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E. WALTER MAUNDER, ESQ., F.R.A.S., ON 



And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command 

 the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and 

 my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour 

 unto me, shall ye observe to offer "onto me in their apjDointed 

 time of assembly (due season)." 



The Day and the Year. 



Thus each day was marked out and sanctified by an act of 

 worship at its beginning and by another at its close. And the 

 times for these two daily services were indicated by the sun, 

 which by its rising called men to set in order the morning sacrifice, 

 and as it sank to its setting to offer the evening oblation. The 

 sun was for the two " seasons," the two " appointed assemblies," 

 of the " continual burnt offering." 



But the sun was for both " days and years " ; the day being 

 a miniature of the year, and the year a day on a longer, fuller 

 scale. As, therefore, the day is divided into two portions, the 

 light portion which we call " day," and the dark portion which 

 we call " night," so the year is divided into a bright, warm 

 portion, the summer, and a cold, dark portion, the winter. And 

 carrying out the analogy of the two acts of daily worship, the 

 morning and the evening sacrifices, two great religious ordinances 

 were instituted in the year, the one at the beginning of summer, 

 the other as the summer drev/ to its close. And as we use the 

 word " day " sometimes to designate a complete period of twenty- 

 four hours, including the hours of both day and night, and some- 

 times as referring only to the hours of fight, so the word " year," 

 which usually denotes the complete round of the seasons, is 

 employed in connection with these two great annual religious 

 celebrations, as if it were confined to the summer half. One of 

 these, the Passover, with the connected week of unleavened 

 bread, was held in spring time, in the beginning of the year : — 



" And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land 

 of Egypt, saying. This month shall be unto you the beginning 

 of months : it shall be the first month of the year to you." 

 (Exodus xn, 1-2.) 



" These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, 

 which ye shall proclaim in their appointed times (seasons). 

 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's 

 passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month 

 is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord : seven 



