Helon's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Volume 2 (of 2) / A picture of Judaism, in the century which preceded the advent of our Savior.

by Friedrich Strauss

CONTENTS.

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VOL. II. BOOK III.
Chapter I.
	Page.
The Sacerdotal Office	[1]
Chapter II.
The Journey to Joppa	[19]
Chapter III.
The Feast of the New Moon	[50]
Chapter IV.
The Admission into the Priesthood	[75]
Chapter V.
The Essenes	[124]
Chapter VI.
The Betrothment	[151]
Chapter VII.
The Feast of Pentecost	[176]
BOOK IV.
Chapter I.
The Journey to Dan	[193]
Chapter II.
The Nuptials	[234]
Chapter III.
The Avenger of Blood	[248]
Chapter IV.
The Water of Jealousy	[267]
Chapter V.
The Day of Atonement	[290]
Chapter VI.
The Feast of Tabernacles	[312]
Chapter VII.
The Conclusion	[339]

HELON'S PILGRIMAGE

TO

JERUSALEM.

BOOK III.
THE FEAST OF PENTECOST.

CHAPTER I.
THE SACERDOTAL OFFICE.

The feast of the Passover was ended. The multitude had returned to their homes, or resumed their occupations in the city. The ashes on the altar of burnt-offering, whose gradual accumulation, during the week of the Passover, had raised them at last into a lofty pyramid, had been cleared away. The days of unleavened bread were past; the people had returned to their ordinary food, and all the glory of the festival seemed to have disappeared from the city.

Helon stood on the roof, on the following morning, contemplating the rising sun. His eyes turned towards the temple, and he remembered, with a feeling of disappointment and regret, that on this as on the preceding day, only a single customary sacrifice would be presented there. He looked down upon the streets—the exhilarating commotion of the festival had vanished, and all was solitary and still, save where a Tyrian merchant was seen hastening through the gate with his empty sacks, or a Galilean dealer in cattle, driving before him the remnant of his herd, for which he had been unable to find a purchaser. No pilgrim from Hebron or Libna, no stranger of the Diaspora was to be seen.

A deep melancholy took possession of Helon’s mind, and this day seemed likely to pass even more gloomily than the preceding. The dejection of mind which for several years past had been his habitual companion, had suddenly vanished during the paschal week. The enthusiasm which began at Beersheba, when he knelt down to greet the land of his fathers, had gone on constantly increasing; and he had felt within himself a resolution, which it seemed as if nothing could daunt, to keep the law of Jehovah. But now, though still in the Holy Land and in the city of God, his spirits sunk at every moment; his feelings had been too highly excited, and this depression was the natural consequence. He could not descend to the ordinary occupations of life in Jerusalem, in which, as the city of Jehovah, it seemed to him that a perpetual festival ought to prevail.

In the preceding days only the psalms, with their tone of cheerful and exulting piety, or the joyous prophecies of Isaiah, had been in his heart and on his lips; now the plaintive strains of Jeremiah, his former favourites, recurred to his mind, and he began to feel how removed he still was from that inward peace for which he longed, and which he thought that he had found in the first days of the festival. When he looked down upon the streets, whose compatative emptiness seemed to him absolute desolation, the beginning of the Lamentations came to his mind,

How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people!

How is she become as a widow!

And he could scarcely forbear adding from the same prophet,[^[1]]

My soul is removed from peace,

And I said my confidence is perished

And my hope in Jehovah.

With such feelings he wandered up and down on the roof, in the cool air of morning. Suddenly the smoke of the morning-sacrifice arose on mount Moriah, and the sound of a solitary trumpet was heard from the hill of the Lord. All Helon’s feelings returned with the associations of this sight and sound. “There is then,” he exclaimed, “one occupation in Jerusalem, which is a perpetual festival. It is theirs who dwell in the house of the Lord and minister at his altar. Why do I delay my resolution?”

At this moment the door of the Alijah opened, and the venerable Elisama issued from it. He had been performing there his morning devotions. Helon went up to him, wished him peace, and with kindling looks thus addressed him; “My uncle, often hast thou told me that Israel is Israel only in the Holy Land, yet even here I cannot remain, unless I become a priest.”

“Restless youth,” said Elisama smiling; “is it not enough for thee that thou art in the city of Jehovah?”

“But,” replied Helon, “even in the city of Jehovah, the priests alone keep a perpetual festival; and I fain would keep it with them.”

Elisama looked at him in joyful surprise. It had been his own wish that Helon, whose dislike of commerce he perceived, should become a priest, but wishing that it should be his spontaneous choice, he had forborne to suggest it to him; and he had not hoped for so speedy and so decisive a declaration. Scarcely able to repress his joy, he replied, “In a son of Levi the wish is natural; but what has suggested it?”

Helon related to him what he had felt on the second day of the Passover, when offering the burnt-offering; how the desire of entering into the sacerdotal order had ripened into resolution, and how ever since that time the words of the prophet,[^[2]] “the priest is an angel of the Lord,” had been perpetually before his mind, till at length his painful feelings on seeing the deserted city, and the joy which had revived in him on hearing the trumpet from Moriah, had convinced him that he could be happy only by entering into the priesthood.

Elisama embraced him, and both remained for a time weeping. At length Elisama, breaking silence, said, “We will go to-morrow to the high-priest; he knows our family and me. In truth,” he continued, “Jehovah has blessed our house with much wealth in a foreign land, and thou, alas, art its only heir. It is right that thou shouldest revive the priesthood in our family, in which it has slept for four hundred years. This is the curse which rests on Israel in foreign lands. The privilege to be anointed to Jehovah by birth, and to have the right of ministering before him, is despised, and a Levite becomes but like another man. This I have often thought; the pursuits of commerce have indeed prevented my acting on this conviction, but all my wealth has been an inadequate consolation to me.”

“My second father,” exclaimed Helon, “my heart overflows with joy to hear that you think so; and with gratitude, that you permit me to revive the priesthood in our family.”

“Yes, Helon,” said Elisama, “I feel, too, that the priest is an angel of the Lord of Hosts. In the hour in which thou didst resolve to make a journey to the Holy Land, I framed in my heart the blessing which my lips now pronounce upon thee. But let us go to the grave of thy father, that thou mayest receive his blessing.”

Without entering the house, they descended [the staircase which led directly from the roof into the outer court], and so into the street. Passing along the Broad-street they came immediately from the Higher City into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and its cedars, and proceeded beneath their solemn shade, till they reached the well-known sepulchre of the Egyptian pilgrim.

Both stood before it awhile in silence, and seemed to expect that some voice should still issue from it, or that the spirit of the beloved father and brother should come forth.

“O! hadst thou lived to see this hour,” at length exclaimed Elisama, “how had thy paternal heart rejoiced!”

Helon wept, whether in joy or sorrow he himself scarcely knew—but such tears are of a higher kind. He threw himself upon the grave, and long remained there praying and weeping. Elisama too gave free vent to his tears. “Arise,” he said, at length, to Helon, “and let us repeat together the 90th psalm. Thy father will answer thee in this song of Moses, and bless thee in the words of the man of God.”

Helon arose, and they both said together,

Lord, thou hast been our refuge

From generation to generation.

Before the mountains were brought forth,

Or ever thou hadst fashioned the earth and the world,

From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God!

Thou turnest man to destruction,

And sayest, Return ye children of men:

For a thousand years are in thy sight

As yesterday when it is past,

And as a watch in the night.

Thou sweepest them away; they sleep.

In the morning they are as grass that groweth up,

In the morning it is green and flourishing,

In the evening it is cut down and withereth.

For we are consumed by thine anger,

And by thy wrath we are troubled.

Thou settest our iniquities before thee,

Our secret deeds in the light of thy countenance.

Our days are wasted by thy anger,

Our years are spent as a breath.

The days of our years are threescore years and ten,

And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,

Yet is their strength labour and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off and we flee away.

Who knoweth the power of thine anger

Which is terrible that thou mayest be feared?

So teach us to number our days,

That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Return to us, O Jehovah—how long?

Be again gracious to thy servants.

O! satisfy us speedily with thy mercy,

That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us,

And the years wherein we have seen evil.

Let thy work appear unto thy servants

And thy glory unto their children.

May the favour of the Lord our God be upon us

And prosper thou the work of our hands;

Yea, the work of our hands may thy goodness prosper!

“Be that the blessing of thy father upon thee,” said Elisama when they had finished. “Does not this psalm seem to have been composed to suit our circumstances; beginning with lamentation on account of death, and confession of sin; yet even in the midst of these, calling on Jehovah, on him who has been our refuge from generation to generation? Yes, Helon, such has he been to the whole series of our ancestors even to him who, with the prophet Jeremiah, was compelled to flee into Egypt; and on this we found our prayer, Return to us O Jehovah! The Lord has heard thee, happy youth! Thou shalt behold the works of Jehovah! And from the sepulchre of thy father, from beneath these primeval cedars, his spirit blesses thee and says, The favour of the Lord thy God be upon thee. May he prosper all the work of thy hands, yea the work of thy hands may his goodness prosper. And now let us go. We will return home by Zion and by the spring of Siloah.”

At the south-east corner of Jerusalem, near [the termination of the Kedron], lies the valley of Hinnom, where once sacrifices were offered to Moloch on Tophet. They bent their course around the Water-gate and went through this valley which lies on the southern side, along the aqueduct of Siloah, which had been erected by Solomon. They came first to the lower pool, then to the remains of a noble garden, and at last, opposite to the south-west side of the city to the upper pool, near which was the highly-prized fountain of Siloah, which Manasseh, on his return, had connected with the city by means of a well. Isaiah describes the waters of Siloah as “flowing softly.”[^[3]]

This is the holy spot where the wisest king of Israel was anointed. David, then grey with years, said, “Set Solomon my son on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon (so this fountain was then called) and let Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, anoint him there king over Israel. So Zadok and Nathan, and Benaiah and the Kerethites and the Pelethites went down thither, and Zadok took a horn of oil out of the sanctuary and anointed Solomon, and they blew the trumpet, and all the people came up after him piping and rejoicing, so that the earth was rent with their sound.”[^[4]]

“It was not without reason,” said Elisama, “that I brought thee hither to-day. As the king is the anointed of a people, so is the priest of a family. For thy own sake I led thee to the valley of Jehoshaphat; it shall serve as an omen to myself that I have brought thee hither.”

They were both silent. Passing by the Fuller’s Field,[^[5]] as it was called from ancient times, and bending round the western side of the city, by the ruins of the aqueduct of Hezekiah, they entered the valley of Siloah. Between the gate of the Fountain and the gate of the Valley they saw the tower of Zion, formerly called the tower of the Jebusites,[^[6]] and now the city of David, rising in the midst of the Higher City which had been built around it. The Higher and Lower City were separated by a valley, which was called the Tyropœon (valley of the cheese-makers.) They entered by the gate of the Valley and thus reached again the house of Iddo, in the Higher City, and in the Broad-street.

How did Iddo sympathize in the joy with which Elisama announced to him the determination of Helon! He was standing in the outer court, and had just taken leave of some acquaintance, when they entered. Leading them with exclamations of joy to the inner court, he called his wife from the apartment of the women, made the slaves place cushions around the fountain, and repeatedly exclaimed, “What a happiness for a family! The priest is indeed an angel of Jehovah of Hosts.”

The day was spent in domestic festivity, but Helon could not be present at the evening sacrifice, because he had made himself unclean by contact with a grave.[^[7]] It seemed somewhat strange to him, that he should have been defiled by a visit to his father’s tomb, and be unfit to appear in the temple of Jehovah, because he had shed there tears not of earthly sorrow but of heavenly hope. But he consoled himself with the thought that the priest was more secure even in this respect.

In the afternoon, as he could not go up to the temple, he strayed, accompanied by his host, through the Higher City, the Lower City, and came at last into the New City. The artisans were at their labours, in shops open to the street, and presented a picture of animated activity. They passed the ruins of the palaces of David, in the Upper City, and Solomon in the Lower City, and saw the tower of Baris, where Helon was to appear on the following day, before the high-priest, and at length turned in the New City around the hill Bezetha, by the Gate of the Corner which lay in the north-east side of the city. [The sepulchres of the kings],[^[8]] a splendid work, hewn out of the rock, was near. Helon and Iddo proceeded, and winding round the west side of the city came into the vale of Gihon. “Yonder,” said Iddo, “is Golgotha,” as they came to an open space.

A dim remembrance of the connection of this place with some past event of his life came into Helon’s mind, and he at length recollected his dream. “I have had,” said he to his host, “an extraordinary dream, which I have been unable to shake off and which ended with [Golgotha].” When he had related it to him, Iddo replied, “Remember the words of Elihu,

In a dream, in visions of the night,

When deep sleep falleth upon men,

In slumberings upon their bed

God giveth instruction unto men.—Job xxxiii. 15.

A part of the dream is on the point of being fulfilled, in your receiving the sacerdotal unction, and we will hope that the rest portends only good. What Golgotha should mean I do not understand.”

Helon purified himself in the evening, by the prescribed ablutions, from the uncleanness which he had contracted by the contact of the grave. Still he was not permitted to enter the temple for seven days to come; for so long the uncleanness lasted which was produced by touching a sepulchre. But the prohibition applied only to the temple.

The following day was a sabbath. Elisama took the presents which he had destined for the high-priest, and Helon and he went together to the [castle of Baris]. It was a stately edifice erected by Hyrcanus. It stood at the north-east corner of the temple, on a steep rock fifty cubits high, and formed a quadrangle, in the midst of which a splendid palace stood. Besides a court, it was surrounded with a wall, on the four corners of which were towers, that on the south-east side being the highest, for the purpose of commanding the temple from it.

The high-priest received the stranger, sitting in the inner court, by the fountain, and bade them welcome. Elisama had been known to him before, and Hyrcanus rejoiced to see him after an interval of many years. With lofty panegyrics of his government, and the heroic deeds of himself and his progenitors, Elisama laid his Egyptian presents at his feet, consisting of valuable or curious productions of nature and art from that country, and then made application for Helon’s admission into the priesthood. The high-priest lent a favourable ear to the request, but observed, that as the triumphal entry of his sons was to take place on the approaching new moon, he could not before that time admit Helon to the temple service, and he recommended it to Elisama to employ the interval in examining the genealogical table of the young candidate. Having promised them all necessary aid in carrying their purpose into effect, he dismissed them.

The first step had now been taken. Helon left the castle, full of exultation, and congratulating Israel that such a hero as Hyrcanus sat upon its throne. On their return home Elisama announced to Iddo his intention of making a journey with Helon to Joppa, where the keeper of the genealogical register of their family dwelt. “Since you are now to be an inhabitant of the Promised Land,” said he to Helon, “it is right that you should become acquainted with it and with your kinsmen who dwell in it. We shall return in time to witness the triumphal entry.” Helon requested that they might take Anathoth in their way, a place which he felt an indescribable longing to see, as being the native town of his prophet Jeremiah. Elisama agreed, and as soon as the sabbath was ended preparations for the journey were hastily made.

CHAPTER II.
THE JOURNEY TO JOPPA.

[The crowing of the cock] had already announced the near approach of morning, yet all was still in the streets of Jerusalem and in the temple, when Elisama, Helon, and the faithful Sallu, their upper garments girt short around them, with sandals on their feet, and staves in their hands, passed through the gate of Ephraim, and took the road to Anathoth.

They entered the territory of the tribe of Benjamin as soon as they had passed the gate. Jerusalem lay on [the confines of Judah and Benjamin], as the metropolis of the whole people, and not belonging to any one tribe exclusively. Since the return from the captivity the distinction of the tribes had been obliterated, with the exception of that of Levi, and, strictly speaking, only the name remained in the case of the others, as a cherished memorial of former times.

[A beautiful and fruitful plain], yet with something of declivity, lay before them, the only level ground in the immediate vicinity of the city. On whichever side you quit Jerusalem, the ground falls, for Jerusalem stands elevated and conspicuous on the surface of the earth, as it does in the history of the world. It was growing light when they came into the King’s valley, so called because it was here that Melchisedec, priest of the Most High God and King of Salem had met Abram,[^[9]] returning triumphant from his battle with Chedorlaomer and his confederate kings, and brought wine and bread to the patriarch and blessed him, and said, “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.” Here too the king of Sodom came to meet Abram. They passed along this beautiful valley, which was beginning to be brightened by the first beams of the sun; the sickle of the reapers was heard on every side, and they congratulated themselves on being permitted to visit scenes where holy men had walked. “These,” said Elisama, “are truly consecrated spots; the memory of the events which passed here lives from generation to generation, and has outlasted the pillar which Absalom raised yonder, hoping to perpetuate his name by this monument, when he had no son to preserve it.[^[10]] He had no son, because he had shown that he could not teach him to honour a father; his monument has disappeared; no man mentions [the pillar of Absalom]; but the friendly meeting of the kings will be handed down to the latest posterity, in the name which this valley bears.”

Helon was silent; for he perceived that his uncle had involuntarily awakened a thought in his own mind, which never failed to give him pain. Elisama had no children, and he regarded this as a grievous punishment from heaven, for some unknown sin which he had committed. With an agitated voice he turned to Helon and gave him his hand; “Be thou,” he said, “my son! Like Absalom, I have sinned. I did indeed honour my father to his dying day; but the ways of the Lord are unsearchable; he is righteous, and it becomes me to say with David, 'Who can tell how often he transgresseth! Cleanse thou me from secret faults.'”

“I am thy son,” replied Helon, and pressed Elisama’s hand. “But here while Israel rejoices around us, in this lovely valley, in the blessing of the harvest, let joy and thankfulness alone occupy our minds.”

They proceeded on their way. The fields of barley stood, golden ripe, on either side of the road; troops of reapers were on their way to the harvest, and the sound of the sickle, the song of the labourer, and the rolling of the threshing-wain resounded through the air. While rows of the reapers were busy in cutting down the grain, others were binding up the sheaves, tying the stalks not far from the ears. Here a corner of the field was left for the poor;[^[11]] there a field already reaped was affording them a gleaning. Some were carrying their sheaves to the [threshing-floor], others were loading them on waggons to convey them thither. They past one of these threshing-floors: it was an open place in the fields, where the soil had been made hard and smooth by stamping; the width was on an average from thirty to forty paces, and oxen, unmuzzled, according to the law, were treading out the grain.[^[12]] In another, which belonged to a rich man, a servant sat upon the threshing-wain, guiding the beasts, who dragged this machine, with its iron-shod wheels, over the sheaves, while another, following behind, shook up the straw with a fork. All were enlivening their various labours with a song; and such passages as these might frequently be heard,

He watereth the hills from his chambers,

The earth is satisfied with the fruit of his works.

He causeth grass to grow for cattle,

And herb for the service of man,

Bringing forth bread out of the earth.—Ps. civ.

