7. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

8. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

10. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.

II. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD'S passover.

12. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

13. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

"The sacrifice of an animal was never a mere gift to the deity. It always carried with it a sacred meal. No animal sacrifice was offered except for the purpose

of a meal in which the deity and the
worshippers shared."
Com.

Westminster

Second, The Feast was a Family Gathering, so that only the members of one family, or family circle, should unite, and not an indiscriminate company." Hence if the family was too small for them to eat a whole lamb their neighbor was joined with them.

"The first ordinance of the Jewish religion was a domestic service. Never was a nation truly prosperous or permanently strong which did not cherish the sanctities of home. . . . The clans are knit together into a nation. Accordingly, the feast might not be celebrated by any solitary man. Companionship was vital to it. The very notion of a people is that of 'community' in responsibilities, joys, and labors; and the solemn law, by virtue of which at this same hour one blow will fall upon all Egypt, must now be accepted by Israel. Therefore loneliness at the feast of the Passover is by

the law, as well as in idea, impossible to The thin round cakes of unleavened bread are cooked by any Jew." being dried in the sunshine.

Chadwick.

In the story of Hezekiah's great Passover (2 Chron. 30: 21-26) we are told that the children of Israel kept the feast seven days with great gladness, singing with loud instruments. So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon there was not the like in Jerusalem.

Third, With Cleansing from all Impurity: represented by leaving out all leaven from the Passover bread (vs. 15-17).

"Leaven was a natural symbol of moral corruption, and was excluded from the

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sacrifices as defiling.' 'It was intended to show the Israelites that they were to leave behind them in Egypt all the idolatrous and wicked practices with which they had been implicated, and to begin a new national life as God's people.” - Millington, Signs and Wonders in the Land of Ham.

"Israel Zangwill, in his Children of the Ghetto, tells how the stricter Jews sweep under the beds, and even comb their beards, lest a crumb should lurk somewhere. It was because the leaven stands for sin, and the blood on the door-post stands for salvation.' J. F. Cowan.

Fourth, With Bitter Herbs. Repentance and cleansing from sin are still the condition of entering the kingdom of God; putting away the evil leaven of sin, every wrong motive, every unworthy thought, every sinful deed. We need with every act of consecration to eat the bitter herbs of consciousness

of sin, of sorrow, repentance, or remorse.

Fifth, The Blood of Redemption, vs. 22, 23. Take a bunch of hyssop, a bushy herb, thought by the author of The History of Bible Plants to have been the name of any common article in the form of a brush or broom. On the 14th day, in the evening the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill the paschal lamb, for their feast. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts, and on the upper door post of the houses, or lintel, that part of the door frame which lies across the door posts, overhead.

And none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood. the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. This was really a blood covenant with God and with one another.

"There is a legend that on the night of the Exodus a young Jewish maiden, the first-born of the family, was so troubled on her sick-bed that she could not sleep. " Father,' she said, are you sure the blood is on the door-post?' He replied that he had ordered it done. But she was not satisfied till she was carried out to look for herself; when, lo! the blood was not there. Immediately it was placed there, and she was safe and at rest." Foster's Encyclopedia.

Sixth, - Readiness to Start. The Hebrews were to be all ready to start on their journey at midnight, on the full of the moon. With your loins girded. Each of the directions marks preparations for a journey: the long, flowing robes were girded round the loins; shoes, or sandals, not worn in the house, or at meals, were fastened on the feet; and the traveller's staff was taken in hand; With which the blood was sprin- their kneading troughs being bound up in the clothes upon their shoulders. "These instructions are understood by the Jews to apply only to the first Passover."― Cook.

Hyssopus Officinalis

Hyssop.

Common

kled on the door posts.

Seventh, Eating the Passover. 8. And they shall eat the flesh. (1) Undoubtedly this feast had a physical as well as a religious purpose. "The Israelites were to start in the middle of the night on a long and wearisome journey; and it was important that they should not start fasting." Todd. (2) It was a test of their faith and obedience. (3) It was a symbol of the fact that they must receive and appropriate what God did for their salvation. It was an entering into a solemn covenant with God. (4) The eating together was also a covenant of unity among themselves.

Westerners are but little aware of the sacredness of the covenant in the East

which is symbolized by eating together. "The depth of infamy to which he sank who, having eaten bread or food of any kind with a man, should subsequently injure him, or betray him into the hands of his enemies, it is not easy for us Westerners to fathom. The sacred character of the ancient unwritten law which identifies the interests of those who have partaken together of food, and pledges them to mutual

protection, even fo the cost of life, has never been denied, and its authority is unimpaired.' Wm. Ewing.

II. THE GREAT DELIVERANCE, Ex. 12: 29-36. The Lord smote all the first-born. Either directly, or by angels, or perhaps by some terrible pestilence supernaturally guided against the first-born alone. They were the representatives of all Egypt, the pride and joy of the land, and it had been abundantly proved that nothing less than this stroke would free the Israelites.

30. There was a great cry in Egypt. "The loud, frantic funeral wail characteristic of the nation." Stanley. Not a house where there was not one dead. "Those who have watched the swift march of pestilence through the plains of India, when one night thousands are sometimes carried off by cholera, who have seen individuals drop dead within an hour of the first attack, - will not be disposed to cavil the truth of the Scripture narrative, either in respect of the multitude or the rapidity of the slaughter of a single night."

