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LEVITICUS. 
 
SABBATH MORIIKG READINGS 
 
 MAR 9 1912 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT- 
 
 v/ 
 EEV. JOnX CUMMIXG, D.D., F.R.S.E., 
 
 BriNISTER OF THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL CUURCU, CROWN COURT, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. 
 
 BOOK OF LEVITICUS, 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. 
 
 CLEVELAND, OHIO : 
 
 JEWETT, PROCTOR AND WORTHINGTON. 
 
 NEW YOUK : SHELDON, L.VMl'OUT AND BLAICEMAN. 
 1855. 
 
CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 ALLEN AND FARNUAM, STEREOTYPERS ANP PRINTERS. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I 
 
 It is difficult to please everybody. It is, in fact, 
 impossible. But it is always a duty to instruct. 
 The former Volumes have met with great accept- 
 ance, although in one or two instances they have 
 been freely canvassed. Some think these Exposi- 
 tions are not sufficiently critical. It was not the 
 design of the Expositor to make them so ; they are 
 simply running and popular comments intended for 
 instructive and ordinary reading. 
 
 The Reader will find — what the Author has also 
 found — incidental mistakes. He will always be 
 obliged to his Readers, when they discover them, 
 to point them out. He feels even obliged to " B.," 
 a ^\Titer in the Baptist Magazine., for detecting and 
 exposing two or three slight mistakes ; and for the 
 sake of the service done him, he will patiently put 
 up with the spirit in which it is done. The Author 
 wants to grow wiser himself, and to make his 
 Readers wiser also. He is deeply grateful for far 
 
 (iii) 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 wider acceptance and appreciation than he ever sup- 
 posed possible. 
 
 As many very deeply interesting rites and cere- 
 monies occur in this Book, — replete with evan- 
 gelical truth, for which room could not be found in 
 the " Readings," there is added a companion Vol- 
 ume, entitled " The Great Sacrifice ; or, the Gospel 
 according to Leviticus," which contains special illus- 
 trations of some important passages in this portion 
 of the Sacred Scriptures. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 Prefatory Remarks 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Nature of Leviticus — Divine Inspiration of — Full of the Gospel — 
 Typical Teaching — Jesus in Leviticus — Heathen and Jewish 
 Sacrifices — Holocaust — Nature of — Any one might Kill the 
 Victim — A Priest only could Offer it 6 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 Expiatory and Eucharistic Offerings — Bible has Various Adapta- 
 tions — Reasons of Minute Prescriptions — Diflercnce of Rites of 
 Jewish and Christian Economies — Atonement the Basis of Spir- 
 itual Offerings — Cain and Abel — The Poor — Leaven — First- 
 fruits 14 
 
 CHAPTER HL 
 
 Insulation of Jews — Designed to Inculcate Ideas of Atonement — 
 Character of Offerer — "When these Offerings were made — Rites 
 — Blood not to be Eaten 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Sacrifices — In Heathendom as among the Jews — Various Sins of 
 Parties — Ignorance hoAV far Exculpatory — Atonements — Num- 
 ber Seven — Sacrifices offered without the Gate — Olficial Rank 
 aggi'avates Sin — The Vail 29 
 
 (V) 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Sin-ofTerlng and Trespass-oflering — Adjuration — Ignorance — Offer- 
 ings provided for the Poor — Sacrifice and Confession — Burden- 
 someness of Jewisli Eites — Idea of Expiation Inculcated . . 37 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Social Sins — Injuiy to a Neighbor is Sin against God — Commercial 
 Duties — Forgiveness — Conseci*ation of Priests — The Ceaseless 
 Burning — Indolence and Activity — The Daily Sacrifice — 
 Heathen Traditions — Priests' Offerings and People's Oflerings — 
 Their Diflereuce 43 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 All Scripture Instructive — Adam the First Priest — Eucharistic 
 Offerings — Votive Offerinfrs — Jacob's Vow 51 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 Sacred Persons — Aaron's Consecration — Leviticus and Epistle to 
 the Hebrews — Moses concerned in the Consecration of Aaron — 
 Convocations — Washing with Water — Sandals — True Rchgion 
 has Variable Rites and Fixed Moral and Spiritual Truths . . 57 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Recapitulation — Aaron enters on his Office — His Perfection — 
 Aaron's first Sacrifice — The Appeai-ance of Jehovali — The 
 Priestly Benediction 64 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A Solemn Judg-ment — Death of the Sons of Aaron — Excess of 
 Wine — Strange Fire — Its Meaning — Reasons of Punishing 
 Aaron's Silence — God speaks to Aaron — Hebrew the Primeval 
 Tongue — High-Priest's Duties 70 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Animal Food — Animal Sacrifices — Distinction of Creatures — 
 Church and State — Dietetic Laws — Their Value — Insulation of 
 the Jews — Hospitality, its Power and ]\Ioral Influence . . .78 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The rurification of tho Virgin Mary 86 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Leper — The Typical Disease — The Priest — His Fianction— 
 Meaning of Sentence — Absolution — Prayerbook Sei-vice for Sick 87 
 
 Disease and Sin — Every Faculty and Affection Infected — Insulation 
 of Sin— Priest's Power — Christ's Duties 93 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Ceremonies on Recovery of the Leper — Priest's Office — Absolution 
 — The two Birds — Leprosy in a House — Prayer and Pains- 
 taking — The Blessing from God and Means by Man . . . 103 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 The Great Day of Atonement — Its Extent — The Lonely Intercessor 
 — The only Sacrifice — The Perfect Sprinkling — High-Priest 
 offers for Himself — Two Goats — Interpretations. . . .111 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Parts of Scripture Obscure yet Important — God's People a Holy 
 People — Cleaning of the Word — What it involves . . . 125 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Outward Symmetry and Inward Beauty — The Jewish Priest — 
 The Christian Jlinister — Example — Minister must be sent by 
 Holy Spirit — Ambassadors — Ministers apt to teach — Prayerful 
 
 — What ^linistcrs should not be — Not Lords over God's Heritage 
 
 — Not Covetous — Not Contentious — Not Men-pleasers — Not 
 given to much Wine 135 
 
 CHAPTER XXIL 
 Rules for the ilinistry of the Priests 150 
 
Vm CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 End of Jewish Festivals — Effects of, on the Tribes and Nation — 
 Inspiration — Passive Thankfulness for Harvests — Pentecost — 
 Gleanings for the Poor — A Margin for the Needy — Feast of 
 Trumpets — Feast of Tabernacles 151 
 
 CHAP TEE XXIV. 
 
 Infant Christianity — Growth — Oil for the Lamps — Many Congi-e- 
 gations one Church — A Christian — True Church — Shewbread 
 — The Blasphemer — Conscience and Civil Interference — Capi- 
 tal Punishment — Lex Talionis 158 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Jubilee — Provision against Monopoly — Balance of Society — 
 Instalments — The Future Rest 165 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 Idols Forbidden — Obelisks — Priestly Literature — Bible for all — 
 Christianity is Catholic — Temporal Blessings — National Great- 
 ness — Secret of — The Jew — The Blessing and the Cm-se — 
 Their Restoration 172 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 Minute Laws — Devoted Things — Exchanges — Devoted Persons — 
 Jephthairs Daughter — The consideration of the Poor — The 
 Tithe-sheep 179 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 THE GREAT SACKIFICE. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE COKTRAST .... 193 
 
 CHArTER II. 
 
 CONFESSION TIIKOUGH SACRIFICE 210 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SACRIFICE OF SWEET-SMELLING SAVOR 230 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OUR ADVOCATE 241 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PKACE WITH GOD 256 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE GROUND OF JOY . . . 273 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING 284 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 THE GREAT QUESTION 300 
 
X * CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CHRISTIAN PRIESTS 308 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE OBJECT AND END 317 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 LAST APPEAL . 329 
 
SABBATH MORNING READINGS 
 
 BOOK OF LEVITICUS 
 
 PREFATORY REMARKS. 
 
 The following very instructive observations are given by 
 Bush, the American commentator, on the nature and import 
 of this book : — 
 
 " Although the Book of Leviticus contains some matters 
 purely historical, yet its leading scope is to record the laws 
 concerning the sacrifices, ordinances, and institutions of that 
 remarkable economy from which it derives its name. The 
 established worship of the Hebrews was offering — not 
 prayer, said or chanted, nor instrumental music, nor any 
 like form of devotion — but the presenting to the Deity cer- 
 tain articles of food and drink. This system of worship is 
 not to be understood as having originated at the time to 
 which the book refers. As there were moral laws in the 
 world, by which human conduct was more or less governed, 
 prior to the delivery of the Decalogue from Mount Sinai, so 
 it is evident, from the history of Cain and Abel, of Noah, of 
 Abraham, and other patriarchs, that sacrificial offerings are 
 to be dated back to the earliest periods of which we have 
 1 (1) 
 
Z SCKirTUKE READINGS. 
 
 any account. They constituted the prevailing form in which 
 the spirit of devotion was taught to express itself from the 
 very infancy of the race. But as sacrifices were ordained 
 to enter largely into the dispensation now about to be estab- 
 lished, they are in this book instituted, as it were, anew, 
 placed upon their true foundation, and commanded with cir- 
 cumstances which gave them greater importance, and served 
 to illustrate their typical character with more effect. 
 
 " The sacrifices prescribed in the Levitical worship were 
 of two kinds ; the bloody and the unbloody ; or the animal and 
 the vegetable offerings ; the latter consisting o^ fruits and liba- 
 tions. 
 
 " (I.) The Bloody Sacrifices. — These consisted, (1.) 
 of Holocausts^ which were offered to the Lord entire, and 
 were considered as ranking highest in dignity and excellence, 
 for which reason Moses commences the law of sacrifices with 
 them. (2.) Sin and Trespass-offerings, distinguished from 
 the holocausts by certain parts only of the animal being burnt 
 on the altar, while the flesh was eaten by the priests. (3.) 
 EiicJiaristical Sacrijices, or Thanh-offerings. In these the 
 fat only was consumed on the altar, a small portion being 
 allotted by law to the priest, and all the rest being eaten at 
 a solemn and joyful feast by the offerer and his guests. 
 
 " (II.) Unbloody Sacrifices, or meat-offerings. — 
 These consisted of flour, bread, cakes, and ears of corn and 
 grain roasted, of which a full account is given in ch. ii. The 
 libations were of wine, and although the mode of pouring 
 them out is nowhere described, yet it is most likely that the 
 wine was poured out of some vessel upon the top of the al- 
 tar. 
 
 " That these sacrifices had all of them a typical intent ; 
 that they were * shadows of good things to come,' pointing 
 more or less distinctly to the ' body wdiich is of Christ,' the 
 whole Epistle to the Hebrews is a continued proof The 
 imposition of hands upon the head of the victim, the shed- 
 
PREFATORY REMARKS. 3 
 
 ding of its blood, and the consumption of its members upon 
 the Jiltar, were prefigurative acts setting forth, by a kind of 
 dramatic representation, the future offering of the ' Lamb of 
 God slain from the foundation of the world.' The requisite 
 qualities of these sacrificial victims were emblematical of 
 Christ's immaculate character, and the law of their oblation 
 was a practical hieroglyphic of the great gospel truth of the 
 atonement. So also were the outward washings and purifi- 
 cations, enjoined by the Mosaic law, designed to intimate 
 the necessity of inward purity. Indeed, if these institutions 
 be severed from their New Testament relations, we have no 
 key to unlock the hidden meaning of the Pentateuch, and 
 the whole ritual contained in it dwindles down to a burden- 
 some round of unmeanino- ceremonies. But when resarded 
 in the light now suggested, the whole service, hke the veil 
 on the face of Moses, conceals a spiritual radiance under an 
 outward covering, and the wisdom of the various appoint- 
 ments appears at once worthy of its Divine Author. To 
 what extent the spiritual import of these rites was actually 
 understood by the Jews themselves it may not be easy to 
 determine ; but that something, over and above the simple 
 act of slaying and offerj|ig the animal victim, was required 
 by the spirit of the law, is evident from the fact, that the 
 obedience of the chosen people is frequently represented as 
 faulty, notwithstanding their scrupulous observance of the 
 outward rite. Thus Isaiah i. 11, 12 : 'To what purpose is 
 the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith the Lord : 
 I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed 
 beasts ; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, 
 or of he goats.' 
 
 " But while the Jews probably in great measure fell short 
 of apprehending the true typical genius of their own dispen- 
 sation, and consequently rejected its Divine Fulfiller when 
 he came, an error is often committed on the other hand, in 
 modern times, by the attempt to elicit more from these fig- 
 
4 SCKIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 uratlvc inslitiitions than they were intended to convey. It 
 by no means follows that, because certain jDortions of the 
 Levitical economy have a typical purport, we have there- 
 fore a right to give loose to imagination and multiply types 
 at will, as if the Scriptures meant all that they can be 
 made to mean. This was the fault of many of the earlier 
 interpreters, who so abounded in mystical senses as to con- 
 vert nearly the whole system into a mass of fancied allego- 
 ries and typical allusions, which Luther very properly char- 
 acterized as the ^ froth of Scripture.' To such lengths was 
 this style of interpretation carried by Origen, Hesychius, and 
 their disciples in later times, that one can scarcely open a 
 volume of their commentaries without reading in the title- 
 page that the ' mystical sense is duly expounded ; ' evidently 
 implying that the duty of the commentator was by no means 
 discharged by the accurate grammatical exegesis of the text ; 
 but that he was bound in addition to penetrate beyond the 
 surface of the letter, and enlighten his readers by an exhibi- 
 tion of the manifold occult meanings hidden beneath the sur- 
 face, and constituting those abysmal depths of import, which 
 the plummet of lexicography could never presume to sound. 
 " It may be difficult, indeed, tOt, lay down precise rules 
 which shall be universally applicable in the way of interpre- 
 tation, but the grand canon undoubtedly is, to follow strictly 
 the apostolical explanations, where we have them; and 
 where we have them not, to proceed with extreme caution, 
 adhering rigidly to the analogy of faith, and standing as re- 
 mote as possible from any thing which may appear fanciful, 
 and give occasion to cavillers to discard typical expositions 
 altogether. Under these restrictions we may safely recog- 
 nize a typical import in many items of the Levitical law 
 which are not expressly affirmed by the New Testament writ- 
 ers to be possessed of that character ; and, in fact, in no 
 other way will that v/ondrous polity disclose to us the whole 
 richness of its evangelical implications." 
 
PREFATORY REMARKS. 
 
 The main design of all these burnt-ofFerings was no doubt 
 expiatory, while eiicharistic and petitionary references were 
 not excluded. 
 
 Noah presented biirnt-offerlngs partly as eucharistic. Job 
 accompanied his prayer for his sons with burnt-offerings. 
 David says, " I will go unto thine house with burnt-offerings." 
 
 The burnt-offering was specially typical of Christ. So it 
 is stated in the Epistle to the Hebrews : " When he cometh 
 into the world he saith. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest 
 not, but a body hast thou prepared for me ; in burnt-offerings 
 and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I 
 Lo ! I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) 
 to do thy will, O God." 
 
 The offering of the Son of God superseded the cattle on a 
 thousand hills. All the victims and offerings related in this 
 book derive their significance and value from the once-for- 
 all sacrifice of Christ Jesus. 
 
 1 * 
 
CHAPTEK I. 
 
 NATURE OF LEVITICUS — DIVINE INSPIRATION OF — FULL OF THE 
 
 GOSPEL — TYPICAL TEACHING JESUS IN LEVITICUS HEATHEN 
 
 AND JEWISH SACRIFICES HOLOCAUST — NATURE OF — ANYONE 
 
 MIGHT KILL THE VICTIM A PRIEST ONLY COULD OFFER IT. 
 
 We shall find in the course of our reading of this the third 
 book in the Pentateuch, some of the most illustrative symbols 
 of the distinctive peculiarities of the blessed Gospel and of 
 the religion of Christ that are found in any part of the whole 
 Bible. Many have been inclined to regard this book as if 
 it were the record of an economy so obsolete that little or no 
 evangelical instruction or profit can be extracted from it now ; 
 but this is great mistake and misapprehension : it is the 
 Gospel according to Levi, and speaks of Christ, as the first 
 book in the New Testament is the Gospel according to St. 
 Matthew. It is the Gospel veiled under the shadows and 
 types that remained for a season the vehicles of truth ; most 
 of which we can explain, some of which we cannot see the 
 reason of now, but all of which, as instituted by a wise, a 
 glorious, and a good God, we are sure had their end, and 
 were designed to teach his family in their use and their sig- 
 nificance. 
 
 The book is called by us Leviticus, from the Septuagint 
 translation ItvLTiKov, meaning that which concerns or relates 
 to the Levites or the ordinances of Levi. All the ofiicers of 
 Israel were called Levites ; but some of the Levites were 
 priests, and others of the Levites were not. Many people 
 (6) 
 
I 
 
 LEVITICUS I. 7 
 
 make a distinction between " priest " and " Levite " which is 
 not always correct. All priests Avere Levites, but all Levites 
 were not priests. The book is named after the Levite or 
 the Levitical services, sacrilices, and rites. We derive its 
 name from the Vulgate, Leviticus ; but in the Hebrew, and 
 by a Jew, it is not called by that name ; it is called Va-yikra 
 — the Third Book of Moses, commonly called Va-yikra; 
 and the reason that they call it so is from a usage I ex- 
 plained in our readings on Genesis and Exodus. The first 
 words of the chapter are, "And the Lord called unto Moses : " 
 or, as it is strictly in the Hebrew — for " Lord " is put in by 
 our translators — "And He called unto Moses." These 
 words are its Jewish title. But what " He ? " The " He " 
 who in the previous chapter, in the form of the pillar of 
 cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, took up his res- 
 idence between the cherubim on the mercy-seat, and from 
 that place gave forth responses to the children of Israel. 
 
 The time occupied by the transactions recorded in this 
 book is extremely short. It is supposed, from very fair and 
 conclusive calculations, that the whole of it occupied only 
 one month in the desert — the whole of the arrangements 
 were given in the course of one month. That the book was 
 written by Moses, that it is otherwise inspired, is quite plain : 
 first, from the fact that the Jews, whatever were their fiiults, 
 never failed in any one thing in being the custodiers and 
 guardians of the purity and integrity of the Sacred Volume. 
 It was left for a corrupt section of the professing church in 
 the West to corrupt the Old Testament by adding the 
 Apocryphal books; the Jews never accepted them. Our 
 blessed Lord rebuked them for making void the Law by 
 tradition : he rebuked them for omitting to keep it ; but he 
 never rebuked them for having corrupted it by adding to it, 
 nor subtracting from it. Whatever their sins were, they 
 were not chargeable with the sin of unfaitlifulness in the 
 guardianship of the Sacred Oracle. This is also quoted by 
 
■8 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 our Lord in tlie GosjDels ; it is quoted in the New Testmiient 
 as Sacred Scripture, and is expressly and therefore divinely 
 ascribed to Moses. 
 
 I have said that this is the Gospel according to Levi. 
 You will find the Gospel in this book only under its peculiar 
 shadows ; the difference between it and the Gospel according 
 to St. Matthew is, — this is gold in the mine ; the Gospel of St. 
 Matthew is gold bearing the great king's image, and in cur- 
 rency. The one needs to be extracted by one that knows the 
 truth ; the other is already taken, and in currency among man- 
 kind. I have no doubt that some Jews saw nothing in Levit- 
 icus but the sacrifices ; just as the Jews at the present day see 
 nothing but the altar — the veil being upon their hearts : but 
 many a Jew, like Simeon and Anna at the advent of our Lord 
 — like David and Isaiah long before — saw Christ in these ; 
 or, like Abraham, not only saw him, but rejoiced while they 
 saw him through the sacrifices that foreshadowed him. 
 
 It has been supposed, and is indeed asserted by most di- 
 vines, that a type, meaning something which waits to be 
 filled up, some impression which waits to be illuminated, or 
 symbols, were only meant for the infancy of the church, and 
 that now-a-days we can do without them. But it is a sin- 
 gular difficulty in the way of such conclusion as this, that 
 nothing is so popular in the present day as what is analo- 
 gous to a type, the parable, the allegory, the fable, the in- 
 teresting tale or story ; as if there was something in man's 
 constitution that makes truth conveyed in the form of a par- 
 able, an allegory, or a fable, more beautiful and acceptable 
 to him. For instance, the most popular book in the Eng- 
 lish tongue is Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress ; " which is 
 just a sort of typical story, a sort of allegory, representative 
 of great truths that are concealed under it. One of the rea- 
 sons of it is no doubt this, that between God's spiritual 
 world and God's material world there are latent links, and 
 ties, and silent harmonies, that render the one the illustration 
 
LEVITICUS I. 9 
 
 of the other, .ind botli still beautiful and welcome to him that 
 seeks true instruction. There is no doubt that, in the whole 
 of this book, Jesus is the gi'eat Alpha and Omega. He him- 
 self says, " Moses wrote of me." AVhcre did Moses write of 
 Christ : He does not mention his name : yet he writes of 
 him, and predicts him, and speaks of him, and he explains 
 him. And when Jesus preached himself, what did he do? 
 " Beginning at Moses and the prophets, he showed them that 
 he must needs suffer, and rise again from the dead." 
 
 Now in the first verse of this chapter it states that " the 
 Lord called unto Moses." There is no doubt from "the 
 Lord " not being in the Hebrew, but a reference or relative 
 — " he," the personal pronoun carries us back to the last 
 person spoken of; that the reference is, therefore, to the 
 cloud being on the tabernacle, and God revealed in it ; that 
 therefore it was from the cloud on the mercy-seat — no lon- 
 ger marching in the desert during this time, but located be- 
 tween the cherubim — that God spake to Moses, and told 
 him these things. 
 
 Then the sacrifices instituted here. If you will be at the 
 trouble to read the history of heathen sacrifices, by the most 
 polished Greeks or by the warlike Romans, you will find so 
 many accompaniments of puerilities, childishness, supersti- 
 tion, divination, that you will be constrained to acknowledge 
 they cannot be from God. But these sacrifices of Levi, 
 however minute the prescriptions were, have about them a 
 plainness, a simphcity — I would say, notwithstanding their 
 peculiar and painful character — a majesty, that indicate 
 their origin to be from God. 
 
 The first sacrifice mentioned is called "the whole burnt- 
 offering ; " sometimes called a holocaust. A holocaust is de- 
 rived from two Greek words meaning " a whole burnt-offer- 
 ing ; " and those sacrifices of animals which are described in 
 this chapter were all of them of that description — that is, 
 they were totally consumed ; not one fragment was left be- 
 
10 SCRIPTUKE READINGS. 
 
 hind — they were totally consumed upon the altar ; as if to 
 indicate the exhaustion of them by the fiery wrath or judg- 
 ment which consumed them. We observe that the sacri- 
 fices that were offered, as stated in the third verse, must be 
 without blemish. Now there must be some design in that 
 — they were to be spotless and without blemish. And when 
 we open the New Testament, and find Christ described as 
 " a lamb without blemish," we then see at once that there 
 must have been here a prefiguration of " the Lamb of God 
 which taketh away the sins of the world." The sacrifices 
 that they offered, you will also notice, were very costly and 
 valuable ; although, in mercy, there was a special provision 
 for the poor. If a man was very rich, he offered an ox or 
 a bullock ; but if he was not very rich, he offered a sheep 
 or a lamb ; if he was very poor he offered what is here 
 laid down — " an offering of turtledoves, or of young pig- 
 eons." And you will recollect the Virgin Mary, when she 
 came for her purification into the temple, made this offer- 
 ing, which was a silent testimony that, whatever her descent 
 was, she was then among the poor of the 2:)eople : the Le- 
 vitical economy prescribing offerings for every man; and 
 holding the poor woman's ];)igeons as acceptable a sacrifice 
 as the rich man's bullock or ox. 
 
 In the next place you will notice, that the sacrifices were 
 not killed by the priests — there is no evidence of that. In 
 the 5th verse, we read, that " he," the offerer, " shall kill the 
 bullock before the Lord ; and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall 
 bring the blood and sprinkle it." Any one might kill the 
 victim, but only the priest might take the blood, and sprinkle 
 that blood. AVhen our blessed Lord was slain, he was slain 
 by the wicked and the profane — any one might slay the 
 victim ; but he himself, the Great Priest, could alone make 
 the atonement. 
 
 We read in the next place, in the 7th verse, " And the 
 sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire npon the altar, and 
 
LEVITICUS I. • 11 
 
 lay the wood in order upon the fire." Now, this fire was 
 kindled from heaven. It is the origin of the traditional and 
 superstitious fire of the heathen. 
 
 I find the strongest corroboration of the Divine origin of 
 the Bible in the reflected, and refracted, and distorted lights 
 of it that are spread through heathendom. You can see, in 
 their traditional corruptions, that there must have been a 
 grand original, just as you see, in a forged sovereign, the 
 e\'idence of a real sovereign. So, in these heathen corrup- 
 tions, you are referred back to something that was originally 
 good, and from God. 
 
 The very fire that consumed the sacrifice was kindled 
 from the pillar of fire by night, and the pillar of cloud by 
 day — it was Divine in its origin. The animal that was to 
 be slain must be brought to the altar that was within the 
 inclosure, and before the tabernacle, and there slain ; and it 
 must be consumed by that fire alone. To offer upon another 
 altar was blasphemy, to consume the victim by other fire was 
 also regarded as blasphemy. Only upon that altar, and by 
 that fire, and in that place prescribed by God himself, must 
 sacrifice be made. 
 
 You will notice a strange law here — that the legs were 
 to be washed. It seems to indicate that as the animal offered 
 must be without blemish, the feet, being the parts that came 
 into contact with the earth, must be cleansed ; and in order 
 that the spotlessness of the victim might be constantly ex- 
 hibited, and the fact of its spotlessness thoroughly impressed 
 upon the national mind, the feet were required to be washed 
 before the animal could be slain. 
 
 Great ideas were latent under these provisions, and those 
 ideas fructified like seeds in the national mind, till the ful- 
 ness of the time came, when all the shadows and types and 
 symbols of Levi passed away, and the glorious realities of 
 Christ crucified dawned upon a waiting and a longing world. 
 
 On verse 4, Bush makes the following just observations : -— 
 
12 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 " The original word 1D^ haphar signifies primarily, to cover; 
 not so much, however, in the sense of ivrapping as with a 
 garment, as in that of smearing or plastering^ it being applied, 
 Gen. vi. 14, to the act of coating the ark with pitch. Its 
 radical sense, therefore, is rather that of an adhesive than a 
 loose covering. From this primary notion of covering^ it came 
 to be applied by metaphorical usage to the appeasing of anger 
 or to that act of an offending party by wdiich he succeeds in 
 procuring favor and forgiveness from the person or party 
 offended. In this sense it is aj^plied to the appeasing of an 
 angry countenance, Gen. xxxii. 20, ' For he said, I will ap- 
 pease him (Heb. wall cover his face) with the present.' 2 
 Sam. xxi. o, ' What shall I do for you, and wherewith shall 
 I make the atonement'}'' (Heb. cover.) Prov. xvi. 14, 'The 
 wrath of a king is as messengers of death : but a wise man 
 wall pacify it.' (Heb. will cover it.) Its predominant usage 
 is in relation to the recoriciliation effected between God and 
 sinners, in which sense atonement for sin is the covering of 
 sin, or the securing the sinner from punishment. Thus, 
 when sin is pardoned, or its consequent calamity removed, 
 the sin or person may be said to be covered, made safe, expi- 
 ated, or atoned. Accordingly we find the pardon of sin ex- 
 pressly called the covering of sin, Nehem. iv. 4, 5, ' Our God 
 give them for a prey in the land of captivity, and cover not 
 their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from be- 
 fore thee.' Ps. xxxii. 1, ' Blessed is he whose transgression 
 is forgiven, whose sin is covered.' Ps Ixxxv. 2, ' Thou hast 
 brought back the captivity of Jacob ; thou hast forgiven the 
 iniquity of thy people ; thou hast covered all their sin.' All 
 such expiatory offerings pointed directly to Christ, wdio is 
 the grand atonement or reconciliation for the sins of men. 
 Dan. ix. 24. 1 John ii. 2. Heb. x. 8, 10. The burnt- 
 offering, it is to be observed, had not, like the sin-ofiering, 
 respect to any particular sin, but w^as designed to make 
 atonement for sin in general. Thus it is said of Job, ch. i. 
 
LEVITICUS I. 13 
 
 5, that be * offered burnt-offerings,' (saying,) ' It may be that 
 my sons have sinned.' " 
 
 Thus do we find the glorious Gospel. Thus clearly does 
 the glad sound ring in the desert, and around Mount Sinai, 
 and amid the far spread tents of Israel. God never left 
 Himself without a witness, nor His precious Gospel without 
 a testimony. In shaxiow or in light it has been from the 
 beginning. 
 
 2 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 EXriATORY AND EUCHARISTIC OFFERINGS — BIBLE HAS VARIOUS 
 ADAPTATIONS — REASONS OF MINUTE PRESCRIPTIONS — DIFFER- 
 ENCE OF RITES OF JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN ECONOMIES — ATONE- 
 MENT THE BASIS OF SPIRITUAL OFFERINGS CAIN AND ABEL 
 
 THE POOR — LEAVEN — FIRST-FRUITS. 
 
 You will recollect that we read in the Book of Exodus, 
 which we have now finished, the account of that beautiful 
 creation in the desert called the Tabernacle of the Lord ; 
 the commencement or the dim outline of the more magnifi- 
 cent Temple of Solomon, which again has given way to a 
 yet more glorious thing, though not glorious in the eyes of 
 this world — a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, a chosen 
 generation, to show forth, by purer and more sacred rites, 
 the praises of Him who hath called us from darkness into 
 his marvellous light. 
 
 Having seen and studied the house, with all its material, 
 and also having read of the altar, and all the furniture of 
 the house, we come now very naturally in proper order to 
 the worship that was to be carried on in that house. In the 
 first chapter we have seen the expiatory rites — which we 
 read, as you recollect, last Sunday morning: sacrifices of 
 animals — bulls, or rams, or goats ; blood being shed and 
 therefore expiatory and atoning sacrifices ; I mean in their 
 reference ; which were to be offered up on the brazen altar 
 without. 
 
 In this second chapter we come to a totally distinct class 
 of offerings, which were not expiatory, but eucharistic; 
 
 (14) 
 
LEVITICUS II. 15 
 
 which had nothing to do with any reference to the atone- 
 ment for sin, but simply to do with the exjjression of indi- 
 vidual hearts, as grateful to God for the mercies that he 
 had bestowed upon them ; and following not superseding 
 the sacrificial rites ; just as the Lord's Supper follows the 
 Great Atonement made upon the altar once for all for the 
 sins of the guilty. These chapters that we have read are 
 intensely interesting and most appropriate for public read- 
 ing. There are parts of the Bible most appropriate for 
 being read in the sanctuary ; parts of the Bible more appro- 
 priate to be read in the family; and some parts of it exclu- 
 sively to be read by individuals ; but each part beautiful in 
 its place, suitable in its season ; and all parts inspired by 
 Him from whom cometh down every good and every perfect 
 gift. And it seems the opposite of an uninteresting thing to 
 read of the way in which our fathers worshipped God ; or 
 to inquire what might be the reasons that he appointed 
 these apparently cumbersome, minute, and laborious obser- 
 vances, among the people who were chosen by Him to be a 
 holy nation, and to be the types and representatives of the 
 true Israel — the chosen and redeemed people of God. 
 The reason why He was so minute in the appointment of 
 the ceremonials of the Tabernacle, is the same reason why 
 he was so minute in his prescriptions for the construction of 
 the Tabernacle. Recollect that this people were in the 
 midst of heathendom, surrounded by Egyptians, and Ca- 
 naanites, and idolaters of all sorts ; and that human nature 
 is ever prone to incorporate with itself, because a fallen 
 nature, that which is evil, and to join something which is 
 unholy to that which is holy. The tendency of this people 
 left to itself — even left to itself in the minutest particu- 
 lar — ever was to incorporate with its rites the rites of the 
 heathen, and grossly and criminally to apostatize from the 
 worship and the service of the true and the living God. 
 They, therefore, were under mechanical arrangements most 
 
16 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 rigid, most unbending. "We are under moral arrangements, 
 where principles are laid down by which we are to regulate 
 our sacred and our every-day practice : the Jewish economy 
 was a Church that had not only principles, but prescriptions, 
 minute, mechanical, and exact, in which they were kept in 
 bondage, chained and fastened to certain given rites of wor- 
 ship and sacrifice; we, under the Christian economy, are 
 emancipated from the mechanical, but still under the reach 
 and range of the moral : we are left with regulating truths 
 to carry those truths out. Our duty is prescribed ; our doc- 
 trine is laid down ; but the application of both to the cir- 
 cumstances of the world, as they arise in it, is left to our- 
 selves, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and in close 
 and frequent application to God's Holy Word. 
 
 Now, I have said the first chapter is an account of offer- 
 ings typical of the one Atonement made once for all. The 
 second chapter is the account of eucharistic offerings, which 
 are typical of those mentioned in the New Testament, where 
 it is said, " To do good and to communicate forget not, for 
 with such sacrifices " — typified by these in the second chap- 
 ter — " God is well pleased." And again, where he says, 
 " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
 that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice," — in opposi- 
 tion to these dead ones, — " which is your reasonable " and 
 your acceptable " service." 
 
 You have, therefore, in the first chapter, the Jews wor- 
 shipping God through Christ, the slain Lamb ; you have 
 them in the second chapter presenting, still through the 
 pleading and interceding high-priest, spiritual sacrifices ac- 
 cm-ding to the nature of that economy, acceptable to God 
 through Jesus Christ. 
 
 This cliapter begins by saying, "And when any will offer 
 a meat-offering." That meat-offering is simj)ly an expres- 
 sion of thanksgiving, consisting of corn, or flour, or bread 
 of any kind. It is the word mincliacorhan^ the same word 
 
LEVITICUS II. 17 
 
 that occurs in the New Testament ; if any shall deprive his 
 father, or his mother, or his poor relative of that support 
 which is due, and shall contribute to what is called in Rome 
 " a pious use," or do what we should call robbing parents in 
 order to enrich the priesthood — if any one shall do so, and 
 call it corhan devoted to God, such a one is guilty, to say 
 the least, of great hypocrisy, or is a great fanatic. Now, 
 the word for offering is used for something consecrated or 
 dedicated to God ; and it is here called mincha, not an 
 atoning offering, not expiatory offering, but the meat-offer- 
 ing, dedicated or consecrated to God, It is very remarka- 
 ble, in the original Hebrew of the 1st verse, " AVhen any 
 will offer " — it is, " When any soul will offer," to denote 
 that, while the offering was so mechanical, it was to be 
 the offering of the soul, and not the mere offering of the 
 body. 
 
 Daniel alludes, in his prophecy, to the distinction between 
 the 1st and 2d chapters, when he says that the great Anti- 
 christ shall cause the " sacrifice and the oblation " to cease. 
 We have the " sacrifice " in the first chapter of Leviticus, 
 and the oblation in the second ; both fulfilled in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Now, this arrangement of the meat-offering 
 after the victim is slain, you will observe, is made in order 
 to show us that every spiritual offering must be based on 
 and flow from an atonement : the atonement first, the spir- 
 itual offering next. So you have in the first chapter the 
 atonement ; in the second, that which flows from it — spirit- 
 ual or eucharistic offerings. Now, the defect in Cain's 
 worship, apart from his nature, was this : Cain believed the 
 second chapter, — though I am speaking by anticipation, 
 because these chapters were not then written ; — he offered 
 the mincha, that is, the meat-offering, or the offering of 
 corn, of flour, or of bread ; Abel believed the first chapter, 
 and felt that he ought to attend to it before he ventured on 
 the second. The difference between the two was this : — 
 
 2* 
 
18 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 Abel's offering was an expiatory one — a lamb slain, accord- 
 ing to the prescriptions of the first chapter ; therefore, Abel 
 believed in sin's havoc, and in sin's forgiveness, in the blood 
 that can wash it away. Cain passed by the first chapter, 
 and regarded only the second ; disbelieving in the entrance 
 of sin, and therefore in the necessity of atonement; and 
 thinking that such offerings as his father and mother pre- 
 sented in Paradise, before their fall, would still be accepted 
 by God. 
 
 In the first of these chapters, we have the first great les- 
 son — " Without shedding of blood there is no remission ; " 
 in the second chapter you have the next lesson, that 
 wherever there is pardon for sin, there will be holiness of 
 life, renunciation of sin, and consecration of ourselves to 
 God, as a ceaseless sacrifice. 
 
