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



Furtlier in the tenth chapter and tenth verse of the same book, 

 it is added : — 



" In the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the 

 trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices 

 of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a 

 memorial before your God : I am the Lord your God." 



That these five " seasons " should be " appointed " as times 

 for rehgious observance, was simple and natural. The beginning 

 and ending of each day, the beginning of each month, the 

 beginning and ending of the summer half of each year (that is 

 to say, the two equinoxes of spring and autumn) are impor- 

 tant notes of time, indicated by the heavenly bodies, and 

 appropriate as seasons for pubhc worship. 



The Seventh. 



But the Mosaic Law laid emphasis on another principle not 

 thus directly dependent on the relations of the heavenly bodies. 

 This is the principle of the special sacredness of the seventh : 

 every seventh day and every seventh year were held specially 

 sacred, and were kept for rest. And the seventh month in every 

 year was pecuharly the month set apart for sacred services ; 

 in particular for the most solemn service of the whole Mosaic 

 ritual, that of the great Day of Atonement. 



Let it be noted that there is nothing in the natural character 

 of the seventh day to distinguish it from any of the other six. 

 That which marks it, if we accept Genesis ii, 2-3, and Exodus 

 XX, 8-11, as historical, is the Word of God Himself ; it is an act 

 of choice on His part, and if the seventh day is observed by men, 

 it is observed by men who do so in the exercise of their own power 

 of choice, which they desire to bring into accord with what they 

 have accepted as being the Divine choice. The day is sacred, 

 not as being different in itself from other days, but as being 

 chosen for special observance by God and by man. 



Equally so was it with the seventh year. This was a sabbath 

 of rest, just as the seventh day was. Indeed, in Exodus xxiii, 

 the yearly sabbath is put before the weekly sabbath, as if the 

 latter were derived from the former : — 



" Thou shalt not oppress a stranger : for ye know the heart 

 of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 

 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in 



