In the previous section (Ex. 18:21) the qualifications of those who should be appointed as judges are expressly stated. In these passages definite charges are given to secure righteous and impartial judgments. B.

Ex. 23:6. Judges were required to do justice to the poor. It was the part of the judge to defend the poor against the oppression of the rich. Clark.—7. The righteous God will not leave such wickedness to go unpunished. “I will not justify the wicked”—that is, “I will condemn him that unjustly condemns others.” Judges themselves are accountable to the great Judge. 8. They must not take bribes. They must not only not be swayed by a gift to give an unjust judgment, either to condemn the innocent, or acquit the guilty, or adjudge a man’s right from him; but they must not so much as take a gift, lest it should have a bad influence upon them, and overrule them, contrary to their intentions, for it has a strange tendency to blind those that otherwise would do well. H.

De. 1:17. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s. Lev. 19: 15. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In matters of right, right was always to be done, without regard to rank, character, or condition. There was more danger that the cause of justice would be biassed in favor of the rich than of the poor, yet there might be such a thing as, under the pretence of charity or compassion, making a man’s poverty a shelter for his wrong-doing. This was not to be allowed. But on the other hand, the just rights of the poor against influences of an opposite character are guarded by a special precept. Bush.

De. 16: 20. “That which is altogether just shalt thou follow.” Adhere to the principles of justice, act by the rules of justice, countenance the demands of justice, imitate the patterns of justice, and pursue with resolution that which appears to be just. “Justice, justice shalt thou follow.” This is that which the magistrate is to have in his eye, on this he must be intent, and to this all personal regards must be sacrificed, to do right to all, and wrong to none. H.

“Take heed,” says Jehoshaphat, “what ye do; for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you: take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God.” “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty,” says the psalmist; “he judgeth among the gods [magistrates]. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked?” The motives here urged upon magistrates to the exercise of prudence, moderation, justice, clemency, and diligence in their public relations are, that their seat is the throne of God; that their decisions are the utterances of the divinity; that their decrees are the edicts of heaven; that, in short, they are ministers of the Divine equity and goodness, and, “if they fail in their duty, they not only injure men by criminally distressing them, but they offend God by polluting his sacred judgments.” E. C. W.

Justice honestly administered secures national prosperity. It is the lesson of universal history that official injustice loosens all the bonds of society, and brings a nation into ruin. Men will patiently tolerate many abuses of power, but the public abuse of justice quickly brings deadly retribution. On the other hand, an honest and prompt administration of righteous law is the seed of order, content, and mutual confidence. It gives a sense of security; it fosters patriotism; it develops courage; it brings the smile and benediction of God. D. D.

To secure against injury to life or property through inadequate or false attestation, it is enacted that more than one witness must appear before anything can be established; and that should a witness be found on trial to have testified falsely against his neighbor, he was to be punished by having done to him what he thought to have done to his neighbor (cf. Nu. 35: 30). W. L. A.—The right of the criminal to a fair and full trial is strenuously asserted in the Law of Moses. He must be formally impeached, tried before judges, and legally convicted under stringent conditions of proof. The evidence of one witness, however apparently conclusive, was not to be accepted as sufficient. A second must confirm it. The principle is a plain dictate of justice. Orr.—Human life is precious, but the interests of righteousness are more precious still. On both these grounds the scrutiny must be thorough. To prevent any injury to the sacred cause of justice, through error, incompetence, or malice, one witness must be incompetent to obtain a verdict. Security against injustice comes from corroborated testimony and from independent witnesses. D. D.

Witnesses testified under oath—the manner of administration being this: The witness listened to the rehearsal of the words, and gave his oral assent, “Amen,” or, “As thou sayest.” The passage (Lev. 5: 1) describes the case of one who sins in this way, hearing the voice—i.e., the words of the sacred oath, adjuring him to testify whether he has seen or known anything in this case. Then if he will not make known, “he shall bear his iniquity.”

There are stringent statutes against false accusation and false witness. Under this general head fall two distinct cases: Testimony given to favor the guilty (Ex. 23: 1-3), and allegations designed to condemn the innocent (De. 19: 16-21). (1) The former class (as given Ex. 23: 1-3) forbids not merely originating, but taking up a false report and seconding it by endorsement. It warns men not to be drawn in to help the wicked in their malicious plots to screen each other, though they be many. The cause of the poor man which you may not favor is certainly supposed to be a bad one. Your sympathy for him as poor must not override justice and truth. (2) False witness, purposed to condemn the innocent, is met by the statute (De. 19 : 16-21). The accuser and the accused are to be brought face to face before the Lord and before the priests and the judges who are to “make diligent inquisition,” obviously hearing both parties, and if the accuser is proved to be a false witness, “Ye shall do to him as he thought to do to his brother; thine eye shall not pity, but life shall go for life; eye for eye,” etc. H. C.

The Law of Moses condemns the crime of “false witness,” inflicts upon it a suitable punishment—namely, retaliation. He who would thus deprive another of his liberty, his property, or his life was to suffer the same evil which he would unjustly bring upon his neighbor. This was a law of the Egyptians and of other nations; it is so reasonable that it may be accounted a law of nature, and the voice of humanity and of common-sense. Jortm.—Such is the rule of the Mosaical Law; because by means of false witness the good name, the property, the livelihood, the life of an innocent person, may be taken away: the advantages of society defeated, nay, perverted into mischiefs; and the very bonds of it dissolved. Secker.—Bearing false witness against a man in a matter that touches his life has in it all the guilt of lying, perjury, malice, theft, murder, with the additional stains of coloring all with a pretence of justice, and involving many others in the same guilt. There is scarcely any one act of wickedness that a man can possibly be guilty of which has in it a greater complication of villainies than this. H.—The rules here apply primarily to false witness given in courts of justice, but the principles involved may be extended to all forms of the sin. Orr.—Were there no publishers of slander and calumny, there would be no receivers; and were there none to receive them there would be none to raise them; and were there no raisers, receivers, nor propagators of calumnies, society would be in peace. A. C.