Or this,

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness;

Thy paths drop fatness.

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness,

And the little hills rejoice on every side.

The pastures are clothed with flocks,

The vallies also are covered over with corn,

They shout for joy and sing.—Ps. lxv.

The travellers joined in these festive songs, and, according to ancient custom, pronounced, at every field which they passed, the benediction,

The blessing of Jehovah be upon you!

We bless you in the name of Jehovah.—Ps. cxxix. 8.

Helon felt now the full force of the prophecy of Jehovah by Isaiah;[^[13]] “They joy before thee, according to the joy in harvest.” They had travelled about three sabbath-days' journies through this exhilarating scene, when they reached the little town of [Anathoth]; their road to Joppa did not necessarily take them through it, but it was the birth-place of Jeremiah, and Elisama and Helon could not refuse themselves the pleasure of hallowing the remembrance of the prophet, who had been the guest of their family, on his own natal soil. It was here that this man of God had spent his childhood—here, as a youth, he had received the call of Jehovah; and when Helon, in his boyish days, had heard from his father or his mother, or his uncle, any anecdote of their prophet, the names of Jeremiah and of Anathoth bad always been connected together.

They halted at the gate, and asked to be shown the field of Hanameel, which Jeremiah bought from the son of his father’s brother,[^[14]] when the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, a transaction which Jehovah designed to be an omen that the people then dispersed should be again collected together, and return to occupy their ancient possessions. “For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, they shall still buy houses, fields, and vineyards in this land.” One of the severest denunciations of the prophet, was that delivered against Anathoth, in which, as his own city, he was least held in honour.

Thus saith Jehovah against the men of Anathoth,

Who seek thy life and command thee,

“Prophesy not in the name of Jehovah

Lest thou die by our hand.”

Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts,

Behold, I will punish them:

The young men shall die by the sword;

Their sons and their daughters shall die by famine,

And there shall be no remnant of them.

For I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth

In the time when I visit them.—Jer. xi.

It was fearfully accomplished on this city of the priests; but so was also the word spoken at the purchase of the field of Hanameel; for at the return from the captivity one hundred and twenty-eight men undertook to rebuild the city of their fathers.[^[15]]

Helon’s ancestors, strictly speaking, derived their extraction from this city of the priests in the tribe Benjamin, and therefore he regarded this as his own city. He imagined a resemblance between himself, as he was now about to assume the sacerdotal office, and the calling of the prophet Jeremiah, and repeated the account of it to his uncle, as they returned from seeing the field of Hanameel.

The word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

“Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee,

And before thou camest forth out of the womb I had chosen thee,

And I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

And I replied, “Ah, Lord God!

Behold I cannot speak;

For I am a child.”

But the Lord said unto me,

“Say not, I am a child:

For thou shalt go to all to whom I shall send thee,

And thou shalt speak whatsoever I command thee.

Be not afraid of them;

For I am with thee to help thee;”

So saith Jehovah.

Then Jehovah put forth his hand

And touched my mouth,

And said to me,

“Behold I put my words into thy mouth.

See, I have this day set thee before nations and kingdoms,

To root out and to pull down,

To destroy and to overthrow,

To build up and to plant again.”—Jer. i.

But he had scarcely repeated this passage, when he began humbly to feel that it would be better for him to keep all such comparisons out of view. He left this remarkable place with regret; but it had ceased for several generations to be the abode of his ancestors; [Elisama] had neither kindred nor even acquaintance there, and they had a long journey still before them.

They left Mizpah, [Emmaus], Rama, and Kiriath-jearim to the north. Helon lamented that they could not visit them all, but must bend their course directly from Anathoth to Bethshemesh. Bethshemesh is the ancient city of the priests in Judah, to which the alarmed Philistines brought back the ark of the covenant, and where blamable curiosity respecting sacred things was severely punished.[^[16]]

From Bethshemesh they followed the road to Modin, a spot which their admiration and loyalty towards the Maccabees would not allow them to pass without notice. What could be more interesting to sons of Israel, who had just come from a land which was still a house of bondage to their nation, than the place where the heroes who had emancipated Judah had begun their work in the might of Jehovah, and with his blessing. In this little village of Modin lived the pious father with his five valiant sons, whose family bore the name of the Hammerer, Maccabæus. When the frenzy of Antiochus Epiphanes had arisen to the highest pitch, and Jerusalem bent beneath his oppression, the aged Mattathias, in this insignificant spot, declared, “Though all nations in the dominions of the king obey him, so that every one falleth away from the worship of his fathers, and obeyeth the commands of the king, yet I and my sons and my brothers will not depart from the law of our fathers.”[^[17]] So he spoke, and punished the first apostate whom he saw, and overturned the altars of the king, not in blind unauthorized fury, but in holy zeal for the rights of his people. He and his family quitted their abode, took refuge in the mountains, and collected around them the noblest and the bravest of the nation. The father died; but his spirit rested upon his sons; one after another fought and conquered for the law of Jehovah; until at length, the son of Simon, our Hyrcanus, obtained the meed of so many exploits, in the united dignities of prince and priest.

Simon, in the brilliant days of his prosperity, caused the sepulchre of his family to be enlarged, and made it one of the most splendid works of architecture in the country. Elisama and Helon hastened to visit it, and admired the lofty work of hewn stones, the seven pyramids raised upon it in honour of the five sons and their parents, the tall columns which surrounded it, and the emblems of their victories carved in stone upon the monument.[^[18]]

“May Jehovah increase them a thousand times!” said Elisama. “May Jehovah bless this heroic family of priests!” exclaimed Helon: and as they pursued their way and looked back on the lofty monument, they observed to each other, that even in the destruction of Samaria, that is to the third generation, God continued to prosper them. Reclining under the shadow of a few lofty palms, which stood by the road side, where they could see the towering mausoleum, they refreshed their bodies in the shade, and cheered their minds with the thought of Jehovah’s mercies.

At length they arose and set forward on their way, and reached the limit of their first day’s journey, [Lydda], which bears also the names of Lod and Diospolis. In a direct line they were forty sabbath-days’ journies from Jerusalem, but their circuitous route made it amount to a good deal more. In the neighbourhood of this city, the rich corn-land of [Ono] bordered on the fertile pastures of Sharon, which extends northward from the Mediterranean sea. Close to the gate was a large house, where men in festal attire were going in and out, and the open gate seemed to invite the presence of the stranger.

“Let us turn in hither,” said Elisama; “hospitality never fails among those who are celebrating a feast.”

The master of the house came to the outer court to receive them, and conducting them to the house, bade them welcome to the feast of the winnowing, which he was celebrating.[^[19]] As the threshing-floor where this feast was usually held was very near his house, he was accustomed to transfer it thither. He led them into the inner court, where his guests were assembled; the slaves untied the latchets of their sandals, and washed their feet. Elisama was much fatigued and enjoyed repose; but he was not allowed to enjoy it long, for they were speedily called to the meal. A great abundance of dishes was placed upon the table, [the servants were treated as the chief persons], and milk, honey, wine, fruit, cheese, rice, and flesh, were so plentifully supplied, that they could not be consumed, though the appetite of the guests was keen.

“Our doctors of the law,” said the master of the house, “reckon the making a feast among good works, and I feel this doubly at the feast of the winnowing, which I make for my servants.” Helon attached himself to the priests and Levites of the place, who, according to the ancient custom of Israel, had also been invited;[^[20]] they received him into their circle and related to him at his request the history of Lydda. This town had been taken possession of by those who had returned from the captivity of the tribe of Benjamin;[^[21]] it had afterwards been reckoned with Samaria, and finally along with Rama and Apherama had been restored to the hero Jonathan by Demetrius Soter.[^[22]] From this subject it was an easy transition to the victory over the Samaritans which the sons of Hyrcanus had just achieved. All these particulars arrested his attention, but none more than a description which an aged Levite gave of the desolation caused by a flight of locusts which he had witnessed in his youth. [These locusts] are of about the length and thickness of a finger; their numbers are countless, and they form swarms which extend for several leagues in breadth. Such a swarm, when approaching, appears like a mist; when it is arrived, it resembles the falling of thick flakes of snow: the air is darkened and filled with a fearful murmur: they cover the ground and all that grows on it, often to a foot in height, devouring every green thing, grass, corn, and the trunks of young trees. They creep into the houses, destroy clothes and furniture, and besides this, lay their eggs in the ground, which in the course of fifteen or sixteen days become young locusts. The south-east wind brings them, and it is happy for the land when it also drives them into the sea.

The aged Levite had retained such a lively impression of the misery of those times, that he could not cease from describing the plague itself, and the still more dreadful evils of pestilence and famine which it left behind. Helon listened to him with shuddering, and then broke out in the words in which the prophet Joel describes them:

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion,

And sound an alarm in my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble.

For the day of the Lord cometh—it is nigh at hand.

A day of darkness and gloom—

A day of clouds and thick darkness.

As twilight spreads over the mountains,

So now a people, great and strong.

There hath not been ever the like,

Nor shall be from generation to generation.

A flame devoureth before them,

And behind them a fire burneth.

The land is as the garden of Eden before them,

And behind them a desolate wilderness:

Yea, nothing shall escape them.

Their form is as the form of horses,

And they leap as horsemen leap.

They run like the noise of chariots on the mountain tops,

Like the noise of fire that devoureth the stubble.

They are a strong people, arrayed for battle.

Before them nations tremble,

And all their faces glow.

They run like mighty men,

They climb the wall like men of war;

They march every one straight forward,

And they shall not break their ranks.

No one shall thrust another,

They shall walk every one in his own path.

They break through the midst of swords,

And interrupt not their march;

They run to and fro in the city,

They mount the wall and climb up the houses,

They enter the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them,

The heavens tremble,

The sun and moon are darkened,

And the stars withdraw their light.

Jehovah thunders before his army:

For his hosts are very great

And mighty is he that executeth his word.

The day of the Lord is great and terrible,

Who can abide it?—Joel ii.

It was late when our travellers retired to rest; yet they arose early, to reach Joppa before the heat of the day. Elisama left a present with the master of the house, as a return for his hospitality, and they took leave of each other, one saying, “God reward thee;” the other acknowledging it as a gift of God, that such guests had taken up their abode with him.

They had not travelled more than seven sabbath-days’ journies, when [Joppa], the Beautiful, as its name implies, rose before them. It is close to the sea, is built upon a rising ground, and offers on all sides picturesque and varied prospects. Towards the west the open sea extends; towards the east spreads the fertile plain of Sephela, reaching as far as Gaza, in which are the fifteen principal cities of the Philistines: towards the north, as far as Carmel, the flowery meads of Sharon are seen, and through the dark summits of the hills of Ephraim and Judah on the east, a piercing sight can even discern [one of the towers of Jerusalem]. A thin veil of morning vapour lay on the blue hills, on the distant plains and the boundless sea. Our travellers gazed on the scene with such a fulness of tranquil delight, that it was long ere they remembered that they had business in the city. Elisama inquired at the gate for his friend, and going to his house was received by him with a hearty greeting. His first question was respecting the residence of the genealogist. He was told that he no longer lived in Joppa, but was gone to Ziklag. Elisama was provoked that he should have received false information in Jerusalem, but Helon pacified his uncle, by reminding him that they had enjoyed a pleasant journey and this mistake would afford him an opportunity of seeing the south-west side of Judah. Elisama would gladly have taken his departure instantly, and Helon have followed him; but their host insisted that they should remain with him till the morrow. Elisama agreed, on condition that he should furnish Helon with a guide, to conduct him to the harbour, and show him what was remarkable in it. He called for this purpose one of his sons, who was of nearly Helon’s age, and they went down to the shore. Here Solomon had landed his cedar-wood from Lebanon,[^[23]] to be used in his works of architecture, and it was by the same haven that the materials for the building of the second temple were imported. Simon the Maccabee had improved the harbour and fortified the city, which Jonathan had taken from a Syrian garrison.[^[24]] Helon, well acquainted with the celebrated harbours of Egypt, examined it critically, and not being in his present mood inclined to praise any thing connected with commerce, he excited some displeasure in the mind of his companion, by observing how inadequately it was sheltered from the north wind. It was about noon when they arrived at home, and found the elders sitting around the fountain in the court. “Do you remember,” said Elisama to Helon, “that this was the place at which the prophet Jonah embarked on a voyage, which had nearly terminated fatally for him, when he endeavoured to escape from the mission to which God had appointed him.”[^[25]] Helon was about to answer, when he saw his host knit his brow and start up. “You remind me,” said he, “of an accursed heathen, who arrived here lately with a Phœnician caravan, a lively and acute Greek, who kept himself aloof from all the rest, and amused himself by turning the Tyrians into ridicule. This son of Belial had the assurance to ask me, if the history of our prophet was not a new version of the [Grecian story of Andromeda], who was exposed here to the jaws of a sea-monster, and delivered by Perseus. What his Grecian fable may be I know not, but I was so enraged at his insinuation, that——”[that——”]

“This can be no other than our Myron,” said Elisama. “How long since was he here?[here?]” “About three weeks,” replied his host. “It is the same,” said Elisama. “He came with us from Egypt as far as Gaza. The Greeks are a nation of scoffers, but it shall one day fare with them, praised be Jehovah, as it has fared with Samaria in our days.”

“Were that glory also reserved to our Hyrcanus,” said his host, “I would do what this man has done,” pointing to a Nazarite who had just entered the court.

It was a wild looking figure which presented itself to their view. His upper garment was of rough hair, and his locks hung far down upon his shoulders, tangled and neglected, and showing that it was long since they had been shorn.

Helon had never yet seen , for they were seldom to be met with but in the Holy Land. But he was acquainted with all the passages in the law relative to this kind of vow,[^[26]] by which a man for a time consecrated himself, abstained from wine and from all the produce of the vine, and allowed no razor to come upon his person, nor any contact of a dead body to pollute him. This Nazarite was a Jew of Maresa, who had been one of those that had lost their house and home, when, a year and a half before, the Samaritans, at the command of the king of Syria, had inflicted great injury on the Jews, who had settled again in [Maresa], subsequently to its devastation by Judas Maccabæus. In his wrath he had vowed himself to Jehovah, till the time when the atrocities of the Samaritans should cease and Samaria be razed to the foundations. He was just come from the camp of Israel, and was expressing his joy and gratitude that Jehovah had so soon accomplished the object of his vow. He had seen [the houses and the ramparts of Samaria levelled], amidst the songs of the soldiery, and the spot on which the city had stood furrowed with trenches of water and converted into a desert. He had much to relate of the preparations which Hyrcanus had made for the reception of his victorious sons, and he announced his intention of going up to the Holy City, at the next feast of the new moon, to have his head shorn there, and offer a sacrifice for the termination of his Nazarite’s vow. This led them into a wide field of discourse, and the Nazarite remained to partake of the evening meal, though he could not taste the choice wine with which the citizen of Joppa regaled his guests. One remark of the Nazarite threatened to destroy the harmony of sentiment which had hitherto reigned between him and Elisama. He praised, among others, Hilkiah and Ananias, (the sons of that Onias who had built Leontopolis) who, being the principal advisers of Cleopatra the queen of Egypt, had prevailed on her not to consent to the sending of the auxiliaries whom, to the amount of six thousand men, her son and joint regent, Ptolemy Lathyrus, had despatched to Antiochus Cyzicenus, to raise the siege of Samaria. Every thing which was connected with the Hellenists of Egypt was intolerable to Elisama, and above all, to hear their chiefs mentioned with praise in the Holy Land itself. Their host made peace between them, remarking that Jehovah had himself decided in this case, by the miserable and ignominious fate which had befallen these auxiliaries; and they were completely reconciled when the Nazarite spoke of Iddo as his friend. They separated in peace and love, and with the hope to meet again in a few days in the presence of Jehovah, at the rejoicings for the victory. On the following morning, Elisama, quite refreshed, grasped his staff, and, with Helon and Sallu, set out for Ziklag.

Their road led them first through [Gazara], which had been a city of the Philistines, burnt after they were conquered, and rebuilt by Solomon,[^[27]] and very recently strongly fortified by the Maccabees;[^[28]] next to Noba, celebrated for the terrible vengeance which Saul took there upon the priest Ahimelech, and on all the other inhabitants, for their crime in giving to David, when he fled from before Saul, the loaves of the shew-bread and the sword of Goliath.[^[29]] Leaving this place they descended from the hills into the plain of Sephela. They here came again into the scenes of harvest, and reached the town of Gath, which stands at the limit of the territory of Dan, hearing on every side shouts of joy and pious thankfulness. Gath was once the fourth among [the five chief cities of the Philistines], and in later times an apple of discord between them and the Israelites, passing from the hand of one party to that of the other. The giant Goliath was a Philistine of Gath. It had been razed by king Uzziah,[^[30]] and since that time had been a very insignificant place.

When they reached Gath, they had travelled twelve sabbath-days’ journies: they now entered the tribe of Judah, and had half that distance to travel to [Eleutheropolis], a small village. Their road led them through the region which lies in the middle between Maresa and Morescheth. They quickened their pace and arrived late in the evening at Ziklag, having past through Agla, which was twelve miles distant from Eleutheropolis. Ziklag had been the favourite abode of David; Achish, the king of Gath, had assigned it to him for his residence;[^[31]] its destruction by the Amalekites had roused him to take exemplary vengeance upon them, and he had afterwards rebuilt it.

When they arrived at Ziklag, they inquired for the house of the genealogist, and went directly to it. It had long been dark, and Elisama was very weary; and when the genealogist had given them a friendly reception, as his Egyptian kinsmen, and expressed high approbation of Helon’s determination to become a priest, they laid themselves down to rest.

[The institution of genealogists] may be traced up to the earliest times of Israel’s existence as a nation. Jehovah was their true and only ruler. Under him the people lived in families, which together formed tribes, the families themselves being subdivided into houses. Each tribe had its own prince, chosen probably by the heads of families, who were themselves chosen by the heads of houses. The princes and the heads of families were called elders; [their number was seventy-one], and besides them there were judges, and genealogists who kept the registers of the different families. Although at various times the supreme power was by turns in the hands of heroes, kings, princes and high-priests, yet the fundamental principle of the constitution was, that Jehovah was sole and absolute monarch of his people Israel, and that they obeyed him, under all intermediate magistrates, whatever their titles or offices might be. In earlier times the heads of families, the judges, and genealogists of each tribe, assembled occasionally together, under the presidence of the prince of the tribe, for the purpose of joint deliberation; sometimes these officers assembling from all the tribes formed a species of Diet.

