No. 437.-iv. 1. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil.] Mr. Maundrell in his travels in the Holy Land saw the place which was the scene of Christ's temptations, and thus describes it: "From this place (the Fountain of the Apostles) you proceed in an intricate way amongst hills and valleys interchangeably, all of a very barren aspect at present, but discovering evident signs of the labour of the husbandman in ancient times. After some hours travel in this sort of road, you arrive at the mountainous desert into which our blessed Saviour was led by the spirit to be tempted by the devil. A most miserable dry barren place it is, consisting of high rocky mountains, so torn and disordered as if the earth had suffered some great convulsion, in which its very bowels had been turned outward." (Journey, p. 79.) No. 438.-iv. 18. And recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.] It is beautifully observed by Mr. CRADOCK (Harmony, p. 69.) that the clause, recovering of sight to the blind, alludes to the wretched state of those prisoners, who, according to the inhuman custom still retained in the East, had their eyes put out: and with regard to such as these, this great deliverer is represented as restoring them, a work far beyond all human power. Probably they are the same with those who are spoken of in the next clause, as bruised with the weight of their fetters; for it is plain that even blind captives were sometimes loaded with them, as was the case with Samson, Judges xvi. 21. and Zedekiah, 2 Kings xxv. 7. No. 439.-vi. 38. Good measure pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.] The eastern garments being long, and folded, and girded with a girdle, admitted of carrying much corn or fruits of that kind in the bosom. No. 440.-vi. 48. When the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house.] "Though the returns. of rain in the winter are not extremely frequent, yet when it does rain, the water pours down with great violence three or four days and nights together, enough to drown the whole country." (Jacobus de Vitriaco, Gesta Dei, p. 1098.) Such violent rains, in so hilly a country as Judea, must occasion inundations very dangerous to buildings within their reach, by washing the soil from under them, and occasioning their fall. To some such events our Lord must certainly be understood to refer. HARMER, Vol. i. p. 31. No. 441.-vii. 36. Sat down to meat.] In the most early times the attitude at table was sitting. In Homer, when Ulysses arrives at the palace of Alcinous, the king displaces his son Laodamas in order to seat Ulysses in a magnificent chair. Elsewhere Homer speaks of seating the guests each in a chair. The Egyptians sat at table anciently, as did the Romans till towards the end of the second Punic war, when they began to recline at table. Mercurialis reports, that the origin of this mode was, the frequent use of the bath among the Romans, who, after bathing, going immediately to bed, and there eating, the custom insensibly became general, not only in Rome but throughout the empire. The tables were constructed of three distinct parts, or separate tables, making but one in the whole. One was placed at the upper end crossways, and the two others joined to its ends, one on each side, so as to leave an open space between, by which the attendants could readily wait at all the three. Round these tables were placed, not seats, but beds, one to each table; each of these beds was called clinium, and three of these being united to surround the three tables made the triclinium. At the end of each clinium was a footstool for the convenience of mounting up to it. These beds were formed of mattrasses, and were supported on frames of wood, often highly ornamented. Each guest reclined on his left elbow, using principally his right hand, which was therefore kept at liberty. The feet of the person reclining being towards the external edge of the bed, were much more readily reached by any body passing than any other part. The Jews, before they sit down to table, carefully wash their hands; they consider this ceremony as essential, After meals, they wash them again. When they sit down to table, the master of the house, or chief person. in the company, taking bread, breaks it, but does not divide it; then putting his hand to it, he recites this blessing: Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, the king of the world, who producest the bread of the earth. Those present answer, Amen. Having distributed the bread among the guests, he takes the vessel of the wine in his right hand, saying, Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the world, who hast produced the fruit of the vine. They then repeat the 23d psalm. They take care that after meals there shall be a piece of bread remaining on the table. The master of the house orders a glass to be washed, fills it with wine, and elevating it, says, Let us bless him of whose benefits we have been partaking; the rest answer, Blessed be he, who has heaped his favours on us, and by his goodness has now fed us. Then he recites a pretty long prayer, wherein he thanks God for his many benefits vouchsafed to Israel; beseeches him to pity Jerusalem and his temple; to restore the throne of David; to send Elijah and the Messiah, and to deliver them out of their long captivity. They all answer, Amen. They recite Psalm xxiv. 9, 10. A Then giving the glass with the little wine in it to be drank round, he takes what is left, and the table is cleared. These are the ceremonies of the modern Jews. (CALMET's Dict. article EATING; and Fragments supplementary, No. 104.) No. 442.-vii. 44. Thou gavest me no water for my feet.] It was a custom universal among the eastern people to entertain their guests at their entrance into their houses with clean water and sweet oil. Thus it appears that Christ was not entertained by the master of the house; for he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house; thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. (ver. 46.) Mine head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Thus also Homer represents Telemachus and Pisistratus as being entertained at the court of Menelaus. After their introduction to the palace, he says, From room to room their eager view they bend; Odyss. iv. ver. 48. No. 443.-x. 4. Salute no man by the way.] The mission upon which the disciples of Christ were sent was so important that they were required to use the greatest dispatch, and to avoid those things which might retard them, especially if they were merely of a ceremonious nature. The injunction contained in this passage is thus to be understood; for it is not to be supposed that Christ would command his disciples to neglect or violate any of those customs unnecessarily which were in general use, and which were innocent in them selves. In the present instance, had they been allowed to give and receive the common salutations, it is probable that their progress would have been inconsiderable for the time employed in it. Of the truth of this statement we may be satisfied from what Niebuhr says. (Travels, vol. i. p. 302.) "The Arabs of Yemen, and especially the Highlanders, often stop strangers, to ask whence they came? and whither they are going? These questions are suggested merely by curiosity, and it would be indiscreet therefore to refuse an answer." This representation of the matter certainly clears from the appearance of incivility a precept which Christ designed only to teach his servants a suitable deport ment. No. 444.-x. 13. Sitting in sackcloth and ashes.] This expression of mourning and sorrow was frequent in the East. Thus Tamar signified her distress when dishonoured by Amnon. (2 Sam. xiii. 19.) Thus also when Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes. (Esther iv. 1.) Thus Job expressed his repentance. (Job xlii. 6.) Thus Daniel set his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. (Dan. ix. 3.) Other nations adopted the practice, and it became a very common method, whereby to exhibit great grief and misery. That it prevailed among the Greeks is clear and certain. Homer thus represents Achilles acting upon the news of the death of Patroclus. Αμφοτέρησι δε χερσιν ελων κόνιν αιθαλόεσσαν, A sudden horror shot through all the chief, Cast on the ground, with furious hands he spread |