Temple music was given, in each case their work had to be undone by Jerusalem

workmen, in order to produce a proper mixture, or to evoke the former sweet sounds.

There can be no question, however, notwithstanding Palestinian prejudices, that there

were excellent Jewish workmen in Alexandria; and plenty of them, too, as we know from

their arrangement in guilds in their great synagogue. Any poor workman had only to

apply to his guild, and he was supported till he found employment. The guild of

coppersmiths there had, as we are informed, for their device a leathern apron; and when

it members went abroad they used to carry with them a bed which could be taken to

pieces. At Jerusalem, where this guild was organised under its Rabban, or chief, it

possessed a synagogue and a burying-place of its own. But the Palestinian workmen,

though they kept by each other, had no exclusive guilds; the principles of "free trade,"

so to speak, prevailing among them. Bazaars and streets were named after them. The

workmen of Jerusalem were specially distinguished for their artistic skill. A whole

valley--that of the Tyropoeon--was occupied by dairies; hence its name, "valley of

cheesemongers." Even in Isaiah 7:3 we read of "the field of the fullers," which lay "at the

end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway" to Joppa. A whole set of sayings

is expressly designated in the Talmud as "the proverbs of the fullers."

From their love of building and splendour the Herodian princes must have kept many

tradesmen in constant work. At the re -erection of the Temple no less than eighteen

thousand were so employed in various handicrafts, some of them implying great artistic

skill. Even before that, Herod the Great is said to have employed a large number of the

most experienced masters to teach the one thousand priests who were to construct the

Holy Place itself. For, in the building of that part of the Temple no laymen were engaged.

As we know, neither hammer, axe, chisel, nor any tool of iron was used within the sacred

precincts. The reason of this is thus explained in the Mishnah, when describing how all

the stones for the altar were dug out of virgin -earth, no iron tool being employed in their

preparation: "Iron is created to cut short the life of man; but the altar to prolong it.

Hence it is not becoming to use that which shortens for that which lengthens" (Midd. iii.

4). Those who know the magnificence and splendour of that holy house will be best able

to judge what skill in workmanship its various parts must have required. An instance

may be interesting on account of its connection with the most solemn fact of New

Testament history. We read in the Mishnah (Shek. viii. 5): "Rabbi Simeon, the son of

Gamaliel, said, in the name of Rabbi Simeon, the son of the (former) Sagan (assistant of

the high-priest): The veil (of the Most Holy Place) was an handbreadth thick, and woven

of seventy-two twisted plaits; each plait consisted of twenty-four threads" (according

to the Talmud, six threads of each of the four Temple -colours --white, scarlet, blue, and

gold). "It was forty cubits long, and twenty wide (sixty feet by thirty), and made of

eighty-two myriads" (the meaning of this in the Mishnah is not plain). "Two of these

veils were made every year, and it took three hundred priests to immerse one" (before

use). These statements must of course be considered as dealing in "round numbers";

but they are most interesting as helping us to realise, not only how the great veil of the

Temple was rent, when the Lord of that Temple died on the cross, but also how the

occurrence could have been effectually concealed from the mass of the people.

To turn to quite another subject. It is curious to notice in how many respects times and

circumstances have really not changed. The old Jewish employers of labour seem to

have had similar trouble with their men to that of which so many in our own times loudly

complain. We have an emphatic warning to this effect, to beware of eating fin e bread

and giving black bread to one's workmen or servants; not to sleep on feathers and give

them straw pallets, more especially if they were co-religionists, for, as it is added, he who

gets a Hebrew slave gets his master! Possibly something of this kind was on the mind of

St. Paul when he wrote this most needful precept (1 Tim 6:1,2): "Let as many servants as

are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God

and His doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have belie ving masters, let them not

despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are

believing and beloved, partakers of the benefit." But really there is nothing "new under

the sun!" Something like the provisions of a mutual assurance appear in the