CHAPTER V.

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.

Sulamith was waiting for her husband at the door, surrounded by her friends. As he entered she threw herself at his feet, and implored his forgiveness for the uneasiness which she had caused him. He raised her up, and then throwing himself on his face before her, implored her forgiveness with a look which penetrated her soul. To ask pardon in words was beyond his power. The friends conducted them to the inner court. Sulamith placed herself beside Helon, and endeavoured to tranquillize him, but he sat with eyes fixed upon the ground. He could scarcely even rejoice in the acquittal of his wife, so bitter was the remembrance that it was by him she had been unjustly accused. For the first time in his life he despised himself. It was in vain that Iddo advised him to efface the remembrance of what was past, and enjoy the present good; there was too much of Sadducean levity in this exhortation to pass instantaneously from sorrow to joy, to suit a mind so deeply agitated as Helon’s. Equally unavailing was the advice of Selumiel, to regard it all as the result of inevitable destiny, and to resign himself to it as the will of Jehovah. To reach the sublimity of this Essene philosophy required a more buoyant spirit than his, who was so oppressed by the sense of his own unworthy conduct.

Thus the day passed on. At evening the feast of the commencement of the civil year was announced by the sound of trumpets. It was the new moon of the seventh month, or Tisri, and was called the feast of Trumpets, because from morning to evening trumpets of rams’ horns were blown in the temple, according to the command of Moses.[154] “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets.” Helon resolved to pass this day and the succeeding eight days of penitence, before the great day of Atonement, which fell on the tenth of the month Tisri, with the old man in the temple. While he remained with Sulamith, he was so painfully reminded of the injury which he had done her, that he could have no hope of consolation or tranquillity.

Footnote 154:

Lev. xxiii. 23.

As soon as the gates were opened he went up to the temple, and as he crossed the court of the Gentiles, the old man was coming from his chamber. He went up to him and bade him welcome. “I purpose,” said Helon, “to spend the next ten days in the courts of Jehovah and to present a sin-offering.” “Come then to my chamber,” said the old man, “and remain there.” He returned thither, and Helon followed him. “Elisama,” said Helon, “is dead at Ramoth Gilead, whither he had fled from the avenger of blood.”

“I know it,” replied the old man.

“I have accused my wife unjustly, and made her unhappy.” “I was present yesterday, and saw how nobly she vindicated her innocence by the water of jealousy,” the old man replied.

“Alas, I am no Chasidean,” said Helon mournfully, “and never shall be one!” “It is true,” said the old man; “but you should be more than a Chasidean.”

“All on earth is vanity and deception—happiness, hope, and love—all is deception,” exclaimed the youth. “And the greatest deception of all is that which as yet thou dost not suspect,” rejoined the old man. “Remain here till thou art purified. I go to the sacrifice, for this day shall no work be done, but offerings be offered to the Lord.”[155]

Footnote 155:

Lev. xxiii. 25.

Helon remained in the old man’s chamber. As every festival was first consecrated generally by the customary sacrifice, afterwards specially by its own, the morning-sacrifice was first presented. Next came the sacrifice of the new moon, two young bullocks, a ram, seven lambs of the first year as a burnt-offering, with their appropriate meat and drink offering, and a young goat as a sin-offering. Last of all the special offering of the seventh new moon was sacrificed, a young bullock, a ram, and seven lambs of the first year, with meal and wine, and a goat as a sin-offering.[156] The law was afterwards read and explained in the synagogue.

Footnote 156:

Numb. xxix. 1-3.

Helon heard in his cell the blowing of the trumpets and the song of the people; and in his solitude repeated after them the eighty-first psalm which they were singing:

Sing aloud unto God, our strength, Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob! Take psalms, strike the timbrel, The pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow the trumpet in the new moon, On the solemn day of our feast: For this is a custom in Israel, A law of the God of Jacob, Which he ordained for a testimony in Joseph When he came out of the land of Egypt, Where I heard the voice of the unknown: I took the burden from his shoulder, His hands were delivered from the basket. Thou calledst in trouble and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the thunder cloud, I proved thee at the water of Meribah. Hear, O my people, I testify unto thee, O Israel, would that thou listenedst to me! Be there no strange god among thee, Worship not any strange god! I, Jehovah, am thy God, Who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: Open thy mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice, Israel would not follow me. So I gave them up to their own desire And they walked according to their own counsels. O that my people would hear me And Israel walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies And turn my hand against their oppressors. They that hate Jehovah should have submitted themselves to him, And their prosperity should have endured for ever; I would have fed them with the finest of the wheat, I would have satisfied them with honey from the rock.

