With regard to the special import of the several different kinds of sacrifice, it is supposed that we may consider the Burnt Offering as a comprehensive sacrifice, representing the whole meaning or full idea of the institute, and pointing with peculiar emphasis to Christ as taking away the sins of the world--the Sin Offering, as symbolising atonement for special sins of ignorance or infirmity-the Trespass Offering, as chiefly indicating reparation or restitution-the Meat or Drink Offering, as denoting good works wrought in faith, through the power of the Holy Spirit (represented by the oil), accompanied with prayer (frankincense), and incorruptibility (salt)—while the Peace Offerings are distinctly marked as expressions of thanksgiving and praise, with humble acknowledgment of God's free and unmerited bounty.

ELEMENTARY AND GENERAL QUESTIONS.

361. Where were the Levitical sacrifices offered, according to the Law?

362. Distinguish between sacrifices with blood and unbloody offerings; and enumerate the several Levitical sacrifices and offerings, under these two heads.

363. Mention the animals which were appropriated to the several kinds of sacrifice.

364. Describe, in general, the mode of offering the Jewish sacrifices.

365. What do you understand by Wave-offering and Heave-offering?

366. What is the meaning of the term Meat Offering?

367. State generally how we are to regard the Mosaic institution of sacrifice, as disciplinary-symbolical-and typical.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS.

368. Point out the connection between sacrifice and priesthood under the Mosaic ceremony.

indeed inadequate to the purpose of expiating sin, but that they had 'prospective uses, that they were intended to prefigure the great truths of Redemption; and that if the Divine Author of the Mosaic institutions Himself, by the destruction of the temple and the dissolution of the national polity, brought the elder dispensation to a close, it was because, the reality being come, of which it presented the shadow, it was no longer needed.' And with respect to the frame of mind which the Mosaic ceremonies were adapted to produce and cherish in the Jewish worshipper, thus producing an inward, as well as an outward, preparation of the way of the Lord, he says, 'A contrite spirit, a longing for deliverance from both the guilt and the power of sin, trust in the promises of God, and a hope of future redemption-such was the general frame of mind which the discipline under which he was placed tended to form in the ancient believer. The Law, indeed, having conducted its disciple thus far, could do no more for him; for further advancement it must resign him to a more efficient teacher. What Moses began, Christ came to perfect. Yet the religion of the Christian differs in degree only, not in kind, from that of his predecessor under the old covenant; the more essential elements which, in a heightened form, corresponding to the fuller measure of knowledge and of spiritual influence vouchsafed, are found in the former, belong also to the latter. In the Jew who was one inwardly, we see all the lineaments of the Christian character, though not as yet the perfect image; and thus by the inner bond of the spiritual life, not less than by the external one of history and the written word, are the two dispensations connected, and pass the one into the other.'

369. Describe particularly the Burnt Offerings-Sin Offerings-Trespass Offer. ings-and Peace Offerings, with their appropriate ceremonies.

370. Describe the Meat Offerings, and the Drink Offerings.

371. Explain more fully the symbolical and typical import, together with the proper moral effect, of the Levitical sacrifices.

372. What appear to have been the special meanings of the different kinds of sacrifice and offering?

CHAPTER XXI.

JEWISH FESTIVALS, AND OTHER SACRED SEASONS.

THE sacred days and seasons of the Jews were, for the most part, weekly, monthly, or annual; but some few were celebrated at longer intervals.

The weekly festival was the Sabbath-day. This institution was of primitive antiquity, having been appointed immediately after the creation, for the observance of all mankind, in the way of rest from ordinary labour, and for the purpose of devout remembrance and worship of the great Creator. Hence we find very ancient mention of the division of time by weeks. (Gen. vii. 4, 10; viii. 10, 12; xxix. 27.) It is probable that the observance of this sacred day was, more or less, discontinued among the Israelites during their bondage in Egypt, perhaps under compulsion; but it is clear that the memory of it was not lost, from the way in which Moses alluded to it, as a wellknown institution, before the delivery of the Law. (Exod. xvi. 23-26.) Under the Law, however, not only was the original observance restored, but it was stamped with a peculiar and additional meaning, and enforced with an especial strictness, being regarded as commemorative, not only of the work of creation, but also of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt; and, hence, as a sign of the covenant subsisting between God and that people. (Exod. xxxi. 13-17; Deut. v. 14, 15; Jer. xvii. 19–27; Ezek. xx. 12, 20.)

