where it had been dropped at the first manifestation of His Messianic consciousness. In

the Temple at Jerusalem He had said in answer to the misapprehensive question of His

Mother: 'Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' and now when about to

take in hand that 'business,' He tells her so again, and decisively, in reply to her

misapprehensive suggestion. It is a truth which we must ever learn, and yet are ever slow

to learn in our questionings and suggestings, alike as concerns His dealings with

ourselves and His rule of His Churc h, that the highest and only true point of view is 'the

Father's business,' not our personal relationship to Christ. This thread, then, is taken up

again at Cana in the circle of friends, as immediately afterwards in His public

manifestation, in the purify ing of the Temple. What He had first uttered as a Child, on

His first visit to the Temple, that He manifested forth when a Man, entering on His active

work - negatively, in His reply to His Mother; positively, in the 'sign' He wrought. It all

meant: 'Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' And, positively and

negatively, His first appearance in Jerusalem32 meant just the same. For, there is ever

deepest unity and harmony in that truest Life, the Life of Life.

As we pass through the court of that house in Cana, and reach the covered gallery which

opens on the various rooms - in this instance, particularly, on the great reception room -

all is festively adorned. In the gallery the servants move about, and there the 'water-pots'

are ranged, 'after the manner of the Jews,' for purification - for the washing not only of

hands before and after eating, but also of the vessels used.33 How detailed Rabbinic

ordinances were in these respects, will be shown in ano ther connection. 'Purification' was

one of the main points in Rabbinic sanctity. By far the largest and most elaborate34 of the

six books into which the Mishnah is divided, is exclusively devoted to this subject (the

'Seder Tohoroth,' purifications). Not to speak of references in other parts of the Talmud,

we have two special tractates to instruct us about the purification of 'Hands' (Yadayim )

and of 'Vessels' (Kelim ). The latter is the most elaborate in all the Mishnah, and consists

of not less than thirty chapters. Their perusal proves, alike the strict accuracy of the

Evangelic narratives, and the justice of Christ's denunciations of the unreality and gross

hypocrisy of this elaborateness of ordinances.35 This the more so, when we recall that it

was actua lly vaunted as a special qualification for a seat in the Sanhedrin, to be so acute

and learned as to know how to prove clean creeping things (which were declared unclean

by the Law).36 And the mass of the people would have regarded neglect of the ordinances

of purification as betokening either gross ignorance, or daring impiety.

Seder Tohoroth , treating of 'purifications.' It consists of twelv e tractates (Massikhtoth ),