 Then, in the next place, you will ask. Why these varieties 
 of offering? It speaks in one place of the meat-offering 
 with oil and frankincense ; the next place, of flour baked in 
 the oven ; in the next place, of green corn. Why this vari- 
 ety ? It is just one of those traits that indicate that the 
 God that made creation has inspired the Bible. He is here 
 providing for the poor man as minutely as for the rich. He 
 says, If you are a rich man, and can give a valuable and a 
 costly offering, it is your duty to do so ; but if you are a 
 j)oor man, then offer that offering which agrees with your 
 position ; and be sure that the poor man's offering of twenty 
 seeds of corn will be as acceptable to God as the rich man's 
 offering of the finest flour perfumed with costly frankin- 
 cense, and anointed and consecrated with the most precious 
 oil. It is a beautiful thought of our heavenly Father, that 
 the archangel that is nearest to his throne is not dearer to 
 him nor more watched by him than the poorest widow or 
 orphan that weeps and prays, and looks and leans on him in 
 the streets of this great metropolis. It is one of those traits 
 that come out incidentally in the Bible, indicatmg the har- 
 
LEVITICUS II. 19 
 
 mony between a God that made tlie now torn and stained 
 book — the earth, and that inspired the perfect and holy 
 Book — his own gracious AVord. 
 
 You will notice, too, certain regulations here that had a 
 moral significance. One, for instance, was that there should 
 be no leaven introduced into the sacrifice. The apostle car- 
 ries out that idea when he says, " Therefore let us keep the 
 feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice 
 and wickedness ; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity 
 and truth " — indicating the moral character of the offerer. 
 You will see the frankincense, too, that was to be added to 
 the offering, and how the apostle alludes to it in the New 
 Testament : — " We are a sweet savor to them ; " and 
 again — "An offering of sweet savor unto God ; " — mean- 
 ing God's acceptance of our services through Christ Jesus ; 
 by whom they are most welcome in his sight, and most pre- 
 cious to him. Again, we read of oil used to anoint the 
 sacrifice. The apostle alludes to this, when he says, " Ye 
 have an unction" — that means an anointing with oil — "of 
 the Holy One ; ye know all things ; " and Christians are, 
 literally translated, " men who are covered with oil " — that 
 is, consecrated men ; the sacred consecrating oil of the sanc- 
 tuary being imitable by no man, and denoting one who is 
 set apart or consecrated to God. 
 
 Then you will notice here a provision for the priests ; in 
 every part of this chapter there is a provision for them. 
 Aaron and his sons were to have a certain portion. And so 
 the apostle, when he alludes to this, says that it is right and 
 reasonable that they that minister by the altar — evidently 
 alluding to the ancient economy — should live by the altar; 
 which alludes to this very passage, and to the regulation 
 that is here laid down. " Do ye not know that they w^hich 
 minister about holy things live of the things of the temple ? 
 and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the 
 
20 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which 
 preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel." 
 
 In the next place, there was not only to be the absence 
 of leaven in the sacrifices, but there was to be the presence 
 of salt, which is always used throughout the Scripture as 
 the symbol of perfection. Bush makes the following in- 
 structive criticisms on this usage : — 
 
 '■'■Every oblation of thy meat-offering skalt thou season ivith 
 salt. Salt is the opposite to leaven, as it preserves from 
 putrefaction and corruption, and was therefore used to sig- 
 nify the purity and pe7-severiny Jidelity necessary in the wor- 
 shippers of God. It was called the ' salt of the covenant,' 
 because as salt was incorruptible, so was the covenant and 
 promise of Jehovah, which on this account is called (2 
 Chron. xiii. 5) * a covenant of salt ; ' i. e. an everlasting 
 covenant. But in order to obtain an adequate idea of the 
 reasons which prompted the use of this article, and made it 
 so indispensable in the services of the Jewish altar, we are 
 to remember that the sacrifices were a kind of feast, in 
 which those who partook of them were for the time being 
 the guests of God, and eating and drinking at his table. 
 But it was by eating and drinking together, that all impor- 
 tant covenants were anciently ratified and confirmed ; and 
 as salt was, of course, never wanting at such entertain- 
 ments, it came at length to be regarded as a symbol of 
 friendship, and the phrase * covenant of salt * was but anoth- 
 er name for the most firm, enduring, and inviolable compact. 
 In like manner, salt among the ancients was the emblem of 
 friendship and fidelity, and therefore was used in all their 
 sacrifices and covenants. No part of their religious ceremo- 
 nies is more prominent than that which consists in the use 
 of salt. Thus in Virgil, ^n. Lib. II. 1. 133 : — 
 
 * Mihi sacra parari 
 Et salsaj fi'uges, ct circum tcmpora vittse/ 
 
LEVITICUS II. 21 
 
 * For me the sacred rites were prepared, and the salted cake 
 and fillets to bind about my temples/ Servius' explanation 
 is, * Salt and barley, called salted meal, with which they 
 used to sprinkle the forehead of the victim, the sacrificial 
 fire, and the knives.' From the ' mola salsa,' salted cake, of 
 the Latins, were derived the words, immolo, tmmolaiio, t.n 
 WDiiolate, hmnolation, and this by synecdoche came to be ap- 
 plied to the whole process of sacrificing. So after the salted 
 meal it was customary to pour wine on the head of the vic- 
 tim, which by that ceremony was said to be macta^ i. e. 
 magis aucta, augmented or increased, whence the term mac- 
 tatio in the heathen sacrifices to express the killing of the 
 victim immediately after the affusion of the wine. But as 
 to the sacred use of salt. Homer affords several distinct 
 allusions to it in the religious rites mentioned in the Iliad. 
 Thus: — 
 
 * Then near the altar of the darting king, 
 Disposed in rank, tlieir hecatomb they bring; 
 With water purify their hands, and take 
 The sacred oftering of the salted cake.' 
 
 III. 1. 1. 584. 
 
 " And again : — 
 
 'Above the coals the smoking fragment burns, 
 And sprinkles sacred salt from lifted urns.' 
 II. IX. 1. 281. 
 
 Nearly every traveller who has visited the modern nations 
 of the East, has furnished us with striking anecdotes illus- 
 trative of the sacredness with which salt was regarded as 
 an emblem of fidelity in all their compacts. Thus Baron 
 Du Tott, speaking of one who was desirous of his acquaint- 
 ance, says, upon his departure, ' He promised in a short 
 time to return. I had already attended him half-way down 
 the staircase, when stopping, and turning briskly to one of 
 my domestics, Bring me directly^ said he, some bread and 
 
22 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 salt. ^Yhat he requested was brought ; when, taking a little 
 salt between his fingers, and putting it with a mysterious air 
 on a bit of bread, he ate with a devout gravity, assuring me 
 that I might now rely on him.' And D'Herbelot remarks, 
 that ' among other exploits which are recorded of Jacouh 
 hen Laitk, he is said to have broken into a palace, and hav- 
 ing collected a very large booty, which he was on the point 
 of carrying away, he found his foot kicked something which 
 made him stumble ; putting it to his mouth, the better to 
 distinguish it, his tongue soon informed him it was a lump 
 of salt ; upon this, according to the morality, or rather 
 superstition, of the country, where the people considered 
 salt as a pledge of hospitality, he was so touched that he 
 left all his booty.' " 
 
 Such allusions as these are also explained by this : " Let 
 your sacrifices be always with salt " — that is, seasoned with 
 grace. And again he says, " Every sacrifice shall be sea- 
 soned with salt " — that is, all that you do shall spring from 
 a pure heart, a pure motive, and for a holy and good end. 
 
 And then the first-fruits were to be ofiered to God ; and 
 so, in the same manner, we ought to make an offering to 
 God of that which we have in the greatest abundance. If 
 you have been made in the year 1853 unexpectedly rich, 
 you ought to present an offering of first-fruits of that. If 
 you enjoy unexpected health, you ought in some shape to 
 express your thankfulness to God for it. If you possess 
 domestic mercies, national mercies, social mercies, do not 
 forget to give ; let not the gift blind your eyes to the Giver, 
 but for all that you have received give thanks to him who 
 gives the gift, and when he takes it away, puts himself in 
 the vacuum that is left behind, more precious than the gift 
 that has taken wings and departed. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 INSULATION OF JEWS — DESIGNED TO INCULCATE IDEAS OF ATONE- 
 MENT — CHARACTER OF OFFERER — WHEN THESE OFFERINGS 
 WERE MADE — RITES — BLOOD NOT TO BE EATEN. 
 
 You will remember that in the 1st chapter of Leviticus 
 we had the explanation of the expiatory or atoning victims 
 that were commanded by God to be offered by the sons of 
 Levi ; in the second chapter, which we read last Sunday 
 morning, we had the meat-oiferings, or the presentation of 
 ourselves as I explained — a living sacrifice, which consti- 
 tutes our reasonable service. In this chapter we have what 
 are called " the peace-offerings," not the least precious or 
 beautiful part of the ordinances of Levi. Some may think 
 that these prescriptions are so needlessly specific and 
 minute that they appear unworthy of the God that insti- 
 tuted them. But you will recollect — what I always tried 
 to show when we were explaining the Tabernacle — that 
 this people were surrounded by dense masses of heathenism, 
 just as the Dutch are by the sea ; and that every provision 
 made in Israel was to keep at bay the inrush of heathen- 
 ism ; and to present a people that should be the witnesses 
 of God in spite of heathendom ; and the very rites and cere- 
 monies that they were to practise were designedly minute, 
 that there might be no opening for conformity to the heathen, 
 very oflen crossing those of the heathen ; — that they might 
 be a marked, a distinctive, and a peculiar people. There 
 is, therefore, far greater wisdom in these prescriptions than 
 strikes the superficial reader. And another reason why all 
 
 (23) 
 
24 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 this is given so minutely is, that the great subject of the 
 teaching of Christianity is the Atonement. That is the 
 heart and the life of Christianity ; all else without that is 
 hard and dry ; all its precepts pervaded by that are full of 
 life, and not hard. Well, then, these rites and ceremonies 
 were minute, in order to impress upon the Jewish mind, 
 and uj^on the mind of humanity itself, the great ideas of 
 substitution, atonement, vicarious sacrifice ; till this idea be- 
 came so familiarized to the hearts of mankind that they 
 should be able not only to appreciate, but to hail with grati- 
 tude and joy that perfect atonement of which these were 
 the shadows — that finished Sacrifice to which these pointed 
 as John the Baptist pointed to the Saviour, saying each of 
 them in the days of Levi, " We are voices crying in the 
 desert. Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God, who taketh away 
 the sins of the world." This third chapter relates to the 
 third kind of offering, called the "peace-offering." And 
 these three different sacrifices are alluded to by the prophet 
 when he says, "Though ye offer me burnt-offerings" — 
 that is one sort — " and your meat-offerings, I will not 
 accept them ; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of 
 your fat beasts." This is Amos the prophet, who wrote 
 about seven or eight hundred years before the birth of 
 Christ, and long after the institution of these sacrifices, re- 
 ferring to them. And a very remarkable feature in what 
 Amos says is this, that God says, " I reject these ; " to prove 
 that these were not the only things ; but that the most splen- 
 did offerings, the most precious holocaust, were all unac- 
 ceptable to God, unless the offerer had a pure heart, and 
 clean hands, and lifted not up his eyes to vanity. 
 
 Now, these peace-offerings were offered first of all, on the 
 recovery of peace with God in consequence of the expia- 
 tion. The expiatory-offering was first, not the peace-offer- 
 ing: first the atonement, then the calm that results from 
 peace with God through Christ the Atcnement. These 
 
LEVITICUS III. 25 
 
 peace-offerings were also presented as expressive of thanks- 
 giving for mercies, blessings, and benefits that had been 
 received. They were also presented on the performance 
 of a vow that had been made by any of the children of 
 Israel. 
 
 You will notice another feature in all these offerings — 
 that the offerer might kill the lamb, but the priest of Levi 
 alone might offer it : so Jew and Gentile slew with wicked 
 hands the Lord of glory, but he himself was the Priest that 
 presented himself a sacrifice on the altar of Deity, perfect 
 and complete, for the sins of all that believe. 
 
 These offerings were also made, I may mention, at the 
 consecration of priests, on the expiry of a Nazarite's vow, 
 at the dedication of the Tabernacle and the Temple, and at 
 the presentation of first-fruits. You will notice that in the 
 Jewish economy every thing brought a Jew to the Temple, 
 and above the Temple, to the Temple's God. Was he 
 afliicted ? He prayed. Was he merry ? He sung psalms. 
 Was he blessed with a golden harvest ? He gave the first- 
 fruits to God. Had he finished a vow ? He went to God 
 to thank him. Had he received any mercy, was he en- 
 riched with any blessing ? He felt it his first duty to ask 
 God's blessing, to give to God praise, and to expect pros- 
 perity in the ratio in which he did so. And does God 
 expect less of us ? Does God expect less of us in this dis- 
 pensation ? And yet how often do we murmur when we 
 lose, how rarely are we thankful when we gain ! How often 
 are we dissatisfied when we do not get what we like, or 
 when God takes what he thinks best — and how rarely, 
 when we are prospered, when we have suddenly become 
 rich, when we have unexpectedly become great, how rarely 
 does the blessing prompt us to go to God ! What a sad 
 thing is human nature without God ; when it suffers it rebels 
 against God ; when it prospers it forgets him. But when 
 grace has changed his heart, then our merry days make U3 
 
 3 
 
26 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 sing psalms, our sad days make us trust in God, and our 
 prosperity and our adversity equally bring us to him, who 
 sweetens the one by his presence, and substitutes himself 
 for the loss sustained in the heart of the sufferer. 
 
 You will notice, too, in this account, that the person that 
 made the offering was to lay his hand upon the head of the 
 victim that was slain. What a beautiful picture is that of our 
 interest in Christ Jesus ! The poor Jew — though this was 
 not confessing sin in this chapter, but giving thanks — yet 
 whether he confessed his sins or gave thanks he did the 
 same : he laid his hand upon the head of the victim, con- 
 fessed his sins over it, gave thanks over it ; and all the sin 
 Avas transferred typically to the victim that suffered, and all 
 the glory transferred typically to him who was the great 
 antitype and object of that victim. Thus the believer still 
 lays, not his literal hand — for ours is the economy of the 
 spirit ; whatever a Jew did materially, mechanically, palpa- 
 bly, that a Christian does spiritually, but no less truly and 
 really. The Jew laid his literal hand upon a literal victim's 
 head ; the Christian lays the trust of his heart upon an un- 
 seen but not an unknown Saviour. I say, the Jew laid his 
 hand upon the head of his victim, confessed his sins, and 
 was forgiven ; the Christian lays, not his hand, but his 
 heart, not upon a slain bullock or a slain lamb, but on a once 
 slain but now living Saviour. And as sure as the Jew got 
 ceremonial forgiveness by doing literally that act, so surely 
 will the greatest sinner that thus leans, and looks to, and 
 trusts in the only Atonement, receive the pardon and the 
 remission of his sins. The great thought that we need to 
 inculcate in the present day in the greatest simplicity is the 
 universal offer of pardon and of peace in Christ Jesus. 
 
 What is the use of learned professors, as I told you last 
 Sunday morning, preaching limited future punishment, when, 
 as I told you tlien, no man need go to ruin ? Not a soul in 
 this assembly need ever perish ; there is no decree, there is 
 
LEVITICUS III. 27 
 
 no preclestinn,tion, tliat drives any soul to holl ; and if any 
 man goes there, he goes there not blind, but wilh his eyes 
 open, not driven, but deliberately. Heaven is wide open ; 
 the price of entrance is free to the oldest, the chiefest, and 
 the worst of sinners ; and if anybody misses heaven it will 
 not be because God had not mercy enough, Christ's Atone- 
 ment had not efiicacy enough, but because you would not be 
 at the trouble to take God's way, and were determined to 
 persist in your own. Thus let the believer lay his heart's 
 trust upon Jesus, and have peace. 
 
 You will notice here that eating of blood was forbidden ; 
 that was merely temporary, purely Jewish, and was meant 
 to make a difference between the Israelites and the Gentiles ; 
 the latter drank the blood of the sacrifices they offered ; and 
 secondly, it was to inspire reverence to that which was the 
 symbol, the type, and the foreshadow of the shed blood of 
 the Son of God. 
 
 How thankful we should be to God that we have a more 
 spiritual, a more simple, a more beautiful dispensation ; we 
 w^orship God, not on this mount nor on that, nor by shedding 
 the blood of innocent lambs, but leaning on a sacriiice finished 
 1800 years ago, and living under the eye of the Great High 
 Priest, ever present. 
 
 In tlie second place, how guilty shall we be if the Jews 
 under that economy, and at so much trouble, rarely omitted 
 to give his offering, and we, to whom it gives no trouble, in 
 whose hearts it should be joy, refuse to present to God thanks- 
 giving and praise for his mercies ! If they were so attentive 
 to a heavy, burdensome ritual, are our hearts right, if they 
 do not prompt us to praise God, when that praise is so easy, 
 and the offering of our hearts costs us so little ? On verse 
 9, Bush gives the following remarks: — 
 
 " The whole rump. Heb. n?3'i>2n H'^'bi^n hdah/ah temimah, 
 the perfect or entire tail. It might seem extraordinary that 
 
28 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 the tail of a, sheep should be pointed out with so much care 
 as a suitable offering upon God's altar. The direction indi- 
 cates that the fat-tailed species were usually offered in sac- 
 rifice, if the flocks of the Hebrews were not wholly composed 
 of them. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SACRIFICES — IN HEATHENDOM AS AMONG THE JEWS VARIOUS 
 
 SINS OF PARTIES — IGNORANCE HOW FAR EXCULPATORY ATONE- 
 MENTS — NUMBER SEVEN — SACRIFICE OFFERED WITHOUT THE 
 GATE — OFFICIAL RANK AGGRAVATES SIN — THE VAIL. 
 
 "We come, in the chapter I have read, to a fourth class of 
 shis and transgressions committed against God, as well as a 
 fourth peculiar provision for such sins as have been com- 
 mitted in ignorance of the law of God, or in ignorance of the 
 nature of their demerit. Before alluding specially, however, 
 to the contents of the chapter, let me remark that I can 
 easily understand how the purest and loftiest taste should be 
 offended by reading constantly of the slaughter of lambs, and 
 bullocks, and goats, the pouring out of their blood around the 
 altar, and sprinkling the horns or the tips of the golden altar 
 of incense w^ith it ; and therefore it has been said by some 
 of a sceptical turn of mind, that all this seems unworthy of 
 God, as it must be distasteful to man. Now I would wish 
 you to recollect that the very parties who object to this are 
 admirers of the Greeks and the Romans in the meridian 
 greatness of their testhetic attainments. These parties should 
 recollect that the most polished nations of heathendom had 
 the same rites, the same sacrifices, but with barbarous con- 
 comitants that were utterly unknown to or separate from 
 the observances of the Jews. Therefore, if Jewish sacrifices 
 be so offensive to a lofty aesthetic taste, as modern sceptics 
 allege, they should recollect that these sacrifices were not 
 
 3* (29) 
 
30 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 peculi«ar to the Jews, but were observed by the Greeks and 
 Romans also, only in the latter they were accompanied with 
 forms and ceremonies still more offensive to a cultivated 
 taste, and not only offensive to the taste, but — what is sad 
 enough — without the mighty moral meaning that the sacri- 
 fices of the Jews had. 
 
 I said before, I think, that God's great design in institut- 
 ing these rules was just to write it on the heart of nations, 
 line upon line, precept upon precept, that there was some- 
 thing wrong between man and God ; to engrave it next, not 
 less legibly and deeply, that there could be no pardon for 
 what man had done, and no satisfaction to the justice, holi- 
 ness, and truth of God, except by some great expiatory sac- 
 rifice, of which these were but dim foreshadows and prefig- 
 urations. And you know quite well how unteachable human 
 nature is where it does not want to be taught ; and how nec- 
 essary it is to reiterate and repeat the great and important 
 truths which you desire to be influential upon mankind. 
 Such is the effect of repetition of a thing that a very cele- 
 brated demagogue who has passed away, said, " Tell a lie 
 every day, and it will ultimately be believed to be truth." 
 I do not accept his sentiment ; I merely quote it to show 
 how strongly he felt the value of repetition. And when 
 that most excellent and truly noble spirit, Dr. Chalmers, was 
 asked, to what did he attribute the success of his preaching r 
 he is reported to have said, " Under God, to one thing ; rep- 
 etition, repetition, repetition." In other words, it is the 
 repetition of a thought that causes it ultimately to become 
 rooted in the hearts and feelings of those that hear it. Hence 
 one great use of coming to the house of God is not to get 
 new thoughts, but to get reiterated and restruck the old 
 ones ; and the effect, under God, of constant attendance on 
 the sanctuary is, not that you learn something that you 
 probably think you did not know before — though that may 
 be true — but that you hear old things put in new lights, set 
 
LEVITICUS IV. 81 
 
 at new an.2:lc-5 ; and the trutlis of God's Word, like precious 
 gems, will bear to be looked at, and turned over, and ana- 
 lyzed, and microscopically examined ; and instead of weary- 
 ing, you will only be refreshed, and instead of going away 
 dissatisfied and displeased, you will be thankful that you 
 have heard blessed truths, and find that you now feel them 
 more perfectly than you ever felt them before. This, there- 
 fore, will explain — and your own experience will confirm 
 it — what seems at first sight a thing unnecessary, — that 
 God should thus reiterate and repeat, line upon line and pre- 
 cept upon precept. 
 
 The sins that are alluded to in this chapter are, first, sins 
 committed by the high-priest ; secondly, sins committed by 
 the congregation ; thirdly, sins committed by the ruler of 
 the people, the magistrate, the judge, the king ; and, lastly, 
 sins committed by the common people. And then the sins 
 that are thus classified are, you will observe, what are called 
 " sins of ignorance." I know nothing that gives a higher 
 view of the holiness of God than this — that not only sins 
 that we culpably and deliberately commit are guilt in his 
 sight ; but that we commit sins in our ignorance, which are 
 sins, though we do not suppose them to be so. God's law is 
 a fixture, and is not dependent upon our estimate. There is 
 sin committed in the dark as well as noonday. Sin com- 
 mitted by those who are not acquainted with it as such, as 
 well as when committed, though it may be aggravated in 
 the last case, by those who are acquainted with it, is still 
 sin. No ignorance on our part exculpates. I do not believe 
 that one's ignorance of a sin dilutes or extenuates that sin. 
 I know that the text has often been quoted, which I think I 
 ex})lained before, in 1 Timothy i. 12, 13, where the Apostle 
 Paul says, " I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath ena- 
 bled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me with 
 the ministry ; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecu- 
 tor, and injurious : but I obtained mercy, because I did it 
 
32 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 ignorantly in unbelief." Now it has been said that sins 
 committed in ignorance are no sins at all; and that the 
 ignorance of a duty is atonement for omitting that duty, or 
 expiatory of the sin. My answer is, ignorance may exten- 
 uate our guilt, but it does not in the least modify the sin, or 
 make an atonement for it. But the passage here, I think, 
 is very much misread. Those of you who have been accus- 
 tomed to read Greek Avriters in your youth will recollect, 
 that very frequently an exclamation is introduced in a nar- 
 rative in the middle of a sentence — something like a paren- 
 thesis in our language, and not connected with the continu- 
 ous current of the chapter or the narrative. The expression 
 here, " I obtained mercy," is really parenthetical. And you 
 will understand it if I read it thus : — " Which was before a 
 blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, because I did 
 it ignorantly in unbelief." But in the midst of his narrative 
 he exclaims, " But I obtained mercy," — that is parentheti- 
 cal : it is an exclamation in the middle of the sentence, as 
 if his sense of the mercy he had received was so strong 
 that he could not help stopping short and exclaiming, " But 
 I obtained mercy." Leave out the clause, " But I obtained 
 mercy," and then the passage reads thus : — " Which was 
 before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, be- 
 cause I did it ignorantly in unbelief." His persecutions, 
 and his blasphemy, were the result of his ignorance and 
 unbelief. It is not stated that he obtained mercy because 
 of his ignorance ; but that he committed sin because he was 
 ignorant. The exclamation, " I obtained mercy," is paren- 
 thetical, and denotes what the paramount thought in the 
 apostle's mind was — "But," in the midst of all this, "I 
 obtained mercy." 
 
 Now, the sins recorded in this chaiDter are those commit- 
 ted in ignorance ; and for such sins thus committed in 
 ignorance there is a special provision made throughout the 
 chapter. Each offering is described minutely and in detail, 
 
LEVITICUS IV. 33 
 
 but to the details of the description I need not turn your 
 attention. First, he says that the blood shall be sprinkled 
 seven times. Seven is used in Scripture as the great sym- 
 bol of perfection. Thus the seven churches denote the one 
 catholic or universal church ; thus the seven spirits denote 
 the one Holy Spirit — the perfect sanctifier and comforter 
 of all the people of God. And to do a thing seven times 
 was equivalent to doing it perfectly and completely. Hence, 
 " if thy brother sin against thee seven times " — that is, 
 commit a great sin against you, you are to forgive him. 
 
 In the next place, the victim was to be taken and sacri- 
 ficed without the gate. Now, to show how completely this 
 is typical of our Lord's death, we read in the Hebrews xiii., 
 " Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people 
 with his own blood, suffered without the gate," — the very 
 language of this chapter — " Let us go forth therefore unto 
 him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have 
 we no continuing city, but we ^eek one to come." 
 
 And, in the next place, you will notice that throughout 
 the whole of this chapter the greater the official personage 
 that sinned, the greater the sacrifice that was required for 
 the expiation of that sin. If you read the chapter at your 
 leisure you will find that a more precious sacrifice was re- 
 quired when the high-priest or the ruler sinned than when 
 one of the common people or the congregation sinned. And 
 this teaches us that, while sin is essentially the same in all, 
 it is aggravated in its character as it is far more extensive 
 in its pernicious influences when it is perpetrated by persons 
 in high places in the church, or in the high places of the 
 state ; and just because sin committed in lofty places spreads 
 further, deals its havoc wider, we ought the more earnestly 
 to pray that those that God has placed over us in the chief 
 places of the land, or of the Church of Christ, may be so 
 guided and governed by His Holy Spirit that they shall let 
 their light shine before them, that those that are beneath 
 
o4 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 seeing their good works may glorify their Father who is in 
 heaven. 
 
 You will notice next, that the blood of the victim was to 
 be sprinkled on the vail that separated the holy place from 
 the rest of the sanctuary. Now, the Apostle Paul alludes 
 to this very rite in Hebrews x. 19, where he says, " Having 
 therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest " — 
 that is, to heaven — " by the blood of Jesus, by a new and 
 living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the 
 vail, that is to say, his flesh." Nothing is more remarkable 
 than the perfect parallelism between Leviticus — the Third 
 Book in the Pentateuch — and the Epistle of St. Paul to 
 the Hebrews. The one is the key to the other, the one the 
 solution of the difficulties of the other. And you will never 
 understand Christ's sacrifice in all its glory, its fulness, its 
 applicability, until you have read very carefully the mi- 
 nute — it may be in some respects inexplicably minute — 
 details of the sacrifices offered up year by year by the chil- 
 dren of Levi. The one is meant to set forth in all its 
 minute details the other. The Jew never can be satisfied 
 with the first alone — the Christian will not understand 
 fully the second alone. The Old and New Testaments, like 
 the twin lips of an oracle, speak the one Christ, proclaim 
 the one truth, and cast light mutually upon each other. 
 Bush remarks on the Sin-oflTering : — 
 
 " The strongest impression, perhaps, which we receive 
 from it is that of guilt and responsibility attaching, in the 
 sight of God, to sins of infirmity and ignorance ; for it is to 
 such that it mainly has respect. We are prone to imagine 
 that an offence committed unintentially or unawares, cannot 
 incur the charge of guilt. Men do not scruple to plead 
 their ignorance, their infirmities, their natural and habitual 
 propensities, in excuse for their misdeeds. But the law of 
 God determines otherwise. It enjoins an onerous cere- 
 mony for the expiation of sins unconsciously committed. 
 
LEVITICUS IV. 35 
 
 The sin, it is true, is not so great as if it were done know- 
 ingly, wilfully, and presumptuously ; yet still it is sin, and 
 as such needs an atonement. Without the shedding of blood 
 there was no remission. At the same time we are not to 
 lose sight of the consolation which flows through this typical 
 ordinance to the bosom of the penitent believer. The lan- 
 guage of the apostle, Hebrews xiii. 11-13, makes it evident 
 that the Sin-oftering pointed directly to Christ, through 
 whose efficacious atonement all his sins, whether of greater 
 or less aggravation, are cancelled and abolished. It is those 
 daily infirmities, those sins unconsented to, and yet commit- 
 ted : those faults too covert for detection, or too late de- 
 tected; it is they that constitute his daily struggles, and 
 wage within him an unceasing warfare. And when he has 
 seen the sins of his wilful alienation borne away by the 
 atoning sacrifice, these cleaving vestiges of a corrupt nature 
 will often vex him with painful fears, lest there should still 
 be a demand of wrath against him. How appropriate, then, 
 is this exhibition of a continual offering for our continual 
 need ! ' He that knew no sin was made sin (a sin-oifering) 
 for us.' Here we have pardon ; not once, to cancel the past 
 debt and begin on a new score ; but pardon daily, hourly 
 renewed, as often as the Sin-oflfering is pleaded before the 
 Father, is brought in faith, and laid upon the altar before 
 the Lord. We do nothing well. If we pray, it is with 
 cold and wandering thoughts ; if we hear, it is with dis- 
 tracted and forgetful minds ; we are continually surprised, 
 continually overtaken, continually turned aside by the cur- 
 rent of temptation, that runs so strong against us, when per- 
 haps we cannot convict ourselves of one indulged deliberate 
 sin. Therefore did the God of mercies ordain this peculiar 
 institution, prefiguring to them of old the divine oblation to 
 be once offered, but forever efhcacioiis, for the pardon of 
 this and every kind of guilt." 
 
 How precious must that Saviour be to whom so many 
 
36 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 elaborate institutions unitedly pointed ! How perfect must 
 that atonement be for which God was four thousand years 
 making preparation ! Let us thankfully accept it. Let us 
 rejoice in it all the day long. " His blood cleanseth from 
 all sin." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 SIN-OFFERING AND TRESrASS-OFFERING — ADJURATION — IGNO- 
 RANCE — OFFERINGS PROVIDED FOR THE POOR — SACRIFICE AND 
 CONFESSION — BURDENSOMENESS OF JEWISH RITES — IDEA OF 
 EXPIATION INCULCATED. 
 
 In the last chapter we had the record and description — 
 or rather in previous chapters — of what was called the sin- 
 offering. The sin-offering was a sacrifice, or an atonement, 
 made by the priest on the altar, for one who had in some 
 shape violated the known and express law of God. But 
 the trespass-offering seems to relate to the violation of ritual 
 law, and the public worship and ordinances of the Sanctuary, 
 the Tabernacle, and the Temple subsequently, into which 
 any Israelite, through indifference or ignorance, might possi- 
 bly fall. And you will therefore see, that almost every sin 
 contemplated in this chapter has more relation to ceremo- 
 nial than to moral trespasses against God. Especially, 
 however, does it relate, in one or two instances, to the viola- 
 tion of the duties that we owe one to another. The first 
 verse opens with a statement, that if any one, or " a soul 
 sin, and heai' the voice of swearing, and is a witness, 
 whether he hath seen or known of it." Our translation 
 suggests, if it suggests at all, a very obscure and imperfect 
 meaning. It is not, " If a soul hear a person swear, and do 
 not rebuke the swearer, or tell of the swearer," which seems 
 to be suggested by our version ; but, If a person summoned 
 to a court of law, under the ancient Jewish economy, ad- 
 jured by the ofliciating judge to tell the truth, should not so 
 
 4 (37) 
 
38 SCIIIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 tell the trutli, and all that he knew, then he should be 
 guilty. AV^e have an illustration of this verse in such a 
 passage as that where the Iiigh-pricst came to our blessed 
 Lord, as recorded in Matthew xxvi. 63, and said, " I adjure 
 thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be 
 the Christ, the Son of God." Now, that was the high-priest 
 acting upon the first verse of this very chapter. And our 
 Lord then heard what is called " the swearing " in this 
 verse, or what in that case was the adjuration of the high- 
 priest ; and as you notice, so obedient was the true Lamb, 
 the true Saviour to all the requirements of the ceremonial 
 law, that though he had been dumb when asked previously, 
 yet the moment that the high-priest adjured him, that mo- 
 ment, in obedience to the first verse of this chapter, our 
 blessed Lord answered the question addressed to him ; as if 
 it was impossible that he could fail in the observance of the 
 least jot or tittle of the ceremonial law, any more than in 
 the weightiest requirement of God's moral law. We have, 
 in Proverbs xxix., an allusion to this : " He heareth an 
 adjuration, and telleth not," — that is laid down as a sin, or, 
 in other words, the violation of the first verse of the chap- 
 ter I have now read. 
 
 We observe, in the next place, that a person, after he has 
 done so — if guilty of this sin — shall bring his trespass- 
 offering, and the priest shall ofller that trespass-oifering as an 
 atonement or a sacrifice for him. You will also notice, that 
 though he may not have known it at the time, — and this is 
 assumed throughout the whole chapter, — if the party did 
 not know, at the time that he committed the sin, that he 
 really did so ; if ignorance had been the state of his mind 
 when he fell into the violation of one of the commands of 
 God — it is important to observe — it does not therefore 
 exculpate him. On the contrary, at the close of the chap- 
 ter, we are told expressly that his ignorance, wherein he 
 erred, and wist it not, is not an excuse for his sin ; but there 
 
LEVITICUS V. 39 
 
 is lying at his door, just as at Cain's, a sin-offering, wliich 
 he may olFer immediately to God. Now that explains a 
 very important thing in our case. If we have sinned, even 
 if we did not know it, it was not less sin — though it may 
 palliate it that we did not know it. And therefore we are 
 not to plead our ignorance as an atonement for the past, but 
 we are to have recourse to that which is freely offered to us, 
 the only Atonement made once for all our sins upon the 
 cross ; and then the sin, whether committed in ignorance or 
 not, shall immediately be forgiven. We shall see, also, that 
 ignorance does not exculpate from a remark made in the 
 Acts : " Had they known, they would not have crucified the 
 Lord of Glory," — indicating that many of the Jews en- 
 gaged in that awful transaction were ignorant of the great 
 sin and crime the}'" were committing ; but yet the same apos- 
 tle adds, not with innocent, but " with ivicked hands ye took 
 and crucified the Lord of Glory ; " thereby showing that 
 there was guilt, tliough committed in ignorance. And, 
 therefore, instead of persons pleading, as an excuse for their 
 sins, that they did not know, the true way is to apply to the 
 Atonement, of which they now do know, and to seek for- 
 giveness, not because they were ignorant, but because Christ 
 is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for 
 the sins of all that believe. 
 
 "We have in this chapter another very beautiful provision. 
 In order to shoAV the mercy, the tender sympathy and com- 
 passion of God, in all the institutions of his law, you will 
 notice, that if a person could not afford the sacrifice required 
 by the law — the usual one and the proper one — if he was 
 so poor that he could neither purchase nor procure it, then 
 there was provided for him what the poorest criminal might 
 have — a little flour, a handful of flour, which he might take 
 to the priest to offer it for him. You will thus perceive, 
 running through all God's AYord, there is no flinching from 
 the moral demands of tlie law, there is no diluting of the 
 
40 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 law ; but there is nmple provision that no man shall have 
 an excuse or an apology for not being interested in the 
 Atonement in which that law was magnified, and by which 
 the sinner may be forgiven. The law remains unchanged 
 in all its infinite exactions ; but there is every possible pro- 
 vision that no one shall be able to plead ignorance, or pov- 
 erty, or meanness, or any other thing, as an excuse for want 
 of sacrifice in his case for infringing the law, or as an apol- 
 ogy for not receiving the forgiveness which is extended to 
 them that God accepts through an atonement. 
 
 You will also notice throughout this chapter, that there is 
 constantly accompanying the sacrifice, confession of sin. 
 The priest shall offer it ; the person that sinned shall lay his 
 hand upon the sin-offering, and confess Tiis sins. Now when- 
 ever confession (and this is worth recollecting) was men- 
 tioned by the Jew, it always called up in his mind the idea 
 of a sacrifice at hand. He could not conceive confession 
 without a victim or a sacrifice along with it. And therefore, 
 when John the Baptist came, preaching to the Jews repent- 
 ance, and men came to him confessing their sins, that was 
 the proof to every Jew that the Great Sacrifice for sin was 
 just at hand. Confession, in the mind of a Jew, always 
 called up what was its companion in his economy — a sacri- 
 fice and an atonement for the sins that were confessed. And 
 therefore we say, that " if we confess our sins, God is faith- 
 ful and just" — but the idea of an atonement is there too — 
 " through Christ to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
 from all unrighteousness." 
 
 Let me again remind you, in the last place upon this chap- 
 ter, that all these institutions were burdensome, to lead the 
 Jew to long for the only possible deliverance, — the advent 
 of the end of them, Christ the Sacrifice. 
 
 Secondly, they were atoning : the slaughter and sacrifice 
 of doves, and pigeons, and lambs, and rams, was meant to 
 rivet in the Jew's mind the great truth, that without shed- 
 
LEVITICUS V. 41 
 
 ding of blood — that is, without a sacrifice — there could not 
 be any remission of sins ; and through these dim lenses, 
 these imperfect telescopes, to see the end of them — the 
 Lamb of God to be a propitiation, needing not to be re- 
 peated, but made once for all, for the sins of all that believe. 
 
