feast. (Jude 12.) The observance is alluded to under other names, as meat, tables. (Acts 2. 46; 6. 2.)

It is certain that the feast of charity was celebrated in the earliest period of the Christian Church. (Acts 2. 46; 6. 2; 1 Cor. 11. 17-34.) Some writers suppose that this custom had its remote origin in the practice of the heathen; while others regard it as derived from the Jewish synagogue.

The bishop or presbyter presided at these feasts. Before eating, the guests washed their hands; and a public prayer was offered up. A portion of Scripture was then read, and the president proposed some questions upon it, which were answered by the persons present. After this, any accounts which had been received of the affairs of other churches, were recited. (Cyprian. Ep. de Spectac.; Tertull. de Coron. c. 3). At the close of the feast, money was collected for the benefit of widows and orphans, the poor, prisoners, and persons who had suffered shipwreck.

While the Church was exposed to persecution, these feasts were not only conducted with regularity and good order, but were made subservient to Christian edification, and to the promotion of brotherly love, and of that kind of concord and union which was specially demanded by the circumstances of the times. Tertull. Apol. c. 39.

The passages of the New Testament which refer to the Agape, afford no intimation of the time of day in which they are celebrated, unless, indeed, we regard Acts 20. 7, as supplying some information on this point. From Tertullian it would appear that they were held in the night, for he calls them Cœnæ and Cenulæ, in contradistinction to Prandia, and gives us to understand that lights were required in the place in which the feast was made. But it is probable that this nocturnal celebration was more a matter of necessity than of choice. According to the account of Pliny, in his Letter to Trajan, it would seem that in his time (in Bithynia, at least,) these feasts were held in the day time. See Chrysostom ad 1Cor. 11.; Hom, 54, and Hom. 22.

At first they were celebrated in private houses, or in other retired places, in which the Christians met for religious worship. After the erection of churches, these feasts were held within their walls; until, abuses having occurred, which rendered the observance inconsistent with the sanctity of such places, this practice was forbidden. Riddle's Manual of Christian Antiquities.

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(Ezek. 27. 22.) The agate was the second stone in the third row of the breastplate of the High Priest. (Exod. 28. 19; 39. 12.)

AGE, sometimes signifies an indefinite period; at others, it is used for

1. A generation of the human race, or thirty years. 2. As the Latin sæculum, or a hundred years. 3. The maturity of life. (John 9. 21.)

4. The latter end of life. (Job 11. 17.) See CHRONOLOGY.

for old age; and the fact of this being required towards The ancient Egyptians particularly inculcated respect strangers, necessarily argues a great regard for the person of a parent; for, we are informed that, like the Lacedemonians, they required every young man to give place to his superiors in years, and even if seated, to rise on their approach, as with the Jews: "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man." (Levit. 19. 32).

AGEE, the father of Shammah the Hararite, (2Sam. 23. 11.)

the birth of our Saviour has been generally divided into AGES OF THE WORLD. The time preceding

six

ages:

1. From the beginning of the world to the Deluge, comprehending 1656 years.

2. From the Deluge to the entrance of Abraham into the Land of Promise, comprehending 426 years.

3. From the entrance of Abraham into the Land of

Promise, to the Exodus, 430 years.

4. From the Exodus, to the foundation of the Temple, by Solomon, 480 years.

5. From the foundation of the Temple of Solomon, to the Babylonish captivity, 424 years.

6. From the Babylonish captivity, to the birth of Our Lord, 588 years.

See CHRONOLOGY; EPOCH.

As this subject is one of much importance, it is well to state, that our information is chiefly derived from the Scriptures. The first accounts are supplied by genealogies which ascend to Adam. They tell us at what age he begat a son, how long after he survived, and the number of years he lived; the same information is supplied concerning his son, and so continuing through many generations. By adding these particulars together, we have a tolerably clear estimate of the whole duration of time over which they extend; and as we know the ages of particular persons, we also know the date of such events as are said to have occurred

this kind comes down to the more proper historical data, in which we compute time, by adding together the particulars which inform us successively, of the durations of captivities, wanderings, reigns, and governments.

The following table will afford materials of comparison, deserving of consideration, by such as are desirous of applying it to historical uses.

Creation.
Deluge.

Call of Abraham.

The Exodus

Solomon's Temple founded Solomon's Temple destroyed. Birth of Christ

3338 422 3760

1207 3318 2093 1062 425 3764 1648 445 601 4184 1027 621 424 4825 586 441 589 5411

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AGRICULTURE. In the primitive ages of the world, agriculture, as well as the keeping of flocks, was a principal employment among men. (Gen. 2. 15; 3. 17-19; 4. 2.) It is an art which has been a prominent source, both of the necessaries and the conveniences of life.

