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.*

* Lev. xxiii. 23.

"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.

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."*

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 pre- · sented. 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

*Lev, xxiii. 25.

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.* The law was afterwards read and explained in the synagogue.

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;

* Numb. xxix. 1-3.

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, re❝ Once turned to life, was sitting before him. only in my life," said he, "have I been happy,