 " On the general subject of the sin and trespass-offerings 
 we may remark, that while the purpose and design of these 
 various ceremonies have been disclosed so far as they can 
 convey moral and spiritual knowledge to our minds, there is 
 doubtless much in the external forms that must be referred 
 to the sovereign will of God. No other satisfactory reason 
 can be assigned for the requirement in certain cases of one 
 of these species of offerings rather than another, than that it 
 was the divine pleasure so to have it. In the ordinances 
 before us it is clear, that the wilful sins for which a ram was 
 the largest offering required, were greater than those infirmi- 
 ties for which a bullock was demanded. If the atonement 
 had really lain in the type, this would have borne almost an 
 appearance of injustice. But as it was no doubt intended by 
 every kind of expiation to fix the attention upon the Great 
 Atonement thereafter to be made for all sin, the intrinsic 
 value of the particular offering was a matter of compara- 
 tively little importance. Indeed it is very conceivable, as we 
 have already remarked, that a sacrifice of less value may 
 have been ordained for sins of greater enormity, with the 
 express purpose of conveying the intimation that the atoning 
 virtue was not in the sacrifice, but in the better blood which 
 was to be shed at a future day on Calvary. Compared with 
 this, every typical prefiguration, even the most costly that 
 could be devised, fell so infinitely short in value, that it might 
 have been a special aim of Divine wisdom to ordain a less, 
 in order the more forcibly to impress upon the mind the in- 
 trinsic efficacy of a greater. 
 
 " But while it was not especially important for the wor- 
 shipper to know why one animal was chosen to expiate one 
 
 4* 
 
42 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 sin, and anotlier another, it loas important for him to know 
 that for every particular sin there was a remedy provided ; 
 so that no man need incur the Divine wrath, eitlier by rea- 
 son of his most secret faults or his most flagrant violations of 
 the law. This is the very essence of gospel truth. No sin, 
 not even the smallest or most unintentional, could be forgiven 
 without a sacrifice. But no man need await the judicial 
 punishment. As soon as he knew his fault, or susj^ected it, 
 he had his remedy. He knew what he was to do. If he 
 did it not, the condemnation that ensued was self-procured. 
 It was not the fault of the law, nor the fault of the judge, nor 
 the fault even of his own natural weakness or infirmity, if 
 the evil he had committed was not forgiven him. This is 
 the gospel. Whatever men may think of their natural con- 
 dition as an extenuation of their sins ; however they may 
 venture to impugn the justice that assures their punishment ; 
 this at least cannot be gainsayed — the remedy is i3rovided ; 
 the atonement is made known ; the mode of makin£r it 
 personally available is clearly stated; it is efficacious for 
 every sin ; it is within the reach of every sinner. Christ by 
 his one oblation has made satisfaction for the sins of the 
 whole world. If any man chooses to abide the consequences 
 of his transgressions, rather than seek forgiveness in the way 
 prescribed, the condemnation is his own deliberate choice." 
 Thus, in this, as in the previous chapter, Christ is all and 
 in all. All that was peculiar to Levi was meant either to 
 reveal Christ, or to draw to Christ, or to drive to Christ. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SOCIAL SINS — INJURY TO A NEIGHBOR IS SIN AGAINST GOD — COM- 
 MERCIAL DUTIES — FORGIVENESS — CONSECRATION OF PRIESTS 
 
 THE CEASELESS BURNING — INDOLENCE AND ACTIVITY — THE 
 
 DAILY SACRIFICE — HEATHEN TRADITIONS — PRIESTS' OFFERINGS 
 AND people's OFFERINGS — THEIR DIFFERENCE. 
 
 Theke are two great and obvious divisions in the chapter 
 I have read. There is the first part of it, relating to social 
 transgressions, especially in commercial and mercantile life ; 
 and there is the last and the chief part of the chapter, which 
 relates to the appointment of the high-priest, Aaron being 
 the first ; his sons, or succeeding priests having his succes- 
 sion, continuing to minister according to the law of the ap- 
 pointment of Aaron, their father and their founder. 
 
 The first and the shortest part of the chapter relates to 
 social injustice : and I can conceive no law more beautiful, 
 more impartial, more fitted to do the highest good, than the 
 very first requirement with which this chapter begins : 
 " If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord." 
 But mark what constitutes a trespass against the Lord. It 
 consists in " lying to his neighbor," or in that which was deliv- 
 ered to him to keep, or in fellowship, or in taking any thing 
 away from his neighbor by violence. Now, in doing so, he 
 commits a trespass against the Lord: the injury is done 
 against his neighbor, but in its rebound it is sin against God. 
 Every deed of injustice, whether it break the last six com- 
 mandments or the first four, is sin against God — if it be one 
 of the last six commandments of the Law, it has in it two as- 
 
 (43) 
 
44 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 pects : one aspect towards man, or injury done to man, — 
 a neighbor ; and its aspect towards God, or sin committed 
 against him. We never sin against each other — we do in- 
 jury to each other — but when we do so, we sin always 
 against God. And hence the distinction is so important — 
 especially in these days when errors arc abroad — that the 
 person against whom the thing is done can forgive in the 
 thing which relates to him : if I steal, or if I injure or wound 
 the neighbor, he froM w^hom I plunder can forgive me the 
 injury, because he is injured and the owner; but the sin 
 that underlies the injury, reaching to God, God alone can 
 forgive. And, therefore, to talk about a priest, whom I have 
 never injured, and against whom I cannot sin — for he has 
 nothing to do with the sin — forgiving me or absolving me, 
 is to say, what is most untrue, unscriptural, and absurd. 
 Sin is committed against God only, and God only, directly 
 and personally, can forgive it ; the injury that accompanies 
 the sin committed against my neighbor he can forgive. If 
 I had injured a priest, then I would go to the priest, and ask 
 his forgiveness ; but not the forgiveness of the sin — he has 
 no business with that ; but only the forgiveness of the injury 
 I have done, and no more. And if I have injured a neigh- 
 bor, I ask that neighbor to forgive me ; and if he be a Ma- 
 hometan or a Moslem, I ask him to forgive me the injury 
 that I have committed against him, and which he can and 
 ought to forgive me ; but the sin that underlies it I confess 
 to no man ; it is committed against God, and therefore, like 
 David, I will say, " Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, 
 and done this evil in thy sight." 
 
 We see in this prescription how strikingly the sin against 
 God is interwoven with, and inseparable from, an injury 
 against a brother. See, too, how very comprehensive the 
 law is : — " shall sin in that which was delivered him to keep." 
 Are you made a trustee ? — is property depasited with you ? 
 '— • are you a banker ? — has some client left his money in 
 
LEVITICUS VI. 45 
 
 your hands? Then it is your duty to be fiiitliful ; it is your 
 duty to remember that the least breach of that trust is injury 
 against your neiglibor, and sin against your God. " Or in 
 fellowship" — that is as we call it in modern days, "in part- 
 nership." Are you a partner in a house of business ? You 
 are bound to look to your copartner's interests as if they were 
 your own ; and your copartner is bound to look to your in- 
 terests just as if they were his. " Or in a thing taken away 
 by violence, or hath deceived his neighbor," such a one com- 
 mits sin. "Or hath found that which was lost, and lieth 
 concerning it, and sweareth fiilsely." Among the Romans, 
 it was alwaj's regarded as theft to appropriate any thing you 
 found upon the streets, whether you could find the owner of 
 it or not : and this law here says — from which that was 
 evidently a reflection — that if you find any thing of which 
 you cannot find the owner, or if you find any thing, and 
 know the owner, and either conceal it, or deny it or swear 
 falsely concerning it, all that is sin against God. " Then it 
 shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall 
 restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which 
 he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him 
 to keep, or the lost thing which he found, or all that about 
 which he hath sworn falsely : he shall even restore it in the 
 principal," — that is, the sum itself — "and shall add" — 
 not as an atonement, but as what may be fairly due — " the 
 fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it ap- 
 j^crtaineth." You recollect the language of Zaccheus was evi- 
 dently founded upon that : — " The half of my goods I give 
 to the poor ; and if I have taken any thing from any man 
 by false accusation, I restore him fourfold," — which showed 
 the warmth and fulness of his convictions, because he was 
 only bound to return a fifth of the capital or principal which 
 he had taken away. 
 
 And then, not only was he to do so, but he w^as also to do 
 it at the time of his confession and his trespass-offering made 
 
46 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 by the priest. The sin was forgiven through the trespass- 
 offering as a type of Christ's atonement ; the injury against 
 the brother was rectified by returning the principal, and a 
 fifth of the principal added to it, and receiving from that 
 brother he had injured his forgiveness. " And the priest 
 shall make an atonement for him before the Lord ; and it 
 shall be forgiven him." The words on which I addressed 
 you the other Sunday are just the echo of this : — "If any 
 man sin we have an Advocate with the Father ; and he is 
 the propitiation for our sins." If any man have sinned in 
 any of these respects, and have done something which it is 
 in his power — and this is an accompaniment of true repent- 
 ance, not a ground of pardon — to reinstate, or restore, or 
 repair, if practicable, such a one need not doubt that he has 
 forgiveness in Christ for any or for all of those transgres- 
 sions thus distinctly laid down in this chapter. 
 
 The next part of the chapter describes that which relates 
 to the priests and to their offerings. First of all, there is 
 the burnt-offering, as it is called. This burnt-offering, by 
 fire kept constantly burning upon the altar, — " the fire shall 
 ever be burning upon the altar ; it shall never go out," — 
 that fire on the altar was lighted originally from heaven ; it 
 was lighted, it is supposed, from the bright glory that w^as in 
 the cloud, and ultimately dwelt in the Tabernacle between 
 the cherubim ; but while lighted from heaven it was kept 
 burning by human appliances. God never dispenses with 
 means ; he gives grace, and expects us to use means. So 
 that text that many pervert, "My grace is sufficient for 
 you," some people practically read as if it were, " My grace 
 is a suhstitiite for you." Now it is not so ; it is sufiicient for 
 you, but it never will be a substitute for you. God does not 
 canonize indolence. He lights the spark that is in the heart 
 from heaven, and he expects that, by prayer, by reading, by 
 thought, you will keep it constantly burning. 
 
 And then you will notice that, by the fire on the altar, 
 
LEVITICUS VI. 47 
 
 which was thus liglited orij2;inally from heaven, and kept 
 continually burning, there was offered what was called the 
 morning and evening sacrifice ; the morning sacrifice, which 
 was offered up just at sunrise, was a lamb ; and the evening 
 sacrifice, a little before sunset, was also a lamb : and that 
 was called the daily offering — the burnt-offering. John 
 evidently alluded to that — as I think I have remarked be- 
 fore — when he saw at evening the priests carrying the 
 lamb to the Temple to be slain, as the evening offering, and 
 said, " Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins 
 of the world ; " he turned their attention from the literal 
 prefigurative lamb that they were carrying to the literal 
 altar, and directed it to the true Lamb, the antitype, the end 
 of it — the Lord Jesus Christ, who taketh away the sins of 
 the world. 
 
 You can see in this book, too, the origin of those dis- 
 torted superstitions that still prevail. It is said that some 
 one calculated the height of the largest Pyramid by its 
 shadow, as any one acquainted with the relation of the 
 sides of a triangle can do. We can calculate the antiquity, 
 depth, and reality, of the truths in this Book, by those dark 
 and deeply distorted shadows projected from it athwart the 
 wide world. I think one of the strongest proofs that this 
 Book is the ancient original, is the distortion that Tradition 
 has made of its every truth ; retaining enough of the orig- 
 inal to indicate its origin, but mixed up sufficiently with 
 human error to show the frailty of the hands in which it has 
 been carried to a distance. This fire which was kept con- 
 tinually burning, was the origin of the fire that was wor- 
 shipped by the Persian Magi, or by those called in modern 
 times Parsees. It was also the origin of what was called 
 the " vestal fire " in Roman heathendom, where were the 
 vestal virgins ; that vestal fire being said to have originated 
 from heaven, and to be ke})t continually and supernaturally 
 burning. The Greek word for Vesta, is Esta, and that word 
 
48 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 among the Greeks is evidently derived from the Hebrew 
 word Esh, which means " lire ; " thus again showing that 
 every distorted heathen superstition had first its origin in 
 inspired truth. Now these and similar things would indi- 
 cate what an influence this Book has exercised upon the 
 world, and how much the world is indebted to it for truth, 
 whilst to itself it is indebted for all the dark distortions 
 which it has canonized. 
 
 AVe have next, the rites for the consecration of the priest 
 himself — a very interesting part of this Book — where the 
 offerings of Aaron and his- sons, which they shall offer, are 
 laid down. You will notice one distinction here very re- 
 markable. When offerings were made for the people, the 
 priests ate of the offerings : " They which minister at the 
 altar, live by the altar ; " but when an offering was made for 
 the priests, the priests did not taste it, but the whole of it 
 was utterly and entirely burned. Now this evidently shows 
 that the priests, when they ate of the offerings of the peo- 
 ple, typically for the sins of the people, it was meant to 
 show that the priest took upon him the people's sins, and 
 made offering for them, eating being incorporation: "he 
 made offering," says Paul, " first for his own sins, then for 
 the sins of the people." But when an offering was made for 
 the priest, there was none to bear his sin, and therefore the 
 whole thing was consumed ; and no one was allowed, in any 
 shape, or on any pretence, to partake of it : " it shall be 
 wholly burnt;, it is a statute forever." 
 
 The rest of this chapter treats of the offering that was to, 
 be made at the consecration of the priest : the subsequent 
 chapters treat of the office and the functions he was ap- 
 pointed to fulfil. 
 
 The whole of this chapter is full of very valuable evan- 
 gelical instruction, and highly illustrative of the gosj^el of 
 Christ. "No sentiment should be more deeply engraven 
 upon our hearts than that a sin against our neighbor is a 
 
 i 
 
LEVITICUS vi. 40 
 
 trespass against God. So David says, ' Against tliec, thee 
 only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,' — 
 though his offence was primarily committed against Uriah. 
 
 "'Or have found that vhicli was lost.' The judgment 
 of every honest mind is, that he who finds any lost property, 
 and makes not all due inquiry to ascertain the OAvner, 
 should in equity be treated as a thief. 
 
 (5, 6.) " ' Shall bring his trespass-ojffering unto the Lord, 
 a ram without blemish.' By this precept we are again 
 taught that disobedience to God is the great evil even of 
 those crimes Avhicli are injurious to man, and that repent- 
 ance, and even restitution, though needful, in order to for- 
 giveness, cannot atone for sin. 
 
 (12.) "As the priest was to renew the fire upon the altar 
 every morning, and to guard with the utmost care against 
 its going out, so our first work with the return of the morn- 
 ing light, should be that the fire of holy love be kindled 
 afresh in our hearts, and through the day our study should 
 be to keep it constantly burning. 
 
 (22.) " ' And the priest shall offer it.' The benefits of 
 Christ's atonement, in order to be available, must be "person- 
 ally apprehended. However intrinsically sufficient for the 
 salvation of all men, none will be the better for it who do 
 not for themselves make use of it. The offending priest, or 
 ruler, or common person, must himself bring his sin-offer- 
 ing, must lay his own hands upon its head, must thus show 
 how nearly he felt himself to be concerned in the ceremon}^ ; 
 and every sinner now must individually bring this sacrifice 
 of Christ, in faith, as the atonement for his own sin. He 
 must not rest in the mere generality that ' we are all sin- 
 ners,' and ' Christ died for all.' He must feel and apply all 
 this to himself. He must in effect say, ' Lord, I am indeed 
 a sinner ; a great and grievous sinner against thee ; but 
 here is my sin-offering ; here is the sacrifice of thine own 
 blessed Son ; here is the atonement of thine appointment ; 
 
 5 
 
50 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 this I bring to tlice with my soul's approval, and my heart's 
 desire that it may be accepted by thee, and put away all my 
 sin.'" 
 
 Here, too, we learn how truly our Lord spake when he 
 said, " Moses wrote of me." These types and rites are the 
 syllables of his glorious name. They met at Calvary. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ALL SCRIPTURE INSTRUCTIVE — ADAM THE FIRST PRIEST EUCIIA- 
 
 RISTIC OFFERINGS — VOTIVE OFFERINGS — JACOb's VOW. 
 
 I KNOW it seems a most uninteresting thing to read these 
 minute prescriptions respecting the slaughter of victims and 
 the offering of sacrifices ; but if God saw it to be good for 
 his glory, and good for us, to inspire this record, I do not 
 see that we are warranted in passing by it, or the least por- 
 tion of his word ; or in supposing that either it is in every 
 sense inapplicable to us, or that it does not, or should not, 
 belong to the volume in which it is contained. We are cer- 
 tain that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God ; and 
 while each piece of Scripture is not equally suitable or 
 equally profitable everywhere, and in all circumstances, any 
 more than one medicine is suitable in, or a cure for, all dis- 
 eases, as common sense shows, we yet hold, that all Scrip- 
 ture is given by inspiration of God, and is somewhere, or in 
 some cases, or under some circumstances, profitable, that the 
 man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to every 
 good work. Besides, I do not see why the naturalist, for 
 instance, or the philosoplier, should on these grounds quar- 
 rel with such chapters as these. We do not find that the 
 true naturalist despises any thing that he finds in the world 
 of nature, in the vegetable world, in the mineral kingdom, 
 or in the sky above, or in the geological strata or stony page 
 of the earth. On the contrary, he tliinks nothing unclean, 
 nothing unfit for study and investigation. It has been 
 
 (51) 
 
52 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 actually fonnd, that the most apparently worthless things 
 are, even when examined and thoroughly understood, really 
 most precious. The sea-weed, long thought worthless, has 
 furnished one of the most valuable medicines ; and things 
 that have long been trodden upon, and considered useless, 
 have turned out, when properly understood, to have impor- 
 tant and valuable purposes. And if it be true philosophy 
 to hold nothing that God has made unworthy of study, it is 
 at least true religion to hold nothing that God has inspired 
 unworthy of our understanding and investigation. 
 
 In this chapter there seem to be some parts not very in- 
 structive to us, and yet there are allusions that are very 
 suggestive of useful thought. For instance, in the eighth 
 verse it is stated, that when the priest " oifereth any man's 
 burnt-offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin 
 of the burnt-offering which he hath offered." The moment 
 I read that, my thoughts travelled backwards to Adam in 
 Paradise. You recollect that, after he had laid aside the 
 fig-tree leaves, with which he tried to clothe his body, fool- 
 ishly supposing that it was his body that was at fault, whilst 
 it was the inhabitant within that had set all wrong outside — 
 when he had laid aside the fig-tree leaves, God clothed him, 
 it is said, with skins. No animal food was then eaten. These 
 skins belonged to expiatory victims. What does that teach 
 us ? As the skin of the sacrifice was the property of the 
 priest that offered it, v/e gather from this alone, that the ani- 
 mals that were slain in Paradise were slain in sacrifice ; and 
 that the skins that Adam put on were the skins of victims, 
 slaughtered as typical of the great atonement that should be 
 made in the fulness of the times ; and also that Adam, after 
 he fell, was not only the first sinner upon earth, but also the 
 first priest upon earth that offered uj) a sacrifice in its way 
 expiatory for the sins of mankind. 
 
 We find in the twelfth verse another class of offerings, 
 that are very interesting, called eucharistic, or thanksgiving 
 
LEVITICUS VII. 53 
 
 offerings : — "If he offer it for a thanksgiving, tlien he shall 
 offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes." 
 Now, this eucharistic peace-offering is an offering still 
 obligatory upon us, not in form, for that would be Jewish, 
 but in substance, which is Christian and everlasting. The 
 Apostle Paul tells us, " By Christ, the altar, let us offer a 
 sacrifice of thanksgiving continually." Now such language, 
 used by the apostle, would be almost inexplicable, except 
 we look at it in the light of Leviticus, where we find the 
 eucharistic or thanksgiving peace-offering j^resented on the 
 altar by the priest, in favor of a heart, that wished to unload 
 itself of the gratitude it felt to God for his mercies. The 
 Apostle Paul, with the ' Levitical economy before him, says 
 so beautifully, " By him, therefore " — no longer by the 
 altar in the tabernacle, or the altar in the temple, but by 
 Christ, the true altar — let us offer not the eucharistic offer- 
 ing here of oil, and cake, and ram without blemish, but 
 " the sacrifice of thanksgiving continually." And at the dawn 
 of one year, and at the close of another, just ended, let us 
 offer what Israel did — we doing it in spirit, they doing it 
 in the letter — the eucharistic offering of thanksgiving and 
 praise to God. Recollect all the mercies you have re- 
 ceived, all the privileges you have enjoyed, all the blessings 
 you have reaped ; and that man must have a very insensible 
 heart who does not feel any, and a very blind mind who 
 does not see any, and a very unsanctified heart who is un- 
 thankful for those he does see, and those he does feel. Let 
 us, at the commencement of one year, and the close of 
 another, recognize the good hand of God in all the bright 
 and blessed enjoyments of the past, and often look back, 
 when we can look back dispassionately and impartially, to 
 see in life's most shaded and obscure places, in its saddest 
 and most sorrowful windings, the wise, the merciful, the 
 gracious leading of our Father who is in heaven. Just read 
 at youf leisure the 107th Psalm, and you will find in it 
 
 5* 
 
54 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 strings of mercies, always closing with an incentive to 
 eiicliaristic offerings. "Oh! that man would praise the 
 Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works unto 
 tlie children of men." Or read that no less beautiful 
 string — better than a string of beads — a string of bless- 
 ings, called the 103d Psalm; and then, after each, call upon 
 all to bless the Lord, but, secondly, each one to ask his own 
 soul, " Bless the Lord, O my soul." 
 
 Let me notice again another allusion — very precious, 
 very instructive — and that is, in the loth verse, where, if 
 any of the sacrifice remained, it was to be eaten the same 
 day that it was offered. Now, in that there is a very sea- 
 sonable and wise provision, because if it had not been eaten 
 the same day on which it was offered, it would have been 
 kept and used as a charm, or as an amulet, and as a sort of 
 guard or protection, just as is done now in the Church of 
 Rome, where the consecrated bread, or " host," as they call 
 it, is kept in a pyx, or in a box, preserved as in a safeguard, 
 and there kept within walls, under lock and key, lest what 
 they believe to be God should be stolen or taken away. And 
 I think that is a very Protestant thought in one of the ru- 
 brics, if I mistake not, of the Church of England Commun- 
 ion Service, that at the close, as it is also done in our own 
 church, after all the communicants have partaken, if there 
 be any bread and wine left, it is not to be burnt, as some 
 foolish and conceited and ignorant priests in the West say, 
 nor is it to be poured down a place specially appointed for 
 that purpose, called a piscina, under special form and cere- 
 mony, but the poor of the congregation are to be called to- 
 gether, and they are decently to eat the bread and drink the 
 v/ine. Now, I can conceive no more fatal blow to transub- 
 stantiation than that law ; and it is impossible, while it 
 exists, that transubstantiation can be openly preached. It is 
 common bread and common wine, when all have communi- 
 cated ; and it always should be eaten, not left to ^le next 
 
LEVITICUS VII. 55 
 
 day, whicli would be opening the door for the amulets, the 
 charms, and all tlie other nonsense which has been grafted 
 upon Christianity — not to say nonsense, but blasphemous 
 heresy, which has been grafted upon Christianity in the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 One other verse I allude to, and I have done. It is the 
 sixteenth verse, where it says, " If the sacrifice of his offer- 
 ing be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the 
 same day " — that is to say, there were not only eucharistic, 
 or thanksgiving offerings, which the people of God were to 
 present on a review of a past year, or a past month, or a 
 good harvest, or great profits, by their honest and industri- 
 ous labors, but they also made offerings that were purely 
 voluntary and votive. Now at the close of one year, we 
 ought not only to thank God for what is past ; but, if it be 
 in your power, in this cold and piercing weather there will 
 be plenty around you wiiose silent misery will plead with 
 the greatest eloquence, to whom you can, each in his own 
 neighborhood, give a gift-offering, expressive of your grati- 
 tude. The word " offering," translated into modern lan- 
 guage, would be a " Christmas-box " given to the poor. 
 That is our modern phrase for an ancient law in the Bible ; 
 it is the giving something of our plenty to those that are 
 poor and needy, as expressions of our good feeling to them, 
 and of our thankfulness to God. But I alluded also to the 
 votive offerings — that is to say, that during the year that 
 is to come, you will perform this, or that you will do that, or 
 that you will give up tliat little luxury, that you may benefit 
 others, or you will undertake this duty, that you may do 
 good to those that are around you. Every man may see in 
 the year that has commenced many gaps, and openings, and 
 nooks, and niches, that his liberality may fill ; and you will 
 find that you will never be less happy or less rich by deal- 
 ing your bread to the hungry, your raiment to the naked, 
 and hiding not yourselves from your own iiesh. As a speci- 
 
56 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 men, however, of a votive offering, I read that very beauti- 
 ful one of Jacob, where it says, " And Jacob vowed a vow." 
 Now here is the eucharistic vow : '" If God will be with me, 
 and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me 
 bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to 
 my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God ; 
 and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's 
 house ; and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give 
 the tenth unto thee." Now that is a votive — a eucharistic 
 votive offering. I know some have misapprehended its 
 meaning, as if Jacob had said, " Well, if God will give me 
 so much, then I will give him so much in return." But that 
 is not the meaning of the passage ; it is literally, " Then if 
 this be true, as I know it is, — if that God will be my God ; 
 if indeed he will lead me, as he has promised to lead me, in 
 this way that I go ; and if he will thus give me bread to 
 eat, and raiment to put on ; if he will be so good a God 
 to me, — then the least that I can do is to express my 
 gratitude to him, by offering a continual eucharistic and 
 votive offering to Him who is my merciful and gracious 
 deliverer." 
 
 Thus God was always recognized as the Giver of every 
 good and perfect gift, and man is no less urgently educated 
 to express his dependence and gratitude to Him. May thy 
 Holy Spirit, Lord, add to these other gifts and graces to 
 us a grateful heart ! 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SACRED PERSONS — AARON's CONSECRATION — LEVITICUS AND EPIS- 
 TLE TO THE HEBREWS — MOSES CONCERNED IN THE CONSECRA- 
 TION OF AARON CONVOCATIONS — WASHING WITH WATER — • 
 
 SANDALS TRUE RELIGION HAS VARIABLE RITES AND FIXED 
 
 MORAL AND SPIRITUAL TRUTHS. 
 
 The consecration of Aaron was altogether a most im- 
 pressive scene. In the background was seen Mount Sinai, 
 silent and shrouded, as if it had never burned with fire, or 
 echoed along its gorges a solemn decalogue : around were 
 the rich pastures of its slopes, stretching away far before 
 their desert march. In the holy tabernacle, raised by a peo- 
 ple's liberality, w^as Aaron consecrated the first high-priest ; 
 and clothed with robes of beauty, and of glory, in the pres- 
 ence of all the people. In former chapters, you will recol- 
 lect we have had very minute descriptions of the consecra- 
 tion of sacred things ; in this, however, and in some that fol- 
 low, we have a description of the consecration of sacred per- 
 sons. This chapter begins an account of the consecration of 
 Aaron — the first high-priest in the ancient Jewish economy 
 — to that lofty office, which lasted, with more or less of cor- 
 ruption cleaving to it, till the Jewish high-priest, the shadow, 
 was merged in Christ, the universal High-Priest, who liveth 
 and reigneth a priest and a king upon his throne for ever 
 and ever. Now the reason* why these chapters are so im- 
 portant is just this : you never can understand the offices of 
 our Blessed Redeemer, unless you will read and study them 
 
 (57) 
 
58 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 in the light of Leviticus ; and you never will understand 
 Leviticus, its moral and weighty significance, till you read it 
 in the light of Christ, our Great High-Priest. The Epistle 
 to the Hebrews and the Book of Leviticus are the lock and 
 the key ; the one opening the other, and each casting light, 
 and illustration, and harmony upon the other. In Leviticus 
 you have Christ in shadow, — the shadowy outline in which 
 he was revealed to God's ancient people, or his Church in 
 its infancy. Li the Epistle to the Hebrews you have the 
 shadowy outline of Leviticus absorbed and lost, or rather 
 filled up, Avith the everlasting and glorious substance, and 
 illuminated by his light. Now Aaron, and his priesthood, 
 were typical of Christ, and his unchangeable and everlasting 
 priesthood ; and the very fact that the Aaronitic priesthood 
 was typical of Christ's, is proof sufficient that there is no 
 priesthood existing in the Christian ministry now : it Avas fully 
 exhausted in Christ ; it was merged in him Avhen he lived, 
 and died, and rose again ; and it is pronounced by an apostle 
 to be so completely associated Avith Christ, as to be an in- 
 transferable priesthood. There may, therefore, be a teacher, 
 a presbyter, an ambassador in the Christian Church ; but a 
 saci'ificing priest there cannot be Avithout misleading souls, 
 and doing dishonor to Christ, the only Priest of our profes- 
 sion, and ignoring the Ncav" Testament. 
 
 NoAv the induction or consecration of Aaron Avas, Ave are 
 told, carried on, and almost conferred by Moses. I think, to 
 the extreme High-Church party, what is contained in this 
 chapter must be very startling ; for the first high-priest Avas 
 plainly consecrated and set apart to his office by a layman. 
 Moses Avas a layman. True, he acted by God's command ; 
 true, every thing he said Avas by the authority of God, and 
 Avhat he had said to him ; but still here is a fact : — it Avas 
 Moses that sprinkled the altar ; At Avas Moses that " took the 
 blood and put it upon the horns of the altar, round about 
 Avith his finger ; " it was Moses that " took the blood, and put 
 
LEVITICUS VIII. 59 
 
 it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of 
 his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot." 
 Thus, then, God gave a layman authority and jurisdiction of 
 the very highest description in the Christian temple. It may 
 be called the very essence of Erastianism — it may shock 
 many now as an interference with sacred offices ; but it sug- 
 gests useful truths. In the history of the Church of Christ, 
 for the last eighteen centuries, priests have often corrupted it, 
 and laymen have often purified it. It is a melancholy fact, 
 that the great introducers of errors have not been generally 
 the laity : they have had their share ; but the priests, or the 
 ministry so called, have introduced far more errors, and said 
 more subtle things to defend them, in one century, than all 
 the laity have said for eighteen; and I do therefore feel, 
 from the precedents that are before me, and from other facts, 
 as it seems to me that we have less to fear from the lay ele- 
 ment in the Christian Church than we have from the eccle- 
 siastical ; and I have always rejoiced to see the lay element 
 mixed up with the ecclesiastical, in order among other ob- 
 jects, to keep the ecclesiastical element right. It is a melan- 
 choly fact, that every profession — and so far, of course, the 
 ministry of the Gospel is itself a profession — that is the 
 lowest sense, but it is a sense — is very prone to magnify 
 itself, — very prone to exalt its own claims, and therefore it 
 needs the diluting presence of other and resistent elements 
 to keep it in order. Hence, I always have thought, that in 
 the Scottish Church, for instance, where the laity is mixed 
 with the clergy, there is a most precious provision. And if 
 ever what is called a Convocation be restored in this country 
 — and if restored at the present time, I believe it would do 
 incalculable mischief, because it is well known that a portion 
 are what are called semipapists, being papists in all but the 
 name ; and I fear, with all respect for that church, that the 
 minority are those who love and preach Bible and evangel- 
 ical Christianity. If, therefore, a Convocation were restored, 
 
60 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 and restored on the Tractarian type and model, the conse- 
 quence would be that every pious man would be thrust out, and 
 there would be an Anglo-Cathohc ecclesiastical corporation, 
 munificently endowed, which would crush the liberty and in- 
 jure the influence of living religion. As soon as the evangel- 
 ical element has got the ascendancy, then will be the time for 
 the Convocation to be restored ; and if ever it be restored, it 
 ought to be a sine qua non that laymen shall constitute at 
 least one third of it ; if they do not, the mischief will be 
 incalculable and unspeakable; nothing but Hildebrandism 
 of the very worst stamp can advocate an institution composed 
 exclusively of the clergy, to determine all questions, and to 
 put an end as they call it to all disputes. 
 
 Here then we have a lay element introducing a high cler- 
 ical one ; or, Moses, by God's command, consecrating and 
 anointing Aaron to the high and holy office which he held. 
 
 AVe notice, too, that on this occasion, Avhen Aaron was 
 consecrated, " the whole congregation was gathered together 
 unto the door of the tabernacle." Now that seems to me a 
 very beaut'iful trait. It does seem to me that in the Chris- 
 tian Church in modern times, when a minister is ordained, it 
 should not be in the presence of ministers only, but in the^ 
 face of the whole congregation. "When Aaron was conse- 
 crated, the whole congregation were assembled as witnesses, 
 as well as to join in supplication for a blessing on his head. 
 
 You will notice, too, in the consecration of Aaron in the 
 sixth verse, the special importance attached to washing Avith 
 water. Tradition has carefully preserved this rite. I have 
 often made the remark, that whenever you see a bad sover- 
 eign it is an argument for the existence somewhere of a 
 good one. There cannot be a forged thing or a mockery 
 without the original. Wherever you find a practice in tra- 
 dition — in the traditional history of mankind — analogous 
 to what you find in this book, you will see it is the distorted 
 remains of what was revealed to Moses in the ancient Levit- 
 
LEVITICUS VIII. 61 
 
 ical economy. This washing with water, which was first in- 
 troduced and instituted here, was a practice that subsequently- 
 prevailed among all religions, as may be proved in ancient 
 and modern times. The Egyptians subsequently, I believe, 
 and not antecedently to this — the Egyptian priests always 
 washed twice a day in water ; the Greeks had their sprink- 
 lings, the Romans their iustrations with water ; the Romish 
 church has retained a shadow of this, in what is called " holy 
 water," or, in the priest di^^ping his fingers in water, before 
 he oflEiciates at the altar. In fact, you will find much of the 
 ceremonial at the consecration of Aaron in the practice of the 
 Romish church. If you will open the Pontificale Romanum, 
 or the Ceremoniah Romanum, you will find there almost all 
 the ceremonies that were employed in the Levitical economy 
 at the consecration of Aaron, in the consecration of a modern 
 Romish priest or bishop. You ask, then. Is it not very 
 scriptural ? I answer, No ; but quite the reverse : because 
 it is copied from these ceremonies, therefore it is unscriptural. 
 You ask. Why ? Because all these are met and exhausted 
 as types and symbols in Christ the substance ; and to intro- 
 duce them into the Christian church now is to forget that 
 eighteen centuries have elapsed ; that Christ, upon the cross, 
 cried, " It is finished ! " and that Aaron, and Moses, and Levi, 
 were buried Avith Christ, — only Christ rose from the dead, — 
 and they, with their wasted and worn-out robes, have been 
 left to moulder behind. To be scriptural is not to copy the 
 letter, but to copy the spirit as well as the letter of the word 
 of God. To wear Aaron's mitre is not to have Aaron's suc- 
 cession, but to practise a worthless and an unmeaning cere- 
 mony ; to have the washings, and dippings, and sprinklings 
 that he had, though in the letter it looks like what is enjoined 
 here, is in spirit altogether- incompatible with it ; for our 
 High-Priest is in the holy place, and God now seeketh not 
 this mount nor that mount, but true Christians, in spirit and 
 in truth, to worship him. 
 
 6 
 
62 SCRirTURE READINGS. 
 
 So, again, the Mahometans practise frequent ablutions 
 before they enter their mosques, and the Hindoos ahnost 
 worship the water of the holy Ganges, and look upon ablu- 
 tions in it as of special value. Now all these are the dis- 
 torted remains, the distorted relics of an ancient truth, 
 floating like drift wood on the waves of time, and remind- 
 ing us of the grand spiritual rites, instituted by God 
 himself, of which they are the broken and dismantled frag- 
 ments. 
 
 You will find another feature here which has often been 
 noticed. In all the furniture, on all the ornaments appoint- 
 ed for Aaron — the mitre for his head, the golden plate, the 
 holy crown, the breastplate, the Urim and the Thummim, 
 the ephod and the girdle, and all the other robes, — there is 
 no mention of sandals ; and we are led from this and other 
 passages to infer, that the ancient Jewish priests always 
 offered their sacrifices with their feet bare. We should 
 come to this conclusion, not only from this omission of san- 
 dals or coverings for the feet in the Levitical inventory, but 
 from traditional remains in other countries also. For in- 
 stance, in the temple of Diana, in ancient Rome, the priests 
 and priestesses had always to enter with bare feet. The 
 Mahometan leaves his slippers behind him when he goes 
 into the mosque ; and the Abyssinian Christian, it is very 
 singular, at the present day, always leaves his shoes or his 
 slippers outside when he goes into a Christian temple ; and 
 the Brahmins whenever they enter a temple always go in 
 with their feet naked. It may be that this is the remains 
 of an ancient form. AVhen a person in this country wishes 
 to show courtesy to a superior or to an equal, or to fulfil the 
 ordinary courtesies of life, he takes off his hat. This is 
 our western and northern habit. But an eastern would re- 
 tain his hat, or his turban, or his fez, or whatever it may 
 be, and would take off his slippers or his sandals as a mark 
 of respect and courtesy to you. What does all this teach 
 
I 
 
 LEVITICUS VIII. 63 
 
 US ? That outward customs vary witli latitude and longi- 
 tude, but interior cliaracter lasts forever. And I tliink it is 
 one of the grand and striking proofs of the reality and 
 divinity of our blessed religion, that it has made essentials 
 fixed like the stars in their orbits, but left the circumstan- 
 tials of religion floating, and dishevelled, and variable, as 
 the clouds in the sky. And, because our religion has noth- 
 ing of the ceremonial rigidity of Mahomctanism and Ilin- 
 dooism, and other religions which are local, because of 
 human origin ; but, on the contrary, has made the moral 
 and the spiritual immutable, but left the ceremonial all varia- 
 ble, therefore we infer from this alone, that it must have 
 God for its author, truth for its matter, inspiration for its 
 beginning, glory to God, with happiness to mankind, as its 
 blessed issue. 
 
