crucifixion still stretches forth his hands during the prayers. As he cannot hold his hands out all the time in the form of a cross he holds them near his body.
At every Mass we pray for the repose of the souls of the dead. Did Christ pray for the dead at the Last Supper? We find no record, but it was the custom of the Temple and synagogue in his day.

PRAYERS FOR THE REPOSE OF SOULS.

Prayers for the repose of the souls of the dead are found in the earliest records of the Temple and synagogue. Even Mohammed prayed for the dead as all Mohammedan sects still do. The writer was shown an ornamental table on which, each Friday, the Khedive of Egypt places the Koran and beside it kneels to pray for the repose of the souls of his two daughters, where their bodies rest within the mosque rising at your left as you go up to the citadel of Cairo. The Jews of New York called the attention of the writer at different times to the solemn prayers for the dead during the synagogue services. Their belief regarding purgatory, souls detained there and helped by fasting and prayer of their friends on earth, is the same as that of the Church.
Let us give the words of a learned Protestant writer, who investigated the question. 29 "Whatever account may be given of it, it is certain, that Prayers for the Dead appear in the Church's worship, as soon as we have any trace after the immediate records of the apostolic age. It has been described by a writer, whom no one can suspect of Romish tendencies as "an immemorial practice." Though "Scripture is silent, yet antiquity plainly speaks." The prayers "have found a place in every early liturgy of the world." 30 How indeed, we ask, could it have been otherwise? The strong feeling shown in the time of the Machabees, that it was "a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead," 31 was sure, under the influence of the dominant Pharisaic Scribes, to show itself in the devotions of the synagogue. So far as we trace back these devotions, we may say that there also the practice is "immemorial," as old at least as the traditions of the Rabbinic fathers. 32 There is a probability, indefinitely great, that prayers for the departed, the Kiddish of later Judaism, were familiar to the synagogues of Palestine, and other countries, that the early Christian believers were not startled by them as an innovation, that they passed uncondemned by our Lord himself. The writer already quoted sees a probable reference to them in II Tim. i. 18. St. Paul, remembering Onesiphorus, as one whose "house" had been bereaved of him, prays that he may find mercy of the Lord "in that day." Prayers for the dead can hardly therefore be looked on as anti-Scriptural. 33

JEWISH BELIEF IN A PURGATORY.

In all Apostolic Liturgies, in every one of the Oriental Kites, we find prayer for the dead, offerings for prayers, stipends given by the laity for Masses for the repose of the souls of the departed. Along the walls of the Catacombs, on tombstones, on monuments of the apostolic age, on walls of church buildings now made into mosques, in Constantinople, etc., the writer has seen "Let them rest in peace," "Pray for the repose of the soul of such a one" etc. These inscriptions are in Greek, Latin and other ancient languages. The Jewish Prayer Book, used all over the world, copying Temple and synagogue services, has prayers for the repose of their dead relatives and friends, no synagogue service is complete without the Kaddish, called "Prayers for the Dead." The abuses of offerings for Masses for the dead, and of indulgences, rife before the Reformation, induced the reformers to go too far, and abolish these prayers and doctrine relating to purgatory.
The Jews of our day believe that their dead go to a place like purgatory, where they remain for a time and are aided by their friends' prayers. Children pray for their parents on the day of death, on the third, seventh, thirtieth day, and on the anniversary of their death. These customs coming down from the Temple and synagogue services gave rise to the burial of the dead on the third day, the "Month's Mind," the anniversary and Masses for the departed. 34
The Jews observed peculiar burial custom, the third, seventh and thirtieth days being held as special mourning days, but when these days fell on feasts they had special regulations. 35 Cohabitation, wearing shoes, etc., were forbidden these days. 36 Only near relatives rent their garments and ate "the mourning meal." 37 "When a coffin is being removed from one place to another, those present must stand in a row and pronounce the mourning benediction and the words of consolation." 38 A learned scholar, or a Rabbi, pronounced the funeral oration sometimes in verse. 39 The "mourning women" wailed these days but did not clap their hands. 40

PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS.