De. 22 8 When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.

De. 24 5 When a man taketh a new wife, he shall not go out in the host, neither shall he be charged with any business: he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife which he hath taken.

De. 20 5 And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. And what man is there that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not used the fruit thereof? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use the fruit thereof. And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.

De. 21 10 When thou goest forth to battle against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God delivereth them into thine hands, and thou carriest them away captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and thou hast a desire unto her, and wouldest take her to thee to wife; then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will ; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not deal with her as a slave, because thou hast humbled her.

15. If a man have two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated ; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated ; 16 then it shall be, in the day that he causeth his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, which is the 17 firstborn : but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath : for he is the beginning of his strength ; the right of the firstborn is his.

Ex. 23 4 If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it 5 back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.

De. 22 1 Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from 2 them : thou shalt surely bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it home to thine house, and it shall 3 be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again. And so shalt thou do with his ass ; and so shalt thou do with his garment ; and so shalt thou do with every lost thing of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou hast found : thou mayest not 4 hide thyself. Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide thyself from them : thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.

De. 25 4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

Ex. 23 19 ; 34 26. De. 14 21. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk.

De. 22 6 If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt 7 not take the dam with the young : thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, but the young thou mayest take unto thyself ; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.

The Hebrew Law code is sometimes compared with the laws of the twelve tables at Rome, which were the gathered wisdom of Greece and the Italian States, a thousand years later than the Exodus. Several laws in the two codes are almost the same ; but in breadth of view and in humaneness of feeling, the Hebrew far surpasses the Roman. Sime.

God has written nothing to be thrown aside. The oldest records still give us lessons of God shining with unfading freshness and undimmed glory. The statutes binding on Israel in the wilderness and in Canaan may not be in the same sense binding on our age, but they have not for this reason become valueless. They made revelations of God then, truthful and rich ; they make revelations of God still which it were but small indication of wisdom or good sense to ignore. H. C.

Battlement (or Parapet) upon the Roof (De. 22 : 8). In building a house, care must be taken that none might receive mischief by falling from it. The roofs of their houses were flat for people to walk on, as appears by many Scriptures ; lest any through carelessness should fall off them, they must compass them with battlements ; if this were not done and mischief followed, the owner brought the guilt of blood upon his house. The Jews say, that by the equity of this law they were obliged (and so are we too) to fence or remove everything by which life may be endangered, as to cover draw-wells, keep bridges in repair, and the like ; lest if any perish through our omission, their blood be required at our hand. H.

Exemptions from Military and Public Service. Each estate was held on the tenure of military service ; all Israel was one standing army. Some curious exemptions were made, which show the attention of the lawgiver to the agricultural habits and domestic comfort of his people. Milman.

De. 24 : 5. A man newly married was to be exempt from going to war, and was not to have any public burdens imposed on him for a year after his marriage. W. L. A.—By this law God showed how he approved of holy wedlock, when, to encourage the newly married against the cumbrances which that estate bringeth with it, and to settle their love each to other, he exempted those men from all wars, cares, and expenses. Ainsworth.

De. 20 : 5-7. Three classes were exempted from service in war : (1) He who had built a house, but had not dedicated it (2) He who had planted a vineyard, but had not eaten of its fruit. (3) He who had betrothed a wife, but had not married her. There would obviously be a disinclination, when war was imminent, to acquire property, to institute improvements, or to enter into any new engagements. This provision of the Law would so far counteract the tendency of war-like rumors to paralyze industry and the arrangements of domestic life. Orr.

De. 21 : 10-14. If an Israelite saw among captives taken in war a woman fair of aspect, and loved her and took her to be his wife, he was to allow her a full month to mourn her lost kindred and become accustomed to her new condition, before he consummated his union with her. This refers to captives from other nations than those of Canaan, with whom the Israelites were to form no alliance and not to take captive, but either wholly destroy or render tributary. W. L. A.—The captor could reduce her to slavery. But if he chose to make her his wife, he conveyed to her rights which could not be alienated. It became henceforth his duty to protect her and all her interests God threw around her the shield of his sacred Law. D. D.

De. 21 : 15-17. If a man have two wives, one of whom is a favorite and the other disliked, and if his firstborn son be the child of the latter, he is not to allow his love for the other to prejudice the right of the son, but must allow him, both in his own lifetime and in the disposition of his property after death, the full privilege and right of a firstborn son. W. L. A.

Straying and Overburdened Animals to be Restored or Helped.

The scope of these precepts is not only to inculcate mercy toward the brute creation, but also to engender kindly feelings among brethren. For what would tend more directly to win the heart of an alienated neighbor than such an act of well-timed benevolence? Bush, —It was Moses who, long before the era of Jesus incarnate, announced the principle, “Love your enemies and do good to them that hate you.” For it was one of the express provisions of Moses’ law (Ex. 33 : 4, 5) : “If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. And if thou see the ass of him that hateh thee lying under his burden, and wouldst forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.” The spirit of this law is precisely the same with that of the ethical code taught by Jesus in the Gospel; and it is simply ignorance, or the necessities of some theory that have led to the too current notion of the narrow and less benevolent spirit of the Old Testament religion. S. R.