Those states and nations, especially Babylon and Egypt, which made the cultivation of the soil their chief business, arose in a short period to wealth and power; to these may be added the Hebrews, who learned the value of the art while remaining in Egypt, and continued afterwards celebrated for their industry in the cultivation of the earth.

1. Moses following the example of the Egyptians made agriculture the basis of the state. He, accordingly, apportioned to every citizen a certain quantity of land, and gave him the right of tilling it himself, and of transmitting it to his heirs. The person who had thus come into possession, could not alienate the property for any longer period than the year of the coming jubilee; a regulation which prevented the rich from coming into possession of large tracts of land, and then leasing them out in small parcels to the poor; a practice which anciently prevailed, and does to this day in the East. A tenant in the East, (as remarked by a modern writer of great ability,) and more especially in Egypt, has, even in his worst estate, that of the fellah, enjoyed almost a freehold right in his land, from which he could not be removed by the proprietor, and which he might transmit to his heirs, and might even alienate it by gift or sale to a stranger; although, in the last case, he had to obtain the permission of the proprietor and to pay him a fine. The proprietor could only resume the occupation of the land or introduce a new tenant when the last died without heirs. Regnier de l'Economie Publique et Rurale des Egyptiens; Heeren, Policy and Commerce of Ancient Nations, sec. iii. c. 2; Salvador Hist. des Institut. de Moïse.

Moses further enacted that the vendor, or his nearest relative, should have a right to redeem the land sold, whenever they chose, by paying the amount of profits up to the year of jubilee. (Ruth 4. 4; Jer. 32. 7.)

2. It was also required that the Hebrews, as was the case among the Egyptians after the time of Joseph (Gen. 47. 18, et seq.) should pay a tax of one-fifth of their income unto God, whose servants they were to consider themselves, and whom they were to obey as their king. (Levit. 27. 30; Deut. 12. 17.)

The sovereign in almost every country of the East has from the most remote times been regarded as the paramount proprietor of the soil. The tendency of The tendency of Oriental ideas is decidedly to regard him as such; and under the Jewish theocracy, God, as the king of the Hebrew people, was mindful to instruct the Israelites that the land was his (Levit. 25. 23), which they held of him as hereditary tenants, much in the same way as that in which, under the regulation of Joseph, the Egyptians held their lands of Pharaoh; the offerings and tithes which they gave for the support of His worship, being in one point of view regarded as a produce rent paid to him for the land.

3. The custom of marking the boundaries of land by stones, although it prevailed much earlier than Moses. (Job 24. 2), was confirmed and perpetuated by an express law, which denounced a curse against any one, who without authority removed them.

Regulations having been made in respect to the tenure, incumbrances, &c. of landed property, Joshua divided the whole country, which he had occupied, first among the respective tribes, and then among individual Hebrews, running it out with the aid of a measuring

line. (Josh. 17. 5,14 compared with Amos 7. 17; Micah 2. 5; Psalm 78. 55; Ezekiel 40. 3.) From this circumstance the line is frequently used by a figure of speech. (Ps. 16. 6.) .

4. The soil of Palestine is very fruitful, if the dews and vernal and autumnal rains be not withheld; but the Hebrews, notwithstanding the richness of the soil, endeavoured to increase its fertility in various ways. They not only divested it of stones, but watered it by means of canals communicating with the rivers or brooks; and thereby imparted to their fields the richness of gardens. (Psalm 1. 3; 65.10.) With the use of manure, the Jews were undoubtedly acquainted. Doves' dung appears to have been highly valued, as it is to this day by the Persians. "The dung of pigeons is the dearest manure which the Persians use; and as they apply it almost entirely for the rearing of melons, it is probably on that account that the melons of Ispahan are much finer than those of other cities." Morier's Second Journey through Persia; Sir Robert Ker Porter's Persia.

5. Salt either by itself or mixed in the dung-hill in order to promote putrefaction, is specially mentioned as an article of manure. (Matt. 5. 13; Luke 14. 35.) The soil was enriched also by means of ashes; to which the straw, the stubble, the husks, the brambles and grass, that overspread the land during the sabbatical year, were reduced by fire, which had also another good effect, viz., that of destroying the seeds of the noxious herbs. (Isai. 7. 23; 32. 13; Prov. 24. 31.)

