until after morning prayers, the third hour being equivalent to 9 a.m. with us. Commenting on this charge against

the apostles, Severian says, `Behold their folly, convicted by the season itself! How could there be new wine at

Pentecost? But calumny is blind'. Pentecost was a season of rejoicing:

`Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to

put the sickle to the corn. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a

freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God

hath blessed thee: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy

manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and

the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place His name there'

(Deut. 16:9-11).

The reader may remember that the first epistle to the Corinthians keeps count of several of Israel's feasts:

PASSOVER.-

`For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us' (1 Cor. 5:7)

`The cup of blessing' (1 Cor. 10:16).

UNLEAVENED BREAD.-

`Therefore let us keep holyday, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and

wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth' (1 Cor. 5:8).

FIRST FRUITS.-

`Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept' (1 Cor.

PENTECOST.-

`I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost' (1 Cor. 16:8).

But there is one more reference to the feasts of Israel that is not so obvious. In 1 Corinthians 16:2 we read:

`Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be

no gatherings when I come'.

It will be observed that there is no word for `day' in the original, although it may be implied by the feminine

mia (one). Literally the passage reads, `On the first of Sabbaths', as in John 20:1, with the difference that the latter

passage has `the Sabbaths', and refers to the first day of the feast of weeks. Reference to Leviticus 23:15-17 shows

that this first day is the day from which the seven weeks leading to Pentecost was reckoned, the day of the firstfruits

and of the Lord's resurrection. On this day - not on every Sunday - the Corinthians were enjoined to lay by `as God

hath prospered', just as Israel were told to do - `according as the LORD Thy God hath blessed thee'.

The passage in the Law that best sets out the feasts of the Lord and the place of Pentecost is Leviticus 23. The

passage is too long for quotation here, but the following outline will help to keep the whole festal year before the

reader. While the length of Israel's year was the same as our own, there are only seven months noted in the calendar

of their feasts. These feasts are prophetic, and set forth in type and shadow the whole course of Israel's history from

the day that they became a nation (Exod. 12:2) until the great future day of ingathering at the time of the end. The

fact that the Lord has used seven months only in which to show this typical unfolding is but further evidence that the

number seven is intimately associated with the purpose of the ages. The fact that creation occupied six days,

followed by a Sabbath of rest, indicates that at the very beginning, God had this `rest' in view (Heb. 4:9).

To save space we will, without comment or detail, briefly indicate this close association of seven with Israel's

typical history:

Seven DAYS.- `The seventh day is a Sabbath of rest' (Lev. 23:3).

Seven WEEKS.- `Seven Sabbaths shall be complete' (Lev. 23:15).

Seven MONTHS.- `In the seventh month' (Lev. 23:24).

Seven YEARS.- `The seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest'

(Lev. 25:4).

Seven times seven YEARS.- `It shall be a Jubilee unto you'

(Lev. 25:8-13).