The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 31

element of gift nor of atonement was the prominent feature, but the element of restitution. In this class of sacrifice there was always an accompanying recompense, which was paid both to. God who has been offended by the trespass, and to man who has been defrauded. It was the fancy value which was put upon the ram and which expiated the wrong-doer before the Great Giver of all things, and it was the monetary indemnity which expiated the human fraud, which gave to this offering its peculiar place and value. And this inference is strengthened by noting certain special cases in which this form of offering was ordained, Trespass offerings were to be made upon unconscious negligence in such dues as tithes or firstfruits, upon an unintentional infringement of a Divine command, and upon any deceitful violation of the rights of property; thus, to translate the injunctions into more general terms, trespass offerings were to be made upon any forgetfulness of duty to God or duty to our neighbour. There was always present in this class of sacrifices the idea of retribution. Similarly, in the peace offerings, it is again manifest that it is neither the fact of gift nor that of atonement which is uppermost, but that of the sacrificial meal. In this class, as in the preceding, the elements of presentation and atonement are but means to an end. The peace offerings were gifts and expiations that they might be feasts. The peace oil'ering was the social offering, the sacrifice of friendship, where a man and his kindred might have loving fellowship with Jehovah a.nd his priests. The burnt offering was the act of one in union with Jehovah, the peace offering of one who would cement union by communion. The peace offering was the Lord's Supper of the old covenant. 4. The significance of the several feasts and fasts. The several feasts and fasts now call for consideration before we proceed to build up these numerous details into one consistent and instructive synthesis. The significance of these festal or penitential seasons must again be inferred from the :scriptural records by means of a careful induction in each case. The general import of these exceptional times and seasons in the Jewish calendar may be gathered from the name so frequently applied to them. They are called "holy convocations ; " whereby is signified that they were not simply seasons of rest, a kiml of Dlcadi, or Sansculottide, an atheistic day of rest, or popular festival ; they were holy days as well as holidays. Nor were they, this name implies, like ,birth a.nd marriage days, like Waterloo memorials and American Days of Independence, like Foundation Daye and remembrances of a pious benefactor-mere jubilant or regretful reminiscences of past events, such as the Divine pause after Creation, or the flight from Egypt, or the tenting-out at Succoth ; they were religious in the sense of present participation in spiritual privilege; they were sacramental memorials. In short, the Jewish festivals- (to use a convenient term not to be understood as excluding days of humiliation), whatever else they were, whether holidays or days of rest, were dedicated to religious exercises, and therefore became media for new experimental participation in the blessings of religious truth. The sabbaths were times of holy convocation, and nothing more. They were pauses. authoritatively demanded in the busy life of the world for spiritual as well as physical ends. They stood out amidst the days of the week as the Lord's days, and as. peremptorily as the fourth commandment bade" Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy," did prophets take up the strain, saying, "Moreover, I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that it is I the Lord that sanctify them." Of the same general eabbatic character the new moons partook, and the eabbatic and jubilee year also. They were times for holiness and congregation in addition to being seasons of rest, Without calling any special historical event tG  xx THE LEVITICAL SACRIFICES LITERALLY CONSIDERED.