Not only the ox or the ass that had strayed was to be taken and restored to its owner, but articles of raiment, and, in short, anything that had been lost was, when found by another, to be carefully kept until it could be restored to the person to whom it belonged. W. L. A.—We have here such express directions given as should have made of the Israelites a most neighborly people. The finding of lost oxen, or sheep, or asses, or raiment, is here made to carry with it the obligation of brotherly kindness; it is the law of love in practice. Edgar.

De. 25 : 4. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. This prohibition was dictated by a regard to the rights and claims of animals employed in labor; but there is involved in it the general principle that all labor is to be duly requited, and hence it seems to have passed into a proverb, and was applied to men as well as the lower animals. The use of oxen to tread out the corn and the rule of leaving the animals so employed unmuzzled still prevail among the Arabs and other Eastern peoples. W. L. A.—This instance of the beast that trod out the corn (to which there is an allusion in that of the prophet, Hos. 10 : 11), is put for all similar instances. That which makes this law very remarkable above its fellows (and which countenances the like application of other such laws), is, that it is twice quoted in the New Testament, to show that it is the duty of the people to give their ministers a comfortable maintenance. H.—Whoever or whatever does us useful service brings us under obligation. To the extent of our power we are bound to recompense such. This sense of indebtedness is a channel of blessing to the soul. A muzzle is a shackle forged by wanton selfishness. D. D.

Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk (Ex. 23 : 19; 34 : 26. De. 14 : 21).

No doubt this prohibition relates to the sacrifices, for in the first and second passages it is added in connection with the offering of the first-fruits; and so also in the third passage: “Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself, etc., for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; nor shalt thou seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.” God would not admit a monstrous thing in his sacrifices, that the flesh of the young should be cooked in its mother’s milk. Calv.—The prohibition suggests the duty of cherishing the finer instincts of our nature. The act here forbidden could hardly be called cruelty, the kid being dead, but it was unnatural. It is beautiful to see the ancient Law inculcating this rare and delicate fineness of feeling. The lesson is that everything is to be avoided which would tend to blunt our moral sensibilities. Orr.

Protection of Birds’ Nests—a “Commandment with Promise” (De. 22 : 6, 7). There is no question but that it was God’s intention to accustom his people to study humanity. For if there be one drop of compassion in us, it will never enter into our minds to kill a little bird, which so burns with love toward its little ones as to be heedless of its life, and to prefer endangering itself to the desertion of its eggs or its brood. Calv.—He who can wantonly destroy birds’ nests can wantonly do a hundred other things of the same kind. To be cruel at all is to be cruel through and through the substance and quality of the character. J. P.

Doubtless the purpose of the Law was partly economic; but the special motive urged, that it may be well with thee, shows that higher considerations also ruled. It seems to be but another specification, or illustration, under the Law given in Leviticus (22 : 28) which prohibits the killing of an animal and its young,

“whether it be a cow or ewe,” both in one day. There is no evidence whatever that the Deuteronomic law antedates the Levitical. The one looks simply toward the open fields and ordinary life; the other toward the sanctuary and its sacrifice. E. C. B.

It is plain that in this small example are portrayed more important relations—that in pity toward animals is inculcated mercy toward men. The promise, that thou mayest prolong thy days, is added, according to the observation of the Rabbins, to this least of all commandments as to the greatest, “Honor thy father and thy mother,” in order to show that the keeping of all the commandments flows from one source. Gert.—This is a vivid illustration of the minuteness of Divine government, and as such it affords the beginning of an argument which must forever accumulate in volume and force, on the ground that if God is so careful of a bird’s nest he must be proportionately careful of all things of higher quality. So we may add, If God is so careful of birds’ nests, what must he be of human hearts, and human homes, and the destinies of the human family? J. P.

ADDITIONAL PRECEPTS: RESPECT TO PARENTS, TO THE SABBATH AND SANCTUARY, TO THE AGED, THE DEAF AND THE BLIND, ENJOINED. TALE BEARING, NEIGHBOR HATE, STEALING, LYING, DEFRAUDING IN SEVERAL PARTICULARS, AND VARIOUS IDOLATROUS AND INDECENT CUSTOMS FORBIDDEN.

Lev. 25 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof ; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto the LORD : thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which growth of itself of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shalt not gather : it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you ; for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger that sojourn with thee ; and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for food. Ex. 23 10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the increase thereof : but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow ; that the poor of thy people may eat : and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. Lev. 25 18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgements and do them ; and ye shall dwell in the land of safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year ? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase : then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store ; until the ninth year, until her fruits come in, ye shall eat the old store. And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity ; for the land is mine : for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. De. 15 1 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release : every creditor shall release that which he hath lent unto his neighbour ; he shall not exact it of his neighbour and his brother ; because the LORD’s release hath been proclaimed. Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it : but whatsoever of thine is with thy brother thine hand shall release. Howbeit there shall be no poor with thee ; (for the LORD will surely bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it ) if only thou diligently hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command thee this day. For the LORD thy God will bless thee, as he promised thee : and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow : and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over thee.

