CHAPTER XVIII. JEWISH SYMBOLS. THE FEAST OF WEEKS. Of the three great annual Jewish feasts, the Passover has been already sufficiently noticed. It was kept in the first month of the Jewish year. The second great feast was the Feast of Weeks, for which no exact date was fixed by the law, but it was appointed to be kept seven weeks after the beginning of the harvest. "Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn" (Deut. xvi. 9). At the beginning of harvest, a sheaf of the first-fruits was brought to the tabernacle or the temple, and there waved before the Lord, in grateful acknowledgment of His bounty, and as an expression of dependence upon him. The law is as follows:-"When ye be come into the land that I shall give unto you, and shall reap the harvests thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the you on the morrow after the wave it" (Lev. xxiii. 10, 11). a burnt-offering, and a meat-offering, and a drink-offering should be offered, and it is added:-" And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the self-same day that ye have brought an offering unto your God; it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings" (Lev. xxiii. 14). The offering of the sheaf of first-fruits was a beautiful ordinance, eminently calculated to keep alive in the minds of the people the sense of dependence and gratitude which it was intended to express. It was entirely symbolical, and Lord, to be accepted for its meaning is evidently that just indicated.-From that morning after the Sabbath, on which the offering of the first-fruits took place, seven weeks were to be counted, when the Feast of Weeks, so called from this circumstance, was appointed to begin. "Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days, and ye shall offer a new meat-offering unto the Lord. The Feast of Weeks is called in the New Testament the Feast of Pentecost, from the Greek word signifying fifty. Sacrifices were appointed to be then offered, of which, however, it seems unnecessary to take any special notice here, as they were of the same nature with those ordinarily offered upon solemn occasions by the Jews, the symbolic significancy of which has been pointed out already. There is only one peculiarity which demands attention. With the other wave-offerings, bread of the first-fruits was waved before the Lord (Lev. xxiii. 20), in token evidently of the connection of this feast with the harvest, and of thankfulness for the plenty with which the Lord had crowned the year. It is a symbolic rite, exactly corresponding in its signification with the waving of the sheaf of first-fruits fifty days before. The Feast of Weeks was one of holy joy, and so it is said in the Book of Deuteronomy:-" And thou shalt keep the Feast of Weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a free-will-offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place His name there: And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do these statutes (Deut. xvi. 10-12). Thus it appears that the grateful acknowledgment of the Lord's goodness was not to be limited to the harvest just concluded, but to extend back over the whole past, to the deliverance from Egypt, and the bestowal upon Israel of the fruitful promised land and that this day of gratitude and rejoicing was to be one also of charity, that the poor might partake of the abundance which the land had yielded, and share in the common joy. CHAPTER XIX. JEWISH SYMBOLS. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. THE third and last of the great annual festivals was the Feast of Tabernacles. It was appointed to begin on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and to continue for seven days. Sacrifices were offered on each day, and the first and last days of the feast were days of especial solemnity, on which no servile work was to be done. The Feast of Tabernacles is also called the Feast of Ingatherings at the Year's End; because it was kept after the gathering in of the corn and the wine (Deut. xvi. 13). It derives the name Feast of Tabernacles from a remarkable peculiarity which characterised it, that the whole people were required to dwell during the time of it in booths or tabernacles, a symbolic ordinance, intended to remind them, amidst all their peace and prosperity in Canaan, of the time when their fathers dwelt in tabernacles in the wilderness. The law says:-"Ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God" (Lev. xxiii. 40, 42, 43). The words of the law show the meaning of the symbol which especially distinguished the Feast of Tabernacles. We We may well suppose, however, that the dwelling in booths for seven days was not only intended to remind the people of the wanderings. and sufferings of their fathers in the wilderness, but of that |