Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1888-08-18
A HOLY FESTIVAL.
LESSON vIIl, THIRD QUARTER, IN
TERNATloNAL SERIES, AUG. fe.

4
fCondensed from Lesson Helper Quarterly, by
permission of Fl. S. Hoffman, Philadelphia,
publisher.l
This chapter may well be called "The Chap
ter Of the Feasts of the Lord" or "The Chap
ter of Holy Convocations," the former ex-
preston beginning and ending the chapter,
and found also in verses 4, 81, while the latter
! is found no less than eleven times in this
| chapter.
Our lesson today gives an account of but
| one of the eight different convocations re-
corded in this chapter; or seven ii we do not
count the Sabbath, which was an institution
as old as Eden.
SO. "And the Lord spake" How little we
are apt TO think of this most weighty state
ment 1t ought to cause US to give heed with
all our powers as we remember that while
other things pass away 1.-THE word of our God
shall stand forever"
81. "Speak unto the children of Israel"
Moses was simply the Lords mouthpiece to
the people and had only to say what the Lord
| told him
"The fifteenth day of the seventh month"
1t is for God to appoint the day, and for us
to be obedient. 1t was on the first day of
this month that they blew with the trum-
! pets, and on the tenth day was the great an
nual atonement of last weeks lesson. The
fiftieth year or year of jubilee was ushered
in by the blowing of trumpets on the atone
ment (xxv, 8, 10.
'The feast OF tabernacIes seven Gays unto
the Lord" In Elk. xiii, 16 xxxiv, %, it is
called the feast of ingathering because they
had gathered in all their fruits out of the
field (also v. 50 of our lesson) Verses 40 to
| 43 tell us why it is called the feast of the
/ %nl> AZ
branches Of trees and made booths in which
they dwelt seven days, rejoicing before the
| Lord, as they remembered their forty days
in the wilderness, when they had no crops to
gather in, but they dwelt in tents and God
fed them.
50. "An noIy convocation," because 1t was
a gathering unto, and in the name of the
| Holy One Of Israel. He was their holiness,
( even as He is ours, and apart fron Him there
is no holiness.
"No servile work" Nine times in this
| chapter'are we told of no work, or no man.
ner of work, or no servile work Tvs. 8. rs.
| 81, 25, %, 81, 35, 30) in connection with these
| holy days All true service ought to be joyful
service glad thank offering to Him who
| speaks from off the mercy seat, who Him.
self is our mercy seat All slavish work, or
work done because we ought to do it, or must
do it, should have no place in the service of
such a Redeemer, "whoSe service is perfect
| freedom"
| V. SO. "An Offering made by fire unto the
Lord" Twice in this verse, and five times
elsewhere in the chapter do we find this ex-
preston Tvs s, 10, IS, 25, 90. It was be-
cause of this Offering by fire that
| there was to be no servile work
but only joy in the Lord, with deep
humility of soul
81 Everything upon,TIls day." Sacrifices
| and the number of then,. feasts and the order
of them all appointed byGod and everything
| upon His day; the priests and the people had
only to read Alright and bo obedient, and the
command was: "To write the words of the
law very plainly"
] SS "Beside the Sabbaths, gifts.
!. vows, and free will offer
fngs, which ye give unto the Lordn Israel
was required to give unto the Lord for his
| special worship and for their own great good
every seventh day in the whole year, besides
these three annual seasons of from one to
seven or more days, when everything ordi-
nary had to be laid aside; they had also to
| give one-tenth of all their increase besides
| their special gifts and vows and free will
| offerings.
A. Having now glanced at all the verses
| in the lesson (verses 39-43 were touched
upon in connection with verse 80 let us look
| at the feasts of the Lord in their reference to
Christ and to US, and may the spirit that
was in Moses declare them unto us The
same spirit in Paul declares that "holy days
| Or. V. feast days., new moons and Sabbath
days are shadow of things to come" tCol.
| ii, 16, ~ That Christ our Passover has
been sacrificed for us; and that we are to
keep the feast with the unleavened bread of
lctn nd
| leaven of malice and wickedness. q Cor. v, q,
| 81 He also tells us that Christ risen from
the dead is the first fruits of them that
sleep q Cor. XIV, 20, 23.l Here then is the
substance Of the first three of the seven
| feasts; Christ the true passover, Christ the
| true unleavened bread, and Christ risen from
the dead the true first fruits. Now the
| fourth Of the seven feasts, in the third
month, called the feast of weeks because it
was Just seven weeks or fifty days after the
| last feast, called also the feast of harvest
or first fruits of wheat harvest clearly
points us u that which occurred fifty
| days after the resurrection of Christ,
viz. the conversion Of thousands of
Jews when the spirit was poured out at
Pentecost But all the first fruits are not in
| yet, and the reaping at Pentecost was only
beginning In James /, IS, writing to the
| twelve tribes of the dispersion, he speaks of
| the believers as "a kind of first fruits" and
| in Rev. IA, 4, the H. 600 Of the sealed ones
Of the seventh chapter are called "a first
| fruits unto God and to the Lamb then, in
| Rev. xiv, Is, we have the great harvest or
reaping time, after the fall of Babylon,
which is opened up more fully in Rev. xvii,
xviii; then in Rev. xix, Xxx, the marriage Of
the Lamb, the Judgment Of the nations, the
binding Of Satan, after which comes the
thousand years when Israel, IN their own
/ lard, SHALL from the least 70 the greatest.
| know the Lord, for they shall as a nation
have been converted by the appearing Of the
| Son Of Man in power and glory, accompa-
| MED By His saints sZech. XII, xiii; and then
| shah the true feast of tabernacles be kept,
when tie Lord shall be King over al tba