In the time of Christ the Jews prayed 41 for the repose of the souls of the dead. Jews of our day do not continue praying for them for a whole year, lest it might imply that they remained for a year in purgatory. 42 The Jewish Prayer Book used today in the synagogue, 43 in the prayer for the dead has the following words.
"May God remember the soul of my revered father, (mother) who has gone to his (her) repose. May his (her) soul be bound up in the bond of life. May his (her) rest be glorious with the fulness of joy in thy presence, and pleasures for evermore, at thy right hand. Father of mercy, in whose hand are the souls of the living and the dead, may thy consolation cheer us, as we remember (on this holy day) our beloved and honored kinsfolk, who have gone to their rest. . . And may their souls repose in the land of the living, beholding thy glory and delighting in thy goodness," etc.
They followed the example of their fathers, who offered sacrifices in the Temple for the repose of the dead, as the Machabees did. "For it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." 44
The Rabbis of the time of Christ made a distinction between the Onen, "The suffering," and the Avel, "The mourner." The first applied to the day of the funeral, and the seven following days, the latter to the month following the funeral, the prayers for the dead were said in the synagogue, or elsewhere. A strict rule was laid down for the High Priest. 45 It was customary to say "May we be thy expiation," or, "Let us suffer what ought to have fallen thee," to which he replied "Be ye blessed forever," or "Be ye blessed of heaven." At the "wake," the friends partook of a "mourning meal," at which no more than ten cups of wine should be drunk. 46 The Mergillath Taanith, "Roll of Feasts," gives the day on which mourning was forbidden.
They also prayed to the Saints in heaven in the following words "May they in heaven show forth our merit for a peaceable preservation, and may we receive a blessing from the Lord and justice from the God of our salvation, and good understanding in the sight of man."

1 Acts xv. 21: Luke iv. 16.

2 Rom. iv. 7.

3 Luke iv. 16: Acts xiii. 15.

4 Zanolini, Disp. de Fest. Judæorum, Cap. Prim.

5 The Sabbath, Cap. vii., Sec. 2.

6 Zanolini, Cap. I.

7 Titus, 3-1.

8 Zanolini, Ibidem. See his Note regarding the three sections of the session at the table.

9 Syn. Jerusalem, C. 15, V. 21

10 See Geikie, Life of Christ, ii, 584.

11 Balyl Talmud, Megilla, 57-89.

12 See Babylonian Talmud, Taanith, cap. ii. 41, 75. etc.. where the order of benedictions is given.

13 II. Esdras, viii, 4.

14 Levit. xxiii. 5-22.

15 S. Augustine, Sermo ccclvi. de Vita Cler.

16 Zanolini, Opere citato; i. Mach. I. 52.

17 Acts xlii. 15.

18 Luke iv. 16.

19 Isaias Ixi. i. etc.

20 (See Apostolic Constitut. Book 8, Clementine Recognitions, etc. For the synagogue worship, see Migne, ii. 1346-1368: Babyl. Talmud, Magilla, Whole Tract.

21 Isaias Ixi. 1, etc.

22 Luke iv. 16--20.

23 Luke iv. 22.

24 Matt. vi. 5.

25 Exod. xvii. 12; Edersheim, Temple, 141.

26 Levit. ix. 22.

 27 Tract Taanith, "Fasting," of the Babyl. Talmud, 81.

28 Isaias xxv, 6 to end of chapter.

29 Rev. E. H. Plumptre, M. A., Prof, of Divinity in King's College, London, in Smiths Dic. of Bible, Vol. iv. p, 3187.

30 Ellicott. Destiny of the Creature, Ser. vi.

31 II. Mac. xii. 43 to 46.

32 Buxtori. De Synagog. p. 709, 710; McCauL, Old Paths, C. 38.

33 Quoted from Smith's Dic. of Bible, Art, Synagogue.

34 See Sketches of Jewish Life, 173; Geikie, Life of Christ, ii. 605. See whole Tract Ebel Rabbath, "Great Mourning," in Babyl. Talmud.

35 Tract Moed Katan, "Minor Festivals.'' Mishna p. 36.

36 Ibid. 39.

37 Ibid. 40.

38 Ibid. 41.

39 Ibid, 42, 43.

 40 Ibid. 45.

41 See Smith's Dic. of Bible, art. Synagogue Worship, n. 4.

42 Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Life, p. 174,180.

43 Daily Prayer Book, p. 326.

44 II. Mach. xii. 46.

45 Levit. xxi. 10-12.

46 Ter, Ber, iii. 1,

How Christ said the first mass, By Rev. James L. Meagher, D.D. Part 29.

ORIGIN OF THE IMPOSITION OF HANDS.

