whole social Rabbinical legislation on the subject seems to rest on two sound

underlying principles: negatively, the avoidance of all that might become work; and,

positively, the doing of all which, in the opinion of the Rabbis, might tend to make the

Sabbath 'a delight.' Hence, not only were fasting and mourning strictly prohibited, but

food, dress, and every manner of enjoyment, not incompatible with abstinence from

work, were prescribed to render the day pleasurable. 'All the days of the week,' the

Rabbis say, 'has God paired, except the Sabbath, which is alone, that it may be wedded

to Israel.' Israel was to welcome the Sabbath as a bride; its advent as that of a king. But

in practice all this terribly degenerated. Readers of the New Testament know how

entirely, and even cruelly, the spirit and object of the Sabbath were perverted by the

traditions of 'the elders.' But those only who have studied the Jewish law on the subject

can form any adequate conception of the state of matters. Not to speak of the folly of

attempting to produce joy by prescribed means, nor of the incongruousness of those

means, considering the sacred character of the day, the almost numberless directions

about avoiding work must have made a due observance of the Sabbath-rest the greatest

labour of all. All work was arranged under thirty-nine chief classes, or 'fathers,' each of

them having ever so many 'descendants,' or subordinate divisions. Thus, 'reaping' was

one of the 'fathers,' or chief classes, and 'plucking ears of corn' one of its descendants.

So far did this punctiliousness go that it became necessary to devise ingenious means

to render the ordinary intercourse of life possible, and to evade the inconvenient

strictness of the law which regulated a 'Sabbath-day's journey.' 100

The school of Shammai, the sect of the Essenes, and strange to say, the Samaritans,

were the most stringent in their Sabbath-observance. The school of Shammai held that

the duty of Sabbath-rest extended not only to men and to beasts, but even to inanimate

objects, so that no process might be commenced on the Friday which would go on of

itself during the Sabbath, such as laying out flax to dry, or putting wool into dye. The

school of Hillel excluded inanimate things from the Sabbath-rest, and also allowed work

to be given on a Friday to Gentiles, irrespective of the question whether they could

complete it before the Sabbath began. Both schools allowed the preparation of the

Passover-meal on the Sabbath, and also priests, while on their ministry in the Temple, to

keep up the fire in the 'Beth Moked.' But this punctilious enforcement of the Sabbath-

rest became occasionally dangerous to the nation. For at one time the Jews would not

even defend themselves on the Sabbath against hostile attacks of armies, till the

Maccabees laid down the principle, which ever afterwards continued in force (Jos. Anti.

xii. 6, 2; xiv. 4, 2.), that defensive, though not offensive, warfare was lawful on the holy

day. Even as thus modified, the principle involved peril, and during the last siege of

Jerusalem it was not uniformly carried out (compare Jewish Wars, ii. 19, 2, but, on the

other hand, Antiq, xiv. 4, 2.). Nor was it, so far as we can judge from analogy (Josh 6:15,

etc), sanctioned by Scripture precedent. But this is not the place further to explain either

the Scripture or the Rabbinical law of Sabbath-observance, as it affected the individual,

the home, and the social life, nor yet to describe the Sabbath-worship in the ancient

synagogues of Palestine. We confine our attention to what passed in the Temple itself.

The only directions given in Scripture for the celebration of the Sabbath in the

sanctuary are those which enjoin 'a holy convocation,' or a sacred assembly (Lev 23:3);

the weekly renewal of the shewbread (Lev 24:8; Num 4:7); and an additional burnt-

offering of two lambs, with the appropriate meat- and drink-offerings, 'beside the

continual' (that is, the ordinary daily) 'burnt-offering and his drink-offering' (Num

28:9,10). But the ancient records of tradition enable us to form a very vivid conception of

Sabbath-worship in the Temple at the time of Christ. Formally, the Sabbath commenced