The Sabbath was distinguished by cessation from ordinary labour on the part of all classes of men, and even of cattle, i. e. by a sacred rest (Exod. xx. 10; xxxi. 14-17; Deut. v. 12-14; Exod. xvi. 22-30; xxxiv. 21; xxxv. 3; Num. xv. 32-36; see also Neh. x. 31; xiii. 15-22; Amos viii. 5): by holy convocations, or religious assemblies for public worship (Lev. xxiii. 3;

* Just as the rainbow, which had, perhaps, previously existed, was made the sign of a covenant on the part of God; and as circumcision, already practised by at least some people in the time of Abraham, was yet prescribed to him as the token of a covenant on his part.

2 Kings iv. 23; Ezek. xlvi. 3); and by an addition to the daily sacrifice in the Tabernacle service, and the changing of the shew-bread. (Lev. xxiv. 8; Num. xxviii. 9, 10.) These observances were to be maintained in a spirit of cheerful and dutiful obedience. (Isa. lviii. 13, 14) The Sabbath was always regarded as the opposite of a fast (see Luke xiv. 1). In the time of degenerate Judaism this view of the holy day was abused in favour of idle sensuality; while, on the other hand, the Pharisees disfigured the sacred institution by the enforcement of strict and minute prohibitions, not prescribed by the letter of the Mosaic law, and at variance with its spirit, which called for cheerful bodily rest and religious exercise.

The Days of the New Moon-although not being days of sacred rest or of holy convocation, and, therefore, not holding the rank of feasts-were yet distinguished by special sacrifices, and by the sounding of trumpets over the Burnt offerings. (Num. x. 10; xxviii. 11-15.) These days were distinguished also by public worship and religious instruction (2 Kings iv. 23; Isa. lxvi. 23; Ezek. xlvi. 1, 3); and they appear to have been also marked by extraordinary festivities. xx. 5, 24-27.)

(1 Sam.

The new moon of the seventh ecclesiastical month Tisri (nearly our October) was the first day of the civil year, and was observed with great solemnity, being made, like the Sabbath, a day of sacred rest and of holy convocation. (Lev. xxiii. 24; Ñum. xxix. 1-6.) This was emphatically called The Feast of Trumpets; and may be probably regarded as symbolical of the voice or word of God. (See Exod. xix. 5, 16, 19; Rev. i. 10; iv. 1; 1 Cor. xv. 52.)

*

The Annual Festivals were the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. (Lev. xxiii.; Deut. xvi.)

The institution of the Passover, its mode of celebration, and its symbolical and typical import, have been already described (chap. xii.).

On the fiftieth day, i.e. after the complete lapse of seven weeks from the second day of the Passover, which was marked by the presentation of the first ripe barley-sheaf, was celebrated the festival commonly called, in later times, Pentecost (a Greek word signifying the fiftieth, sc. day, Acts ii. 1), but denominated in the Old Testament the Feast of Weeks (Exod. xxxiv. 22; Deut. xvi. 10, 16), and sometimes the Feast of Harvest (Exod. xxiii. 16), because it was celebrated at the close of the whole (barley and wheat) harvest, or the Day of the First

* [Because not merely were the trumpets blown at the offering of the sacrifices, but it was a day of blowing the trumpets.' (Num. xxix. 1.)]

Fruits (Num. xxviii. 26), because it was the day on which the Israelites were required to present to the Lord, with thanksgiving, the first-fruits of the wheat harvest in bread baked of the new corn, and so, in fact, the first-fruits of the whole corn harvest now reaped and gathered into store. (Exod. xxiii. 16; Lev. xxiii. 17.)

The fiftieth day after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt was signalised as the (probable) period of the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. Hence some Jewish writers have represented the Feast of Weeks as designed to commemorate that event; but no such meaning is attached to it in Scripture, nor is any reference made to it by Josephus or by Philo.

This day is marked in the Mosaic ritual by additional sacrifices. (Lev. xxiii. 18-20; Num. xxviii. 27-31.) It was, properly, the festival of the end of harvest, or a sacred harvesthome. And, while thus celebrating the completed gift of an annual provision of earthly bread, it may be regarded as typical of the work of finished redemption, involving a supply of the bread of life, or all needful and salutary means of grace. It is to be remembered that the Holy Spirit was given to the Church, in a signal manner, on the Day of Pentecost.