The next personage was the chazzan, 1 called to-day by Jews hassan, "minister," in Greek diakonos, "worker," in Hebrew shemash. The word is mentioned in the account of Christ in the synagogue. "And when he had folded the book he restored it to the minister," 2 —the hassan. He thus fulfilled the duties of the deacon and subdeacon when waiting on the Rabbi. 3 The same rules were followed in his selection as for the Rabbi. He opened the synagogue doors, prepared things for the service, often acted as the school-teacher, sang the services and responded to the Rabbi during divine worship. Good singers and active hassans of our day receive large salaries, sometimes $2,000 to $3,000 a year. With the Rabbi he was ordained in the time of Christ with a long ceremony, and the laying on of the hands of the Rabbis and hassans on his head. This gave rise to the custom of imposing the hands of the clergy with the bishop on the head of the clergyman the day of his ordination.
Besides these officials, in every congregation were ten men, called batlanim "men of leisure." They were not obliged to labor for their living, and could therefore attend, not only the Sabbath, but the, Monday and Thursday services. No congregation was complete, nor could any service be held without them. At one synagogue the writer attended, they had to wait before beginning the service till ten men were resent, the women not being considered, as they cannot take part in any religious function. Seven of these men, called Stationarii, or viri Stationis in the synagogue of the Roman empire, collected the synagogue alms for the poor, read the Law during the services, and gave rise to the church clergy in minor orders. They are sometimes called shepherds, in Hebrew hassans, in Greek hiepeus "priest" while the Rabbi was sometimes named apostolos "sent," "legate" of the congregation. These words are found in decrees of later Roman emperors regarding the Jews after the destruction of the Temple.

ORIGIN OF OUR MINOR OFFICIALS,

Each synagogue had either five or seven Gabai Zedakah. "Charity Collectors," who took up the collection during the service. The people offered either money or victuals. This took place after reading the Law and Prophets. The custom was continued in the early Church when the people brought their offerings and placed them on a table in the sanctuary and that part of the Mass is called the Offertory.
Two Jews took up the collection, and four or five distributed them. They were the leading men of the congregation and took care of the widows and orphans. We trace the collectors in the Church back to the synagogue. Some writers think the apostles had these seven men in mind when they ordained the seven deacons. 4
The Jews of the time of Christ had an order of exorcists: "Who went about and attempted to invoke over them that had evil spirits." 5 When Christ gave power over unclean spirits he followed the synagogue regulations.
The reader will see in these four officials of the synagogue the minor orders of the Church coming down from the apostolic days. They are mentioned in the most ancient records and are found in all the apostolic Liturgies. The priests who prepared the bread and wine in the Temple imaged the acolytes, the men who read the Scriptures the readers, the chassans who opened doors of Temple and synagogue the porters, and the men who drove out demons, the exorcists.
The synagogue service was always sung in the days of Christ. From the time Jubal invented musical instruments, 6 song, timbrel and harp 7 were used at weddings, religious gatherings, and feasts of joy. Music and poetry went hand in hand. Poets composed and sang their songs accompanying themselves on musical instruments. This custom obtained among all primitive peoples. 8

COMPOSITION OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS.

Moses sang his hymn of glory to the Lord. 9 All Israel, forming a mighty choir, voiced their joy in Jehovah's praise when they found water in the desert. 10 Before his death God told Moses to write a glorious canticle of praise and prophecy. 11
Down the history of the Hebrews we find the hymn, "sacred song" and canticle of "praise" during religious worship. Seventy-four times the canticle is found in the Old Testament. When Moses built the tabernacle, parts of the services were sung by priest and Levite choirs, and that was the order of exercises till Temple replaced tabernacle. 12
David, Jesse's seventh son, keeping his father's flocks on Bethlehem's hills, moved by the spirit of poetry, composed songs of praises to the God of his fathers. Chosen king in place of Saul, when he had brought the ark to Jerusalem, David formed priests and levites into twenty-four courses for the better service of the Temple his son Solomon was to build. Then began the composition of the Book of Psalms, the Temple Hymn-book. Later other prophet-poets added psalms "songs of praise," till the Hebrew Hymn-book, the Book of Psalms was formed as it comes down to us.
Written in pure Hebrew, in verse sometimes in faultless meter, in striking figures, filled with history of the nation, uniting past, present and future, telling the story of David the king, and David the Christ, the Hebrew Church and the Catholic Church, David's sorrows and Christ's sufferings, the Babylonian Captivity, and the glories of Christianity, the preaching of the Apostles, and the conversion of the Heathens, the glories of the Redeemer's reign, and the triumph of the Saints,—the Psalms come down from the reigns of David and of Solomon as the most remarkable compositions of any age or people.
Used ever after as Temple Hynni-book, sung twice a day by two choirs of priests and Levites, each formed of more than 500 members, the Psalms were sung in the synagogues after the destruction of the Temple. To this day in their synagogues, scattered over the world wherever they have wandered, the Jews still sing these wonderful devotional prophetic hymns and religious canticles.

