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Jew, obedient to the ritual of his church, would scarcely be guilty 
of the sin of ingratitude ; just as it is difficult that the Christian, 
who, at the present hour, faithfully keeps the higher festivals of 
the Church, should be thankless and forgetful of all the mercies 
of his Almighty Father. 
In the Jewish Church there were, besides the weekly Sabbaths 
and other lesser festivals, three great feasts of chief importance, 
the Passover, Pentecost, and the F east of Tabernacles. At each 
return of these, every male among the Twelve Tribes was com- 
manded to go up to Jerusalem, and there to Avorship Jehovah. 
The women were allowed to accompany them, and were often in 
the habit of going, as we learn from Scripture history ; but the 
journey was not obligatory with them. It is easy to see the 
many advantages that must have resulted to the different tribes 
from this general intercourse, hallowed by duty and religious ser- 
vices as it was. The Passover, as we all know, commemorated 
the deliverance of the Jews on that fearful night in Egypt, when 
" there was not a house where there was not one dead ;" but like 
all the greater points in the Jewish ritual, it was also typical and 
prophetic in character, foreshadowing the salvation of the Christian 
Church by the death of the true Paschal Lamb, our Blessed 
Lord, who was sacrificed at that festival some sixteen centurie^ 
after its institution. For us, therefore, the Passover has become 
Easter. 
The second great festival of the Jews was called by them the 
" Feast of Weeks," because it was kept seven weeks after the 
Passover ; and from its following on the fiftieth day from that 
feast, it has received the more modern name of Pentecost. To 
the Jews it commemorated the proclamation of tlie Lavf on Mount 
