ALLUSIONS IN SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST. 



225 



Such a "commandment " could never have passed current in 

 Palestine and while the Temple was still standing. It could 

 never have been written or accepted by a Pharisee ; it must have 

 been written by a Jew out of all sympathy with the faithful 

 remnant ; a Jew gone mad on the mystic sacredness of the 

 number 7. 



Will you, for a moment, place yourselves in mind and thought 

 in the position of a Jew, faithful or unfaithful, but learned in 

 the history of his people, in the first two centuries of our 

 era ? Since the days of Malachi, that had fallen which was 

 spoken in the LXXIVth Psalm : — 



" We see not our signs : 

 There is no more any prophet, 



Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long." (v. 9.) 



Neither in Temple nor Synagogue, in King's Chapel or King's 

 Court, was there any more the word of Prophecy. If the High 

 Priest so spoke, it was not recognized.* 



When Mary and Elizabeth, Zachariah and Simeon prophesied, 

 it was, as it were, privately, and the fact could only be known 

 by a very few. 



Then in a certain year,f on the great Day of Pentecost, when 

 not only the Jews of Palestine, but also those of the Dispersion, 

 " out of every nation under heaven," were gathered in the 

 Temple at the Feast, the Apostles were " all filled with the 

 Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues ; as the 

 Spirit gave them utterance." 



join in its condemnation of the month as determined from observation, 

 may be inferred from the beautiful passage in the Wisdom of the Son of 

 Sirach : — 



The moon is also in all things for her season, 



For a declaration of times, and a sign of the world 



From the moon is the sign of the feast day ; 



A light that waneth when she is come to the full. 



The month is called after her name, 



Increasing wonderfully in her changing ; 



An instrument of the hosts on high, 



Shining forth in the firmament of heaven ; 



The beauty of heaven, the glory of the stars, 



An ornament giving light in the highest places of the Lord. 



At the word of the Holy One they will stand in due order, 



And they will not faint in their watches. 



(Ecclus. xliii, 6-10.) 

 * " This spake he not of himself : but being High Priest that year, he 

 prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation." — (John xii, 51.) 

 t Whether this year was a.d. 29, 30 or 33 we do not know certainly. 



Q 



