1. Elders or Rulers of the Synagogue.-On some occasions there was probably but one ruling elder, and hence the phrase "the ruler of the synagogue," (see Mark v. 35.) but in other cases, and perhaps more generally, there were more than one, (see Acts xiii. 15.) And it is affirmed by Jewish writers, that the proper number was three. In certain matters of judgment, three appear to have been necessary. These, as their name imports, sat in judgment. They did so with re was specially present. It is apparently in reference to this, that our Lord said to his disciples, "Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that ye shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. xviii. 19, 20.) It is as if he had wished to show his disciples, that the principle of church communion, with all its privileges, is to be carried farther out under the Christian dispen-gard to matters of discipline and worship, but they did sation, than it had before been; that wherever it should be found even to exist, as in the case of two persons, the privilege was secured. And this surely renders the Christian even more inexcusable than the Jew, if after all, he be found among such as forsake the assembling of themselves together. And yet how high is the example which the Jews have set us! They allowed not even ten qualified individuals to live without a synagogue; and we allow hundreds, it may be thousands, including men of all circumstances. II. The Buildings.—These are so concisely, and on the whole so well described by Horne, in the third volume of his Introduction, that we can scarcely do better | than copy his account. "It does not appear," says he, "from the New Testament, that the synagogues had any peculiar form. The building of them was regarded as a mark of piety, (Luke vii. 5.) and they were erected within or without the city, generally in an elevated place, and were distinguished from the proseuchae by being roofed. Each of them had an altar, or rather table, on which the book of the law was opened; and on the east side, there was an ark or chest, in which the voJume of the law was deposited. The seats were so disposed, that the people always sat with their faces towards the elders, and the place where the law was kept; and the elders sat in the opposite direction, that is to say, with their backs to the ark, and their faces to the people. The seats of the latter, as being placed nearer the ark, were accounted the more holy; and hence they are in the New Testament termed the chief seats in the synagogue, which the Pharisees affected, and for which our Lord inveighed against them, (Matt. xxiii. 6.) A similar proceeding seems to have crept into the places of worship, even of the first Christians; and hence we may account for the indignation of the Apostle James, (ii. 3.) against the undue preference that was given to the rich. The women were separated from the men, and sat in a gallery inclosed with lattices, so that they could distinctly see and hear all that passed in the synagogue, without themselves being exposed to view." To this account we shall only add, that the synagogue, at least in favourable circumstances, was usually accompanied with a school for children, a Beth Michash, or Divinity School, and a Beth Din, or Hall of Judgment. III. The Office-Bearers.-According to Vitringa, whose authority in all matters of this kind stands deservedly high, these varied in different circumstances. In large cities they were numerous, and consisted in all the higher offices, of learned men duly set apart; whereas in cases of less importance, they were fewer and not so fully qualified. And this is perhaps the true explanation of discrepancies among writers of the highest reputation. And with this explanation we now proceed to detail these in order, so also in a variety of offences, both civil and criminal. They judged in money matters, in matters of theft, of losses, of restitution, of violence done to females, in the admission of proselytes, and the laying on of hands, &c. 2. The Sheliach Zibbor, or Angel of the Synagogue. -The person bearing this name, was the chief minister of religion, and in particular, he offered up the prayers of the congregation. And as in this he acted for the people, he was called their Angel or Messenger. And hence, as is believed, the name applied in the book of Revelation to the presiding minister in each of the seven Churches of Asia-" the Angel of the Church." It is also probable, that the angel of the synagogue sat with the ruling elders as one of their number, and that he came in this way to be distinguished from them, only by his labouring also "in the word and doctrine.” 3. The Chazan or Overseer.-The person bearing this title, is held by some to be the same with the angel of the synagogue; and Jewish authorities have been cited in support of this opinion. But Vitringa has examined the whole question at great length, and has shown on evidence very satisfactory, that the office of the Chazan was subordinate; and hence the name, and also the duty assigned him in the synagogue at Nazareth, (Luke iv. 20.) He is there called minister or attendant; receiving also the book from the officiating minister. And according to Jewish writers, he had a general charge of the synagogue with its sacred utensils, and of the order of worship. 4. The Readers.-These were usually seven in number; but they were not so properly office-bearers as simply members of the congregation, who were from time to time called out for the purpose. The first chosen was, if such were present, a priest; the second, a Levite; and the other five simply Israelites. The portions of Scripture read, were, as will afterwards appear, large; and they were read from a scroll in the original Hebrew, which had become in the days of our Saviour, very much a dead language. This will of itself show, that the persons chosen for Readers, must have been men of education. 