xxvi., "Thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us. And the priest shall take the basket out of thiue hand, and set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God. And thou shalt speak and say. before the Lord t~y God, A Syria,n ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and SOJourned there with a few, and became there a nation ~reat, mighty, and populous: and the Egyptians evil eutreated us, and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage: and when we cried unto the Lord God of our father; the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppres~ion: and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an out- stretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: and he bath brought us into this place, and bath given us this land, even a land which f!oweth with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which thou, 0 Lord, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God: and worship before the Lord thy God: and thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you" (Deut. xxvi. 3-11). III. THE lNGATHEBING HARVEST FESTIVAL. 1. The dwelling in booths for a week in memorial of the encampment at Succoth, when the Israelites for the first time felt themselves to be free men. 2. The rejoicing for the final ingathering of the olives and grapes and the other fruits of the earth. "Thou shalt keep the Feast of Ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field" (Exod. x.xiii. 16). "Thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles sevel'l' days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates" (Deut. xvi. 13, 14). 3. The carrying of the <P-throg, or citron, and of the lulav, or palm, together with a myrtle and willow branch. 4. On the last day of the feast, the drawing water from the pool of Siloam (a ceremony of a post-Mosaic date). "While the morning sacrifice was being prepared, a priest, accompanied by a joyous procession, with music, went down to the pool of Siloam, whence he drew water into a golden pitcher capable of holding three logs (rather more than two pints). . . . The priest then went up the rise of the altar and turned to the left, where there were two silver basins with narrow holes-the eastern a little wider for the wine, and the western somewhat narrower for the water. Into these the wine of the drink offering was poured, and at the same time the water from Siloam " (Edersheim, ' Temple Service'). Our Lord shows the true symbolism of this ceremony to be the gift of the Spirit. 6. The further post-Mosaic ceremony of lighting four golden candelabra in the court of the women on the night of the first day of the feast, the wicks in the candelabra having been made of the robes of the priests worn out during the past year. This ceremony probably symbolized illumination by the Spirit. IV. MoBAL LESSON. The duty of thankfulness. It is a rabbinical saying that the Holy Spirit dwells in man only through joy. This is an exaggeration, but it teaches a truth which is forgotten wherever asceticism comes to be a subject of admiration. The service of God is a joyous service. "Thou sbalt rejoice before the Lord" (Deut. xvi. 11) is the injunctio!1 ~f the _Old 'festament; "Rejoice in the :1-o~d al way; and again I say, Rejoice" (Phil 1v. 4), 1s that of the New Testament. It 1s right that there should be special occasions on which this joy may be exhibited and encouraged. Hence the reasonablen818 of festivals and holy days,
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. The Passover. Ch. xxiii. 4-8; cf. Exod. xii.; also 1 Cor. v. 7, 8. In addition to tbe weekly "offering of rest," there were emphasized offerings of a similar character at select seasons throughout the Jewish year. These were to bring to remembrance great national deliverances, or to celebrate the blessings with which Jehovah crowned the year. The first of these feasts was the Passover. It was to celebrate the deliver- ance preceding the Exodus, It began with a holy convocation; there was then a OIL XXlII, 6--44.] THE BOOK O.ll' LEVITICUS. 851