The Feast of Tabernacles (or, rather, of Booths) was instituted in commemoration of the dwelling of the Israelites in tents during their sojourn in the Wilderness (Lev. xxiii. 42, 43); and with this was combined the celebration of the Vintage, whence the Festival is called also the Feast of Ingathering. (Exod. xxiii. 16; xxxiv. 22.) This festival lasted eight* days, beginning with the fifteenth of Tisri (October). It was distinguished by a large number of special sacrifices (Num. xxix. 12-39)-by the (septennial) public reading of the Law (Deut. xxxi. 10-13)—and especially by the general custom of dwelling in booths made of branches of trees (in later times, constructed upon the roofs of the houses), and by the carrying of branches of palm (and other) trees, accompanied with the singing of Hosanna. (Lev. xxiii. 40-43; Neh. viii. 14-17; compare [2 Mac. x. 7]; Ps. cxviii. 25; Matt. xxi. 8, 9.) In later times there was also the custom of a solemn libation of water fetched from the pool of Siloam every day at the time of the morning sacrifice. This water was brought, in a golden vessel, by a priest, through the water-gate into the Temple, where it was mixed with wine, and then poured upon the altar.† (This took

*['Its duration was strictly only seven days (Deut. xvi. 13; Ezek. xlv. 25). But it was followed by a day of holy convocation, distinguished by sacrifices of its own, which was sometimes spoken of as an eighth day (Lev. xxiii. 36; Neh. viii. 18). Smith's Dict. iii. 1421. See also Num. xxix. 35.]

[A somewhat different account is given in Smith's Dict. iii, 1422: At the top

place with reference to Isaiah, xii. 3; compare John, vii. 37.) It also belonged to the later method of celebration of the festival, that, every day, after the evening sacrifice, lamps were lighted on two golden candelabra in the Court of the Women, while the Levites sang the Songs of Degrees (Ps. cxx.-cxxxiv.) on the steps of the inner court, and the principal men kept up a dance in the Court of the Women, holding lighted torches or tapers in their hands. Besides this, there was a daily procession round the altar, seven times repeated on the seventh day, by men holding in their left hands the fruits of the citrontree, and in their right palm-branches with pieces of myrtle and willow intertwined, and singing Hosanna!*

This festival was commemorative of the historical fact of the sojourn of the Israelites in the Wilderness, after they had left Egypt, and before they entered on the possession of Canaan. (See Deut. viii. 2-5.) In its typical import it may perhaps be understood as representing the Church triumphant looking back, with joy and thanksgiving, to the trials and difficulties of its earthly state, and celebrating the goodness of Him who safely conducted it to His everlasting habitation. (See Zech. xiv. 16.)

The Mosaic ritual appointed one annual season of humiliation, -the great Day of Atonement, which took place on the tenth of Tisri, five days before the Feast of Tabernacles. (Lev. xvi., xxiii. 26-32; Num. xxix. 7-11.) The whole day was marked by cessation from labour, and penitential humiliation;† and it was chiefly distinguished by the exercise of the following peculiar functions of the High Priest. Having washed himself in water, he was directed to put on, not his more splendid vestments, but only the holy linen garments common to himself with all the priests, and the mitre. He then brought a young bullock as a Sin Offering for himself and his family (i. e. the whole sacerdotal body), with a ram for a Burnt Offering; and two goats as a Sin Offering, with a ram for a Burnt Offering, on behalf of the people. Afterwards he presented the two goats before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle, and cast lots upon them, to determine one of them as about to be sacri

of the altar were fixed two silver basins with small openings at the bottom. Wine was poured into that on the eastern side, and the water into that on the western side, whence it was conducted by pipes into the Cedron.']

*It has been observed that these customs gave occasion to the mistaken idea that the Jews held sacrifices in honour of Bacchus.-Tacitus, Hist. v. 5.

It was not expressly ordered to be kept as a fast (fasting as an ordinance nowhere occurs in the Pentateuch); but it would naturally be so observed for the most part; and indeed, latterly, was familiarly named the Fast (Acts xxvii. 9).'Fairbairn, Typology, Mosaic Period, part iii. ch. v.