ANTIQUITY OF THE FLUTE.

They look on David as their holiest and greatest king. But why they should now hold that these hymns relate to a king, an adulterer and a murderer 3,000 years dead, especially when in hundreds of places the long-looked-for Messiah is mentioned, is surprising.
The flute, in Hebrew mashroqitha, "to blow," under different forms was used in Egypt 2,000 years before Christ. It was a favorite instrument of Greek and Roman shepherds, and was used in military bands, and at festivals and funerals. Its Latin name comes from fluta, an eel of Sicilian waters, with seven spots on each side like flute holes. 13
The piccolo is an octave higher, and many flutes, tuned in unison, became the organ used before the flood. 14 David introduced the organ into the Temple services 15 translated "musical instruments."
Musicians sometimes played two flutes at the same time, one an octave higher than the other, as we see in sculptures and pictures of shepherds and satyrs. The pagans played the flute at feast and funenil. The Rabbis taught that not less than two flutes must be played at a funeral, Jews having learned that custom from Greeks and Romans.
Many flutes formed into one instrument became the organ run by water invented by Ctesbius of Alexandria in the second century before Christ. In the Temple was a large organ they called the magrephah, the bellows being of elephant hide. 16 It sustained the singing. The Rabbis write it could be heard down to Jericho, but this is incredible for the distance is fifteen miles. When it gave forth a peculiar note, the priest behind the veil in the Holies spread the incense on the gold altar. From the beginning the organ has been used in our churches.
In David's day 4.000 singers formed choirs of Levites under the leadership of Asaph, Heman and Idithun, and they sang the Temple service. Asaph had four sons, Idithun six, and Heman fourteen, each son being placed over a choir or band, and thus David divided the Levites into twenty-four bands or "courses." Each son of these great music teachers, had under him eleven teachers of vocal and instrumental music.

VARIOUS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS,

They taught the priests and Levites to sing the glories of Jehovah. Families became famous for musical abilities. These sons of Caath, at the time of Christ, stood in the center, with the sons of Merai on the left, and the descendants of Gerson on the right. While Idithun's family in David's day played the cithern called the cinnor, Asaph's family drew music from the psaltery, called in Hebrew nabat and Heman's struck the Mizlothaim, "the timbrels," with them beating time. These were the three chief musical instruments used in the temple from David's day and are called by Jewish writers the viol, psaltery and cymbal.
"And now David, being freed from wars and dangers, and enjoying for the future a profound peace, composed songs and hymns to God of several sorts of meter, some of which he made were trimeters and some were pentameters. He also made instruments of music, and taught the Levites to sing hymns to God, both on that called the Sabbath-day, and on other festivals. Now the construction of the instruments was thus. The viol was an instrument of ten strings, it was played on with a bow. The psaltery had twelve musical notes, and was played by the fingers. The cymbals were broad and Uirge instruments, and were made of brass." 17
According to Josephus, David composed the Book of Psalms, not at different times as is generally supposed, but towards the end of his life, and he alone is their author. He says Moses composed his Canticle at the Red Sea and his other Canticle in hexameter meter. But the Psalms were of various meters.
The Hebrews carried their music, instruments and the liturgy of the destroyed Temple to Babylon, and used them in the synagogues. When they returned and rebuilt the Temple, they continued the Temple service in the synagogues they built in all the towns of Judea, and in cities and towns of the world into which they had scattered at the time of Christ. Synagogue services were always sung by priests Levites and members of the congregation. 18

CHOIRS AND SERVICE OF SACRED SONG.

The choirs of Levites in Solomon's Temple were clothed in white tunics of byssus and fine linen, to distinguish them from the priests vested in cloth of gold; on solemn feasts they put on vestments of magnificent embroidery. Some time after the death of Christ, Herod Agrippa gave the Levites permission to vest in robes like those worn by the priests in their ministry, which Josephus says was contrary to the law.
Priests and Levites formed two choirs, one responding to the other, using as hymn-books, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus and Canticle of Canticles—the Book of Psalms being the one most used. Following the example of Moses' sister Mary and the women with her who sang and danced, 19 women sang in the synagogues. We do not find that women ever formed a choir in the Temple, perhaps they sang in congregational singing in the Women's Court.
The priests' choir began the Psalm, sang as far as the star in our breviaries, and the Levites sang the rest of the verse like a response. This is the reason that the latter part, in thought is like an echo of the former, for the Psalms were written for the Temple service. The two choirs of Temple and synagogue passed into the two choirs of the Church or into the priests' choir in the sanctuary, and the lay-choir in the organ gallery. From the Jewish church came the versicles and responses, and parts taken by the celebrant of the Mass, and they are seen in missals. Breviaries, rituals, liturgical books, and are found not only in the Latin, but in all Oriental Churches.
Temple service of sacred song and hymn were introduced into the synagogue long before the time of Christ, and continue down to our day among both Jews and Christians. The Passover services was always sung in imitation of the Temple worship. Many reasons force us to conclude that the services of the Last Supper were sung. The Gospel states they sang a hymn before they left the Cenacle. 20
The Passover the writer attended in Jerusalem was sung by the thirteen Jews in their own peculiar tone and melody.

