THANKSGIVING DAY. 
395 
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, 
Avho, 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 Avere, besides the weekly Sabbaths 
and other lesser festivals, three great feasts of chief importance, 
the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of 'I'abernacles. At each 
return of these, every male among the TAvelve Tribes aa^s com- 
manded to go up to Jerusalem, and there to Avorship Jehovah. 
The women were allowed to accompany them, and Avere often in 
the habit of going, as we learn from Scripture history ; but the 
joui'ney Avas not obligatory Avith them. It is easy to see the 
many advantages that must have resulted to the different tribes 
from this general intercourse, halloAvcd by duty and religious ser- 
vices as it Avas. The Passover, as Ave all knoAv, commemorated 
the deliverance of the Jews on that fearful night in Egypt, Avhen 
“ there Avas not a house where there Avas not one dead but like 
all the greater points in the JeAvish ritual, it Avas also typical and 
prophetic in character, foreshadowing the salvation of the Christian 
Church by the death of the tnie Paschal Lamb, our Blessed 
Lord, who was sacrificed at that festival some sixteen centuries 
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 Aveeks after the 
Passover ; and from its folloAving on the fiftieth day from that 
feast, it has received the more modern name of Pentecost. To 
the Jews it commemorated the proclamation of the LaAv on Mount 
