AFF so to lead men onwards, through a religious discipline, to conceive of God in all the strictness of monotheism, and all the purity and fulness of his paternal love. Of such a nature is the view given of intermediate agency between man and his Maker. Advocacy and intercession are gracious accommodations, on the part of our heavenly Father, 10 that unworthiness and guilt on the part of his children which unfit them for coming into his presence, and so render the intervention of an advocate and mediator necessary, who, pleading on the footing of his infinitely meritorious sacrifice offered in our behalf, procures for us all divine blessings-adoption, forgiveness, and heaven at last. ENON (H. a fountain), a place not far from Salim, where John baptized (John iii. 23). It lay eight Roman miles southward from Seythopolis, near the Jordan, and on its western side (John i. 28; iii. 26). 1 'Tis most true, 29 AFF There were also considerations more or less special to the Hebrews riage was allowed. antiquity, from the practice of polygamy, or themselves, derived either from the usages of the idolatrous observances and crimes of the Canaanites and other Heathen nations (Lev. xviii. 22). The prohibitions contained in the Mosaic law are enforced by temporal In the pursuit of a theoretical comprehenpenalties, such as childlessness or death. siveness and accuracy, systematisers have expounded and perverted the Mosaic laws of this nature are now to be determined by touching the degrees of affinity. Questions reference, not to Mosaic usages, but to such considerations as the good of individuals and society suggests, on a wide and impartial survey of human capabilities, rights, and physical knowledge, which mankind actually duties, in the advanced state of moral and possesses. The usages recorded in the Bible are by no means uniform. Abraham mar. ried Sarah, his sister;' that is, the daughter AFFECT (L. to make to or towards) indiof his father (Gen. xx. 12. Lev. xviii. 9; xx. cates an earnest desire for a person or object. The word is found in Gal. iv. 17, where, of times guiltily broken (2 Sam. xiii. 14. Ezek. the Judaizing teachers, Paul says, 'They 17). The Mosaic commands were somezealously affect you, but not well,' that ye from leaving its original owners, heiresses might affect them.' The subjoined words xxii. 11). In order to preserve the land afford some light, but it is good to be tribe of their father (Numb. xxxvi. 6). Inzealously affected in good' (ver. 18). In might not marry out of the family of the James iv. 2, the same Greek term is thus expressly forbidden, on the ground of the. rendered, Ye kill, and desire to have' termarriage with foreigners was avoided, or great and essential diversity of religion, as (Acts vii. 9. 1 Cor. xii. 31). between monotheists and idolaters. Therefore an Israelite was to avoid a Canaanitish wife (Gen. xxiv. 4; xxviii. 1. Exod. xxxiv. 16). That this avoidance and prohibition, but on certain specific religious considerahowever, rested on no narrowness of spirit, tions, appears from the fact, that there are cases in which marriage with foreign women was allowed (Numb. xii. 1. Deut. xxi. 11. Ruth. i. 4; iv. 13). David himself was dewas after the captivity that the Mosaic law scended from Ruth, a woman of Moab. It was rigorously observed, when the evils of alliances with idolaters had, with other lessons pertaining to religious truth and purity, Jewish people (Ezra ix. 2, seq.; x. 23. Neh. been practically and effectually taught to the xiii. 23). The moral considerations which a high praise to the general system. The predominate in the Mosaic prohibitions are mere continuance of the race might be effected by unrestricted intercourse. Its moral regard to intermarriage, as may abate evil improvement requires such limitations in almost inevitably make an idolatrous family. and further good. An idolatrous wife would And so in Christianity, in which the moral significance of matrimony is brought to its -one in soul and one for life, religion highest pitch, so that man and wife are one, combines with morality in the injunction,'Be ye not unequally yoked together with unNor can any believers' (2 Cor. vi. 14). That musing meditation most affects MILTON. AFFINITY (L. relationship), according to the idea of the Hebrew word, denotes the relations contracted by marriage. The term itself occurs in only three places, — namely, 1 Kings iii. 1, where it is used of Solomon's marriage with a daughter of the then reigning Egyptian Pharaoh; also 2 Chron. xviii. 1, and Ezra ix. 14; though the fact stands as a very important element in the institutions On the part of Israelites, the of Moses. contracting of affinity was forbidden in certain given instances (Lev. xviii. 7-18; xx 11, seq. Deut. xxvii. 