 The consecration of Aaron, which lasted seven days, and 
 was therefore perfect, is frequently alluded to in the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, in connection with our High-Priest. The 
 Greek word, which means to make perfect, is used in the 
 Septuagint for consecration. Keeping this in view, we un- 
 derstand Jesus made perfect by suffering, that is, he reached 
 the fulfilment of his fitness for his office. 
 
 Abraham's faith by his work was made perfect, (Jas. ii. 
 22,) that is, attained its end and vindicated its reality. 
 
 Heb. V. 9. Being made perfect, lie became the author of 
 eternal salvation unto all tliem that obey him. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 KECAPITULATION — AAEON ENTERS ON HIS OFFICE — HIS rERFEC- 
 
 TiON — Aaron's first sacrifice — the appearance of jeho- 
 
 VAH — the priestly BENEDICTION. 
 
 You will recollect the great truth I have endeavored 
 to inculcate, that God designs by line upon line, precept 
 upon precept, here a little, there a little, to impress upon 
 the hearts and consciences of all humanity that there could 
 be forgiveness, pardon of sin, acceptance before God for a 
 fallen family, only through the shedding of the precious 
 blood of One who should die, the just for the unjust, a per- 
 fect propitiation and sacrifice, in the fulness of the times. 
 We all know quite well, that in order to make a lesson 
 deeply felt it must be frequently repeated. So God fre- 
 quently repeats, and minutely describes, these offerings and 
 sacrifices, and the significant accompaniments of them, 
 which were calculated to teach and train the people in the 
 great truth that there was something wrong between human- 
 ity and God, and that there could be pardon only in some 
 way that should vindicate the justice as well as convey the 
 mercy of Him that pardoned, and create in the heart of the 
 pardoned gratitude and responsive love. In order also to 
 make them long for the glorious Deliverer, he made them 
 feel at the very time that they offered tliese sacrifices that 
 the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, 
 never could really take away sin, and that therefore they 
 must look above them and beyond them, and cry for some- 
 
 (64) 
 
LEVITICUS IX. 65 
 
 thing the same in kind, but of infinite efficacy, described so 
 briefly and so beautifully by the evangelist, when he 
 says, " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from 
 all sin." 
 
 In the second place, I think I have vindicated before, the 
 ceaseless reiteration- of these varied sacrifices and the exist- 
 ence of them, so far as they can be vindicated, with regard 
 to those who are enamored of every thing Greek and Ro- 
 man, but shrink with wonderful dismay from every thing 
 Jewish and Levitical. Now I stated on a former occasion, 
 that there were the same sacrifices among the Romans, the 
 same among the Greeks, but accompanied with barbarous 
 and repulsive rites that were altogether strange to the 
 heaven-taught Jew ; and that if it be .just reason to object 
 to the Jewish economy that such rites and sacrifices as these 
 prevailed, there is, a fortiori, a stronger reason still to ob- 
 ject to the most accomplished Greeks and Romans for the 
 repulsive and horrible sacrifices and offerings which they 
 were in the habit of making. But in the one case, in the 
 Jew, we have expressly Divine prescription ; in the case of 
 the Roman and the Greek we have that original divine pre- 
 scription distorted, perverted, and corrupted, by the tradi- 
 tions of man. 
 
 In this chapter we have the continuation of that most 
 interesting ceremony which was begun in the previous chap- 
 ter — namely, the consecration of Aaron to be the high- 
 priest, with all the accompaniments of that sublime and 
 impressive function. You will see the vast importance of 
 reading this from the fact that, if you open the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews you will be utterly unable to understand the 
 most precious and the most distinctive truths of Christianity, 
 unless you have studied and read the sacrifices and the 
 priesthood of the Levitical economy. You have here the 
 shadow of a great Original ; the dim prefigurations of Him 
 that was to come in the fulness of the times ; and all the 
 
 G* 
 
66 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 statements respecting Christ in the New Testament are 
 made on the supposition that you are acquainted with the 
 Old ; they are allusive to the Old, and there is no under- 
 standing the New Testament except you have thoroughly 
 understood and studied the Old. No man can see the con- 
 nection of the Epistle to the Hebrews unless he has read 
 the writings of Moses in Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, and 
 Numbers ; and you will never see the beauty, the perfec- 
 tion, and the glory of Christ, the Great High-Priest, until 
 you have read the accompaniments of the consecration, dedi- 
 cation, and functions of Aaron, the typical high-priest. 
 
 In this chaj^ter we read first of all, that " on the eighth 
 day Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of 
 Israel." During seven days the rites that accompanied the 
 consecration of Aaron lasted ; on the eighth day, the first 
 day after his consecration had been completed, he was ready 
 to enter upon the great functions of his office. Now the 
 number seven is always used among the Jews, and con- 
 stantly in the Old and New Testament, as the great type of 
 that which is perfect. We read of seven days in the week, a 
 complete period ; seven years, a complete period ; seven 
 times seven, the year of jubilee ; the " seven Spirits," repre- 
 senting the one Holy Spirit; "the seven stars," or "the 
 seven angels," representative of the complete ministry of 
 the Church of Christ. And so throughout the Bible you 
 w^ill find the number seven constantly identified with perfec- 
 tion. Now this high-priest, Aaron, was here consecrated 
 during seven days, that he might be perfect ; so the allusions 
 in the Epistle to the Hebrews are in such words as these : 
 " He hath made the Captain of our salvation perfect through 
 suffering ; " that is an. allusion to the perfect consecration 
 of Aaron, who was seven days in being consecrated, and 
 then was thoroughly equipped for his office. So Jesus, the 
 Captain of our faith, was made perfect, that is, completely 
 consecrated, in all respects answering to the type ; in all 
 
LEVITICUS IX. 67 
 
 respects fitted for the great work of being the Great Iligh- 
 Pricst of liis people Israel. 
 
 Again, you will notice here that the first sacritice that 
 Aaron was commanded to offer ^vas the sacrifice of a slain 
 calf. Some have thought that there is here, underlying the 
 prescrijition, an allusion to his great sin when he made the 
 representation of a calf out of the golden trinkets of the 
 people, and made the peoj)le bow down and worship it ; and 
 that here the appointment of a calf to be a sacrifice, when 
 he entered on his office, had underlying it an allusion and 
 reference to that great sin of which Aaron, as the leader of 
 the people, had on one occasion been guilty. 
 
 We then read, in the fourth verse, that he was to offer 
 these sacrifices, and that " to-day the Lord will appear unto 
 you." I explained on a former occasion, that the glory that 
 marched through the desert in the shape of a pillar of fire 
 by night was the shechinah, or the splendid evidence of the 
 presence of God. We then find that when the tabernacle 
 was built, this glory, or shechinah, rested between the cheru- 
 bim on the mercy-seat; and when Moses therefore stated 
 that God should appear to Aaron, it is not that God the 
 Father should be made visible, but that the shechinah, or 
 the splendor — the celestial splendor, the unearthly bright- 
 ness kindled from heaven and kept bright and burning by a 
 ceaseless miracle — should appear in the presence of the 
 people, and show that the offering was accepted, and that 
 the offerer was fit for his office. 
 
 We see that when Aaron here offered he was to offer first 
 for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. Now 
 we read, in contrast, but allusive contrast to this, in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, that Jesus needed not to offer first 
 for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people ; but 
 the true High-Priest had no sins to offer for, and therefore 
 his offering was exclusively and wholly for the benefit and 
 for the blessing of the people. 
 
68 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 We notice in tlie loth verse that " he brought the peo- 
 ple's offering, and took the goat which was the sin-ofFering 
 for the people." Wherever you find the word " sin-offer- 
 ing" in tliis chapter, it is literally the translation of the 
 Hebrew word for sin ; and this will explain to you instantly 
 how completely the sin-offering was identified with the sin 
 of the offerer. The animal slain was typically made the 
 sin of the slayer of it ; and the idea designed to be conveyed 
 was that the sins of the offerer were transferred to the vic- 
 tim ; and that when the victim was slain, and its blood shed, 
 the offerer's sins were annihilated and he forgiven. Well' 
 now this phraseology is beautifully applied to our blessed 
 Lord in 2 Corinthians v. 21 : " God hath made him wlio 
 knew no sin, to be sin for us ; that we might be made the 
 righteousness of God by him." That is, just as the victim 
 under Levi had the sin of the people cast upon it, and its 
 death was assumed to be the annihilation of that sin, so when 
 you, the chiefest of sinners, believe on Christ the only Sav- 
 iour, your sin is so transferred to him, and laid upon him, 
 and identified with him, that you receive the blessedness of 
 that man whose transgression is forgiven, whose iniquities 
 are pardoned, and to whom the Lord imputeth no sin. It is 
 then that Christ becomes the great sin-bearer of his peo- 
 ple — is made sin for his people ; and you will never appre- 
 ciate clearly the doctrine of justification by faith, or feel its 
 blessedness and its peace, till you have coHtrasted Christ's 
 sacrifice, and Christ the Priest, with the sacrifices and the 
 priesthood of the Levitical economy. 
 
 Moses on this occasion accompanied Aaron into the holy 
 of holies. This was contrary to the law in most cases ; but 
 Moses, being here the great medium of teaching to Aaron 
 and to all the people what was God's will, was authorized — 
 and not only authorized, but it was his duty — to go into the 
 holy place upon this occasion along with Aaron, and teach 
 him. 
 
LEVITICUS IX. 69 
 
 We read in the next place of the glory of God appearing 
 when Aaron came out and blessed the })eople. " And the 
 glory of the Lord," — that is the sitechinah, — " appeared 
 unto all the people ; " and, lastly, '' consumed upon the altar 
 the burnt-ofFering." All the sacrifices of Levi were consumed 
 by fire which came down from heaven ; and the consuming 
 of the victim by fire Avas the evidence to them that God was 
 pleased, and that the offering was accef)ted. So we read in 
 1 Kings viii. 10 : " And it came to pass, when the priests 
 were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the 
 liouse of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to min- 
 ister because of the cloud : for the glory of the Lord had 
 filled the house." And that was regarded as a token that 
 the offerer and his offering were accepted and owned of God. 
 
 Now all this is just a sign-post, preaching and pointing to 
 one higher, and holier, and greater than Aaron. You have 
 here the gospel as the people learned it in the days of Moses. 
 We have in the Epistle to the Hebrews all this explained ; 
 and, by the brilliancy and sharpness of the contrast between 
 the Great High-Priest and the typical high-priest, moral and 
 spiritual truths are made more clear, more impressive, and 
 instructive to Christians. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A SOLEMN judgment: DEATH OP THE SONS OP AARON — EXCESS OF 
 
 wine — strange eire : its meaning — reasons of punishing 
 Aaron's silence — god speaks to aaron — iiebrew the pri- 
 meval TONGUE high-priest's DUTIES. 
 
 Amidst the joyous scenes recorded in the previous chap- 
 ter, when the priests of the Most High presented their offer- 
 ings to the Lord with all acceptance, and when God blessed 
 them, and made permanent his institutions and his ordinances 
 for their comfort and progress — amidst all these scenes of 
 joyful and grateful recollections, there occurs one painful, 
 solemn, and strikingly impressive incident presented in the 
 opening words of this chapter. We have an account of these 
 two sons of Aaron in a previous part of Exodus ; where we 
 read, " Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, 
 and seventy of the elders of Israel : and they saw the God 
 of Israel : and there was under his feet as it were a paved 
 work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven 
 in his clearness." But how sad and melancholy it is that 
 those who had been blessed with the most exalted privileges, 
 should be first signalized as enduring, and receiving unto 
 tlieir souls, the most exterminating judgments ! It seems as 
 if it was an illustration of that awful saying of Peter, " If 
 judgment begin at the house of God, what shall be the end of 
 them that receive not the Gospel?" — that is, if God thiis 
 chasten part of the misconduct of his own, how severely will 
 he punish the awful sins and final unbelief of them that re- 
 ceive not the Gospel! It seems from the. statement in the 
 (70). 
 
LEVITICUS X. 71 
 
 ninth find tenth verses of this chapter, that one cause, at Ictast, 
 of their great sin — great, because of the circumstances in 
 which they were placed, and the dignity and rank they sus- 
 tained — was excess of wine. In the ninth verse of this 
 chapter we are told that the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, 
 " Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with 
 thoe, when thou goest into the tabernacle of the congregation." 
 Now this command immediately succeeding the judgment 
 that here overtook the sons of Aaron, would seem to imply 
 that they must have drunk wine to excess, and thereby erred 
 in the duties, and laws, and requirements of the public wor- 
 ship of God. At the same time, the actual sin itself — the 
 sin expressly so called — was that they oiFered " strange fire " 
 in their censers. This reminds us that there were two 
 things that were essential in the institutions of Aaron ; first, 
 that the sacrifice should be offered only upon one altar — 
 the great type of Christ, the true Sacrifice ; secondly, that 
 the incense — the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving — 
 should be burned in a censer that contained coals of fire taken 
 from the fire that was originally kindled from heaven ; to 
 represent that not only are we to offer our prayers in the 
 name of Christ, but we are also to seek that those prayers 
 may be inspired by the Holy Spirit of God in our hearts, 
 l^rjiyer that is offered in any other name than Christ's can- 
 not be accepted ; and the prayer that is suggested in the 
 heart by any but the Spirit of God, revealing to God our 
 deep wants, and interceding within us, in the language of 
 the apostle, " Avith groanings that cannot be uttered," never 
 will be accepted before God. 
 
 This punishment that fell upon the two sons of Aaron, 
 Nadab and Abihu, seems a very severe punishment. But 
 you will notice that the high and dignified position they oc- 
 cupied, made sin, in their case, far more grievous, and cal- 
 culated to do much more extensive mischief among Israel, 
 than if it had been perpetrated by some one occupying a 
 
72 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 less conspicuous and a lowlier position in the State. Though 
 sin is in itself always the same, yet, committed in the high 
 places of the land by those who occupy in Church or in 
 State, lofty and responsible positions, it has an aggravation 
 and an enormity that it has not wdien committed by those 
 who occupy lowlier and obscurer spheres in the land. Not 
 that the sin differs in its absolute and personal guilt, but that 
 it differs in the influence it spreads around it. Evil in high 
 places is very contagious — is seen by many, and imitated by 
 more. And, because these two sons of Aaron occupied high 
 and responsible positions in the arrangements of Israel, their 
 sin required to be signally punished, that all might see how 
 evil and bitter a thing it is to depart from the commands of 
 God. And, in the next place, this was the commencement of 
 a new economy. The commander of an army, or the com- 
 mander of a fleet, must insist upon rigid discipline at the 
 commencement of the military expedition, or of the sailing 
 of the fleet ; if he do not, the issue is disastrous to the sol- 
 diers and the sailors, as it will be injurious to great interests 
 and painful to him. Therefore, at the commencement of a 
 new economy, it was requisite that it should be seen that the 
 least of God's laws may not be transgressed with impunity ; 
 and that the authority of God alone, struck upon the least 
 and the loftiest, must be the great reason why there should be 
 instant, unqualified, and undiluted obedience. 
 
 When Aaron heard this, and saw his two sons struck dead, 
 it is said in most eloquent and instructive language, — " And 
 Aaron held his peace." He had nothing to say — even the 
 affection of a parent was repelled by the sense of justice en- 
 tertained in the bosom of the high-priest of Israel. 
 
 "We find that after this scene, God speaks now, not to 
 Moses, as he had heretofore done, but to Aaron. Heretofore 
 God spoke to Moses to give instruction to Aaron ; but, evi- 
 dently as an expression of deep sympathy with parental 
 feeling, in the eighth verse of this chapter, for the first time, 
 
LEVITCUS X. 73 
 
 he ceases to give directions through Moses — the prime min- 
 ister of that economy — and speaks directly, face to face, to 
 Aaron the high-priest, as if to comfort and cheer him under 
 so painful and severe a trial. Some have said, as we have 
 already noticed, that the special reason here — that one great 
 cause why these two sons of Aaron thus transgressed the 
 law — wa§ their drinking wine and strong drink. The pro- 
 hibition, therefore, now given was absolute in the case of all 
 the priests and ministers of Israel. It is not absolute in our 
 case ; although I do not believe that society would suffer 
 very much if it were absolutely obligatory. When we read 
 of the excesses that take place in these things, one is almost 
 tempted at times to wish that alcohol were banished from 
 society, or restricted to druggists' shops, and to be partaken 
 of only under the sanction of physicians' prescriptions. 
 Still we may not do away with what God has given as a 
 good gift ; we may not do away with the use of wune be- 
 cause men abuse it. The fact is, it is not by outward me- 
 chanical restrictions that men are changed, but it is only by 
 an inner, moral transformation ; a drunkard without principle 
 will be drunk if he drink from a wine bottle ; another man, 
 who hates drunkenness, will not be drunk if he drink from a 
 wine cask. The change that is wanted, therefore, is not an 
 outer, mechanical, coercive restriction ; but the introduction 
 into the heart of man of those mighty principles that teach 
 us and train us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this 
 present world. 
 
 In speaking of the word which is here translated " strong 
 drink," I may notice that it is one of those expressions that 
 seem to be preserved in so many languages. I think I have 
 noticed before, that the Avord " wine " is almost the same in 
 every language under the sun. I noticed before, too, the 
 very singular fact, that the word " sack," referred to in a 
 previous part, is the same in almost every language. So 
 the Hebrew word translated "strong drink" seems to have 
 
 7 
 
7d SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 become very mucb incorporated with other languages. The 
 HebrcAV word is shahar ; and this wo]'d at this moment is 
 used in India to denote a strong drink. In the Greek it is 
 oiiispa ; in the Latin it is sicera ; and in the English it is 
 supposed to have found its rest finally in the word " cider," 
 expressive of an intoxicating, though not a very intoxicating, 
 drink. And from the same word comes our word " sugar," 
 or the element of sweetness ; showing how singularly a word 
 can be traced to its original derivation, coming down tlirough 
 successive languages. But when you ascend from the Eng- 
 lish to the Latin, from the Latin to the Greek, and from 
 these to the Hebrew, there you stop ; and what does that 
 show ? That the Hebrew is the primitive language ; that 
 all the rest are broken fragments and dislocated parts of a 
 great primal tongue ; in other words, proving what the most 
 accomplished ethnologists have triumphantly proved, that all 
 the languages upon earth give token of a common origin ; 
 but give evidence, too, that they have suffered some great 
 dislocation in their transmission. 
 
 We can see, then, from the whole of this chapter, first, how 
 joyous scenes may be darkened and made sorrowful by sin. 
 Secondly, we learn from this chapter how sinful it is to wor- 
 ship God, or to seek to serve him, in any other sj^irit or in 
 any other manner than that which he himself has laid down. 
 We learn next, that God's name is ever to be sanctified and 
 to be had in reverence by all them that draw near to him. 
 
 One other thing I have not noticed, that is, the command 
 to the high-priest not to uncover his head. The high-priest 
 was ordered not to mourn for any, or put on the tokens and 
 weeds of mourning ; as if he were to be insulated from all 
 the rest by the dignity, the responsibility, and the gravity of 
 his office. 
 
 Are our eyes on the altar of sacrifice, waiting for the 
 everlasting Priest to come out and bless us ? " To them that 
 look for him he will come a second time without sin unto 
 salvation." 
 
LEVITICUS X. 75 
 
 Human life is full of lights and shadows — the sunshine 
 of to-day is lost in the clouds of the morrow. The peace of 
 half a century is suddenly broken by the sounds of war. 
 Judgments follow mercies. In all times, however prosper- 
 ous, it becomes us to rejoice with trembling. 
 
 We see how sacredly God preserved the very forms of 
 his service in ancient times. It was sin to do what he com- 
 manded not, as it was to do what he had positively forbid- 
 den, lie looks now rather to the heart than to tlie outward 
 mode of expressing its inward feelings. But still he will 
 not suffer his holy ordinances to be profaned, or his worship 
 to be corrupted and debased by superstition. No altar sanc- 
 tifies the gift but Christ. No strange fire must inspire the 
 heart, but the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. As 
 Nadab and Abihu found their punishment to spring directly 
 from their* sin, so still God makes the iniquities of his peo- 
 ple the rods with which they are chastened. 
 
 The awful solemnity felt in the heart of Aaron, the father 
 of the sufferers, is expressed in the words — '' Aaron held 
 his peace." He saw the justice and necessity of this terri- 
 ble example. His heart bled, but his lips were dumb. The 
 prohibition that followed, not to uncover their heads, or rend 
 their garments, in token of sorrow, was to teach that the 
 glory of God must supersede all personal feeling. 
 
 I have attended to the probable elements of the crime of 
 which the sons of Aaron were guilty. It is very difficult to 
 determine its nature. Perhaps the most correct estimate is 
 the following, given by Bush the American annotator, in his 
 valuable notes on this chapter : — 
 
 " There is some reason to suppose that, apart from the 
 quality of the fire which they brought, there was a rash in- 
 trusion, and a reckless irregularity in their going forward to 
 officiate at the time, and in the manner they did. The whole 
 transaction, as recorded, has an air of abruptness and pre- 
 cipitancy, as if they rushed upon the service without wait- 
 
76 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 ing for instructions, either from Moses or Aaron ; and as if 
 tliey were encroaching upon the functions of the high-priest. 
 If by the phrase ' offered before the Lord,' be meant, as 
 some suppose, that they advanced within the Most Holy 
 Place, and there presumed to oifer incense before the She- 
 kinah, this certainly was a bold invasion of Aaron's prerog- 
 ative, and one that would of course expose them to be at 
 once cut off for their hardihood. This idea receives some 
 countenance from Lev. xvi. 1, 2, where we are told that 
 * the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons 
 of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord and died : and 
 the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, 
 that he come not at all times into the holy place within the 
 veil, before the mercy-seat, which is upon the ark ; that he 
 die not : for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy- 
 seat.' Whether this be the correct inference 'or not, we 
 have no evidence from any other part of the ritual that 
 more than one priest was to officiate in burning incense at 
 the same time, and here they are represented as entering 
 together upon a service to which it does not appear that 
 either of them was now called. 
 
 " But laying aside every thing that is uncertain in the 
 affair, we find a definite and aggravated offence laid to their 
 charge. They sinned by offering a strange fire before the 
 Lord. Listead of filling their censers with coals from tlie 
 altar, where a supernatural fire had been kindled from 
 heaven, and which was always to be used in burning in- 
 cense, they contemptuously disregarded this ordinance, and 
 filled their vessels with common fire. Tiiis was the head 
 and front of their offending, whatever minor accessories of 
 guilt may have accompanied it. 
 
 " But where, it is said, is this act expressly forbidden ? 
 Is it anywhere ordered, in so many words, that only one 
 kind of fire should be employed in the services of the sanc- 
 tuary ? And if there was no express precept violated, 
 
LEVITICUS X. 77 
 
 wherein consisted the essential criminality of their conduct ? 
 In reply to this, we answer : (1.) That in the phrase ' which 
 he commanded not,' we recognize, according to the idiom of 
 the sacred writers, a clear intimation that the thing in ques- 
 tion had been expr-esshj forbidden. This is the true force of 
 the expression, as we shall evince in our note on the pas- 
 sage. (2.) In Ex. XXX. 9, it is commanded that no '' strange 
 incense ' should be presented, and the implication would be 
 inevitable, from the nature of the case, that ' strange fire ' 
 was equally contrary to the divine will. But not only so, 
 from Lev. xvi. 12, 13, we learn that on the day of atone- 
 ment the priest was to ' take a censer full of burning coals 
 of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full 
 of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail : 
 and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, 
 that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that 
 is Vi\)Oi\ the testimony, that he die not.' The order contained 
 in this passage was indeed given subsequent to the event we 
 are now considering, but the presumption obviously is, that 
 this was the standing usage which had been ordained from 
 the first institution of the legal rites, and as to which it is 
 not conceivable that Aaron's sons should have been ignorant. 
 And as the fire miraculously kindled on the altar was to be 
 kept perpetually alive, what other inference could have been 
 drawn, than that from this source was all the fire to be 
 derived which was employed in the sacred rites ? The fact 
 that we do not meet with any such injunction in express 
 terms, does not at all abate the force of the probability, that 
 they were perfectly aware that such was the will of God in 
 rejTrard to this matter." 
 
 7* 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ANIMAL FOOD — ANIJIAL SACRIFICES — DISTINCTION OF CREATURES 
 — CHURCH AND STATE — DIETETIC LAWS — THEIR VALUE — IN- 
 SULATION OF THE JEWS — HOSPITALITY, ITS POWER AND aiORAL 
 INFLUENCE. 
 
 All will readily own that tlie cliai^ter I have read, is not 
 certainly so instructive to us as individuals, or as members 
 of a brighter and a better dispensation ; yet it has, like all 
 parts of the Word of God, its own jDCculiar and obvious im- 
 portance. It seems at first sight a distressing thing that 
 God should thus regard any portion of his creatures as in 
 any sense impure and unclean, or still more that he should 
 suffer any portion of his living creatures to be employed for 
 the food of mankind. We find that prior to the Flood ani- 
 mal food was not eaten, nor allowed in the primitive state. 
 The first instance we find of animals slain was in Paradise. 
 When the sun of its innocence set beneath its horizon, we 
 read that then God clothed Adam and Eve with skins ; 
 which must have been the skins of animals that were slain 
 for sacrifices, then first instituted, as the case of Abel and 
 of Cain subsequently shows, and not of animals that were 
 eaten as food. But after the Flood, when man seems to 
 have become degenerated, and his vital powers to have been 
 impaired, we find that animal food was permitted. But 
 being permitted, it was requisite that a young race, without 
 the experience that we have, should be instructed what sorts 
 of food were best on the whole for the nutriment of man. 
 And if this was the only reason — which it was not — it 
 (78) 
 
LEVITICUS XI. 79 
 
 was not iinwortliy of God, the great Benefjietor, to make 
 tlic distinctions that are here given. Many people have a 
 notion that there is something unworthy, or, if I may not be 
 misunderstood, undignified, in God descending to such paltry 
 regulations, or, as they would call it, to little things. But 
 may not this be proof of his presence ? The truth is, I 
 know not whether God is greatest when he wields and 
 wheels the planets in their orbits, or when he clothes the 
 lily with all its loveliness, and finds its daily food for the 
 ephemeral insect that is born and perishes in a day. God's 
 greatest glory is often in his ministry to the minutest things. 
 "We call them minute, because, with considerable self-con- 
 ceit, we make ourselves the stand-point from which we look 
 at every thing ; that which is very much above ourselves 
 we think very great, and that which is below ourselves we 
 think very little. Whereas the truth is, that the microscope 
 has revealed to man far more stupendous wonders in a drop 
 of water than the telescope has revealed in the starry firma- 
 ment above him ; and we have more majestic footprints of 
 infinite wisdom, beneficence, and power, and love, visible in 
 an atom of dust than in the firmament above us. And, 
 therefore, it was not unworthy of God, who ministers to his 
 creatures the bread of life, to lay down what I may call 
 these dietetic precepts, or such regulations for their nutri- 
 ment as are given in this and parallel chapters. God wants 
 man not only to be happy in heaven, but he wants him to 
 be happy on earth ; and he takes the way of making him 
 happy by trying in these rubrics to show him that sin and 
 disobedience to his Word are the spring of misery ; that 
 obedience to God's Word is the source of all true and last- 
 ing happiness. 
 
 Now these distinctions laid down in this chapter were not 
 instituted strictly at the time specified here. I believe that 
 God took what had been the practice of the patriarchs by 
 his own appointment — mind you, by his own teaching — 
 
80 SCRIPTUllE READINGS. 
 
 and incorporated the principles Ox^ that practice in this chap- 
 ter ; because we find in the Book of Genesis, when Noah 
 was told to go into the ark, God said, " Of every clean beast 
 thou shalt take unto thee by sevens ; " and every unclean 
 beast again by another number. We thus see that the dis- 
 tinction of classes of animals existed then. Not that really 
 the animal is unclean; for I may state that the words 
 " clean " and " unclean," as we shall see in the subsequent 
 chapter that we shall read upon the leprosy, mean, to -pro- 
 nounce clean and unclean. 
 
 Having seen that the word " clean " is used in this sense, 
 let me proceed to the explanation of the chapter. It begins, 
 first of all, by God speaking not only to Moses, as on former 
 occasions, alone; nor to Aaron, as on former occasions, 
 alone, but to Moses and Aaron both ; Moses, the representa- 
 tive of the State ; Aaron, the representative of the priest- 
 hood. It was a law, therefore, that was to be binding alike 
 upon Church and State, upon priests and princes, upon 
 Moses and upon Aaron both. 
 
 The classification that is made here is a most remarkable 
 one. It is not wholly an arbitrary one; but evidently a 
 distinction originally inherent in the animal economy. It is 
 matter-of-fact in nature itself, and it has been remarked by 
 some eminent critics of the rationalistic school, how amaz- 
 ing that Moses should have been so intimately acquainted 
 with zoology, with ornithology, and with all the condition 
 and nature of animals, as he shows himself to be in this 
 chapter ! It would indeed be a wonder — it would be far 
 more wonderful than to suppose, what is really the common 
 sense view — that Moses did not originate it, but was in- 
 spired by the Spirit of God to record it. It requires a 
 great deal of credulity to be an infidel ; it requires only a 
 good amount of common sense to believe in Christianity. 
 The distinctions that are drawn here have lasted till now, 
 and are practically acted on. For instance, animals that are 
 
LEVITICUS XI. . 81 
 
 called graminivorous and ruminative, and lliat divide the 
 lioof, are still found to be most wholesome for food. The 
 swine, for instance, which are what Moses would call half 
 clean, not being ruminative and graminivorous, but dividing 
 the hoof; have flesh not so wholesome as the flesh of the 
 sheep and of those animals that have these requisite dis- 
 tinctions. Hence among the Jews the use of SAvine's flesh 
 was forbidden ; among the Mahometans it is still forbidden ; 
 in eastern nations it is disliked. The sceptic thinks that 
 these laws are old and now obsolete institutions, good 
 enough for the Jews, but not for us. But what is the fact ? 
 That the Jews, who adhere rigidly to these prescriptions, 
 who act on the precautions that these prescriptions inculcate, 
 and who exercise all the personal, and physical, and social 
 cleanliness — anxious, scrupulous cleanliness — that these 
 prescriptions necessitate, when epidemic or pestilence visits 
 a land, generally escape in greatest proportion ; while the 
 same class of Gentiles are struck down, the corresponding 
 class of Jews, it is a remarkable fact, generally escape. 
 Mind you, I believe that in copying the literal observances 
 of the Jews we should do a very wrong thing ; what I say 
 is simply this : that they who attend to those habits of 
 thorough cleanliness inculcated here among the lower or- 
 ders, which the same class of Gentiles do not attend to, and 
 which we, for want of schools to instruct them, do not teach 
 them to do, are generally most healthy. We have in this a 
 very remarkable proof that these regulations and prescrip- 
 tions are not useless or obsolete, even with regard to the 
 personal comfort and social well-being of mankind. 
 
 In the case of fishes the definition is, that whatsoever hath 
 " no fins and scales " is unclean. The eel, therefore, is un- 
 clean. And everybody knows that fish of that description 
 is less wholesome. So again with respect to birds — "the 
 eagle, the ossifrage, the ospray, the vulture, the kite, the 
 stork, the owl," and others, are unfit for human food. And 
 
82 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 the usages of human nature are the most emphatic " amen " 
 to the prescription in the 11th chapter of the Book of 
 Leviticus. There is an indirect evidence that there is a dis- 
 tinction drawn here by one who knew all the fowls of the 
 air, all the fishes of the deep, and all the cattle upon a thou- 
 sand hills. 
 
 It may be remarked, that the beetle, mentioned with the 
 locust, is not fit for human food. But it is e^^ident from a 
 book I have read, that the original word really means a sort 
 of locust, and not the beetle. In the East the locust is one 
 of the choicest delicacies. I know we shrink from it ; but 
 an Arab would no doubt, in the same manner, shrink from 
 our shrimps or crabs, and think them very horrible. We 
 notice in all this, however, that the great object was not 
 simply to lay down laws of universal obligation ; for I admit 
 at once that this chapter is not obhgatory upon us. All I 
 assert is, that the more we approximate to it in the choice 
 of our articles of food, the more wholesome those articles 
 will be found to be ; and, therefore, that while in the letter 
 it is not obligatory, morally and substantially, it seems high- 
 ly expedient. But the great object of God directing the 
 Jews so minutely, was to insulate them from every other 
 nation. But you ask. Why insulate the Jews? Because 
 they were a people raised up by God to be a model nation, 
 a specimen of human nature sanctified and taught of God, 
 to be the guardians of the sacred volume — to be witnesses 
 to the unity of the Godhead, and the worship of the one 
 true, and living God ; all flesh having corrupted its way, 
 tliere was a national election of a peculiar people, to be the 
 guardians of truth amidst the universal darkness. Now, it 
 was important that this people should be distinguished, and 
 kept separate from the rest of the nations of the earth. 
 Let us see how they were kept separate. The first great 
 mode of intercourse in ancient times, as it is now, was the 
 interchange of hospitality. Friends meet friends at table ; 
 
LEVITICUS XI. 83 
 
 SO they did then. Bnt the articles which the Gentiles ate, 
 were so different to the articles which the Jew was permit- 
 ted to eat, that by the very necessity of these laws, the Jew 
 was prevented from mixing with the Gentiles to a very 
 great extent. And as hospitality was then the strongest 
 seal, and stamp, and mark of confidence, and love, and 
 brotherly aid, it was most important that so fast a tie should 
 not take placje between the Jew that Avorshipped the one 
 God, and the Gentile that bowed down to idols. We see 
 similar effects at the present day. It is difficult to eat 
 wdth a Mahometan, or rather to get a Mahometan to eat 
 with you ; or to eat with a Hindoo, or rather to get a Hin- 
 doo to eat with you. His dietetic maxims may be very 
 false, I admit they are so ; but his dietetic maxims keep 
 him separate from us. And very probably it is the dietetic 
 maxims that prevail in the East that have stereotyped 
 Eastern nations, and made the Arab in the desert the same 
 as he has been from the days w^hen Abraham buried Sarah 
 under the oaks of Mamre. It is their j^eculiar social habits 
 that keep them separate, and that originally made them so. 
 So God designed to keep his people separate, and I do not 
 know a more effective plan than that which is employed in 
 this chapter. We have the historical and actual effect of 
 mingling in rites of hospitality on the moral and religious 
 conduct, in Numbers xxv. 2, 3, " The people did eat, and 
 bowed down to their gods." 
 
