“Certainly, I will,” she replied, “only I shall take the meal more in the spirit of the Lord’s Supper, of the Christian Church. And Abraham——”
Her eyes, as they were lifted to his, swam with tender, pitying tears, as she added:
“All the time I shall be praying that you may meet the Christ of God, Jesus of Nazareth; and while you seek to remember our people’s deliverance from the land of Bondage, I shall be praying that you, dear Abram, may be delivered from the bondage of the legalism of our race.”
The Passover table was spread in Cohen’s house. The arrangement of that table was a curious mixture of Mosaic and Rabbinical command. In the case of all but really very pious Jews of this day, the real and actual Passover is not kept.
Passover—(chag Appesach of the Jews) must have a lamb roasted to make it the real feast, the ordinary Jew to-day, contents himself with an egg, and a burnt shank-bone of mutton, and unleavened cakes.
Cohen’s Passover Feast always included a small lamb. Still, Rabbinical lore and Bible command were curiously mixed in the Cohen celebration.
The table, to-night, had an egg according to Rabbinical order, but there was a tiny roast lamb as well. There was the glass dish of bitter herbs; the salt water, typifying the tears of Israelitish misery in Egypt; a dish of almonds, apples, and other fruit, chopped and mixed, represented the lime and mortar of the Brick-making in the Land of Bondage.
Chervil and parsley were there, and lettuce. A large pile of unleavened cakes, a big coloured glass ewer with unfermented wine and water, and many other items considered to be the orthodox thing at the Feast.
All the Cohen household was there. Zillah, radiant with the glow of the new life in Christ that had come to her.
Rachel, her sister, was red-eyed and sullen. Zillah had been pleading with her to open her mind, and her heart to the Christian teaching of the Messiah who had come, and who had atoned for all the race, Jew and Gentile alike.