The genealogist of each family was a very important person, and especially in the tribe of Levi, in which so many privileges were attached to purity and certainty of extraction. He who wished to serve as a priest before Jehovah, must not only descend on the father’s side from Aaron, but be of irreproachable birth on that of the mother. The series of Helon’s paternal ancestors had been very exactly carried on in Egypt, and Elisama had brought documents thence with him to establish it. But his mother was also the daughter of a priest, and as her family lived in Judah, it was necessary that the genealogy on this side should be examined into, and the descent shown to be regular.

The following day was occupied with these researches. The genealogist showed the pedigree of his family to Helon; his name was formally entered under that of his mother, and he thus stood on her side among the children of the course of Abia, as on his father’s he belonged to the course of Malchia.

On the fifth day our travellers returned to Jerusalem. Helon, rejoicing in the success of his journey, compared his own lot with that of the children of Habaiah, Hakoz, and Barzillai, of whom Ezra and Nehemiah write, that after their return from the captivity they sought for their registers, and not being able to find them, forfeited their sacerdotal office.[^[32]] On their return they past through [Lachish], which Helon had not seen before, of which the prophet Micah said, “Thou art the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion.”[^[33]] This town was taken by Joshua from a Canaanitish prince;[^[34]] it was fortified by Rehoboam.[^[35]] Amaziah was put to death in it;[^[36]] and the ambassadors of Hezekiah came hither with presents to Sennacherib.[^[37]] Next he saw Libna,[^[38]] which, like Lachish, was situated in the plain of Sephela, and was memorable for its defection from king Joram. At last they came to Socho, near which is [the grove of terebinths], where David fought with Goliath. In the earlier part of their day’s journey they had also seen the cave of Adullam, doubly memorable as having afforded a hiding-place to David, and as being the place where Judas Maccabæus kept the first sabbath, which we read of as having been celebrated after the atrocities of the king of Syria.[^[39]]

Happy in having stored his memory with many pleasing pictures of the Land of Promise, infinitely more happy in the thought that there was now no obstacle to his admission into the priesthood, Helon greeted the Holy City a second time.

CHAPTER III.
THE FEAST OF THE NEW MOON.

Elisama and Helon, as they drew near the gates of Jerusalem, soon perceived from the commotion among the people, from the triumphal preparations, some wholly, some only partially finished, and from the influx of strangers, that a public rejoicing was at hand. It resembled the preparation for the Passover, but there was more of mirth, and altogether a more worldly character in it. The acclamations of joy which had been heard on the first intelligence of the victory were now renewed, on the evening before the victors were to make their solemn entry into Jerusalem.

Iddo was standing at the gate of his house, a place in which, according to the custom of the Jews, the father of the family was seldom seen, not even Iddo, lively and active as he was. On this occasion, however, he had stationed himself there, in order to lose none of the animating sights which the busy and crowded streets exhibited. Beside him stood the Nazarite, who had already arrived, in his coarse garments and unshorn locks.

The feet of the guests were washed and the supper served up. The conversation turned on what the travellers had seen during their journey, and what had passed in Jerusalem during their absence. All were in eager expectation of the spectacle of to-morrow, and as Elisama was weary, they speedily separated and retired to rest. On the following day, as early as the commencement of the morning-sacrifice, the multitude streamed towards the gate of Ephraim, by which the victorious army was to enter. The streets of the New City and the Lower City, as far as the castle Baris, were strewed with fragrant flowers; tapestry of various colours hung from the parapets of the roofs, and banners were displayed from the Alijahs, while on the pinnacles of the temple were hung the curtains which in former years had closed the entrance of the sanctuary. A chorus of virgins passed out at the gate of Ephraim, under a splendid triumphal arch, to meet the victorious army. Messengers were hastening to and fro, the crowd increased, and every one was endeavouring to find himself a commodious place. The music of the temple was heard between. Sallu had secured one of the highest places for his masters, from which the whole scene lay before their eyes. In this way several hours had passed; the messengers, mounted on horseback, went and returned more frequently—at length, from thousands of voices was heard the exclamation, “They come!”

The chorus of virgins arose with their psalteries and tabrets, and sung in bold strains the valour of the conquerors, the fall of Samaria, and the mercy of Jehovah to his people. When they reached the advanced guard of the army, way was made for them, till they reached the car on which the youthful Maccabees were seated. Standing before it they began an ode, the burthen of which recalled the immortal song of Miriam, the sister of Moses, the first of the female singers of Israel.

Sing unto Jehovah, for he has triumphed gloriously:

He hath filled Samaria with trenches of water!

Then the hymn took up the praises of the princes and the warriors and the whole people, and the defeat of Samaria; and at the close of every strophe, all with united voice and instruments, raised the chorus of Miriam.

The victorious princes thanked the virgins, who advanced before them to the triumphal arch at the gate of Ephraim. Here stood the high-priest with the whole of the Sanhedrim, and a great multitude of the priests and Levites. To the sound of the temple music they sang the following psalm:

I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart,

I will show forth all thy marvellous works.

I will be glad and rejoice in thee,

I will sing praise to thy name, O thou Most High!

My enemies were turned back,

They sunk and perished at thy presence.

For thou maintainest my right and my cause,

Thou sittest on thy throne judging rightly.

Thou hast rebuked, thou hast destroyed the wicked,

Thou hast blotted out their name far evermore.

The swords of the enemy are come to an end,

Their cities are destroyed, their remembrance is perished with them.

Jehovah shall endure for ever,

He hath prepared his throne for judgment;

He judges the world in righteousness,

He administers judgment in uprightness to the nations.

Jehovah is the refuge of the oppressed,

A refuge in time of trouble.

They that know thy name put their trust in thee:

For thou, Lord, forsakest not those that seek thee.

Sing praises to the Lord who dwelleth in Zion!

Declare among the people his doings.

As the avenger of blood he remembereth them,

He forgetteth not the cry of the humble.

Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah!

Consider my trouble among my enemies;

Lift me up from the gates of death

That I may show forth thy praise,

That in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in thy salvation.

The heathen are sunk into the pit which they made,

In the net which they hid is their own foot taken.

Thus it is known that Jehovah executeth judgment.

The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands,

The wicked are cast into hell,

And all the nations that forget God.

The needy shall not always be forgotten,

The hope of the poor shall not perish for ever.

Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail,

Let the heathen be judged by thee.

Set a ruler over them, O Lord,

Let the nations know that they are but men!—Ps. ix.

Priests, warriors, and citizens listened to the psalm in silent veneration. The aged man who wore the insignia of the high-priest’s office looked at times with moistened eyes upon the car in which his sons were seated, as if the remembrance of his own youthful heroism revived in his mind, and as if he would have said, “My Aristobulus, my Antigonus, sons of Mattathias, noble Maccabees, perform deeds in Israel, like those of the brethren Judas and Jonathan!”

When the psalm was ended, he approached his sons: they descended from their chariot and hastened to throw themselves into the arms of their father, who embraced and blessed them. The music began again; the triumphal procession arranged itself and advanced through the city, which resounded on every side with songs of congratulation. The maidens with their tabrets and psalteries headed the procession: they were followed by a multitude of victims for the sacrifice, adorned with flowers, branches and fillets, designed to be offered as a thank-offering on the morrow. Then came the prisoners in fetters, and the huge elephants which had been taken from the Syrians. Each of these animals bore a wooden tower upon his shoulders, in which were thirty-two warriors, besides the Ethiopian who guided him.[^[40]]

After these came the high-priest with the Sanhedrim, the priests, the Levites, and the temple-music. The two sons of Hyrcanus, on their car, formed the centre of the procession, and after them came the military music of flutes, horns, [aduffes], and trumpets. [The army] itself followed, adorned with branches of laurel and palm. First came the heavy-armed infantry with shields and lances, in companies of hundreds and thousands. They had no upper garment, and their under garment, which was girt up short, was of various form and colour, as the fancy of each individual dictated; but all had a sword hanging at their girdle; their feet and arms were protected by metal greaves and arm-pieces, the body was covered with a coat of mail, the head with a helmet, and over the back hung the large shield. The light-armed infantry followed in like manner, but with less cumbrous defensive weapons, and slings, bows, and darts for offence. The cavalry were few in number and lightly armed: the Jewish state had never maintained any large force of this description. The [military engines] followed, of which the Israelites had learnt the use from the Phœnicians and Syrians; catapults, bows which were bent by machinery and threw beams of wood to a great distance; balistæ, levers with one arm which hurled masses of stone of many hundred weight into a fortress; battering rams, consisting of the trunks of trees, armed at the extremity with an iron head of a ram, swung in chains, which were set in motion by warriors who stood beneath a moveable pent-house, and thus driven with great force against the walls. The people, crowding behind, closed the whole procession. When they arrived at the castle of Baris, the youthful warriors entered their father’s palace, and the army dispersed itself through the city.

Helon had beheld with pride this display of the martial power of his nation. War and its pomp and circumstance had hitherto possessed little interest for him, who, from his youth, had been devoted to the peaceful pursuits of science, and had now turned all his desires to the priesthood; yet, on this occasion, an ardour was excited in him which he had never felt before. These troops were the conquerors of the Samaritans, that apostate people, who had opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem with such bitter hostility, and been a thorn in the side of the people of Israel. At the same time memory recurred to the manifestations of God’s power in behalf of his people in earlier times, to the triumphs of Uzziah and David, to the songs of the virgins in honour of him and of Saul, of the daughter of Jeptha, of Deborah, and Miriam. What youth is there whose bosom does not glow at the sight of a victorious army of his countrymen?

While the city was filled with tumultuous rejoicings, Helon drew aside a relation of Iddo, who had served in the war, and led him home, questioning him respecting all the events of the campaign. The rejoicings of the inhabitants continued till the evening. But suddenly the trumpets were heard to sound, to announce the appearance of the [new moon]. The high-priest and the Sanhedrim had scarcely attended the warriors home, when they had to assemble in their hall in the temple, and fix the commencement of the festival. They were accustomed always to meet here on the evening of the new moon. Men were stationed on all the heights and watch-towers, who, as soon as they perceived the new moon, hastened to announce it to the Sanhedrim; on this the high-priest said, “The new moon is hallowed,” and the Sanhedrim replied, “It is hallowed.” Fires were then kindled upon all the hills, or messengers sent to different parts, and on the following day the people celebrated the feast of the new moon.

For the first time for many years past, the fire was lighted on this occasion on the mount of Olives. For several years, it had been the practice of the Samaritans, always watching to do injury to Israel, to light the fire on the wrong evening, and thus to mislead the people in the distant towns. The custom of making the fire therefore had been discontinued, and messengers sent through the country instead. Now, however, that Samaria was destroyed, no deception was feared, and the fires could be lighted as in old times; the citizens of Jerusalem hastened to the roofs of their houses, to watch the blaze on the mount of Olives, to which others soon answered on the more distant hills.

This new moon introduced the second month of the ecclesiastical year, [Sid or Ijar]. The civil year began with the new moon of October, as the natural commencement of the annual circle of agricultural operations.

When the morning came, the people crowded to the sacrifice through the gate of Nicanor into the temple. All the courts were filled, and the warriors supplied in some measure the place of the pilgrims. Elisama and Helon remembered, that if they wished not to defile the temple, and bring on themselves the punishment denounced by the law, of [being cut off from the people], they had a special duty to perform.[^[41]] Before their journey they had [touched the grave] of Helon’s father, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and had thus become unclean. This did not prevent them from appearing before the high-priest, or from entering on their journey, or from performing their morning and evening prayer; but they were not allowed to go further into the temple than the court of the Gentiles, and had they knowingly ventured even to enter the court of Israel, they would have made themselves obnoxious to this terrible punishment. Levitical uncleanness had reference exclusively to appearing before Jehovah, in the place where his honour dwelt. The rigid demand of the performance of a purifying ceremony conveyed this intimation, that what is deemed pure by men, is not so regarded by Him, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, until it has been again made holy by the rite which he has ordained. After both had bathed themselves and washed their clothes, they presented themselves, as they had already done the preceding day, on the steps which lead from the court of the Gentiles into that of the women; and underwent a sprinkling. This was performed by one, who was himself clean, on those who were unclean, and with a bunch of hyssop dipped in the water, mixed with the ashes of the red heifer.[^[42]] Helon thought of the words of David,

“Purify me with hyssop, that I may be clean;

Wash me, that I may be whiter than snow.”—Ps. li. 7.

On this day, as on every other day of the year, the daily service before the altar of Jehovah began by the sacrifice of a lamb, with the meat and drink offerings which belonged to it.[^[43]] When this had been done, the burnt-offering and the sin-offering which Moses had appointed on the new moon, for the whole people, were offered up,[^[44]] and finally the thank-offering for individuals. The burnt-offering consisted of two young bullocks, a ram, and seven lambs of the first year, with their meat and drink offerings. The meat-offering to each bullock was three ephas, to the ram two ephas, to each of the sheep a tenth of an epha of flour, (the epha was equal to forty-three and a half egg-shells.) The drink-offering to each bullock was half a hin of wine, to the ram a third, and to the sheep a fourth of a hin. (The hin contained as much as seventy-two egg-shells.) Besides this was added, to each meat-offering, the same quantity of oil as there was of wine in the drink-offering, and also a handful of incense. The sin-offering consisted in a goat. While the burnt-offering was presented, the great Hallel was sung, and the priests on the pillars blew the trumpets.[^[45]]

After this the high-priest presented his thank-offering for the victory, consisting of a vast multitude of bullocks, rams, and sheep, with the appropriate meat and drink offerings; his sons also testified their gratitude by considerable sacrifices, and some of the principal officers of the army took the same method of expressing their gratitude or discharging their vows. The victims which had been seen in the procession of the day before, adorned with flowers and fillets, were brought to the altar; their blood was sprinkled upon it, the entrails with the fat waved to the Lord, towards the four winds of heaven, and then burnt upon the altar. The breast, the right shoulder, the jawbones, the tongue, and the stomach came to [the share of the priests], the rest was prepared as a feast for the person who offered the sacrifice. During the sacrifice the priests blew their silver trumpets, and the Levites on the fifteen steps sung the following psalm of David:

Blessed be the Lord, my strength,

Who teacheth my hands to war

And my fingers to fight.

He is my friend and my fortress,

My protector and my deliverer,

My shield in whom I trust,

Who made the nations subject to me.

Lord! what is man, that thou carest for him,

Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him?

Man is like vanity;

His days are a shadow that passeth away.

Bow the heavens, O Jehovah, and come down!

Touch the mountains and they shall smoke.

Cast forth lightnings and scatter them,

Shoot thine arrows and destroy them.

Stretch thine hand from above,

Save me, deliver me from great waters,

From the hand of the sons of foreigners,

Whose mouth speaketh falsely;

Perjury is their right hand.

I will sing a new song unto thee, O God,

Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises unto thee.

Thou givest victory to kings,

And deliverest David thy servant from the sword of the enemy.

Save me, deliver me from the hand of the sons of foreigners,

Whose mouth speaketh falsely;

Perjury is their right hand.

Our sons grow up in their youth as plants,

Our daughters, as polished columns, after the fashion of a palace.

Our granaries are full, affording all manner of store.

Our sheep bring forth thousands,

And ten thousands in our streets:

Our oxen are strong to labour.

There is no breaking in, no robbery,

No complaining in our streets.

Happy is the people that is in such case!

Happy is that people whose God is Jehovah!—Ps. cxliv.

Towards the end of all these offerings, which were so numerous that it would not have been possible to have accomplished them all in so short a time, but for the practised dexterity and systematic procedure of the priests, the Nazarite made his appearance: he had already laid aside his coarse garment, and he was now to be solemnly [absolved from his vow]. It was necessary for him to present all the three principal kinds of offerings, a lamb for a burnt-offering, a yearling sheep for a sin-offering, and a ram for a thank-offering.[^[46]] To these was added, besides the drink-offering, a basket full of unleavened cakes, of the finest meal, of which a part were kneaded with oil, a part had only had oil poured upon them. The burnt-offering was wholly consumed on the altar; the sin-offering was the portion of the priests; the thank-offering served in a great measure to furnish a festive meal, which was prepared for the Nazarite and his friends, in a small court in the south-east corner of the court of Israel, called the court of the Nazarites.

Helon, Elisama, Iddo, the relation of Iddo, who had returned from the war, and many others were invited to partake of this meal, and accompanied him to the court of the Nazarites. The excavation in which the fire was burning was cleared, and fresh coals heaped upon it. Then the Nazarite, returning thanks in a prayer to God, took the knife, and cutting off the hair from his head, threw it on the coals to be consumed. The flesh of the thank-offering was then roasted, and when it was ready, a priest took the shoulder, together with a cake mixed with oil, and another on which oil had been poured, and placed them in the hands of the Nazarite. They went together to the front of the sanctuary: the priest placed his own hands beneath those of the Nazarite and waved what he held in them before Jehovah, towards the four winds of heaven, and then received it for his own portion.

His vow was thus completely ended, and all the prescribed solemnities had been observed. But not contented with this he offered several special thank-offerings, which were sacrificed in the usual manner, and the flesh prepared for the feast. The table was spread in one of the galleries over the porticoes in the court. Iddo and Helon were made to take the seats of honour, one on each side of the Nazarite. He, relieved from the cumbrous and unseemly load which he had borne for a year, had anointed his head, and was clad in a splendid caftan. The servants of the temple waited on them during the whole of the meal.

The Nazarite spread his hands over the bread, and as a blessing ascribed praise to Jehovah. Then, with more than ordinary solemnity, he took the cup with both his hands, lifted it high above the table with his right, and said, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, thou King of the world, who hast given us the fruit of the vine.” The company said Amen! He then, in a long draught, drank the first wine which he had tasted for a year, and as the guests followed his example, he exclaimed, “It is time that wine maketh glad the heart of man, as the Psalmist teaches us; but he who would feel the full force of the saying, must have drank it for the first time at the close of a Nazarite’s vow, before the face of Jehovah, after the destruction of Samaria. This is the time to enter into the full force of what the Preacher says, 'Eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart: for thy work is pleasing to God. Let thy garments be always white and thy head lack no oil.'”[^[47]]

“I perceive,” said Iddo, “that you and I have reason to congratulate ourselves, that we are children of Israel and not Rechabites, who after the example and command of their ancestor Jonadab, refused to drink wine, when it was set before them by the prophet Jeremiah.”[^[48]]

“I have found by experience,” said the Nazarite, “that zeal for Jehovah makes abstinence easy, and burdensome observances light.”

