Sabbath-day, playing-cards and liquors were upon the table, together with, strange to say, the Synagogue Prayer-book and the Gospel according to St. Luke. Mr. Ginsburg took up the Gospel and looked at the party.

"It is one of your books," said one of them. "Your bookseller lent it to me," explained another. "There is no harm in having my book," replied the missionary, "and you might all be the better for reading it."

"There are so many contradictions in it," answered some one, "Christians themselves

now say that it was not written by Jesus, but by somebody else." "I have read the volume," said the missionary, “and cannot see contradictions in it. I am fully aware that it was not written by Jesus, and we never said that it was. But we do say that the New Testament is the seal of prophecy. It tells of the fulfilment of God's promises made to our forefathers."

With the consent of the whole party, Mr. Ginsburg went through many of the passages of the prophets concerning the coming of Messiah. Many questions where asked, but all were attentive and respectful. After spending three hours with them, he went away with the request that he would revisit them. Before he left the house, he was shown into another room, where he briefly but pointedly addressed a second group of Jews and Jewesses, and once more promised to come again.

Do you not think, dear reader, that our good missionary might have remembered with comfort that night the words of Solomon,

"A word spoken in due season, how good is it."

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold on pictures of silver."

C. H. B.

A LADY'S VISIT TO A JEWISH SYNAGOGUE.

I was staying in a city last month in which was a Jewish synagogue, a place I had long felt a great desire to visit. So one Friday evening, having learnt that there was service held there at sunset, as a preparation for the Sabbath, we went. We were admitted without any difficulty, and a man who kept the door showed me up stairs into a gallery.

The service had just begun when we arrived, and a reader was standing before the desk in the middle of the floor, chanting from a large book, with a whitish cotton cloth, with dark border, drawn over his head, hat and all. This we afterwards found was the clerk, and the minister or rabbi, a younger man with a black beard, and wearing a plain black gown and band, not unlike that of an English clergyman, stood behind him.

The synagogue was a room about fifty feet long, and of considerable height. It is lighted from the top by a large skylight in the shape of a dome. Round three sides of the room runs a gallery, which is devoted to the females of the congregation, and is fitted up with a double row of seats, each one separated by an arm from the next, a wire screen running all round.

On the floor of the building is railed off a platform somewhat raised above the rest, with

four large lights at the corners. These were much in the form of candlesticks, but the candles were of white earthenware, with a gasburner flaming from the top. In front of the reader was a pair of real candles. This railed space contained the two readers, the minister and clerk. At the further end of the room hung a dark blue curtain, and in front of this a lighter one of embroidery, with the device upon it of a double triangle, which is the emblem of the Divinity. Behind this curtain is a chest of mahogany, which they call the ark, containing some manuscripts of the law, which are brought out to be read on the Sabbath-day. Above the curtain was a small niche containing coloured glass, on which were inscribed the first words of the ten commandments.

We entered the building a few minutes after seven. The clerk, an old man with grey hair and beard, was reading, and he continued to read aloud in a chanting voice for about a quarter of an hour; during a portion of the time, however, he ceased, and the men, who most of them had books, continued to read in a monotonous voice, or silently, bowing continually very quickly, almost nodding, sometimes walking backwards a few steps, at others bending down quite low. Their prayer-books

were in Hebrew, with an English translation, and are very much formed of passages from the Bible, and Scriptural prayers, with, however, some curious additions from the teachings of the rabbies, which show a ludicrous contrast to the beauty and simplicity of Scripture.

After a quarter of an hour the clerk gave up his place to the regular minister or rabbi. The service continued in the curious chanting voice mentioned before; this was rather nasal, but by no means always unmusical, with occasional variations. Sometimes he and the congregation seemed to read together, and together to repeat passages, at others they added loud Amens; then again they read aloud from their own books something quite different from what he read. I could not help, however, noticing that they did not scruple in the midst of all, to turn round and make remarks to a neighbour, or to ask for a pinch of snuff from another's snuff-box. In fact, one could not help having a feeling that they were there to get through a duty, and the sooner it was done the better they would be pleased. There were not more than thirteen or fourteen present, all men or boys; no women come to that service generally, and it is not usually attended by any men but the most orthodox; we saw, therefore, those among them who are considered the most