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not spending, the Sabbath and the other festivals. The Sabbath was a perpetual sign and covenant, and the holiness of the day is connected with the holiness of the people: "That ye may know that I am Jehovah that doth sanctify you.' Joy was the key-note of their service. Moses declared that a place of sacrifice should be given them; "And there shall ye eat before Jehovah your God, and ye shall rejoice, ye and your households."11 The Psalmists echo back the same spirit: "This is the day which Jehovah hath made; we will rejoice, and be glad in it." Isaiah reproves the fasts which were kept with mere outward observance, in place of acts of charity, by promising that those who called the Sabbath a delight, and honored God by doing His works in it, should delight themselves in Jehovah. Nehemiah commanded the people, on a day holy to Jehovah, "Mourn not, nor weep: eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared."14

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The Sabbath is named as a day of special worship in the sanctuary. 15 It was proclaimed as a holy convocation, 16 The public religious services consisted in the doubling of the morning and evening sacrifice, and the renewal of the shew-bread in the holy place. In later times the worship of the sanctuary was enlivened by sacred music.17 On this day the people were accustomed to consult their prophets," and to give to their children that instruction in the truths recalled to memory by the day, which is so repeatedly enjoined as the duty of parents; it was "the Sabbath of Jehovah," not only in the sanctuary, but "in all their dwellings." It is quite true that we have but little information on this part of the subject in the Scriptures themselves, but the inferences drawn from what is told us, and from the character of the day, are confirmed by the testimony of later writers, and by the system of public worship in the synagogues, which we find in full operation at the time of Christ.

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The prohibitory part of the law is general; and the only special cases mentioned relate to the preparation of food. The manna was not given on the Sabbath, but a double supply was to be gathered on the day before,20 just as the rest of the Sabbatic year was compensated by the extraordinary fertility of the year before. No fire was to be kindled on the Sabbath, under the penalty of death, 21 which was inflicted on a man who went out to gather sticks on the Sabbath.22 Its observance is enjoined in the time of earing and harvest, when there was a special temptation to find an excuse for work. 23 The habitual transgression of these laws, by priests as well as people, was denounced by the prophets, 24 and excited the reforming zeal of Nehemiah after the Babylonish Captivity.25 The later Rabbis treated the law as a matter of subtle casuistry; proceeding from the general rule of abstaining from manual acts to the minute enumeration of the prohibited ac

11.

10 Ex. xxxi. 12–17; Ez. xx. 12.

hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He

11 Deut. xii. 7, xiv. 26, xvi. 14, 15, xxvi. giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two

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days"-a striking example of divine encour-
agement to keep the day sacred.
21 Ex. xxxv. 2, 3; comp. xxxi 14.
22 Num. xv. 35; see chap. xiii. § 12.

23 Ex. xxxiv. 21.

24 Is. lvi. 2, lviii. 13; Ez. xxil. 26; comp xliv. 22.

25 Neh. xiii. 15-19.

tions; and it was in reply to objections based on such rules, that Christ maintained the true spirit of the law.26

§ 3. (2.) The completion of the month was observed by the FEAST OF THE NEW MOON. In every nation which uses a strictly lunar calendar, it is necessary to have a distinct public announcement of the beginning of each month, whether it be determined by an exact astronomical computation of the time of the moon's change, or by the first sight of her new crescent. This announcement was made to Israel by the sounding of the two sacred silver trumpets.27 The day was not kept as a Sabbath, but, besides the daily sacrifice, a burnt-offering was made of two bullocks, a ram, and seven lambs, with a meat and drink offering, and a goat for a sin-offering." In later times, the kings offered sacrifices and feasted on the new moon,29 and pious disciples chose this as a stated period for visiting the prophets.20 The feast seems to have been gradually corrupted by the heathen worship of the moon itself. It is one of the feasts left by the Apostle to Christian liberty. 32

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§ 4. (3.) The SABBATICAL MONTH and the FEAST OF TRUMPETS.-The month of Tisri, being the seventh of the ecclesiastical, and the first of the civil year, had a kind of Sabbatic character 33 The calendar was so arranged that its first day fell on a Sabbath (that, no doubt, next after the new moon), and this, the civil New Year's Day, was ushered in by the blowing of trumpets, and was called the Feast of Trumpets. It was a holy convocation; and it had its special sacrifices, in addition to those of other new moons, namely, for the burnt-offering, a young bullock, a ram, and seven lambs, with a meat and drink offering, and a young goat for a sin-offering. 34 This month was also marked by the great Day of Atonement on the tenth, and the Feast of Tabernacles, the greatest of the whole year, which lasted from the fifteenth to the twenty-second of the month. Thus it completed the Sabbatic cycle of

seven months, in which all the great festivals were kept.

