night, while the destroying angel was at work around them; but prior to this the blood of the lamb had been sprinkled on the two side posts, and upper door post of the houses, “and the blood shall be to you for a token. . . .  And when the Lord seeth the blood, He will pass over you;” so that while every other house had its dead, they ate securely under cover of the sprinkled blood.

This festival was instituted on the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, and before the giving of the Law, or the appointment of the priesthood of Aaron and his sons.  As with the patriarchal sacrifices, it was provided by the head of the household.

In allusion to subsequent times, when their children should inquire the meaning of the service, they were to say “It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover” (Exod. xii. 27).

The Passover has a very marked reference to our Lord Jesus Christ.  Shortly before His death He said to His disciples, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer;” and at that supper He said of the bread, which as the master of the feast He broke, “This is My body which is given for you;” and of the cup, “This is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke xxii. 15–20).

4th.  Immediately upon the Paschal feast followed, during the next seven days, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, during which were to be offered, each day—

and one goat daily for a sin-offering (Num. xxviii. 17–25).

5th.  On presenting the sheaf of First-fruits to the Lord, of which it is said “Ye shall neither eat bread nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God” [20] (Lev. xxiii. 14).  On that day was to be offered a male lamb, without blemish, of the first year, for a burnt-offering, with flour, oil, and wine,—“an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour” (Lev. xxiii. 13).

6th.  The Feast of Pentecost (called also feast of weeks, Ex. xxxiv. 22), fifty days later, on presenting to the Lord a new meat-offering from their habitations (Lev. xxiii. 16).  Two wave loaves of fine flour, baken with leaven, “They are the first-fruits unto the Lord” (Lev. xxiii. 17), and the accompanying offerings were—

and one kid for a sin-offering (to make atonement—Num. xxviii. 30), and two lambs for a peace-offering (Lev. xxiii. 19).

7th.  At the Feast of Trumpets, the first of the seventh month—

for a burnt-offering for a sweet savour unto the Lord, and one kid for a sin-offering “to make atonement for you” (Num. xxix. 2–5).

8th.  On the annual Day of Atonement, the tenth of the seventh month: One young bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering for the high priest and his house (Lev. xvi. 6), and two kids of the goats from the congregation for a sin-offering (one for the annual sin-offering, and one for the scape-goat) (Lev. xvi. 5).  Also—

for a burnt-offering (Num. xxix. 8).  And one kid for a sin-offering of atonement (Num. xxix. 11).

This was a day of great solemnity—“It shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls” (Lev. xxiii. 27), &c, “Ye shall do no work; . . . it is a day to make atonement for you before the Lord your God” (Lev. xxiii. 28); and whoever among the congregation did not afflict his soul, or whoever did any work therein, was to be cut off from among his people (Lev. xxiii. 29, 30).  “It shall be . . . a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day at even, from even to even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath” (Lev. xxiii. 32).

The high priest was not to enter within the veil to the inner tabernacle, except on this day, “that he die not,” and then only with the blood of the sin-offerings for himself and the congregation, peculiar to this day.

Before doing so he laid aside his ornamental garments and put on a linen dress (Lev. xvi. 2–4).  He took in his hands a censer of burning coals from the altar of burnt offerings and put on it a handful of incense, that the cloud of the incense might cover the mercy seat, whereon the Lord appeared in the cloud, “that he die not” (Lev. xvi. 12, 13).  He then took the blood of the sin-offerings, both for the priest and people, within the veil, and sprinkled it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward, and before the mercy seat seven times (Lev. xvi. 15, 16), to make an atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins (Lev. xvi. 16).

This is the only sacrifice described in the Law, which corresponds with the words in Hebrews xiii. 11:—“The bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary for sin, are burned without the camp.”

No other blood was annually brought into the sanctuary (or inner temple) by the high priest on behalf of the people, and sprinkled on and before the mercy seat; and the flesh of these, as well as of some other offerings, was burned without the camp.

The service of this day required that in addition to a bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, to make atonement for himself and his house (Lev. xvi. 3–6), the high priest should take of the congregation of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin-offering (Lev. xvi. 5); he was to present the two kids at the door of the tabernacle (ver. 7), and “cast lots,” one for the Lord and one “for the scape-goat” (vers. 8 and 10).  He killed the former for a sin-offering for the people, and proceeded as already described (p. 23).

In addition to the blood taken within the veil, the high priest was to put some of it upon the horns of the altar, and sprinkle it seven times upon it to hallow it (vers. 18, 19).

Then, as to the other, or scape-goat, Aaron laid both his hands on the head of the live goat and confessed over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins; putting them on the head of the goat, and sent him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and the “goat bore them away to a land not inhabited” (Lev. xvi. 21).

Although