“That may be seen,” said one of the company, “in the case of the high-priest, who leads in some respects the life of a Nazarite perpetually. He is not allowed to drink wine, or any strong drink in the temple;[^[49]] for the spirit of the Lord, and not intoxicating liquors, must gladden his heart. He must not touch a corpse; for he must have no communion with sin, or death which is its punishment. He must not make his head bald; for that which in ordinary life might be a burden must be an ornament of his head.”[^[50]]

“This motive,” said Iddo, “makes many things light, that would otherwise be grievous,” casting his eyes towards his young relative, who had just returned from the war. “It is true,” said the youth, “I declined to avail myself of the indulgence which the law would have granted me, I had been just betrothed, when the war broke out. The keeper of the genealogical register assembled our youth and read to us the law, as spoken by the Lord our God to Moses. ‘When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses and chariots and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the Lord thy God is with thee, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, and shall say unto them; Hear, O Israel: ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint: fear not and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them. For Jehovah your God goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you victory. And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, Who is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? Let him return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. And who is there that has planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? Let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it. And who is there that hath betrothed a wife, and that hath not taken her? Let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her. And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and shall say unto them, Who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint, as well as his. And when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, then shall captains place themselves at the head of the people.’[^[51]] On this proclamation being made, a multitude of persons withdrew, who had built houses, or planted vineyards, or been betrothed to wives. I however refused to avail myself of this privilege, nor would my bride allow me to claim it. My father had served when, twenty years before, our prince, John Hyrcanus, had conquered Sichem and destroyed the temple on Gerizim, and he had talked to me a thousand times of his campaigns and his victories. So I thought it became his son to be with the sons of Hyrcanus, when they marched for the destruction of Samaria, and I went therefore joyfully to the field.”

“And are you not now in haste to return home?” asked Iddo.

“I shall remain here till the fourteenth of this month Ijar, and then with my comrades celebrate the latter Passover, not having been able to keep the feast at the proper time.[^[52]] Then I will return home and relate to my bride the valiant deeds of Aristobulus and Antigonus, how we defeated Antiochus Cyzicenus, who came to raise the siege of Samaria; and how Jehovah strengthened my arm, so that I smote his general Callimander in battle, whom he had left to command his army, when he himself retired to Tripolis. She will laugh the Syrians to scorn, and become my faithful wife.”

When he had said these words, the whole company were loud in his praise. “Never,” exclaimed Iddo, “may the altar of Jehovah be without an Hyrcanus; never may the chief of Israel when he goes to battle be without such soldiers!”

The conversation respecting the events of the war continued during the rest of the meal. The young soldier related to them the particulars of the defeat of Antiochus and his generals, and the ravages which he had committed upon the country when he dared not, even with the six thousand Egyptian auxiliaries, attack the Jewish army. At length the last cup was blessed, and they left the temple full of joy and gratitude. As they descended, they heard the shouts of joy from the castle Baris, where the high-priest had made a great banquet for his sons.

CHAPTER IV.
THE ADMISSION INTO THE PRIESTHOOD.

“O thou dream of my childhood and my youth, art thou then really about to be fulfilled? O pride and sorrow of my forefathers, sacred priesthood, art thou indeed about to be revived in their descendent? Praised be Jehovah!”

Such were the exclamations of Helon, when, a few days after the feast of the new moon, the morning dawned of the day on which he was to appear before the Sanhedrim, and to undergo their scrutiny, preparatory to his admission into the priesthood. The following day was the sabbath, when he was to offer his first sacrifice. He opened the door of the Alijah on Iddo’s house, while it was yet twilight, and after the performance of the Kri-schma threw himself on the ground before Jehovah, and thus prayed:

Behold thou desirest truth in the inward part,

Teach me then hidden wisdom!

Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure;

Wash me, that I may be whiter than snow.

Make me to know joy and gladness,

That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sins,

And blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

And renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence,

Take not thy holy spirit from me,

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,

And may a cheerful spirit support me.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways

That sinners may be converted unto thee.—Ps. li.

The sun was rising as he quitted the Alijah. He looked towards the east, where his father’s sepulchre lay in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and then to the south-west towards Egypt, where the reflection of the rising sun streaked the edge of heaven with a ruddy glow, and mentally greeted his mother. Next to the image of his parents according to the flesh, that of Aaron, the great progenitor of the sacerdotal order, took possession of his mind, on this day, which was to witness his admission into their society. Elisama came to fetch him from the roof, and with a step of conscious dignity and pride conducted him to Iddo and the guests, who were assembled in the inner court. Having received their hearty congratulations, Elisama conducted his Helon to the temple-hill. Not even on the day when he made his first pilgrimage, and passed through the Beautiful gate and the gate of Nicanor, had the old man felt as he did on this morning, in which his kinsman was to revive the priesthood in his family. His heart beat not less high than Helon’s, and his aged eye was lighted up with youthful exultation and hope. He blessed Jehovah, who had given to him and to his deceased brother firmness to withstand all the solicitations which had been addressed to them, to assume the priesthood at Leontopolis.

Helon entered, with trembling steps, into the courts of the Lord. The Sanhedrim was standing along with the course of priests for the week, in the court of the Priests, and the morning-sacrifice was performed with the customary rites. As the priests on the pillars blew their trumpets at the pouring out of the drink-offering, and the Levites sung on the fifteen steps, the sound of their voices and their instruments seemed to him like the call of Jehovah to him. “To-day,” thought he, “I stand for the last time, as one of the people in the court of Israel, to-morrow I shall minister before the face of Jehovah!” When the sacrifice was over, the high-priest and the Sanhedrim withdrew into their hall of judgment. No meeting of this body was ever held for merely secular business, either on the sabbath or the day of preparation, but they often assembled to transact what related to the service of God.

With deep emotion Helon entered the hall; it was one of the largest and most splendid of all which the courts of the temple contained. It lay partly in the court of the Priests and partly in that of Israel, and was called also [Gazith], because it was paved with marble. There, was an entrance from both courts, one called the Holy, the other the Common. In this all the courses of the priests were exchanged, and here the great council, or Sanhedrim, held its sittings.

[The Sanhedrim] consisted of seventy-one persons, partly priests, partly Levites, partly elders. In extraordinary cases the elders from all the tribes were convoked, who then formed the great congregation. The high-priest occupied the place of president, and was seated at the western end; he bore the title of Nashi, or Chief. On his right sat the Ab-beth-din, Father of the Council, probably the most aged man among the elders, and on his left the Wise Man, probably the most experienced among the doctors of the law. The remaining sixty-eight sat in a half circle, on either side, with a secretary at the end of each row. As the three chief persons belonged respectively to the sacerdotal order, to the body of the citizens, and the profession of the law, so the remaining members were made up of these three elements. The twenty-four courses of the priests were represented here by their heads, the elders were a deputation from the chiefs of families and of houses; the doctors of the law were the most learned of the Levites. The whole assembly was seated, with crossed feet, on cushions or carpets. The Sanhedrim was the supreme judicial and administrative court in Israel; every thing relating to the service of God, foreign relations, and matters of life and death, came under its cognizance. It was further their business to [scrutinize every son of Aaron], who wished to enter as a priest into the service of Jehovah.

Elisama entered the hall attended by Helon. He announced the name of the young man and of his father, and produced extracts from the registers, which ascertained the legitimacy of his birth. The tribe of Levi, when numbered in the wilderness, contained 22,000 males above a month old,[^[53]] and 8580 males between thirty and fifty;[^[54]] they were all devoted to the service of Jehovah; but only a single family, that of Aaron, had the privilege of furnishing priests for the altar; the rest of the Levites were only the servants of the priests.[^[55]] In David’s time the number of the Levites from twenty years and upwards was 38,000;[^[56]] that of the priests perhaps not 6000. Aaron had four sons, two of whom were punished with an early death in the wilderness, for their presumption: the other two, Eleazar and Ithamar, had such a numerous posterity, that these were divided into sixteen and eight, or twenty-four courses or families.[^[57]] As only four were found among those who returned from the captivity, these were divided into the original number of twenty-four, which bore the name of the ancestor of each family.[^[58]] Helon, by his father’s side, belonged to the course of Malchia, which was the fifth; and by the mother’s to that of Abia, which was the eighth.

Next, the passage of the law was read, in which Jehovah commands that no descendent of Aaron should ever be admitted to the priesthood, who had any natural imperfection or deformity of body, although he might still claim a subsistence from the provisions of the temple.[^[59]] Helon was examined and found free from any of those imperfections which the law enumerates. Had he proved otherwise, he would have been [clad in black], and dismissed, being only allowed in future to discharge menial offices about the temple. The outward worship of Jehovah was to be a mirror and emblem of the inward dispositions demanded from the worshipper; and therefore he required, that both his sacrifices and those who offered them should be without blemish.

Helon having undergone the necessary scrutiny, and having been found not only of pure descent but free from all bodily infirmity, was committed to the care of one of the ministering Levites, and conducted by him into the vestry, which stood near the gate of Nicanor. Here the Levite put on him the white [sacerdotal robes], which one of the same body had made. They consisted of drawers reaching to the leg, the under-garment fitting close to the body and descending to the ancles, woven of one piece without a joining or a seam; the girdle of four fingers’ breadth, which went twice round the body, and, being tied in front, both ends hung down nearly to the feet;[^[60]] it was woven so as to resemble a serpent’s skin, and embroidered with flowers, purple, dark blue, and crimson; lastly, the turban, which was wound firmly around the head in the form of a crown. The feet were bare.

After being robed, Helon returned into the hall of the Sanhedrim, and the law of Moses relative to the priests was read to him;[^[61]] “And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, None among them shall defile himself with a dead body among his people, except for the nearest of his kindred, for his mother and for his father, and for his son and for his daughter, and for his brother and for his sister, while she is still a virgin and lives with him, having no husband; for her he may defile himself. But he shall not defile himself for any one that belongeth to him among his people, least he desecrate himself. They shall not make their heads bald, nor shave off the extremity of their beard, nor make incisions in their flesh. They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God, for the offerings of Jehovah made by fire, the food of their God, they are to offer; therefore must they be holy. They shall not marry a woman that is a harlot, nor one that has been polluted, for they are holy to their God. And thou shalt esteem them holy for they offer the food of thy God; they shall be holy unto thee; for I Jehovah who sanctify them am holy.” When this passage had been read, the high-priest blessed the candidate for the priesthood, and said, “Praised be God that no blemish hath been found in the seed of Aaron, and praised be he who hath chosen Aaron and his sons to stand and minister before God in his holy temple.” And all the members of the Sanhedrim said Amen! The sitting was thus ended, and Helon was led into the court of the Priests. Those of the course which was then on duty were standing there, and, greeting him, received him among their body.

The family of Aaron was consecrated once for all in the wilderness, when they offered on eight successive days the sacrifice of initiation.[^[62]] Since that time it had been only renewed, and each new priest began his ministration by a meat-offering,[^[63]] on his presenting which [the original unction was imputed to him]. This Helon was to do on the following morning, and it fortunately happened that, owing to the delay occasioned by the return of the victorious army, the course to which he belonged entered on duty on this very sabbath.[^[64]]

Elisama offered on this joyful occasion a magnificent thank-offering of several bullocks, and invited the whole course of priests, who gradually arrived to be in readiness to begin their functions, to feast upon the sacrifice.

Among the rest he had invited the old man of the temple. He who bore this name was a venerable priest, nearly one hundred years old, of the course of Jojarib, to which the Maccabees also belonged. Engaged, since his twenty-fifth year, in the service of Jehovah, he had now past eighty years in the house of his God, and in the course of them had witnessed very eventful times. He had entered the temple, in the life of the excellent high-priest Onias III., and had endured the alternate yoke of the Syrians and the Egyptians; he had seen Antiochus Epiphanes, and known the victims of his sanguinary fury; he had been one of those who followed the valiant Mattathias to the wilderness; he had admired the heroic deeds of the members of the family of the Maccabees, Judas, Jonathan, Simon, and John Hyrcanus, and had served them in succession. In Egypt, where he had frequently dwelt, he had seen, forty years before, the foundation of the temple of Leontopolis, and he had beheld that of Gerizim levelled with the ground. As a doctor of the law, he was master of all the knowledge of divine or earthly things which Israel then possessed, and had been able to compare his experience with the word of God. He knew accurately the opinions of all the sects into which Israel was divided, and though he joined himself to none of them, yet was honoured by them all, and almost reckoned by all to belong to themselves. For a considerable time, during the last years of the high-priest Simon, and in the first years of Hyrcanus, he had discharged the honourable office of the Wise Man in the Sanhedrim, and in every year of the thirty-four that had elapsed since the new era of Israel’s emancipation began, some important affair had been decided by his counsel. In consequence of his increasing years, he had laid down all his offices, resigned his house and property to his children’s children, and taken up his abode in a single apartment in the temple, where he discharged the duty of a priest of the permanent course, as it was called, that is of those who dwelt in Jerusalem and supplied the place of any one in the other courses who could not serve in his turn. His piety, his wisdom, his earnest longing for the advent of the Messiah, and his affection for the house of the Maccabees, were become proverbial. He united so well the mild dignity of age with the fresh sensibility of youth, that he possessed a most decided influence over the principal persons in the state, but more especially on all the younger priests, whose teacher he might be considered, and who very generally adopted his opinions. Even the heathens admired the vigour and originality of his mind. What most surprised many of his countrymen was, that he, whom they would, before all others, have called a Chasidean, that is a man of extraordinary piety, laid no claim to so high a title, and contented himself with the humbler name of a just man.

The old man made his appearance, but declared that he came only to bid the youth welcome to the courts of the Lord. A feast, even in the temple, he said, did not befit a man over whom one hundred winters had already past. All rose up when he appeared, and, falling at his feet, kissed the border of his robe. Helon had heard of him in Alexandria, and Elisama had pointed out his venerable form to him, as he assisted at the sacrifice; and when he saw him appear in the banqueting room, for his sake, overpowered by such kindness and condescension, he too fell, in silent reverence, at his feet, and kissed the border of his garment. The old man raised him up, and said, “Praised be the God of Israel, who bringeth the seed of Aaron out of Egypt, to the place where is the memorial of his name.” He spoke of his grandfather, whom he had known at Alexandria, and said that Jehovah would bless that house for ever, on account of the zeal which every member of it had displayed for the honour of his law. He then called Helon from the company, observing to the rest, that before he partook of their feast, he would regale him with food of another kind. Helon with profound veneration followed the old man, who led him through the court of the Gentiles to Solomon’s porch, which with its lofty pillars formed the eastern boundary of this court. Here he placed himself on the ground and Helon beside him. He made the youth relate to him the history of his life, and the manner in which the desire of becoming a priest had been first awakened in him. He afterwards addressed a few of those questions to him, by which one who knows mankind penetrates into the bosom of a youth. His countenance gradually assumed an expression of pleasure and good-will, which led Helon to hope that his answers had been satisfactory.

“It cannot be said my son,” he at length began, “that the Hellenists have been wholly wrong in their allegories. They are right in the principle from which they set out, that the service of Jehovah contains a hidden and deeper wisdom. Does not David say,

[Behold thou delightest in the truth] in secret things,

Teach me therefore thy hidden wisdom.—Ps. li. 6.

and Solomon in the Proverbs, ‘His secret is with the pious.’ Their error lay in this, that they sought to discover in heathen and human wisdom the secret meaning of our ordinances and laws. Here,” he continued, “is the place which Jehovah hath chosen; since he brought his people out of Egypt he has never fixed on any other city, among any other of the tribes, in which a house should be builded for his name to dwell in. I brought thee hither, that thou mightest see it in all its glory. Look how its courts rise one above another, from the place on which we stand to the altar of burnt-offering, and then to the sanctuary of Jehovah! Look and wonder! This Moriah is the place where Abraham was commanded to offer up his son Isaac, and where also was the threshing-floor of Araunah, at which the angel of Jehovah stretched out his hand over Jerusalem, to punish the sin of David.[^[65]] David purchased the threshing-floor and built an altar there and offered sacrifice upon it, and when Jehovah heard him he exclaimed, ‘Here shall be the house of Jehovah, and the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel;’ and his son Solomon built the house and the altar. Dost thou know, Helon, the prayer which he offered at the dedication of the temple?” Helon without the least hesitation began: “And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord, in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven; and he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no god like thee in heaven above or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants, that walk before thee with all their heart: who hast kept with thy servant David, my father, that thou promisedst him: thou speakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. Therefore now, Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David that thou promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight, to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me, as thou hast walked before me: and now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house of prayer that I have builded! Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee to-day: that thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there; that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place, and hear them in heaven, thy dwelling-place, and when thou hearest, forgive. If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house; then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head, and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house: then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land, which thou gavest unto their fathers. When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee: if they pray towards this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them: then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel; that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. If there be in the land famine, if there be blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be the caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all the people of Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands towards this house; then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest, (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men,) that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. Moreover, concerning a stranger that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country, for thy name’s sake, (for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched-out arm,) when he shall come and pray towards this house; hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have builded, is called by thy name. If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lord, toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name; then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. If they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives, unto the land of the enemy, far or near; yet if they shall bethink themselves, in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; and so return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house I have built for thy name; then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven, thy dwelling-place, and maintain their cause; and forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them; for they be thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron, that thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee. For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant; when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.”[^[66]]

“Praise Jehovah,” said the old man, when Helon had finished, “for the blessing of a father who has so well instructed thee in the holy Scriptures. It becomes a young priest to be able to give an answer from them to every question that is put to him. Thou hast repeated Solomon’s dedication prayer: his temple was founded amidst acclamations, and destroyed amidst tears: this was founded amidst tears, but its glory shall surpass that of the first temple, when He comes, for whom we wait. He shall walk through this temple, stand in this porch of Solomon, pass through this Beautiful Gate, approach the altar of burnt-offering, and give this house its highest consecration. Helon, the whole earth lies under a curse; it bears thorns and thistles, and the ground is accursed on account of man, who has sinned thereon. Jehovah will take away the curse, when he comes to his temple, and from this spot the change is to begin. It has been for nearly a thousand years a holy land, free from the curse, a type of what the whole earth is one day to become. This Naaman the Syrian felt, when he had discovered, by the cleansing of his leprosy, that there was a prophet in Israel, as he showed by carrying away three mules’ burden of earth into his own country.[^[67]]

“Learn too from this prayer, how holy is the place in which thou art, and in which thou shalt in future serve Jehovah. Pray to him in his temple, that his eyes may be open towards thee, and that he may make the light of his countenance to shine upon thee. Go now to the feast, and if thou desirest to hear more, come to the old man in the temple. There is his apartment.”

