Its companion is put to death by the priest, Azazel lives, but is sent away into the wilderness, far from the haunts of men. Does this typify the redeemed soul saved from death by the sacrifice of a brother-man, but called henceforward to tread in lonely paths, to shun "the multitude of the city," and to dwell often alone with God? Or, are both animals types of Our Saviour, and does one prefigure His Human Body suffering on the Cross, the other His Eternal Spirit, escaping at the very same moment from the trammels of mortality, and passing into the presence of His Father to obtain eternal redemption for us?" I know not, but doubtless this, with many a kindred mystery, will be made plain to us in the Kingdom of Our Father.

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To mark the exceeding sinfulness and hatefulness of sin, the other goat upon which the lot for death fell, together with the bullock for the sin-offering, was to be burned without the camp, and even the man who let the scapegoat free, was to wash both his person and his raiment before he re-entered the camp.

Finally the High Priest, now no more in his character of a sinful man, but as the accredited representative of Jehovah, put off his linen garments, washed himself with water in the holy place, arrayed himself in his "garments of glory and of beauty," and offered the ram for the burnt offering (not sin offering) for the House of Israel.

Modern obser

In modern times, the Day of Atonevance of Day of ment is still observed by the Jews, though Atonement. many of their ceremonies seem like parodies of those solemn rites of old. All the first ten days of Tisri are days of severe fasting and prayer; for in the first of all, the beginning of the new year, they think that God sits surrounded by the angels to judge the world. Three books are before Him: the book of the wicked, the book of the righteous, and the

The first is called the

book of the intermediates. Book of Death; the second the Book of Life. To those whose names are inscribed in the Third Book a time of delay is granted, and if, during the ensuing ten days, their good works preponderate over their evil, all will be safe with them. On the ninth day they rise. early, visit the synagogue, perform their devotions there, and then, returning home, sacrifice each one a fowl for a sin-offering, then visit the tombs of their kindred, pray, give alms, interchange confession and forgiveness of trespasses, wash themselves in cold water to express the purification which is to be made on the morrow, and then again repairing to the synagogue, each one bares his back to the smiter-his friend or his brother-and receives from him thirteen strokes, a stroke for every Hebrew word of the 38th verse of the 78th Psalm. "But He (being) full-ofcompassion, forgave (their iniquity) and destroyed

2

5

6

3

8

9

1

10

4

them not, yea, many a time turned-He his-anger-away,

11

12

13

and-did-not-stir-up all his-wrath."

The solemn day itself is spent by many in prayer, and the singing of psalms some make a point of standing the whole day through; all are forbidden to eat or to drink, to wear shoes, or to wash any part of the person. From the last prohibition, only the king or a newly-married bride were exempted, in order that the subjects of the one, and the husband of the other might not see the object of their loyalty in unlovely guise.

It appears that all these rules and exceptions are laid down, described and defined by the Mishna with the most elaborate minuteness; every furrow, every line of the shell which they have received from their ancestors, is mapped out with mathematical nicety. Almost the only thing wanting to the fruit is the kernel, which was taken out eighteen centuries ago.

That we may not turn away from this part of the subject with these Jewish traditions uppermost in our minds, I will quote a few verses from the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which allusion is most obviously made to the day of Atonement.

HEBREWS V. 1—3.

1. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:

2. Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

3. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.

HEBREWS ix. 6—14.

6. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

7. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not with. out blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people :

8. The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all, was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:

9. Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

10. Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

11. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

13. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh :

14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

HEBREWS ix. 23-28.

23. It was therefore nccessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

25. Nor yet that He should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;

26. For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world, hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

27. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Feast of Tabernacles.

And now, at length, on the 15th day of Tisri, began the Feast of Tabernacles,

otherwise called the Feast of Ingathering (Khag Hassuccoth), called also by the Rabbis, Hakhag-The Feast, and by Philo 'H μeyiorn oprn, the Greatest Feast. This, the most joyous of all the festivals of the Jews, appears to have been instituted with a double object:

(1) As before stated, to enable them to express to the Most High their gratitude for the goodness wherewith He had crowned the year, whose harvests and vintages were now all ended; and

(2) As a continual remembrance of their forty years' march through the wilderness, of that period during which they were still dwelling in tents, having no abiding city, no land flowing with milk and honey, whose fruits they might gather in. To prevent their saying at this time of completed labour, like the rich man in the parable, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry," they were to be reminded of those days in the dawn of their history, when they reaped no harvests, and built no enduring houses, but sojourned in tents, and received each day their daily bread from heaven. Again the character of the festival is illustrated by the portion of Scripture read in the synagogues during its continuance. Ecclesiastes-that

book so rich in comments on the vanity of wealth, and the instability of all earthly possessions-was "the proper lesson" for these days.

For eight days, therefore, from the 15th to the 22nd of Tisri (inclusive), they abode in booths (succoth) constructed entirely of palm-branches, willow-boughs, and other trees of the thickest foliage they could find. In these booths they passed both night and day, eating, drinking, and sleeping in these green and pleasant bowers. I think there is a small "undesigned coincidence" in the very time appointed for this festival ; for the eight days of its duration would fall almost certainly somewhere within those twenty days of clear bright autumn weather, the "Indian summer of

Palestine, which I have before mentioned as coming between the early and the latter rain. And thus,

neither exposed to Jonah's calamity of seeing their sheltering bower scorched up by the fierce sun of summer, nor, on the other hand, to the discomfort of drenching rain pouring through the many crevices of their leafy dwellings, they ate their meat with gladness of heart, giving glory to the God of Israel.

We may be allowed, perhaps, to conjecture, that not the least share of "gladness" would fall to the lot of the children. How they would enjoy the expeditions to the Mount of Olives in search of palm, and willow, and olive branches, the twining them in and out about the roof and walls; how many busy little volunteers would crowd around the father of the family, eager to be employed in this impromptu masonry. And then

the delight of living out of doors all day long, and sleeping all together, with only a few leaves between them and the stars! Cannot one well understand that not to those weary old Talmudists alone, but to many a happy little Hebrew boy, this would be the Feast, the memorable epoch of gladness for the whole year?

It must be remembered that the Feast of Tabernacles, like the Passover and the Feast of Pentecost, was an occasion on which all the males of the Jewish nation were bound to present themselves before the Lord in one place. Consequently under Solomon, Nehemiah,* or the Maccabean Princes, by whom the law was studiously, obeyed, Jerusalem would be the central scene of the whole nation's gladness. Tens of thousands of these green arbours would line the streets of the city, and cluster round its walls; and at every turn one would meet an Israelite bearing a palm branch entwined with willows and myrtle in the right hand,

*See Nehemiah viii. 13-18, for a very interesting account of the revival of this Feast after the Babylonish captivity.