After the evening-sacrifice the old man questioned him respecting the state of his mind. Helon laid open his whole heart to him with filial simplicity and unreservedness, and as he spoke he could have fancied that Elisama, returned to life, was sitting before him. “Once only in my life,” said he, “have I been happy, when I quitted Egypt and entered the promised land, and kept the Passover in the temple of Jehovah. I was then happy in sanguine anticipation. But I soon discovered imperfections where I had thought every thing faultless; I found the truth, the melancholy truth of the account which thou hadst given me of the priests. I thought to find a sanctuary of pure happiness and virtue in my own house. Jehovah bestowed on me a virtuous wife, but I proved myself unworthy of her. Elisama died under the imputation of homicide, and we all were guilty of injustice towards the excellent Sulamith. Thou art right; Israel is a disobedient, sinful people. I condemn others freely, because I include myself in the same condemnation. Jehovah has given us his law, and the only fruit of it is that we are more criminal than the heathen who live without a law. O that I had lived in Solomon’s or David’s days! In our present condition it cannot be fulfilled. What God has enabled thee to do is a miracle, as all the people regard it.”

The old man heard him calmly as he uttered all this and much more, and then in a grave and serious tone began. “Thou talkest like a young man, hastily and ignorantly, and in all that thou hast said scarcely any thing is true, except the sinfulness of Israel. We are disobedient, as thou hast described us, thou and I, and the whole people; in the days of Solomon and David it was no better; and hadst thou lived in those times thou wouldst have been as far as thou art now from the fulfilment of the law. The law was given us to convince us of our sins, not to serve as the basis on which our pride might build its towering edifice. When it has convinced us of our sin, it awakens also our longing for help and consolation. It is the lot, or rather the privilege, of Israel, that it alone has the consciousness of sins, and the hope of a certain atonement for them. If both are united in thee, if thou mournest truly for thy sins, and truly desirest reconciliation, do what thou hast purposed and offer thy sin-offering: afterwards we will discourse further.”

Helon purchased a goat for a sin-offering; this was the victim which a ruler and a priest was to present; the high-priest, on the other hand, a bullock; and a common Israelite, a sheep.[157] He carried it through the gate on the northern side of the altar of burnt-offering; standing behind it he laid his hands on the head of the animal between the horns, and said, confessing his sins, “O Jehovah, I have transgressed against thee! forgive my transgression and my sin which I have committed.” Then he slew the goat: a priest received the blood in a basin and carried it to the altar of burnt-offering, dipped his finger in it, and touched the four horns of the altar, letting a few drops trickle down each of them. He then ascended it, and poured the remainder of the blood down the pipe. Helon took off the skin of the victim and taking the internal fat gave it to the priest, who waved it with the liver and the kidnies between the altar and the temple, salted it, and burnt it on the altar. The rest of the flesh belonged to the officiating priest. Helon had offered this sacrifice, in expectation that his conscience would be tranquillized by it; but he did not experience the result which he had promised himself. He found himself as full of sorrow and fear after the offering as before. He complained to the old man, that he had desired to walk in the way of the Lord, and had offered a sacrifice in pursuance of it, but found no blessing follow it.

Footnote 157:

Lev. iv.

“Has not David said,” replied the old man, “even he who so delighted in the service of the sanctuary,”

Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it, Thou delightest not in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.—Ps. li. 16.

“I would,” said Helon, “that my whole heart belonged to Jehovah, then should I have peace and joy. But how may I attain this state?”

“Tell me,” said the old man, “when, as priest, would you declare the leper cleansed from his leprosy?”

“When no spot of leprosy remains in him from head to foot,” said Helon, “but all is sound, as far as the priest can see.” “So judge then of the sinfulness of your whole state, from a single sin. Read the penitential psalms, and tell me what you find in them most applicable to your own condition.” Helon obeyed his injunctions, but for several days the old man came and went without noticing him. One evening, however, when he returned from the sacrifice, and was about to withdraw again, Helon earnestly entreated him to stay. “I have found,” said he, “the words which too truly describe my own condition,

There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, Nor any health in my bones because of my sins; For mine iniquities rise above my head; They weigh me down as a heavy burden.—Ps. xxxviii. 3, 4.

