of the redeemed Church in heaven, as described in Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6?

The singing of the 'Hallel' at the Passover dates from very remote antiquity. The Talmud

dwells on its peculiar suitableness for the purpose, since it not only recorded the

goodness of God towards Israel, but especially their deliverance from Egypt, and

therefore appropriately opened (Psa 113) with 'Praise ye Jehovah, ye servants of

Jehovah'--and no longer of Pharaoh. Hence also this 'Hallel' is called the Egyptian, or

'the Common,' to distinguish it from the great 'Hallel,' sung on very rare occasions, which

comprised Psalms 120 to 136. According to the Talmud, the 'Hallel' recorded five things:

'The coming out of Egypt, the dividing of the sea, the giving of the law, the resurrection

of the dead, and the lot of the Messiah.' The Egyptian 'Hallel,' it may here be added, was

altogether sung on eighteen days and on one night in the year. These eighteen days

were, that of the Passover sacrifice, the Feast of Pentecost, and each of the eight days

of the Feasts of Tabernacles and of the Dedication of the Temple. The only night in

which it was recited was that of the Paschal Supper, when it was sung by every Paschal

company in their houses, in a manner which will hereafter be explained.

If the 'Hallel' had been finished before the service of one division was completed, it was

repeated a second and, if needful, even a third time. The Mishnah remarks, that as the

Great Court was crowded by the first two divisions, it rarely happened that they got

further than Psalm 116 before the services of the third division were completed. Next, the

sacrifices were hung up on hooks along the Court, or laid on staves which rested on the

shoulders of two men (on Sabbaths they were not laid on staves), then flayed, the

entrails taken out and cleansed, and the inside fat separated, put in a dish, salted, and

placed on the fire of the altar of burnt-offering. This completed the sacrifice. The first

division of offerers being dismissed, the second entered, and finally the third, the

service being in each case conducted in precisely the same manner. Then the whole

service concluded by burning the incense and trimming the lamps for the night.

When all had been finished in the Temple, the priests washed the Great Court, in which

so much sacrificial blood had been shed. But this was not done if the Passover had been

slain on the Sabbath. In that case, also, the three divisions waited--the first in the Court

of the Gentiles, the second on the Chel, and the third in the Great Court --so as not

needlessly to carry their burdens on the Sabbath.

But, as a general rule, the religious services of the Passover, like all positive religious

injunctions, 'made void the Sabbath.' In other respects the Passover, or rather the 15th

of Nisan, was to be observed like a Sabbath, no manner of work being allowed. There

was, however, one most important exception to this rule. It was permitted to prepare the

necessary articles of food on the 15th of Nisan. This explains how the words of Jesus to

Judas during the Paschal (not the Lord's) Supper could be misunderstood by the

disciples as implying that Judas, 'who had the bag,' was to 'buy those things' that they

had 'need of against the feast' (John 13:29).

It was probably as the sun was beginning to decline in the horizon that Jesus and the

other ten disciples descended once more over the Mount of Olives into the Holy City.

Before them lay Jerusalem in her festive attire. All around pilgrims were hastening