a large room, and served with coffee and tobacco. After some time the master of the house enters, and his visiters, rising to receive him, continue standing till he has passed through the whole company and paid his respects to each: he then takes his seat, and by signs permits them to be also seated." (Goldsmith's Geography.) In the parable now referred to, the circumstances of which may reasonably "be supposed conformable to existing customs, it is evidently implied that the guests were collected together previous to the appearance of the king, who came in to see the guests. So also in Luke xiv. 10, in a similar parable, it is said, "when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Go up higher." This unquestionably confirms the application. of the Persian ceremony to the parable first cited. It may just be further observed, that in the last-mentioned passage it seems as if it had then been the prevailing practice for the master of the house "to pass through the guests, and pay his respects to each of them," as was certainly the case in Persia. The following extract gives us an interesting account The Persians, in circumstances of grief or joy, visit of a Persian dinner: "On the ground before us was each other with great attention, which is a tribute of duty spread the sofra, a fine chints cloth, which perfectly in- always expected from persons of inferior condition, espetrenched our legs, and which is used so long unchanged,cially if they be dependant. The guests are ushered into that the accumulated fragments of former meals collect into a musty paste, and emit no very savoury smell; but the Persians are content, for they say that changing the sofra brings ill luck. A tray was then placed before each guest; on these trays were three fine China bowls, which were filled with sherbets, two made of sweet liquors, and one of a most exquisite species of lemonade. There were, besides, fruits ready cut, plates with elegant little arrangements of sweetmeats and confectionary, and smaller cups, of sweet sherbet; the whole of which were placed most symmetrically, and were quite inviting, even by their appearance. In the vases of sherbet were spoons made of the pear-tree, with very deep bowls, and worked so delicately, that the long handle just slightly bent when it was carried to the mouth. The pillaws succeeded, three of which were placed before each two guests; one of plain rice, called the chillo, one made of mutton, with raisins and almonds; the other of a fowl, and rich spices and plums. To this were added various dishes, with rich sauce. Their cooking, indeed, is mostly composed of sweets. The business of eating was a pleasure to the Persians, but it was misery to us. They comfortably advanced their chins close to the dishes, and commodiously scooped the rice or other victuals into their mouths with three fingers and the thumb of their right hand; but in vain did we attempt to approach the dish: our tight-kneed breeches, and all the ligaments and buttons of our dress, forbid us; and we were forced to manage as well as we could, fragments of meat and rice falling through our fingers all around us." (Morier.)-BURDER. Ver. 9. Go ye therefore into the highways, and, as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. It is as common in the East for a rich man to give a feast to the poor, and the maimed, and the blind, as it is in England for a nobleman to entertain men of his own degree. Thus, does he wish to gain some temporal or spiritual blessing, he orders his head servant to prepare a feast for one or two hundred poor guests. Messengers are then despatched into the streets and lanes to inform the indigent, that on such a day rice and curry will be given to all who are there at the appointed time. Long before the hour the visiters may be seen bending their steps towards the house of the RASA, or king: there goes the old man, who is scarcely able to move his palsied limbs, he talks to himself about better days; and there the despised widow moves with a hesitating step; there the sanyāsi or pandārum boldly brushes along and scowls upon all who offer the least impediment to his progress; there objects suffering under every possible disease of our nature congregate together, without a single kindred association, excepting the one which occupies their expectations. The food is ready, the guests sit in rows on the grass, (Luke ix. 14,) and the servants begin to hand out the portions in order. Such is the hunger of some that they cannot stay to let the mess get cool, and thus have to suffer the consequences of their impatience; others, upon whom disease or age has made a fatal inroad, can scarcely taste the provision; some are of high caste, who growl as they eat, at those of lower grades, for having presumed to come near them; and others, on account of the high blood which flows in their veins, are allowed to take a portion to their homes. What a motley scene is that, and what a strange contrariety in their talk; some are bawling out for more food, though they are already gorged to the full: others are talking about another feast which is to be given in such a village, and others who have got a sight of the host, are loudly applauding his princely generosity. He is delighted to hear their flattery; it all falls sweetly on his feelings, for the higher the tone, the greater the relish. He has gained his object, taramum, i. e. charity has been attended to; he has been exhilarated with adulation, he has got a name in the street," (Job xviii. 