tors will have been much lower. A considerable banking business was also done in ancient temples. So in ancient Babylonia (Johns, Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters, 211), and in the Greek world, at the temple of the Ephesian Artemis, for instance (Anabasis, v. iii. 6f.). That the temple of Jerusalem was used in this way is expressly stated by Josephus (B.I VI. v. 2), and in the legend about Heliodorus (2 Mac S'""'- "). About the management of this temple bank nothing seems to be kno\vn. Our Lord's references are probably to local T/jaTrefirai, the Eastern representatives of the Roman argentarii. See also BANK.
Literature. — Besides the authorities mentioned above, see Hastings' DB, art. ' Usury ' ; Encyc. Bibl., art. ' Trade and Com- merce,' § 78 ; Smith, Diet, of Ant., artt. ' Fenus ' and ' Argentarii ; Winer, RWB, art. ' Hinterlage ' ; Schurer, GJV'ivi. 268.
W. Taylor Smith. INTERMEDIATE STATE.— See Dead, p. 426».
INVITATION The method of public teaching
adopted by our Lord being exclusively oral, it was necessary that two features difficult to combine should be prominent in the form of His instruction, —an immediate impression, and a firm grip on the memory. This He secured by mingling freely in the social life of the time, and by an abundant use of similes and illustrations drawn from facts in the daily life and social customs of the people whom He addressed. This is one of the reasons why He clothed so many of His doctrines in parables and figures centred in the idea of hospi- tality.
The Hebrews were an eminently sociable people. In the earliest times, the laws of hospitality were specially sacred ; strangers were made heartily welcome at the door of the patriarch's tent (Gn 18^ cf. He 13-) ; and in later times a surly attitude towards travellers needing refreshment was con- sidered a serious offence against good manners ( 1 S 25*"'°). Many .strict injunctions were laid down in the Mosaic Law (Lv \«i^--^, Dt 14=" etc.) as to the duty of kindness to strangers. At a still later period, when the community was settled in towns and cities, an elaborate code of manners grew up, both as to giving and receiving hospitality. There was much entertainment of friends, relations, and strangers among the Jews in the time of our Lord ; social meetings were frequent, and religious gather- ings frequently took on a festive character.
Jesus freely accepted such opportunities of social intercourse as were ottered to Him ; He was fond . of being entertained by His friends (Lk 10=« etc.), and distinguished Himself from the outset of His public career as an eminently sociable man (Mt 9'"), often accepting invitations from quarters that gave oft'ence to those who considered themselves leaders of society (v.", cf. Lk 19'). This, however. He did, not merely because He delighted in the fellow- ship of men and women, but mainly because of the unexampled opportunity it aflbrded Him of spiri- tual instruction (Mt 9'-- '^ Lk 7*'-'*»), and of bring- ing His influence to bear on those around Him, whether they were His personal friends (Lk 10"- ■"=), or secret enemies (7^"), or the general public (Jn 12'), or individuals who were denied entrance into recognized society (Lk 18'"). It was a sign of His insight and wisdom as well as of His broad sym- pathies, that in a community so eminently sociable as that in which He moved. He shoiild make such free use of the machinery of hospitality for His Messianic purpose, and devise many parables and illustrations drawn from the customs of the day, and from the etiquette that ruled the relations of hosts and guests, from the highest circles of life to the lowest.
It is partly from this point of view that we are to understand His frequent habit of representing
INVITATION
INVITATION
the gospel of grace as God's invitation to the soul to partake of the blessings of salvation. It made an instant appeal to the sympathies of His audience ; it brought spiritual realities within reach of the intelligence of the humblest and most ordinary people, and it predisposed them to re- ceive His message -willingly ; and, as the similes and illustrations in which He clothed His teaching represented recurrent facts and exigencies in their lives, it helped to drive home deep into their memory the lessons which He taught, and to bring them back frequently to their recollection. In this way the method of His teaching helped to per- petuate its substance till the time when it took a written form. But the parables of invitation have a wider appeal, for the relationships from which they were drawn are universal, and belong to all nations and communities w-here the customs of social life are honoured. These customs vary in detail in different ages and lands, but the root-rela- tions of hosts and guests are permanent. These parables are a kind of Esperanto of the spiritual life, and appeal to the universal intelligence and sympathies of mankind. Thus the human side of Christ's teaching forms an ideal channel for its Divine contents.
When we pass from the form to the substance of the teaching, which represents the gospel as an inx-itation, the simile is further justified by its appropriateness and its beauty.
1. It emphasizes the bright and genial aspects of religion, which shine with so clear a lustre in the teaching of Jesus. It has been a recurrent and baneful feature of theological learning that it has tended to envelop religion in an atmosphere of gloom, by making so much of the horror and mis- chief of sin, and dwelling so exclusively on the need of repentance, atonement, and justification. Religious ritual introduced another baneful ele- ment into the spiritual life by representing its duties too much as a series of sacerdotal ob- servances, which by frequent recurrence became mechanical and wearisome. Ethical writers have likewise been prone to dwell exclusively on the re- sponsibilities of religion, to the obscuration of its privileges. In the teaching of Jesus there is nothing of this mischievous tendency. His parables are full of the sound of wedding-bells, of the voice of laughter, of the joy of a great de- liverance, of the discovery of a precious and un- suspected happiness. There are clouds on the horizon, and the echo of distant thunders ; but the foreground is full of happy figures intent on cele- brating the marriage of the soul to its Divine Lover and Friend, and on enjoying the new-found fellowship of God as the Giver of life and salva- tion. Without in any way obscuring the evils from which the soul is delivered by the gracious ministries of the gospel, preachers should follow their great Model in placing greater emphasis on the sunny joys and holy privileges brought within our reach in Jesus Christ. One reason wliy the common people lizard Him so jrladly wns, that He took them away fmin the -» oi-.l-sjilil I iiij an. I olab- orate discussion- oi \\ir llaliliis, an.l ii.iit |,nrted them into that cil.lr of lialipy huinajl l.'lation- ships from wliicli He mainly drew His illustra- tions. What was true then is just as true to-day.