The feast was intended to keep in everlasting remembrance the execution of judgment upon Egypt by the slaying of the first-born, and the consequent liberation of Israel from the house of bondage. That was the birth-season of their existence as a people. By mighty acts the Lord then did what he afterward expressed when he said, “I have formed thee, O Jacob; I have redeemed thee, O Israel: thou art mine.” Above all others, then, this event deserved to be embalmed in the hearts of the people, and held in everlasting remembrance. P. F.

It stood as an historical monument, testifying to the reality of the events of the exodus. No criticism of documents can impair its witness. No one has yet succeeded in showing how a festival like the Passover could have been introduced at any period later than that to which it historically refers. It has, so far as we can make out anything in history, been observed by the Jews from the very beginning of their national existence. The festival has thus all the value of a contemporary witness, and fully corroborates the Scripture history. The Lord’s Supper in like manner is an historical witness not to be got rid of, testifying to acts and words of our Lord on the night of his betrayal, and furnishing clear evidence as to the light in which his death was regarded by himself. Orr.

The Passover was appointed with a view to its future use as a memorial. It was held before the deliverance which it commemorated had been accomplished. A new era was to be reckoned from it. The memorial purpose of the rite has been accomplished. All over the world it is still observed, more than thirty-two hundred years after its institution, being thus, probably, the oldest religious ceremonial in existence. Christ’s deliberate intention to represent his death as expiation, and to fix the reverential, grateful gaze of all future ages on his cross, cannot be eliminated from his founding of that memorial rite in substitution for the God-appointed ceremonial, so heavy with age and sacred in its significance. Like the Passover, the Lord’s Supper was established before the deliverance was accomplished. It remains a witness at once of the historical fact of the death of Jesus, and of the meaning and power which Jesus himself bade us to see in that death. For us, redeemed by his blood, the past should be filled with his sacrifice. For us, fed on himself, all the present should be communion with him, based upon his death for us. For us, freed bond-men, the memorial of deliverance begun by his cross should be the prophecy of deliverance to be completed at the side of his throne, and the hasty meal, eaten with bitter herbs, the adumbration of the feast when all the pilgrims shall sit with him at his table in his kingdom. Past, present, and future should all be to us saturated with Jesus Christ. Memory should furnish hope with colors, canvas, and subjects for her fair pictures, and both be fixed on Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us. A. M.

THE PASSOVER IN ITS PERPETUAL SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE; CHRIST OUR PASSOVER IS SACRIFICED FOR US (1 Cor. 5:7).

The blood of the first paschal lambs sprinkled on the doorways of the houses has ever been regarded as the best defined foreshadowing of that blood which has redeemed, saved, and sanctified us (Heb. 11:28). The lamb itself, sacrificed by the worshipper without the intervention of a priest, and its flesh being eaten without reserve as a meal, exhibits the most perfect of peace-offerings, the closest type of the atoning Sacrifice who died for us and has made our peace with God. Bush.—The Passover is a gospel before the Gospel. The whole sacrificial system of Judaism had for its highest purpose to shadow forth the coming redemption. Christ is not spoken of as “our Passover” because the Mosaic ritual had happened to have that ceremonial; but the Mosaic ritual had that ceremonial mainly because Christ is our Passover, and, by his blood shed on the cross and sprinkled on our consciences, does in spiritual reality that which the Jewish Passover only did in outward form. The Evangelist John finds a fulfilment of the paschal injunction that not a bone should be broken; and so, by one passing allusion, shows that he recognized Christ as the true Passover. John the Baptist’s rapturous exclamation, “Behold the Lamb of God!” blends allusions to the Passover, the daily sacrifice, and Isaiah’s great prophecy. The day of the crucifixion, regarded as fixed by Divine Providence, may be taken as God’s own finger pointing to the lamb whom he has provided. Paul’s language attests the same truth. And even the last lofty visions of the Apocalypse, where the old man in Patmos so touchingly recurs to the earliest words which brought him to Jesus, echo the same conviction, and disclose, amid the glories of the throne, “a lamb as it had been slain.” A. M.

The Passover was designed to commemorate a great deliverance, that of Israel from the captivity and slavery of Egypt; and it was designed to prefigure a deliverance far greater—that of mankind from a tyranny far more abominable, a depression far more miserable; from the captivity of Satan, the slavery of sin, the dread of wrath to come; that the subjects of this Divine redemption may be placed under the conduct of Providence and grace in their passage through the wilderness of this world, until they shall be settled in the land of promise and eternal rest. The Passover commemorated a deliverance from a destruction otherwise inevitable: it was the only appointed means of safety; there was no other possibility of escape from the angel of Divine wrath. Thus the redemption which is in Christ Jesus is the only refuge of hope set before us—the only appointed means of escape from that wrath which will come upon all that neglect this great salvation. Further, the slaying of the Paschal Lamb did not avail unless its blood were sprinkled. The blood was shed in order that it might be sprinkled; the sprinkling was necessary to preserve the Israelites. Neither will the blood of Jesus Christ prove of saving efficacy unless it be applied. When wrath shall overwhelm the unbelieving in the judgment of the last day, it will be of no avail to plead the merit of this great sacrifice unless we have approached it for ourselves. “Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, we must draw near with a heart sprinkled from an evil (or an accusing) conscience.” The merit of the Redeemer’s blood is infinite, but its efficacy is confined to its application. In his own words, “except ye eat my flesh, and drink my blood, ye have no life in you.” R. Hall.

The Passover and the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s table is a standing historical declaration of the offering of God’s one great sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. “Ye do show the Lord’s death.” It also seals a fellowship—a fellowship of redeemed souls, who have been bought with a price, and transferred from the kingdom of Satan to that of God’s dear Son; having here below a union of hearts which will be perfected in an unseen state. This fellowship is openly sealed by their taking of one bread and drinking one cup. It is a joint pledge of loyalty to the Church’s Head and Lord; in renewing their remembrance of his love to them they seal afresh their pledge of love and allegiance to him. Hence the Lord’s Supper came to be called sacramentum, the Church’s military oath of obedience to her Great Commander. It is a service of thanksgiving. Hence it came to be called the Eucharist. The Passover Feast was a grateful recall of a mighty deliverance. So is the Christian feast. And it is a declaration of hope and expectancy. “Ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.” Believers in Israel were expecting Canaan. We are waiting for the Son of God from heaven to bring us to our heavenly rest (Heb. 4). C. C.