The awful stroke fell at midnight, and immediately the entire land was filled with bitter anguish and with terror. Pharaoh, whose own boy, the heir to his throne, lay dead, could not wait for morning, but sent in the night, praying the Hebrews to be gone: Get you forth from among my people. Go, serve Jehovah, as ye have said. Take your flocks and be gone. And, poor man, he utters a touching prayer, 'Bless me also.'" Blaikie.

And the Egyptians, the whole population, were urgent upon the people, of Israel, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. They did not conceive of the pestilence confining itself to one in a family; and expected further penalties if they refused to obey. Every one in Egypt was anxious to have the Hebrews get away as soon as possible. Jehovah was too much for them.

"Now it was that the Israelites found the Egyptians so willing to load them with their choicest ornament. No price was too great to purchase exemption from further calamities." Blaikie. This was the fulfilment of the promise in Ex. 11: 2. And as soon as it was light enough the whole host of the Israelites was in motion toward the place of rendezvous, Succoth a tent,' a camping place N.E. of Rameses. They came along various routes, not from Rameses only.

=

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III. THE PERPETUAL MEMORIAL, THE NATIONAL BIRTHDAY, Ex. 12: 26, 27. Celebrated on the 14th of Abib (our Easter season) by the Passover, the feast of which continues seven days. "And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses,

"And the people bowed the head and worshipped."

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The Memorial keeps before the mind the great truths which the event commemorates. The Value of Anniversary Days. Through the constant observance of this ordinance, their literature, their religion, their character as a people, were largely moulded; and, in an age when books were almost unknown, the constant representation of this first great scene in their history served all the purposes which to-day are answered by our children's histories and our public schools.". William M. Taylor,

D.D.

The patriotism of every country is cherished by the celebration of its birthdays or its great eras of development, as Fourth of July.

Value of Religious Festivals. With the Jews the religious and the national anniversaries were practically the same. With our nations the distinction is often made.

Yet no anniversary of any event really worth while in our nation ought to be celebrated without its religious side as well. On the Fourth of July we should show to God our gratitude for the way in which he has led our fathers and ourselves that we might become and remain a prosperous nation; we should pledge ourselves to God and his service in such a way as to insure the continuance of righteousness in the nation, and its spiritual as well as its material prosperity.

But there are anniversaries which are more closely bound to the religious side of our lives, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, Easter. The fact that all the dates of history, in books, in business, in every letter we write, interwoven with our daily life, are dated from the birth of Christ, is a continual reminder of our Lord's birthday and the blessings he has brought to us.

IV. THE RELATION OF THE PASSOVER TO THE LORD'S SUPPER. Great as was the era of the Exodus to the Jews, and the Memorial Passover, the greatest era in the history of the world was the coming of Jesus the Son of God. The night before he was crucified, at a meeting of his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem, they united in celebrating the Passover which we have just been describing.

Toward the close of the meal Jesus ordained for his disciples the Lord's Supper as a perpetual memorial of his life and death, "Do this in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till he come." I Cor. II: 23–27 (R. V.).

It will help to a wider vision if we connect the Lord's Supper with the Passover. "In the highest act of Christian worship all the main features in the Passover are taken up and receive their full and eternal significance.' - Int. Crit. Com. on Exodus.

To-day one that comes to Jesus as Teacher and Saviour, must put away all that is sinful and unworthy of the Christian. It is his business to be whiter

5. All the bread eaten at the Passover is made without leaven, the natural symbol of moral corruption It was intended to show that the Israelites must leave behind them all the corrupting in- than snow." fluences of the Egypt life.

The Communion is a Feast of Triumph for Ourselves, and for the World a Completed Redemption. It was the sun triumphing over darkness. The Lord's Supper is a prophecy of Christ's second coming, of the perfect triumph of his kingdom; for we are to celebrate it till he comes. It contains a hope and a promise of victory and heaven. Our last view of Christ in the gospels is not of his death, but of an everliving Saviour, who once was dead, but now lives for evermore. It shows that we do not worship a dead Christ, but a living Christ risen, sitting on the right hand of God leading the hosts of Christendom. It is the morning star that heralds the new day. It is a wonderfully blessed experience for us, full of hope, courage, and enthusiasm, for we live in a day when we can see the signs of His coming and His triumph.

"The Holy Supper is kept indeed,

In whatso we share with another's need;
Not what we give but what we share,
For the gift without the giver is bare;

Who gives himself with his alms, feeds three, -
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me."

LESSON IV (17). — January 26.

ISRAEL CROSSING THE RED SEA. - Exodus 14:1-15:21.

PRINT Exodus 14:21-15:2.

GOLDEN TEXT. — Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. Ex. 14:30.

Additional Material for Teachers: Deut. 4: 32-40; Ps. 78 1-14; 106:7-12; Heb. II: 29.

Primary Topic: How GOD SAVED ISRAEL FROM A CRUEL KING.

Junior Topic: GOD DELIVERS ISRAEL.

Memory Verses: Psalm 91: 1, 2.

Intermediate Topic: A PEOPLE SET FREE.

Senior and Adult Topic: THE CHALLENGE Of a Great DELIVERANCE.
Additional Material: Same as for Teachers.