7. If there be with thee a poor man, one of thy brethren, within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: but thou shalt surely open thine hand unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a base thought in thine heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou give him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy work, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt surely open thine hand unto thy brother, to thy needy, and to thy poor, in thy land.

Lev. 25 8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years. Then shalt thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In this year of jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buy of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not wrong one another: according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the crops he shall sell unto thee. According to the multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for the number of the crops doth he sell unto thee. And ye shall not wrong one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.

25. If thy brother be waxen poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman that is next unto him come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold. And if a man have no one to redeem it, and he be waxen rich and find sufficient to redeem it; then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return unto his possession. But if he be not able to get it back for himself, then that which he hath sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.

29. And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption. And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee. But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee. Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. And if one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

The Sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee belong to that great Sabbatical system which runs through the religious observances of the Law. They were solemnly connected with the sacred covenant. Clark.—The sacred times of Israel are arranged in cycles of seven, the sacred number. There is first a cycle of seven days, ending with the Sabbath; then a cycle of seven weeks, closing with “the feast of Weeks;” a cycle of seven months, culminating in the Month of Feasts; and now a cycle of seven years, closing with the Sabbatical Year; and a cycle of seven sevens of years, or seven weeks of years, followed by the Jubilee. J. M. G.—The seventh day in every week was “set apart” as a day in which no work was to be done; the seventh year was “set apart” as a year in which no seed was to be sown; and at the end of seven times seven years, there was a great festival during which the whole land was to rest, and when debts were to be cancelled, alienated estates to return to their owners, and slaves to be set free. Consecrated men, consecrated property, consecrated space, consecrated time, declared that God still claimed the world as his own, and that in all the provinces of human life he insisted on being recognized as Lord of all. Dale.

Every seven led up to something solemn, instructive, and beneficent, and every seven times seven to something yet more solemn, instructive, and beneficent. Through the skilfully-prepared perspective of enlarging intervals and more and more absorbing conditions, the great coming period towered in the distance, and every weekly Sabbath was the gateway. Grey.

The appointment of a Sabbatical year does not strictly belong to the stated festivals, nor is it included among these in the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus; but it was very closely related to them, and in some respects had the same purposes to serve. It is hence called by the name moed, festival, in De. 31 : 10. The principal law on the subject is given in Lev. 25 : 1-7. There it is enjoined, that after the children of Israel came into possession of the land of Canaan, they were to allow it every seventh year an entire season of rest. The land was to be untilled—a promise being also given of such plenty on the sixth year as would render the people independent of a harvest on the seventh. P. F.

The Sabbatical year is called in Deuteronomy “the year of release” (31 : 10). In this passage and in Exodus it is represented merely as a period of rest for the land, during which the ownership of the soil was practically in abeyance and the chance produce (which in the climate of the holy land must have been very considerable) was at the service of all comers. There was to be neither sowing nor reaping, neither planting, pruning, nor gathering. What day and night are to man and beast, that summer and winter are to the soil; and hence as man had his Sabbath every seventh day, so the land was to have its Sabbath every seventh year. Clark.—The Sabbath day was a rest from the labors laid upon man for sin. The Sabbath year was a rest for the ground, which for man’s sin God had cursed. Biblioth. Bibl.—The Sabbatical rest of the soil declared that every dweller in the land, the hired servant, the foreigner, the cattle, even the wild animals, had an acknowledged claim of their own on its produce. The different Sabbatical observances of the Law thus concur in pointing to that state of things which would have followed the first Sabbath of creation, had not sin and its consequences brought disorder among the creatures of God. Clark.

Lev. 25 : 1-7. The prominent circumstances which distinguished the Sabbatical year from common years may be thus enumerated. (1) All agricultural operations were to be suspended, and the land was to lie fallow. The whole country must, in fact, have been thrown into one vast common, free to the poor and the stranger, to the domestic cattle and the game; for the proprietor of the land not only ceased to cultivate it, but had no exclusive right to its spontaneous produce, although he might share in it. (2) The produce of every sixth year was promised to be such as would support them till the harvest of the ninth year; a circumstance which would clearly demonstrate a particular providence in respect to the institution. (3) It was a season of release from debts due from one Israelite to another; but not those due from foreigners to Israelites. (4) Every Hebrew slave had the option of being released this year from his servitude. At least this is often inferred from Ex. 21 : 2; but it is quite doubtful whether the seventh year there mentioned was not the seventh year of his actual service, rather than the Sabbatical year. (5) In the Sabbatical year, at the feast of Tabernacles, they were enjoined to read the Law in the hearing of all the people. This was called by the Rabbinical writers “the reading of the king,” because tradition made the king himself the reader on this occasion. Bush.

They were to be gathered together, men and women and children and strangers, that they might hear and learn, and fear the Lord their God, and observe to do all the words of his Law (De. 31 : 12). It is of this reading of the Law by Ezra that so interesting an account is given in the Book of Nehemiah (8 : 1-12). Milligan.

Lev. 25 : 21, 22. Fruit for three years. There shall be, not three crops in one year, but one crop equal in its abundance to three, because it must supply the wants of three years. (1) For the sixth year, supplying fruit for its own consumption. (2) For the seventh year, in which they were neither to sow nor reap. And (3) For the eighth year, for though they ploughed and sowed that year, yet a whole course of its seasons was requisite to bring all these fruits to perfection, so that they could not have the fruits of the eighth year till the ninth, till which time God promised that they should eat of the old store. What an astonishing proof did this give of the being, power, Providence, mercy, and goodness of God! A. C.—God would “command his blessing” in an especial manner so that the land should be twice or thrice more fertile. Hence is suggested to us no ordinary ground of confidence in asking for our daily bread. Of this special promise that food should not fail the Jews on account of the Sabbatical year, God had already given a token in the desert, when he supplied a double portion of manna to those who gathered it on the day before the Sabbath. Calv.