 Dr. Kitto, in his able edition of the Bible, called " The 
 Pictorial Bible," justifies thus the views which I have here 
 laid down : — 
 
 " The truth of this observation must be obvious to every per- 
 son acquainted with the East, wdiere, on account of the natives 
 regarding as unclean many articles of food and modes of prep- 
 aration in wdiich Europeans indulge, travellers or residents 
 find it impossible to associate intimately with conscientious 
 Mahommcdans or Hindoos. Nothing more effectual could be 
 
84 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 devised to keep one people distinct from another. It causes 
 the difFerence between them to be ever present to the mind, 
 touching, as it does, upon so many points of social and every 
 day contact ; and it is therefore far more efficient in its re- 
 sults as a rule of distinction than any difFerence in doctrine, 
 worship, or morals which men could entertain. While the 
 writer of this note was in Asia, he had almost daily occasion 
 to be convinced of the incalculable efficacy of such distinctions 
 in keeping men apart from strangers. A Mahommedan, for 
 instance, might be kind, liberal, indulgent ; but the recur- 
 rence of a meal, or any eating, threw him back upon his own 
 distinctive practices and habits, reminding him that you were 
 an unclean person from your habits of indulgence in foods 
 and drinks forbidden to him, and that his own purity was 
 endangered by communication with you. Your own per- 
 ception of this feeling in him is not to you less painful and 
 discouraging to intercourse, than its existence is to him who 
 entertains it. It is a mutual repulsion continually operat- 
 ing ; and its effect may be estimated from the fact, that no 
 nation, in which a distinction of meats was rigidly enforced 
 as part of a religious system, has ever changed its religion. 
 Oriental legislators have been generally aware of the effiict 
 of such regulations ; and hence through most parts of Asia 
 we find a religious distinction of meats in very active oper- 
 ation, and so arranged as to prevent social intercourse with 
 people of a diffiarent fjiith. In the chapter before us it is 
 not dillicult to discover that the Holy Ghost expounded this 
 law. In this vision, it will be recollected, the apostle saw 
 a great white sheet let down to the earth, containing all man- 
 ner of four-footed beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the 
 air, and heard at the same time a voice commanding him, 
 notwithstanding his scruples, to rise, kill, and eat, for that 
 that which God had cleansed was no longer to be accounted 
 common or unclean. Immediately after this supernatural 
 exhibition, the apostle went, under the direction of the Spirit, 
 
LEVITICUS XI. 85 
 
 to the house of Cornelius, a devout Roman, whom God had 
 chosen into that Christian Church of which the visionary- 
 sheet was a figure, from its containing not only those meats 
 prohibited by Moses which we usually eat, but also others, 
 of which the flesh of dogs was one. "With regard to the 
 Arabs, they were nearly related to the Israelites, and their 
 practices were less corrupt than those of the Egyptians and 
 Canaanites, whence the difference of food is not so strongly 
 marked; but still it was quite enough to hinder the intimacy 
 of the two nations. The camel not only constitutes the 
 principal wealth of the Arabs, but its flesh is a 2:)rincipal an- 
 imal food ; besides which they eat the hare, and the jerboa: 
 all these are forbidden in this chapter, the last under the 
 name of ^ mouse.' If even at this distance of time we can 
 discover such diflferences between the diet of the Hebrews 
 and that of their neighbors, we may easily conceive that a 
 more intimate acquaintance with the diet of the latter would 
 exhibit more important and numerous distinctions." 
 
 8 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TUB PURIFICATION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 
 
 The rites and ceremonies laid down in this chapter, wliicli 
 is suitable for private rather than public reading, are in no 
 respect obligatory upon us. Its chief value lies in the light 
 it casts upon the Virgin Mary at the birth of our blessed 
 Redeemer. She was so poor as to be unable to offer a lamb 
 in sacrifice. She f)resented what the poor, on account of 
 their jDOverty, might offer, two turtledoves, or young pi- 
 geons. " When the days of her purification, according to 
 the law of Moses, were accomplished, they brought him to 
 Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in 
 the law of the Lord, Every male child that openeth the 
 womb, shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacri- 
 fice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, 
 a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons," Luke ii. 
 22-24. 
 
 Woman needs to be reminded that her chief and dis- 
 tinctive suffering is the result of sin, and no less to be taught 
 that a great Sacrifice, formerly in prophecy, now in fact, has 
 been provided, in which there is neither male nor female, 
 but equal welcome and purification of soul for all that flee 
 to Christ for forgiveness. 
 
 (86) - > 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LEPER — THE TYPICAL DISEASE — THE TRIEST — HIS FUNC- 
 TION — MEANING or SENTENCE — ABSOLUTION — PKAYERBOOK 
 SERVICE FOR SICK. 
 
 There arc, unquestionably, parts of the Bible that are 
 not very instructive to us, especially if read in their strictly 
 literal and historical application, or in their primary refer- 
 ence to the Jews, to whom alone they were emphatically 
 applicable. Perhaps this is one of those chapters that are 
 not interesting or instructive to a miscellaneous congre- 
 gation, and, like many other parts of this book, it is, per- 
 haps, more peculiarly meant for private and individual 
 study, than for reading on public occasions and in divine 
 service. The reason I have read this chapter is, not merely 
 that it comes in order, and therefore should be read, but, 
 that it contains an account of that chief and special physical 
 disease which is regarded throughout the whole Scripture as 
 the great typical and significant disease ; and used, and con- 
 stantly referred to, both in the history of our Lord and the 
 allusions of the apostles, to set forth, first, the universa>ity of 
 sin ; secondly, its contagious character ; thirdly, its disrup- 
 tive power, separating the person from all social life, and 
 insulating him from all tlie reciprocities and offices of society 
 itself. There was this peculiar feature, that the man sus- 
 pected of the infection of leprosy, (a disease suj)posed to 
 have been imported from Egypt,) was not to aj^ply to the 
 physician, as was the case with other diseases, but to the 
 
88 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 priest : not that the priest could heal it — for neither the 
 physician nor the priest could heal it ; all that the priest 
 could do, was to say, judging by symptoms and characteris- 
 tic features that accompanied and marked the disease, " The 
 person has leprosy, or is a leper ; " or, " The person is not 
 a leper ; " or in the language of the chapter, " He shall pro- 
 nounce him clean, or pronounce him unclean." You will 
 find that most or all of those expressions that occur in 
 Scripture, descriptive of the soul of man by nature, are bor- 
 rovred from the disease described in this chapter. For 
 instance, Isaiah says, " The whole head is sick, the whole 
 heart is faint ; and from the crown of the head to the soles 
 of the feet there is no soundness at all ; " language evidently 
 allusive to this very disease. In the history of our blessed 
 Lord you remember the interesting instance of the ten 
 lepers, who " came and stood afar oif, and they lifted up 
 their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 
 And when he saw them, he said. Go, show yourselves unto 
 the priest." You ask, when you read this chapter the first 
 time, " Why should he say so ? " You can only understand 
 the reason of it by being acquainted with the facts in the 
 chapter I have now read. " Go, show yourselves to the 
 priest. And it came to pass, that as they went they were 
 cleansed." He said, " Go, and ask the priest whether you 
 be cleansed or uncleansed," that is, whether the disease be 
 removed, or the disease be there. " Whilst they were going 
 they were cleansed," that is, they were healed. Now, as no 
 priest could heal them ; as no earthly physician, or balm in 
 Gilead, or prescription in Israel, could heal the disease, the 
 fact that Jesus healed it as they went to ask the priests if 
 they were healed or not, was evidence that Jesus was more 
 llian man, that he was the mighty God, the great High- 
 Priest of Israel. And then, "one of them, when he saw 
 that he was cleansed, turned back, and with a loud voice 
 glorified God " — that was the Saviour. Now, Jesus made 
 
LEVITICUS XIII. 89 
 
 tliem go and show themselves to the priest, in order that 
 the priest, knowing previously that they were lepers, be- 
 cause he had pronounced them unclean, and had them sep- 
 arated from society, might, when he saw them return, a>k 
 them, " Ye are now clean ; who has healed you ? " and they 
 would say, " Jesus of Nazareth healed us ; " which must 
 have proved that Jesus of Nazareth was more than man. 
 The leprosy was the great incurable disease that was in- 
 flicted, it is supposed, by the finger of God himself, and 
 could only be removed by the Divine command, before 
 which all disease, disorder, and contamination pass away. 
 
 In the next place, you will notice here that there were cer- 
 tain characteristic signs on the body, which distinguished and 
 discriminated this peculiar malady from incidental diseases, 
 to which the human frame was liable in every age ; and the 
 priest was the only person who had the prerogative or the 
 power to distinguish or pronounce clean or unclean, as the 
 symptoms might lead him to conclude. The words in the 
 original Hebrew, rendered " pronounce clean or unclean," 
 are very remarkable. They are rendered very properly in 
 our translation, " He shall pronounce him unclean, or he 
 shall pronounce him clean." But the original Hebrew word 
 is, literally translated, " The priest shall cleanse him, or the 
 priest shall uncleanse him." This is the literal translation 
 of the Hebrew ; yet we see plainly that the priest did not 
 cleanse, but merely pronounce, from certain symptoms, that 
 he was clean. He could not uncleanse, because the man was 
 already a leper, and could not be made a leper again. It is 
 plain therefore that the Hebrew idiom or phrase is very prop- 
 erly rendered by our translators, "pronounce clean," and 
 " pronounce unclean." Let us next remember, that the 
 Greek language of the New Testament is not the pure classic 
 Greek of the Attic writers but a sort of Hebraistic Greek, or 
 tinctured with Hebrew idioms ; just as we speak of English, 
 and Scotch, or Irisli idioms. Rememboring this thought, you 
 
 8* 
 
90 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 will see the meaning of the commission of our blessed Lord 
 which he gave to the apostles: — " Whosesoever sins ye re- 
 mit, they are remitted ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they 
 are retained." Our translators render the Greek here liter- 
 ally, while they have translated the corresponding Hebrew 
 figuratively ; and if our translators had rendered the passage 
 in John xx. 23, " Whosesoever sins ye pronounce to be re- 
 mitted " — on data and evidence given by the party and the 
 sinner — " they are remitted ; and whosesoever sins ye re- 
 tain " — that is, " pronounce to be retained " — from the fruits 
 brought forth by the party, the sinner that is brought before 
 you — " those sins are retained," no perplexity would be 
 possible. If they had translated the words in this way, which 
 is the true rendering, then the interpretation, the monstrous 
 interpretation based upon the passage by the adherents or 
 advocates of the Romish Church, and those that follow 
 and tread in their wake, would never have been heard of; 
 and the blasphemous notion scarcely have entered man's 
 mind, that a man is to kneel before a priest, to tell him the 
 innermost thoughts of his heart, and to receive from that 
 priest, not declarative, but judicial, absolution pronounced 
 on earth, and, as supposed, ratified infallibly and certainly 
 in heaven ! But you say, Then what is meant by " pro- 
 nounce forgiven," or " pronounce retained ? " I answer, 
 We are not infallible, nor do we pretend to be so ; but we 
 proclaim to every human being that such and such are the 
 marks and characteristics of a true Christian, and that by 
 these marks you may know whether you be a Christian or 
 not. For what is it to be a Christian ? It is to have the 
 pardon of all our sins, and the regeneration of our hearts. 
 So you may pronounce again from other features, and pro- 
 claim it as incontrovertible truth, that by the bringing 
 forth of the fruits of injustice, of depravity, of wickedness, 
 you give evidence that your sins are not forgiven, and your 
 heart not renewed. The whole function of the ministry of 
 
LEVITICUS XIII. dl 
 
 the gospel is declarative ; and the less of the judicial in the 
 pronouncements of one who proclaims the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ, the more scriptural, as well as pleasant will be the 
 result that will follow. 
 
 Here I may mention another fact, — that the so-called 
 absolution, " I absolve thee," is a form of absolution that does 
 not occur in any writer, either in the Eastern or Western 
 churches, for three centuries. There never was heard, 
 for three centuries at least after the birth of Christ, an in- 
 stance of any one pronouncing absolution in the first per- 
 son singular — " / absolve thee." It is always in the 
 third person singular, and is, " May he be absolved." It is 
 never judicial. It is, " May he be pardoned in the name of 
 the Father, and of the vSon, and of the Holy Ghost " — than 
 which nothing can be more proper. But you say. Does not 
 absolution by the first person occur even in a Protestant ser- 
 vice ? I admit that it does. In the Church of England 
 Prayerbook, for the visitation of the sick, it does occur. 
 But I am told that that service is not obligatory ; that no 
 clergyman is compelled to say it. Explain it as you like, I 
 think it is a great mistake to retain it if it can be got rid of. 
 The Reformers thought that, by giving a little here and a 
 little there, they would conciliate the greatest number, and 
 do the greatest good. But I am quite sure that if those ex- 
 cellent Reformers had seen the tremendous superstructure 
 that would be built on w^hat they never meant to be the basis 
 of papal superstition, they would, like Knox andthe Scottish 
 Reformers, have weeded out the last remains of the apos- 
 tasy — that might be construed to be so — and so having 
 removed the nests, the rooks, in his own terse language, 
 would never have returned again. However, in that very 
 service, faulty as it is, I may mention there is a very wide 
 difference between it and the popish one. There, it is said 
 to be declarative; in tlie popish, it is judicial — a wide dif- 
 ference in this respect between tlie two. Secondly, in that 
 
92 SCRIPTUKE READINGS. 
 
 service the party may or may not seek absolution, but in the 
 Romish Church he must seek it once a year, or he is excom- 
 municated. And thirdly, in that service it is only the sick 
 that can come within reach of the absolution ; but m the 
 Roman Catholic Church it is obligatory upon sick and healthy. 
 And the whole of that service, defective as it is, I admit, and 
 equivocal as it is apparently, proceeds upon the supposition 
 that it is a mere declaration, to satisfy an earnest and scru- 
 pulous mind, and not a judicial pronouncement of absolute 
 forgiveness. However, we have it plain in the Word of God, 
 that forgiving and retaining, or remitting and retaining, were 
 not judicial acts, but simply pronouncements, based upon 
 symptoms or upon data previously ascertained; and even 
 the priest that pronounced was not infallible, but might be 
 mistaken. 
 
 And lastly, the high-priest pronounced according to the 
 rules laid down in God's Holy Word. And the Christian 
 minister, if called upon to speak at all, ought to be guided 
 by that law, that inspired law, which settles all controversies 
 and terminates all disputes. 
 
 How humiliating that man's body should be subject to such 
 diseases ! It was never made to be so. Sin entered, and 
 disease, which is only the commencement of death, by sin. 
 How delightful that blessed hope, that all creation shall one 
 day be pronounced, by the true High-Priest, no longer un- 
 clean, but clean : all its storms shall be laid, all its injuries 
 removed, all its ills, its aches, and its pains put away ; and 
 the Prince of Peace shall reign over a world at peace with 
 God, and over a family at peace with each other. 
 
CHAPTER Xill. 
 
 DISEASE AND SIN — EVERY FACULTY AND AFFECTION INFECTED — 
 INSULATION OF SIN — PKIESt's POWER — CIIRIST'S DUTIES. 
 
 " And the leper in wlioni the plague is, his clothes shall he rent and 
 his head hare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and 
 shall ciy, Unclean, unclean." — Leviticus xiii. 45. 
 
 "We have seen in the course of the long and in some 
 degree uninteresting chapter which we have read, what 
 was the nature, the sign, and the disastrous issue of the 
 great typical disease, if it remained unhealed. I also no- 
 ticed that it is rcofarded throuo-hout the New Testament econ- 
 omy, and indeed the Old also, as the great typical disease ; 
 or that special and peculiar disease incident to the Jews, 
 which was meant to be symbolical and illustrative of the 
 great moral malady of sin, wliich has overspread and infected 
 all humanity. It is only by reading this chapter, uninterest- 
 ing as it seems to us, that we can understand many of the 
 peculiar phrases tliat are employed in the Psalms, and some- 
 times in the Propliets, and occasionally in the Gospels. This 
 great fact that a disease in the body was typical of a ^nalady 
 in the soul, reminds us at once that there was perfect har- 
 mony between the body and the soul, between things spir- 
 itual and things temporal, between things heavenly and 
 things earthly. There is enough of the harmony still sur 
 viving to show what and how rich it once was; there is 
 enough of disturbance introduced to indicate that some great 
 
 (93) 
 
94 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 shall find disease and sin constantly associated, the one, in 
 some shape or another, connected with the other. Originally 
 the soul was made perfectly pure, without a fault or a flaw, 
 holy and happy ; the body was constituted its shrine, per- 
 fectly healthy, free from disease, and all the signs and symp- 
 toms of decay ; but sin was first introduced, and disease in- 
 stantly followed in its track. Sin seems indeed to be the 
 great substance, and disease to be the shadow, the cold and 
 baneful shadow, that everywhere attends it. There is no 
 explanation of the physical distempers that have befallen 
 humanity, except that which is given in God's Holy Word, 
 that sin entered, and death by sin. Death is simply the re- 
 sult of disease — it is not itself disease, but the result, the 
 final result, of the power, the poison, and the venom of dis- 
 ease. And if death was introduced by disease, we naturally 
 and necessarily infer that all ills and aches that humanity is 
 heir to were introduced by sin also. 
 
 We find, in the next place, that in the Old Testament 
 economy the cure of bodily disease was almost invariably 
 associated with sacrifice. Wherever a disease was to be re- 
 moved from the body, or a calamity averted from the land, 
 there we find atoning, expiatory sacrifices were instituted ; 
 and without shedding of blood, not only was there no re- 
 mission of sins, but also there was no removal of disease. 
 And in the case of our blessed Lord, we find the only suc- 
 cessful Physician, who cured all diseases, and restored all. 
 that applied to him, was he who came to live a Priest, to die 
 a Sacrifice, and to present an atoning ransom for the sins as 
 well as for the sorrows of mankind. 
 
 The historical statement in this chapter is, that the lep- 
 rosy overspread the whole body, till it became, in language 
 used by one of the prophets, " white as snow ; " the whole 
 physical economy was infected ^vith its deadly poison. And, 
 in that respect, it was the type, and is indeed referred to in 
 the New Testament as the type, of that sin which has 
 
LEVITICUS XIII. 95 
 
 infected the ^vllolc soul and bodj' of mankind. Take any 
 one flxculty that is within us, and wo shall find' on it the 
 great leprosy, or taint, or moral influence of sin. Man's 
 intellect is still powerful, but it gives evidence of having ex- 
 perienced a shock. The intellect has in it still remaining 
 energies that give token of w^hat it once was ; but it has iu 
 it also defects, and tremulousness, and Aveakness, and paraly- 
 sis, that indicate that it is the subject of some great de- 
 rangement. The intellect, beyond all question, has shared 
 the consequences of Adam's sin ; it is enfeebled, it is per- 
 verted, it is often crooked in its conclusions ; and, like the 
 rest of the inmates of the human frame, the intellect must 
 put its hand upon its mouth, and its mouth in the dust, and 
 say with the leper of old, " Unclean, unclean." 
 
 I need not attempt to prove, that the heart also is defiled. 
 Just as the disease of Israel overspread the whole animal 
 economy, so the moral taint of transgression, account for its 
 introduction as you like, has infected not only the intellect, 
 but the heart. Hence, the prophet says, " The Avhole head 
 is sick," — that is, the intellect is infected ; " the wdiole heart 
 is faint," — that is, the heart is also infected. And the evi- 
 dence of this is, that man not only now fails to love God 
 with all the heart, as he w^as made and meant originally to 
 do, but he loves the creature often more than the Creator, 
 and gives to the workmanship of God's hands the affection, 
 the esteem, the estimation that are the exclusive preroga- 
 tives and just demands of God himself. The gold is liter- 
 ally become dim, and the fine gold is literally changed ; the 
 heart has lost its upward tendency ; our first love is not to 
 God-ward, our strongest affection is away from him. We 
 constantly feel the things of this world intruding, and de- 
 manding and obtaining supremacy ; constantly striving for a 
 share, a larger share than is due, of that love and affection 
 that we owe to God. Our blessed Lord gives the heart its 
 true and fearful character, when he says, " Out of the heart 
 
96 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 proceed evil lliouglits, murder, adultery, and such like ; and 
 these are the things that defile a man." Truly, therefore, 
 and justly did the Psalmist pray, " Create in me a clean 
 heart, O God ; renew a right spirit within me." 
 
 But not only are the heart and intellect affected, as I have 
 shown you, but the conscience also has suffered, and is 
 poisoned by the universal disease. The conscience is that 
 power in every one of us which we feel better than we can 
 define ; that power within us which tellg us, even weakened 
 and crippled as it is, " This is wrong, and that is right ; " 
 and which adds to its judgment also those feelings which 
 follow the conscious perpetration of the wrong, and that 
 approbation that follows the conscious performance of what 
 is right, and good, and true. That mysterious faculty or 
 power was once the vicegerent of God in the human 
 bosom ; it was once the oracle by which he spake ; and 
 Adam, before he fell, had not to read God's will on the sky, 
 or on the earth, or in a book, but he had to listen only to 
 the promptings of the holy monitor within, to know what 
 was the will and the mind of the Holy Creator and Gov- 
 ernor without. But the moment that sin entered, this mys- 
 terious power, this faculty thaj so distinguishes us from the 
 lower creation, became powerfully diseased. It now magni- 
 fies immaterial and unimj^ortant things, and it frequently 
 disregards solemn truth, and is a seared, or a dead, or an 
 insensible conscience. It is sometimes overflowed by guilty 
 passions, it is sometimes silent when it ought to rebuke 
 them ; sometimes quiescent when it ought to assert its orig- 
 inal authority, and sometimes the democracy of the passions 
 rises in fierce array, dethrones the monarch that ought to 
 sway and govern them, and prompts man to pursue the 
 infatuated course that leads to his ruin. And in the worst 
 of cases this power of conscience is often perverted to the 
 wrong side, sanctioning the sins which it ought to abhor, 
 and siding with, or conniving at, acts which God has con- 
 
LEVITICUS XIII. 97 
 
 demned, and which it knows in its purest find best moments 
 to be contrary to his holy hiw. AVhen the intellect that dis- 
 cerns, the heart that loves or hates, and the conscience that 
 testifies Avhat is right or wrong, are thus infected, truly may 
 we say with Isaiah, " The whole head is sick, the whole 
 heart is faint, and from the crown of the head to the sole of 
 the foot there is no soundness at all." " The heart of man," 
 says Jeremiah, "is deceitful above all things, and despe- 
 rately wicked. Who can know it ? " That word translated 
 in Jeremiah xvii. 9, " Desperately wicked," is literally, " so 
 depraved as to be incurable by human power." " The heart 
 of man is deceitful above all things," and so diseased as to 
 be incurable by human power. 
 
 Were the tokens and the evidences of the assertion I 
 have made not so obvious and so numerous as they actually 
 are, you find other proofs in the miser fixing his heart upon 
 gold, in spite of tlie decisions of intellect, the better impulses 
 of the heart, and the rebukes of conscience. You find the 
 drunkard still indulging in his cups, notwithstanding a thou- 
 sand testimonies within and without, that he is ruining soul 
 and body. You find the Pharisee robbing widows' houses, 
 and making long prayers for a pretence. You find the very 
 religion of love and truth corrupted into the religion of su- 
 perstition, of hate, and a lie. So depraved and fallen is man, 
 that it looks that, if he had the power, he would turn re- 
 demption itself into a nullity, or into a curse. There is, then, 
 on all sides the evidence of some great derangement. We 
 never can suppose we were made so. Disease seems to us 
 natural, but it is most unnatural ; error, sin, hate, all seem 
 jo us normal and ordinary, but they are really altogether the 
 reverse. We were made holy, happy, pure, immortal ; and 
 if we have become otherwise, though I cannot explain the 
 reason of it, it is not God that is to blame, but man that has 
 sinned, and brought death by sin into the world, and all our 
 woe. 
 
 9 
 
98 SCKIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 We may well ask with Job, at the conclusion of these re- 
 marks, " Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" 
 And we must answer w^ith him, " Not one." " Woe is me," 
 said Isaiah, " for I am a man of unclean lips." Abraham 
 said he was but dust and ashes. Job was constrained to say, 
 when he saw himself, " I abhor myself." Peter said, " De- 
 part fi-om me : for I am a sinful man, Lord." Paul said, 
 " I am the chiefest of sinners ; " and thus we find that the 
 best of men are they that to themselves and to God acknowl- 
 edge themselves to be the worst. The man who is least 
 Christian will think himself the most enlightened and the 
 best ; and he who has most of the light of truth in his intel- 
 lect, irradiating his conscience, sees himself to be the worst 
 and the chiefest of sinners. 
 
 We find, on tracing the similitude between the disease 
 which is here mentioned, that the leper had to l^^ insulated 
 from the rest of the world, and left by himself to get rid of 
 the disease that thus separated him. So the sinner, in God's 
 moral government, must be for ever separated from the com- 
 munion and company of the holy, if he continue the subject 
 of this great moral malady — sin. Even society itself is 
 obliged to shut up in prison the violator of its rights, the 
 source and author of its disorganization. And in God's 
 moral government much more must He separate, from the 
 fellowshij^ of the good in heaven, them that are not only de- 
 praved themselves, but must, by the necessity of their state, 
 infect, deprave, and corrupt others. Hence the abode of the 
 lost is not a })lace so much prepared by God, as a place into 
 which the sinner necessarily precipitates himself. It is the 
 very nature of his being to be detached from, and to fall fur- 
 ther from tiie company and communion of, the holy and the 
 nappy. Just as a stone flills towards the centre of the earth, 
 a sinner falls downwards to ruin. It is his nature, it is his 
 natural course ; not his original nature, but the nature that 
 he now has : infected by sin, and aggravated by sinful courses 
 
LEVITICUS XIII. 99 
 
 he naturally and neces.>^arily gi'avitates dowmvards and down- 
 wards further and further from God. And therefore the 
 sinner, unless healed in some way, like the leper of old, 
 must be separated or set apart from the fellowship of the 
 holy and the happy forever. 
 
 Tiie leper's disease was so bad, that it was incurable by 
 human means. No human power could cure it ; neither 
 physician nor priest could cure it. It is so with sin. All 
 the waters of Damascus or Abana and Pharpar, its rivers, 
 cannot wash away sin. There is no balm in Gilead that 
 can cure it ; there is no physician there able to remove it ; 
 and human nature, left to itself, would remain the victim 
 and the subject of this deadly disease forever and forever ; 
 and while human nature seeks out many physicians, it dis- 
 covers, like the woman of the Gospel, that instead of becom- 
 ing better, it is made worse, with the additional disadvan- 
 tage, that strength and money are spent in seeking what it 
 is unsuccessful in finding. 
 
 Like the leprosy, in the next place, sin is contagious. 
 The characteristic disease of the Israelite spread from per- 
 son to person, froni house to house, and throughout the 
 whole land. And who needs to be taught that " evil com- 
 munications corrupt good manners ? " Who needs to learn 
 that there is an evil word, in a crooked course, a contagious 
 influence that is distilled upon susceptible and sensitive and 
 living hearts? I believe every look on the face, every 
 word from the lips, every act in the life, has influence ; and 
 when these are depra:ved, the influence is evil ; just as in 
 the opposite direction, when they are good, the influence is 
 beneficent and good also. And not only was this typical 
 disease thus infectious, but it also infected houses, garments, 
 robes — every thing that the individual touched. Is not 
 that the case with sin ? It has infected the whole earth. 
 There is not a flower that blooms so beautifully as it once 
 did ; there is not a precious gem, or jewel, or mineral so 
 
100 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 pure as it once was. There is nothing on earth that the 
 stain and the taint of sin is not on ; there is nothing with 
 which we come into contact that is not injured, weakened, 
 deteriorated, by the touch and the communion of man. And 
 hence, says the apostle so justly, in consequence of the 
 infection of the inhabitant, the whole house is in sorrow — 
 " the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain until 
 now, waiting for the redemption — that is, the manifestation 
 of the sons of God." The moment that the monarch fell, 
 his sceptre, his crown, and his palace were shorn of their 
 glory, and infected by his sin. The inhabitant has become 
 sick, and the whole house shares in his malady. The soul, 
 the conscience, the heart, the body, all we are, have shared 
 in the taint of Adam's first sin, and all that we touch has 
 caught its contagion too. 
 
 In the ancient economy, the party to whom the leper pre- 
 sented himself, was not the physician, as in other diseases, 
 but the priest. And this shows that it was a disease in 
 some shape intimately associated with man's guilt, or with 
 sin. A Jew of old, like a Gentile now, if taken ill, applied 
 to the physician ; but when infected with this great typical 
 disease, he did not go to the physician, but to the priest. 
 But, more than this, even the priest could not heal him ; the 
 priest had no prescription that could heal him, no balm that 
 could remove it. All that he could do was to say, " You 
 are healed," or " You are not healed," or " You are advanc- 
 ing towards convalescence," or the reverse. The priest was 
 to pronounce him clean, or to pronounce him unclean. But 
 how much better is the economy under which we live ! Our 
 High-Priest can not only pronounce us clean, but make us 
 clean ; he can not only say, that we are justified, but he can 
 justify us by his perfect righteousness, forgive us by his 
 atoning blood, by his sanctifying Spirit, through his inspired 
 word. He can not only say, " You are clean," but " Be ye 
 clean ; " and we may say to him, what a leper could not say 
 
LEVITICUS XIII. 101 
 
 to the priest of old, " If thou wilt, thou canst make me 
 clean." The leper in the Gospel said so to Jesus. Jesus . 
 made him clean. If Jesus had been mere man he would 
 liave sanctioned blasphemy, in listening to a leper saying to 
 him, what he could not say to the greatest or the most 
 gifted of his nation, " If thou wilt, thou canst make me 
 clean." The high-priest could not, the priest could not, 
 Moses could not, Aaron could not ; God alone cleansed the 
 leper. Jesus was God ; therefore he accepted the attribute 
 ascribed to him ; and he said, as God alone could say, " I 
 will ; be thou clean." Now, in our application to our High- 
 Priest for the removal of this malady, we have, like the 
 leper in the Gospel, to ask him to make us clean. What he 
 requires of us is, that we should feel, or if we do not feel, 
 that we should conclude, from the express assertion of the 
 Bible, that we are morally diseased; that the incurable 
 malady of sin is upon us ; and that we should go to Him 
 and say, "Unclean, unclean;" "If thou wilt, thou canst 
 make me clean." We are welcome to do so. The priest 
 of old dared not reject the leper that applied for his judg- 
 ment; the High-Priest in heaven will not reject a sinner 
 that applies for his cure. On the contrary, he says, " Look 
 unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved." " Come 
 unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest." " The whole need not a physician, but they 
 that are sick." He offers you perfect cure ; he exacts 
 from you, as the only return, the glory and the praise of 
 having done it. Our High-Priest, in the next place, is as 
 accessible to us as ever was the priest to thp ancient Israel- 
 ite. He is more so : the Jew had to go up to his temple — 
 to Mount Zion, or to Gerizim, or to Jerusalem ; but we find 
 our Priest in all places — present at all times. The sigh, 
 the petition, the desire of the heart rise to him. He bends 
 his ear, and listens to the meanest patient's prayer. He 
 walks amid the wards of this great hospital of ours; he 
 
 9* 
 
102 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 knows the case of every patient that is there ; and not one 
 who applies to him for compassion, for a cure, for a new 
 heart, will ever appeal in vain. If there be truth in the 
 Bible, this is truth. 
 
 If we are not perfectly healed, are we in the process of 
 being so ? If we cannot say — and I am sure we cannot 
 say — that this malady is removed from our heart, darkness 
 from the intellect, perversity from the conscience — if we 
 cannot say that, can we say, at least, we are patients of the 
 Great Physician ? Can we, at least, say this, " We have 
 submitted our case to him ; we have put ourselves in his 
 hands ? " You are not called upon to say, " I am cured, 
 holy, pure, pardoned, regenerated," though that you may 
 hereafter add, but you are responsible for refusing to be pa- 
 tients, seeing that, if never patients of the Great Physician, 
 you never can be inmates of the everlasting rest and home 
 that remains for the people of God. 
 
 And if any of you have derived benefit from this Great 
 Physician ; if you have gone to him unclean, and are now 
 cleansed ; if you have gone to him guilty, and sought and 
 now found pardon ; if you have gone to him depressed and 
 downcast, and found from him peace ; if his Word has 
 cheered you, if the preaching of his Gospel has encour- 
 aged you, if his promises have comforted you, if his conso- 
 lations have refreshed you, if he has placed in your hearts 
 the indomitable and inextinguishable hopes of glory, through 
 his precious blood and his glorious sacrifice, and made you 
 love what once you hated, and hate what once you loved, 
 the least you can do is to praise the Great Physician, and 
 bid other sufferers come and share in the remedy provided. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CEREMONIES ON RECOVERY OP THE LEPER — PRIESx'S OFFICE — 
 ABSOLUTION — THE TWO BIRDS — LEPROSY IN A HOUSE — PRAYER 
 AND PAINSTAKING — THE BLESSING FROM GOD AND MEANS BY 
 MAN. 
 
 In the previous chapter, which we read last Lord's day 
 morning, we had the description of the characteristic signs 
 of that disease, called, very justly, the great typical disease, 
 supposed to be the special infliction of the hand of God, 
 and to be cured or to be put away, not by the prescriptions 
 of the physician, nor even by the prayers of the priest, but 
 only by the immediate power and presence of God himself. 
 We find in this chapter the description of those ceremonial 
 acts which were to accompany, or rather to follow, the 
 cleansing of the leper from this great disease — the type 
 and symbol of sin — by which he had been afllicted. First 
 of all, " he shall be brought unto the priest ; and the priest 
 shall go forth out of the camp," and see him ; and then the 
 priest, when he finds that he is clean, shall pronounce him 
 clean. I explained to you, in my remarks upon the previous 
 chapter, that " pronounce clean," and " pronounce unclean," 
 are the true meaning, though not the verbal translation, of 
 the Hebrew. The Hebrew is literally, "The priest shall 
 cleanse him," and " the priest shall uncleanse him ; " but 
 you can see, from the fact that it was after the leper was 
 healed that the priest cleansed him or pronounced him clean, 
 and therefore that this is the true meaning of the words. 
 And I showed you that the words, " Whosesoever sins ye 
 
 (103) 
 
104 SCRIPTURE READINGS. * 
 
 remit, they are remitted ; and wliosesover sins ye retain, 
 they are retained," are borrowed from this rite, and simply 
 declarative, not judicial ; and as the priest of old pronounced 
 upon an individual whether he was a leper or not by the 
 signs of the disease, as those signs were delineated in the 
 only rule of faith — the Bible — so the minister of the Gos- 
 pel now must pronounce an opinion, if he is called upon to 
 jDronounce at all, " Your sins are forgiven, or not, according 
 to the fruits that you bring forth, the repentance that you 
 show, the faith that you exercise ; " and these are the signs 
 and criteria laid down, not in traditions, not in councils, 
 but in the infallible and only record — God's Holy Word 
 and Law. 
 
 Next we read that the priest was to take " two birds alive 
 and clean, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop : and 
 the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in 
 an earthen vessel over running water." Now it seems ab- 
 surd to speak of an earthen vessel, and water in it called 
 "running water." But all the absurdity is taken away, when 
 we recollect that the original is " living water." It is the 
 same expression that occurs in other parts of Scripture, " I 
 will give unto him living water " — " it shall be in him a 
 well of living water." And the real meaning of this pas- 
 sage is, " fresh water " from the fountain, and not stagnant, 
 and unfit for physical, or for spiritual, or for ecclesiastical 
 purposes. Then it has been supposed that the one bird that 
 was slain was meant to describe the death of Clu-ist; and 
 the dismissal of the other bird, after being dipped in the 
 blood of the slain bird, was meant to be a type and pre- 
 figuration of the resurrection. It is nowhere in Scripture 
 said to be so, but it is obviously typical of sacrifice ; and no 
 one sacrifice, no one symbol, could set forth the complete- 
 ness of the work of Christ; and therefore many symbols 
 may have been employed and combined to set forth that 
 great and blessed act. 
 
LEVITICUS XIV. 105 
 
 We read, then, that the person, after this, was still to pre- 
 sent an otiering of " two he-lambs, without blemish ; " and 
 to remain at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation 
 till the priest had offered these ; and by this he was to have 
 access to the congregation. 
 
 We read that the priest was to sprinkle him seiwi times ; 
 that is, completely, the nmnber meant to denote perfection. 
 He was also to touch the tip of his right ear, to denote that 
 that ear should be opened only to all that was pure. He 
 was also to touch the thumb of the right hand, to teach that 
 every act was to be consistent with his character. And 
 upon the right foot, to show that he was to walk in God's 
 ways, which are ways of pleasantness and of peace. So 
 that the man should feel — what is stated by the apostle in 
 Romans xii. — that he was to present himself, soul and 
 body, a living sacrifice, acceptable to God through Jesus 
 Christ. Now the language employed here — the hyssop, 
 and the cedar-wood, and the sprinkling — casts light upon 
 many passages in the Psalms, and those passages, again, 
 cast light upon the phraseology of the New Testament. 
 " Ye are come unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus." 
 We read again, in another passage, of " the sprinkling of 
 his blood," the " blood of sprinkling." The meaning of that 
 is, just as the life of the turtledove, the lamb, or the bird, 
 was sacrificed by the shedding of its blood, and typically 
 and ecclesiastically, or Levitically, virtue or qualification 
 was imparted to the person related to it ; so the efficacy of 
 Christ's death, represented by his blood — that is, the aton- 
 ing efficacy of it — is to be applied so to our hearts and 
 consciences that we may have peace with God, free pardon 
 of our sins, and the hopes of an inheritance among all them 
 that are sanctified. 
 
 Having seen then, first of all, that the cleansing of the 
 leper was to be associated with the priest, not with the phy- 
 sician ; secondly, that its removal was to be accompanied 
 
106 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 with sacrifice, or the offering of atoning and expiatory vic- 
 tims ; we learn from these two facts alone, that that disease 
 was not one of the natural offspring of the Fall, so much as 
 the special and significant infliction of God ; and meant to 
 lead that people to learn the existence of a greater malady 
 that has overspread the soul, and to look forward to the only 
 remedy for that malady — the Atonement which should be 
 made in the fulness of the times. 
 
