The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
This may be regarded as the opening festival of the year, and the closing one was the Feast of Tabernacles; typically representing the life of God's people passing from redemption to restitution. The Jewish sacred year may be taken to represent the progress of Divine grace. The foundation of all is the Passover—redemption, the death of Christ the Paschal Lamb. The main ideas are—
I. All true life resting on the true beginning of peace and rest in the offering up of the Lamb of God for the sins of the world.
II. All true holiness, bread without leaven, pure fruits of man's labour, offered to God, springs out of faith. Morality is an outcome of religion. Reconciliation with God is the beginning of the consecrated life.
III. The Passover, a national celebration, set forth the true strength of the national life, as the life of God in the nation. The world can be renovated only as it is regarded as a world redeemed. Christianity is the only religion adapted to be a universal message to mankind. Hence its catholicity.—R.