Perhaps nothing brought home to all the sense of living under a different and unusual administration more powerfully than the permission for any and every one to consume freely the fruits of any and all lands alike, without ownership and without labor, coupled with an interdict against storing one grain away. It was not communism. It was brotherhood in the enjoyment of a Father’s bounty. Grey.—They were brought to live in a constant dependence upon the Divine Providence, finding that as man lives not by bread alone, so he has bread not by his own industry alone, but, if God pleases, by the word of blessing from the mouth of God, without any care or pains of man. H.—The most careless and the most stupid could not fail to learn that he did not depend wholly on the land he tilled for bread. There were two parts to the lesson. On the one hand, he had forced upon his attention the fact that he was only a tenant, and not the owner of the land. On the other hand, he was compelled to notice the bounty of the owner and landlord, which was always larger according to his straits. Grey.

22. The land shall not be sold in perpetuity.** The great principle of the law of property is that Jehovah is the supreme possessor of the whole land. Hence they could never sell the land, but only the produce, for a limited time. Herein is declared the principle of eternal Divine right that in God’s kingdom every man is only God’s steward. Gert.—The land in Israel is the representative not merely of property of a similar kind that may be possessed by a Christian man, but of property of every kind which he may own. As therefore the lesson of the Sabbatic year to Israel was that the possession it most highly valued—viz., property in land—was not its own, but God’s, the lesson of the fulfilment to us is that all our property of every kind belongs to him who by the right of redemption claims to himself both us and what we have. It is not of the soil only, when we may own it, that we are stewards; we are only stewards of all that we possess. The Christian, in giving himself to God, gives also his goods, whatever they may be. He does not say of anything he possesses that it is his own. He acknowledges the Divine claim upon himself and everything that he has; and in so far as he retains it he does so in the Spirit of God’s holy rest, regarding it as consecrated to him, and to be used in whatever manner he may direct, for his glory, and the good of his truth and kingdom upon earth. Milligan.

The land is mine. This was of course true in a special sense of the territory which God gave by promise and miracle, which was kept by obedience and lost by rebellion. But it is as really true about our possessions, and that not only because of our transient stay here. Length of time makes no difference in this tenure. Undisturbed possession for ever so long does not constitute ownership here. God is possessor of all, by virtue of his very nature, by his creation and preservation of us and of all things. When we talk of “mine” and “thine” we are only speaking a half truth. There is a great sovereign “his” behind both. Here is ground for constant thankfulness and submission, as well as a constant sense of responsibility in the use of all which we have. All is his, and he has given all for a purpose.—Ye are strangers and sojourners with me. While we are strangers indeed, passing through a country that is not ours, yet are we sojourners with the King of the land. With him we have companionship, even when most solitary. Whoever goes, he abides. So will it be while we live, and when we are called to die—well; the King of this land, where we are strangers, is the King of the other land beyond the sea, where we are at home. Death, the separator, shall but invite us to the King whose presence indeed fills this subject-province of his empire with all its good, but who dwells in more resplendent “beauty,” and is felt in greater nearness in the other “land that is very far off.” Whether here or there, we may have God with us if we will. With him for our Host and Companion, let us go peacefully on our road, while the life of strangers and sojourners shall last. It will bring us to the fatherland, where we shall be at home with the King, and find in him our “sure dwelling, and quiet resting-place, and peaceful habitation forever.” A. M.

The Sabbatic Year, a Year of Release and of Helpful Bounty to Impoverished Debtors.

Ex. 29 38 Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even: and with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meal offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD. It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tent of meeting before the LORD: where I will meet with you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the children of Israel; and the Tent shall be sanctified by my glory.

Nu. 28 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My oblation, my food for my offerings made by fire, of a sweet savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season. And thou shalt say unto them, This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the LORD; he lambs of the first year without blemish, two day by day, for a continual burnt offering. The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even; and the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil. It is a continual burnt offering, which was ordained in mount Sinai for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And the drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an hin for the one lamb: in the holy place shalt thou pour out a drink offering of strong drink unto the LORD. And the other lamb shalt thou offer at even: as the meal offering of the morning, and as the drink offering thereof, thou shalt offer it, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

Ex. 35 1 And Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel, and said unto them, These are the words which the LORD hath commanded, that ye should do them. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of solemn rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

Lev. 23 3 Six days shall work be done: but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of work: it is a sabbath unto the LORD in all your dwellings.

Ex. 23 12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

Ex. 31 12 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily ye shall keep my sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD which sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that profaneth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

Nu. 28 9 And on the sabbath day two he-lambs of the first year without blemish, and two tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof: this is the burnt offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering, and the drink offering thereof.

11. And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven he-lambs of the first year without blemish; and three tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, for each bullock; and two tenth parts of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, for the one ram; and a several tenth part of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering unto every lamb; for a burnt offering of a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And their drink offerings shall be half an hin of wine for a bullock, and the third part of an hin for the ram, and the fourth part of an hin for a lamb: this is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year. And one he-goat for a sin offering unto the LORD; it shall be offered beside the continual burnt offering, and the drink offering thereof.

