CHAPTER VI.

THE REMAINING DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD.

the Passover.

on the divan.

Ir was the morning of the second day after Helon was lying by Elisama Glad to be delivered from his dream, he started up, performed his morning devotions in the Alijah, saluted Moriah and Zion from the roof, and endeavoured to shake off the disagreeable impressions of the night, which returned upon him with something of an ominous import. When he came down into the court, he found Iddo sitting under the palmtrees. He endeavoured to think only of his present happiness, and he felt, that as man is never more purely and vividly happy than in the morning of childhood, so the morning of each day is the time, when he has the most

lively consciousness of every thing that is agreeable in his condition.

They all went together to the temple to pray. After the usual morning sacrifice of a lamb, followed, as the day before, an offering appropriate to the festival, of two young bullocks, a ram, and seven yearling lambs, as a burntoffering; and a goat, as a sin-offering. The high-priest ministered as before at the altar, and the priests around him. The crowd was scarcely less than yesterday, and nearly the same ceremonies were repeated.

Next followed the offering of the first-fruits, the omer of barley-meal which had been prepared from the sheaves, cut the preceding evening. A priest fetched the meal, in a golden dish, from an apartment in one of the buildings, mixed it in the presence of all the people with a log (six eggshells) of the finest oil, and scattered upon it a handful of incense. He brought it to the high-priest, who stood beside the altar, and he waved it towards all the four winds, from east to west and from south to north, and then ascended the altar. On the southern side

lay salt, with which he salted the meal and threw a handful of it, with another of incense, upon the flame. Immediately after, a special sacrifice, a lamb with the meat and drink offering that belonged to it, was offered; and the high-priest concluded by giving his benediction. The harvest was now solemnly begun, and Israel might pursue its joyful labours. The spectators dispersed themselves in different directions; and many of the pilgrims, who had neither time nor means to spend the whole week of the festival in Jerusalem, returned home on this day.

Only those remained behind, who purposed to offer the burnt-offerings of the appearance before Jehovah, and these were the wealthier part of the worshippers. Elisama, Helon, and Sallu went down into the neighbourhood of the porch of Solomon, to purchase a victim for this purpose. A dealer in cattle, from Capernaum in Galilee, furnished them with a calf of extraordinary beauty, which they drove to the gate on the northern side, at which the sacrifices were admitted. Here they were compelled to

wait a considerable time, as a large number had been admitted just before their arrival. At length they entered: the animal was examined and killed on the north side of the altar, the offerers having first washed their hands, and laid them upon it. The priests received the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. The sacrificers then took off the skin, took out the fat and the entrails, and divided the flesh. The whole was given to the priest, along with the meat and drink offering; he salted it and threw it into the fire. A burnt-offering was to be wholly consumed, except the skin, which belonged to the priest. While the priest was sacrificing at the altar, Elisama, Helon, and Sallu were praying that Jehovah would graciously accept their offering; and when it was ended, they and the rest of those who had been admitted with them, went out at the southern gate. Helon, while he had witnessed the solemn ceremonial and the deep and reverent silence of the spectators, had felt the dignity of the priestly office, and as he prayed, had said with David,

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;
To dwell in the house of the Lord, as long as I live,
To behold the glorious worship of the Lord,

And to wait in his temple!-Ps. xxvii. 4.

In the afternoon Iddo conducted him to one of the places of public instruction, called by the Greek name of Synagogue. Such buildings had come into use only since the captivity, but there were already a considerable number of them in Jerusalem. In the days of David and Solomon we find no trace of them. It is true, we find very early mention of the schools of the prophets, from which they may be considered to have taken their rise. In the days of Elisha it was customary to visit the prophets on the day of the new moon and on the sabbath.* In the captivity the people must have felt the necessity much more of assembling on solemn days, to obtain consolation and hope from the discourses of some man learned in the scriptures, On the fifth day of the sixth month, it happened, we are told in the book of the Prophet, that

* 2 Kings iv. 23.