6. In Egypt, such vegetable productions as require more moisture than that which is produced by the inundation of the Nile, are refreshed by water drawn out of the river, and afterwards deposited in capacious cisterns. When, therefore, their various sorts of pulse, melons, sugar-cane, &c., require to be refreshed, they strike out the plugs which are fixed in the bottom of the cisterns; whence the water, gushing out, is conducted from one drill to another by the cultivator, who is always ready, as occasion requires, to stop and divert the torrent, by turning the earth against it by his foot, and at the same time opening, with his mattock, a new trench to receive it. A similar mode of irrigating lands is practised in the island of Cyprus, and also in India. Rae Wilson's Travels; Statham's Indian Recoll.

7. This method of imparting moisture and nourishment to a land, rarely, if ever, refreshed with rain, is often alluded to in the Scriptures, where it is made the distinguishing quality between Egypt and Canaan. "For the land," says Moses, "whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." (Deut. 11. 10,11.) Springs, fountains, and rivulets, were held in as much honour and worth by husbandmen as by shepherds. (Judges 1. 15.) 8. The culture of the soil was at first very simple, being performed with no other instruments than sharpened sticks. With these the ground was loosened, until spades and shovels, and not long after, ploughs, were invented. All these implements were well-known in the time of Moses. (Deut. 23. 13; Job 1. 14.) The first plough was doubtless nothing more than a stout limb of a tree from which projected another shortened and pointed limb. This being turned into the ground made the furrows; while at the further end of the longer branch was fastened a transverse yoke, to which the oxen were harnessed. At last a handle was added, by which the plough might be guided. So that the plough was composed of four parts; the beam, the yoke, which was attached to the beam; the handle, and what we should call

the coulter. (1Sam. 13. 20,21; Micah 4. 3.) It was necessary for the ploughman constantly and firmly to hold the handle of the plough, which had no wheels, and that no spot might remain untouched, to lean forward and fix his eyes steadily upon it. (Luke 9. 62; Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 49. 2.) The staff by which the coulter was cleared, served also for an ox-goad. In the East at the present day, they use a pole about eight feet in length; at the largest end of which is fixed a flat piece of iron for clearing the plough, and at the other end a spike for spurring the oxen. Hence it appears that a goad might answer the purpose of a spear, which indeed had the same name. (Judges 3. 31; 1Sam. 13. 21.) There seems to have been no other harrow than a thick clump of wood, borne down by a weight or a man sitting upon it, and drawn over the ploughed field by oxen; the same which the Egyptians use at the present time. At a later period wicker drags came into use. (Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 43.) In Syria, the plough is still drawn, frequently by one small cow, or at most by two, and sometimes only by an ass. (Russell's Hist. Aleppo.) In Persia, Mr. Morier states, that it is for the most part drawn by one ox only, and not unfrequently by one ass. (Travels in Persia.) In Egypt they plough with two oxen, as was the practice in ancient times. (Richardson's Travels.) The beasts of burden employed in agriculture were bulls and cows, he-asses and she-asses. (Job 1. 14; 1Sam. 6. 7; Isaiah 30. 24.) It was forbidden to yoke an ass with an ox. (Deut. 22. 10.)

9. Those animals which in the Scriptures are called oxen, were bulls, for the Hebrews were prohibited from castrating, although the law was sometimes violated. (Malachi 1. 14.) Bulls in the warmer climates, especially if they are not greatly pampered, are not so ungovernable, but that they may be harnessed to the plough. If indeed any became obstinate by rich pasturage, their nostrils were perforated, and a ring made of iron or twisted cord was thrust through, to which was fastened a rope, which impeded his respiration to such a degree, that the most turbulent one might be easily managed. (2Kings 19. 28; Job 40. 24.) By this ring, also, camels, elephants, and lions, taken alive, were rendered manageable. When bulls became old, they were left to die a natural death.

10. The Hebrew word 7 which is variously translated by the words corn, grain, &c. is of general signification, and comprehends in itself different kinds of grain and pulse, such as wheat, millet, barley, beans, lentils, meadow cummin, pepperwort, flax, cotton; to these may be added the various species of gourd, and perhaps rice. (Isai. 28. 25.) Wheat grew in Egypt in the time of Joseph, as it now does in Africa, on stalks or branches, each one of which produced an ear. (Gen. 41. 47.) This sort of wheat is not cultivated in Palestine: the wheat there is of a much better kind, such as that of Heshhon, which accords with what is said of it in Matt. 13. 8, as yielding an hundred fold, some sixty, and some thirty.