As the Hebrew calendar ran its course, it was as if one long bleat, one incessant lowing, filled the air; it was as if one continuous stream of sacrificial blood choked the runnels of the court. The year opened with the evening sacrifice and the new-moon celebration, the expiring flames of which were fed next day by the ordinary morning sacrifice and by a round of individual presentations, which must sometimes have known no interruption until the smoke of the evening sacrifice again rose into the air and another day began. Day after day the customary ceremonial was repeated, till the Sabbath twilight fell and double sacrifices were slaughtered. On the tenth day of the first month came the solemn celebration of the Passover, when in every home, with devout recollections and enthusiastic hopes, a paschal lamb was spread upon the board. Then followed the seven days of Unleavened Bread, with their customary and holy-day ritual, bringing at length, after the repeated diurnal, Sabbatic and lunar formalities, the fuller slaughter of Pentecost. Day after day, Sabbath after Sabbath, new moon after new moon, the authorized worship was again continued, until there came a break to the monotony on the first day of the seventh month in the feast of Trumpets. On the tenth day of the same month came the awful and grave procedure of the Day of Atonement, followed after five days’ interval by the singular and more grateful worship of the feast of Tabernacles.

Afterward the year was brought to a close by the common series of daily, weekly, and monthly effusions of blood. Cave.

The three feasts were: The feast of the Passover; the feast of PENTECOST; the feast of TABERNACLES. The feast of the Passover was celebrated to keep in remembrance the wonderful deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt. The feast of Pentecost, called also the feast of harvest and the feast of weeks, was celebrated fifty days after the Passover, and hence called by the Greeks Pentecost. The feast of Tabernacles, called also the feast of the ingathering, was celebrated about the fifteenth of the month Tisri, to commemorate the Israelites dwelling in tents for forty years in the wilderness. A. C.

Upon these three great festivals all the males of Israel were required to appear before the Lord at the one place of his choice—the tabernacle or the temple—ultimately in Jerusalem “whither the tribes go up.” The women of Israel manifestly went when they chose and could. According to Oriental usage, they travelled in groups—little caravans—several adjacent families, or as the case might be by households, the patriarch with his children and children’s children together, moving on with many a song of social cheer and grateful praise till at length they lifted up their eyes to the hills of the goodly city. The so-called “songs of degrees” (Ps. 120-134)—more strictly songs of the stages or upgoings—are specimens of this free and outflowing worship of the travelling companies, bound upward to Jerusalem. H. C.

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. P. S.

God appointed several festivals among the Jews, for many reasons: (1) To perpetuate the memory of those great events, and the wonders he had wrought for the people; for example, the Sabbath brought to remembrance the creation of the world; the Passover, the departure out of Egypt; the Pentecost, the giving of the Law; the feast of Tabernacles, the sojourning of their fathers in the wilderness. (2) To keep them faithful to their religion, by appropriate ceremonies and the splendor of the Divine service. (3) To procure them lawful pleasures and necessary rest. (4) To give them instruction, for in their religious assemblies the Law of God was read and explained. (5) To consolidate their social union by renewing the acquaintance of their tribes and families; for on these occasions they came together from different parts of the land. Calmet.—By being thus brought frequently into contact they were reminded of their common origin and objects; that they were sons of the same father, worshippers of the same God, and heirs of the same promises. Persons of distant towns and different tribes met together on terms of brotherhood and fellowship; old relations were renewed and new ones formed. Thus the twelve petty States would become more and more closely connected, and united into one great people. E. C. W.

It might seem at first view that there was signal impolicy in leaving the land defenceless, while all the adult male population were congregated at a distance from their families and homes. Unless the Scriptures had given a solution, the matter would have been deemed inexplicable; but thus runs the promise in Ex. 34 : 23, 24. “Thrice in the year shall all your men-children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel; neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God, thrice in the year.” During the whole period between Moses and Christ, we never read of an enemy invading the land at the time of the three festivals; the first that occurs was thirty-three years after they had withdrawn from themselves the Divine protection by embracing their hands in the Saviour’s blood, when Cestius the Roman general slew fifty of the people of Lydda, while all the rest were gone up to the feast of Tabernacles, A.D. 66. Bush.

Two Features Emphasized.

De. 16:16, 17. In the place which he shall choose; and they shall not appear before me empty: every man shall give as he is able. The Law is repeated here with the additional clause, “at the place which the Lord shall choose;” and the words, “not empty,” are explained to mean with gifts according to the blessing of Jehovah their God, which he had given them. W. L. A.

In the place which he shall choose A principal reason for which these festivals were appointed, was to keep up peace, and friendship, and unity, both in Church and State. As the nation was divided into tribes, each of which was in some respects a little commonwealth, there was cause to fear that they should fall out and separate in themselves into independent governments, and have a religion and ruler of their own. And in fact this befell them in after times: they became two kingdoms, and idolatry and frequent wars ensued. For the prevention of these evils the Israelites were enjoined to assemble together to serve the Lord in one place, which he should appoint.

They shall not appear before the Lord empty. The Jews were commanded to bring a present; not a burnt-offering or a sacrifice by fire; for these, though also required, were of another nature and for another end; but a heave-offering a freewill-offering, which was a tribute of thankfulness to God and likewise an acknowledgment of his supreme lordship and dominion over all. Therefore this particular is added, “They shall not appear before the Lord empty: every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee.” Jortia.—As the great principle of love to Christ will not allow the more opulent to give scantily, so neither will it permit the poorest to come before him empty. It was one of the Divine enactments even of the legal dispensation—None shall come before me empty. But that which was matter of law with the Israelite, the Christian will seize as a golden opportunity for evincing his love to Christ; and will bring, though it be only a grain of incense for an offering, or a leaf for that wrestle of praise and honor which the Church delights to lay at the feet of Christ. Harris.

