they would never have devised such a custom as this. Moses ascribes no virtue whatever to the day itself, but only to the rites to be observed on that day, and the person by whom they were to be performed. Moses prescribes, first, a high-priest; secondly, a goat, whose blood was brought into the Holy of Holies; and, thirdly, a goat to be sent away: so that, where these three are wanting, the conditions required by Moses are not fulfilled, and there is therefore no atonement. Without these three things, the day itself has no virtue; and, therefore, there is really now no atonement for Israel. The assertion about the day itself is a mere invention of the Rabbis, the only value of which is to show how deeply they felt the insufficiency of repentance, and the necessity of a real atonement in order to procure remission of sins.

Let us hope that the day is not far distant when all Jews will be enlightened, and be led to see that there is but One Sacrifice, and that that Sacrifice, once offered, is allsufficient; and that neither Jew nor Gentile needs any other. May they soon learn to believe that the death of Jesus Christ was an atonement for all sins, and that by His death He has become the High Priest of the new covenant. May they soon understand, and believe, that "the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin;" that "such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice first for His own sins, and then for the people's; for this He did once, when he offered up Himself!" And, above all, may they understand the difference between the Mosaic covenant, and that of Christ, by fully believing that "Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater

For

and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance!"

The sacrifice at the present day consists of a cock for the male, and a hen for the female. A white fowl is preferred to any other, because the prophet says: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall become white as snow." A pregnant woman takes three, two hens and one cock; one hen for herself, and the other two for the unborn infant-the hen, lest it should be a girl, and the cock lest it should be a boy.

In the afternoon we all went down into the synagogue; and, the prayers over, some of the Jews, with the assistance of their friends, prostrated themselves on the ground (taking extreme care, however, to fall down without kneeling, for kneeling is an act of idolatry); whilst others inflicted upon them, with a leather thong, forty stripes save one, and then those who had been thus chastised inflicted the same punishment in their turn upon their chastisers. I must add that the chastisement was a very mild one, and the ceremony bordered too closely on the ridiculous to impress me very strongly with the effect it was intended to create.

This over, we returned to the Rabbi's house for the last meal before the Great Fast. The Day of Atonement is the time when universal reconciliation takes place. Children ask forgiveness of their parents; those who have wronged one another implore pardon; all differences, on that occasion, are healed, and everybody is on good terms with one another.

As soon as the setting sun proclaimed that the Festival of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, was ushered in, we proceeded to the synagogue, which was lighted up with numerous candles. It was a dingy-looking building, utterly devoid of architecture; at its east end was the ark, screened from public view by handsome curtains; and in its centre the reading-desk, a kind of raised seat, of circular form, boxed all round, on which the officers of the synagogue take their seats. But the appearance of the congregation fully made up for any want of interest in their temple of worship. I have visited churches and chapels at home-orthodox, unorthodox, and built for every phase of religious and irreligious belief; I have mingled with worshippers abroad in cathedrals and in convent-chapels belonging to almost every Roman Catholic order, but I never met such an extraordinary-looking congregation as on that night in the synagogue at Jitomir. Everybody was dressed in white: the men in the shrouds in which they were to be buried, and the women in white garments. No leather boots or shoes were worn by the worshippers, or anything made of calf skin, in sad remembrance of the golden calf worshipped by their forefathers. The richer Jews had on cloth boots and shoes, whilst many of the poor stood in their stockings. The service lasted three hours, and was to me wearily monotonous.

From six o'clock the next morning till sunset, the whole