“What a new light has opened upon me from these words! in what a condition do I now appear to myself! How did I deceive myself when I supposed that, a learner as I was, I had already attained the rank of a Chasidean! What miserable self-deception was I practising, when I professed to renounce those things to which my heart so strongly clung! What contemptible pride, to imagine that I could reach the summit of perfection by ascending, step by step, from the fulfilment of one commandment to that of another! And when one frail support of my self-conceit gave way, how eagerly did I catch at another, to prop myself up. I must confess with Cain ‘My sin is too great to be forgiven,’ and I tremble at the words of the children of Korah, ‘No man can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him.’[158] I am under the curse pronounced from Sinai, 'Cursed be he that fulfils not all the words of this law to do them.'” “Praised be Jehovah,” said the old man, “that thou hast at length discerned one part of the eternal truth; the other will not be withheld from thee in due season. Israel is a people mourning for sin, but also hoping for forgiveness. If our sins separate between God and us, we have the more need of a mediator. The Messiah comes who shall also remove our sins.[159] Say not therefore ‘My sins are too great to be forgiven.’ Thou knowest that the mercy of Jehovah is like his nature, infinite. Pray then for faith, and even now thy offering on his altar shall reconcile thee, by virtue of the future sacrifice of the Messiah. Thou hast partaken of the sin of thy people, partake also with them in the atonement which is to be made on the morrow.”

Footnote 158:

Ps. xlix. 7.

Footnote 159:

Dan. ix. 24.

On the following day Helon was early in the temple. The high-priest had been already seven days there, preparing himself for the great solemnity of atonement on the tenth day of Tisri, and along with him his substitute, who was to fill his place, if any accidental impurity should disqualify the high-priest. The solemnity began in the evening. It was the greatest fast in the year, lasting twenty-four hours, from evening to evening. The people assembled in the temple as soon as it was light. The high-priest had watched all night and had bathed himself in the morning. He was on this occasion the representative of the whole people before Jehovah, and performed those services at the altar which were usually the office of the priests. He offered the morning-sacrifice and the meat-offering for himself as high-priest. Having again bathed himself, he put on his under robe of byssus, his drawers, his upper garments, and his girdle and turban. Once more he washed his hands and feet, and then offered a bullock for a sin-offering for himself and his house, and a goat for the sins of the people, at the door of the sanctuary.

He laid his hand behind on the head of the bullock, and said, “O Jehovah, I have sinned against thee, both I and my house! Forgive my sins wherewith I have sinned against thee, I and my house, as it is written, 'On this day is your atonement made, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before Jehovah.'”[160] Thrice he uttered the name of Jehovah in this confession, and thrice all the priests, the Levites, and the whole people, fell on their faces and said, “Praised be the holy name of his kingdom for ever and ever!”

Footnote 160:

Lev. xvi. 30.

From the bullock he went to the two goats on the north side of the altar, and placing himself between them, shook a box in which were two small tablets, one inscribed “For Jehovah,” the other “For Azazel.” He drew a lot for each, and placed it on the head of the goat for which he had drawn. When he drew that which was for Jehovah, he said aloud “For Jehovah;” and all the priests, the Levites, and the people, fell upon their faces to the earth. The goat Azazel was then taken to the gate of Nicanor. The high-priest returned to the bullock, made a new confession over it for the sins of himself and his house, and the sons of Aaron, then slew it, and another priest received the blood in a basin. The high-priest took coals from the altar of burnt-offering, and laying incense upon it, went through the holy into the most holy place, to burn incense before Jehovah. He returned into the court, keeping his face towards the holy of holies, and then taking the blood, carried it as he had done the incense, and dipping his finger in it, sprinkled it once in the air, and seven times on the ground towards the place where in the former temple the ark of the covenant had stood.