§ 5. (4.) The SABBATICAL YEAR. —As each seventh day and each seventh month were holy, so was each seventh year. It was based on the principle of Jehovah's property in the land, which was therefore to keep its Sabbath to Him; and it was to be a season of rest for all, and of especial kindness to the poor. The land was not to be sown, nor the vineyards and olive-yards dressed; and neither the spontaneous fruits of the soil, nor the produce of the vine and olive, were to be gathered; but all was to be left for the poor, the slave, the stranger, and the cattle.3 35 The law was accompanied by a promise of treble fertility in the sixth year, the fruit of which was to be eaten till the harvest sown in the eighth year was reaped in the ninth. 36 But the people were not debarred from other sources of subsistence, nor was the year to be spent in idleness. They could fish and hunt, take care of their bees and flocks, repair their buildings and furniture, and manufacture their

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clothing. Still, as an agricultural people, they would have much leisure; they would observe the Sabbatic spirit of the year by using its leisure for the instruction of their families in the law, and for acts of devotion; and in accordance with this there was a solemn reading of the law to the people assembled at the Feast of Tabernacles. 37 The Sabbatic year is also called the "year of release," because in it creditors were bound to release poor debtors from their obligations; with a special injunction not to withhold a loan because the year of release was near. The release of a Hebrew slave took place likewise, not only in the Sabbatic year, but in the seventh year of his captivity.

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The constant neglect of this law from the very first was one of the na. tional sins that were punished by the Babylonian Captivity. Moses warned Israel of the retribution, that their land should be desolate till it had enjoyed its Sabbaths; 40 and the warning was fulfilled in the seventy years' duration of the Captivity.11

§ 6. (5.) The YEAR OF JUBILEE was every fiftieth year, coming therefore after a Sabbatic series of Sabbatic years. The notion that it was in the forty-ninth and not the fiftieth year, is an assumption from the improbability of the land being left untilled for two successive years; but it is opposed to the plain statement of the law, which directs seven Sabbaths of years to be counted, even forty-nine years, and then that the jubilee should be proclaimed by the sounding of the trumpet." Thus the Year of Jubilee completed each half-century; and formed a Pentecost of years.*

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Its beginning is fixed for the tenth of the seventh month (Tisri), the great Day of Atonement. It was doubtless after the sacrifices of that solemn day were ended, that the trumpet of jubilee pealed forth its joyful notes, proclaiming "liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison door to them that were bound." The land was left uncultivated, as in the Sabbatic year. The possessions which poverty had compelled their owners to alienate returned to the families to whom they had been allotted in the first division of the Holy Land. This applied to fields and houses in the country, and to the houses of Levites in the walled cities; but other houses in such cities, if not redeemed within a year from their sale, remained the perpetual property of the buyer. In all transfers of property, the value was to be computed by the number of " years of fruits" (that is, apparently, exclusive of Sabbatic years) till the next Jubilee: so that what was sold was the possession of the land for that term. A property might be redeemed at any intervening period, either by its owner, or by his nearest kinsman (the Goël), at a price fixed on the same principle. Land sanctified to Jehovah by the owner might be redeemed, at any time before the next Jubilee, by payment of one-fifth in addition to the estimated value of the crops; but, if not redeemed before the Jubilee, it then became devoted forever. Land sanctified by its owner after he had sold it could not be redeemed; and land devoted by the purchaser returned at the Jubilee to the owner. The

37 Deut. xxxi. 10-13. 38 Deut. xv. 1-11. 39 Deut. xv. 12-18. 40 Lev. xxvi. 32-35. 41 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. Of the observance of the Sabbatic year after the Captivity we have a proof in 1 Macc. vi. 53.

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42 The word is of uncertain origin. The most probable explanation refers it to the ringing sound of the trumpet of jubilee. 43 Lev. xxv. 8.

44 Comp. Lev. xxiii. 15, 16, and xxv. 8-10 45 Lev. xxvii. 19-24.

whole institution was based on the principle that the land was God's, who granted to each family its own portion.46 It was a practical solution of the most perplexing questions concerning the right of property in the land, and a safeguard against its accumulation in the hands of great proprietors.

All Hebrew slaves, whether to their brethren or to resident foreigners, were set free in the Year of Jubilee. This applied alike to those who had fallen into servitude since the last Sabbatic year, and to those who had chosen to remain in servitude by the ceremony of boring the ear.47 Provision was made for the redemption of the slave meanwhile in a manner similar to that of the redemption of the land. Thus, as in the restitution of the land, the principle was asserted, that the people were Jehovah's only, his servants redeemed from Egypt, and incapable therefore of becoming bondmen to any one but him."

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It has been asserted that debts were remitted in the Year of Jubilee, 49 and some go so far as to maintain that the remission in the Sabbatic year was merely a suspension of their exaction.50 But the Mosaic law plainly states that debts were remitted in the Sabbatic year, and says nothing of their remission at the Jubilee.

