The following day was the preparation for Pentecost, and was passed in bathing, cutting off the hair, and other purifyings. An hour after the evening-sacrifice Helon went up to the temple and knocked at the door of the old man’s cell. “Welcome to Azereth!” he exclaimed, as Helon entered. Azereth, or Day of Assembly was the name given to the day of Pentecost as well as to the seventh of the Passover, and to the eighth of the Feast of Tabernacles. “Will it in truth be Azereth to Hyrcanus and the Pharisees?” said Helon. “Did I not tell thee, young man,” he replied, “that it would be so? Believe me, this scene is only the commencement of long and ruinous dissensions between the council and the prince. God grant that I may not live to see them! But for thee, at least, priest and bridegroom both, it is truly Azereth, and in a different sense from the seventh day of the Passover.” “Give us thy blessing,” said Helon; and as he knelt down the old man stretched out his hands upon his head and blessed him. Helon then asked him to explain the design of the feast which was about to commence. “As,” said he, “when the first barley sheaf was offered, we prayed to Jehovah for his blessing upon the harvest, so now that both the barley and the wheat are gathered in, we thank him that he has given us the early and the later rain, and dew from heaven, and the appointed weeks of harvest. Thus the Pentecost is a harvest feast: but it is also a commemoration of the giving of the law: for it was on this fiftieth day, the sixth after Israel’s arrival in the wilderness of Sinai, and the third after the purification of the people, that Moses led them out of the camp to meet Jehovah, and to receive the law amidst the thundering and lightning, and the sound of the trumpet. But pray to God that he would disclose to thee the sublimer meaning which lies hidden under these more obvious purposes. Bethink thee of that approaching time, when all the gifts of Jehovah shall be poured out upon his kingdom on earth, when all prayers shall be granted, and the law shall be universally known and kept in its purest and most spiritual sense. Let this thought guide thy devotions at the feast. And now, if thou art pure, go to the evening-sacrifice. Hark! the trumpets announce that the Pentecost is about to begin.” Helon departed, was present at the evening-sacrifice, and remained in the temple through the night with all the priests who had assembled at Jerusalem for the festival. On the following day the principal duty fell to the course whose week was just beginning; but there was so much to be done beyond the common offices, that they needed the aid of the others. The dissensions of the Pharisees and Sadducees were more visible than ever, and ceased not even in the temple and on the holy night.