17. As he is able.** This is the law of giving in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. It is a just and equitable law. It makes the giver an accountant in the sight of God. He has to add up his resources and diligently to consider their sum, and then to give as he may be able. This law does not relate to money only, but to time, influence, and sympathy. Nothing would be so easy for many men as to buy themselves off, by the gifts of money, from all further service. Simply because of the abundance of their wealth, money is as nothing to them, and the giving of it is not felt. It is only when the giving is touched with the pain of sacrifice that it becomes of any value in the sanctuary. There is no niggardliness in the promises of God in relation to the true giver, of whatever nature his gifts may be. “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” J. P.

In an historical respect, the Passover recalled the deliverance from the land of Egypt, which gave birth to their national existence; the feast of first-fruits pointed to the miraculous preservation of the first-born, and the consecration practically grounding itself therein of all their increase to the Lord; while the feast of Tabernacles reminded them of their long sojourn in the wilderness, and of the lessons this was intended to render perpetual in their experience as to faith and holiness. In beautiful accordance with these historical grounds for the different ordinances, were the seasons appropriate to each: the Passover being assigned to Abib (the ear-month), when the fresh hopes of spring began to take distinct shape; the first-fruits to summer, when the harvest field had already yielded its produce; and Tabernacles to the period of late autumn, when, all the year’s fruits being gathered, the experience of another season’s heritage of good brought anew the call to rejoice before the Lord, heightened by the comparison of what they now possessed with what they had wanted in the earlier period of their existence. Thus nature and grace, the ordinary providences of the present, and the more special providences of the past, were marvellously combined together in the general arrangements which were made respecting the feasts. P. F.

They all shadowed forth certain great truths respecting the covenant life with God. Unleavened Bread was a call to repentance and a demand for holiness. Leaven, the symbol of sin, was to be put away. The “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” was alone to be found in the heart, in the family, in the nation. Pentecost told of the gift and appropriation of the Spirit; of that Spirit in whose strength we walk with God. Lastly, Tabernacles spoke of the diffusion of the Spirit; that they who truly walk with God live not for themselves but for others, that having freely received they freely give. Translated into New Testament language, the three feasts thus gave utterance to the three great truths of all religious life: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;” “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you;” “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Another characteristic of the feasts of Israel is to be traced in the joyful emotions by which they were all pervaded. “Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God,” “Thou shalt rejoice in thy feast,” “Therefore thou shalt surely rejoice,” are the commandments expressly given in connection with them. All the arrangements connected with them were calculated to promote joy. They all took place in the summer half of the year. They were all associated with the abundance and the joy of harvest. In so far as they commemorated historical events they brought to view truths of the most elevated and inspiring character. At the great Passover in Hezekiah’s time “the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the Lord.” It was the same at the feast of Tabernacles in Nehemiah’s time. A deep interest attaches to this characteristic of these festivals. For their highest solemnities spoke of the light and freedom of redemption. The “joy of the Lord” was their strength. And their joy was not a worldly but a sacred and sanctified joy. As the annual feasts of Israel were seasons of the liveliest joy, so is that Christian life in which they are fulfilled to be marked by a joy that is abiding. In that life, too, all things are sanctified. To the Christian, joy and sorrow, earth and sky, solitary hours and the social table, all are sacred, because in the deep recesses of his heart he is keeping his festival and singing its songs. Finally, in the fulfilled Christian life all the followers of Christ are one. Redeemed by one sacrifice, called to the same holiness, enjoying the same Divine protection, partakers of the same Spirit wherewith to renew themselves and to convert the world, they ought to be in constant unity with one another. In Christ they are one. Their unity is a “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Never until these characteristics of the old feasts of Israel are thus fulfilled in Christian men are they taking into their lives the influences of the blessed dispensation under which they live, as the devout Israelite took into his the influences of the Passover, followed by the feasts of Unleavened Bread, of Pentecost, and of Tabernacles. But when they are fulfilled, then we shall see the fulfilment of all that brought up the people of God under the earlier dispensation three times in the year to Jerusalem. Then shall the followers of Jesus be always in the sacred city and at the joyful feast. They shall not only be “the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people,” but they shall be that people in the moment of their highest and most heart-stirring solemnities. They shall sing a constant hallelujah. Their palms and myrtles shall be ever green. They shall reap and dedicate a constant harvest, where they shall have not only all that is needed to sustain life but all that can elevate and cheer and brighten it, world without end. Milligan.

THE EIGHTH-DAY SERIES. While seven is the ever-recurring number, there come in some very significant eighths. The eighth day is treated as an extra day beyond the seven. The first was on the Wave-sheaf morn (Lev. 23 : 11). Compare this with Matthew’s account of the Resurrection, which took place on Wave-sheaf morn; thus beginning a new year, not embraced within the compass of the old Jewish sacred times, but opening out indefinitely to the great spiritual harvest, of which the eighth day celebrations were the recognized types (see John 4 : 35). The next significant eighth was Pentecost. The Sabbath of weeks had been completed, seven times seven days, after which came Pentecost, not on the forty-ninth day, not on the seventh of the last cycle of seven, but on the eighth, the morrow following the Sabbath. As the Wave-sheaf day was the morrow after the Sabbath at the beginning, Pentecost was the morrow after the Sabbath at the end of the seven weeks. In the same way, the spiritual Pentecost was the fiftieth day from the Resurrection, and accordingly fell also on the first day of the week. On that day the first-fruits of results, corresponding to the first loaves from the harvest, were presented to the Lord. The third significant eighth was the Jubilee Year. It too fell, not on the forty-ninth, but on the fiftieth. Like the Wave-sheaf morn and like Pentecost, the Jubilee was evidently an eighth.