11. In Judæa sowing commenced in the latter part of October; at which time, as well as in the months of November and December following, the wheat was committed to the earth. Barley was sown in January and February. The land was ploughed, and the quantity which might be ploughed by a yoke of oxen, in one day, is called a yoke, or an acre. (1Sam. 14. 14.) The yoke, affords numerous metaphors expressive of subjugation. (Hosea 10. 11; Isai. 9. 4; Matt. 11. 29,30.)

12. The cultivated fields were guarded by watchmen, (as they still are in the East,) who sat upon a seat hung in a tree, or in a lodge, or watch-tower, made of planks, to keep off birds, beasts, and thieves. (Jer. 4. 16,17;

Isai. 21. 5.) It was lawful for travellers to pluck ears from the standing corn in another's field, and to eat them; but they were on no account to use a sickle. (Deut. 22. 25, compared with Matt. 12. 1; Mark 2. 23; and Luke 6. 1.)

13. The corn-fields of Palestine were infested with a worthless kind of weed resembling corn, called Sıçaviov in the New Testament, rendered tares; in Hebrew N and 1 It is supposed to have been the Lolium tremulentum, a species of darnel growing among corn, to which it bears some resemblance, though the proper meaning cannot be determined; according to Celsius, the poisonous coloquinteda or the cicuta. (Hierobotan. ii. 46.) In India at the present day, as in Judæa in the time of Our Lord, (Matt. 13. 25,) nothing is more common than for an enemy to come by night, and sow tares on the newly-ploughed land. (Roberts's Oriental Illustrations.) When the grain has reached about a cubit in height, it is frequently so injured by cold winds and frosts that it does not come into ear. The effect thus produced is called blasting. Sometimes the crops are so affected by easterly winds as to turn yellow, and never come to maturity. This calamity is denominated mildew; p rottenness; Sept., toxpov, mouldiness, or mustiness. (Deut. 28. 22; Amos 4.9.) But whether the opinion that these effects are occasioned by winds is well founded, cannot, as it seems, be determined.

14. There were three months between their sowing and their first reaping, and four months to their full harvest; their barley harvest was at the Passover, and their wheat harvest at the Pentecost. The reapers made use of sickles, and according to the present custom, they filled their hands with the corn and bound it in bundles. There was a person "set over the reapers," (Ruth 2.5,) to see that they did their work, that they had proper provision, and to pay them their wages. Women were employed in reaping as well as the men; and the reapers were usually entertained above the rank of common servants, though in the time of Boaz, we find nothing provided for them but bread and parched corn; and their sauce was vinegar (a kind of weak wine), which, doubtless, was very cooling in those hot countries. (Ruth 2. 14.) The poor were allowed the liberty of gleaning, though the landowners were not bound to admit them immediately into the field as soon as the reapers had cut down the corn and bound it up in sheaves, but after it was carried off; they might choose also among the poor whom they thought worthy or most necessitous. A sheaf left in the fields, even though discovered, was not to be taken up, but to be left for the poor. (Deut. 24. 19.) The conclusion of the harvest, or carrying home the last load, was with the Jews a season of joyous festivity, and was celebrated with a harvest feast. (Psalm 126. 6; Isaiah 16. 9,10.) Hence the joy in harvest was a proverbial expression, denoting great joy. (Isaiah 9. 3.) It is also a Hindoo expression to denote great joy. (Roberts's Oriental Illustrations.) The corn being pulled or cut, and carried in waggons or carts (Numb. 7. 3-8; Isaiah 28. 27,28; Amos 2. 13), was either laid up in stacks (Exod. 22. 6), or barns (Matthew 6. 26; 13. 30; Luke 12. 18,24), and when threshed out, was stored in granaries or garners. (Matth. 3. 12.) David had "storehouses in the fields, in the cities, and in the villages, and in the castles." (1Chron. 27. 25.)

15. The process of threshing was performed in various ways. Sometimes it was done by horses (Isai. 28. 28), as is the practice at this time among the Koords, (Buckingham's Mesopotamia,) and by oxen that trod out the corn with their hoofs shod with brass. (Micah 4. 12,13.) This mode is expressly referred to by Hosea 10. 11, and in the prohibition of Moses against muz

zling the ox that treadeth out the corn. (Deut. 25. 4); it also obtains in Persia (Sir Robert Ker Porter's Travels in Persia,) and in India (Turner's Embassy to Thibel,) to this day, where oxen are employed, as buffaloes are in Ceylon, asses in North Africa, and horses in Crim Tartary. (Ward's History of the Hindoos; Davy's Ceylon.) Another mode of threshing was, by drawing a loaded cart with wheels over the corn backwards and forwards, so that the wheels running over it, forcibly shook out the grain (Isaiah 28. 28); but the most common mode appears to have been that which is in use in this country, viz., by flails. Thus the fitches are said to be beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. In this manner Gideon and Araunah or Ornan threshed out their wheat. (Judges 6. 11; 1Chron. 21. 20.)