20, seq.). The reasons of these prohibitions are various, partly derived from moral, partly from physical considerations; but such as have generally been respected in civilised nations, and manifest the wisdom and foresight of the great Jewish legislator. The moral considerations had regard chiefly to the preservation of the sanctity of the domestic relations: marriage with near relations, who are in constant and familiar intercourse with each other, could not fail to corrupt family morals. The physical considerations regarded the propagation and continued vigour of the species, which has always been found to degenerate in cases where the limits were narrow, as in the within which marcase of royal families, thing but a blighting indifferentism make woman or man unconcerned about the religious principles of their partner. AGABUS (H. beloved), a prophet in the primitive Christian church; one of several who went from Jerusalem to Antioch, where, from external circumstances, he signified by the spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout all the land (not world), which came to pass in the days of Claudius Cæsar; in reality, in the fourth year of his reign, and in the forty-fourth year A.D. (Acts xi. 27; comp. Joseph. Antiq. xx. 2. 5). Agabus is again brought forward in the Book of Acts, as performing a symbolical act, in connection with Paul. This apostle had arrived at Caesarea, on his return from his second missionary tour, intending to proceed to Jerusalem; where Agabus, having come from that city to Cesarea, and aware of the adverse state of feeling there, endeavoured to turn Paul from his purpose. Accordingly, after the manner of the ancient prophets, he took Paul's girdle, and bound therewith his own hands and feet, declaring,-'So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.' However, neither by this significant act, nor by the entreaties and tears of the brethren, was Paul deterred from his undertaking. The prophecy was shortly after fulfilled. Agabus is said to have suffered martyrdom at Antioch. He is enrolled in the catalogue of saints. In the Latin Church, the ninth of February, in the Greek Church, the eighth of March is consecrated to him. AGAG (H. mountaineer), the name of an Amalekite king, or it may be a collective name of the Amalekite princes, as Pharaoh is that of the Egyptian monarchs. There must have been, at a very early period, in Palestine, a monarch or monarchy bearing this name; since, in the blessing which Balaam pronounced on Israel, the name is used as proverbial of political greatness,-'His king shall be higher than Agag' (Numb. xxiv. 7) When the Israelites were on their journey from Egypt, the Amalekites fought with them in Rephidim, in such a manner as to put them in great peril, but were at length repulsed; on which occasion God is represented as requiring the memory of this injury to be retained by the Hebrews, declaring that the remembrance of Amalek should be blotted mised kingly office. Samuel, acting by a divine impulse, commanded Agag to be brought, who came apparently in a ligh mood, and was hewn in pieces by the prophet (1 Sam. xv.). This transaction may serve to show how improper it is to look in the Old Testament narratives universally for rules of duty for a code of morals such as Christians can approve, or ought to attempt to justify. Such things as these now before us, although lawful in the time and circumstances, are not models now regarded under the light which the Saviour has shed on the path o duty. His maxim is, 'Revenge not yourselves. Nor can the employment here made of the divine authority be understood in any other sense than representing the view which was taken by persons who were intent on establishing the theocratical government in Judea, at a time when it was usual to refer every event that departed from the ordinary routine of common life, immediately to the divine will and act. AGATE is derived from a Greek word, said to take its name from that of a Sicilian river, in which agates were anciently found. It is the representative of two words in He brew: one, shavoo, is used only in relation to the second stone in the third row on the pectoral of the high priest (Exod. xxviii. 19), and is explained from an Arabic root, denoting to shine, as an ornamental stone resplendent with green and gold colours. The other word is kadkohd, which is found in Isa. liv. 12, 'I will make thy windows of agates;' and Ezek. xxvii. 16, in which place agate is enumerated among the merchandise of Syria. This last word comes from a root which signifies to sparkle, and was considered by Jerome to be jasper; and hence, from the value of that stone, costly goods of any kind. The Scotch pebble is a species of agate. Those of India are the most valued. In agate, silica is almost the sole constituent. The colour seems to be chiefly owing to a small infusion of iron, which gives rise to great varieties as to hue, translucency, and internal forms. Agates were held to possess a preserving power, especially against scorpions. AGE, OLD, ELDER (T.).—These words are here put together as differing only in form, while they refer to the same general subject. Age is considered, in one sense, as the ordinary duration of human life; in another, as the advanced and declining period of man's existence. In the time of the writer of Psalm xc. the duration of human life was not different among the Hebrews from what it is now:'The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow: for it is soon cut off, and we fly away' (ver. 10). But the duration of life in the time of the patriarchs is recorded to have been much longer: so that, when Jacob was asked by the reigning Pharoah how old he was, he answered, -The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of my fathers' (Gen. xlvii. 