February 24

8 And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years, and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possessions, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

11 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 thy vice undressed.

12 For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto

you; ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

13 In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.

14 And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buyest aught of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another.

15 According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee,

16 According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.

17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am the Lord your God.

This was the most extraordinary of all the seasons which the Israelites were commanded to observe. It is a beautiful type of the Millennium, the final "restitution of all things," when "righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." It was

1. A Year of Freedom. Vers. 8-10. Every slave became a free man. Shackles fell off. Prison doors were opened. Such to-day is the effect of the proclamation of the liberty of the gospel. Christ came as the great emancipator.

2. A Year of Rest. Vers. 11, 12. The year of freedom was a year of rest. For that year there was no hard drudgery. It was a symbol of the rest into which the people of God shall enter, when labor and sorrow shall cease forever. The year of freedom was also a year of trust. It was a year of living upon God. The people were partakers of the Lord's bounty.

3. A Year of Restoration. Vers. 13 17. It was a year of the inculcation of the spirit of brotherhood. It had a half century of effect; for the law enjoined its observance throughout the transactions of the whole forty nine years. All property bought and sold, was bought and sold under the operation of this command—"Ye shall not oppress."

Closet Promise.—The Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve. —Isa. xiv. 3.

Grant to me above all things that can be desired, to rest in Thee, and in Thee to have my heart at peace. Thou art the true peace of the heart, Thou its only rest; out of Thee all things are hard and restless. In this very peace, that is, in Thee, the One Chiefest Eternal Good, I will sleep and rest. Amen.—Thomas A'Kempis.