When he returned into the court the goat for Jehovah was brought to him. He slew it, carried the blood into the holy of holies for the sins of himself, his house, and the sons of Aaron, as well as of the whole people, and sprinkled it as before. Retiring from the most holy into the holy place, he sprinkled the veil which was between them seven times; first with the blood of the bullock, and then with that of the goat. Then mingling their blood, he dipped his finger in it and let a few drops trickle down the horns of the altar of incense. He cleared the altar from ashes, and sprinkled the place seven times with blood. The remainder of the blood he poured out at the bottom of the altar of burnt-offering. The high-priest went next to the goat Azazel, laid his hands upon his head, and confessed over him the sins of the people, as he had before confessed those of himself and his house. As often as the name of Jehovah recurred, the people fell on their faces and said, “Praised be the holy name of his kingdom for ever and ever!” The goat was then carried by an Israelite into the wilderness of Zuk, twelve thousand paces from Jerusalem, and full of rocks: from the summit of one of these he hurled the goat down that he might bear the sins of the people into the desert.

The high-priest then took the skin and inward parts of the goat which was for Jehovah, with the rest of the body, and sent it to be burnt outside the city. The men who performed this office, as well as he who carried the scape-goat to the wilderness, were unclean the rest of the day.

These ceremonies made a deep impression upon Helon. He followed the high-priest into the court of the Women, where he read the following portion of the law. “And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, On the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation unto you and ye shall afflict yourselves and offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah. And ye shall do no work on that day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before Jehovah your God. For whosoever shall not afflict himself on that day shall be cut off from among his people; and whosoever doeth any work on that day him will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be unto you a statute for ever, in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month, from even unto even shall ye celebrate your sabbath.”[161] The high-priest bathed himself, laid aside his garments of byssus, and put on his pontifical array, his meil, his ephod, his breastplate, and his turban with the name of Jehovah. In these garments he approached the altar and offered a ram as a burnt-offering for himself, and another for the people; with seven lambs of the first year, and the fat of the sin-offering for himself and the people. The people remained fasting in the temple; the hearing the law was the principal occupation between the sacrifices. The fast continued from evening to evening.

Footnote 161:

Lev. xxiii. 26.

When evening came the high-priest offered, before the usual sacrifice, a bullock for a burnt-offering and a goat for a sin-offering. After the evening-sacrifice he bathed himself, washed his hands and feet, changed his pontifical robes for his garments of byssus, went again into the holy of holies and brought out the censer. This was the fourth time that he entered it on this day, the only day in the year when he appeared before the ark of the covenant. Having bathed again and put on his pontifical array, he burnt incense in the holy place and lighted the lamps, concluding by giving his benediction to the people, who prostrated themselves while they received it. Helon had felt during the solemnities of this day the weight removed from his mind which had so long pressed upon it. He prayed in the words of the Psalmist:

Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man unto whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence my bones waxed old Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; My moisture was turned into the drought of summer, Yet I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and my iniquity I did not conceal. I said, I confess my transgressions unto Jehovah; Thou forgavest the burthen of my sin. For this let every one that is godly pray unto thee While mercy may yet be found; The floods of mighty waters shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding-place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: But he that trusteth in Jehovah shall be surrounded with mercy. Be glad in Jehovah, and rejoice, ye righteous; And shout for joy, all ye upright in heart.—Ps. xxxii.

His peace and joy increasing, as he poured out his soul in prayer before the Lord, he continued;

Bless Jehovah, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless Jehovah, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits; Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, Who healeth all thy diseases,

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercy, Who satisfieth thy desire with good things, So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Jehovah executeth righteousness And judgment for those that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. Jehovah is merciful and gracious, Long suffering and plenteous in mercy. He will not always call to judgment, Nor keep his anger for ever. He dealeth not with us according to our sins, Nor rewardeth us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is his mercy towards them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pitieth his children, So Jehovah pitieth those that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; And the place thereof knoweth it no more. The mercy of Jehovah is from everlasting to everlasting upon those that fear him, And his righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep his covenant, To those who remember his commandments to do them. Jehovah hath established his throne in the heavens; And his kingdom ruleth over all.

Praise Jehovah, ye his angels, Mighty ones, that do his commands, Hearkening to the voice of his word! Praise Jehovah, all his hosts, Ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure! Praise Jehovah, all his works, In all places of his dominion! Praise Jehovah, O my soul!—Ps. ciii.

At evening he returned to the cell of the old man. A calm peace had overspread his mind, to which he had long been a stranger. He no longer prided himself in his imaginary self-righteousness, but he felt the satisfactory assurance that his “transgression was forgiven, that his iniquity was pardoned;” and in the midst of his gratitude to Jehovah, he did not forget the filial effusion of thankfulness towards the venerable man, whose counsels had taught him how to seek rest to his soul.