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True Education
church, the parents being the instructors in both secular and religious
lines. But three times a year seasons were appointed for social
exchange and worship, first at Shiloh and afterward at Jerusalem.
Only the fathers and sons were required to be present, but none
desired to forgo the opportunities of the feasts, hence, so far as
possible, all the household were in attendance. With them, as sharers
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of their hospitality, were the stranger, the Levite, and the poor.
The journey to Jerusalem, in the simple, patriarchal style, amidst
the beauty of the springtime, the richness of midsummer, or the
ripened glory of autumn, was a delight. With offerings of gratitude
they came, from the elderly with white hair to the little child, to meet
with God in His holy habitation. As they journeyed, the experiences
of the past, the stories that both old and young still love, were
recounted to the Hebrew children. The songs that had cheered Israel
in their wilderness wandering were sung. God’s commandments
were chanted, and, bound up with the blessed influences of nature
and of kindly human association, they were forever fixed in the
memory of many a child and youth.
The ceremonies witnessed at Jerusalem in connection with the
paschal service—the night assembly, the men with their girded loins,
shoes on feet and staff in hand, the hasty meal, the lamb, the unleav-
ened bread and bitter herbs, and in the solemn silence the rehearsal
of the story of the sprinkled blood, the death-dealing angel, and the
grand march from the land of bondage—all were of a nature to stir
the imagination and impress the heart.
The Feast of Tabernacles, or harvest festival, with its offerings
from orchard and field, its week’s encampment in the leafy booths,
its social reunions, the sacred memorial service, and the generous
hospitality to God’s workers, the strangers, and the poor, uplifted
all minds in gratitude to Him who had crowned the year with His
goodness.
By the devout in Israel, fully a month of every year was occupied
in this way. It was a period free from care and labor, and almost
wholly devoted, in the truest sense, to purposes of education.