THE GREGORIAN OR PLAIN CHANT.

The Oriental Christians sing Mass in their crude nasal tone, reminding you of Jewish vocal music. Roman Catholics sing the offices of Holy Week round Christ's tomb in Jerusalem, and it is so strikingly superior to Oriental music that great crowds gather. The prophecies relating to the Saviour's Passion and death are then read in the spot where they were fulfilled.
The next week the Oriental Christians, Armenians, Copts, Greeks, Nestorians, Jacobites, etc., gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, each band being led by their clergy and bishop, the laity going first, then the clergy and last the bishop. One band follows another to the number of six or eight, and each band, having a different language, rite, and method of singing—all together make the most awful discord heard on earth.
Pope Gregory I. reformed the crude Jewish and oriental music, and he is the author of what is now called the Gregorian or plain chant—the official music of the Church. St. Augustine says St. Athanasius condemned certain ways of modulating the voice in singing the Psalms, which he himself does not condemn, which shows that our services were sung in the early Church. 21
In the Temple Holy of Holies, the ark with the Shekina resting on its mercy-seat, having the tables of the Law, was most holy to the Hebrew. The synagogue ark, containing the Torah "the Law" and the Haphtorah, the "Prophetic Books" was the most sacred object. It was a box about three feet square and high, and covered by a veil, it rested next the farther wall in the middle of the sanctuary and was approached by steps. In the early Church the altar was made the same size and shape as the Jewish ark. The Greek and Oriental Christians have altars of the same kind rising in the middle of the veiled sanctuary, the bishop's throne being behind, where he sits facing the people. The Orientals cover the altar with silk altar cloths and allow on it nothing but the liturgical books—the Book of the Liturgy in the center, that of the Gospels on your left and that of the Epistles on your right, resting on the silk-covered altar table. Even the candles must be on a little shelf in the Slavonic Rite. The Jews allow nothing but the Scrolls of the Law in the ark.

THE READING OF THE LAW.

Jews in this country form the ark as an ornamental recess curtained off, having two doors opening out, behind which they keep the Scrolls, the place being approached by steps. The synagogue ark came down from the Temple, for God told Moses to place the Law, that is the first five Books of the Old Testament in the ark, 22 At the time of Christ another box received the Haphtorah "The Prophets," for they were not written till after Moses' time.
The writer examined different synagogue Scrolls which Jews claim are now written the same as in the days of Moses. They are in the peculiar angular Hebrew letters written with a reed pen. The last line of a paragraph has the letters spread out, so that all lines will be of an equal length. These Scrolls come from Europe, where they are produced by learned Scribes—generally old men learned in Biblical and Talmudic lore. The Torah used in the synagogues was never printed with type, but is always copied with the extreme care and labor as in the ancient days of Christ and the prophets.
The Jews say it is hard to read these Scrolls, as they must remember the vowels and put them in as they go along during the reading of the Law in the synagogue. Many centuries ago the vowels were put into some writings. In other Hebrew writings the vowels were put in, and they appear as little dots and signs. But no change was ever made in the Scrolls of Moses' Five Books, still copied, in the purest Hebrew. 23 The Jerusalem Talmud was written in the Hebrew of Moses and the Temple, while the Babylonian Talmud was written in the mixed Hebrew and Babylonian forming a language called the Syro-Chaldaic of the time of Christ. The Jews of our time publish works and newspapers in their vernacular language, such as German, Russian, etc., using the Hebrew letters in Scrolls, Talmuds and their modern publications.
The Jews call these five first Books of the Bible, "The Five Books of Moses," the Greeks named them the Pentateuch, "The Five Books." But their ancient Hebrew name is Torah, "The Law," a word found more than six hundred times in the Bible. Sometimes the word law means these five Books Moses wrote, in other texts it refers to the Law and the Temple ceremonial, while often it signifies the whole Hebrew religion with the Old Testament, Temple, synagogue and Jewish faith.

HOW THE SCROLLS WERE FORMED.