8,9). He died when 147 years old (ver. 28). His complaint, that his life was shorter than that of his fathers, is confirmed by the record; for Isaac lived to 180 (Gen. xxxv. 28), and Abraham to 175 (Gen. xxv. 7). The period of life, however, of the antediluvians is stated to have been much longer. Adam's years are given as 930 (Gen. v. 2); those of Methuselah, as 969 (Gen. v.27). In the absence of any detailed and accurate knowledge of the antediluvian period, especially in our ignorance of the length of the year, and in the uncertain state of chronology, we cannot pretend to speak of the causes or the effects of this length of days, with much advantage. There have, however, been persons who ascribed the longevity of the antediluvians to the first energy of recently created life; others have sought its cause in the simple modes of existence, the abundance of food, and the living in the air of day, which are supposed to have prevailed at the first. Others have been content to refer for the cause to the will and power of God. Advantages are considered to have ensued from this longevity. Human improvements would be more easily and certainly carried forward; knowledge safely transmitted; generally, the good acquired by men would be thus best handed down, since it would have to pass from the lips of only a few persons. Thus Adam lived till 930 of the year of the world: Methuselah was born 687, that is, 243 years before Adam's death; the former lived till the year 1656, and Noah was born 600 years before Methuselah's death, namely, in the year 1056. Thus there intervened between Adam and Noah only one person, Methuselah. The correctness of this view, however, depends on the correctness of the ordinary reckoning of time pursued in our English Bibles; for if the dates of the Septuagint are to be preferred, as many of the best scholars and soundest divines have thought, the remark would hold good only in a qualified manner. Thus, while the period from the creation to the deluge is given by the Samaritan text at 1307 years, and by the Hebrew at 1656, it is given by the Greek at 2262 Our knowledge of this primeval age is too limited and fragmentary to allow of any very definite or positive conclusions. Gratitude for the information preserved, is more seemly than rash speculation or loud dogmatism. It is not difficult to conceive, that, in the patriarchal age, human life may have gene rally been longer than it is now. The days of the years recorded of these primitive worthies are scarcely more than have been attained by individuals in other times; and the peculiarly favourable position in which, for the most part, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others were placed, must have conduced to lengthen their days. Air, exercise, sufficient and good nutriment, exert a wonderful influence on the human frame, particularly when there are no vices to weaken it, and no great mental agitations to undermine its strength. The following facts bear on these observations:- Haller collected the cases of 62 persons who had reached from 100 to 120 years; 29 from 120 to 130, and 15 from 130 to 140. Few instances are authenticated which reach beyond this period. Yet we find one Eccleston, who lived 143 years; John Effingham, who attained his 144th year; a Norwegian, who counted 150 years; and our Thomas Parr would most probably have passed his 152d year but for an excess. Henry Jenkins lived to 169. There is on record the case of a negress, who died when 175. The Hungarian family of John Rovin were remarkable for their lon gevity: the father lived to 172; the wife, to 164; they had been married 142 years, and their youngest child was 115. In the census of Italy, taken by Vespasian, there were found 54 persons of 100 years old; 57 of 110; two of 125; four of 130; and three of 140. The contrary effects of tranquil and of disturbing pursuits on the duration of life may be judged of by the fact, that, while the sum of the ages of the twenty chief natural philosophers of Great Britain amounted to 1514, giving an average of nearly 71 years, -the sum of the ages of twenty chief poets reached only to 1144, which affords about 52 years as the average duration of their lives. Respect for old age is as a natural, so a universal feeling-a feeling which is approved by the judgment, no less than dictated by the heart. Diversities, however, have been found in the manifestation of the feeling. Cicero, in his Cato Major, -' Treatise on Old Age,'-describes the tokens of respect which were paid in Rome to those who were advanced in years. They received salutations; their society was sought for; they had place given to them in the public thoroughfares; when they entered an assembly, the company arose; they were conducted to their homes, and attended back to public places; their counsel was solicited. He also mentions a remark of Lysander, to the effect that Lacedæmon was the most honourable residence for age; for nowhere was so much attention paid to the aged, nowhere were they held in greater honour. He adds this illustrative anecdote: When at Athens, an aged person entered the theatre during the perform ance of the public games, no one, out of a large concourse of people, rose to give him a seat; but when, at Sparta, he had gone into a place where a number of commissioners were seated in their place of dignity, they all arose, and received him sitting.' The general courtesy of Oriental manners displayed itself with peculiar force in marks of respect towards age. Wisdom was accounted its special attribute (Job xii. 12; xxxii. 