5. The Interpreter.-The Readers stood each in turn in the place appointed, and read distinctly from the Hebrew scroll verse by verse, the Chazan meanwhile looking on. At the end of each verse he made a pause, and then the Interpreter rendered it into the vernacular language, adding such glosses as were fitted to make the original better understood. He was accordingly, a regular office-bearer of the synagogue. 6. The Teacher or Doctor.-Under this name, we mean the Teacher in the Michash or Divinity School, and who had also his interpreter. But we are not sure whether the duties of the school were not in most cases discharged by the office-bearers of the synagogue proper, It is even stated, that the President of the Eldership sat as chief Doctor in the Beth Michash. Still, the duties of the two offices are so distinct, according to our apprehension, that they will in this way be best conceived of; and they are so stated by Lightfoot himself. Moreover, we have in this distinction of duty, whether of office or not, the probable origin of the distinction"Pastor and Teacher." 7. The Pamasin or Deacons.-These were but little connected with either the worship or discipline of the synagogue. They collected money, sometimes apparently by a kind of assessment, for the maintenance of the poor, and where other means were wanting, for the general support of the synagogue, including the stipends of the office-bearers. And they have accordingly been associated with the Deacons of the Christian church. And their office, and that of the seven, who were elected to relieve the Apostles of the duty of serving tables, are certainly like each other. At the same time, as they are both matters of controversy, which may come afterwards to be reviewed, it is enough for our present object to notice them in this general manner. That I may watch thy opening character CHRIST THE SOURCE AND SUPPORT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. BY THE REV. JOHN FORBES, D. D., Some of the articles which have yet to be taken up, exhibit a closer resemblance to corresponding parts of the Apostolical churches, than even these; and certainly hold out the prospect of shedding an important light on not a few of those dark questions, about which the friends of truth are so often divided. There is particularly one source of error, which inquiries of this kind, if properly followed out, are fitted to correct. Each class of controversialists, being satisfied of the scriptural character of their own opinions, go to the Apostolical writings, really expecting to find something like a picture of their own church; and it may be an embodied likeness of their own special opinions. Now, we are quite satisfied, that a faithful examination of facts will show, that the Apostolical churches furnished an exact picture of no church on earth. An exact like-hearts disclosed, with regard to the treatment ness of these can be found only in like circumstances. And if we are thus led to have our minds disabused of fanciful resemblances, we will the more freely, and the more faithfully seize on great and abiding principles, which ought to form the foundation of every church, and which involve far less debateable matter, than is generally supposed. THE MOTHER TO HER SICK CHILD. "I am that bread of life."-JOHN vi. 48. THE more spiritual any doctrine of Scripture is, the more difficult is it to lodge an adequate impression of it in the minds of the unrenewed and carnal; and had we the secrets of men's which has been given to the truths of Christianity, we should find abundant confirmation of the painful fact, "that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." At the first promulgation of the Gospel, when our Lord declared to Nicodemus, a Rabbi in Israel, and a ruler among the Jews, that a man must be born again that individual, however officially versant with the law and the prophets, was an entire stranger to this subject, and showed an ignorance so profound, and a levity so great, as to draw forth from Jesus an expression of deep surprise. And in the chapter before us, when he speaks to the Jews, who had crowded to his ministry, and who had lately witnessed a most interesting miracle, concerning the same subject, of a divine life in the soul, and of the aliment or bread necessary for its support, they were equally at a loss to understand what he meant; and from that time many of them went back, and walked no more with him. And are we not called to fear that there may be some in this assembly to whom the subject will still seem to bear the same mysterious and repulsive character; and who instead of humbly desiring to attain to the experience and possession of that spiritual life which it is the end of the Gospel to produce in their souls, will arrogantly and presumptuously reject the consideration of it as foolishness, and content themselves with remaining as they are, though the Word of God forewarns them, that their state is one of spiritual death, and unless escaped from must become one of everlasting rejection from the presence and from the glory of God. The whole analogy of the works of nature, and all that we can learn and judge of our own constitution, should prevent every individual, however personally a stranger to the subject under consideration, from being misled with regard to it, by unfavourable prepossessions and prejudices. Can we set any limits to the power of God, or to the manifold wisdom with which he is pleased to distinguish and govern all his works? How mysterious is even the simplest form of life, the life of a plant or the life of a worm, and the inscrutable