Close by the gate, some one from behind laid hold of Elisama; "Art thou Elisama of Alexandria ?" Elisama turned round and recognised Iddo, an old and faithful friend of his family. The old men met with inexpressible delight, and Elisama presented Helon to Iddo. The pilgrims had now reached the city, and were dispersing in different directions to their respective quarters. Iddo conducted the strangers through the Water-gate to his house on the open place.

THE DAY OF

CHAPTER X.

PREPARATION

FOR THE

PASSOVER.

THEIR reception in the house of Iddo surpassed all Helon's expectations. At the seasons of the festivals, no inhabitant of Jerusalem considered his house as his own. Their city was the city of the whole people, not of the inhabitants alone; and when Israel came up to appear before Jehovah, every citizen regarded his dwelling as belonging to his brethren as much as to himself. Jerusalem lies on the confines of Judah and Benjamin. Its names, the Holy City, the City of the Congregation of Israel, the Gate of the People, point out its destination. No other city was ever in the same sense the capital and centre of a country.

"You are at home," said their host, as he led them into his house; "and at this time, I am not more so than you. The citizen of Jerusalem considers himself equally with his brethren, as a pilgrim at the festival."

In fact the whole house was filled with strangers. Elisama found among them many old acquaintances — but great was his joy when he discovered, in the number, Selumiel of Jeri

cho, the brother of Iddo. His emotion overpowered his utterance, and he could only press him silently, and with tears in his eyes, to his breast. Selumiel had been the dearest friend of his youth; he had lived long in Alexandria, and they had spent the earliest days of manhood there together; they had imparted each to the other all their youthful plans. At a later period they had been separated, and had not met for more than thirty years; but their hearts had remained united, and their joy at meeting was mutual. Elisama seemed to be changed by the sight of him, as if youth itself had returned with the friend of his youth.

While the feet of the guests were washing, which is the first duty of hospitality in the East, and indeed properly their welcome, Elisama and Selumiel were engaged in uninterrupted discourse, as if they had been sitting alone in the court, and rapidly ran over earlier and later times, Alexandria and Jericho. In the mean time Iddo and some of the guests had joined Helon, and were congratulating him upon his first pilgrimage. Selumiel and Iddo had in common a hearty and straight forward character, by which they might have been known as brothers. But, besides that they were attached to different parties in religion, Iddo had more liveliness and cheerfulness. "My son out of Egypt," he addressed Helon, "tomorrow at this time, when the Passover begins, thou wilt see what thou hast never seen before. Already, on the tenth of the month, I chose a lamb without blemish for the occasion. Before sunset this evening, I fetched the water into the house, with which the unleavened bread is to be made. If you please you shall go with me after supper and seek the leaven in the house. A young Israelite, who has come for the first time to the Passover, should leave nothing unseen, but learn all the practices of Israel in the most complete manner possible. But I forgot, you are come from Hebron today, and must be weary."

Helon seemed almost offended to be suspected of weariness, after a march made under such circumstances. With

glowing cheeks he repelled the imputation, and begged that Iddo would not spare him.

"Just like his father," exclaimed his host, "jealous of nothing so much as of being thought a genuine Aramæan Jew. Tomorrow, I will conduct thee to his grave in the valley of Jehoshaphat. In truth he was a noble-minded man, an Israelite without guile. He died in this house, and it was of thee, Helon, that he spoke to me in his last moments." He then related the circumstances of his death, and many anecdotes of his intercourse with him. Their connexion had been much the same as that of Selumiel with Elisama. Helon listened to him, as if his father's spirit spoke from his lips, so intimate had been their friendship, so similar their characters.