7). The fine description of the beneficent chief, or Arab Sheik, given in Job xxix. may here be advantageously consulted. Moses expressly commanded, 'Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am Jehovah' (Lev. xix. 32). Jeremiah, among the signs of national degradation, mentions this, 'The faces of elders were not honoured' (Lam. v. 12; comp. iv. 16, and Isa. xlvii. 6. Deut. xxviii. 50). Old age guarded by express prohibition from contempt (Prov. xxiii. 22). As among other nations, so among the Hebrews, -counsellors, judges, and statesmen were chosen from the elders of the nation from the carliest times (Exod. iii. 16; iv. 29; xii. 21; xvii. 5; xviii. 12. Josh. xxiii. 2. Ezra v. 9; vi. 7). Moses appointed a senate of seventy elders to assist him in organising and governing his people (Exod. xxiv. 1, 9. Numb. xi. 16). Indeed the entire guidance of the Hebrew nation was conducted by the instrumentality of elders; for, as there were elders forming a sort of national parliament (Josh. vii. 6. 1 Sam. iv. 3; viii. 4. 2 Sam. iii. 17; v. 3; xvii. 4. 1 Kings viii. 1), so were there elders of individual tribes (Deut. xxxi. 28. 2 Sam. xix. 11. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 29. Deut. xxix. 10. Judg. xi. 5), who had the government each of his own tribe, formed an official body for communicating with the chief of the nation, and may have been the constituency out of which the general senate was chosen. The organization extended to cities, in which the elders constituted a kind of municipality (Deut. xix. 12; xxi. 3; xxii. 15. 1 Sam. xi. 3; xvi. 4. 1 Kings xxi. 8. Ezra x. 14. 2 Maccab. xiv. 37). That the principle of representation existed in this system is clear, from the fact that the elders sometimes acted as the representatives of the people (Lev. iv. 15; ix. 1). Agreeably to the custom of the East, the elders of a city sat in their official capacity in the gate;' that is, at the chief entrance to the place, which was the spot of greatest publicity, whence we learn how popular was the character of the Mosaic institutions (Deut. xxii. 15; xxv. 7. Ruth iv. 2. Judith x. 6). The elders do not appear, in all cases, to have been the same with the judges (Ezra x. 14. Sus. 5). The elders formed the constitutional advisers of royalty, standing in its presence in behalf of the people (1 Kings viii. 1; xii. 6; xx. 7. 2 Kings xxiii. 1. 1 Maccab. xii. 35). Such, in its origin, was the constitutional influence of age in the Hebrew polity. In time, however, regard was had to other qualities than age: persons of wisdom and prudence were elected to situations of trust, irrespectively of mere years; and the term elder became descriptive, not of age, but of office. A similar change took place in Greece and in Rome. In the New Testament the elders appear as forming, in conjunction with the scribes and high priests, the great national council or Sanhedrim (Matt. xxvi. 3, 47; xxvii. 1. Mark xiv. 43; xv. 1. Luke xx. 1, 19; xxii. 66. Acts iv 5; v. 21). The Christian church was modelled on the Jewish, so as to be placed originally under the government of elders or presbyters; the first term being of Saxon, the second of Greek origin; both, however, meaning the same thing. These Christian elders formed a sort of college, a board, or committee, for ordering and governing the affairs of the church, which, of course, included its spiritual as well as its material interests (Acts xi. 30; xiv. 23; xv. 2; xvi. 4. 1 Tim. iv. 14). At what time young Israelites came of age,' it is not easy to determine. In the East, the seasons of human life arrive at an earlier period than with us, so that manhood is sooner attained. The age of twenty is limited as the period of youth, in regard to the punishment inflicted on the rebellious Israelites in the desert (Numb. xxxii. 11), whence, probably, the twentieth may be the year when a young man entered into the possession of his legal rights. Still stronger evidence to the same effect is the fact, that the atonement-tax was imposed on all from twenty years of age upwards (Exod. xxx. 14; comp. Lev. xxvii. 