 At the close of the chapter, you have the leprosy in the 
 house ; and that is spoken of as God's infliction entirely — 
 " When I put the plague of leprosy in a house." Now, 
 notice what the priest was to do. When plague, or pesti- 
 lence, or war, or famine, come on a land, there are two 
 classes of persons who act in opposite ways. One class Avill 
 pray only that God may remove them, and do nothing 
 more ; another class will set about sanitary reform — a most 
 precious and important thing — but they will do nothing 
 more. Now, we are taught in this chapter, that the two 
 are to be combined. The priest not only applied to God, 
 and offered sacrifices that the plague might be removed 
 from the house, but he set to work and pulled down the 
 stones, and broke the timbers, and scraped the house, and 
 had it plastered and cleansed ; and thus there was the most 
 effective sanitary process, accompanied with the most sacred 
 and Christian appeal to Him who is the Lord and the Giver 
 of life ; and who alone healeth, and when he healeth none 
 can make ill. Now, it is the happy combination of these 
 that constitutes in all things the perfection of Christian con- 
 duct. If we so think of means as to think of nothing else, 
 we shall have no blessing ; if we so think of, or engage in 
 prayer, as to exclude means, we shall have no blessing. If 
 we suppose that by attending to all that is just, and proper, 
 and obligatory in sanitary measures, we may defy God, we 
 blaspheme ; but, on the other hand, if we act as some, pray, 
 and appoint days of fasting and of prayer, but do nothing to 
 
LEVITICUS XIV. 107 
 
 lift the poor from tlit'ir dcgradntion, to improve tlieir dwell- 
 ings, to inerease tlieir comforts, to give raiment to the naked, 
 food to the hungry, a shelter and a home to them that have 
 none, then that is downright hypocrisy. But if we can 
 combine the two, by using all the means that God, in his 
 providence, has given us, as vigorously as if all depended 
 upon the means, and yet, while we do so, look up to God as 
 if the means were worthless, and he must do all, then we 
 shall combine the blessed heavenly benediction with the use 
 of the most effective earthly means, and God, our own God, 
 shall crown us with his blessing. Bush makes some excel- 
 lent remarks here : — 
 
 "Remarks. — (ver. 2, 3.) 'He shall be brought unto 
 the priest ; and the priest shall go forth out of the camp,' etc. 
 The ministers of righteousness are to be always ready to 
 meet the returning penitent, who would fain be cleansed from 
 the deiilement of sin, or who hopes he has been, and wel- 
 come him back to the fold of Christ. 
 
 " (4.) ' Then shall the priest command to take for him,' 
 etc. A very remarkable difierence marks the vast superi- 
 ority of our Great High-Priest over the high-priests of the 
 Jews. The latter, being a mere man, and himself compassed 
 with iutirmity, could not heal the leper ; he could only dis- 
 cocer by inspection when he was already healed by God, and 
 then by his otfice declare this to the people. He was then to 
 perform the ceremonies appointed for his cleansing, and thus 
 restore him again to society and to the privileges of God's 
 house. But the Lord Jesus heals the leper. ' Lord, if thou 
 wilt thou canst make me clean ; and Jesus put forth his hand, 
 and touched him, and said, I will, be thou clean ; and imme- 
 diately his leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.' 
 To this great Physician, then, let us resort, to obtain that 
 moral cleansing for which there is neither cure nor relief in 
 any other quarter. Let us cry to him as did the leper, in 
 the day of his flesh, ' Jesus, master, have mercy on us ! ' and 
 
108 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 God himself shall acknowledge and pronounce us clean. The 
 hyssop is even now ready wherewith to sprinkle our souls. 
 Let us use it by faith, and we shall experience with David 
 its unfailing efficacy ; ' Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be 
 clean ; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.' But let 
 us be sprinkled not once or twice only, but ' seven times,' 
 then shall we be ' washed thoroughly from our iniquity, and 
 be cleansed from our sin.' 
 
 " (9.) The leper did not come at once into the camp, after 
 he had been pronounced clean, and sprinkled according to 
 the ordinance. He was not admitted to his tent, or restored 
 to society, till after living in some place alone for seven days 
 more ; and then after again washing his body and his clothes, 
 and shaving off all his hair, even to his eyebrows, he was re- 
 instated in all his former privileges and comforts. This was 
 designed to remind us, that the infection of nature, the de- 
 filing effects of sin, still remain, even in those who are re- 
 generate, and force upon us the necessity of a daily washing 
 in Christ, in order to our perfect cleansing. It is only in 
 heaven that we can be pronounced fully delivered from our 
 remaining corruptions. But there is, as it were, the short 
 period of a single week before that event arrives, when wo 
 shall be introduced to our Father's house, to our eternal 
 home. The intervening time must indeed be spent in hu- 
 miliating and painful exercises, but those exercises are only 
 preparing us for the richer enjoyment of the promised bliss. 
 
 " (14.) The application of the blood and oil to the ear, the 
 thumb, and the toe of the leper, seems to intimate that every 
 member of the body, and every faculty of the soul, needs a 
 special purification from guilt and corruption, and a special 
 consecration in the renewed man to the service of God. 
 The language of the solemn rite was virtually this : ' Now 
 you are made clean, let all your faculties and powers be de- 
 voted to the service of God. Let your ears be open to the 
 commands of God. Let the work of your hands be bestowed 
 
LEVITICUS XIV. 109 
 
 upon the business of your high calling, and the accomplish- 
 ment of the divine will. Let your footsteps be ordered in 
 his word.' 
 
 " (15.) Neither the blood nor the oil was on any account to 
 be omitted in the purification of the leper ; nor can either of 
 them be omitted in the restoration of our souls to God. 
 The oil significantly shadowed forth the Holy Ghost as a 
 Spirit of sanctification. By the blood we are justified, and 
 by the oil we are sanctified. And it is worthy of remark, 
 that the order to the leper was, that the oil should be put 
 upon the blood of the trespass-offering, hinting that the blood 
 of Christ must j^r^^ be applied for our justification, and that 
 then the Spu'it will be given for our sanctification." 
 
 10 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 [Every chapter of the Bible has its use — its place — 
 and its proper subjects. 
 
 This chapter is not *suitable for congregational or family 
 reading. 
 
 " Create in us clean hearts, Lord ; and renew right 
 spirits within us."] 
 
 aio) 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE GREAT DAY OF ATOXEMEXT — ITS EXTENT — THE LONELY IN- 
 TERCESSOR — THE ONLY SACRIFICE — THE PERFECT SPRINKLING 
 — HIGH-PRIEST OFFERS FOR HIMSELF — TWO GOATS — INTER- 
 PRETATIONS. 
 
 The following remarks form a very just resume of the 
 contents of this interesting chapter : — 
 
 " The proper place of this chapter, as appears from v. 1, 
 would have been immediately after the tenth ; but the death 
 of Aaron's two sons, for their profane conduct in the dis- 
 charge of their office as priests, gave occasion to the enact- 
 ment of the above-cited laws respecting the various unclean- 
 nesses which disqualified an Israelite for approaching the 
 sanctuary. Those ordinances having been despatched in the 
 five preceding chapters, the regular thread of the sacred rec- 
 ord is now resumed, and Moses goes on to give directions 
 concerning the great national festival of atonement in its 
 various details. 
 
 " This is called by the sacred writer Q'^^lBSn G^^ yom hak- 
 hijjpurim, day of eocpiations or atonements, and by the mod- 
 ern Jews ^I'D'D kippur. It was so called from its having 
 been instituted for the expiation of all the sins, irreverences, 
 and pollutions of all the Israelites, from the highest priest 
 to the lowest people, committed by them throughout the year. 
 It was observed on the tenth day of the seventh month, or 
 Tisri, corresponding to a part of our September. It was 
 one of the most important and interesting days in the whole 
 (111) 
 
112 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 Jewish calendar ; and though called occasionally the ' feast 
 of expiation/ yet its genuine character was rather that of a 
 fast — a day for ' afflicting their souls/ — and is only called 
 * feast ' in the sense of a set solemnity. It is the day alluded 
 to, Acts xxvii. 9 : — ' Now when much time was spent, and 
 when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now al- 
 ready past, Paul admonished them/ etc. It was in all its ser- 
 vices and ceremonies the fullest representation, the most per- 
 fect shadow, of the great work of redemption ; the high-priest 
 prefiguring, in all he did, that which Christ, in the fulness of 
 times, was ordained to do. On this account a somewhat mi- 
 nute notice of the observances of the day may be proper in 
 this connection. 
 
 " Of so much sacredness was this solemnity regarded, that 
 the people began their prej^aration for it seven days before, 
 by removing the high-priest from his own house to a cham- 
 ber in the temple, (after the temple was built,) lest he should 
 contract such a pollution from any of his family, as might 
 incur a seven days' uncleanness, and thereby unfit him for 
 performing his pontifical duties. On the third and seventh 
 of these days, he was besprinkled with the ashes of the red 
 heifer, lest he might inadvertently have been defiled by a 
 dead body. On the morning of the day before that of the 
 atonement, they brought him to the east gate of the court of 
 the Gentiles, where they made bullocks, and rams, and lambs 
 to pass before him, that he might be the better able to make 
 the proper selection ; and on every day of the seven they 
 caused him to sprinkle the blood of the daily sacrifice, to 
 burn the parts of it upon the altar, to offer the incense, and 
 to trim the lamps, that he might be the more familiar with 
 these offices, when called to perform them. He was more- 
 over committed, for a part of each of the days, to some of 
 the elders of the Sanhedrim, who read to him the rites of 
 the day in order to make sure of his going rightly through 
 the rubric. He was then conducted into the chamber of in- 
 
LEVITICUS XVI. 113 
 
 cense, that he might learn to handle the incense, and to take 
 an oath as to the mode of burning it when he entered into 
 the holiest of all. Their words on the occasion v/ere as fol- 
 lows ; — ' High-priest, we are the messengers of the Sanhe- 
 drim, and thou art our messenger, and that of the Sanhe- 
 drim ; we adjure thee by Him that caused his name to dwell 
 in this house, that thou alter not any thing of what we have 
 spoken unto thee.' The reason of this solemn adjuration 
 was, that a Sadducee, in contempt of the written word, and 
 of their traditions, at one time had dared to kindle the in- 
 cense without the vail, and to carry it smoking within; 
 whereas he ought not to have kindled it till within the vail. 
 During the night that preceded the grand solemnity, he was 
 required to eat but sparingly, though he was to fast the whole 
 of the next day, for fear that he might become drowsy, and 
 thus desecrate in some measure the services of the day. 
 This entire night w^as spent in his expounding, or hearing 
 expounded to him, the written law. 
 
 " The day having at length arrived, the high-priest laid 
 aside his ordinary dress, bathed himself the first time, and 
 put on the rich garments peculiar to his office. Habited with 
 these, he instantly went into the court of the priests, went to 
 the laver according to priestly usage, to wash his hands and 
 his feet for the first time; proceeded thence to the north 
 side of the altar, to kill the morning sacrifice ; ascended the 
 altar with the several j)ieces, and laid them on the fire ; went 
 into the holy place to trim the lamp and offer the incense ; 
 blessed the people on the top of the steps of the porch ; and 
 in short did all that belonged to the ordinary morning ser- 
 vice. 
 
 " Having finished this part of his duty, the next thing was 
 to solemnize his own mind and the people's by some previous 
 sacrifices. These, in Num. xxix. 8-11, are said to be as fol- 
 lows : a bullock, a ram, and seven lambs for a burnt-offer- 
 ing, with their appropriate meal-offerings ; and a kid of the 
 
 10* 
 
114 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 goats for a sin-ofFering. When he had finished these, he 
 washed his hands and feet a second time at the laver. He 
 then retired to a particular chamber of the temple, and pro- 
 ceeded to strip himself of his rich habiliments, to bathe him- 
 self in water a second time, and to put on his plain white 
 linen vestments, the same dress as that worn by the common 
 priests, except that he had the sacerdotal mitre on his head. 
 Thus attired, he proceeded to the work of sacrifice. Going 
 up to the bullock, and standing with his face towards the 
 temple, he laid both his hands on the head of the animal, 
 and solemnly pronounced the following words : ' Lord, I 
 have sinned, done perversely, and transgressed before thee, 
 I and my house. I beseech thee, O Lord, expiate the sins, 
 perversities, and transgressions whereby I have sinned, done 
 perversely, and transgressed, I and my house, as it is written 
 in the law of Moses, thy servant, saying. For in this day he 
 will expiate for you, to purge you from all your sins before 
 the Lord, that ye may be clean ; ' referring to v. 30, where 
 these words are to be found. 
 
 "Having made this confession, he went to the north- 
 east corner of the court, where the two kids of the 
 goats, intended for the congregation, were ordained to 
 stand. There he cast lots for the two goats, by means of 
 two pieces of gold, put into a box called 'i&bp helphi, on one 
 of which was written mn"^^ laihovah, for the Lord, and on 
 the other btittJib le-azazel, for Azazel, rendered in our ver- 
 sion, ' for the scape-goat,' in relation to which an extended 
 discussion will be found in the ensuing notes. He then pro- 
 ceeded to slay the bullock for his own sins, and the goat 
 upon which the lot had fallen to be sacrificed to the Lord ; 
 after which he filled a censer with burning coals from the 
 altar, and putting two handfuls of incense into a vase, he 
 bore them into the holy of holies. Having here poured the 
 incense upon the coals, he returned, took the blood of the 
 bullock and the goat, and went again into the most holy 
 
LEVITICUS XVI. 115 
 
 place. With his finger he first sprinkled the blood of the 
 bullock, and afterwards of the goat, upon the lid of the ark 
 of the covenant, and seven times also he sprinkled it upon 
 tlie floor before the ark. He then returned from the most 
 holy into the holy place, and besmeared the horns of the 
 golden altar with the blood of the bullock and the goat, 
 and jetted the blood seven times over the surface of the 
 altar. 
 
 " The next duty of the high-priest was to make an atone- 
 ment for the holy place, for the tabernacle, and for the altar. 
 This was done by sprinkling the blood of the bullock and 
 the blood of the goat, each right before the vail, and then 
 by mingling them together, and sprinkling the horns and 
 the body of the golden altar of incense. 
 
 " We are now come, in the order of the ceremonies, to 
 the scape-goat, which was to be sent away into the wilder- 
 ness. To this animal, as he stood in the court of the priests, 
 the high-priest approached, and laying both hands upon its 
 head, which was bound around with a scarlet thread, made 
 over it a solemn confession of the sins of the people of 
 Israel, after which it was consigned to the hands of a per- 
 son especially appointed to conduct it to some desert and 
 desolate region, where it was allowed an unmolested escape. 
 The mystical or typical design of this transaction will be 
 found fully considered in a subsequent note. The Jewish 
 writers detail a multitude of additional ceremonies con- 
 nected with the dismission of the scape-goat, but as they 
 are obviously of a fabulous cast, we waive entirely the reci- 
 tal of them. 
 
 " After the sending away of tlie emissary-goat, the high- 
 priest put off his white vestments, and assuming his splen- 
 did robes, sacrificed a holocaust for himself and the people, 
 and then offered another sin-offering. The Jews assert that 
 he then went a third time into the holy of holies for the pur- 
 pose of bringing away the censer ; but this is not certain, as 
 
116 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 he might have taken it when he returned the second time for 
 the blood. However this may be, he proceeded afterwards 
 to wash his hands and feet at the laver, after which he went 
 to the dressing-chamber, that he might lay aside his linen 
 suit, bathe himself for the last time, and resume his rich 
 official dress, in which to offer the evening incense and trim 
 the lamps on the golden candlestick. All this done, he 
 washed his hands and feet at the laver for the last time ; 
 and went to the dressing-chamber ; laid aside his rich attire ; 
 resumed his ordinary wearing apparel; and retired to his 
 own house, accompanied by the multitude, rejoicing that 
 God had not mingled his blood with his sacrifice." 
 
 This chapter describes the most solemn and impressive 
 ceremonial in all the ritual of Levi — namely, the transac- 
 tions on the great day of Atonement, celebrated in the 
 month of September, once a year. It seems to have been 
 a sort of recapitulation or condensation of all the sacrifices 
 of previous months, and to be an atoning, or purifying of 
 the temple, the altar, the priests, the people, and of all the 
 sacrifices connected therewith. 
 
 The high-priest was first of all to make sacrifice without 
 in his usual robes ; but when he went into the holy place 
 beyond the vail, which was the type of heaven, that Christ 
 has now entered for us, he put on the simple linen robes of 
 the ordinary priest ; as if to show how utterly unworthy he 
 was to appear before Him whose eye is purer than to behold 
 transgression. When he went there he was alone. No 
 priest, or king, or member of the Church of Israel must be 
 with him. This was fulfilled when Christ entered into 
 heaven, the true holy place, alone making intercession for 
 us. And as no priest might go with the high-priest into the 
 typical holy of hohes to help him to intercede for the peo- 
 ple, so no saint or angel can now take part in Christ's inter- 
 cession in the true holy of holies. He liveth alone to make 
 intercession for the people. 
 
LEVITICUS XVI. 117 
 
 And secondly, on this day the high-priest alone made the 
 atonement, presented the sacrifice, and was the conspicuous 
 and acting official in its great and solemn transactions. So 
 Jesus, when he made an atonement for the sins of all that 
 believe, did it alone. No one shared in his sorrows ; none 
 must therefore share in his glory. Of the people there was 
 none with him ; he trod the wine-press alone ; and when the 
 virgin mother offered her aid by giving her counsel, he 
 meekly but firmly repelled her — " Woman, what have I to 
 do with thee ? " "I must tread the wine-press alone. This 
 is the great day of atonement for a world ; and not even a 
 mother's tears must mingle with the atoning blood of the 
 Incarnate and suffering Son." 
 
 You will notice, in the next place, that the priest had to 
 sprinkle the sacrificial blood with his finger seven times. 
 The number seven simply denotes in the Word of God per- 
 fection. The seven Spirits, the one Holy Spirit ; the seven 
 Churches, the one Catholic Church ; the seven times — that 
 is, perfectly, completely. You will notice, in the next place, 
 that the high-priest here had to make an atonement first for 
 himself, then for his household, then for all the congregation 
 of Israel. Here the type fails to embody and set forth the 
 antitype; because Christ needed not to offer first for him- 
 self, and then for the people, in that he was holy, harmless, 
 undefiled, and separate from sinners. But the high-j^riest 
 was a sinner ; as a sinner he needed an atonement for him- 
 self; an imperfect type setting forth a perfect and a spotless 
 Saviour. 
 
 The most interesting feature, perhaps, in the chapter I 
 have read, is the type or symbol of the two goats. There 
 have been disputes about the just interpretation of this. I 
 may state that Faber, a very acute and able critic upon 
 Leviticus, thinks that the one goat was sacrificed for sin — 
 representing Christ's death ; that the scape-goat was dedi- 
 cated to the evil spirit — representing Christ put into the 
 
118 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 power of isatan to be tempted in the wilderness. The 
 reason that he thinks so is, that the word for goat of " scape" 
 is azazel ; and that name was apphed to the fallen spirit by 
 the Jews. And, therefore, Faber thinks it was one goat for 
 a sacrifice — to denote Christ's atonement ; the other goat 
 let loose to Satan, or sent away to Satan — to represent the 
 Saviour given up into the hands of the wicked one to be 
 tempted for a season. 
 
 The second interpretation is by Bush, the American com- 
 mentator, a man of great sagacity and talent, and he thinks 
 that the one goat that was slain as a sacrifice, represented 
 Christ's atonement for us ; but that the other goat repre- 
 sented the Jewish races let loose, bearing the fearful respon- 
 sibility of having trodden underfoot the precious blood of 
 Christ, and crucified the Son of God, and stained their name 
 and their nation with the infamy of that crime : and that 
 they, a blasted race, driven into the desert, were represented 
 by the scape-goat that was here let go. And he thinks on 
 the same ground, that when the lots were cast, and Jesus 
 was condemned, and Barabbas was let go, that that was the 
 carrying out of the same gi'eat symbol — Barabbas, the 
 representative of the Jews, let go ; but branded with an in- 
 expiable crime ; and Jesus, the Great Atonement, sacrificed 
 for the sins of all that believe. These criticisms, however, 
 are more plausible than true. I do think the old-fashioned 
 interpretation is the just one, and there is no valid reason 
 for superseding it ; that the one goat sacrificed on the altar, 
 was the symbol of Christ our Saviour or Atonement sacri- 
 ficed for us ; and that the other goat let loose into the desert, 
 was the symbol and representation to the children of Israel 
 of Jesus rising from the dead, bearing the sins that he had 
 exhausted, entering into heaven, and there ever living to 
 make intercession for us. I know there are difficulties even 
 in accepting the last of these ; but those difficulties, if they 
 do not completely vanish, are much diluted when you notice 
 
LEVITICUS XVI. 119 
 
 the accompaniments or the rites by wliich tliis goat Avas let 
 loose into the Avilderness : that the jjriest was to lay his 
 hands upon the head of the scape-goat — the one that was 
 presented alive — over it he was to confess all the sins of 
 the children of Israel ; and then this scape-goat was let 
 loose, with the sins of Israel upon its head. Now, tlie very 
 phraseology that is applied to the scape-goat, is applied to 
 Jesus. " Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away " — 
 that carrieth away — " the sins of the world." And I can- 
 not conceive a more beautiful type of Christ our Saviour, or 
 a more expressive exhibition of the mode in v>fhich we be- 
 come interested in him than that of the high-priest laying 
 his hand upon its head, transferring the sins of Israel to it, 
 dismissing it, and the sins blotted out, no more remembered, 
 carried into a desert, passed away from the reminiscences 
 of Israel and of God forever. 
 
 So the believer lays not his literal hand, but the trust of 
 his soul, not on a literal head, but on Christ, his atonement 
 and his sacrifice ; and his sins are put away, and he enters 
 into the blessedness of that man whose sins are forgiven, 
 whose iniquities are blotted out, and to whom the Lord im- 
 puteth no transgression. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 No sacrifices were to be offered save in the appointed 
 place. 
 
 No sacrifices were to be offered to lieathen gods. 
 
 The blood, or the life of the animal, the type of the blood 
 of Jesus, was not to be eaten. It was a lesson, not food. 
 
 (120) 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 This chapter derives its importance from discussion on 
 the lawfulness of marrying a deceased wife's sister. I add 
 Bush's judicious remarks : — 
 
 " As the chosen and covenant tribes of Israel were soon 
 to take up their journey to the land of Canaan, the inhabi- 
 tants of Avhich were to be exterminated for their multifa- 
 rious iniquities in the sight of God, a recital is here made 
 of some of those aggravated forms of wickedness w^hich 
 were rife among them, and which God had determined sig- 
 nally to punish. This is done not only to illustrate the jus- 
 tice of the divine proceedings in their excision, but also 
 with a view to put the peculiar people themselves on their 
 guard against yielding to the contagion of their pernicious 
 example, and thus becoming obnoxious to the same fearful 
 retributions which were now about to be visited upon the 
 Canaanites. The particular class of abominations more 
 especially pointed out in this chapter, and to which the 
 brand mark of the divine reprobation is so conspicuously 
 affixed, is that of incestuous connections. Not only had that 
 abandoned race been guilty of a total apostasy from the 
 worship of the true God, substituting in his room the sun 
 and moon and host of heaven, and bowing down to stocks 
 and stones and creeping things, but they had mingled w^ith 
 their idolatry every vice that could degrade human nature 
 and pollute society. In the black catalogue of these, the 
 abominations of lust stand preeminent ; and whether in the 
 form of adultery, fornication, incest, sodomy, or bestiality, 
 11 (121) 
 
122 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 tliey had now risen to a pitch of enormity Avhich the forbear- 
 ance of Heaven could tolerate no longer, and of which a 
 shuddering dread was to be begotten in the minds of the 
 people of the covenant. And in order that no possible plea 
 of ignorance or uncertainty might be left in their minds as 
 to those connections which were lawful and those which 
 were forbidden, the Most High proceeds in the present and 
 in the 20th chapter to lay down a number of specific pro- 
 hibitions on this subject, so framed, as not only to include 
 the extra-nuptial pollutions, which had prevailed among 
 the heathen, but also all those incestuous unions which 
 were inconsistent with the purity and sanctity of the mar- 
 riage relation. Both classes of crimes we think are in 
 fact included ; so that it is doing no violence to the spirit 
 of the text to regard it as containing a system of marriage 
 laws by which the peculiar peoj)le were ever after to be 
 governed. 
 
 " As this is the only passage in the compass of the whole 
 Bible where any formal enactments are given on this subject, 
 this and the connected chapters treating of this theme have 
 always been deemed of peculiar importance in their relations 
 to the question of the lawful degrees, within which the mar- 
 riage connection may now be formed by those who make 
 the law of God the great standard of moral duty. But it 
 is more especially with reference to the lawfulness of mar- 
 riage with a deceased ivife's sister that the bearings of this 
 chapter become important to us under the gospel, and at the 
 present time; as it is well known that the occurrence of 
 cases of that kind has often greatly agitated the religious 
 communions to which the parties belonged, and even at the 
 present day, the difficulty of effiscting an entire unanimity of 
 sentiment among Christians appears as great as ever. We 
 can scarcely expect, indeed, within the limits which the na- 
 ture of the present work will allow, to bring the matter to a 
 decisive issue, even if we were entirely confident on which 
 
LEVITICUS XVIII. 123 
 
 side tlie truth lay, which wc arc forced to acknowledge we 
 are not. Tiie just decision of the question necessarily in- 
 volves the establishment of several great preliminary prin- 
 ciples of interpretation, besides a display of the idiomatic 
 usages of the Hebrew pliilologically exhibited, v>diich cannot 
 w^ell be made satisfactory in a small compass. But as the 
 subject is one on which the truth is perhaps to be reached 
 only by the gradual accumulation of evidence, we venture 
 with others to contribute our small quota of suggestion to- 
 wards the solution of a very important point, not of criticism 
 only, but also of casuistry. 
 
 " It will probably be seen that our leanings are to the side 
 of the unlawfulness of the connection ; but recent discussions 
 have brought forth so strong an array of arguments in sup- 
 port of the opposite theory, that it seems, on the whole, no 
 more than is due to the presentation of evidence on both 
 sides, that w^e should at jH-esent liold our judgment in sus- 
 pense, simply giving to the reader a succinct but faithfiul 
 view of the principal reasonings relied upon by the advo- 
 cates of each." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A CODE of moral ancl positive laws, replete with wisdom, 
 — inculcating reverence to parents, gleanings to be left for 
 the poor, forbidding stealing, or taking advantage of the deaf 
 and blind, tale-bqaring, uncharitableness, revenge, profana- 
 tion of the Sabbath, consulting wizards, and oppression of the 
 stranger. 
 
 (124) 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 PARTS OF SCRirXUKE OBSCURE YET IMPORTANT — GODS PEOPLE A 
 nOLY PEOPLE — MEANING OF THE WORD — WHAT IT INVOLVES. 
 
 From this chapter, which is not suitable for public or 
 domestic reading, I select for study a single passage : verse 
 26: — 
 
 "And ye shall be holy unto me: fori the Lord am holy, and have 
 severed you from other people, that ye should be mine." 
 
 This is the summary and the embodiment of all of those 
 peculiar laws among the ancient Hebrews, laid down in the 
 chapters which it is not necessary or profitable to read in 
 public worship. There is a design in all God's institutions, 
 though we cannot always see that design ; and an object that 
 he has before him in every thing he enacts, however pecu- 
 liar or even trivial, it may appear to us. Because we can- 
 not see the use of every peg in complicated machinery, it 
 does not follow that it is of no use ; instead of rashly pro- 
 nouncing on the machine, that this is useless in it, because 
 we cannot understand it, we should rather meekly pronounce 
 on our own folly, and say, We are not enlightened enough 
 to see it. So many of the institutions of Levi seem to us 
 unnecessary ; some of them would seem better to have been 
 omitted ; but you may depend upon it that all of them had a, 
 definite design, served a purpose that has passed, or serve 
 in some shape or purpose that does still exist, or will serve 
 an end that has not yet come within the horizon of our view. 
 
 11* (125) 
 
12G SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 All these several institutions in that ancient economy had 
 one great design Avhich we can understand — to insulate the 
 Jewish people from the rest of mankind ; to select, as it 
 were, a fragment of humanity, to place it in the fairest sun- 
 shine, under the best social, ecclesiastical, and political cir- 
 cumstances ; to hedge it round with ceremonies and rites, 
 that should keep it distinct and separate from the rest of the 
 nations of the earth ; and to try, on a grand scale, what man 
 would be with all these aids, and assistances, and promises, 
 and encouragements, and rites, and ceremonies ; and the re- 
 sult was, that the old trait came out in sunshine, as it had in 
 shadow. " Man's heart is deceitful above all things, and 
 desperately wicked. Who can know it ? " Now the laws, 
 the various laws which the Jews received from God through 
 the medium of Moses, Avere all meant to promote social, per- 
 sonal, political, national morality; to keep the people dis- 
 tinct from infecting elements around them, separated and 
 hedged off from the possibility of contagion ; so that what- 
 ever defiled them might be seen not to come from others, but 
 to rise from the depths of their own fallen and depraved 
 hearts. " Therefore I have separated you from all people, 
 that ye might be unto me," he says, " a peculiar people ; " 
 and the great end that he contemplated constantly was their 
 holiness — that they might be a holy people. The word 
 " holy," in fact, means properly, separated, set apart to some 
 purpose, or object, or end. But in order to make their holi- 
 ness still more likely, he presented ever before them a grand 
 model. " Be ye holy," is his constant phrase, " for I the 
 Lord am holy." " Ye shall be holy unto me, for I the Lord 
 am holy." It is well known that a people become, to a great 
 extent, what their god or their gods are. The gods of the 
 heathen were most of them monsters of lust. Jupiter was 
 depraved ; Mercury was a thief ; others of their gods were 
 infected with the greatest crimes ; as if their villany upon 
 earth gave them a title to a niche in the Pantheon of hea- 
 
LEVITICUS XX. 127 
 
 thenism. You must expect, from sucli gods in the theology 
 of a people, bad lives in the history of that people. If the 
 model be so bad, how low must the imitator and the wor- 
 shipper be ! — But before the Jews there was placed the 
 magnificent ideal of all that was holy, pure, just, perfect; 
 the nearer they approached God, the nobler they became ; 
 the further they receded from him, the more degenerate they 
 became. They had the standard infinitely remote, but in- 
 finitely perfect ; ceaseless approximation to which was their 
 nation's strength, its glory, and its happiness. Thus the 
 Jews were selected that they might be holy. They had a 
 model constantly before theip they were to imitate, that they 
 might be holy. And they were chosen for this grand des- 
 tiny, not because of their own virtues — for strange enough, 
 their very mercies, the corruption of their hearts turned into 
 their own merits ; and the more God favored them, with a 
 perverse ingenuity the most remarkable, when we know it 
 was so often rebuked, the more credit they took to themselves. 
 Instead of being more humbled by a sense of what they de- 
 served, and more thankful for the enjoyment of what they 
 got, they became proud and puffed up in their own mind, and 
 needed to be taught line upon line, so often, " Thou shalt 
 remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee 
 these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee — lest 
 thou say in thy heart. My power and the might of mine hand 
 hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the 
 Lord thy God : for it is he that giveth thee power to get 
 wealth." And he tells them that he chose them, not be- 
 cause they were greater, or more excellent than any other 
 nation, but because, in his own sovereignity, he set his love 
 upon them. Thus they were hedged round with ceremo- 
 nial laws ; they had presented before them a perfect, infi- 
 nitely perfect Model ; they were selected by distinguishing 
 grace in order to reach and strive after this great destiny ; 
 they had ringing in their ears, every day, the law, " Thou 
 
128 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 shalt love," wliich is translated into practical language, " Thou 
 slialt be holy," in order that they might obtain the end for 
 which they were chosen, and blessed, and favored — to be 
 a separated people, and a holy people to the Lord. Now, 
 what the Jews were mean to be nationally, we Christians 
 are meant to be personally. We, too, are selected and fa- 
 vored for this purpose ; and we shall find all the economy 
 of the New Testament constantly contemplates the holiness 
 of God's people, as the great end, and object, and aim of our 
 Christian privileges, and blessings, and mercies upon earth. 
 But, first of all, let us define what holiness is. I said, in 
 the commencement of my remarks, it is literally, separation. 
 A thing that was set apart to evil is called holy. I have 
 quoted to you before the word in the Hebrew, as applied to 
 a person devoted to wickedness, just as it is applied to a per- 
 son devoted to holiness. The word means simply separa- 
 tion. So the Latin word sacer, from which comes our word 
 sacred, is employed to denote profane, as well as sacred — 
 means wicked, as well as holy. Hence the expression — 
 
 " Auri sacra fames," 
 
 literally translated, " the sacred thirst of gold ; " but strictly 
 and properly, " the accursed thirst of gold." The meaning 
 therefore of a holy person is one severed or separated to 
 something ; and when applied to that which is pure, and just, 
 and true, it means separated to God. And we can only 
 form an idea of what holiness is by seeing it defined by God, 
 as embodied in his character, and explained at length in his 
 Word. The attribute of God himself — that is perhaps the 
 most solemn, the most solemnizing, the most impressive — is 
 the attribute of holiness. It is the balance, if I may so 
 speak, of all the attributes of Deity. Power without holi- 
 ness would degenerate into cruelty; omniscience without 
 holiness would become craft ; justice without holiness would 
 degenerate into revenge ; and goodness witliout holiness 
 
LEVITICUS XX. 129 
 
 would be passionate and intemperate fondness doing mis- 
 ehief rather than accomplishing good. You can see there- 
 fore that holiness pervading, linking together all the at- 
 tributes of Deity, lend to God a grandeur, an august 
 magnificence that a Christian can conceive, but a poet even 
 cannot unfold. Holiness, then, as seen in God, is that at- 
 tribute which is of supreme importance — gives fulness, 
 glory, perfection, if one may so speak of God ; for it is de- 
 scribing him in the language for human apprehension ; and 
 makes him the Holy, Holy, Holy One, who inhabiteth eter- 
 nity. Holiness on our part is acquiescence in this picture — 
 admiration of it, thirst to approach to it, delight in the law 
 that declares it and requires conformity to it. A rebel de- 
 tests the law that condemns him ; a Christian admires the 
 equity, the glory, and the excellence of that law, even when 
 that law condemns him. Holiness in a Christian is just sep- 
 aration, sanctification, severance from the excessive love of 
 things lawful, from the forbidden love of things sinful, to the 
 growing love of what God has commanded in his holy Word, 
 and of the grand image that God has depicted in every 
 page of his revelation. 
 
 Now having seen what this holiness is, let me state in the 
 next place how Christians in the New Testament are con- 
 stantly associated with it. First, they are elected to it. He 
 has chosen us in Christ from the foundation of the world, 
 that we should be holy. Many, not many, I hope, but some, 
 hearing of the doctrine of election or predestination, would 
 say, " He has predestinated or chosen us in Christ from the 
 foundation of the world that we should give ourselves no 
 trouble about the matter. If we are chosen we shall go to 
 heaven ; if not we shall never see it." That is the world'3 
 logic. But you observe the logic that is true belongs to a 
 loftier level. It is so associated with practical character that 
 there is no election, you may depend on it, where there is no 
 holiness ; there is no predestination where there is no piety ; 
 
130 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 and wherever election is spoken of in tlie Bible, it is chosen 
 in Christ from the foundation of the world, not that we may 
 dispense with character, but that we should be holy and 
 blameless before him. Again we read, " God has called us 
 to holiness ; " and again, " Created in righteousness and true 
 holiness ; " and again, " Serve God in holiness all the days 
 of your life ; " and again, " Holiness, without which no man 
 can see the Lord." So that we can see this holiness of char- 
 acter, whatever it be, is not the incidental characteristic of a 
 few, but the grand and distinguishing feature of every true 
 Christian ; so much so, that to be without it is to be without 
 the badge of heaven, the image and superscription of Him 
 who has redeemed us by his precious blood. It is spoken 
 of as necessary to worship, " Who shall ascend into the 
 house of God? He that hath clean hands, and hath not 
 lifted up his heart unto vanity." It is again prayed for by 
 our blessed Lord when he says, " Sanctify them through thy 
 truth. Thy word is truth." Christ's righteousness upon us 
 is our title, but this holiness within us is character. By 
 Christ our state is changed ; by the Holy Spirit our charac- 
 ter is transformed. The first is our safety, the second is our 
 fitness for the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Now this holiness in the next place is true and lasting 
 beauty ; it is real and original beauty. I believe that all 
 things on earth are but dim at best, and since sin entered, 
 stained shadows of the great originals that are in heaven. 
 We fancy because we are so enamoured with these things, 
 that when the Bible uses things below to represent things 
 above, it borrows aid from the earthly to set forth the splen- 
 dor of the heavenly. But the truth is, the earthly is the 
 copy ; the heavenly is the original. And true beauty, there- 
 fore, is not the vulgar beauty that the eye admires, but that 
 inner, moral beauty, which a Christian deeply and truly sym- 
 pathizes with. The true beauty of a Cln-istian, or the true 
 beauty of the Church — that is, the company of Christians 
 
LEVITICUS XX. 131 
 
 — is not outward robe or ecclesiastical decoration, or archi- 
 tectural pomp and splendor, but moral excellence. The 
 King's daughter has all her beauty within, that needs a spir- 
 itual eye to discriminate and discern. The mass of mankind 
 can only see glare, pretension, gaudiness, but the true Chris- 
 tian sees a city where the world sees none ; for Christ, Avhen 
 he came to his own, his own received him not ; there was no 
 beauty in him that the world should desire him. And it is 
 said of Christians still, " The world knoweth us not ; " that 
 is, does not distinguish, discriminate, and admire us ; just 
 because spiritual things, in proportion as they are so, are 
 foolishness to the natural man. But this true moral beauty 
 with which the heart of a Christian is inlaid, w^iicli grows 
 in splendor and in richness every day, is that which is real 
 in the sight of God, and will outlive all the tints of flowers, 
 all the colors of the rainbow, and all that man, as man, 
 thinks fixir and beautiful on earth. 
 
