THE MOSAIC CALENDAR." 



143 



of tlie word, a circumstance which influences importantly the 

 rules for the drawing up of the Jewish Calendar to-day. 



It should be noted that it was necessary that the people should 

 know some days before these " holy convocations " exactly 

 when they were going to take place, in order that due prepara- 

 tion should be made, and this rule must have applied to the Feast 

 of Trumpets as well as to the other six. 



Lastly it was ordained : — 



" Thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years imto thee, 

 seven times seven years : and the space of the seven sabbaths 

 of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then 

 shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to soimd on the 

 tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement 

 shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 

 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim hberty 

 throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof : 

 it shall be a jubile unto you and ye shall return every 

 man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto 

 his family." (Leviticus xxv, 8-10.) 



This is the complete Mosaic Calendar, the full circle of reHgious 

 observances commanded to Israel, as laid down in the five books 

 of Moses. The continual burnt offering, day by day, in the 

 morning and at even ; the great annual festivals in spring and in 

 autumn ; the monthly blowing of trumpets at every new moon ; 

 the special hallowing of every seventh day and of every seventh 

 year, and of the seventh month of every year ; the completion 

 of the Feast of Unleavened Bread after seven weeks by the 

 Feast of Pentecost; and the completion of the seven weeks 

 of years in the year of Jubilee. The circle was thus complete, 

 and thenceforth a new circle began. 



Calendars. 



Whatever calendar men use, or whatever their state of civiliza- 

 tion, they count by Days, for the Day gives us our most definite 

 measure of time. If we wish for a larger unit, we have the choice 

 of two — the Month and the Year. Nomadic nations have a 

 natural tendency to reckon by months ; agricultural and settled 

 nations must count by years. But a difficulty is experienced 

 when the attempt is made to reckon both by months and by years, 



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