processes by which it is sustained, and carried on; and, but for experience, could we learn any thing, even with regard to this department of life, without extreme wonder, arising even to incredulity? And do we not witness a rising scale of life, among the various animated tribes; at every step, a more complete system of organization, greater powers of sensibility and perception; a fuller and more varied range of intelligence, and a nearer approach to the exercise of reason, evidently presenting themselves? What a wide interval, and how crowded with the wonders of creative wisdom, separates the plant from the worm, and the worm from man! But are we to conclude, that the purposes of divine wisdom, and the resources of divine skill have been exhausted, when we arrive at the region of intellectual life; and that man, as he naturally exists, forms the highest, the noblest, or the most perfect work that can possibly proceed from the hand of the Supreme Creator? Does not the magnitude and the glory of the universe call upon us rather to believe that there are orders of beings above man as well as below him, who fill a higher sphere of existence, and occupy the range of ascent to a height, perhaps inconceivable, which separates us from the Creator? And shall we say, that these beings have not a higher kind of life than either that natural life, or that intellectual life which belongs to them in common with inferior natures? Is there not cause to conclude, that living nearer to God, they are more disposed, and better qualified, to serve and to glorify him,that the elements of a moral and religious nature so imperfect in us, are fully developed in them, that they feel more profoundly their dependence upon the great Author of their being, and their obligations to his infinite goodness, and that they breathe a spirit of sacredness and piety which has seldom, if ever, been approached by any of the fallen inhabitants of this dark and polluted world, even under the happiest and most propitious circumstances? But has not man a progressive nature? Is not his soul richly furnished with the seeds of excellence? and do we not see him, in some instances, rising from the immaturity of infancy to a condition little lower than the angels, and adding to natural life all the powers of intellectual, together with the purity, the enjoyment, and the elevation of some measure of spiritual life? And is he not destined to inherit a future existence ?-shall he not rise at the resurrection to participate in the communion with God, which angels enjoy? and what more necessary than that he should now become prepared for the exalted destiny which hereafter awaits him? and that God who has set the seal of immortality upon his soul, and opened to him a way of access to eternal glory, should make provision for his growth in that spiritual life, the possession and the exercise of which are so inseparably connected with his everlasting happiness? Our Lord, as we are informed at the beginning of the chapter, had wrought a great miracle, previous to the occasion when he delivered the discourse, of which the text forms a part, having, with a few loaves and fishes, miraculously fed a multitude of five thousand souls. The people followed him for this, expecting a repetition of the boon, as if the end of Christ's coming was merely to feed their perishing bodies. He cautioned them against entertaining this unworthy idea, or being actuated by it in adhering to him; and told them that his was a nobler end, a higher and far more benevolent work,—to give food to their souls,-to foster and to nourish in them a divine life, to supply them with spiritual hopes and spiritual principles, and to advance them to the perfection of their nature, as moral and religious beings. How sublime the object for which Christ descended into our world, and how worthy of his infinite wisdom and goodness to pursue-to restore us to the favour and the enjoyment of God, to awaken and to stimulate our gratitude and love, by the offer of a free salvation, and unmerited mercy,-to infuse and to invigorate heavenly desires, and hopes, and feelings, in our souls, and to begin, and carry on, and perfect, a life within us which shall never die! Even the miraculous manna which Moses gave the Church in the wilderness was only a typical emblem or representation of that bread which you now have in Christ. There was great goodness visible in that provision so supernaturally communicated from day to day, to the rebellious and perverse house of Israel; so that they had only to go forth in the morning and gather the manna with which the ground was richly strewed around their tents. But how infinitely greater is the display of the riches of divine grace which you have presented to you, in God giving his own Son for the life of men, in appointing that his body should be broken and his blood shed, and in setting him forward to be a propitiation for our sins, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him! Under the Old Testament some sacri fices, such as that of the passover, were eaten by the worshippers, after they had been brought from the altar-a beautiful representation of that friendship with God to which they had been admitted who participated of the feast. And to this rite our Lord evidently has a reference when he says, "my body is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." It was his sacrifice upon the cross which established perfect reconciliation, and constituted him our Redeemer and our peacemaker, and, therefore, to receive him as our Substitute, to believe in the infinite efficacy of his sufferings and death, to participate by faith in his broken body and shed blood, is the source of all confidence and hope toward God, and nourishes every