CALENDAR. 



339 



middle watch, and the third or morning watch of 

 the night. In the New Testament, the order is 

 different, because then, the Jews had adopted in 

 this, as in many other things, the practice of the 

 Romans. They then divided the night into four 

 watches, sometimes called by number, first, se- 

 cond, third and fourth, sometimes by name, even- 

 ing, night, cock-crowing and morning. These 

 were names often applied to the whole watch, 

 though they properly designated only the times 

 when each watch began. These mast have been 

 loose and arbitrary divisions; thus they could not 

 tell when it was midnight, if it was cloudy; they 

 only knew it by observing the ascension of a star. 

 Cock-crowing, too, depended entirely upon the dis- 

 cretion of the poultry. When our Saviour tells 

 Peter that he will deny him before the cock crows, 

 he means to say that he will do it very soon. The 

 Paschal supper was not eaten till it was dark, 

 much time was taken up with its forms ; after it 

 was over, he walked with his disciples out from 

 the city to the mountain, and this walk must 

 have taken considerable time, judging from the in- 

 structions, preserved by St John, which Jesus gave 

 them upon the way. It must have been about 

 midnight when he was arrested, and it was not 

 half way from midnight to sunrise before the apos- 

 tle denied him. Never was such a world of in- 

 tensely interesting history, crowded into a few 

 short hours. 



The day was like the night, divided into four 

 equal parts, in very ancient times, loosely called 

 the morning, the heat of the day, the midday and 

 the evening : this division was in use in our Savi- 

 our's time, though they had then begun to divide 

 the day into what were called the Babylonian 

 hours. This earlier division is referred to in the 

 law; the Paschal lamb must be slain between 

 the two evenings; an expression which would be 

 perplexing, if we did not know that, the evening 

 began at the middle of the afternoon, and the name 

 evening was also given to the time when the sun 

 had gone down ; so that the command was to kill 

 it at the latter part of the afternoon. 



The Babylonian hours, which were in use in our 

 Saviour's time, were invented by the Chaldeans, 

 who took the lead in astronomical discoveries and 

 calculations. The day, between sunrise and sun- 

 set was divided into twelve equal parts : these, of 

 course, were not of fixed length, but were longer 

 or shorter, according to the length of the day. At 

 the time of the equinox, when the sun rose and set 

 at six, they would have been just equal to ours, 

 sixty minutes long; but if the sun should have 

 risen at four and set at eight, the hours would have 

 been as much longer in proportion as the day was 

 longer, they would have been eighty minutes 

 long. In Palestine, however, the sun never rose ear- 

 lier than five, nor later than seven. The third hour 

 was the hour of morning prayer ; if the sun rose at 

 six, this would be at nine o'clock; but if it rose 

 at five it would be at eight o'clock; and the time 

 of evening prayer was also at the middle of the 

 afternoon ; the sixth hour, which was noon, never 

 changed : but all other times varied with the length 

 of the day. We read in the scripture of those who 

 went up to the temple at the third hour to pray, 

 this being the time of public prayer; and our Savi- 

 our sat at the well of Sychar at the sixth hour, 

 which was the meridian heat of the day. The one 

 who came into the vineyard in the eleventh hour, 

 caire but just before sunset, the time when every 



one was required by the law to pay those who had 

 been employed in his service that day. This divi- 

 sion of the day into hours had its inconveniences, 

 which are too obvious to be mentioned. They 

 were doubtless felt ; but what was to be done ? 

 It is clear, as was just now mentioned in the case 

 of minutes, that without timepieces, which they 

 had not, hours of fixed and equal length could not 

 possibly be measured by man. 



The Jews did not follow the Chaldeans in their 

 time of beginning the day ; and this brings us to 

 the divisions of time into days. These, in most 

 latitudes, are measured sufficiently well for common 

 purposes, by the earth's revolution on its axis, 

 which exposes all parts of its surface in succession 

 to the light of the sun. In high northern latitudes, 

 however, this would not answer; the hours of a 

 day which last six months, might hang heavy on 

 their hands ; and a night of equal length would be 

 somewhat too long to spend in sleep, if they had 

 any idea of ever waking. Even now, though any 

 one would suppose that this portion of time was 

 exactly measured by the heavens, we have in use 

 three different kinds of day. The natural day is 

 the time between sunrise and sunset The civil 

 day, that which is observed in all legal transactions, 

 begins at midnight, thus the Sabbath is regarded 

 as beginning at twelve on Saturday night, and all 

 legal movements are suspended till the next night 

 at twelve. Then there is the astronomical day, 

 that which is used by astronomers and navigators, 

 it begins at noon, because that time can best be 

 determined by observations, and the hours are 

 counted from one to twenty-four. The day, with 

 the Jews, began at sunset; thus the Sabbath began 

 at sunset on Friday evening. Friday was called 

 the preparation for their Sabbath, because as noth- 

 ing could be done on the Sabbath, all preparations 

 were necessarily made on the day before. A calm, 

 perfect and profound, prevailed in every habitation, 

 from the moment when the sun went down ; then, 

 according to the beautiful ceremony of their reli- 

 gion, the Sabbath lamp was lighted in every dwell- 

 ing, and burned till the next day's close. 



In practical use, there is a slight perplexity at- 

 tending the subject of time as measured by the sun. 

 The days as measured by the sun are not equal 

 throughout the year : this is because the earth has 

 two motions, while it turns on its axis, it moves 

 also in its orbit round the sun. While it is turn- 

 ing once on its axis, it advances about one degree 

 in its orbit : it must therefore turn so much more 

 on its axis, before the sun can be at the meridian 

 again. But the younger part of our readers will 

 understand this better by an illustration ; let a 

 lamp represent the sun ; now if any one turns round 

 on the place where he stands, when he has turned 

 exactly round, he shall be exactly facing it again. 

 But suppose that when he is turning, he is at the 

 same time moving to the right: in that case, when 

 he has turned quite round, he will not be facing it ; 

 he must turn more before he will face it; now the 

 time of meridian it* the time when the place on the 

 earth where we are, is exactly facing the sun, 

 and owing to this motion in its orbit, the earth 

 must sometimes turn more than quite round, and 

 at others less than quite round, to bring us facing 

 to the sun. But it always turns quite round in 

 exactly twenty-four hours ; if it must turn more 

 than quite round, it will take more than twenty 

 four hours, if not quite round, it will take less 

 than twenty-four hours; and, accordingly, we 

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