3). AGONY (G. contest). This, which is a Greek word in English letters, is a term borrowed from the Grecian games, and was applied originally to the wrestling matches which formed a part of them. The meaning which agony has with us, as denoting severe bodily suffering, is an imperfect representation of the original, which, being applied by Luke (xxii. 44) to the mental sufferings which our Lord underwent in the garden of Gethsemane, denotes that contest and struggling of the whole inner man, which, like the action of a pair of wrestlers, one with another, contorted, and hurled hither and thither, the excited affections; occasioning by its violence the most excruciating pains (comp. Heb. v. 7). Such a straining of the mind, and such intolerable pain, may well have led to sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.' As to what the perspiration consisted of, commentators are not agreed. Some have said it was blood mingled with sweat; and this, on the whole, is the more probable explanation of the matter. The 'as it were' of Luke countenances the theory that it was not pure blood, but sweat mingled with blood. This scene in the garden of Gethsemane has ever appeared to us the most affecting and awful picture of suffering on record. It is as mysterious as it is awful. It is explicable no farther than with reference to great and wellknown principles in the position of our Lord, and the relation in which he stood to the divine government. He stood in the room of sinners; he did so, or he was on earth to no purpose. He bore their sins-' we like sheep had gone astray,' 'the Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all.' From everlasting he had engaged to make satisfaction for these iniquities. But the government of God does not rest on fictions; and the law of God cannot be satisfied with a piece of mere dramatic acting, or histrionic suffering. It demands a satis faction that is as real as the offence. It demands that the curse which the sinner had incurred the very death to which he was liable-should be borne by the sinner himself, or by one standing in his room. Our blessed substitute-the God-man-was now undergoing that death. This is the only explanation that makes the least approach to a solution of this awful and deeply mysterious scene. Christ was now enduring the curse due to the sins which he bore. This is the only explanation which is in harmony with God's character as a judge, with this law as a righteous code to be upheld by real sanctions. and with the sinner's peace who finds himself resting upon an actual and solid expiation of his sin. The seat of this agony was the human soul of the God-man. It was caused not by anything that man was now inflic'ing or was yet to inflict. To explain it so is but to trifle with the subject, and heap indignity on the sufferer. It came suddenly, and was preceded and followed by profound and mental calm. This could not have been had it arisen from the prospect of sufferings which were all his life foreseen. There was in this agony an ingredient which was new to our Lord, which caused him 'amazement,' and which was so bitter that he pronounced it 'death,' and from the endurance of which he prayed that he might be exempt, were it possible to accomplish a full expiation, and yet not taste of that ingredient. But instantly, being aware that this could not consist with the work he bad come to do, he said, not my will but thine be done.' Nothing could give as a more vivid sense of the wrath' that our Lord was now enduring-enduring that we might escape it-and his perfect and sublime submission to an infliction under which his very body was dissolving as this dread, mysterious, and never-to-be-fully-explained scene in Gethsemane.-J. A. W. mane. This grotto lies in the Garden of Gethese It is deep and high; and divided into two cavities by a sort of subterranean portal. There are also several altars sculptured in the rock. This sanctuary, the work of nature, has not been disfigured by so many artificial ornaments as some other sanctuaries. The vault, the floor, and the walls, are of the rock itself; distilling, like tears, the cavernous humidity of the earth which envelopes it. There is above each altar, in pieces of leather, painted flesh colour, and of the natural size, a bad representation of the scene of the agony of Christ, with angels, that present him with the chalice of death. Were these bad figures, which disturb those that the pious imagination loves to create in the shadow of this empty cavern, destroyed; and were the tearful eyes of the visitor allowed to mount freely, without the obstruction of sensible images, towards the thought of Him of whom the spot is so painfully commemorative, this grotto would be the most impressive relic of the hills of Zion; but man cannot help more or less spoiling whatever ignorance bids him put his hand to. AGRICULTURE (L. the tillage of the ground) in the East still remains what it was in ancient times: we shall therefore begin this article with a brief account of agriculture as it is now carried on. The plough, in Western Asia, even at the present day, is ordinarily of the most simple construction, utterly unfit for the strong clay lands of our own country, and applicable only to light or sandy soils. Even these it penetrates but to a small depth, and rather tears up and throws aside, than cuts and destroys, the weeds and roots which it meets with in its course. The animals employed are, for the most part, oxen; rarely horses or mules. They have a rough kind of yoke on their necks, to which the plough is fastened, the two arms of which are held by the workman, who also carries in his hand a long pointed stick, with which he goads and directs the cattle. Behind the ploughman |