17,) and the gods have been propitiated.-ROBERTS. Ver. 11. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. The following extract will show the importance of having a suitable garment for a marriage feast, and the of fence taken against those who refuse it when presented as a gift: “The next day, Dec. 3, the king sent to invite the ambassadors to dine with him once more. The Mehemander told them, it was the custom that they should wear over their own clothes the best of those garments which the king had sent them. The ambassadors at first made some scruple of that compliance: but when they were told. that it was a custom observed by all ambassadors, and that no doubt the king would take it very ill at their hands if they presented themselves before him without the marks of his liberality, they at last resolved to do it; and, after their example, all the rest of the retinue." (Abassador's Trav els.)-BURDER. CHAPTER XXIII. Ver. 6. And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues. See on Luke 14. 8-11. At their feasts matters were commonly ordered thus: three couches were set in the form of the Greek letter II. The table was placed in the middle, the lower end whereof was left open to give access to servants for setting and removing the dishes, and serving the guests. The other three sides were enclosed by the couches, whence it got the name of triclinium. The middle couch, which lay along the upper end of the table, and was therefore accounted the most honourable place, and that which the Pharisees are said particularly to have affected, was distinguished by the name пowroкdiσia.—CAMPBELL. Ver. 7. And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 8. But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. This title (rabbi) began first to be assumed by men of learning about the time of the birth of Christ. Simeon, the son of Hillel, who succeeded his fa er as president of the Sanhedrim, was the first Jew'sh rabbi. The title was generally conferred with a great deal of ceremony. When a person had gone through ine schools, and was thought worthy of the degree of raboi, he was first placed in a chair, a little raised above the company; then were delivered to him a key and a table-book; the key as a symbol of the power and authority conferred upon him to teach others, and the table-book as a symbol of his diligence in his studies. The key he afterward wore as a badge of honour, and when he died it was buried with him. On this occasion also, the imposition of hands by the delegates of the sanhedrim was practised. (Alting.) -BURDER. Ver. 16. Wo unto you, ye blind guides! which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. With respect to oaths, there came a doctrine into vogue among the Jews, in the time of Christ, which made such a nice distinction between what was and what was not an oath, that illiterate people were really incapable of comprehending it, or indeed forming any idea of it: and thus a Jew had it in his power to be guilty of the grossest treachery to his neighbour, even when the latter thought he had heard him swear by all that was sacred. Who could suppose, for instance, that a Jew did not speak seriously, when he swore by the temple. Yet by this doctrine, such an oath was a mere nothing, because the stones of the temple were not consecrated. I do not mean to describe this morality by passages from the writings of the rabbins, both because sufficient collections of these have already been made by others, and because they are not only too extensive, but also oo modern for my purpose, as I have principally to do with it as it stood in the time of Christ. I rather choose to take what the Jewish moralists of his day taught, from his own mouth, and to accompany their doctrine with his refutation. The reader who wishes to see passages from the rabbins, may either consult learned commentators on Matt. v. 33— 37. xxiii. 16–22, or peruse what Wetstein has collected from them, in whose New Testament he will find a pretty copious collection of such passages. Christ himself, then, in Matt. xxiii. 