 But when the Jews of our day mention the Torah or Law, they mean these five books Moses wrote on the scrolls and placed in the Temple in a special ark, and which they claim come down in the synagogue to our day in the exact form as Moses wrote them on the vellum scrolls.
The Sheepskins are about two feet square, each cut from a whole skin, scraped nearly as thin as paper, and tanned white; they are called vellum, from vel, "skin," whence our word volume. They are then sowed together with sheep-gut, so as to form a band many feet in length. In the middle of each square piece of vellum are written two or three columns of the Hebrew writings, which read, not from left to right like our books, but from right to left like all Semitic writings. You begin at what would be the back of our books.
The long sheets of vellum are rolled on two sticks, the ends having rollers so the vellum does not touch the table. The ends of the sticks and rollers are ornamented with silver, gold, or other ornaments, decorated and richly finished according to the wealth of the congregation. The scroll of the Law, with its ornaments, is covered with a rich embroidered case when placed in the ark. During the synagogue service, officers vested like our inferior clergy, go up to the ark, draw aside the veil and take out the Law. Forming a procession, they go to the reading desk, where it is read in a loud singing tone. This gave rise to the ceremony of singing the Gospel. The deacon taking the missal places it on the altar and kneels in prayer. Taking the missal from the altar, he receives the celebrant's blessing, and goes with the other ministers to the place where the Gospel is sung. The reader will find in Zanolini 24 accurate descriptions of the synagogue worship at the time of Christ. Jewish and Protestant writers we have quoted treat the subject extensively.
The synagogue service 25 began with the Psalms, prayers, and doxology: "praise." Then they read the part of the Law or Torah of Moses relating to the feast.

1 Geikie. Life of Christ, i. 178.

2 Luke iv. 20.

3 Edersheim, Life of Christ, i. 231, 438, 443.

4 Acts vi,; Edersheim, Sketches, p. 283.

5 Acts xix. 13; Matt. xii. 27; Mark iii. 15-30; Luke vi. 18, viii. 29, xi. 24.

6 Gen. iv. 21.

7 Gen. xxxi. 27.

8 Migne, Cursus Comp. S- Scripturæ iii. 1029.

9 Exod. xv. 1.

10 Numb. xxi. 17.

11 Deut. xxxi. 19, etc.

12 See Migne, S. Scripturæ, ii. 1129, 1131, 1132, 1155, etc.

13 See Migne, Cursus Com. S. Scripturæ, iii. 1002.

14 Gen. iv. 21.

15 I, Par. xv. 16.

16 Edersheim, Temple, 137; Geikie, Life of Christ, i. 338.

17 Josephus Antiq., B. vii. C. xii. n. 3.

18 See Migne, S. Scripturæ, iii. 915-2, 1345.

19 Exod. xv. 20, 21.

20 Matt. xxvi. 30; Mark xiv. 26.

21 S. Augustine, Confes. 1. xc, xxxiii.

22 Deut. xxxi. 25, 26.

23 Geikie, Life of Christ, i. 553; ii. 607, 608, etc.

24 De Festis et Sectis Judæorum.

25 See Palestine, 338-343.

How Christ said the first Mass, Or The Lord's Supper. By Rev. James L. Meagher, D.D. Part 27.

QUEEN HELENA PURIFIES THE CENACLE.

It was easy to find where slept the famous kings, and the building where the Lord said the first Mass still stood. Jerusalem, then as now, was built of stones, all rooms and ceilings arched. You could not burn the buildings, for wood is only in doors and windows. Only man or an earthquake could ruin Jerusalem.
Under Helena's directions the Cenacle was purified, consecrated, and in it Mass was again said. It became the seat of an archbishop—a patriarchal See second to Rome and Alexandria. In the Cenacle they said Mass according to St. James's Liturgy, and the Mass St. Peter composed at Antioch. The first is written in Greek, the latter in Syro-Chaldaic the language of the people of Judea at the time of Christ. The Church of Jerusalem with the Cenacle as its cathedral flourished till A. D. 636, when with fire and sword came the fanatic followers of the false prophet of Arabia. Omar, Mohammed's cousin came and negotiated with the patriarch Sophronius for the surrender of the holy city. He treated the Christians with kindness, gave them the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Cenacle, retaining for the Mohammedans the site of the Temple.
Maronite priests served the Christians till the crusaders came, after which at the request of their founder St. Francis who went to Jerusalem, the Cenacle fell into the hands of the Franciscan Fathers who held if for more than 200 years. Then some Mohammedans, claiming direct decent from David's family, drove out the monks, and they still serve as the guardians of the Cenacle, calling it Bab Neby Daud "The House of the Prophet David."
Bright was the April day in 1903 when we started up David Street, leading south up the holy hill. On the right we passed the dark battlemented Tower of David, a little South of the Joppa Gate, now used as Turkish barracks. The great stones look old and black enough to have been placed there by the Royal Prophet. On the opposite side are Cook's office, a Protestant school, and higher up is the site of the house of Thomas the apostle. Farther on your left you come to the Armenian church, built on the spot where they say St. James, first bishop of Jerusalem, lived.