The venerable man blessed him, and then crossed the court of the Gentiles. Helon watched him, till he disappeared, and then remained for a long time wrapt in thought, till some one came to summon him to the company. The feast concluded early, for the course of Malchia had to prepare, on the evening before the sabbath, for entering upon its office. About the ninth hour all labour had ceased, the trumpets had announced the sabbath, the Levites had baked the shew-bread, [the twelve priests had carried it] in solemn procession to the porch, and hence two of them had taken it into the holy place, and had deposited it upon the table of shew-bread: the old shew-bread had been removed, and the two censers of incense of the preceding week had been replaced by two new ones. The rest of the priests and the Levites laid themselves down betimes to sleep. Helon could not sleep. The past and the future were both too interesting. A feeling of mingled joy and awe shot through his frame when he heard the bars of the temple gates closed, and found himself shut in within the sanctuary of Jehovah; it seemed as if he were here protected from every earthly evil, as if nothing could now prevent him from fulfilling the law of the Lord, and becoming complete in his obedience. Often was he disposed to have cried aloud, “Better is a day in thy courts, than a thousand elsewhere!” At times lost in thought, at times wrapt in devotion, he passed the sleepless hours, while the priests slumbered around him. [When he heard the step of the guard of Levites], in the court of the Gentiles, or when the guard of priests, as they went their rounds in the court of Israel, with lighted torches in their hands, approached the place where he lay, he envied the happy persons who were not only allowed, but whose duty it was, to traverse the courts and porticoes and palaces of the sanctuary, beneath the stars of heaven. When the two companies of the priests, uniting after their separate rounds, greeted each other with the words, “All is peace,” the sounds came to his mind with a significance that was indescribable.

At an early hour the watch came again to waken those who slept. The priests bathed themselves, and went to the vestry to put on their robes. Next they assembled in the hall Gazith, [to cast lots] for the division of the offices for the day. The first lot, which decided who should cleanse the altar of burnt-offering from the ashes of the preceding day, fell upon Helon, to his great astonishment. Then followed the lots of those who were to sacrifice the lamb, to sprinkle the blood upon the altar, to trim the lamps, to bring the parts of the victims to the altar of burnt-offering, to burn incense in the holy place, &c.

One of the priests now opened the curtain of the portico, and another the gate of Nicanor, and some of the Levites threw open the outer gates of the temple, that the children of Israel might enter. The crowing of the cock announced the time when the cleansing of the altar of burnt-offering was to take place. The priests called out to Helon, “Beware of touching any vessel, before thou hast washed thy hands and feet and sanctified thyself.” He washed himself again, mounted with trembling steps [the sloping ascent to the altar], which was fifteen cubits high. He cleared the burning coals from the ashes and collected these in a heap at an appointed place. This was his first service as a priest. As he performed it, he could not help inwardly praying that the flame in his heart might in like manner be purified from every thing that made it burn dim.

When the wood for the offering of that day had been prepared, and the watches and the singers chosen, after a short interval some of the priests exclaimed, “Light, light!” the others replied, “Is it light towards Hebron?” and when the question was answered in the affirmative, and the first beam of dawn struck upon the roof of the sanctuary, the chief of the course of priests exclaimed, “Priests, to your duties! Levites, to your steps! Children of Israel, to your station!”

The last words did not refer to the whole people of Israel, but only to the Men of the Station, who represented the people at the sacrifice, in the same way as there were substitutes for the priests in the temple, chosen out of all the courses of priests. These substitutes of the people resided in Jerusalem, and were divided according to the twelve tribes.

All hastened to their respective posts. The service of Jehovah began with the cleansing the altar of incense in the holy place, and laying the wood on the altar of burnt-offering. A male lamb of a year old, without blemish, was brought to the north side of the altar of burnt-offering, the men of the station laid their hands upon it, in the name of the people; one priest killed it, another received the blood, a third sprinkled the altar with it, while others first extinguished five of the lights in the seven-branched lamp in the holy place. Incense was then brought in and burnt upon the altar of incense, and the remaining lights extinguished.

[The sun had now risen]: the pieces of the animal which had been killed, the usual meat-offering, as well as that which the high-priest offered daily, and that which Helon was to present, and the drink-offering, were all brought to the place between the altar of burnt-offering and the sanctuary, heaved before Jehovah, and then brought to the opposite side of the altar. The pieces were sprinkled with salt, the Kri-schma was prayed, and the flesh laid upon the altar and offered as a burnt-offering to the Lord. The meat-offering which belonged to it was next burnt, and the high-priest’s meat-offering followed. Helon had already heaved the offering, by which he renewed the priesthood in his family, and now brought it to the altar. It consisted of incense and the half of a tenth-deal of an epha of wheat-flour, baked in oil.[^[68]] He salted both and then threw all the incense, but only a handful of the meal, into the fire; for all the rest belonged to the priests.[^[69]] Lastly, the drink-offering of wine was poured into a pipe, which ran from the altar to the brook Kedron, and the daily burnt-offering was closed. While the drink-offering was pouring out, the Levites played and sang upon the fifteen steps the 92d psalm, it being the sabbath day, and the two priests, upon the pillar near the altar, accompanied with their trumpets.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto Jehovah,

To sing praises unto thy name, O thou Most High,

To show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning,

And thy faithfulness every night,

Upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the psaltery,

Upon the harp with a solemn sound.

For thou, Lord, makest me glad through thy work;

I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

O Lord, how great are thy works,

And thy thoughts are very deep!

A brutish man knoweth it not,

A fool doth not understand it.

Though the wicked spring as grass,

Though the workers of iniquity flourish,

Yet they shall be destroyed for ever.

But thou, Jehovah, art Most High for evermore.

For lo, thine enemies, O Lord,

Lo, thine enemies shall perish;

All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

But thou wilt exalt my horn as an unicorn’s,

I am anointed with fresh oil;

Mine eye shall see my desire on my enemies,

Mine ear shall hear it on the wicked that rise against me.

The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree,

He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Those that are planted in the house of the Lord,

They flourish in the courts of our God.

They still bring forth fruit in old age,

They are fresh and full of sap:

To show that Jehovah is upright.

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.—Psal. xcii.

After this daily-offering, the special-offering for the sabbath-day, consisting of two lambs of the first year, was offered,[^[70]] accompanied with other psalms. At the close, the chief priest of the course gave his blessing,[^[71]] and the people replied by similar benedictions.

Helon had been present at many sacrifices, but this was the first time that as a priest he had stood beside the altar of burnt-offering. Seen so much more nearly than before, every thing appeared in a new light to him; he felt that something more profound must be hidden under this veil of outward ceremonies, and he longed to be able to interrogate on this subject the old man of the temple, who, when the sacrifice was over, had betaken himself to his cell. Helon had several times watched his countenance during the sacrifice, that he might read in it if possible the interpretation of the rite. The priests dispersed after the sacrifice was over. Helon also left the court of the Priests, and as he was entering the court of Israel, he met Elisama, who with feelings of the most animated pleasure had stood there the whole morning, to watch the first ministrations of his Helon. He pressed his hand, and would have embraced him but for the sanctity of the place. Helon regarded him with a look which expressed the fulness of his happiness, and tears stood in the eyes of both. “I have to greet thee in the name of Iddo,” said Elisama. “And I thee in the name of the old man of the temple,” said Helon. “Art thou going to him?” replied Elisama. “Go, and the God of thy fathers go with thee!”

The old man was sitting before a roll of one of the prophets, and invited Helon to seat himself beside him. After a time he asked him, what had seemed most impressive to him in the psalm which he had heard sung that day on the fifteen steps?

“The close,” replied Helon, “in which it is said, of those who are planted in the house of the Lord, that they continue green even in old age.”

“And who are they?” asked the old man. “The sons of Levi,” Helon replied. “Repeat to me, if thou knowest it, the blessing with which Moses blessed them before his death.”

Helon began,

Moses said unto Levi,

Thy holy one beareth thy light and thy truth,

He whom thou didst prove at Massah,

With whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;

Who saith unto his father and his mother, I see them not;

And to his brother, I acknowledge him not;

And to his sons, I know nothing of them.

For they have observed thy word

And kept thy covenant.

They teach Jacob thy judgments,

And Israel thy law.

They shall put incense before thee,

And whole burnt-offerings on thine altar.

Bless, O Jehovah, his substance,

And accept the work of his hands.

Smite through the loins of them that rise against him,

That those who hate him rise not again.—Deut. xxxiii. 8.

“Thou hast said what is required of the tribe of Levi,” said the old man. “It was not without reason that to the whole tribe no portion was given in Israel: for, ‘Jehovah is their heritage.’ He had first of all chosen the eldest-born in every family to be his ministers, and still the priesthood so far rests upon them that they must be ransomed for five shekels on the thirtieth day.[^[72]] In this way the office is transferred to the tribe of Levi. Others have so much to do with worldly things, that they could not instruct their children from their infancy in the knowledge of the law. But the sons of Levi with their children are to live only for the temple and the laws, and on this account the rest of the people give up three-tenths of their income, of which one-tenth supports the Levites, the second is for the expenses of sacrifices and feasts, and for coming up to Jerusalem at the festivals; the third is for the maintenance of the king.[^[73]] Thus the priest and the Levite, free from the ordinary cares of life, are devoted exclusively to Jehovah. They are to present the offering of Jehovah, the bread of their God. Hence the purity which they are so carefully to preserve, not allowing themselves to come in contact with any thing which might defile them. [The sacerdotal order is the most exalted in the world]. Yet its dignity lies not in any preeminence of its own; but in God’s choice of it, to preserve and make known his law. Be not thou therefore unduly exalted, but rejoice that thou art permitted, as a priest of Jehovah, to minister in his temple. Before the full light of day is spread over heaven and earth, some one spot is brightened by a partial gleam. But has that spot done any thing to merit this distinction? Give thanks then to Jehovah that thou standest in the earliest beams of that dawn which is the harbinger of light to all mankind. When He comes for whom we wait, the brightness of his rising shall illuminate the whole earth, and the heathens shall walk in his light.”

The old man ceased, and departing, left Helon alone, who remained till near the ninth hour, when the evening-sacrifice began; and he hastened forth, that he might not be too late for his duties. The evening-sacrifice on the sabbath was in no respect different from that on ordinary days. The priests had prepared the incense, the Levites the meat-offering; Helon arranged his own, which consisted of the other half of the tenth-deal of the epha, of which he had offered one-half in the morning. The ceremonies and sacrifices already described were repeated; the lamb was killed and its portions burnt, the daily meat-offering, the meat-offering of the high-priest, and lastly, that of Helon, were presented; incense was burnt again in the holy-place, and the seven-branched lamp lighted for the night. The drink-offering was poured out upon the altar, accompanied by the songs of the Levites, and the trumpets of the priests, and followed by the benediction, which closed the service of the day. It was about the twelfth hour. But the flame continued long after it was dark to shoot up from the altar of burnt-offering, and even through the whole night the embers continued glimmering. The consecrated vessels were restored to their places: the whole course of Malchia had been in attendance this day, as it was the sabbath, but [only a sixth part] of them prepared themselves for service on the morrow. When all was finished in the temple, the priests prepared their meal and then laid themselves down to rest.

So closed the first day of Helon’s sacerdotal life; his heart was agitated, as it had been at his first entrance into the land of his fathers; but the sanctity of the place forbade every violent expression of his emotions. He had become more serious, it might almost be said more manly; and his joy and gratitude, instead of dissipating themselves in words, seemed to reserve their energy for action and the fulfilment of duty. A new life seemed to have begun in the temple of Jehovah.

As on the following day he attended the usual morning-sacrifice, although only as a spectator, he observed a woman who was undergoing the ceremony of purification after childbirth. She had bathed herself at home, first on the seventh and afterwards on the fortieth day, and she now brought to the temple a burnt-offering and a sin-offering—a lamb of the first year for the former, a turtle-dove for the latter.[^[74]] The priest sprinkled her with the blood of the sin-offering, and she was purified, and praised the Lord, who had done great things for her, had preserved her own life, and had given a son into her arms. Helon beheld the ceremony with profound attention. The old man approached him, and after the rites of the morning-sacrifice were ended, turning to Helon, said to him, “Son of Adam, remember that for thee, too, a mother once offered a sin-offering and a burnt-offering.”

“I know it,” replied Helon, “but I have been in vain endeavouring to discover what is the import of this purification of the mother.” “Compare it,” said the old man, “with what thou thyself didst, to obtain purification at the festival of the new moon, after having touched a grave. Since man defiles, at his death, those who lament his departure with the tears of affection, and by his birth those who embrace him with joy, can he himself be pure by nature?”

Helon started. After a pause the old man continued: “Does not David say, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me! And did not God say to the first man, In the day that thou eatest of the tree, thou shalt die the death? Is any thing more necessary, in order to prove that the birth of man is in sin, and that his death is the wages of sin? Forty days, after the birth of a male, eighty, after that of a female, (the sex which first sinned,) is the mother unclean. For a burnt-offering she brings a lamb, for a sin-offering a turtle-dove, and reconciled by the blood of these innocent animals, she is permitted to appear before Jehovah. See what are the consequences of our birth!

“A red heifer, without blemish,[^[75]] that has never borne the yoke, is brought before a priest, led by another priest out of the Holy City, and killed yonder on the mount of Olives. The priest dips his finger in the blood and sprinkles it seven times towards the temple; then he burns the cow with the hide and the hair, and throws upon it cedar-wood, hyssop, and a red thread. Another priest collects the ashes, and carries them to an appointed place. All the three are rendered unclean. When any one who has denied himself with a dead body is to be made clean again, these ashes are mixed with water, and one who is himself clean sprinkles it upon him upon the third and the seventh day; and while thus he that was unclean becomes clean, he that was clean becomes unclean. See what are the consequences of our death!”

The old man continued his walk in the court of the Priests, and left Helon standing in the greatest astonishment at the new and profound views which had been opened to him. He saw him not again till after the evening-sacrifice on the second day after the sabbath, when the family of the course of Malchia, to which Helon belonged, had been called to take its turn in ministering at the altar. He found the old man engaged in prayer, and was invited by him to place himself beside him on the carpet. After a short silence he began; “I trust that from our previous conversations you have clearly perceived, that the earth with all its inhabitants is unholy, and every individual a sinner! Is Jeremiah still the favourite prophet of your house?” Helon replied that he was. “Do you understand a passage in his prophecies, in which the same thought is twice repeated, ‘Behold the days are coming, saith Jehovah, that I will raise up unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and act wisely, and shall execute justice and judgment in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell in security; and this is the name by which he shall be called, [Jehovah who is our Righteousness’].’[^[76]] What means this?” “Instruct me,” replied Helon. “This is the Messiah: on the earth which lies under the curse, man, himself sinful, cannot exhibit that righteousness which is acceptable to God. Therefore Jehovah himself will be our righteousness in the Messiah. He is the great object of prophecy, from its commencement in the days of our first parents to the present day, a period of near four thousand years, till the appearance of him for whom we wait, the Consolation of Israel. But on account of the dulness of the people’s heart this intimation is given in a twofold way, audibly by the words of holy writ, and visibly in the sacrifices. The sacrifices are visible prophecies of the Lord who is our righteousness. How often does Jehovah declare, that he has no pleasure in sacrifices and burnt-offerings, i. e. when they are not presented with a reference to the Messiah. Taken in this connection, they have a reconciling virtue. Every sacrifice, therefore, has a double import. The sacrificer lays his hand upon the victim’s head, and thus transfers his own sin to it, and so far sacrifice is a memorial of the offerer’s guilt: but on the other hand, when Jehovah accepts the sacrifice and permits the blood to be sprinkled and the flesh to be burnt upon his altar, he confirms the promise which Moses made at the establishment of the covenant in the wilderness. ‘Behold, this is the blood of the covenant which Jehovah maketh with you concerning all these laws.’[^[77]] The Messiah will be the true offering. As Isaiah prophesies that God will ‘Lay our sins upon him and inflict chastisement upon him that we may have peace,’[^[78]] so by this means he will become our righteousness, and the promise of God is confirmed and fulfilled in him. But these are dark, sacred, unfathomable thoughts, who can comprehend them in all their extent? Thus much is certain, that in his sacrifice all others will be united, and what are now called by different names, will form only one. Till he comes, there are various sacrifices according to our various necessities; some for the people collectively, as on the day of atonement and at the Passover; others for individuals; morning and evening sacrifices for each day; sabbath-offerings for the week; offerings at the new moon for the month, and at the annual festivals for the whole year. There are trespass-offerings for sin; thank-offerings of gratitude for blessings received. But enough of these things, on which it is so easy but so dangerous to enlarge. Yet hope not to understand them, till light from heaven has beamed upon thee here. Keep these principles in view, pray for divine illumination, and the dark shall become light to thee. Thou knowest, even from those heathens who were the objects of thy former admiration, that there are things the knowledge of which cannot be learnt, but must be given.”

While they were speaking, Elisama came to the door and announced that Selumiel of Jericho was standing without, and that he wished to speak with the old man. He himself called Helon aside, while Selumiel conversed with the old man, and told him that in the ensuing week he was going to Jericho, and wished him to accompany him, as his week of service would expire on the morrow. Helon was unwilling to leave Jerusalem, but he bethought himself that it became a priest to honour his father and his mother, or those who stood in this relation to him, that his days might be long upon the earth. He therefore assented to the proposal of his uncle, especially as he heard that their journey would take them near the Oasis of the Essenes, whom he had a great desire to see. Elisama left him well pleased, and Helon hastened back into the court of the Priests.

On the fifth day the old man called Helon after the morning-sacrifice, and commanded him to follow him to his apartment. Both of them seated themselves on the carpet, and the old man began with unusual energy.

“Thy week of service is drawing to a close, and Selumiel tells me that he purposes to take thee to the pleasant city of Jericho. The angel of the Lord encamp on the journey about those that fear him! But as I foresee that he will introduce thee to the knowledge of the Essenes, I must, ere thou depart, give thee one admonition; and O, young man! remember that it is written, ‘Days should speak and length of years should give understanding.’