16-22, mentions some specimens of their doctrine, which he finds it necessary to controvert. The Pharisees, whom he censured, were in the way of saying, "If a man swear by the temple, he is not bound by that oath; but if he swear by the gold of the temple, he is bound." This was a very paradoxical distinction; and no one who heard their oaths could possibly divine it, unless he happened to be initiated into the whole villany of the business. One would naturally entertain the very same idea concerning it, which Christ expresses in his refutation of it, viz. that "the temple which consecrates the gold is of greater account, and belongs more immediately to God, than the gold." But the foundation of the refined distinction made by the Pharisees was, that the gold was sanctified, but not the materials of the edifice. Again, the Pharisees said, "If a man swear by the altar, it is no oath; but if he swear by the offering, he is bound;" because, forsooth, the offering was consecrated, but the stones of the altar, nothing more than common stones. But to this doctrine, Jesus, with equal reason, makes the following objection: that "the altar which sanctifies the offering is greater than the offering;" and he founds it on this unanswerable argument: "If I appear to swear, and use the language of an oath, my words, though perhaps otherwise equivocal, must be understood in the sense which they generally have in oaths. Thus, if I merely mention heaven, that word may have various meanings; it may mean heaven, in the physical sense of the term, that is, either the biue atmosphere which we behold, or that unknown matter which fills the remote regions of space above us, and which the ancients called ether; but neither of these is God. When, however, I swear by heaven, every one understands me as regarding heaven in its relation towards God, as his dwelling-place, or as his throne; and thinks I forbear pronouncing the name of God, merely from reverential awe, and that, in naming the throne of God, I include the idea of him who sitteth upon it; so that if my words are to be explained honestly and grammatically, I have really sworn by God. In like manner, if a man swear by the temple, that is not swearing by the stones or other materials of which the temple is composed, but by the God who dwelleth in the temple: and thus also, he who swears by the altar, is not to understand the bare stones, as such, but as they form an altar, and have offerings made upon them; so that he swears by the altar and what is upon it an oath no less solemn and binding, than that most awfu oath which is taken amid a sacrifice, by passing between th: dismembered pieces of the victim." A most rational exposition; without which we can never, in any compact, be sure of understanding our neighbour's words; not even hough he name the name of God in his oath, and swear without any mental reservation whatever; for the syllables, perhaps, might still be susceptible of another signification! --MICHAELIS. Ver. 24. Ye blind guides! which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. In these words, he charges them with being extremely scrupulous about very small matters, while they betrayed a glaring and criminal negligence about things of great importance. But as the Pharisees could not literally swallow down a camel, Cajetan supposes a corruption in the text; and maintains that our Lord did not mention a camel, but a larger species of fly, which might actually be swallowed in drinking. Without admitting this, he contends the words contain no proper antithesis. But as all the ancient versions of this text harmonize with the Greek, a corrup tion cannot be admitted. Nor is the objection of any importance; for, does not our Lord say, "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and considerest not the beam that is thine own eye?" Is it usual then for a beam to be in the eye? Our Lord, who knows all things, knew that a camel cannot be swallowed; but on this very account the proverb was proper; because, while the Pharisees were extremely precise in little things, they readily perpetrated crimes, which, like the camel, were of enormous magnitude. The design of our Lord was, not to teach that a camel could be swallowed, but that the minutiae of the law in which they displayed such scrupulous accuracy, as the tithing of mint, anise, and cummin, were as much inferior to the weightier matters of the law, as a gnat is inferior to a camel.-PAXTON. Ver. 27. Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 28. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29. Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous. The tombs of the lower orders are constructed of stone, at a small distance from their cities and villages, where a great extent of ground is allotted for that purpose. Each family has a particular portion of it walled in like a garden, where the bones of their ancestors have remained for many generations; for, in these enclosures, the graves are all distinct and separate, having each of them a stone placed upright both at the head and feet, inscribed with the name of the person who lies there interred; while the intermediate space is either planted with flowers, bordered round with stone, or paved all over with tiles. The graves of more wealthy citizens are further distinguished by some square chambers, or cupolas, that are built over them. The sepulchres of the Jews were made so large, that persons might go into them. The rule for making them is this: he that sells 'ground to his neighbour, to make a buryingplace, must make a court at the mouth of the cave, six feet by six, according to the bier and those that bury. It was into this court that the women, who visited the sepulchre of our Lord, entered. Here they could look into the sepulchre, and the several graves in it, and see every thing "And enwithin. The words of the sacred historian are: tering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man, sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted." These different sorts of tombs and sepulchres, with the very walls likewise of the enclosures, are constantly kept clean, whitewashed, and beautified; and by consequence, continue to this day to be an excellent comment upon tha expression of our Saviour's: "Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and rottenness.-Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous." It was in one of these chambers, or cupolas, which were built over the sepulchre, that the demoniacs, mentioned in the eighth chapter of Matthew, probably had their dwelling.-Paxton. Ver. 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kill est the prophets, and stonest them which are hasten to the spot. The eagles, kites, and crows, begin to sent unto thee: how often would I have gather-snap at their feathered rivals; thus, though there is enough at the carcass and attack each other, and the jackals ed thy children together, even as a hen gather- for all, they each try to hinder the other from eating. eth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! The Psalmist says, "Hide me under the shadow of thy wings." "The children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings." The word WING primarily signifies PROTECTION, and not comfort, as some have supposed. They appear to have gained that idea from the comfort which chickens have under the wing of the hen. In the East, hawks, kites, and other birds of prey, are continually on the wing; hence it is difficult to rear chickens, because at every moment they are in danger of being pounced on and carried off. Hence the eye of the mother is continually looking up to watch the foes, and no sooner does she see them skimming along, than she gives a scream, and the brood for PROTECTION run UNDER her WINGS.-ROBERTS. CHAPTER XXIV. Ver. 17. Let him which is on the house-top not come down to take any thing out of his house. "It was not possible to view this country without calling to mind the wonderful events that have occurred in it at various periods from the earliest times: more particularly the sacred life and history of our Redeemer pressed foremost on our minds. One thing struck me in the form of the houses in the town now under our view, which served to corroborate the account of former travellers in this country explaining several passages of scripture, particularly the following: In Matt. xxiv. 17, our blessed Saviour, in describing the distresses which shortly would overwhelm the land of Judea, tells his disciples, when the abomination of desolation is seen standing in the holy place, let him who is on the house-top not come down to take any thing out of his house, but fly,' &c. The houses in this country are all flat-roofed, and communicate with each other: a person there might proceed to the city walls and escape into the country, without coming down into the street." (Willyams's Voyage up the Mediterranean.) Mr. Harmer endeavours to illustrate this passage, by referring to the eastern custom of the staircase being on the outside of the house: but Mr. Willyams's representation seems to afford a more complete elucidation of the text.-Burder. Ver. 18. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. The oriental husbandman is compelled, by the extreme heat of the climate, to prosecute his labours in the field almost in a state of nudity. The ardour with which the farmer urged his labour, even under the milder sky of Italy, required the same precaution. Plough naked, and sow naked," said Virgil; "winter is an inactive time for the hind." '' Aurelius Victor informs us, that the Roman messengers, who were sent to Cincinnatus, from Atenutius, the consul, whom he had delivered from a siege, found him ploughing naked, beyond the Tiber. But the truth is, neither the Syrian nor Italian husbandman pursued his labours in the field entirely naked, but only stripped off his upper garments. An Oriental was said to be naked when these were laid aside. This enables us to understand the meaning of the charge which our Lord gave his disciples: "Neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes." The Israelitish peasant when he proceeded to his work in the field, was accustomed to strip off his upper garments, and leave them behind in the house, and to resume them when his task was finished.-PAXTON. There can be no doubt that birds of prey are very useful in the East, as they carry off the putrid matter which would otherwise infect the air. Hence Europeans do not often destroy such birds, and in the city of Calcutta there is a law to protect them from being injured.-Roberts. Ver. 41. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. See on Ex. 11. 5. CHAPTER XXV. Ver. 4. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Sir John Chardin informs us, that in many parts of the East, and in particular in the Indies, instead of torches and flambeaux, they carry a pot of oil in one hand, and a lamp full of oily rags in the other. This seems to be a very happy illustration of this part of the parable. He observes, elsewhere, that they seldom make use of candles in the East, especially among the great; candles casting but little light, and they sitting at a considerable distance from them. Ezek. i. 18, represents the light of lamps accordingly as very lively.-HARMER. Ver. 6. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. An eastern wedding is always celebrated in the night ; for though the fortunate hour for performing some parts of the ceremony may be in the day, yet the festivities of the scene will not take place till night. When the bridegroom goes forth to the house of the bride, or when he returns to his own habitation or to that of his father, he is always accompanied by numerous friends and dependants, who carry lamps and torches. When he approaches either house the inmates rush out to meet him, and greet him with their best wishes and congratulations. The path is covered with “garments,” and lamps like fire flies sparkle in every direction.-ROBERTS. A similar custom is observed among the Hindoos. The husband and wife, on the day of their marriage, being both in the same palanquin, go about seven or eight o'clock at night, accompanied with all their kindred and friends; the trumpets and drums go before them; and they are lighted by a number of flambeaux; immediately before the palanquin walk many women, whose business it is to sing verses, in which they wish them all manner of prosperity. They march in this equipage through the streets for the space of some hours, after which they return to their own house, where the domestics are in waiting. The whole house is illuminated with small lamps; and many of those flambeaux already mentioned are kept ready for their arrival, besides those which accompany them, and are carried before the palanquin. These flambeaux are composed of many pieces of old linen, squeezed hard against one another in a round figure, and thrust down into a mould of copper. The persons that hold them in one hand, have in the other a bottle of the same metal with the copper mould, which is full of oil, which they take care to pour out from time to time upon the linen, which otherwise gives no light.-PAXTON. Ver. 7. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. The nuptial lamps, probably, were highly decorated, Ver. 28. For wheresoever the carcass is, there the trimming was to prepare them for burning. The fol will the eagles be gathered together. It has often appeared to me that the sight and scent of birds of prey in the East are keener than those of the same species in England. Any garbage thrown from the kitchen, or in the wilderness, will soon attract these winged scavengers. Should there be a dead elephant or any other beast in the jungle. vast numbers of ravenous birds and animals lowing account of the celebration of a wedding taken from the Zendavesta, may throw some light on this place. "The day appointed for the marriage, about five o'clock in the evening, the bridegroom comes to the house of the bride, where the mobed, or priest, pronounces, for the first time, the nuptial benediction: he then brings her to his own house, gives her some refreshment, and afterward the assembly of our relatives and friends reconduct her to her father's house. When she arrives, the mobed repeats the nuptial benediction, which is generally done about midnight; immediately after, the bride, accompanied with a part of her attending troop, the rest having returned to their own houses, is reconducted to the house of her husband, where she generally arrives about three o'clock in the morning. Nothing can be more brilliant than these nuptial ceremonies in India: sometimes the assembly consists of not less than 2000 persons, all richly dressed with gold and silver tissue; the friends and relatives of the bride, encompassed with their domestics, are all mounted on horses richly harnessed. The goods, wardrobe, and even the bed of the bride, are carried in triumph. The husband, richly mounted and magnificently dressed, is accompanied by his friends and relatives; and the friends of the bride following him in covered carriages. At intervals, during the procession, guns and rockets are fired, and the spectacle is rendered grand beyond description by a prodigious number of lighted torches, and by the sound of a multitude of musical instruments."-BURDER. Ver. 10. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. At a marriage, the procession of which I saw some years ago, the bridegroom came from a distance, and the bride lived at Serampore, to which place the bridegroom was to come by water. After waiting two or three hours, at length, near midnight, it was announced, as if in the very words of scripture, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. All the persons employed now lighted their lamps, and ran with them in their hands to fill up their stations in the procession; some of them had lost their lights, and were unprepared, but it was then too late to seek them, and the cavalcade moved forward to the house of the bride, at which place the company entered a large and spiendidly illuminated area, before the house, covered with an awning, where a great multitude of friends, dressed in their best apparel, were seated upon mats. The bridegroom was carried in the arms of a friend, and placed on a superb seat in the midst of the company, where he sat a short time, and then went into the house, the door of which was immediately shut, and guarded by Sepoys. I and others expostulated with the door-keepers, but in vain." (Ward's View of the Hindoos.)—Burder. Ver. 36. Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. It is more easy in the East to visit imprisoned friends than it is in Europe. Thus Rauwolf tells us, that he was allowed at Tripolis, in Syria, to visit his confined friends as often as he liked. "After we had gone through small and low doors into the prisons in which they were confined, their keepers always willingly let me in and out; sometimes I even remained in the prison with them during the night."-ROSENMULLER. CHAPTER XXVI. Ver. 18. And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. When a man believes himself to be near death, he says, "Go tell the priest I am going on my journey, my time is at hand." When dead, it is said of him, "His time has gone, he has fallen."-ROBERTS. and, had I been sufficiently well-bred, my mouth would have opened to receive it. On my pointing to my plate, however, he had the goodness to deposite the choice morsel there. I would not have noticed so trivial a circumstance, if it did not exactly illustrate what the Evangelists record of the Last Supper.-JOWETT. Ver. 30. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. This was the Hallel which the Jews were obliged to sing on the night of the passover. It consisted of six psalms, the hundred and thirteenth, and the five following ones. This they did not sing all at once, but in parts. Just before the drinking of the second cup and eating of the lamb they sung the first part; and on mixing the fourth and last cup they sung the remainder; and said over it what they call the blessing of the song, which was Psalm cxlv. 10. They might, if they would, mix a fifth cup, and say over it the Great Hallel, which was Psalm cxxxvi. but they were not obliged to.-GILL. Ver. 34. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. See on Mark 14. 30. Ver. 69. Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. The Greek words are more accurately translated by, "Peter sat without in the court." This court (avan) in which Peter was at the fire in the palace of the highpriest, was, according to the usual old and oriental mode of building, the inner part of the house enclosed on all sides, which was not roofed, but was in the open air.-BURDER. CHAPTER XXVII. Ver. 2. And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. The Street of Grief, or Dolorous Way, derives its appellation from its being the supposed site of the street through which the chief priests and elders of the Jews, after binding Jesus Christ, led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate. (Mat. xxvii. 2.) It proceeds from the gate of Saint Stephen up to an archway, which appears to have been at one time called "the Gate of Judgment," because malefactors were anciently conducted through it to the place of execution. This archway is exhibited in the annexed engraving. At the period of the crucifixion, this gate stood in the western wall of Jerusalem: but now it is in the centre of the city. The wall above the archway is supposed to have formed a part of the house of Pilate; and the central window is reputed to have been the place whence our Saviour was shown unto the people. The "Street of Grief" rises with a gradual ascent, becoming narrower towards Calvary, where it terminates. It is difficult to pass along it, owing to the stones being broken up, and it is completely out of order.-HORNE. [See COMPREHENSIVE COMMENTARY, on Ps. 122. 3, and the engraving there of an ARCHED STREET in Jerusalem. Ver. 7. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potters' field, to bury strangers in. It lay immediately without the wall of the city, on the On the southeast corner, about a mile from the Temple. west side of the valley of Hinnom, is the place anciently Ver. 23. And he answered and said, He that dip-called the potters' field, and afterward the field of blood, peth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. but now campo sancto. It is only a small piece of ground, about thirty yards long, and fifteen broad; one half of which is taken up by a square fabric, built for a charnelhouse, that is twelve yards high. Into this building dead bodies are let down from the top, there being five holes left open for that purpose, through which they may be seen under several degrees of decay." (Maundrell.) Why a potters' field should be preferred to any other as |