THE CHURCH ON SITE OF CAIPHAS' PALACE.

By the bishop's throne in the sanctuary they show you his tomb. Outside the wall east of the Temple area cut from the living rock his tomb still stands. Why they buried him within the city we do not know, as Jewish laws forbade burials within the sacred walls. Perhaps they brought his relics to the church on Sion.
The land is now level, and continuing south you come to the site of Caiphas' house or palace, where Christ was twice tried and condemned to death. A little church occupies the site. It is twenty-one by twenty-seven feet, built of the gray limestone of Judea. Six square pillars, three on each side, support the stone arched roof. Inscriptions tell you SIX bishops were buried under the building. In the eastern part is the sanctuary, its altar stone being the round rolling flat stone with which they closed the door of the tomb of the dead Christ. To the right, or south of the altar, within the chancel is a little stone room over the cell in the basement, in which they imprisoned Christ that night, till they could hold court in the morning to legally sentence him, for night sessions of the court were forbidden by the Jewish law.
The church occupies but a small part of the high priest's palace. In the yard behind the church, they had dug away some of the debris of centuries, exposing a large beautiful mosaic pavement, made of little colored square marbles done with art, forming flowers and beautiful tracery—perhaps the floor of Caiphas' house. Half a day's work would have uncovered most of the yard, and the rest of the figures. But the Turks forbade further search, lest Christians might discover David's tomb and treasury.
Now south slope Sion's summit and suburbs. Debris of walls and houses destroyed centuries ago cover fields and gardens. You will see men plowing sites of rich abodes of Scribes, Pharisees, priests and judges, who sentenced the God-Man to death, fulfilling the prophet's words, Jeremy quotes: "You that build up Sion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her princes have judges for bribes . . . Therefore because of you, Sion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be a heap of stones, and the mountain of the Temple as the places of the forest." 1

WHERE JUDAS HANGED HIMSELF.

You come through the walls, pass out what was once called the Sion Gate, which now Moslems name Bab en Neby Daud, "Gate of the Prophet David." On your right, inclosed by a wall, is the Armenian cemetery, and farther on the Protestant burying-ground. Walk over a little to the west where Melchisedech's palace once rose, and you look down into the deep Hinnom valley, 170 feet below, where you see the Gihon pool partly filled with water. At your left, to the east, is the Tyropoeon vale, then comes the hill where Ophel stood, below the Temple area, then the Cedron and Gethsemane—around on all sides rise tombs, and east is Olivet—all inspiring memories of historic incidents.
As you run your eyes along over the land below, spread like a map before you, wonderful stories of the past rise in your mind. There Solomon was crowned. There opposite is the hill with its steep eastern side toward you, on which Judas hanged himself that fatal Friday morning of the crucifixion, when his body fell down seventy-five feet onto the road below and his bowels gushed out. It is the very spot where wicked Achab and Manasses burned little children to the fire-god Moloch in that cursed Topheth, where emptied the city sewers, where ever-burning fires were kept for consuming garbage, animal carcases and criminals. Well was it named Topheth and Gehenna. It was an image of that hell down to which went the soul of the Master's faithless apostle.
South about half a mile the two vales of Hinnom and Cedron unite forming the ravine leading their waters in winter and spring down 4,000 feet to the Dead Sea. Almost hanging from the western cliffs of the Hill of Evil Council, where Solomon reared temples to the gods of his pagan wives, you see the empty tombs and homes of Moslems, wretched in ignorance, poverty and filth—many being afflicted with leprosy. That is Siloam "Fleece-Pool," for in that pool before you they washed the lambs for Temple and Passover. There Christ told the man to anoint his blind eyes with its clay when he received his sight.

A WOMAN NEAR THE VIRGIN'S SPRING.

