JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENEBAI, 286 JUDGMENT DAY or criminal, and to administer justice in courts held for that purpose; or a person authorized or empowered in any way to decide a dispute or quarrel. In Law. — The National and State sys- tems of judicature in the United States comprise in their list of officers judges of various degrees of dignity and of widely variant functions. In most of the States the most numerous class are the presiding officers of courts of oyer and terminer, criminal courts, courts of cor- rection, etc., the names given similar tribunals in the different commonwealths varying. They have in most instances ' both criminal and (tc a certain extent) civil jurisdiction, but in other cases are restricted entirely to one or the other function. Of a higher dignity than these are the circuit judges, who in some com- monwealths have large supervisory and reviewing powers, while the whole sys- tem is presided over by the judges of the supreme State courts. The United States judges range in dignity from dis- trict to supreme court officials. Judges are recipients of office in divers ways — some being elected by the people, others by the Legislature; and yet others are appointed by the President or by gover- nors of the States. Jewish History. — Judges were certain remarkable individuals raised up in Israel after the death of Joshua and prior to the establishment of the Jewish monarchy. At that time there v/as little 'inity among the tribes, each of which, ike a Scottish Highland clan, looked up to its own individual chief, and not often to any higher human authority. All acted in the Jewish theocracy as vice- gerents of Jehovah. The series of events, oftener than once repeated, was first, that the people were seduced into idolatry; next, that as a punishment for this, they were conquered, and placed un- der the yoke of a foreign oppressor; then a judge arose who under God set them free, and the land had rest normally for 40 years. The Hebrew name Shophetim sometimes means princes as well as judges. The functions of the judge in some respects resembled those of a Roman dictator, and r others those of a Mohammedan Mahdi. JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL, the head of the bureau of justice in the Army. He is, in the United States, the legal adviser of the Secretary of War and holds the rank of brigadier general. He keeps the records of all trials by court-martial, and of all the reports ?T ."^'li^^ry commissions. Unlike the United States, the Judge- Advocate-Gen- eral in England is selected from thp exi judiciary and is not, previous to his ap- pointment, a military officer. JUDGES, BOOK OF, the 7th book in order of the Old Testament. It was named Judges because at the period to which it refers Israel was ruled by men of that designation (See Judge). It con- sists of five sections : a first introduction (i-ii:5), a second one (ii: 6-iii: 6), the main portion or consecutive narrative (iii: 7-xvi: 31), the first appendix (xvii- xviii.), and the second one (xix-xxi.), Two authors seem to have been at work on it, each falling back on ancient docu- ments. It has been always accepted as canonical. In the New Testament it is referred to in Acts xiii : 20 and Heb. xi: 32. JUDGMENT, in law, a determination, decision, or sentence of a judge or court in any case, civil or criminal. In logic, the comparing together in the mind two of the notions, or ideas, which are the objects of apprehension, whether complex or incomplex, and pronouncing that they agree or disagree with each other, or that one of them belongs or does not belong to the other. Judgment is therefore af- firmative or negative; as, snow is white; all white men are not Europeans. In metaphysics, that faculty of the human mind by which judgments are formed. Kant defines it as "the faculty by which the particular is conceived as contained under the universal." In Scripture, (1) Singular: (a) The sentence of a judge, (b) Justice (Is. xxxiii: 5). (c) The punishment which justice inflicts; specially, a calamity sent by God as a penal infliction on account of national or other sin (Exod. xii: 12; II Chron. xx: 9, xxii: 8). (2) Plural: The civil and criminal enactments of the Mosaic code, as distinguished from the ceremonial and the moral laws (Exod. xii: 12; Ps. cxix: 7, 13, 20, 39, 43, 62, etc.) Judgment of God, a term applied to several of the old forms of trial by ordeal, as single combat, walking upon red-hot plowshares, etc- JUDGMENT CREDITOR, one to whom a court of law has awarded a cer- tain sum of money as damages, etc., payable by the other party in the case. JUDGMENT DAY, in theology, the day on which God shall judge the world by the instrumentality of Jesus (Acts xvii: 31), meting out rewards and pun- ishments as justice may require (Matt. XXV : 31-46). When 1,000 years from the birth of Christ were almost com- pleted, it was generally believed that the judgment day was at hand, and every means was adopted to conciliate the