principle in the soul of a believer that is essential to his spiritual life. To bring this subject still more fully and clearly under your view, let us proceed, in the first place, to illustrate a few of the leading and characteristic features of spiritual life; and then, in the second place, to point out in what manner faith in Christ, more especially as a Redeemer, serves to promote and strengthen the existence of this life in the souls of his people. I. When we look within us, and examine the nature, workings, and dispositions of our minds, we must be sensible of a great deadness of affection towards God, and of a prevailing numbness and insensibility of heart towards spiritual things, which contrast no less powerfully than painfully with the fond and habitual interest and affection which we cherish towards whatever is carnal and earthly. Among the latter class of objects we are as it were in our native element; and such is the strength of that affection which binds us towards them, that the most poor and miserable of men still doat upon the world with unextinguishable ardour, and the least encouragement will make them as fond of it, and as warmly interested in it, after innumerable privations, hardships, and disappointments, as they were before. The roughest husks will suffice to sustain the life of the worldly; and such is its eager tenacity, that though smitten and buffeted ten thousand times, it will scarcely so much as relax, by the smallest degree, in the energy of its endurance. But spiritual life is a more tender and delicate principle, more difficult to be reared and more liable to be injured, having almost nothing congenial to it either in the soil in which it grows or in the atmosphere which it breathes, but meeting much to enfeeble it in the state of men's hearts, and in the aspect and character of the world in which they dwell. It is not of the earth, but an emanation from heaven; the work of the Spirit of God, who, according to his sovereign good pleasure, quickeneth whomsoever he wills. The influence of this life, where it is imparted, extends to all the powers of the mind, the understanding, the affections, and the will, quickening, purifying, and directing them, with a sweet and harmonizing constraint, to the knowledge, the enjoyment, and the service of God. Its effect upon the understanding consists in convincing us of the supreme importance, and the absolute necessity, of the knowledge of God, and in stimulating us to use every means by which we may hope to attain to this divine science. It is a characteristic which the Scriptures ascribe to wicked men, to all who are dead in trespasses and sins, that there is none that seeketh after God, that they desire not to retain the knowledge of God in all their thoughts, that they are without God, and without hope in the world. But let the breath of spiritual life be only infused into the soul, and the winter of this spiritual death is immediately broken up; there is an awakening of feelings, and anxieties, and cares, of which the mind was all unconscious before, and the subject of religion can now no longer be regarded with that apathy and unconcern under which it was formerly viewed. Accordingly, it is an exhilar ating sign, and one that promises the dawn of an era of revival and quickening, when a spirit of inquiry is found pervading a people, when, as in the days of John the Baptist, multitudes throng in quest of divine instruction, wicked men, publicans and soldiers, and those who are usually the most hardened and unconcerned, and the most removed, by the nature of their callings, from the sound of counsel and persuasion, and when this proceeds not from motives of mere idle curiosity or excitement, but from a deep feeling of the supreme importance and obligation of religion. It is a gracious sign when an individual is driven to seek instruction from his Bible, who has formerly neglected it, and occupied his mind with every vanity which society, literature, politics, or business, may have thrown in his way. More espe cially is this the case when he comes to the Word of God with an earnest desire to be made wise unto salvation, and when he connects prayer for the illuminating and converting influence of divine grace, with the diligent use of the means of salvation. If the life of God ever visits your soul, it will make you in earnest to learn his will, from no vain or unworthy motive, but from feeling deeply how much your duty and your salvation are involved in the attainment. What is all science and philosophy compared with this! How much more excellent is the knowledge of God himself than the knowledge of the most glorious of all his works,-than all the wisdom which you could ever derive by exploring earth and heaven! With what reverence, with what gratitude, with what love ought you to examine and study every communication of the divine will! "This is life eternal to know thee, the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." But spiritual life extends its benign and gracious influence to the affections of the soul, and exer cises an influence over them of the most important and salutary nature. The predominant affections in every unrenewed mind are pride and selfishness, which, combining with impenitence, lead to complacency, a cherished love of security and pesce, and an aversion to every view or principle which is ever inclined and directed by what we apprehend to be our chief good; and, accordingly, it is regulated by the state of the understanding and of the affections. If we think our chief good is to be found in sin, our will must inevitably incline in that direction, and no power can prevent its bias, however pernicious or destructive. If, again, we have arrived at the conviction that our chief good