and on either side of the veil were those of the officiating elders. At the western end of the synagogue a high latticed gallery screened off the part appropriated to the women, and a few open seats by the door, apart from the congregation, were reserved for the proselytes of the gate.

In accordance with the expression of the psalmist (Psa. lv. 17), morning, evening, and noonday services were daily performed in the synagogue; and that there might at such times be always a congregation, a few poor almsmen were retained to compose the requisite decade, who, as other worshippers came in could quit the service for their ordinary occupations.

All being assembled, generally before public worship com. menced, the members present read or recited their private prayers; these, eighteen in number, called the Shemonah Ezreh (Ezra), and attributed to that prophet, with an additional invocation, formed the imperative daily devotions of every true Israelite. This, and the recitation of the Shemang,* passages from Deuteronomy and Numbers, with the prayer Cadisch,t formed the daily service. Sabbath service began by the Chasan giving the preli. minary introit, at which the “angel” and congregation, all standing up, “Cadisch” ote was repeated. Next succeeded the general liturgy, cantillated and accompanied with many bowings and inflexions towards the veil at the eastern end. During prayers every member threw over his already covered head the praying veil, or Talith, and at certain passages in the ritual kissed its fringed edges, touching also the sacred memorial bandages or Tephilim, which were worn upon the right hand and arm. This first liturgy finished, the Chasan and elders, with great apparent reverence, opened the doors of the Ark, and took from it the holy rolls of the law (or Torah), at the uncovering of which the audience, again rising up, were supposed to express their joy by noisy yet musical acclamations. The Pentateuch was now laid on the desk in the almemar and unrolled, and seven different members of the congregation were now summoned by name to read as many sections (Parshioth) of the law. This, the first lesson, was called the “ Kiriath Shema," and the privilege of reading it was eagerly coveted and paid for, custom sanctioning the

* The Shemang consists of the following passages :- Deut. vi. 4–9; xi. 13 -21; Nub. x4. 37–41.

Cadisch. Our blessed Master adapted this beautiful and familiar prayer to the Christian service, by amplifying its petitions and adding those clauses which constitute the peculiar patbos and sublimity of the Lord's Prayer.

I The Pentateuch was divided into fifty-four portions, or Sedroth, each of which was again subdivided into seven Parshioth, or chapters; and this division into sections is the oldest by which any part of the Bible has been arranged.

act as a kind of confirmation for the Jewish youths, who afterwards were considered fully responsible as men. This portion of the service was also terminated by a doxology. The second part of the ceremonies was commenced by the Chasan reading and interpreting to the people a selection of passages from one of the minor prophets. To this a psalm succeeded, and afterwards any Levite present could preach to or address the congregation; and this right was further conceded to doctors of the law, travellers, or men eminent for their reputation and sanctity (see Acts xiii. 15; Luke iv. 20). A collection for poor brethren, the repetition of “Cadisch," and the solenn pronunciation of the prescribed Levi. tical blessing (Numb. vi. 24) closed the Sabbath service. The afternoon service resembled that of the morning, with the omis. sion only of the second lesson; and the routine of all these performances was broken by the interpolation of various additional ceremonies, according to the usages of the Jewish calendar.*

Such-choral, congregational, and continuous--was the worship of the synagogue. In process of time many variations were introduced; portions from the Hagiographia were substituted for the Pentateuch, a custom dating from the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, who made the reading of the Scriptures penal unto death (1 Macc. i. 59, 60). Commentaries, the origin of the Talmud and Mishna, and Chaldee paraphrases or Targums, were necessitated by the disuse of the mother tongue after the captivity ; additional prayers, psalms, and offices, were the results of national calamities and providential deliverance; extravagances of interpretation and gesture were added by the opposing sects of Kabbalists and Karaites, whose very contrarieties of opinion have but more fully secured the transmission of those oracles of God whose custody was committed to their fathers (Acts vii. 38; Rom. iii. 2).

Such has been the history of the oldest existing ritual, tve service of the synagogue; and to the Christian there is an affecting sublimity in the thought that the worship resulting from, and dictated in, the infancy of revelation has been perpetuated amid persecution, vicissitude, and apostasy, to the maturity of a fully developed faith, and that it will only disappear when merged into a perfection of service where even faith itself shall exist as faith no longer. W. R. C.

* For example, the Monday and Thursday services had penitential prayers inserted in the ritual. “The reason for this, we are told, is, that on Thursday Moses went up into Mount Sinai the second time, to pacify the anger of the Almighty on account of the people's worshipping the golden calf, and to receive a renewal of the law; and on Monday he returned. ... These are considered days of contrition, and the most pious Jews fast on them.” See Mill's “ British Jews,' p. 106, to the author of which the writer is much indebted.