“Eighty years have now passed over me, since I began to be acquainted with men of every variety of religious opinion among my people. I was then, as thou art now, young, without an adviser, and easily attracted and deceived by every new wisdom which appeared. I wish to guard thee against errors into which I fell; for it is a bitter feeling at last to discover that we have been wandering from the truth. Thou rejoicest in Israel and the temple, and holdest the Hellenists alone in abhorrence. But believe me that there are things yet more to be abhorred in Israel itself, nay even in those that are within the walls of the temple. There is a fearful division and confusion in Israel; seven sects wage war against each other. May it fare with thee as with the old man! Thou wilt find many things in all of them which will not displease thee, but pray to God that thou mayest be enabled to see, that each of them has more or less departed from the right way, and mingled human wisdom with the divine law. Thou wilt find in all, honourable and upright men, but also among all, the proud man and the hypocrite; and all, without exception, are deficient in the humility and the simplicity which are essential to the knowledge of divine truth. I do not reckon among them the proselytes of the gate, whom we have in all nations; and I mention them only that I may omit none, and may begin where I have least to blame. Praise Jehovah that their number is constantly increasing, and pray that he would guide them yet further—that they may renounce every thing that is heathenish, and become proselytes of righteousness. It is still worse with the Hellenists, who have been punished, by the blindness with which they have plunged into allegory, for that worldly-mindedness which made them disdain to return to the land of Promise. This the Essenes did in some measure, and for this, and for their rigid obedience to the law, I praise them—but why do they imitate foreign manners in the land of Jehovah, pride themselves on vain wisdom, drawn from their ancient books, and despise the temple of our God? The Pharisees are their opponents, and while I justly praise their zeal for the faith of our fathers, I must blame them for mixing oral traditions so lightly with the written law, and for the pride which has prompted them to do it. For this fault they are justly reproved by the Sadducees: but much greater is their departure from the truth, who reject the prophets of Jehovah, and resemble more the disciples of a heathen Epicurus, than of the Lord who spake on Sinai. I say nothing of the Samaritans, who like ourselves expect a Messiah, but prefer the desolate Gerizim to our Moriah. What confusion in Israel! What dissension and mutual hatred! There is still a small handful, whom I will not call a sect, men of pious, peaceful minds, who wait in simplicity and humility for the appearance of the Messiah, who reject every other word but that of God, and keep his ordinances in his temple. Of their number I reckon myself one—Elisama also belongs to them, as do nearly all the Aramæan Jews who live in the Diaspora. In Jerusalem, however, there are few such to be found. Now thou art forewarned, go, and Jehovah bless and keep thee!”

This was the last interview which Helon at this time had with the old man. On the sixth day, the last before the new sabbath, the course of Malchia finished its term of service after the evening-sacrifice. Helon quitted the temple, and hastened to join his friends in the house of Iddo.

CHAPTER V.
THE ESSENES.

The impression which the first week of his sacerdotal duties had made upon Helon was quite different from all that he had experienced before. Hitherto his mind had been excited, and his curiosity and expectation raised; what he had lately seen and felt had given a quiet sober calmness to his mind, which was only broken at times by the eager desire of further knowledge on those subjects, on which his conversations with the old man in the temple had turned.

The following sabbath he attended the morning and evening sacrifice, in a portico, which lay on the northern side of the court of the Priests, and opposite to the altar of burnt-offering, and was called [the Covert of the sabbath]. This was a distinction allotted to the course of priests who had been on duty the preceding week, and were now resting from the noblest of all occupations, the service of Jehovah.

The sun was rising on the Holy City on the first day of the week, when Iddo took leave of his guests at the Water-gate. They took the road to Jericho, which leads over the mount of Olives. They had before them , or about twenty-four sabbath-days’ journies. Passing the dry bed of the brook Kedron, they walked under the shade of the cedars, till the road wound up the side of the mount and led them through rows of olive-trees over the easternmost of the three summits. It is loftier than any of the hills on which the city stands. As they ascended it, Helon cast back a look of gratitude and regret on the sacred spot, where God had shown him so much good. The summit commanded on one side a view of the temple, the castle Baris, Zion, and the wide-stretched city; on the other, the eye could reach to the Dead Sea and the glittering line of the Jordan’s course, which winds on the other side of the walls of Jericho and falls into the Dead Sea. Towards the east, the exhalations rose from the sea, at the place where once Sodom and Gomorrah stood—a terrible memorial of Jehovah’s vengeance on the transgressors. Towards the west the smoke of the morning-sacrifice was ascending from the altar of burnt-offering in the temple. “See,” said Elisama, as he pointed to Moriah, “the fulfilment of the words of Moses, the glory of the Lord appearing to all the people in the fire that comes from before him and consumes the burnt-offering on the altar.”[^[79]] And then turning to the clouds of pitchy smoke that hung over the Dead Sea; “Behold there the fulfilment of another word of Scripture, 'The Lord thy God is a consuming fire and a jealous God.'”[^[80]]

They proceeded in silence. At length Helon observed, “When the flame ascends upon our altar of burnt-offering, or the seven-branched candlestick is lighted at evening in the holy place, I cannot but think of Jehovah’s comparison of himself to a light, in our psalms and prophets. Fire is the most ethereal of the elements, and is a symbol as well of the grace of God to the pious, as of his indignation against sinners.”

“Beware,” interrupted Selumiel, “of making to thyself any likeness of God.”

“I understand,” said Helon, “what you mean. Even the doctrine of Zerdusht is superstition, because he has disfigured, by human additions, the knowledge which is handed down in its purity in our sacred writings. Yet it is remarkable that the children of the east have selected precisely this point from the divine wisdom of their forefathers, worshipping, alas, the visible sun, instead of the eternal light.”

“Be satisfied,” said Selumiel, “those whom thou art about to see to-day, have already prayed some hours ago for the return of the heavenly light. They do so every morning, and every morning their prayer is heard. You shall see my Essenes.”

“Thy Essenes!” said Elisama. “Thou hast already thrown out hints of this kind more than once, Selumiel, greatly to my surprise. I remember when we were young together in Egypt, thou hadst a similar passion for the doctrines of the [Therapeutæ]; and an early passion, it seems, never dies.”

“I confess,” said Selumiel, “that in my youth I often looked with veneration towards the hill beside the lake Mareotis, where they had their favourite abode. But at a later period of my life I perceived that the contemplative life of the Therapeutæ, their profound solitude, and their enthusiastic passion for allegory, are not to be compared with the pious but active life led by the Essenes. I could say much to you of this people, but I will reserve it till we have passed through Bethany.”

This was indeed a spot more adapted for seeing than for listening. Bethany was a village on the eastern slope of the mount of Olives, and about two sabbath-days’ journies from Jerusalem. It was a still and lovely spot, surrounded with olives, palm-trees, figs, and dates, so that it seemed to stand in the midst of a large garden. They often turned to look back upon it, when they had passed through it. As they crossed a sparkling brook which ran at the foot of a steep hill, Selumiel exclaimed, “I will first quench my thirst, according to the manner of the Essenes, from this pure stream, and will then tell you, as I proposed just now, what I think of this people.”

A wild and dreary region lay before them, called the desert of Jericho. “I know,” said Selumiel, “that our Sadducees ridicule the Essenes, and our Pharisees curse them. But however the former may ridicule the idea of self-communion and moral strictness, it is certain that there is a deeper foundation for this self-communion at least, than individual inclination or caprice. The aged are generally inclined to it, and I know not what more genuine happiness one who has seen the world can propose to himself, in declining years, than the undisturbed society of persons like minded with himself, engaged in the united worship of Jehovah. And as there is a period of life, in which almost all men feel the disposition to turn the thoughts inward, circumstances may arise to produce this inclination at an earlier period. Calamity and sorrow respect no age; and as it may be said of some men that they are children even in their grey hairs, so is it true of others, that even from their childhood they show the contemplative and serious character of age. Why then should not a whole society, consisting of such youths and such old men, unite to devote themselves to self-communion? It has been said of the Greeks, that they are always children; it may be said with equal truth and more honour of the Essenes, that they are always old men.”

“But,” said Elisama, “they never appear in the temple.” “That is what the Pharisees condemn in them, and I will not undertake to decide upon the question: but thus much is certain, that they fulfil all the other precepts of the law so much the more zealously, and appeal, on this point, to passages of holy writ, which teach the inefficacy of any ritual of sacrifice. But I will not defend them for not coming to mount Moriah; and I am so far from agreeing with them in this respect, that I am, as you know, a punctual visiter at all the festivals. Let us rather consider what both Sadducees and Pharisees blame in them, and see whether this blame does not really redound to their praise. You know that the Sadducees in their folly maintain, that the whole course of the events of life depends upon man’s own free will, that fate has no influence over human affairs, and that it rests with ourselves to be the authors of our own weal or woe. The Pharisees, with more reason, teach that some things in our lives are the work of fate, but not all, and that in some cases it depends upon ourselves whether events shall happen or not. But how many rulers of the world must they then suppose to exist, or how would they contrive to keep this host of rulers in order and in harmony? How much more just and consistent is the doctrine of the Essenes, that fate disposes of all events, that nothing happens to man without its appointment, and that the great and the trifling in events, what is necessary and what is apparently arbitrary, all is alike subject to a predestined order!”

“Nay,” Elisama exclaimed, “these are subjects on which only the Messiah when he comes can instruct us fully—but this doctrine is horrible.”

“Myron would say,” observed Helon, “that the Essenes were Jewish Pythagoreans; as the Pharisees might be called Jewish Stoics; and the Sadducees, Jewish Epicureans.”

Their conversation broke off here, all parties being a little out of humour, an effect to which the desert on which they had now entered perhaps contributed. It was a long, hilly, [dreary waste]. Deep ravines without verdure opened beside serrated cliffs, sometimes of a chalky whiteness, sometimes of sand. No fountain, no shrub, was to be discerned, as far as the eye could reach; scarce here and there a stunted plant or a dry blade of grass. The rocks were rent and thrown in such wild confusion, that Helon thought an earthquake must have torn up the bowels of the earth, in this abode of desolation and of death. Towards the east, between the ragged summits of the hills, the thick clouds of smoke from the Dead Sea arose, as from the bottom of the abyss. From the higher ground the region around Jericho might indeed be seen, but it served by the contrast rather to aggravate the dreariness of the nearer scene.

Selumiel was the first to resume the discourse. “You remarked,” said he to Helon, “that the Essenes are Jewish Pythagoreans; and there are in truth many points of resemblance between them. Both practise community of goods, both hold in abhorrence every kind of effeminacy and voluptuousness, both love white garments, forbid to take an oath, drink only water, pay extraordinary reverence to old age, enjoin silence for a stated time upon their novices, offer only unbloody sacrifices, and teach that destiny is supreme and uncontroulable in human affairs. They agree besides in this, that both believe the soul alone to be immortal; while the Sadducees deny that any thing of man is imperishable, and the Pharisees maintain the resurrection of the body. This coincidence in so many remarkable points may give us a clue to the common source of their doctrines and institutions. Pythagoras is said to have been in Babylon at the time of our captivity, and Zerdusht to have known Israel on the banks of Chebar—may not these both have drawn from the same source as our Essenes? For my own part, I consider the Essenes to be those who have preserved the original knowledge of divine things in the greatest purity. Hence it is that they so zealously observe the law, that they keep the sabbath with peculiar sanctity, that they consider agriculture as the most honourable of all occupations, that they hold Moses in the highest veneration, and endeavour to observe the precepts of the law with unusual strictness, directing their attention to its inward fulfilment in the heart, rather than the outward act of conformity to its commands. Of their mode of life you shall judge for yourself, when we visit their village; [their heroic deeds in war] are known from the recent history of our country.”

Helon’s attention and interest were very powerfully excited, but the last warning of the old man of the temple resounded in his ears, and to interrupt the panegyrics of Selumiel, he asked him, “Can you tell me when they made their first appearance, and what is their origin?”

“Some,” said Selumiel, “suppose them to descend from Jonadab, the son Rechab, who lived before the captivity; others, from those who fled into the desert with Judas Maccabæus, during the oppression of the Syrian kings; while others deduce them from Egypt, and from some of its sects of heathen philosophers. I hold them, however, to be of very high antiquity.”

While he was thus speaking, they saw a wanderer hastening over one of the naked hills which were near them. He was an aged man, of a spare form and long white beard, who, supporting his steps with a staff, kept on his way without looking around him, the human counterpart of this ungenial region. “This,” said Selumiel, “is one of them: I know him by his clothing, and by his only spitting behind him.” As he approached they greeted him, and he gravely returned the salutation. According to the custom of the Essenes he was clad only in white garments, and carried nothing but a staff on his journey.

“Wilt thou guide us to the Oasis of the Essenes?” asked Helon.

“Follow me,” he replied abruptly.

“How many are there of you?” asked Helon, endeavouring to engage him in conversation.

“There are four thousand of us in this country.”

“But I am surprised that you travel without any wallet.”

“I am come, curious youth, from a distance, to assist at the trial of one of our body, which cannot be held by fewer than one hundred persons. Among us every thing is in common. We avoid great cities, but where we go we trust to the hospitality of our brethren.”

“Who is the transgressor on whom ye are to sit in judgment?” asked Selumiel.

“A man who had scarcely completed his probation, and was not able to keep the secret of our institution.”

“Tell me,” said Helon, “I beseech you, what is the probation which must be gone through, before any one can be received as a member of your society.”

“He receives a white garment, a girdle of peculiar sanctity, and a spade, after which he must labour for a year, and practise self-examination. He is then received into our society, but for three years is not admitted to the common table. If in this time he gives evident tokens of being discreet, just, temperate, and chaste, an oath of tremendous sanctity is demanded from him, that he will before all things honour and serve the Lord, that he will be just towards men, that he will hate all unrighteousness, assist the pious, keep his faith and word towards every man, and pay profound obedience to the magistrate, who rules not but by the ordination of God; that he will not himself abuse power if he should be in possession of it, that he will keep his hands pure from theft and his mind from the desire of unlawful gain; that he will conceal nothing from his brethren, nor reveal their secrets to any other, even when threatened with tortures and death; that he will not communicate the doctrines of the body to any one, in any other form than that in which they have been taught to him, and that he will keep with equal care [the books of doctrine and the names of the angels]. When he has sworn to do all this, he is admitted to a participation in the bath, in the common meal, and all the secrets of the society.”

The gravity of the man, the solemnity of his words, and the earnestness with which he spoke, thrilled through Helon’s frame, combined as they were with the peculiar character of the scene.

They proceeded without further speaking, till they came within sight of an [Oasis], a fruitful spot amidst the waste. A fountain rose here from a cleft in the rock, and a few cottages, surrounded by cultivated fields, stood under the shade of palm-trees. Beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the fountain all was wild, desolate, and barren, an emblem, according to the Essenes, of the soul of an unrighteous man, and the naphtha-smoke which rose in the distance from the Dead Sea, they regarded as a type of the future punishment of the wicked. This was the settlement of the Essenes. As they approached, they perceived by the multitude of persons who were going to and fro, that the trial had occasioned an unusual resort. Yet, in spite of this, every thing went on with such a stillness, as if single individuals were pursuing some noiseless occupation. An Essene, an acquaintance of Selumiel, told them how great was the consternation and horror of the whole body, at the discovery that a traitor had divulged their secrets. This offence was to be visited by the most fearful penalty of their code, expulsion from their society. Its terror consisted in this, that having bound himself by an oath, which even the unworthy dared not violate, never to use ordinary food, nor even to receive food at all from other men, there was nothing left him, but to support himself on roots and herbs till he died.

They arrived about the fifth hour (eleven o’clock) the time when they took their meal in common. They had risen before daylight, had conversed together briefly, but only concerning divine, never concerning human things, and had then greeted the sun as if imploring him to rise. After this every one had been dismissed by the person under whose superintendence he was placed, to pursue his labour for the day, and having now pursued it for several hours, they had bathed themselves in cold water a second time, and girded themselves with the sacred linen dress. Assembling in a hall, the entrance to which was forbidden to all but the members of their own order, they had thence proceeded, as carefully purified as if they were in a temple, to their refectory, where [they seated themselves at table], not reclined as was the custom of the east. Bread and vegetables were placed before them; a priest prayed before and after the meal; while eating, a solemn silence was preserved, and when they had finished, they laid aside the holy garment, and each prepared himself to pursue his labour without intermission till the evening.

Food was placed before the strangers, Essene fare, bread and hyssop. [No women were to be seen]: for the Essenes on this Oasis belonged to the highest class, in which marriage was forbidden: it was allowed in the inferior classes, only with strict limitations and restraints. They must speedily have become extinct, had it not been that they received many children among them for education, and that many grown-up persons constantly joined their society, weary of the cares and vicissitudes of busy life. Thus they formed a society which never died out, although no child was born among them. They allowed no traffic in their community, because it must have been carried on through the medium of gold, which they considered as the root of all moral corruption; they had no servants, for each ministered to the other; and they took no oath, that which they had taken at their admission rendering every other superfluous.

Although our travellers were not admitted into the refectory of the Essenes, they were not alone. They found a multitude of sick persons assembled, who had come in hope of relief from the secret wisdom of the Essenes. They performed their cures by means of mysterious formularies, and recipes carefully preserved in their ancient books. These books had come to them in times of venerable antiquity from remote regions of the east, and were carefully studied by them, especially on the sabbath, which they held even more sacred than the other Jews. Their cures were wrought chiefly by enforcing temperance, self-command, and the dominion of the soul over the body; and with these means they performed wonders. The simplicity of their lives preserved their health to extreme old age, and not a few boasted that the spirit of prophecy had been wakened in them.

When Selumiel and Elisama had laid themselves down after the frugal repast, to rest beneath the palms, Helon went about to examine the whole arrangement and economy of this establishment. He would gladly have entered into conversation with some of the Essenes, but no one addressed him, and the determined taciturnity of their looks, and the profound stillness which reigned around these cottages, deterred him from making the attempt. He silently followed an aged man, who with his staff was making his round through the fields, when about noon every one was already again at his labour, and who seemed to be superintending their operations. The bending of the men, the prostration of the youths, as he approached them, showed to Helon that reverence for age was here inculcated and practised as a part of the duties of religion. Every thing here was done by command; no man followed a will of his own; indeed the will itself appeared to be social not individual, one thing only was excepted—beneficence. If those who were in need were not his own kindred, every one might assist and relieve them without asking permission or waiting for a command. The fields were covered with luxuriant crops, but the cultivators themselves were spare and pale.

Selumiel and Elisama had rested themselves, the heat of the mid-day was past, and there was no more to be discovered in a day than in an hour respecting the Essenes. The simple exterior of their habits and customs was easily seen. To learn any part of their secrets, it was necessary to listen in silence for years together. Our travellers therefore broke up immediately after the mid-day, and continued their tedious way through the desert to Jericho. Selumiel had requested his friend, the Essene, to be their guide, as the road was intricate even to those who had frequently travelled it. The Essene, at home amidst these solitudes, readily complied, and led them through ravines, amidst precipices, through sandy plains destitute of vegetation, and over naked hills. Always alert and ready to assist, he went before them, gave them his hand in difficult parts of the way, supported the elder men in the steeper ascents, and answered every question that was addressed to him, but so briefly that he seemed to weigh every word, and to be in perpetual apprehension of allowing one that was superfluous to escape his lips.

In answer to the question of Elisama, whence the name of Essene was derived, he informed them that it was Persian, and denoted the resemblance of their life to that of bees. “We learn from them to be unwearied in our diligence, to live in brotherly union, to be without distinction of sex in respect to desire, and to gather stores for the supply of others.” Their contempt for the female sex and aversion from matrimony displeased Elisama, who called the latter an ordinance of God, and pronounced it a vain and presumptuous thought of man, to wish to annihilate the distinction of sex, when the Creator had made the human race male and female.