consists in holiness and in assimilation to the divine image, if our understandings and our affections centre upon this conclusion, then our wills shall declare to the same effect, and the whole man will be harmoniously constrained to follow that which is good. And hence the import and the emphasis of the doctrine of our Lord, “Make the tree good, and the fruit good, or the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for every tree is known by its fruits." might inspire a sense of guilt, a feeling of demerit, | are, the greater will our desire become, and or an apprehension of danger. Hence those the exertions which it will produce. The will opinions concerning the nature and the government of God, and the service he requires, have ever been most palatable to carnal men, which accord with their own delusive feelings; and because they have no love towards a God of infinite holiness and rectitude, they have been prepared to adopt any false system of doctrine which has promised them a greater measure of peace in their sins. But when spiritual life has been infused into a soul, it is opened to feel the power, the excellence, the grandeur, the sweetness, the loveliness, and the beauty, which are inherent in true religion, and it has no temptation, or at least it yields to no temptation, to turn aside to any refuge of lies. Conscience is alive, and it yields its according testimony to every doctrine which has for its tendency to show that God is all holy and glorious, and that we ourselves are all odious and polluted. Spiritual life has a primary reference indeed to the feelings and emotions which we entertain respecting sin and holiness. It was originally lost when man fell under the blinding and corrupting power of sin, and it is never regained until sin is repented of, and its evil deeply felt and deplored. Nothing is more unfavourable to the existence of this life in the soul than a hard and stony heart, nothing more conducive to it than a broken and contrite spirit. The more a conscience becomes tender, the more spiritual life will increase; the more it becomes seared and insensible, in that degree spiritual life will abate. And to see our own unworthiness and God's unmerited mercy, our own pollution and God's immaculate holiness, our own weakness and God's almighty power, our own meanness and God's transcendent glory, and to rejoice in seeing this, and in having our hearts more and more penetrated with the conviction of it is the very essence of spiritual life; and humiliation, adoration, pious worship, gratitude, and love, are peculiar exercises of this life, which are inseparable from its existence. To know God as he is, and to love him as he is, and for what he is, and to know and love all other beings and things ac-formity to the will of God. To this all his prayers, cording as they relate to God, and show forth his glory, and serve his holy designs, is the characteristic of the inhabitants of heaven, in whom the life we speak of is perfect; and it will also be our characteristic, in an increasing measure, according as the same life abounds in our souls. Hence, the love of God instead of the love of self, the love of his law instead of the love of our own will, the love of his glory instead of the love of our own ends, will be the growing spirit of all in whom this life is found. And this leads us now to view the operation of spiritual life, in connection with its influence over the will, and as leading us to put forth our cordial and decided efforts to become assimilated to God and to abound in his service. Whatever we sincerely love and approve, we must desire to be; and the stronger our love and affections No doubt, since the practical power of spiritual life in the soul has to encounter the force of that inherent corruption, and of that proclivity to evil, which is more or less incident to all in this imperfect state, it may be greater than may in general appear from the actual attainments in holiness to which it conducts. There may be failings and shortcomings, where there is no room to doubt that the heart is under the general influenceof religious principle. To resist the pressure of a stream, and to bear up against its force, may be all that the energy of a swimmer may accomplish; but though he may mourn the inadequate success that attends his efforts, they may yet be sufficient to save him from falling into the yawning torrents which are tossing and raging beneath him. Still, where there is spiritual life, there will be the struggle and the stedfast resolution to resist and to overcome sin; nor will there be any deliberate or cherished inclination or purpose ever to yield to it. Inadvertence, weakness, and temptation, may mar with many a flaw the obedience of the Christian, but they will never shake his convictions, nor alter his affections, nor drive him to seek his happiness and his glory elsewhere than in a con and all his most solemn and stedfast purposes will be directed. This will be the chief good, and the chosen portion of his soul. He will leave it to others to sacrifice at the shrine of worldly ambition; but he will direct his aspirations, that he may receive the praise which cometh from above. Whilst others run to obtain the corruptible crown which the race of wealth and pleasure offers, he will aspire to that incorruptible crown which fadeth not away, and which the Lord the righteous judge will give to all those who love his appearing, and who are faithful unto death. II. But we now proceed shortly, in the second place, to illustrate the relation in which Christ stands to the life which has been considered,—as its aliment, or support, and to which he refers when he says in the text, "I am that bread of life." The great design for which he came into |