[CHAPTER XVII.]
SUNDAY ON MOUNT ZION.
THE next day was Sunday, and I think we were all glad of this. Sir William felt unable to make any plans without Mr. Stanley's advice, but as we had already been several times to the pretty little English church, we had no difficulty in knowing how to spend our time on Sunday.
The service began at ten o'clock, so we were up early and started for church directly after breakfast. I felt comforted and rested during the service, and hoped to got just the message I needed from the sermon. I must confess I was somewhat disappointed when the text was given out, for it seemed to me that no comfort or help could be found in it. It was a singular text, and one I had never noticed before. The preacher was a German by birth, but he spoke English as if it had been his native language. We were told afterwards that he was a converted Jew, and the missionary to the Jews in Jerusalem.
The text was from Leviticus xxiii.40:
"Ye shall take you the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days."
The clergyman first answered the thought which I had had in my heart, that there was no lesson for me in the text, by showing that all God's word was written for our learning, and that these Jewish feasts and ceremonies were wonderfully suggestive and helpful, if we looked into their real meaning and significance.
The text contained directions for the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast of joy. It came after the Day of Atonement, after pardon had been obtained, after sin had been put away. First must coma forgiveness, then follows joy; pardon first, rejoicing afterwards.
"And in the text," he said, "we are given four conditions under which alone the joy of the Lord can be ours; four characteristics of the true Christian, who can alone rejoice before his God."