Selumiel endeavoured to silence Elisama, by reminding him that nearly all the members of this community were old men. But the Essene himself would not accept this explanation; he maintained that this opinion was intimately and necessarily connected with the rest of their system. “The body as ye see,” said he, “is perishable and its elements for ever changing; the soul is immortal and unchangeable. Sprung from the purest ether, it is drawn down to the body by a certain natural impulse, and kept as it were imprisoned there while the body continues to exist. When freed from the fetters of the flesh, it rejoices like those delivered from a long and galling bondage, and wings its flight upwards. The souls of the just are conducted to an abode, beyond the ocean, of indescribable delight, where neither rain nor snow deforms the sky, and mild sea-breezes temper the rays of the sun. The wicked, on the contrary, are condemned to eternal thraldom and torment in a dwelling of frost and darkness. Should not then every soul abhor and shun intemperance and pleasure, as its worst enemies, and renounce every gratification which would give the body an ascendency over it, while it cultivates sobriety and chastity as the means of making its present captivity more tolerable, and of being ultimately delivered from it?”

The Essene spoke thus, animated in the defence of his doctrines, and almost forgetting the ordinary conciseness of his discourse. When he had ended, he turned abruptly round, after a brief salutation to the travellers. A hill higher than any in the desert, and equally bare, though on its verge, stood before them. They looked back, and saw the Essene vanishing among the intricacies of the path which they had just quitted, carefully holding his garments together, and hastening back to his brethren, without looking to the right hand or to the left. Helon seemed to breathe more freely as they emerged from this region of desolation. Selumiel, looking back towards the Oasis, and leaning on his staff, asked his companions, “Now, then, how like ye my Essenes?”

“Call them not thy Essenes,” said Elisama, “for, Jehovah be praised, there is a wide difference between them and thee.”

“Allow me this,” said Selumiel, “and I will in return allow thee to speak of thy Pharisees.”

“That,” said Elisama, very earnestly, “I shall never be; call me an Aramæan Jew, and I shall gladly accept the title.”

“What difference should one or the other make in our friendship?” said Selumiel. “Cannot we attach ourselves to different opinions, without any breach of our mutual good-will? Iddo takes it ill if I call him a Sadducee.”

“Alas for Israel,” said Elisama; “shall peace never come to thee? It has been a melancholy reflection to me, that in the land where alone Israel is truly Israel, I have scarcely found a single old friend who does not lean to one sect or other. What will be the end of these things?”

The young priest, dissatisfied with the turn which their conversation had taken, said hastily, and in a manner which neither of the old men understood, “In my service in the temple one thing only displeased me, that the turn of duty comes to each course of priests but once in twenty-four weeks. I fain would live the life of a priest every week and every day.”

“You might have discovered the method of doing so this very day,” said Selumiel.

“The Essenes do not sacrifice,” said Helon; “how then shall I find among them a perpetual priesthood?”

Elisama looked at him with astonishment. Selumiel, rejoiced as if he had come over to his opinion, replied, “You may find it in the daily mortification of your body and obedience to the law.”

“No,” said Elisama, “I will tell you—the conjugal and domestic life is the perpetual priesthood. You know that the patriarchs sacrificed with their own hands, and even now the master of the house becomes a priest, when, at the feast of the Passover, he kills the lamb, blesses the bread, and praises Jehovah. In spite of all the Essenes and their admirers,” said he, looking significantly at Selumiel, “it is my opinion, that the true Chasidean must be the father of a family.”

Selumiel stretched out his hand to the friend of his youth; they turned round, and scarcely had they advanced a few steps further when they had reached the summit of the hill, and [the garden of God, the plain of Jericho], lay before them. The towers of the city arose from amidst the fertile fields, through which the silver Jordan wound its course. From the valley of death through which they had just passed, they had emerged into a scene where life displayed itself in all its luxuriance and fulness. The wide meadows through which the Jordan rolled were adorned by groups of towering palm trees and balsam bushes; the hills on both sides closed in the landscape with a beautifully picturesque effect. The air was fragrant with the odour of the roses which bear the name of Jericho. The note of the quail was heard in the corn-fields, the eagle swept his majestic way through the air, and the stork and the pelican strode stately beside the flood.

CHAPTER VI.
THE BETROTHMENT.

Selumiel led his friends from Egypt through the gate of Jericho. Not far from it stood a house distinguished from all in its neighbourhood by its size and the style of the architecture. It was the house of Selumiel, who filled the office of an elder in Jericho. He had scarcely bidden his guests welcome in the outer court, and invited them to enter the inner by the covered way, when his son met him with his new-born grandson. The joy of the old man was indescribable. “You see,” said he to his guests, when he had led them to the fountain under the palms, and had called the slaves to wash their feet, “you see by my joy at the sight of my grandchild, that notwithstanding all I have said in their praise, I do not belong to the highest class of the Essenes. While the slaves do their duty, allow me to take a short walk into the Armon.”

Helon, in the mean time, viewed with admiration the splendour and wealth of the mansion. Its general arrangement was that which is common to houses in the east; but the solidity of construction and elegance of finish which characterised each part, showed that it was the residence of a wealthy man. Marble, cedar of Lebanon, brass, gold, silver, ivory, silk, and whatever else contributes to the splendour of an oriental house, glittered here on every side.

Selumiel’s house was built in such a way, that it enclosed a large open quadrangular space, called Chazer, or Thavech, (the middle or inner court,) which, under a sky that was almost uninterruptedly serene, served as a great chamber, even on great and festive occasions. The pavement was composed of variegated marble, tastefully disposed. In the middle, where in houses of humbler construction a simple basin stood, was a fountain, enclosed with marble and surrounded with lofty palms, which cast such a cooling shade beneath, that our travellers felt themselves instantly refreshed. In the angles stood rows of vases filled with flowers, especially the roses of Jericho, and many other odoriferous shrubs, planted in bowers. Their grateful shade, and the ever fresh and green turf around the fountain, made the coolness as it were visible, which in the hottest days was to be found there. On the sides of this quadrangle stood three rows of pillars, forming two parallel porticoes. The floor of them was covered with carpets and cushions of very elaborate workmanship, and before some of the pillars hung curtains, which gave the space behind the convenience of an enclosed chamber. The cushions were embroidered with gold and silver, and the curtains were of silk, red, white, green, and blue. Against the interior sides of the porticoes were divans and sofas, elevations of the height of from two to three feet, which were surrounded with a lattice, and in the day time were covered with carpets and served as seats, in the night were used as beds. Above, the porticoes were covered by three galleries one above another, for the house had three stories, and each gallery had a parapet breast-high towards the court.

Round this court the principal parts of the house were disposed. The side which adjoined the street contained a small court, separated from the inner only by a wall and a door, contrary to the common mode of building, according to which this court lay beyond the outer wall and in front of the house, being connected with it by a covered way: some houses again had both the small internal court, which we have described in Selumiel’s house, and the larger exterior court, the latter then serving to receive horses and camels. In Selumiel’s house the court was furnished with a sofa, visitors were received here, and only those whom the master of the house specially invited into the interior went any further. The house-door, which was in the wall of the house and was covered with inscriptions, led to the outer court. In this court was a staircase, which led to the upper stories of the house and immediately to a little building directly over the small interior court, called Alijah, which rose like a tower upon the flat roof. An awning was fastened to the parapet of the roof in such a manner, that it could be drawn over the whole of the innermost court, and produce complete shade in the brightest sunshine.

The side of the court which was furthest from the street formed the communication with the Armon, or house of the women. The apartments of the females were universally in the east separate from those of the men, and in Selumiel’s mansion they formed a distinct house, divided and arranged much in the same way as we have already described, so that there were in fact two houses, having one side in common.

Elisama and Helon had been so much occupied with the splendour which they beheld around them, that they had allowed the slaves with their silver ewers to wait, without performing their office. Selumiel re-entered, and said, smiling, to Elisama, observing how he was occupied, “Doubtless you are used to see more splendid edifices in Alexandria.” “Nay,” said Elisama, laughing, “I recall what I said on the way. An elder of Israel who dwells so sumptuously and tastefully is assuredly no Essene.” Selumiel led his guests into one of the bowers, and after they had rested here a short time, to the richly spread table. When the dishes were taken away, and the dessert set on, the mother and her daughter appeared, to bid a solemn welcome to the guests from Egypt—a condescension which showed the esteem in which Selumiel held them. The mother, though advanced in years, was active and still handsome; but Sulamith her daughter, who stood by her side, was glowing in all the freshness of youthful beauty, and united in herself every charm by which a daughter in Israel could fix the attention of the beholder. From beneath the large eyebrows, coloured of a brilliant black, dark eyes, like those of the gazel, sent forth their quiet brilliancy, through the transparent veil which descended from the turban. Her tall and stately form was clad in a robe of fine cotton, which flowed down in folds like a wide mantle; the sleeves hung loose, except where they were fastened with costly bracelets; the ears and the nose were adorned with rings of gold, in which rubies, emeralds, and topazes were set. Helon, dazzled by so much beauty, on which he hardly dared to gaze, and agitated by an emotion which he had never felt before, thought he read in the looks with which the old men regarded his surprise, the interpretation of some words which had occasionally escaped Elisama and Selumiel, and which till now he had not understood.

When the females had retired, and the men continued their conversation, Selumiel’s son addressed himself to Helon, and proposed to him that in the coolness of the early morning on the following day he would be his guide through the region round Jericho, and as far as to the Dead Sea. Helon, lost in feelings to which he had hitherto been a stranger, had scarcely heard the conversation of the elders; but he was roused from his reverie by this offer, which it was the more difficult to decline without discourtesy, as an oriental seldom imposes on himself the fatigue of a walk. Yet it seemed to him as if he were forcibly torn from that world of delightful illusions, to which he had been just transported.

At the first dawn of the following day, the two young men issued from the mansion of Selumiel, into the streets of Jericho. The city is about six sabbath-days’ journies from Jordan, and three sabbath-days’ journies in circumference. It was considered at this time as the second city in Judea, and had been in ancient times one of the thirty-one royal cities of Canaan. It was [chiefly inhabited by priests], whose number was estimated by some as high as 12,000.

The son of Selumiel was well acquainted with the ancient history of his nation, and had discovered Helon’s enthusiasm for every thing which recalled it. As they quitted the city he pointed to the other side of the Jordan. “There,” said he, “our forefathers encamped in the fields of Moab, opposite to Jericho, and thither Balak the king of Moab summoned Balaam to curse them.[^[81]] The blue hill seen far in the distance is the hill of Abarim, and part of it is Nebo, to which Jehovah led Moses and showed him the land which he was not permitted to enter,[^[82]] the future heritage of the children of Israel. Thence Joshua sent out spies to explore the land, and especially Jericho, when Rahab saved them by her humanity.[^[83]] There,” pointing to the banks of the Jordan itself, “our fathers crossed the flood, Jehovah renewing the miracle by which they had passed through the Red Sea.[^[84]] They destroyed the city, and not only exterminated every living thing, but their leader laid a curse on him who should rebuild it, which six hundred years afterwards fell on Hiel of Bethel, whose eldest son died when he laid the foundation of it, and the youngest when he set up the gates.[^[85]] Yet its sanctity was recovered by the residence of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, who long dwelt here, and the schools of the prophets which they superintended. In later times we must confess, with grief, that it was here the valiant chief and high-priest Simon, father of Hyrcanus, fell by the hand of his son-in-law.”[^[86]]

Helon thanked his companion for his information, dissatisfied with himself that the present and the past contended with each other for the possession of his mind. They continued their way to an eminence, from which they had a prospect scarcely to be equalled even in the Holy Land itself. They had here a view of the course of the Jordan. In its progress from its source in Antilibanus, a course of about one hundred sabbath-days’ journies, it had attained a breadth of thirty paces; it is about the depth of a man, and in the neighbourhood of Jericho it has a strong current. It abounds in fish, and its banks were overgrown with sedges, reeds, willows, and tamarisks, among which, jackals, lions,[^[87]] and other wild beasts harboured. The river had just overflowed its banks,[^[88]] in consequence of the melting of the snows of Lebanon, and this annual exundation greatly promoted the fertility of the adjacent fields. On the banks of Jordan lies Gilgal, the place where the people of Israel crossed over under Joshua, and erected twelve stones as a memorial. A little further on was [Bethabara], where the pilgrims from Galilee crossed to the eastern side of the Jordan, in order to avoid going through the country of the Samaritans. Thus a great part of the beautiful valley of the Jordan lay before them, whose fertile fields are enclosed by hills on each side, on the east by the mountains of Judah, on the west by Abarim, with the summits of Pisgah and Nebo on Peor, followed by the mountains of Moab. Southward they beheld the plain of Jericho, ten sabbath-days’ journies in length, and almost three in breadth, extending to Engeddi, containing the celebrated grove of palms,[^[89]] adorned with olives and [balsam shrubs], and known in all the ancient world for its honey and its roses. Joining this plain [the Dead Sea] extended itself far to the south, called also the Sea of the Plain, from its vicinity to the plain of Jordan; the Salt Sea, from the taste of its waters; and the Eastern Sea, in contradistinction from the Mediterranean, which lay westward of Palestine. It was formed in the time of Lot and Abraham, by the destruction of the towns of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, and Zeboim, the place of which this lake now covers.[^[90]] Its length amounts to eighty-three, its breadth to twenty-one sabbath-days’ journies; its waters, being impregnated with naptha and asphaltus, are salt and bitter; and all around it had the appearance of conflagration, because the frequent exundations of the lake covered the adjacent soil with a coating of salt. The fruits correspond with the water; the son of Selumiel related to Helon, that the [apples of Sodom], as they are called, were beautiful to the eye, but bitter and unfit to eat, and that when they were dried, they were nothing but dust.

The world of external nature is but the mirror which reflects to us what interests our feelings in the world of man. Helon had never looked on the beauties of nature with so true a relish for them, as now that they gave him back the image of his own fond hopes and gay imaginations; nor had he ever felt so deeply the impression of her awful scenes, as now when they harmonized so well with the trembling anxiety which chastised his hopes.

On their return to the house they found all busy with preparations for the solemnity of the circumcision of Selumiel’s grandson, which was to take place on the following morning. At the third hour accordingly of the next day, a large company assembled in Selumiel’s house. Besides the two witnesses, who must be married persons of either sex, ten men were necessary, in whose presence the circumcision was to take place, and besides these had been invited the heads of all the courses of priests who lived in Jericho, the elders and the friends of Elisama. The family remembered the command of God to Abraham, when he spoke to him, and said, “This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy posterity after thee: every male child among you shall be circumcised, when he is eight days old; and the uncircumcised male child shall be cut off from his people, because he hath broken my covenant.”[^[91]]

[The rite was performed] in the largest apartment of the house, and by the hand of the grandfather, in the presence of the whole assemblage. When the child was born and had been washed, rubbed with salt and wrapped in swaddling-clothes, the father had placed it on his bosom, as a sign that he acknowledged it as his own. He now fetched it from the apartment of the mother, who had been purified, by bathing, from the impurity of the first seven days after childbirth, and brought it to the room where the company was assembled. A psalm was sung, alluding to the covenant which God had made with his people Israel, and then the song of Moses after the deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The rite was then begun; in the midst of it, the father of the child said, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, king of the world, who hast sanctified us by thy precepts, and commanded us to enter into the covenant of Abraham.” Those who stood around replied, “Lord, as thou hast permitted this child to enter into the covenant of our father Abraham, grant also that he may enter into thy law, into the marriage-state, and into good works.” Selumiel then laid his hand upon the child’s head, and asked the father what its name should be. The name was commonly derived from the circumstances under which the child was born or circumcised. The father, in honour of the guests from Egypt, who were then present, replied, “His name shall be called Mizraim.” The grandfather then prayed, “O Lord our God, God of our fathers, strengthen this child and preserve him to his parents. His name shall be called in Israel, Mizraim, son of Abisuab, the son of Selumiel. May his father rejoice in the son of his loins and his mother in the fruit of her womb!”

The boy was then carried back to his mother, and all who were present congratulated the father and the grandfather. Selumiel invited them to the inner court, where they partook of refreshments and remained till afternoon, when a splendid banquet was served up, consisting of every thing which one of the wealthiest citizens of Jericho could collect for such an occasion. Two oxen, twenty lambs, and twelve fatted calves were killed; for the master of the feast was thought to show his wealth and his hospitality by the unexpected abundance of every kind of food that was produced. [Every guest found in the fore-court a splendid caftan], which he put on for the feast, and deposited there again on his departure. These garments were always in readiness to be worn on festive occasions, and their number and costliness was one of the surest pledges of the master’s wealth. The guests, after their feet had been washed, were anointed with costly ointment, and when they took their leave they were perfumed, especially the beard.

Sulamith and her mother did not appear to-day, but confined themselves to the chamber of Abisuab’s wife, and celebrated the festival there. Helon had seen Sulamith only once and in passing on the preceding day, but her image had remained involuntarily imprinted upon his mind. In the midst of the lively conversation which passed at the banquet, the proverbs which were quoted and the riddles which were propounded, she was always present to his thoughts, and so animated the powers of his mind, that his eloquence and ingenuity drew on him the attention of all. His [mashal] was the most pregnant and striking; his riddle, the most ingenious; his solution the readiest and most happy. When he laid himself down on the divan beside his uncle, he could not sleep nor rest, and to calm the tumult of his breast, he arose, and passing through the courts ascended the Alijah, in which at Alexandria he had passed many a sultry night, and there, kneeling, prayed to the God of his fathers. But his prayer partook of the general state of his feelings; unable to collect his thoughts sufficiently for meditation, he could only pour out before Jehovah the fulness of a grateful heart.