And now, when we consider how these eighth days spring out of the bosom of the cycles of seven with their Sabbatic sevenths, and when we remember that these eighth days had also the Sabbatical characteristics, we can see very clearly how natural it was that the seventh day of the Mosaic economy should, without any legislative interference, merge into the eighth day, or first day of the week of the Christian dispensation. Not only was the change a natural one from the standpoint of the early disciples, but the way is prepared for it in the very structure of the Sabbatical cycles of ancient Israel. And this becomes all the more striking, when we observe that, though the feast of Tabernacles was always spoken of as a seven days’ feast, there was an eighth day celebration grafted on it: “On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly.” This day had evidently all the characteristics of a Sabbath day; and yet, coming in as it does after the close of the last feast of the sacred year of Israel, it gives a hint of the Sabbath of the coming era, which shall no longer be the seventh with a backward reference to the memories of the past, but the first day of the week with a forward reference to the glories of an age whose sun arose never more to set, on the morrow after the Sabbath which followed the last Passover of the Old Covenant. On the very day following the Sabbath of the Passover, “being the first day of the week,” Christ rose from the dead, and became “the first-fruits of them that sleep.” And on the very day, the fiftieth or Pentecostal day, when the first loaves of the harvest were presented to the Lord, the fiftieth or Pentecostal day, after Christ’s resurrection, there were presented to the Lord the first-fruits of the results of his great redeeming work, in the first three thousand converts. The ingathering week will find its antitype in the great gathering of the redeemed of all nations which shall close the sacred year of the Lord. The days in which we live come in between Pentecost and the ingathering. By faith we look backward and grasp the great facts of the death and resurrection of our Lord (Passover eve and Wave-sheaf morn), and the descent of the Comforter (Pentecost). In hope we look forward to the coming day of the Lord, and rejoice in the anticipated glories of the great week of ingathering which that day shall usher in. Meantime we are called in the devotion of loving service to work as well as wait for his coming, blowing the Gospel trumpet, and proclaiming the full atonement which prepares the way for the glorious consummation. J. M. G.

The Divine origin of their laws, their immutability, their duration, and their supernatural influence imbued the spirit of this sacerdotal people. Everywhere, and at all hours, was their Law or some symbol of their Law, like the works of the Deity, kept in their sight. It was variously worn on their persons; it was nailed to the door-posts of their habitations; it formed their daily occupations in the morning, the noon, and the evening sacrifice. All nature was consecrated to religion; for the first-fruits, a portion of the harvests and certain animals were dedicated to its service. Their great festivals were connected with the productions of every season. The Passover could not be kept till their flocks furnished the paschal lamb; the Pentecost till the wheat had ripened for the fresh loaves of propitiation; and the thick boughs and branches could not cover their tabernacles till they had gathered in their vineyards and their olive grounds. The Israelites were reminded of their religious festivals by the living commemorations of nature. The whole earth became one vast synagogue. Such they were in their holy land, and such they remain. The Hebrews are still accustomed to mark the seasons of the year and the dates of events by religious feasts and fasts. Still they are watching the sunset which brings their own Sabbath to all their habitations; the new moon to hold its solemn celebration, and the earliest star, that calls them back to life, to break their penitential fast. D’Israeli.

Dr. Leslie proves the truth of the events of the Pentateuch by applying to them four rules, which, whenever they can be truly applied to any matters of fact, exclude every rational doubt of their reality. The first is that the facts be such that men’s senses can judge of them. The second, that they be performed publicly in the presence of witnesses. The third, that public monuments be set up and public actions be appointed to be performed in memory of them. And the fourth, that these monuments and actions be established and instituted at the time of the facts and thenceforward continued without interruption. These four marks of authenticity apply to these commemorative festivals in the most exact and wonderful manner. So long, therefore, as the Passover, the Pentecost, and the Day of Atonement continue to be celebrated by the scattered remnant of Jacob’s sons; so long, indeed, as there shall remain historical evidence of the past existence of these and other Jewish festivals and monuments;—so long may we be sure of the reality of the events which they commemorate. So long may we be sure that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and that they were delivered by the miraculous exertion of an almighty power. So long may we be sure that God divided the Red Sea for their accommodation; that He spake the Law in thunder from Sinai; that for forty years He led the people by a cloudy and fiery pillar, the never-failing symbol of his presence; that He satisfied their hunger with bread that nightly fell around their camp, the product of his creative energy; that He preserved from decay the garments that covered their nakedness; that He parted the waters of Jordan and led them dry-shod over its pebbly bottom; and that He finally planted them securely on the territories of their enemies and His, in the land that He had promised to their fathers. On the national monuments and festivals of commemoration we may plant our faith in the truth and authority of the Pentateuch as upon an impregnable fortress; and the storms of an infidel philosophy will spend their rage upon it in vain. E. C. W.