 And this holiness, too, of character is the highest possible 
 honor. It is the livery of heaven ; it is the very robes of 
 the King of glory ; it is the dress which he prepares for his 
 own ; it is the Apocalyptic garments " white and clean, which 
 are the righteousness of saints ; " it is the raiment w^hite and 
 clean which no moth can gnaw, which no rust can decay, 
 which no thief can break through and steal. 
 
 And in the next place, this holiness is fitness for heaven. 
 It is not our title to heaven ; I have said that is Christ's 
 righteousness upon us ; but it is our fitness for heaven. A 
 man without an ear cannot enjoy music. Many have so de- 
 fective taste that they cannot admire or appreciate the most 
 beautiful painting ; the commonest daub and the most bril- 
 liant production of one of the great masters would seem 
 equally good or bad to them. So such persons are not fit 
 for enjoying such things. In the same manner, a person 
 without a sanctified heart, without holiness, is not fit for 
 heaven. He could not breathe its air, he could not listen 
 
132 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 to its harmonie.s, he could not enter upon its duties ; it would 
 be a strange and an alien element, in Avliich he could have 
 no joy, because he is utterly unprepared, and unfit for it. 
 Every creature is made for the sphere in which it is to 
 move. The Christian is made for heaven ; the lost sinner 
 makes himself, not anybody else, for ruin. It is our fitness 
 for heaven. 
 
 In the next j^lace, it is the distinguishing mark of the true 
 church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We distinguish churches 
 by names, by geographical boundaries, by national features. 
 But none of these are the true distinction of the Church of 
 Christ ; not baptism, not even the Lord's Supper, not out- 
 ward rites, however proper, but inward character, is the true 
 stamp and token of the people and the Church of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. If we have no holiness, we may be Church- 
 men, or we may be Dissenters, but we are not Christ's peo- 
 ple ; if we have this inner holiness, the work of the Spirit 
 within us, given by Christ to them that believe on his name, 
 we may be Churchmen, or we may be Dissenters, or we may 
 be neither ; we are something better, we are Christians. It 
 is this that makes a Christian ; and Avithout this he cannot 
 see God, or put forth any valid claim to be a Christian at 
 all. 
 
 In the next place, the Holy Spirit is the Author of this 
 holiness. We believe in a Trinity. I cannot see how it is 
 possible for a Unitarian to get to heaven. God may deal 
 with such in a way I know not ; but it seems to me that our 
 ruin is so deep that it needs a Triune God to rescue us. 
 We need the Father's electing love, we need the Son's re- 
 deeming love, we need the Holy Spirit's efiective and sanc- 
 tifying love. And hence it is promised that the Holy Spirit 
 will take of the things of Christ, and show them to us — 
 that he will make our bodies temples in which he will dwell 
 — that he will regenerate our hearts, which must be born 
 of the Holy Spirit — that he will comfort us and sanctify us, 
 
LEVITICUS XX. 133 
 
 and be with us till we ap[)ear before GoJ in ZIon. And 
 thus we need a Holy Spirit to regenerate us just as we need 
 Clirist to redeem us. He that speaks of baptismal regener- 
 ation just regards the Holy Spirit as he that accepts transub- 
 stantiation regards our Blessed Lord : in the case of the 
 Tractarian divine, baptism is put in the room of the Holy 
 Ghost ; in the case of the Roman Catholic divine, the bread 
 upon the altar is put in the room of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 And I do not know which is the greater sin ; in all proba- 
 bility the former; it is at least as deadly, as fraught Avith 
 pernicious and evil results. But let us never forget that no 
 bread upon the altar can be a substitute for the living bread, 
 Christ Jesus ; and no water in the baptismal font can be a 
 substitute for the Holy Spirit of God. 'No bread that a 
 priest can consecrate can be turned into my Saviour ; no 
 water that a presbyter can bless can take the place of the 
 Holy Spirit and wash my heart. He who is God only can 
 touch the heart, regenerate, retune, and reconsecrate it. 
 
 Thus we have seen what this holiness is, and who is the 
 Author of it ; let me notice now that all the institutions of 
 the Gospel are meant to promote it. Preaching is meant to 
 promote it — sacraments are meant to promote it — the read- 
 ing of the Bible is meant to promote it — the teaching of 
 teachers is meant to promote it; all our schools and institu- 
 tions, our preaching and hearing, our praying and communi- 
 cating, are all helps that, by the blessing of the Spirit of 
 God, bring us nearer to Him who is the Fountain of all ho- 
 liness, of all light, and of all life. 
 
 And in the next place, all the chastisements of God's 
 providence are meant to promote this. The Apostle says so 
 expressly. He says, "Our fathers verily for a few days 
 chastened us after their own pleasure ; but he for our profit, 
 that we might be partakers of his holiness. 
 
 And lastly, a day will come when the Church, clothed in 
 robes now stained and torn by the wear and tear of a fallen 
 12 
 
134 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 world, shall be arrayed in those bridal robes that are pre- 
 pared for her by her Lord, and shall be presented to him- 
 self no longer a mutilated, imperfect, sin-stained widow, 
 weeping, and seeking the everlasting Husband to return, but 
 a glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
 thinsf. 
 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 OUTWARD SYMMETRY AND INWARD BEAUTY — THE JEWISH PRIEST — 
 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER — EXAMPLE — MINISTER MUST liE SENT 
 BY HOLY' SPIRIT — AMBASSADORS — MINISTERS APT TO READ — 
 PRAYERFUL — WHAT MINISTERS SHOULD NOT BE — NOT LORDS 
 OVER god's HERITAGE — NOT COVETOUS — NOT CONTENTIOUS 
 — NOT MEN-PLEASERS — NOT GIVEN TO MUCH WINE. 
 
 The words I select from this chapter for special exposi- 
 tion are these : — 
 
 " No man that hath a blemisli of the seetT of Aaron the priest shall 
 come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire : he ha^h 
 a blemish ; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. 
 He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of 
 the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh 
 unto the altar, because he hath a blemish ; that he profane not my 
 sanctuaries : for I the Lord do sanctify them." — Ver. 21-23. 
 
 I stated in the course of my remarks on a portion of the 
 previous chapter, that there are parts of the Bible more 
 adapted for private perusal than for public reading, but that 
 in the chapters wiiich we reasonably passed over in our 
 Sabbath morning reading there were incidental texts valua- 
 ble lor instruction, precious in themselves, and also summa- 
 ries of all the laws that regulated, peculiarly and tempora- 
 rily regulated, that ancient economy. I have already 
 directed your attention to the requirement in God's Word, 
 " Ye shall be holy unto me : for I the Lord am holy, and 
 have severed you from other people, that ye should be 
 
 (135) 
 
136 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 mine." I showed that God's ancient people were seques- 
 tered and separated from the rest of heathendom in order 
 that they miglit reflect the character of God, be a model na- 
 tion, show what grace would make them ; and that from being 
 a mere crowd in the desert they became a congregation in the 
 Tabernacle ; from being a mob they became a people ; from 
 a nomade race of savages, they were by God's grace, for 
 the benefit of surrounding nations, transformed into a royal 
 priesthood, a peculiar people, to show forth the praises of 
 Him who had called them out of darkness into his mar- 
 vellous light. I then showed from all this that what they 
 were nationally, or rather what they were meant to be 
 nationally, we believers, if v.^e be such, are designed to be 
 personally : for Peter says, " Ye are a chosen genera- 
 tion, a holy, royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
 people." 
 
 Again, John in the Apocalypse, speaks of us as " kings 
 and priests unto God." And, therefore, what was national 
 in the Jews becomes i3ersonal in us ; and surrounded with 
 richer privileges, inspired by yet richer grace, we ought to 
 be a j)eople on whom is sculptured more deeply and vividly 
 the lineaments of that Perfect Example, that beautiful 
 character, that Holy One, whose we are, and whom we pro- 
 fess to serve. 
 
 Now the passage I have selected for this evening's thought 
 is, what the priest was required to be mider the ancient 
 Jewish economy. He must be of the race of Aaron ; in his 
 outward form all that was symmetrical to commend him to 
 the eye ; not because outward appearance was essential in 
 the service of God, but because every person and every 
 thing, in that ancient economy, was a visible symbol to 
 embody and to reflect round it a great moral and instructive 
 truth. The Jewish priest was required to be in his j^erson 
 all that v/as symmetrical and well proportioned, not wound- 
 ed, not crooked, simply to reflect a great truth, " Be ye holy 
 
LEVITICUS XXI. 137 
 
 that bear the vessels of the Lord/' The shining tent, that 
 is the body, was required to be perfect in the Jewish econo- 
 my ; tlie inner man is required to be holy, as a true priest 
 in the holy plac(; within, in our economy, to show fortli the 
 })raises of Ilini who hath called us from darkness into his 
 marvellous light. It is, therefore, from this passage that I 
 draw some instruction, less for the people, and more for 
 those who are to preach to them, preside over them, and 
 teach them the things that belong to their eternal peace. 
 And it is one of the peculiarities of our religion, that there 
 is nothing like what the ancient Egyptians had — what they 
 called an esoteric and an isoteric truth, or a teaching for the 
 crowd, and a teaching for the priest : but the same Book 
 that contains the privileges and the duties of the people, 
 contains also the duties and the obligations of the ministry : 
 so that the people can see, by comparing the living original 
 with the divine picture, whether their teachers have that 
 true succession which consists not, as in the Jewish priest- 
 hood, in personal lineage, or personal descent, but in spirit- 
 ual, moral, divine connection w^ith, and likeness to. Him 
 who sends the laborers into the harvest. 
 
 Now, the character of the priests here again reminds us 
 how important it is that they, in the modern economy, who 
 preach to their fellow men, and teach the truth, and explain 
 tlie way that leads to God, should be specimens of what 
 their words teach. Nobody needs here to be told that char- 
 acter is more eloquent than words ; that what a man is, 
 makes a deeper, though it may be a slower impression, than 
 what a man says. We estimate, in fact, the sincerity of a 
 man's profession I5y the quiet consistency of his practice 
 If he speak like an angel, but live like a fallen fiend, we at 
 once say the speaking is for an object, it is not sincere, the 
 comment is inconsistent with the text, the character contra- 
 dicts the teaching ; and such teaching will have no influence, 
 and exert no power upon mankind. Because we hear truth 
 12* 
 
138 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 from a bad man, it does not follow that we are released 
 from the responsibility of accepting it ; but it is no less true, 
 that truth so preached will not have much effect. There 
 will be the irresistible contradiction of an inconsistent life 
 staring the most eloquent statement out of countenance, and 
 making the people feel that there is no reality in the utter- 
 ance, because there is no harmony with it in the life. It is 
 therefore most important now, as it Avas then, that they who 
 l^reach the Gospel should not only, as the apostle says, live 
 by the Gospel — as they may be willing enough to do, — 
 but should also live the Gospel. Hence we have constantly 
 set before us in the sacred Scriptures the importance of 
 ministerial example ; the duty of following that example 
 when it is what it should be, in harmony with the great 
 Exemplar set forth in Scripture. Besides, that a minister 
 should still more be watchful, or a teacher in a school, for it 
 matters not how lowly or how lofty the position may be, if 
 we seek to teach others — that such a one should be " zeal- 
 ous to maintain good works," in the language of the apostle, 
 is obvious from this ; he is seen by more eyes, his profession 
 rises to a loftier level, he will be tested by a higher standard, 
 he will be sifted and searched, and lynx eyes and Argus 
 eyes will all be upon him from every point of the compass, 
 disposed to magnify defects into vices, and to diminish vir- 
 tues into almost the reverse ; such is the tendency of cor- 
 rupt human nature. He, therefore, that occupies a lofty 
 place in this world, whatever his profession be, ought to be 
 circumspect. If he have, in addition to that, authority, he 
 surely ought to be an example to those that are under him, 
 of whatsoever things are pure, and just^nd lovely. Only 
 we must never confound the pretence of example with the 
 reality. Real character is quiet, unassuming, unpretending. 
 Wherever there is much noise, bright glare, loud pretension, 
 an altered tone accommodated to a theme, thought to be the 
 sacred one ; an attitude, an aspect, and a pretension obvi- 
 
LEVITICUS XXI. 139 
 
 ously put on, that is not the consistency of a Christian min- 
 ister. One should just live and act with all the simplicity 
 which one's inner feelings prompt, being sure that one is 
 right at heart, and leaving the details of conduct to adapt 
 themselves to the guiding, holy, and righteous influence that 
 is within. True character is not something shaped from 
 without, or put on, but something radiated from within, and 
 reflected through the outer man upon the eyes of all that 
 choose to behold it. Such a character is full of power. It 
 was said of Jesus, " Never man spake like this man ; " but 
 the reason of that was, that never man lived like this man ; 
 and if he had not so lived he had never so spoken. His 
 words were so full of power, because they came clearly and 
 directly from a heart charged with infinite love, sympathy, 
 beneficence, and truth. 
 
 When one who teaches others, and occupies a prominent 
 place, acts inconsistently with that teaching, those who hate 
 the Gospel are too glad to get a handle for rejecting it. 
 How often will you hear the sceptic and the infidel say, " I 
 am not a Christian ; " when you ask him why, he will say, 
 " Do you notice how that bishop does, and how that rector 
 acts, and how that minister behaves ? " Well, but what 
 does that prove ? It only shows that in his heart the ob- 
 jector is conscious that this religion dictates a loftier stand- 
 ard than is usual ; and the very reason that he gives for 
 rejecting this religion implies the superiority of the precepts 
 that make any inconsistency with it appear so obvious to 
 him. Besides, if all men go wrong, that is no reason why 
 we should do so. We are not to follow a multitude to do 
 evil ; and if all men's lives were to contradict this Book, 
 that is no reason for our doing so ; though it is matter of 
 fact that inconsistency on the part of those that teach, will 
 ever be a stumbling-block and an obstruction to the recep- 
 tion of the truth by those that hear. The greatest eloquence 
 is the quiet consistency of a pure and true life ; the truest 
 
140 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 apostolical succession is not proving our relation to the 
 apostles by imaginary links ; but showing that we belong, 
 either by having transmitted to us their beautiful example, 
 their self-sacrifice, and speaking the words that they spoke 
 of soberness and of trutli. It is quite possible to sit in 
 Moses' seat, and contradict Moses to his face. It is quit^ 
 possible to be children of Abraham, according to the flesh, 
 and yet take up stones to stone him who was Abraham's 
 hope. No outer privilege, even if real, can be any substi- 
 tute for inward life, consistent walk, faithful, true, and 
 S|)iritual preaching. Having seen the necessity of a pure 
 and good example, let me notice some other features in the 
 minister of the Gospel, by which we can distinguish and 
 discriminate what should be his character, and who a true 
 minister is. The very first proof is, a true minister of 
 Christ is sent by the Holy Spirit of God. I do not mean 
 that the Spirit descends upon him visibly like a dove, or 
 that a voice rends the heavens, and audibly says, " I com- 
 mission this man ; " but that he who believes he is called to 
 the ministry in the providence of God, desires in his own 
 heart to preach what he has learned, has the conviction that 
 he has some capacity for doing so — has those chief fea- 
 tures that are required of a minister by the apostle ; and if 
 so, he may be sure that he is called by the Holy Spirit, who 
 anoints and calls his own into the vineyard. We read that 
 the Holy Ghost said, " Separate me Saul and Barnabas for 
 the work whereunto I have called them." And if I mistake 
 not, in the ordinal of the English church, the minister to be 
 ordained must confess that he is called by the Holy Ghost ; 
 a very solemn profession, a very awful one, if not true ; but 
 nothing can be more scriptural than to require such a pro- 
 fession, and nothing more essential to a minister than the 
 possession of that Holy Spirit. No ordination by presby- 
 ters, no ordination by a bishop, is worth one penny without 
 the inner call and commission of the Holy Ghost ; and that 
 
LEVITICUS XXI. 141 
 
 minister who is not so called, or so commissioned, or so 
 taught, may be ordained by all the prelates and presbyters 
 in Christendom ; he runs unsent, and he is no more a true 
 minister of the Gospel than was Judas, or any false and 
 apostate teacher in early days. 
 
 The next feature in a true minister of the Gospel is, he is 
 to be an ambassador from God. Who is an ambassador ? 
 This is the word used by an apostle. " We are ambassadors 
 of God, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you 
 in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto God." An ambas- 
 sador's province is simply to convey from his own sovereign 
 that sovereign's instructions to the court of another sovereign. 
 He must not dilute them, nor add to them, nor modify them. 
 He is the best ambassador who conveys most clearly the in- 
 structions of his court, and enforces them with the ablest, the 
 strongest, and the truest reasons. So a minister of the Gos- 
 pel is an ambassador from God. His chart is the Bible, and 
 his duty is to unfold, explain, and enforce it; to add noth- 
 ing to it, to subtract nothing from it, but to present it in eveiy 
 light, to follow it up Avith every argument, and to j)ress upon 
 the consciences and hearts of the people that great message 
 that he carries with him from the King of kings, and Lord of 
 lords. If the ministers of the Gospel be ambassadors, they 
 cannot be what are called sacrificing priests : and for this 
 obvious reason ; — a priest is a person that deals with God 
 on behalf of man ; but an ambassador is one that deals with 
 man on behalf of God ; just the opposite. If, therefore, a 
 man be a sacrificing priest, he is not an ambassador ; if he 
 be an ambassador, he cannot be a sacrificing priest. And, 
 therefore, he in the Christian Church who now says he is to 
 offer sacrifices for men, lays aside all pretension to be an am- 
 bassador. He does not come down from God to deal Avith 
 me on God's behalf; but he professes to go up to God, to 
 deal with God on my behalf. And, therefore, if he be a 
 priest, he is not one of the Christian ministry. I spoke of a 
 
142 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 requirement in the English ordinaL The Romish ordinal, 
 according to which priests are ordained, ordains them not for 
 any thing approaching to Christianity. For instance, when 
 a priest in the Church of Eome is ordained, there is put 
 into his hand a patten for holding bread, and a cup for 
 holding wine, and the bishop that ordains him commissions 
 him to go and offer the soul and divinity, the flesh and blood 
 of the Son of God, a sacrifice for the sins of the living and 
 the dead ; but not one word about preaching, not one word 
 about the Bible. He may be a Christian before — I do not 
 judge him in that ; but the man ordained to be a Koman 
 Catholic priest is no more, in virtue of his ordination — do 
 not mistake me — a Christian minister, than he is a Mahom- 
 etan mufti. He does not undertake a single Christian func- 
 tion ; he is not ordained to execute one ; he is not enjoined 
 even to read the Bible : and one priest I know told me he 
 never saw a Bible till many years after he was ordained a 
 priest in that Church. The Christian minister, however, is 
 ordained, in the language of the apostles, to preach the 
 Gospel ; he is appointed to teach, as an ambassador from 
 God, a presbyter, an evangehst, a bishop, an apostle, or 
 whatever other name there may be by which he is known. 
 
 One other character is given to the ministry ; its subjects 
 are stewards. The apostle says, " Let a man so account of 
 us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the myste- 
 ries of God." Servants for duty, stewards for responsibility. 
 A steward has charge of much ; if he keep back what he 
 ought to put forward, or put forward what he ought to keep 
 back, or supersede what he should preach by something not 
 from the source and fountain, he is unfaithful, and does not 
 act like a steward of God. On opening the Epistles of Paul, 
 it is remarkable how very emphatic are all the various re- 
 quirements in the minister of the Gospel, and how little he 
 speaks of any of those things thought so valuable by some. 
 First of all, it is said he must be one holding the mystery of 
 
LEVITICUS XXI. 143 
 
 the truth in a pure conscience. He must be self-denying. 
 The minister of the (iospel must be self-denying; denying 
 himself many things that he would like for the sake of those 
 to whose good he is sent to minister. The apostle says, "I 
 keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that 
 by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself 
 siiould be a castaway " — that is, disapproved as a minister 
 of Christ. Another feature given by the apostle of a min- 
 ister is one " apt to teach." It is not enough that one should 
 be a scholar ; that is most important : but how often do you 
 find that men whose minds are walking encyclopa?dias of 
 knowledge, are not able, on the platform, or in the pulpit, or 
 anywhere else, to speak five minutes connected sentences 
 unfolding what their minds contain. It may be, as some one 
 satirically said, that the emptiest minds can speak easiest, 
 as the emptiest churches empty fastest : it may be so, but 
 still it is a fact, that many a richly stored mind has not the 
 gift of speaking its thoughts, and that many a one, with very 
 little in the mind, has the power of making the most of that 
 little. But it is a requirement in a minister of the Gospel, 
 not only that his mind shall be well stored, not only that he 
 shall be well instructed — and in the present day the very 
 highest scholarship is most important in the ministry — but 
 that also he shall be apt to teach ; that is, have the power 
 of speaking what he thinks, clothing his ideas with simple 
 and appropriate language. The very best way to do so, is 
 never to be anxious while we speak about the words, but 
 only to be sure of thoughts, and words are certain to follow. 
 There can be no difiiculty in clothing a thought that we 
 clearly understand with plain words ; and Avhenever you do 
 not understand a sermon, it is not because the subject is diffi- 
 cult, but because the minister has not the power of speaking 
 clearly what he wishes to convey. The plainest and the 
 most transparent sermons are always the ablest ; the grand- 
 est sermons are always the worst. What we want is sim- 
 
144 BCRirTURE READINGS. 
 
 plicity of speech, clearness of thouglit. TVe are travellers 
 in a dark niglit, and in a weary way ; and the plainest sign- 
 post that tells us the road we are to take, if not of the finest 
 Avood, or the most beautiful painting, is the most useful, be- 
 cause it is most easily read as it is most intelligibly written. 
 
 Again, it is said that ministers are not only to be apt to 
 teach, but also to think of their flocks at the throne of grace. 
 "Always," says the apostle, " in every prayer of mine for 
 you." He says again, " I bow my knees unto the Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven 
 and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to 
 the riches of his glory, to be strengthened witii might by his 
 spirit in the inner man." * 
 
 Having shown, then, from the requirement of the ancient 
 Jewish priest, what the modern Christian minister should be 
 — holy and consistent in his conduct, intelligible and plain 
 in his speech — let me show, by reference to the same source, 
 some things that ministers should not be. The apostle is par- 
 ticular in laying down the negative side, if I may so speak, 
 of ministerial character. First, they ought not to be, says 
 the apostle, lords over God's heritage ; that is, they ought 
 not to dictate, but persuade. They ought not to say " It is 
 so," because they think so ; but it is so, because " thus 
 saith the Lord." A lord over God's heritage is one that 
 dictates what is his own instead of enforcing, exhibiting, 
 and alleging what God has said in his Word. The pul- 
 pit ought to reflect the Scriptures, sermons to be the mul- 
 tiplied echoes of the Bible, and what the minister says should 
 derive its authority, not from his learning, but from God's 
 holy Word. A second negative requirement in the modern 
 Christian minister is, that he shall not be greedy of filthy 
 lucre. Over and over again this is reiterated and repeated 
 in the Scriptures. Paul could say, " I have coveted no man's 
 silver, nor gold, nor apparel." I believe nothing has done 
 greater injury to the Church universal than the evident symp- 
 
LEVITICUS XXI. 145 
 
 toms given, but not often, I believe, of ministers of tlie Gos- 
 pel at all hazards hastening to be rich, ready to sacrifice duty 
 for profit. Such a taste, such covetousness, such avarice 
 eats like a canker into real piety, corrodes their whole char- 
 acter, takes away all force from what they say, and makes 
 them absolutely useless. " Feed the flock of God which is 
 among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, 
 but willingly ; not for filthy lucre." I do not think that min- 
 isters of the Gospel should be poor : that is often as incon- 
 venient as it is dangerous to be excessively rich ; and I do 
 not agree with the laity that a layman may be as rich as 
 Croesus, but that what is a virtue in a layman, is almost sin 
 in a clergyman. I cannot see that there is any sin in being 
 rich, if your riches are honestly acquired, or that there is any 
 virtue in being poor ; and if riches in a layman be not sin, it 
 cannot be sin in a clergyman; and if they be dangerous 
 in a clergyman, they must a fortiori be dangerous in 
 a layman. But if riches come in the providence of God, 
 you are responsible for the use of them. But if you are 
 not rich, to set your heart upon riches, and hasten to be 
 rich, or to make so much of the little that you have, that 
 it absorbs all your thoughts, that is to be greedy of filthy 
 lucre, to covet other m^'s silver, gold, and apparel, or 
 to take the oversight of the flock from wrong and sinful 
 motives. To enter into the Church to get a living as the 
 main end is scandalous ; to enter into the Church as a min- 
 ister to serve God, and to expect that you will get bread to 
 eat, and raiment to put on, is common sense and reason. 
 The minister of the Gospel must have bread to eat, and rai- 
 ment to put on ; and if he ministers to you in spiritual things, 
 the Church, the nation, or the congregation, or whatever may 
 be the source, ought to minister to him in temporal things ; 
 nothing is more reasonable. But when preferment, the 
 loaves and the fishes, are made the dominant and the chief 
 things, then that is sin. But yet I will venture to assert — 
 
 13 
 
146 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 and it is needful to assert it in these days — infidels, and 
 persons of sceptic and antichristian minds, constantly fling 
 in the face of the ministers of the Gospel that they are fond 
 of Avealth. Now what is the fact ? If all the wealth of the 
 Church of England, which is one of the richest bodies, were 
 thrown into one common fund, and divided equally among 
 all its rectors, curates, vicars, bishops, each would get about 
 £190 a year; that would be the sum total; the calculation 
 has been made. I think no curate ought to have less than 
 £200, and no rector less than £500 a year ; and if I could I 
 would take from the higher bishops in order to enrich the 
 lower ministers. And if you take the Scotch Church again, 
 which has been supposed to be the poorer ; if all the money 
 in that Church were thrown into a coffer, it would give £300 
 a year to each ; so that we are in that respect richer than 
 the Church of England ; not richer in reality, but richer in 
 more equal distribution. If you examine the subject calmly 
 and dispassionately, you will see that of the ministers of the 
 Gospel it cannot be said that they are greedy of filthy lucre 
 — it cannot be said that they are extravagantly rich ; and 
 this applies to dissenters as much as to churchmen ; and 
 therefore the smart remarks of sceptics are really not just or 
 true ; they are meant to injure that blessed Gospel to which 
 we are the witnesses, and of which we are the preachers. 
 
 Anotlier negative in the character of ministers of the 
 Gospel is, that they should not be contentious, not self- 
 willed, not turbulent, not of a quarrelsome spirit, not taking 
 offence at little matters, not angry with a brother because 
 that brother in every jot and tittle does not concur with 
 them. Another negative is, not men-pleasers. The apostle 
 says, " If I should please men, I should not be the servant 
 of Christ." And again, he says, " Not as pleasing men, but 
 God ; " that is, sacrificing a great man's smile, a rich man's 
 countenance, for Christ's sake ; not caring who shall take 
 offence, if you are only sure that you speak the truth in a 
 
LEVITICUS XXI. 147 
 
 kind, Christian, and conciliatory spirit. It is possible to 
 speak truth bitterly, just as it is possible to speak what is 
 false lovingly ; but very often truth spoken bitterly and vio- 
 lently has less chance of success than a falsehood spoken 
 with great plausibility and kindness. Let us, therefore, pro- 
 claim the truth ; try to convey the most unpalatable trutlis, 
 if we cannot in the most palatable language, at least wdtli a 
 most conciliatory, sympathizing, and kindly spirit. Let us 
 ever show it is to win souls, not to give offence. Let us re- 
 member that men are differently constituted, and that truth 
 needs to be presented to sinful, erring man, with great ten- 
 derness and forbearance. It is not God on Sinai that speaks 
 from the pulpit, but frail man compassed about with like 
 infirmities, himself needing to feel and to exemplify the 
 truths that he speaks and preaches. 
 
 The next negative character is, " not given to much 
 wine ; " it is one of the characteristics that the apostle lays 
 down ; and this seems to have been then a very important 
 requirement, and from what one reads it is no less now. 
 " Not given to much wine ; " not the prohibition of it, but 
 the limitation of it. If what is called the Teetotal princi- 
 ple, however good and valuable it may be, had been an 
 apostolical one, I do submit it would have been said, " not 
 daring to taste wine : " but it is not so ; " not given to much 
 wine ; " therefore some may be taken, but it must not be tak- 
 en in excess ; and evidently the ruUng principle is, " a little 
 wine for thy stomach's sake " — a little wine for the sake 
 of your health, if you find it requisite. What a vast 
 amount of common sense is there in the Bible ! The more 
 one reads this Blessed Book the more one feels what How- 
 ells said of it, " It is common sense inspired." There is 
 that in this Book wdiich so commends itself to one's good 
 sense, apart from its inspiration, that we cannot resist the 
 conclusion — if this Book was not inspired by God, the 
 men who wrote it left behind them a more stupendous mira- 
 
148 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 cle than any one tliey have yet recorded. The wine in the 
 apostle's days must surely have been what is called alcoholic 
 wine ; I admit not like our wines, which, to suit our very 
 depraved taste and appetite, are mixed with an enormous 
 quantity of alcohol. The w^ine in the East had about seven 
 per cent, alcohol ; our strongest wines have twenty per cent. 
 But then there was some alcohol : if there was none, why 
 should the apostle have said, "not given to much wine?" 
 He would not say, " not given to much water," because there 
 was no risk of water doing any injury. The very fact that 
 he limits the quantity, shows that the wine then used was 
 alcoholic or stimulating, and that it required restraint, regu- 
 lation — not prohibition. But no doubt the less used the 
 better. They that can do without it are best without it ; 
 and it is a question left open for Christian men to discuss, 
 whether the best example is total abstinence from it, or the 
 moderate use of it : they are only wrong who base prohibi- 
 tion upon the Bible ; they who base it on expediency take 
 fair ground that is open to discussion. 
 
 These are the elements of the Christian minister, laid 
 down in Scripture, suggested by the consideration of the 
 ancient Jewish priests. And you, the people, now take the 
 minister as the messenger of God. " Let a man so account 
 of us as ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries 
 of God." Secondly, wait on his instruction. The least you 
 can do is, to listen to the minister. A minister will always 
 preach better when he speaks to a listening and attentive 
 auditory ; and a stated minister will always be encouraged 
 when he sees the same places filled by the same listeners, 
 desirous to taste the bread, and drink the water of life. In 
 the next place, follow their example as far as they follow 
 Christ. " Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ." 
 " Be followers together of me, and mark them which Avalk 
 so as ye have us for an example." And, again, pray for 
 them. The apostle frequently, in all his Epistles, asks the 
 
LEVITICUS XXI. 149 
 
 prayers of the people to whom he was attached, and who 
 were attached to liim. In the Epistle to the Romans, moi-e 
 than once he does so. "I beseech you, brethren, for tlie 
 Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that 
 ye strive together with me in your prayers for me." And 
 again, in Ephesians, when he bids them take the whole 
 armor of God, he says, " Praying always with all prayer 
 and supplication in the Spirit, and w^atching thereunto with 
 all perseverance and supplication for all saints ; and for me, 
 that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my 
 mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel." 
 And pray, in the next place, for the increase of it. I 
 trouble myself less about ecclesiastical machinery ; I think 
 more of the importance of Christ's rule in the midst of his 
 Church. If he send forth laborers into the harvest, it mat- 
 ters not whether layman, or people, or presbyter appoint 
 them. Satan will be glad to see Christian people wrathful 
 with each other about Church politics, if he can only keep 
 them from fuliilling the grand precept, " Pray ye the Lord 
 of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into the 
 harvest." 
 
 The Great Patron of the church is in the skies. Those 
 whom he sends are holy and true and chosen. Those that 
 enter unsent, whatever excellences they have, want that 
 which is vital. 
 
 13* 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 RULES FOR THE MINISTRY OP THE PRIESTS. 
 
 This chapter is so peculiar to the Jewish priesthood, and 
 so entirely occupied about ceremonial nncleannesses, that, 
 while it has its place, its value, and its use, it is not for edi- 
 fication to read it in the family. By stating the various 
 causes that operated as ceremonial impediments to the 
 priest's discharge of his sacerdotal functions, it reveals, on 
 the one hand, how human nature has been tainted in its 
 moral condition by the fall, and how deeply that taint has 
 struck into the physical economy of man : it shows, on the 
 other hand, that " holiness becometh the Lord's House," and 
 that they should "be clean who bear the vessels of the 
 Lord." 
 
 The closing portions of this chapter are occupied with the 
 regulation of the sacrifices to be offered, and require that 
 they too should be free from all blemish and defect. The 
 w^orship we offer, and the worshippers that offer it, should 
 be holiness to the Lord. 
 
 The only perfect priest was Christ Jesus — the first and 
 the last : the only perfect sacrifice ever offered was His. A 
 day approaches when the whole company of true believers 
 shall be presented to the Lord a glorious church, without 
 spot or blemish or any such thing ; and all matter that we 
 now see disinfected of its evil, and consecrated afresh, shall 
 also be holiness to the Lord. 
 a50) 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 END OF JEWISH FESTIVALS — EFFECTS OF, ON THE TRIBES AND NA- 
 TION — INSPIRATION — PASSIVE THANKFULNESS FOR HARVESTS 
 
 PENTECOST — GLEANINGS FOR THE POOR — A MARGIN FOR THE 
 
 NEEDY — FEAST OF TRUMPETS — FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 
 
 This chapter ought properly and naturally to succeed the 
 nineteenth chapter of this book, in which was stated the 
 great fact of the annual festival of atonement, and after 
 which follow properly, and in order, the various feasts or 
 festivals recorded in this chapter. In this book we have 
 read, first of all, rules for persons ; secondly, for holy places ; 
 thirdly, for holy habits ; and we have now the regulations 
 laid down for the government of the children of Israel in ref- 
 erence to the appointment of their festivals. Many of the 
 laws contained in this book are now, of course, necessarily 
 obsolete, because their subjects are superseded by the great 
 ends and objects of which they were foreshadows. But 
 many of these laws, however minute they may appear to us, 
 and however unnecessary, because we live in an enlightened 
 age where the indirect light of Christianity is sufficient al- 
 most to instruct the masses — were necessary then ; and 
 they have been, some of them, at least, the guiding laA\-s of 
 the most enlightened nations in every age of the world. 
 Many laws that were necessary for the infancy of a profess- 
 ino; church need not be retained and observed in the mature 
 years of that church ; and yet their importance in their place 
 and for their object cannot be overestimated, and ought not 
 
 (151) 
 
152 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 to be liglitlj regarded. Many parts of this book are neces- 
 sarily for personal study ; other parts of it were suitable for 
 the priests only ; but other parts of it are full of the richest 
 evangelical truths ; — it being the Gospel in shadow, just as 
 St. John is the Gospel with life and immortality clearly 
 brought to light. 
 
 Now the Hebrew word here rendered " feasts " might with 
 much greater propriety be rendered "assemblies," or convo- 
 cations, or institutions. It was not necessarily a feast in the 
 sense of a participation of good things ; but it was properly 
 a gathering together of the people for the offering of sacrifi- 
 cial rites, in order to impress upon their minds great truths, 
 and to be, as it were, to them the alphabet of that Gospel 
 that was to be more fully revealed. You can see the vast 
 importance of these institutions in two or three points of 
 view ; in one a moral, in another, in some degree, a political. 
 For instance, the Jews were divided into twelve tribes ; these 
 tribes were, in some degree, by that division insulated or 
 mechanically detached and separated from each other, each 
 with pecuhar interests ; but by these great festivals or insti- 
 tutions which occurred every year, at stated intervals, the 
 whole twelve tribes came across the geographical boundaries 
 that severed them, and met together around the same altar, 
 offering the same sacrifices, singing the same grand songs, 
 and worshipping together the same God — the God of Abra- 
 ham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. And thus this communion of 
 all the scattered tribes in one on these several occasions was 
 calculated to break up every idea of separation, and to show 
 them they were all the children of one Blessed Father, and 
 as they were loved of God they ought as friends to love one 
 another. In the second place, these institutions were politi- 
 cally important — for God rules in a nation as well as among 
 individuals. I have told you often, that the Jewish race was 
 separated from the rest of mankind, in order to preserve, in 
 all its purity, the worship of the only living and true God. 
 
