A DAY IN JERUSALEM.
LET us imagine ourselves in the streets of Jerusalem something more than two thousand years ago. It is a bright morning about the middle of September; and though it is still very early, the gates are open, and the people are flocking into the city. In this country, where the sun shines so fiercely, it is not a strange thing to see the inhabitants astir at an early hour; but this morning there seems to be something more than usual on foot.
Yet the market-places are not open, and there is a strange stillness in the streets where business is wont to be done. It seems almost like the Sabbath, and yet it is not the seventh day. Let us follow the crowd, and find out, if we can, the object of interest. Ah! They are going toward the temple; and all at once we hear the clear notes of the trumpet sounding out upon the morning air. As we make our way up the steps leading into the court, we see a large company of priests, one hundred and twenty, in number, sounding with their silver trumpets; and gathered about them are the Levites with their instruments of music, and the singers dressed in their white robes. And as we come nearer, we hear the words of their chant, "Praise ye the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel." As we approach the place where the priests, clad in the sacred robes of their office, 'are offering up burnt-offerings, we see by the extensive preparations that it is something besides the usual morning sacrifice which has called the people together.
All at once there is a surging in the crowd of gathered worshipers, and the suppressed murmur,
"The king! The king!" meets our ears. And as King Solomon alights from the chariot, and accompanied by his retinue, makes his way into the temple, still louder than before sound the trumpets, and the singers take up the psalm prepared especially for that occasion: "Sing aloud unto God our strength; make a joyful' noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp, and the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day." Yes; and well may the trumpets sound today; for this is the opening of the Feast of Trumpets, held each year on the first day of the seventh month of the Sacred Year, in accordance with the command of the Lord by Moses: " In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation." Leviticus 23:24.
The festival known as the Feast of Trumpets, coming as it did on a new moon, and on the first day of the month in which the great Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles took place, was an occasion of great interest. It has ever been observed by the Jews as connected with the Day of Atonement, and the ten days between the two were considered days of preparation for that solemn day. The two silver trumpets, made for the purpose of calling the people together (Numbers 10:1-10), and which were finally increased to one hundred and twenty by Solomon, were blown on this day more than at other times, because it marked the beginning of both the new Civil Year and the new month. Instead of the mere blowing of the trumpets of the temple at the time of the offering of the sacrifices, it was "a day of blowing of trumpets."
This day of the Feast of Trumpets was also the time when the Sabbatical year, once in seven years, and the Year of Jubilee, once in fifty years, were announced. The day was kept as a Sabbath, no work being performed. The usual daily morning sacrifice was offered, then the monthly sacrifice of the new moon, and then the sacrifice peculiar to the day, which consisted of a bullock, a ram, and seven lambs for a burnt-offering, and a kid for a sin-offering. Numbers 29:1-6.
Of old, the blowing of trumpets had been the signal for Israel's host on their march through the wilderness, as it afterward summoned them to warfare, and proclaimed days of public rejoicings and feasts, as well as the "beginnings of their months."
The object of it is expressly stated to have been "for a memorial," that they might be remembered before the Lord, it being especially added, "I am the' Lord your God." Numbers 10:9, 10.
It was, so to speak, the host of God assembled, waiting for their leader,—the people of God united to proclaim their King. At the blast of the priests' trumpets, they ranged themselves under his banner and before his throne, thus bringing themselves into a position to "be remembered" before him and to "be saved." And so every season of blowing the trumpets, whether on feast or fast days or in time of war, was an acknowledgment of Jehovah as King.
The old dispensation, with its solemn rites and seasons, its burnt sacrifices and its holy days, has long since passed away; but those things of which its ceremonies were but types and shadows, are as real now as then; and as of old the trumpet's sound gathered the congregation of Israel before the Lord, so once again, and that soon, shall his people be summoned by the sound of a trumpet, and not only the living, but those who sleep,—the dead in Christ. And this innumerable company, having come off conquerors over sin and the grave, shall stand before the great white throne, and with the harps of God in their hands, sing: "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.' Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."
EVA BELL GILES.