16. The threshing-floor was generally in the field, in some elevated part of it; was destitute of walls and covering, and was nothing more than a circular space, thirty or forty paces in diameter, where the ground had been levelled, or beaten down. (Gen. 50. 10.) They were places of great note among the Hebrews, particularly that of Araunah the Jebusite, which was the spot of ground chosen by king David on which to build the altar of God (2Sam. 24. 25), and where the Temple of Solomon was afterwards erected. (2Chron. 3. 1.) These floors were sometimes covered at the top, to keep off the rain, but open on all sides, in order that the wind might come in freely, for the winnowing of the corn; they were shut up at night, with doors fitted to them, so that if anybody lay there he might be kept warm, and the corn be secured from robbers. (Ruth 3. 7.) The time of winnowing, or separating the corn from the chaff, was in the evening, when the heat of the day was over, and cool breezes began to rise. "Behold he (Boaz) winnoweth barley to-night in the threshingfloor.” In India, "much of the agricultural labour is performed in the night." Roberts's Oriental Illustrations.

The grain, being threshed, was thrown into the middle of the threshing-floor; it was then exposed with a fork to a gentle wind (Jer. 4. 11,12), which separated the broken straw and the chaff; so that the kernels and clods of earth with grain cleaving to them, and the ears not yet thoroughly threshed, fell upon the ground. The clods of earth as is customary in the East at the present day, were collected, broken in pieces, and separated from the grain by a sieve; whence the operation of sifting is, in prophetic language, a symbol of misfortune. (Amos 9. 9; Luke 22. 31.) The heap thus winnowed, which still contained many ears that were broken, but not fully threshed out, was again exposed in the threshing floor, and several yoke of oxen were driven over it, for the purpose of treading out the remainder of the grain. At length the grain, mingled with the chaff, was again exposed to the wind by a fan, which bore off the chaff, so that the pure wheat fell upon the floor. (Ruth 3. 2; Isai. 30. 24.) The scattered straw, as much at least as was required for the manufacturing of bricks and for the fodder of cattle, was collected; but the residue was reduced to ashes by fire; from this custom the sacred writers have derived a figurative illustration, to denote the destruction of wicked men. (Isai. 5. 24; Nahum 1. 10; Mal. 4. 1; Matt. 3. 12.)

17. After the corn was threshed, it was dried either in the sun (2Sam. 17. 19), or by a fire, or in a furnace. This is called parched corn (Levit. 23. 14; 1Sam. 17.17,) and was sometimes used in this manner for food without any further preparation, but generally the parching or drying of it was in order to render it more fit for grinding. This process was performed either in mortars or mills, both of which are mentioned in Numb. 11. 8.

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Solomon also speaks of the former. (Prov. 7. 22.) But mills were chiefly employed for this purpose; and they were deemed of such use and necessity, that the Israelites were strictly forbidden to take the nether or upper millstone in pledge; the reason of which is added, because this was "taking a man's life to pledge," (Deut. 24. 6,) intimating that while the mill ceases to grind, people are in danger of being starved.

18. Grinding at mills was accounted an inferior sort of work, and, therefore, prisoners and captives were generally put to it. To this work Samson was set, while he was in the prison-house. (Judges 16.21.) The expression in Isaiah 47. 2, "Take the millstones, and grind meal," is part of the description of a slave. In Barbary, most families grind their wheat and barley at home, having two portable mill-stones for that purpose; the uppermost of which is turned round by a small handle of wood or iron, placed in the rim. When this stone is large, or expedition is required, a second person is called in to assist; and it is in that country usual for the women alone to be thus employed, who seat themselves over against each other with the millstones between them. This practice illustrates the propriety of the expression of sitting "behind the mill" (Exod. 11. 5), and also the declaration of our Saviour, that two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left." (Matt. 24. 41.) Those who were occupied in grinding beguiled their task by singing, as was the practice among the Egyptians, and as the Barbary women continue to this day. Shaw's Travels; Jahn, Bibl. Archaol.; Horne's Introd.

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