and the exclamations of their drivers resounded between the shouts of joy and the hymns of praise.

Helon passed through the court of the Gentiles, scarcely noticing what was going on there, to the enclosure behind the railing, keeping his eye fixed upon the altar of burnt-offerings. He looked up the fifteen steps, on which the Levites were already standing with their instruments, through the gate of Nicanor, and gained a view of the interior of the sanctuary. It was like a glimpse of heaven to him. He saw not the riches and splendour of the gold; he felt not the pressure of the crowds around him. A feeling of intense devotion wrapt his soul, and for a time suppressed every other emotion.

His companions roused him, by directing his attention to the court of the Priests. The evening sacrifice, which this evening was killed an hour earlier than usual, was already brought to the altar, the holy place was illuminated, and they were burning incense in it. Helon gazed around him, on the sanctuary, the altar, the courts, and the multitude which filled them,

bewildered and overpowered, and incapable of fixing his attention upon any single object in the scene. He did not even notice the absence of the high-priest, whom in his imagination he had always pictured as ministering at the altar, or in the holy of holies; at this moment he was engaged in some of the adjacent buildings, making preparations for the festival.

The paschal lamb must be killed between the two evenings, the greater, which lasted from the middle of the seventh hour to the middle of the tenth, (half past twelve to half past four) and the lesser, which lasted till sunset, or about six o'clock. Iddo conducted Helon about this time into the court of the Gentiles, where the slaves with Sallu were waiting. The lamb must be without blemish, more than eight days and less than a year old. The people had divided themselves into three great bodies in the court of Israel. When the evening sacrifice was over, a priest opened all the folding-doors of the court of the Priests, and allowed one division to enter. The priests stood in a row, reaching from the place where the lambs were

killed to the altar, each holding in his hand a basin, pointed at the bottom. Iddo was among the first. He presented his lamb and mentioned the number of the company who were to partake of it. They must not be fewer than ten, nor more than nineteen. He then drew his knife through its throat, the priest who was nearest to him received the blood in his basin, and handing it to his neighbour, it was passed from one to the other, till it reached the priest who was next to the altar, and who poured the blood upon it. Each as he handed the full basin to his neighbour received an empty one from him with the other hand; thus all was done with incredible despatch.

The father of each family killed the paschal lamb himself. In ordinary cases the priests were the sacrificers, but once in the year the master of the house was himself a priest, as a memorial that Israel was a nation of priests. The Levites in the mean time sung on the fifteen steps the great Hallelujah, and at each psalm the priests on the pillar which stands

by the altar blew the trumpet three times. Iddo carried the lamb to the pillars, hung it to one of the hooks, and taking off the skin and the fat, gave the fat to the priest, who salted it and laid it upon the altar. He then carried the lamb home. So did every one of the body who had been first admitted; and when they had all finished, the folding-door opened again, and a second body was admitted. Without the greatest regularity, it would have been impossible in so short a time that such a multitude of lambs should have been killed. Helon descended the steps with Iddo, who had also offered a thank-offering; and as he paused at the gate and looked back, he mentally exclaimed, "Better is a day in thy courts than a thousand elsewhere!"

CHAPTER IV.

THE PASCHAL LAMB.

THE Passover was now begun. The day of preparation was past; every master of a house had killed his paschal lamb on Moriah, attaining for this day an equal dignity with the highest order in the state, and exercising a sacerdotal function. The festival was called in Hebrew Pesach, or according to the Chaldee pronunciation, which was then become universal, Pascha, the deliverance, or the passing through. The companies who were to eat the paschal lamb were already assembled, and the lambs were roasting in the deep ovens in the women's apartments.

These ovens were excavations in the ground, about two feet and a half broad, and five to six