THE VARIOUS MEANINGS OF THE WORD “HEAVEN.”

PART II.

and

Newton, in

ProXAMPLES of the figurative use of the word “heaven"

Sy are frequent in the prophetical writings, especially EKSAS in those where grand symbols are employed to typify 159 | national states. As was pointed out by the illustrious

Newton, in whose opinion the best critics of modern

times concur, heaven stands for the higher powers and dignities in the “ body politic," the earth being the representative of the people. So that when heaven and earth are said to be shaken, this implies a convulsion in a nation affecting both the people and their rulers. So also signs in heaven and changes amongst the celestial bodies symbolize various calamities befalling those whom men are accustomed to look up to and trust in. It is in some of the sublime utterances of Hebrew poetry that a possible doubt may suggest itself whether a particular expression be purely figurative, or whether it may not also have a literal meaning. Thus we are told of the creation of new heavens and a new earth, which may be viewed as a prediction of a new era in the history of a nation or of the whole race of man, or regarded as a statement of what is otherwise plainly announced, namely, the reorganization of our planet after the fires of the last conflagration, “heavens" here standing for the earth's atmosphere, the visible heavens.

By “heaven," in many places of Scripture, is intended, as already hinted, either the aerial heavens, the atmosphere encompassing the globe, or the sky, in which apparently move the celestial orbs. The birds are spoken of as “the birds of heaven," because they fly to and fro, or soar beyond our sight. The stars are called the “host of heaven” in several places. Moses, by inspiration, foretells what should befall Israel if they came to worship the “ host of heaven," as was the custom of the heathen nations; that is, either the stars, or deities named after them, and supposed to be connected with them. And Stephen, in his address, refers to the fact that Israel did fall into this sin of idolatry as thus described. (We find, however, that the "host of heaven” has sometimes another signification, being also applied to the angels. In 1 Kings xxi. 19, Micaiah describes, in the form of a parable, what was occurring in the unseen world. He saw in vision the “ host of heaven” standing around the divine throne, while the destinies of the king of Israel were trembling in the balance. Or, occasionally the dwellers in heaven are, by

THE VARIOUS MEANINGS OF THE WORD "HEAVEN.” 207 metonymy, called “heaven,” as in Job xv. 15. “The heavens are not clean in His sight.") A few instances may be given as showing, in different connections, the application of the word to what the Jews would have called the “first and second heaven." Our Lord, at the early part of His ministry, assures His disciples that thereafter “they should see heaven open," John i. 51. There was manifested in the sky a glorious vision, which appeared as if unveiling heaven itself to their gaze. The angels again, after our Lord's ascent, assured the disciples, as they looked earnestly towards heaven, that as their Master was seen by them to pass into the upper regions of the air on His return to the heaven of heavens, so shall He once more be seen approaching earth. We are reminded by the apostle Peter that by God's command the "heavens” were of old. And when He wills that this environing atmosphere shall be decomposed, and earth and sky mingling in one flame, this sin-polluted world shall be purified, and become the abode of happy immortals. Nor do we probably err in limiting the statement regarding the creation as given in Gen. ii. 1, where it is said that the “heavens and the earth were finished,” and applying it to the “firmament,” or the sky which we see. A remarkable passage occurs in the Book of Job (chap. xiv. 12). “Man,” says the inspired writer, “riseth not till the heavens be no more;” at the grand consummation of all things, when the present aerial heavens disappear, he shall be reunited to the body in which he once dwelt, an anticipation of the fuller announce. ment of this in the gospel age. It is obvious that the destruction of the enemies of Israel by great stones from heaven, recorded in Joshua x. 11, was by their descent from the atmosphere above, not from heaven proper. So also came the “fire from heaven” spoken of in divers passages. This “heaven” was spanned by the hand of God (Isa. xlviii. 13), its “pillars ” tremble at His reproof (Job xxvi, 11), yet His glory rises above and far excels these His works, marvellous as they are (Psa. ix. 1).

Heaven, lastly, is referred to many times in Scripture in its most popular acceptation, as that world where abide angels and the spirits of redeemed men, and which is expressly called the Throne of God. Heaven, it has been well said, as spoken of in Scripture as the future for the saved beyond the grave, is not so much a place, but rather a state or condition. The most beatific region would be no heaven to the unsanctified, while any part of the universe of God might be heaven to the unfallen spirit, or to the redeemed man, finally freed from sin. And there is reason to suppose that we might pass from sun to sun, and from orb to orb, in illimitable space, and still these are all to be comprehended under the term heaven. Yet somewhere, unknown to us, there is