In such discourse the time passed rapidly, and a servant came to call the guests from the cooling fountain of the inner court to the roof, where they were to sup. Here Iddo was accustomed to entertain his guests at the festival, when there was any one among them, on whom the spectacle, beheld for the first time, was likely to make an indelible impression. It was a fine, clear, cloudless night. The moon shone sweetly upon Jerusalem and changed the night to a softer and cooler day than that which had been twelve hours before. A breeze from the Mount of Olives cooled the heated air. bors had in like manner brought their guests to roofs of their houses, and as far as the eye could reach on every side, feasting and illumination were seen. A busy hum ascended from the streets beneath, and the white tents glistened in the valley of Kedron.

The neighsup on the

What a scene! The whole environs of Jerusalem were turned into an encampment; all the hills and valleys, all the streets and open places were covered with tents. It was impossible that the houses should contain all the strangers, notwithstanding the unbounded hospitality which was practised on these occasions, and hence it was necessary that a large proportion of them should remain in tents during the festival. In the pleasant season of the year, at which the Passover was held, this had nothing inconvenient or disagreeable in it; it

was the universal custom at the feast of tabernacles, and it reminded them of the patriarchal life, and the wandering in the desert. This gave to Jerusalem a singular but very interesting appearance. All was motion, life and animation, and the thought of the purpose for which these myriads of men had come up from near or distant regions, filled the mind with solemn and elevated feeling. A million of human beings have frequently been assembled here on such an occasion, all for the purpose of appearing with prayer and praise before Jehovah.

Carried away by the sight, Helon involuntarily exclaimed,

Behold how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious ointment upon the head of Aaron,
That ran down upon his beard,

That went down to the skirts of his garments.

So the dew of Hermon descends

Upon the hills of Zion:

For there hath Jehovah commanded his blessing,
Prosperity for ever more! - Ps. cxxxiii.

66

The guests gazed on him with surprise. Why," continued Helon, "do you not see before your eyes the application of the psalm? On such an evening as this, or at least in the view of such a spectacle as this, must it have been composed. Is it not the dew of Hermon, are not these the sons of Israel from the Tyrian Climax and the plain of Jesreel, which fall here on the hills of Zion ?"

"Listen!" said Iddo. Through the uproar of the streets they could discern a distant sound of cymbals, trumpets, and song, which came in the direction of the New City. "The Galileans are entering by the gate of Ephraim; they are late; and yet they cannot this time have been obstructed by the Samaritans; Hyrcanus has removed that obstacle from their way." The distant sound of music and song, heard in this calm, soft night, seemed to Helon even more beautiful than the jubilation with which the march from Bethlehem had been attended. Penetrating through all the tumult of the

city, which he heard not as he drank them in, the spiritual and ethereal tones seemed to him almost like the music of the heavenly host, when they ascend from earth, to keep an eternal festival before the presence of Jehovah. On such an evening, what flight of imagination could be too bold for a youth of such enthusiastic temperament?

The guests had laid themselves down upon the carpets, when Iddo took Helon by the arm. Elisama had been compelled to occupy the place of honor, and Selumiel and he were inseparable. "You will stay by me," said his host to Helon, "and we will occupy as is becoming, the lowest place. Look down below on the square; there it was that Ezra once stood, when the people returned from the captivity, and read the law to them."

"I remember it," said Helon; "it is written, Ezra read upon the open place before the Water-gate, from the morning until mid-day, and praised the Lord the great God; and the people answered Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands, and bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground."*

"Often have I stood here," said Iddo, "contemplating that spot, with its history in my mind, and have thought, with gratitude to Jehovah who has delivered his people, on that AMEN, sent up by the assembled multitude, lifting their hands to heaven. But let us eat and be merry."

Their mirth was such as suited the age and the piety of the company, and their enjoyment was heightened by the expressions of joy which they heard all around them. The old men discoursed of the felicity of the times, and the glorious reign of Hyrcanus; above all, of the victory which his sons had obtained over the Samaritans, and the destruction of the abomination of Gerizim.

In the mean time the master of the house called upon his younger guests to assist in purifying his house from the leaven. This was the evening of the fourteenth day of the month

*Neh. viii. 3.