Sion, image of the Church Universal, whose glories prophets sang, now outside the walls, has become a waste. Who cultivates these fields? Come with me, gentle reader, and see a specimen of her inhabitants. We are coming up the Cedron ravine from the place, down below, where Judas hanged himself. On our right, wretched stone houses, and tombs of Siloam, cling to the steep hill. On our left is the Virgin's Spring, now called Ed Derez, "Spring with steps," still flowing from underground cisterns Solomon excavated under Temple and city.
Above us, about ten feet away almost above us, there like an apparition, suddenly appears a woman of about twenty-five, her bare feet nearly on a level with our heads. On a matted shock of black hair, making a cushion on her head, rests a round earthen water vessel, shaped like those of the days of Juda's kings. She had just drawn that water from the Virgin's Spring. Her only garment, of camel's hair, rough and thick as a carpet, is so covered and permeated with dirt, for she has worn it day and night for years, that you could scrape off the crusts of filth with a hoe. It comes not quite to her knees and the frayed edges hang in dirty ringlets. Her breast is bare, and great holes are worn in the garment under her arms. If she washed the garment it would fall to pieces, for the dried dirt keeps it together.
Her skin is the color of old copper. Fanaticism, dirt, degradation, debased womanhood are written in every lineament and move, as there she stands like a bronze statue, and through dark decayed teeth she yells in Arabic to someone in the village of Siloam across the Cedron vale. She is the wife or daughter of a farmer who cultivates the fields of Sion now desolate and uninhabited.
A little south of Sion's summit, but outside the city Avails Moslems built in the seventh century, about 400 feet south from site of Joseph Caiphas' palace, rises the ancient pile of the Cenacle buildings, black with age and looking as though the storms of twenty centuries had passed over them. It is composed of various buildings, gables, and sides, some one, others two stories high. There, guarded by Moslems, you find the upper chamber in which Christ said the First Mass.

THE ''UPPER CHAMBER."

On the outside, a stone stairway about twelve feet high leads to the roof of the adjoining building; mounting and passing to the left, you walk over the cemented stones forming the roof covering the vaulted rooms below, and through a door you enter the "Upper Chamber" of Gospel and history. Four windows on the south side light the room.
The room is fifty by thirty feet, and two square stone pillars in the center sustain the vaulted ceilings. The floor is of irregular flat stones cemented together. To the east is an alcove like the chancel or sanctuary of a church, closed by an iron railing. In the time of Christ this formed the Bema or sanctuary, and gave rise to the sanctuary of our churches. Attached to the wall on your right is a flight of high stone steps leading up to another chamber about ten feet higher than the floor of the Cenacle. You ascend, enter, and at your left through an iron grill closing the door, you see a catafalque covered with a faded canopy of silk, reminding you of the catafalque used in our churches at Masses for the dead when the body is not present. Down deep in Sion's rocks, under these rooms, rest the bodies of Melchisedech, David, Solomon, and the kings of David's dynasty.
The walls of all the rooms are blackened with age. Decorations of synagogue. Last Supper, and Masses of apostolic days appear no more. The vaulted ceilings, the ornamented capitals of the two pillars, the great stones of walls and ceilings, the carved groins of the Bema where the synagogue "ark" rested—all show great antiquity. They point out to you the marked place where Jesus Christ reclined with his disciples that historic night.
At your left as you come into the Cenacle, in the corner, a flight of stone steps leads down to the lower apartments. The door below was open and the writer started to go down. The Moslem ran before him, shut the door and forbade him. They will not allow a stranger to enter their female apartments. The writer was in negotiations with them to enter David's tomb before he left the city; difficulties rose, a great price was asked before hand, a firman from the Sultan was required, which was almost impossible to get lest David's treasury might be found, the excavations would take weeks and might be stopped at any moment, and the project was abandoned.

THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS.

The custom of artfully hiding the bodies of the dead the Hebrews brought with them from Egypt. You will find that Cheops in his pyramid near Cairo, used remarkable means of concealing his body in the stone coffer in the "king's chamber," and different means were used to conceal the mummies, remains of nobles in their desert tombs along the Nile valley.
In 1839, some Jews were allowed to see the tombs of their kings on Sion. Later, Miss Barclay went down to what she thought was the tomb of David, and says:
"The room is insignificant in its dimensions, but is furnished very gorgeously. The tomb is apparently an immense sarcophagus of rough stone, and is covered with a green tapestry richly embroidered with gold. A satin canopy of red, blue, green and yellow stripes hangs over the tomb, and another piece of black velvet tapestry, embroidered in silver, covers the door in one end of the room, which they say leads to a cave underneath. Two silver candlesticks stand before this door, and a little lamp hangs in the window near it which is kept constantly burning." 2
The catafalque the writer saw was not as ornate as the one she describes, and the coverings were faded.

1 Jeremy xxvi, 18; Micheas iii. 10-12.

2 City of the Great King p. 212.