The Jubilee completed the great Sabbatic cycle, at the close of which, in a certain sense, "all things were made new." The trumpet which announced it, immediately after the reconciliation of the people to Jehovah by the atonement, was His voice proclaiming the restoration of the social order which He had at first established in the state, on the basis of liberty and the means of livelihood held from Himself. But it had a higher spiritual meaning, often alluded to by the prophets, and at length fulfilled by Christ, when he recited the words of Isaiah, proclaiming "the acceptable year of the Lord, good tidings to the poor, healing to the broken-hearted, deliverance to the captive, sight to the blind, and liberty to the oppressed; and added, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. But its full completion is reserved for the end of time, when, at the appearance of the new heavens and earth, and of the Tabernacle of God with men, He shall forever do away with pain and sorrow, and shall declare, "Behold, I make all things new.

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II. THE THREE GREAT HISTORICAL FESTIVALS. 53

§ 7. In these the whole people were united to seek the face of God, and to celebrate His mercies. Thrice in the year, at these feasts, all males were required to appear before Jehovah, that is, at the Tabernacle or the Temple, not empty-handed, but to make an offering with a joyful heart. 54 No age is prescribed: we find Jesus going up with his parents to the Passover at the age of twelve, and Samuel still younger." From the examples of Hannah and Mary, it appears that devout women went up to one of the annual festivals. There is no such requirement with reference to the Day of Atonement; but, viewing it as a public reconciliation of the people with

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53 The Hebrew name for "festival" is de rived from a word signifying to dance.

54 Ex. xxiii. 14-17, xxxiv. 23; Deut. xvi. 16; Deut. xxvii. 7; Nehem. viii. 9-12. They are called in the Talmud Pilgrimage Feasts 55 Luke ii. 41; 1 Sam. i. 4.

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Jehovah, preparatory to their most joyful feast, it seems natural to suppose that most of those who went up to the Feast of Tabernacles would go early enough to be present on the Day of Atonement. These periodical assemblages of the people, including in later times even those who lived in foreign countries, 56 were a powerful means of preserving the unity of the nation. These festivals not only commemorated great events in the history of Israel, but they had each its significance in reference to God's gifts at the seasons of the year. The Passover marked the beginning of the harvest, the Pentecost its completion, and the Feast of Tabernacles the vintage and the ingathering of all the fruits of the year. We have here a striking example of the foresight of the Mosaic law in providing for a pastoral people festivals suited to their settled condition as agriculturists; and they were wisely arranged, so as not to interfere with the labors of the field. They are connected with one another, so as to form one great cycle. The Passover is in the first month of the sacred year, followed by Pentecost at an interval of seven complete weeks; and the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month. The days of holy convocation, including the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, were seven: two at the Passover, one at the Pentecost, and two at the Feast of Tabernacles. There is also a cycle in their significance. At the Passover the Israelites commemorated the beginning of their history as a nation, and at the Feast of Tabernacles they marked the joyful contrast between their settlement in a fruitful land and their wanderings in the wilderness. So, in their spiritual sense, the Passover was signalized by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the beginning of the Christian's life, and by Christ's resurrection, as the first-fruits of the spiritual harvest of eternal life; Pentecost by the outpouring of the Spirit and the conversion of multitudes, the earnest of the full spiritual harvest of the world; while the Feast of Tabernacles is left as an unfulfilled symbol of the full fruition of eternal life in "the rest that remaineth for the people of God."

§ 8. (1.) The PASSOVER, which was the most solemn of the three festivals, as the memorial of the nation's birth and the type of Christ's death, was kept for seven days, from the evening which closed the fourteenth to the end of the twenty-first of the first month of the sacred year, Abib or Nisan (April). The Paschal Lamb was eaten on the first evening, and unleavened bread throughout the week, and the first and last days (the fifteenth and twenty-first) were holy convocations. We have already noticed its first institution in Egypt,57 and its second celebration before Sinai. 58 It was slain in each house, and its blood was sprinkled on the door-posts; the supper was eaten by all members of the family, clean and unclean, standing and in haste, and without singing; and there were no days of holy convocation, from the nature of the case, though their future observance was named in the original law." But in the "Perpetual Passover," as arranged by the law and by later usage, the Paschal Lamb was selected any time up to the day of the supper;" it 'was sacrificed at the altar of burnt-offering; its fat was burnt, and its blood was sprinkled on the altar; the supper was eaten only by men," and they

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60 Mark xiv. 12-16; Luke xxii. 7–9.

61 Deut. xvi. 1-6; comp. 2 Chron, xxx, 17 62 Ex. xxiii. 17; Deut. xvi. 16.

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