worn on the occasion of his decease, and other demonstrations of joy to be made. It is

well known under what exceptional circumstances priests and the high-priest were

allowed to mourn for the dead (Lev 21:10,11). In the case of the high-priest it was

customary to say to him, "May we be thy expiation!" ("Let us suffer what ought to have

befallen thee";) to which he replied, "Be ye blessed of Heaven" (Sanh. ii. 1). It is noted

that this mode of address to the high-priest was intended to indicate the greatness of

their affection; and the learned Otho suggests (Lexic. Rabb, p. 343), that this may have

been in the mind of the apostle when he would have wished himself Anathema for the

sake of his brethren (Rom 9:3). On the return from the burial, friends, or neighbours

prepared a meal for the mourners, consisting of bread, hard -boiled eggs, and lentils --

round and coarse fare; round like life, which is rolling on unto death. This was brought

in and served up in earthenware. On the other hand, the mourners' friends partook of a

funeral meal, at which no more than ten cups were to be emptied--two before the meal,

five at it, and three afterwards (Jer. Ber. iii. 1). In modern times the religious duty of

attending to the dying, the dead, and mourners, is performed by a special "holy

brotherhood," as it is called, which many of the most religious Jews join for the sake of

the pious work in which it engages them.

We add the following, which may be of interest. It is expressly allowed (Jer. Ber. iii. 1),

on Sabbaths and feast-days to walk beyond the Sabbath limits, and to do all needful

offices for the dead. This throws considerable light on the evangelical account of the

offices rendered to the body of Jesus on the eve of the Passover. The chief mourning

rites, indeed, were intermitted on Sabbaths and feast-days; and one of the most

interesting, and perhaps the earliest Hebrew non-Biblical record--the Megillath Taanith,

or roll of fasts --mentions a number of other days on which mourning was prohibited,

being the anniversaries of joyous occasions. The Mis hnah (Moed K. iii. 5-9) contains a

number of regulations and limitations of mourning observances on greater and lesser

feasts, which we do not quote, as possessing little interest save in Rabbinical casuistry.

The loss of slaves was not to be mourned.

But what after death and in the judgment? And what of that which brought in, and

which gives such terrible meaning to death and the judgment--sin? It were idle, and

could only be painful here to detail the various and discordant sayings of the Rabbis,

some of which, at least, may admit of an allegorical interpretation. Only that which may

be of use to the New Testament student shall be briefly summarised. Both the Talmud

(Pes. 54 a; Ned. 39 b), and the Targum teach that paradise and hell were created before

this world. One quotation from the Jerusalem Targum (on Gen 3:24) will not only

sufficiently prove this, but show the general current of Jewish teaching. Two thousand

years, we read, before the world was made, God created the Law and Gehenna, and the

Garden of Eden. He made the Garden of Eden for the righteous, that they might eat of

the fruits thereof, and delight themselves in them, because in this world they had kept

the commandments of the law. But for the wicked He prepared Gehenna, which is like a

sharp two -edged destroying sword. He put within it sparks of fire and burning coals, to

punish the wicked in the world to come, because they had not observed the

commandments of the law in this world. For the law is the tree of life. Whosoever

observeth it shall live and subsist as the tree of life.48

Paradise and hell were supposed to be contiguous, only separated--it was said,

perhaps allegorically --by an handbreadth. But although we may here find some slight

resemblance to the localisation of the history of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke

16:25,26), only those acquainted with the theological thinking of the time can fully judge

what infinite difference there is between the story in the Gospel and the pictures drawn

in contemporary literature. Witness here the 22nd chapter of the book of Enoch, which,

as so many other passages from pseudo-epigraphic and Rabbinical writings, has been

mangled and misquoted by modern writers, for purposes hostile to Christianity. The

Rabbis seem to have believed in a multitude of heavens--most of them holding that

there were seven, as there were also seven departments in paradise, and as many in hell.

The pre -existence of the souls of all mankind before their actual appearance upon earth,