It was just beginning to dawn when he left the Alijah, and walked up and down upon the roof. The stars were dim; the hills of Moab lay in darkness, and the Dead Sea was wrapt in vapour, but on the summits of the hills of Judah the first distant beam of light appeared to break. “What are they doing now in the temple?” he asked himself; “perhaps they are changing the watch, or clearing the altar, or opening the gates that Israel may come up and appear before Jehovah. And how is the venerable old man of the temple employed?” He remembered with gratitude how much light he had derived from his conversations with him, and then the warning recurred to his mind which he had received from him. He now fully comprehended its meaning. In the journey through the desert, in the visit to the Essenes, in the discourse of Elisama and Selumiel, and the conversation of the priests at the banquet, he had found abundant proofs of the truth of the old man’s assertions respecting the parties by which Israel was distracted. He grieved to think that the highest and the noblest in Israel were arrayed against each other in hostile sects; that simplicity of faith and purity of life were so little honoured, and heathen philosophy, in a Jewish garb, exalted to the throne. “Should the Messiah come,” said he, “I verily believe that, after having disputed about his claims, they would finish by all rejecting him. The priests themselves descend from their dignity, as the appointed conservators of divine knowledge, to the wranglings of human philosophy, and the light of heavenly truth, which they should transmit pure and direct, is absorbed or diverted by the gross medium through which it passes; and thus this unhappy land, so awfully chastised by the justice of God, so graciously received back to favour by his mercy, is deprived of the bliss which Providence designed for it. Who could have believed,” he continued, “when a few weeks ago I approached Jerusalem, when I saw for the first time the temple and the priests, and all my wish was to be enrolled among them and to dwell on the hill which Jehovah has chosen for his peculiar presence, who could have believed that so short a time would have made every thing appear to me so tame and common? Is the fault my own, that I pass too easily from the one extreme to the other; or am I disappointed, that, instead of a perpetual ministration before Jehovah, I am only called at long intervals and for a short time to appear in his temple? Yet surely even this might be sufficient to keep alive my zeal, were it not that the moment he quits the temple the dreams of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes again take possession of the mind of a priest, and seduce him into transgressions of the law. What hope then, under such circumstances, of becoming a Chasidean? There was another priesthood of which Elisama spoke, as we stood together at the foot of that pointed hill. O that I could but be assured that I was not mistaken in the meaning of his often repeated hints!” As he spoke his face turned involuntarily towards the Armon. Some one came behind him and touched him on the shoulder; it was Elisama. He started, as if it were possible that he might have heard his soliloquy, and could scarcely return his uncle’s salutation, “I am glad,” said Elisama, with a serious look, “to find you here alone: for some days past I have wished for an opportunity of speaking to you alone on important matters. Let us go into the Alijah, we shall be most secure there from the danger of interruption.

“When we left Egypt it was all thy wish to see the land of thy fathers: thy mother had another wish. Thou art of that age when the youth of Israel take to themselves wives. Doubtless we are all agreed in this, that thy wife should not come from any Hellenistic family. Among the Aramæan Jews of Alexandria, there was none with whom so near a connection would have been honourable for us. Besides it is thy mother’s wish that her daughter-in-law should be, as she herself was, a native of the Holy Land. I have been occupied in looking round for a wife for thee. What sayest thou to Sulamith, the daughter of Selumiel?”

Helon fell at his uncle’s feet, and embracing his knees exclaimed, “Is it possible? Ah! give me Sulamith!”

“Rise,” said Elisama. “May Jehovah bless you both! I have already settled the conditions with Selumiel in Jerusalem, and we kept silence, only that we might see whether Sulamith would please you. He wished to have a priest for a son-in-law, and one who should not come empty-handed.”

“O give my whole fortune, if he demands it,” said Helon.

“At this moment he is speaking with Sulamith.” Looking through the lattice of the Alijah, he saw Selumiel passing along the court, and called to him to come up to them. He came and Helon fell before him on his face.

“I know enough,” said he, “I will call my wife and daughter—follow me to the large saloon of the Armon.”

He led them from the Alijah through the outer and inner court to the Armon, which no foot of a male stranger had ever trodden before. He left them standing in the richly adorned saloon, and went to call Sulamith and her mother. They came with him, and the brother also made his appearance. The mother was in tears: Sulamith stood with her face completely veiled. Elisama then came forward and said, “If ye will deal kindly and truly with my nephew Helon, tell me, and give him this your daughter Sulamith to wife; and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”[^[92]] Then Selumiel and Abisuab answered, “The thing proceedeth from the Lord, therefore we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold Sulamith is before thee; take her and go thy way, that she may be the wife of thy nephew Helon.” Elisama and Helon bowed themselves to the earth; and Elisama said, “I will pay thee for thy daughter 10,000 shekels.” “I give them to her for her dowry,” said Selumiel, “and add to them 10,000 more.” Then Selumiel, turning to Sulamith, said, “Wilt thou go with this man into the land of Egypt, or remain with him in Jericho, as Jehovah shall appoint?” Sulamith, sobbing, answered, “Yes.” Then the mother led her daughter to Helon, whose joy was without bounds; she bowed down before him, and he took her by the hand and raised her up. The father, the mother, and the brother of the bride, along with Elisama, then drew near to them, and blessed them both, and said, “May ye grow and multiply a thousand times, and may your seed possess the gate of your enemies!”

The company which had assembled on the preceding day was again invited, and Selumiel said to his astonished guests, “Rejoice with me, my friends, and bless the God of our fathers. I have received from Jehovah two children, a grandson and a son-in-law.”

Elisama remained in Selumiel’s house. Helon, so propriety required, took up his abode in a neighbouring house; but through the day he was chiefly in the Armon of his Sulamith. The more intimately he became acquainted with her, the higher his love and admiration rose. Every day discovered to him some new excellence, her deep piety, her gentle temper, her quick sensibility, her sound understanding, and playful, harmless wit. He looked on with delight when, in the course of her daily occupations, she prepared the meal for bread, kneaded it in flat round cakes, and baked it in the deep oven. He stood beside her when, as became a female, she wove cloth for the garments of the men. He lent his aid when she prepared the perfumed ointments, and rubbed upon a smooth marble stone the sandalwood, the juice of the date-palm, the kernel of the Behen-nut from Egypt, oil of sesame, fragrant reed from Lebanon, oil of myrtle, cypress, and mastix, and the juice of the pomegranate-rind. In whatever occupation he had seen her, whatever had been the subject of their conversation, he always returned home at evening more grateful to God. The sabbath and the new moon, all[all] the solemnities of religion had become more interesting to him, and his confidence revived that with such a daughter of Israel by his side, he should be able to keep the whole law, and perhaps even become a Chasidean.

CHAPTER VII.
THE FEAST OF PENTECOST.

The feast of Pentecost drew near. It derived this name, which is Greek, and its Jewish name of the Feast of Weeks,[^[93]] from [the circumstance that seven weeks or fifty days] elapsed between it and the day after the Passover, on which the first-fruits of barley were offered, so that it was the fiftieth day from that time. It fell on the sixth day of the third month Sivan, and the days between the offering of the sheaf and it were solemnly reckoned every evening, at the time of supper. The master of the house, rising up with the rest of the company, said, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, king of the world, who hast sanctified us with thy precepts, and commanded us to count the days of harvest,” adding, this is the fifth day, or one week, and the third day, and so on. In this way they thought that they were fulfilling the command of the law, “Seven weeks shall ye reckon; begin to reckon the seven weeks from the time when thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn; and thou shalt keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord thy God.”[^[94]]

Helon wished, in virtue of his priestly office, to travel to Jerusalem; Abisuab and his wife were going up to present their new-born child before Jehovah; Sulamith was glad to join herself to her brother and sister-in-law; and Selumiel and Elisama had to comply with the law, which enjoins that all males should appear, thrice in the year, at each of the great festivals, before Jehovah. The preparations were already made, and the day of the pilgrimage was very near.

On the forty-seventh day Helon was sitting with Sulamith beside the fountain in the inner court of the Armon. They were conversing on the office of the priest: Sulamith expressed her joy in the thought that she should see her betrothed husband ministering at the altar of Jehovah; and Helon declared what increased delight he should have in every service, when he reflected that the eyes of his Sulamith accompanied him from place to place. As he spoke he saw in imagination her cedar-form, conspicuous among all who filled the court of the Women, and her dark eye watching him as he moved. As they conversed thus together, the well-known sound of cymbal and flute was heard, accompanied by more than a thousand[more than a thousand] human voices. “It is the Galileans going up to the festival,” said Sulamith, listening as the sacred sounds seemed to descend from heaven into the court where they were sitting. Helon hastened forth to greet them. Although Samaria was destroyed, they still took their ancient road by Bethabara and Jericho, in preference to that by Sichem, especially as in the former track their train was swollen by accessions from every village through which they passed. They were now about to pass through Jericho, and to encamp at the western gate. Welcomes and greetings met them from every house.

On the following morning, when the pilgrims from Jericho were going to unite with them, the long-standing hatred between the Jews and the Galileans displayed itself. [The Galileans], who occupied the country which had formerly made a part of the kingdom of Israel, had adopted many customs from the heathens among whom they lived; inhabiting a fertile region they lived in the possession of many physical comforts, but neglected the cultivation of literature and knowledge, and their uncouth pronunciation, by which the guttural letters were confounded, bore witness to the low state of refinement among them. Their Jewish brethren were proud of superior knowledge, as the Galileans of superior wealth, and they seldom came together without some explosion. The present dispute was about precedence in the march. The men of Jericho claimed it, as genuine Jews and inhabitants of a city of priests, reproaching the Galileans that their ancestors were only the common people of the land, left behind when the great and noble were carried into captivity. The men of Jericho at length prevailed: Selumiel, as elder of the city, led the march with the heads of the courses of priests; the Levites struck up their music, and all the people sung together.

The city whose foundation is in the holy mountains,

The gates of Zion, Jehovah loves

More than all the dwellings of Jacob.

Glorious is it to speak of thee

O City of God!

Of Zion it is said,

This and that man was born in her.

He, the Most High buildeth her.

When God reckoned up the people

He wrote, This man was born there.—Ps. lxxxvii.

Thus the train quitted the smiling fields of Jericho, and entered on the wilderness, which they crossed by a nearer way than that which led by the Oasis of the Essenes. By mid-day they had reached a verdant spot, shaded with palm-trees, and, encamping beneath them, opened their wallets, and distributing their provisions, endeavoured to exhilarate themselves amidst the desolation which surrounded them. Sulamith, sitting between her father and her bridegroom, had taken her sister’s first-born from her arms and playfully placed it on her lap, when a Galilean approached them and asked Selumiel, if Elisama and Helon from Alexandria were with him. Selumiel having pointed them out to him, he informed them that he was charged with the salutations of a young Greek of Alexandria, of the name of Myron, whom he had recently seen in his visit to Damascus. Myron had commissioned him at the same time to say, that his affairs would not allow him to come to Jerusalem at Pentecost. He regretted that he must thus lose their society on his return to Egypt, which had been a source of so much pleasure to him on his journey thence. If, however, they could wait, he requested to be informed by this Galilean, who was about to return to Damascus immediately after the feast.

“A fair opportunity,” said Selumiel’s son, “for you, Helon, to meet him in the north of Judea, and bring him to the festivities of the marriage; while you at the same time visit that part of the Holy Land which you have not seen. I know what you are going to object—but while preparations for the nuptials are going on, no one can be more easily spared, even by the bride, than the bridegroom.” Selumiel agreed; and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Helon and Sulamith, it was finally arranged that the Galilean should carry back word to Damascus, that Helon would meet Myron, in three weeks time, at Dan, the frontier town of Judea on the north.

The pilgrims resumed their march, the desert was soon left behind, and Bethany with its gardens and olive-yards appeared. The train ascended the mount of Olives and wound along its western descent, among the cedars in the valley of Jehoshaphat. The temple, which was seen from this side under its most imposing aspect, was brightened with the glow of sunset; and the whole city, with its hollows and eminences, and the white tents which in some places were erected, and in others erecting, partook of the illumination of the evening lights. Companies of pilgrims hastened from all sides to the city, but none drew the attention of the spectators more than that which was descending the mount of Olives.

Selumiel and his party were received with undiminished hospitality into the house of Iddo, who poured out his hearty congratulations to Sulamith and Helon, telling the latter that from the time when he had first seen him, he had anticipated that they should be more nearly related. In the midst of his friendly greetings and compliments, however, it was plain that something weighed upon his mind; and when the women had retired into the Armon, and the men were sitting around the fountain in the court, he asked whether they had heard of the event which had occurred in their absence. They asked him of what kind, and he replied respecting the high-priest. They had heard imperfect rumours of it on the way, and requested him to relate the circumstances more fully.

“You know,” he began, “that Hyrcanus has from his youth inclined to the party of the Pharisees, though with moderation. I must confess that I have been astonished how he, who himself possesses the gift of foreknowledge, uniting, as the Messiah shall hereafter do, the triple office of high-priest, king, and prophet, and to whom a voice foretold the approaching victory of his sons over the Samaritans, when he came out of the Holy of Holies, on the last day of atonement, how such a man should not have seen through these hypocrites. It is true, he was brought up by them, and their influence, which since the time of Jonathan has been unfortunately on the increase, has been very serviceable to him in the support of his government. They have now scandalously repaid his over-confidence in them. At one of the feasts which were held in the castle of Baris, in celebration of the victory over the Samaritans, the pious prince, moved by gratitude towards Jehovah, called upon those who were present to tell him if there were any point in which he had neglected to fulfil the commands of God, and his duties towards men. As was natural, they broke out into the warmest encomiums on his administration. One of them only, the haughty Eleazar, whom you know, Selumiel, alleged that he could mention an instance of his violation of the law. Hyrcanus urged him to speak, and he said, ‘Thou canst not legally be high-priest, for thy mother was a bondwoman.’ [The accusation was as groundless as it was insolent]: Hyrcanus was stung by it to the quick, and even the rest of the Pharisees blamed him who had made it, for uttering a falsehood. The banquet was interrupted; Jonathan, the confidential friend of the high-priest and a zealous Sadducee, advised him to call the council together, and lay the matter before them. He did so, but the Pharisees, who predominate there, proposed only the imprisonment of the offender; and the high-priest chose rather that the indignity offered to him should pass unavenged, than that this inadequate punishment should be inflicted. He has now, however, seen the Pharisees in their true colours, and he and his sons, it is to be hoped, will in future be on their guard against these hypocrites. They will seek to do him mischief, but the conquerors of Samaria may set them at defiance.”

All were astonished and shocked at the recital; Selumiel strengthened Iddo in his displeasure. Elisama lamented that Israel should be distracted by such dissensions, and that a canker should be at the root of its fair appearance of prosperity. Helon rejoiced in the prospect of that domestic felicity with his Sulamith, which should remove him from the scene of these unholy contentions of party spirit. They repaired to supper, and Iddo counted the forty-eighth day from the offering of the first-fruits.

The following day was the preparation for Pentecost, and was passed in bathing, cutting off the hair, and other purifyings. An hour after the evening-sacrifice Helon went up to the temple and knocked at the door of the old man’s cell. “Welcome to Azereth!” he exclaimed, as Helon entered. [Azereth], or Day of Assembly was the name given to the day of Pentecost as well as to the seventh of the Passover, and to the eighth of the Feast of Tabernacles. “Will it in truth be Azereth to Hyrcanus and the Pharisees?” said Helon. “Did I not tell thee, young man,” he replied, “that it would be so? Believe me, this scene is only the commencement of long and ruinous dissensions between the council and the prince. God grant that I may not live to see them! But for thee, at least, priest and bridegroom both, it is truly Azereth, and in a different sense from the seventh day of the Passover.” “Give us thy blessing,” said Helon; and as he knelt down the old man stretched out his hands upon his head and blessed him. Helon then asked him to explain the design of the feast which was about to commence. “As,” said he, “when the first barley sheaf was offered, we prayed to Jehovah for his blessing upon the harvest, so now that both the barley and the wheat are gathered in, we thank him that he has given us the early and the later rain, and dew from heaven, and the appointed weeks of harvest. Thus the Pentecost is a harvest feast: but it is also a commemoration of the giving of the law: for it was on this fiftieth day, the sixth after Israel’s arrival in the wilderness of Sinai, and the third after the purification of the people, that Moses led them out of the camp to meet Jehovah, and to receive the law amidst the thundering and lightning, and the sound of the trumpet. But pray to God that he would disclose to thee the sublimer meaning which lies hidden under these more obvious purposes. Bethink thee of that approaching time, when all the gifts of Jehovah shall be poured out upon his kingdom on earth, when all prayers shall be granted, and the law shall be universally known and kept in its purest and most spiritual sense. Let this thought guide thy devotions at the feast. And now, if thou art pure, go to the evening-sacrifice. Hark! the trumpets announce that the Pentecost is about to begin.”

Helon departed, was present at the evening-sacrifice, and remained in the temple through the night with all the priests who had assembled at Jerusalem for the festival. On the following day the principal duty fell to the course whose week was just beginning; but there was so much to be done beyond the common offices, that they needed the aid of the others. The dissensions of the Pharisees and Sadducees were more visible than ever, and ceased not even in the temple and on the holy night.

The gates were opened, and among the rest who filled the courts before the crowing of the cock, Iddo, Selumiel, Abisuab, and Elisama presented their victims to the priests; and Sulamith with the wife of Iddo and her own sister-in-law were in the court of the Women. The ordinary morning-sacrifice was first offered, then the special offering of the festival, consisting of seven lambs of the first year, a young bullock and two rams for a burnt-offering, a goat for a sin-offering, and two yearling sheep for a thank-offering. The difference between the offerings on this occasion and at the Passover was, that there were then two bullocks and one ram offered, and now two rams and one bullock.[^[95]] When the drink-offering was poured out, the priests blew upon their pillars, the Levites sung on the fifteen steps, and the whole congregation sung the great Hallel.

Now came the special-offering of the Pentecost. It consisted of two loaves and a tenth of an epha of fine wheat flour, the first-fruits of the harvest, which a priest had waved before Jehovah towards all the four winds of heaven, in the open space between the altar and the sanctuary. When this offering had been presented to Jehovah, the sacrifices of individuals began. Selumiel, his son, and Elisama, brought their noble victims; thousands followed them, and among the rest, Helon offered his thank-offering, and paid to the Lord the vow which he had formed in the happy hour of his betrothment. Selumiel’s son offered for the purification of his wife, as it chanced to be the fortieth day from her delivery, a lamb of the first year as a burnt-offering and a turtle-dove as a sin-offering. She prayed while they were slain, and a priest, bringing the blood of the sin-offering in a dish, sprinkled her with it, and thus she became clean. She had brought her first-born in her arm, and presented him before Jehovah; and her husband redeemed him, according to the law, by the payment of five shekels.[^[96]] For thus said Jehovah, “Behold I have taken the Levites unto myself among the children of Israel, instead of all the first-born; therefore the Levites shall be mine. For the first-born are mine, since the time when I slew all the first-born in Egypt: then did I set apart all the first-born in Israel, both of man and beast, that they should be mine. I am Jehovah.”[^[97]]

When all these were ended, and the blessing given to the people in the name of Jehovah, Iddo, with the assistance of his own slaves and of Sallu, presented his own thank-offering. The wife of Abisuab, Sulamith, and the wife of Iddo, partook of the feast which the sacrifice furnished in one of the apartments of the temple, and in addition to them some priests and Levites who had been bidden. Helon, once more in the temple, in sight of the crowds of worshippers who poured in streams along its courts, within hearing of the solemn sound of the temple music, surrounded by all the circumstances which made this consecrated spot a little world within itself, and seated by his Sulamith, forgot his native country Egypt, his longing for his mother and his home, the factions of Pharisees and Sadducees; and nothing occupied his thoughts, but the wish to live in the Holy Land as a priest of Jehovah, and to endeavour to fulfil the law, with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength.

The Feast of Pentecost lasted only one day.