LEVITICUS XXIII. 153 
 
 It was, therefore, part and parcel of the polity of Leviticus, 
 as far as polity was given in it, to make them depend for all 
 their snpplies as much as possible upon internal resources. 
 If they had been dependent for their corn upon foreign na- 
 tions, the consequence would have been, they would have 
 gone out and mingled with those idolatrous nations, and 
 those nations, the moment they came to be at war with the 
 children of Israel, would have withheld from them that 
 bread which was essential to their maintenance as a people, 
 and to their separation and distinctness as a believing and a 
 Christian people. These institutions, therefore, necessarily 
 gave birth to a vast amount of internal traffic; caravans 
 coming across wide or parched deserts — camels, and asses, 
 and oxen, carrying loads from place to place, introduced a 
 sort of circulation, not of money, but of that which is the end 
 of money — goods ; and the consequence was that every 
 place was visited by those that had to sell ; and every one 
 that wanted found the things that he required: and thus 
 a sort of internal traific was kept up amid all the tribes of 
 Israel, that made them by one part of the law more inde- 
 pendent of the will of foreigners ; and, secondly, gave them 
 commercial intercourse at home, sufficient for a nation in 
 that infant state in which they were at that time. One can 
 see, therefore, a large amount of practical and characteristic 
 wisdom disclosed in all these institutions, which shows the 
 highest inspiration ; and the inference from the study of it 
 must be, that a nomad and semi-barbarous race — for so 
 they were in the desert — never could have struck out such 
 a masterly polity, or made the arrangements that are here 
 given. It is far less credulous to believe that God instituted 
 these, than that a barbarous race struck the theory out of 
 their own minds. 
 
 Having seen the reason of these institutions, let me notice 
 that in this chapter there is given, first of all, the passover. 
 The passover is described, as it had been previously, in the 
 
154 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 fifth verse : " In the fourteenth day of the first month at 
 even is the Lord's passover." The Jewish ecclesiastical 
 year began with April — the civil year began with Septem- 
 ber ; and, therefore, the festival of the passover was cele- 
 brated in April, just about the time of the subsequent cele- 
 bration of the Lord's Supper, that now very properly and 
 justly succeeds it. After describing the passover, which we 
 have had delineated and recorded in the Book of Exodus, 
 we have next the festival of the sheaf of -first-fruits, beghi- 
 ning at the ninth verse. He tells them that when they reap 
 the harvest " they shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of 
 their harvest unto the priest ; and he shall wave the sheaf 
 before the Lord." This was a beautiful institution, to teach 
 the Israelite that it Avas not the soil, nor the rain drops, nor 
 the sunbeams, nor the dews, nor the skill of their agricul- 
 turists, that they had to thank for their bounteous produce ; 
 but that they must rise above the sower and the reaper, and 
 see God the good giver of the golden harvest, and make his 
 praise the key-note of their harvest-home. Thus, all Is- 
 rael was to do then what we should do still — praise God 
 for every temporal blessing that we have ; either for the 
 bounteous harvest, or for health, or for profits in trade, or 
 for success in business. Whatever good thing passes to you 
 in the providence of God, is a voice proclaiming in the de- 
 sert, " Praise ye the Lord." 
 
 After this, we have the Feast of Pentecost. The Feast 
 of Pentecost was to be fifty days — seven weeks, that is, 
 seven times seven, forty-nine, and a day over, fifty — fifty days 
 after the feast we have just now referred to. It was made 
 much more of by the Jews than was originally meant of God, 
 because it did happen that the fiftieth day was the day of 
 the giving of the law on Mount Sinai ; and though it was not 
 intended to commemorate that event, the Jews attached so 
 much importance to the event, that they called the Pentecost 
 " the day of the commission or giving of the law." 
 
LEVITICUS XXIII. 155 
 
 After this we have a very beautiful provision — the glean- 
 ings that are to be left for the poor ; that Avhen you reap 
 your corn you are to take care not to cut down every thing, 
 but to leave a little for the poor : " When ye reap the har- 
 vest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the 
 corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning 
 of thy harvest : thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and 
 to the stranger : I am the Lord your God." I think one of 
 the most beautiful traits in the provision and economy of 
 God in the Old Testament Scriptures is the constant refer- 
 ence to the poor. The permanency of the rich and the poor 
 is what Christ himself has declared ; there will be rich and 
 poor as long as this dispensation lasts ; and any attempt to 
 break down the distinction entails calamity on the nation 
 that makes it. The distinction does exist, and will exist as 
 long as men live, and intellectual energies differ in degree — > 
 for the fact is, men are not all equal ; they may talk as they 
 will that all men are equal. In one sense, before God, all 
 men are equal ; but in another respect they are not. One 
 man has more physical energy or more mental energy than 
 another. One man has more skill than another, one man 
 more activity than another ; and several things are constantly 
 keeping up that broad and palpable distinction between 
 them that have, and them that have not. But just as the 
 Israelite reaper left some ears of corn for the poor and for 
 the stranger, so you, in estimating your labors, which are to 
 you for all practical purposes your corn fields, in arranging 
 your profits, your gains, your losses, ought to have a balance 
 or a margin for the benefit of the poor, the destitute, and the 
 needy. God especially blessed a nation that took care of 
 the poor ; and God still provides for and pronounces blessed 
 those that consider the poor. I know that what are called 
 " poor's rates " are extremely objectionable ; because, when 
 you pay your poor's rates you give a tax, and Avhen the 
 poor get in the workhouse, the bread that it buys they take 
 
156 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 it as a right ; and the consequence is, all benevolence on 
 your part is quenched, and all gratitude on the part of the 
 poor is ruined also. But then, such is the hardness of the 
 human heart in so many cases, that a wise and merciful gov- 
 ernment is bound to make the law, and to compel that as a 
 right which many would much rather give as the act of be- 
 nevolence and kindness. 
 
 But because you do pay poor's rates you still must leave 
 a margin to give something ; for those rates are not yet in- 
 tolerable ; and on all occasions we should be delighted that 
 we have an opportunity of making the heart of the widow 
 rejoice, and the orphan sing for joy. There is an opportu- 
 nity for this in what I have seen noticed in many of the 
 papers in the present day, — the destitution of soldiers' wives, 
 and I hope that those that see the opportunity will attend to 
 it. Those soldiers whom we have sent abroad to fight the 
 battles of our country have left behind them wives and chil- 
 dren, so far as I can gather from public sources of infor- 
 mation, almost destitute. Now, I think it will be a great dis- 
 grace to our nation, if we leave them so ; and I hope that 
 those who have the means of contributing to this object will 
 avail themselves of it, and feel it not a tax exacted from 
 them, but a happy occasion of exercising the highest benefi- 
 cence towards those, whom the brave and wilhng defenders 
 of our country, its institutions and its rights, have been com- 
 pelled by their position to leave behind them. No man ever 
 died poorer because he gave to the poor ; and I have noticed 
 that the most unhappy men are the men that are always get- 
 ting, never giving. If you want to be really happy, give ; 
 if you wish to be thoroughly wretched, withhold what is meet. 
 There is a great law which is universally true, " It is more 
 blessed," or there is more happiness, "to give than to re- 
 ceive." 
 
 We have after this the Feast of Trumpets, which began 
 the civil year of the Jews. And how very striking the thought 
 
LEVITICUS XXIII. l/)? 
 
 that the trumpets should sound at the commencement of a 
 new year, and that the name of God should, upon that occa- 
 sion, be blessed and praised. The Jews, even at the present 
 day, are in the habit of celebrating this; they say, " Glory 
 be to God the Father, hosannah ; " and then, " Glory be 
 to the Redeemer, hosannah ; glory be to the Seeker, ho- 
 sannah," — a sort of foreshadow of the Trinity, or a Tri- 
 une Jehovah, still preserved among them. We have next 
 the Feast of Tabernacles, to one of the main rites of which 
 I will direct your minds in the sermon from the Gospel of 
 St. John ; where they dwelt in booths or tents, to commem- 
 orate the fact that they dwelt in tents in the desert. The 
 Jews of modern times preserve this idea ; and on this day 
 they collect plants of citron and the palm-tree, and the small 
 branches of them they carry in their hands, and walk in 
 procession round the reading-desk of their synagogue ; as a 
 faint fragmental remain of the one ancient and illustrious 
 institution. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 INFANT CHRISTIANITY — GROWTH — OIL FOR THE LAMPS — MANY 
 CONGREGATIONS ONE CHURCH — A CHRISTIAN — TRUE CHURCH 
 — SIIEWBREAD — THE BLASPHEMER — CONSCIENCE AND CIVIL IN- 
 TERFERENCE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT — LEX TALIONIS. 
 
 It is most important that we should constantly bear in mind 
 that the Christians of the Levitical economy were the infants, 
 if I may so speak, or the youths, of the Christian dispensa- 
 tion. They needed to be constantly taught by visible and 
 impressive symbols, each symbol the pedestal of a great 
 and precious truth, and inculcating that truth through the 
 senses, and thereby making the deej^est and most permanent 
 impression on the mind. It is quite certain that whatever 
 defects may exist in the Christian Church now, in mnumer- 
 able particulars it has grown in purity, in wisdom, and in 
 capacity of receiving the truths that are revealed in this 
 blessed book. Among the very first symbols appointed in 
 this chapter, is the pure beaten oil for the lamps that were 
 " to burn continually without the vail of the testimony, in the 
 tabernacle of the congregation." Xow we find that John in 
 the Apocalypse uses the very imagery that is here, to set forth 
 the completeness, the unity, and yet the variety of the Chris- 
 tian Church. The seven candlesticks, or the seven branches 
 of the one candlestick, are seven churches ; all the seven 
 knit together in one golden stem ; and through that stem 
 rushing into each tube, and supplying each lamp with the 
 most precious and perfumed oil, beaten oil rising from the 
 (158) 
 
LEVITICUS XXIV. 159 
 
 stem and enabling it thus to burn. Now we liave in (hat 
 image the most complete exhibition of the variety of tlie 
 Christian Church. It is not one stem, there are seven stems. 
 There is not one visible church, but many visible congrega- 
 tions, all of them, greater or less, constituting together the 
 one universal or Catholic Church. It was never meant that 
 there should be but one visible economy, but many differ- 
 ing economies ; having their unity not in the uniformity of 
 A to B, and B to C, but in the unity of all with the central 
 stem to which they are all knit. So is it now in the Chris- 
 tian Church. The discipline of the church is temporary, 
 but the doctrines of the church are eternal. In ecclesiastical 
 polity, it has varied, and it will vary ; in essential attach- 
 ment to the Saviour, trust in his sacrifice, love of vital and 
 essential truth, it has been one in every age. The oil that 
 supplied it was oil that rose from the stem, penetrated the 
 branches, and thus fed the flame. I need not remind you 
 how that very image is constantly used to denote the Holy 
 Spirit of God. " Anointed with the Spirit ; " and again, 
 "Ye have an unction from the Holy One." The name 
 " Christ " is " The Anointed One ; " and the name Christian 
 literally " a person consecrated by oil." But what oil ? The 
 Holy Spirit of God ; of whom oil is in the ancient economy 
 the expressive symbol. 
 
 Then the object of this candlestick was to give light in 
 the tabernacle. So the object of a church is to give light ; 
 and if it fail to give light it is worthless. The best candle- 
 stick would not be that which gave least light, but most ; 
 and no exquisite beauty of its chasing, no amount of gold in 
 its composition, would be any compensation for its failing to 
 do that which is its end and its mission, to give light to them 
 that are in the household. Better a bright light that will 
 enable you to read upon a brass or an iron candlestick, than 
 a dim burning one upon a golden or a silver one. Better a 
 church that lights people to heaven, though it have many 
 
160 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 imperfection?, tlian a churcli all splendor and magnificence 
 tiiat does not show a person across the road even. Tlie very^ 
 end and object of a Christian is to be a light ; and that is 
 the best church that casts the light upon the truths of the 
 Bible, the problems of the soul, the hopes of the Christian, 
 the way that leads to glory. 
 
 After the representation of the candlestick we have the 
 bread for a memorial before the Lord. This bread consisted 
 of twelve loaves upon a table of gold ; and had two mean- 
 ings ; probably one was to bring the produce of the fields of 
 the earth under the roof of the sanctuary of God, that it 
 might be seen that the same God who saves the soul and 
 feeds it with living bread, also supplies the wants of the 
 body, and makes the corn to grow upon the earth to bring 
 forth abundance for man and for beast. Or, secondly, it 
 may have been designed to show that there was a higher 
 want than the want of the bread that perisheth ; that there 
 is in man's soul a need, a hunger for the bread that endur- 
 eth unto life eternal ; which the viands of nature never 
 could furnish, which God must send as he sent the manna — 
 directly and immediately from heaven. And lastly, it was 
 used to be food for Aaron and the priests; every thing 
 being consecrated in that sanctuary, and associated in 
 some way with God, and the hopes of heaven and of 
 eternity. 
 
 Then, in the midst of this statement, there is intro- 
 duced — though one cannot exactly see its connection — an 
 incident, and that incident fraught with important instruc- 
 tion. But what is blaspheming the name of God ? It is 
 attributing to God wickedness, and sin, and crime. The 
 blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, we read in the New 
 Testament, was asserting that the miracles which Jesus did 
 by the Spirit were done by Satan, the prince of the power 
 of the air. And this blasphemy in Israel had two aspects. 
 First, it was a spiritual offence to be visited on the soul, if 
 
LEVITICUS XXIV. 161 
 
 persisted in, at the judgment-seat ; but, secondly, it was a 
 civil act of treason against the King of kings : the Jews 
 living under a theocracy, every thing that was done against 
 God was not only an act of the conscience against the Lord 
 of the conscience, but an act of a subject who was in re- 
 bellion against his only King of glory and supreme majesty. 
 You can see therefore that the visiting of blasphemy with 
 civil penalties, was in some degree peculiar to that economy. 
 I am not lawyer enough to know, but I believe that in 
 many, if not in most modern nations, blasphemy in its re- 
 volting shapes has been visited even with civil penalties. 
 Except as an offence against others, perhaps it should not 
 be so ; whatever relates to the conscience is between that 
 conscience and God. But whenever a man makes his rehg- 
 ion a pretext, or his conscientious convictions an excuse 
 for injuring, insulting, and offending others, then it is time, I 
 think, that interference should take place. It is all very 
 well to say, " I ought not to be punished for this, because it 
 is my conscientious conviction." Why, if a number of Hin- 
 doos were to come here, and if they were to propose to burn 
 a widow on the funeral pyre of her husband at Charing- 
 Cross, I venture to assert that the authorities would very 
 properly interfere. But if the Hindoo w^ere to say, " That 
 is part of my religion." " Very true," the magistrate would 
 say, " it is so ; but the laws of England say it shall not be 
 done ; and that is an end of it," and very justly so. So 
 again, if a person came here from the Pope of Rome, and 
 said, "I am governor of Essex and Middlesex," and on 
 your objecting, he were to say, " That is part of my relig- 
 ion ; I must have a diocese here," I must directly tell him, 
 " The laws of England say it is not so, and that it shall not 
 be done ; " and he cannot be a loyal subject who would per- 
 sist in doing what the laws strictly and simply prohibit. So 
 that the moment, you observe, that one's conscientious con- 
 viction becomes no longer an enjoyment of his own, but an 
 
 14* 
 
162 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 inconvenience to his neiglibor, it is right for the sake of 
 society that the conscientious conviction should be kept 
 within its own bounds, and restricted to its own proper 
 orbit. So now, blasphemy was in Israel, not simply a moral 
 offence, though, as I showed you, even in that light it may 
 become an offence to the public, but it was also a civil 
 offence — disloyalty and rebellion against the King of 
 kings. 
 
 There are, next, laws enacted for certain crimes. He 
 that kills a beast shall make it good ; he, however, that kills 
 a man must be put to death. I cannot, I must say, agree 
 with those who assert that capital punishment is forbidden 
 in Scripture. I do think, on the contrary, for certain 
 crimes — for the crime of murder for instance, capital pun- 
 ishment is repeatedly sanctioned in Scripture. It was sanc- 
 tioned at the Flood ; and it does not seem to be a law pecu- 
 liar to that economy, but universal. It is based upon the 
 fact that to kill a man is the greatest outrage upon the image 
 of God ; and it is not a Levitical, but a universal law, that 
 " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be 
 shed." At the same time, I think that it is the only crime 
 which should be so visited. 
 
 After this we read in the twentieth verse, " There shall 
 be breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth." Now 
 some persons Avill say this contradicts another and equally 
 inspired part of the Bible. Our blessed Lord, you will all 
 recollect, in Matthew v., says that this shall not be the case. 
 " Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, 
 and a tooth for a tooth : but I say unto you, That ye resist 
 not evil : but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
 turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee 
 at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak 
 also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go 
 with him twain." Now, how do we explain the apparent 
 contradiction ? This explains it. The eye for the eye, and 
 
LEVITICUS XXIV. 163 
 
 the tooth for the tooth, was the civil economy of Israel 
 under a theocracy, a Divine magistrate ; tlie law for public 
 offences carried out by the public magistrate, inflicted in a 
 public manner, was " an eye for an eye," or the lex talionis, 
 a tooth for a tooth, and so on. But our blessed Lord is 
 speaking here of what Christians are to be with one another ; 
 and he says, in your dealings one with another, the lex 
 tallonis is not to apply ; it must not be an eye for an eye ; 
 but it must be, in individuals dealing with each other, " He 
 that will take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 
 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him 
 twain." Here it is a public civil law, carried out and in- 
 flicted by the public magistrate ; in Matthew v. it is private 
 individual intercourse, in which, and in course of Avhich, no 
 such principle is to be carried into practice, no such law to 
 be acted on. It is one thing for a magistrate to inflict the 
 legal penalty for an offence ; it is quite another thing for a 
 private individual to take the law into his own hands and 
 profess to help that law. So that you observe passages that 
 seem to be in antagonism, are found when looked at in their 
 proper light to be in harmony. So, again, that other pas- 
 sage which those excellent Christians, called Friends, misin- 
 terpret : " Thou shalt not swear, but let thy yea be yea, and 
 thy nay, nay." Under the ancient economy they were to 
 swear, if before a magistrate and so required : and our Lord 
 does not repeal that ; but he siays, in your private, personal 
 intercourse with each other as Christians, you are not to try 
 to make yourselves believed by backing it with that vulgar 
 thing, profane swearing, an appeal to God, or an oath ; but 
 you are to say, it is so, or not so ; and the man that will not 
 believe your word, depend upon it will not believe it if 
 oaths or profane swearing are mixed with it. Our Lord 
 does not say, you shall not take an oath before a magistrate ; 
 nothing of the kind ; but what he says is, that in your pri- 
 
164 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 vate intercourse you are not to do so. He does not say that 
 those laws of the Jews are repealed in reference to legal 
 enactments ; but in your private intercourse with each other 
 it is to be love for hatred, coals of fire upon the head ; over- 
 coming evil with good. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE JUBILEE — PROVISION AGAINST MONOPOLY — BALANCE OF SO- 
 CIETY — INSTALMENTS — THE FUTURE REST. 
 
 This chapter is one of those merciful provisions that are 
 so frequently scattered over the ancient economy of God ; 
 and indicate as institutions in that uncultivated age, not the 
 invention of man, but the revelation of Him who is full of 
 goodness, and tender mercy, and forbearance, and forgive- 
 ness to the sins of men. The arrangement made in this 
 chapter was to the following effeat. Every seventh year 
 was to be what is called a "jubilee " year, so called from 
 the sounding of the trumpet that announced it. Then 
 every seven times seventh year, or seven sevens, was to be 
 the great jubilee. In the seventh year the ground was to 
 lie fallow ; there was to be no toil, no sowing, no reaping ; 
 but enough was provided by God's special providence in the 
 sixth year to last through the seventh, and to enable them 
 to sow in the eighth, and yet to live upon the food that they 
 had laid up in their granaries, and their store, in the pre- 
 vious years' preparation for it. Bush thus describes the 
 sabbatical year : — 
 
 "The prominent circumstances which distinguished the 
 sabbatical year from common years may be thus enumer- 
 ated. (1.) All agricultural operations were to be suspended, 
 and the land was to lie fallow. The whole country must, in 
 fact, have been thrown into one vast common, free to the 
 poor and the stranger, to the domestic cattle and the game ; 
 
 (1G5) 
 
166 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 for tlie proprietor of the land not only ceased to cultivate it, 
 but had no exclusive right to its spontaneous prodace, al- 
 though he might share in it. (2.) The produce of every 
 sixth year was promised to be such as would support them 
 till the harvest of the ninth year; a circumstance which 
 would clearly demonstrate a particular providence in respect 
 to the institution. (3.) It was a season of release from debts 
 due from one Israelite to another ; but not those due from 
 foreigners to Israelites. (4.) Every Hebrew slave had the 
 option of being released this year from his servitude. At 
 least this is often inferred from Ex. xxi. 2 ; but it will be 
 seen by reference to the Note on that passage to be quite 
 doubtful whether the seventh year there mentioned was not 
 the seventh year of his actual service, rather than the sabbat- 
 ical year. (5.) In the sabbatical year, at the feast of taber- 
 nacles, they were enjoined to read the law in the hearing of 
 all the people. This was called by the Rabbinical writers 
 * the reading of the king,' because tradition made the king 
 himself the reader on this occasion. 
 
 *' It is not to be supposed that this year of rest to the land 
 was necessarily spent by the Hebrews in idleness. They 
 could fish, hunt, take care of their bees and flocks, repair 
 their buildings and furniture, manufacture clothes, and carry 
 on their usual traffic." 
 
 Then the great jubilee year was to be the fiftieth year ; 
 and on the forty-ninth God was to give them such increase 
 that they should have enough for the fiftieth, and enough to 
 last them through the fifty-first, while they were sowing in 
 its spring time, to make ready for the fifty-second year. 
 You will see at once, that here was a clear and unmistakable 
 evidence, of which the senses must have taken cognizance, 
 of the providential presence of God, repeated to the chil- 
 dren of Israel every seventh year ; the fruits of the sixth, 
 bearing testimony to them of his presence, and proving the 
 reality, not only of the existence, but the providential gov- 
 
LEVITICUS XXV. 1G7 
 
 crnment, mid fiiitliful promises, of God. Then natural lil'c 
 was a miraculous one. In the fiftieth year the great trumpet 
 was to sound, every slave was to be set free, every forfeited 
 estate was to be restored, every one that had lost power was 
 to be reinstated, if not in his former, at least in suitable cir- 
 cumstances ; an arrangement the end and drift of which, as 
 we can easily see, was to prevent excessive accumulation of 
 property in the few, and the excessive impoverishment of the 
 multitude about them. It was a special dispensation for a 
 great, ultimate, and glorious purpose; such arrangements 
 were necessary to equalize and balance society in its infant 
 state, and to prevent those terrible results which, if not an- 
 ticipated or corrected in time, will in any country end in the 
 most disastrous issues. Wrongs long unrighted generate, in 
 the sense of a people's' wrongs, those passions which result 
 in a revolution. Now, to prevent any thing of this kind, 
 God laid down wise laws, which were the equipoise and bal- 
 ance of social life, and tended to prevent the discontent of 
 the many, the selfishness of the few; and to put right in so 
 many j'cars whatever had gone wrong in the social and po- 
 litical economy of that people. Bush gives the following 
 description of the jubilee : — 
 
 " (1.) As in the sabbatical year, so in this, the people 
 were neither to sow nor to reap, and the spontaneous prod- 
 ucts of the earth were to be accounted common property. 
 Thus there were two years at every jubilee, when the Jews 
 neither sowed nor reaped ; namely, the jubilee and the year 
 before, which was always a sabbatical year ; and hence we 
 see the reason why the promise of support, given in Lev. 
 XXV. 20-22, was from the sixth till the harvest of the ninth 
 year. "We have only two passages of Scripture where this 
 promise is alluded to, namely, 2 Kings xix. 29, and Isa. 
 xxxvii. 30. 
 
 " (2.) The second thing remarkable in the year of jubilee 
 was, that all the lands which had been sold by one Hebrew 
 
168 SCRirTURE READINGS. 
 
 to another had a reference to this, being valued according to 
 its proximity or remoteness, in order to their being restored 
 in that year ; or might be redeemed sooner by giving to the 
 owner a proper compensation. 
 
 " (o.) All sales of houses in the country were returned 
 likewise at that time, or could have been redeemed sooner ; 
 but all dwelling-houses in walled cities, unless redeemed 
 within a year, remained for ever with the possessor, except 
 in the case of houses belonging to the Levites, which might 
 have been redeemed at any time, although in vralled cities ; 
 and if not redeemed, returned to them again as a matter of 
 course in the year of jubilee. 
 
 " (4.) All Israelites who on account of poverty had sold 
 themselves, that is to say their services, to Israelites, were 
 not to be reckoned as bond, but as hired servants, and were 
 to return unto their families and fathers' possessions in the 
 year of jubilee. 
 
 " (5.) All poor Israelites who on account of poverty had 
 sold themselves to proselytes were to be accounted hired 
 servants, and might be redeemed at any time by their rela- 
 tives or themselves ; but if not redeemed, were to obtain 
 their liberty at the jubilee. 
 
 " (6.) As the Jewish kings had commonly much in their 
 power, they were expressly forbidden, on the one hand, to 
 seize the possession of any Israelite as a provision for their 
 family, or on the other to squander the royal domains on 
 favorites, as that would have lessened the patrimony of the 
 crown ; and if any such grants were at any time made, they 
 reverted, of course, to the original proprietors in the year of 
 jubilee. 
 
 " Such was the nature of the Jewish jubilee ; but we do 
 not find that any particular sacrifices were appointed, nor 
 even that reading of the law which w^as enjoined in the sab- 
 batical year ; neither is it clear at what hour of the day of 
 annual expiation the silver trumpets sounded to announce its 
 
LEVITICUS XXV. 169 
 
 coniraencemcnt. It is i^robable, however, that it was in the 
 evening, after the high-priest had entered tlie most holy 
 place, the scape-goat had been sent into the wilderness, and 
 the people, in full concert in the temple, had been praising 
 the Lord for his goodness, and because his mercy endure th 
 for ever. Imagination may conceive, but it is beyond the 
 power of language to describe, the general burst of joy that 
 would pervade the land, when the poor Israelites tasted again 
 the sweets of liberty, and returned to their possessions, their 
 families, and friends. In vain would sleep invite them to 
 repose — their hearts would be too full to feel the lassitude 
 of nature, and the night would be spent in gratitude and 
 praise. What a lively emblem of the Gospel of Christ, 
 which is peculiarly addressed to the poor, which is fitted to 
 heal the broken-hearted, to give deliverance to the captives, 
 the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound, and 
 to preach unto all the acceptable year of the Lord ! " 
 
 But while all this was a special provision for the temporal 
 comfort of the Jewish race, and is not a law obligatory upon 
 us, the spirit of it cannot be too richly infused into the laws 
 of every land, or too fully pervade the enactments of every 
 community. There is much in the spirit and in the letter 
 of Leviticus precious : you must notice, through the whole 
 of this blessed book, that deep sympathy with the poor, that 
 foresight of their wants, and provision for their ignorance ; 
 that beautiful precedent of lifting up the poor, and needy, 
 and oppressed, and preventing their unrighteous sufferings, 
 which has never been so fully exhibited in the history of 
 modern nations. It is only v^here this spirit is most exhib- 
 ited that society flourishes in its highest degree. Another 
 point of view, however, in which we are to look at these in- 
 stitutions is, as the great type of what is yet to be. Our 
 blessed Lord evidently applies it in this way, or rather the 
 prophet applies it first, and then our Lord quotes it. In 
 Isaiah Ixi. we are told, " the Spirit of the Lord God is upon 
 
170 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 me ; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tid- 
 ings imto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken- 
 hearted, to proclaim hberty to the captive, and the opening 
 of the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim the ac- 
 ceptable year of the Lord." And you recollect in the Gos- 
 pel of St. Luke, the fourth chapter, at the sixteenth verse, 
 our blessed Lord " went into the synagogue on the sabbath 
 day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered 
 unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he 
 had opened the book, he found the place where it was writ- 
 ten. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath 
 anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; he hath sent 
 me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 
 captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liber- 
 ty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of 
 the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to 
 the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that 
 were in the synagogue Avere fastened on him. And he be- 
 gan to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in 
 your ears." Now I do not believe that the great year of ju- 
 bilee was then fulfilled. The sound of its approach was 
 given ; individual blessings preached by Christ, to such as 
 received them made jubilees in individual hearts; till the 
 fiftieth year, or rather the seventh millennary of the world, 
 shall arrive, when what is now the possession, and privilege, 
 and glory, of the few, shall be the privilege and the enjoy- 
 ment and happy experience of all mankind. These rests of 
 the earth were instalments and foretastes of her last rest ; 
 when all creation shall enjoy its everlasting sabbath ; and 
 its groans, its travail, and its expectancy shall cease ; and 
 the Prince of Peace shall reign from sea to sea, and all 
 creation under His reign shall be blessed and made happy 
 in him. 
 
 These recurring remedial provisions all indicate an abnor- 
 mal condition of the earth at present, or a state of disaster, 
 
LEVITICUS XXV. 171 
 
 of barrcnnesp, and disease ; but they nevertheless carry for- 
 ward the hopes of the people of God to that pledged and 
 promised day, when a greater jubilee than was ever heard 
 amid the hills of Palestine shall reverberate over all the 
 earth, and all slavery cease, and the forfeited inheritance, 
 the lost world, paradise that has passed away, shall be re- 
 stored again, and all nations bless the Redeemer, and be 
 blessed in him ; that time so beautifully spoken of by the 
 poet, when he says : — 
 
 " One song employs all nations, and all cry, 
 Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us ! 
 The dwellers in the vales, and on the rocks, 
 Shout to each other, and the mountain-tops 
 From distant mountains catch the flying joy. 
 Till nation after nation taught the strain, 
 Earth rolls the raptui'ous hosanna round. 
 See Salem built, the labor of a God ; 
 Bright as the sun the sacred city shines. 
 All kingdoms, and all princes of the earth. 
 Flock to that light ; the glory of all lands 
 Flows into her ; unbounded is her joy ; 
 Praise is in all her gates ; upon her walls, 
 And in her streets, and in her spacious courts. 
 Is heard salvation. Eastern Java there 
 Kneels, with the nations of the farthest west ; 
 And Ethiopia spreads abroad her hands. 
 And worships. From every clime they come. 
 To see thy beauty, and to share thy joy, 
 Zion ! an assembly such as earth 
 Saw never — such as heaven stoops down to see ! " 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 IDOLS FORBIDDEN — OBELISKS — PRIESTLY LITERATURE — BIBLE 
 
 FOR ALL CHRISTIANITY IS CATHOLIC TEMPORAL BLESSINGS 
 
 — NATIONAL GREATNESS — SECRET OP — THE JEW — THE BLESS- 
 ING AND THE CURSE — THEIR RESTORATION. 
 
 I STATED in the commencement of my explanatory re- 
 marks upon the book on which our remarks are drawing to 
 its close, that the whole of it occupied only a few days in 
 its delivery, and that all these statutes were given, if not 
 upon Mount Sinai — that is, upon its loftiest height or crag 
 — yet in its immediate neighborhood, and around it. Hence, 
 the chapter closes with the statement, that " these are the stat- 
 utes, and judgments, and laws, which the Lord made be- 
 tween him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, by the 
 hand of Moses." I can conceive nothing more eloquent and 
 expressive, and at the same time, in some respects, touching, 
 than the solemn statements that are contained in this chap- 
 ter. First of all he inhibits the making of idols or repre- 
 sentations of Deity, by which to pretend to worship him. 
 No idol or graven image was to exist in Israel, even for the 
 sake of ornament or beauty, lest the people's tendency, ever 
 in that direction, should Avorship the thing made, in the room 
 of Him who made the heavens and the earth. But there is 
 one allusion here which indicates plainly the tendency of 
 Israel to carry with them the habits they had imbibed in 
 Egypt. Recollect, they had just come forth from the bond- 
 age of Egypt, very much imbued with its bad habits, need- 
 
 (172) 
 
LEVITICUS XXVI. 173 
 
 ing line upon line to regulate and correct their conduct. 
 And many of the customs of Egypt they took with them ; 
 and against these the laws in this book are specially and 
 clearly levelled. One law here given is, " Neither shall ye 
 set up any image of stone in your land." Almost every 
 commentator or critic I have consulted upon this text, be- 
 lieves that this is an allusion to the obelisks or pyramids, or 
 rather obelisks, that are still to be found amid the debris of 
 Egypt's ancient glory, and some specimens of which are in 
 almost every museum in Europe. On these obelisks were 
 hieroglyphic inscriptions ; and, if this be an allusion to them, 
 it is meant to teach Israel, not only that they were not to 
 worship images, but, still more, that they were not to have a 
 literature peculiar to one class of mankind that was not also 
 to be known by all the rest. Recollect, in Egypt they had 
 an isoteric and an esoteric literature ; an isoteric literature 
 known only to the priests, expressed by hieroglyphic charac- 
 ters, and kept from the people, because, as they thought, not 
 fit for the multitude to know. I need not tell you that, by 
 the discovery of the stone at Rosetta, and the hieroglyphic 
 characters and the Greek inscription belonging to it; by 
 Young, and Champollion, and others, the key to the hiero- 
 glyphic characters of the Nile has been discovered ; and we 
 now read that character and understand it nearly as truly as 
 if it had been written in Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, or any 
 modern or well-known tongue. But if this prohibition be an 
 allusion to this, I know nothing more interesting than the 
 denunciation of- having a literature for one class that was 
 not to be for the other, or having a religious knowledge for 
 the highest class that was not to be known to the lowest ; 
 and if so, it therefore indirectly teaches us that there is not 
 a blessing which we have in the knowledge of God and of 
 divine things, that we are not bound to disseminate and 
 spread, till the lowest and the humblest of mankind know it 
 also. Our religion is not a religion for a class, it is not a 
 
 15* 
 
174 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 religion for a coterie^ it is not a religion for a sect ; it is a re- 
 ligion essentially catholic, meant to beautify and bless the 
 lowest masses, as well as the loftiest heights of society. "Wo 
 are here taught that our religion, and our faith, and our Bi- 
 ble, are to be spread wherever we have the means and the 
 opportunities of spreading them; and that to try to lock 
 them up in a dead tongue, or to say that there is any thing 
 that the priest or the minister may know that the people 
 ought not to know,, is a practice prohibited and forbidden in 
 this blessed book. 
 
 He then tells them that " ye shall keep my Sabbaths and 
 reverence my sanctuary ; " and upon this ground, I, the pro- 
 claimer of it, the Object worshipped in the midst of it, am 
 the Lord. 
 
 He then tells them that if they will walk in his statutes, 
 and keep his commandments, and do them, then there is not 
 a temporal blessing in the catalogue of the highest and the 
 most providential mercies that he will not bestow upon them. 
 It is true that this is not so now literally, and yet it is so sub- 
 stantially. The whole of this institution was what is now 
 called a theocracy. God was not only the God of the Jew, 
 but he was also his King ; and obedience to him, as God, 
 brought down spiritual blessings ; loyalty to him, as King, 
 brought down temporal and national blessings. The the- 
 ocracy has now ceased ; but it is still true in the ninetee»th 
 century as it was in the days of Moses, " Seek first the king- 
 dom of God and his righteousness, and all other things will 
 be added unto you." Now that is an absolute promise of 
 universal application, and we ourselves shall feel it true in 
 our actual experience if we will only put it to the test. 
 Some do not seek the kingdom of God at all, but seek earthly 
 things ; often they miss the things that they seek, and, of 
 course, miss what they never sought — God's favor; some- 
 times they are suffered in worse judgment to get the things 
 that they seek, and thev find them thorns and briers, and a 
 
LEVITICUS XXVI. 175 
 
 curse, and no blessing. But if wc seek first the kingdom of 
 God, we shall not only get that, but the other tilings, tempo- 
 ral prosperity and temporal blessings, shall be added unto 
 us if they be most expedient for us. 
 
 We see here, in the next place, that temporal blessings 
 are connected with obedience and allegiance to God. These 
 temporal blessings — peace's victory over all their enemies, 
 the fruitfulness of the land, the enjoyment of God's taber- 
 nacle in the midst of it — all are promised to obedience. 
 This is still true of nations. Nations that are highest in 
 Christian character will always be highest in every other 
 national blessing. Just cast your eyes over the map of 
 Europe ; and if you had a thermometer, and could gauge 
 the amount of living Christianity in each nation, you 
 will find that the nation in which Christianity is purest, rises 
 highest, spreads the furthest, descends the deepest, is the 
 very nation that is highest in all that dignifies, ennobles, and 
 blesses a nation. And so, in our own native land, the vic- 
 tory of our armies in the righteous warfare to which it is 
 committed, the maintenance of our land in peace and pros- 
 perity against all foe and all invasion, will rest, not only 
 upon the banners of our brave troops, not only upon the 
 gallantry of our heroic sailors, but far more upon the liv- 
 ing religion that saturates the masses of our country. It 
 is righteousness that exalteth a nation, and sin is the 
 ruin of a nation. If you will read the history of nations, 
 you will find this universally true ; no nation ever falls 
 before a foreign foe — it always commits suicide. Na- 
 tions die suicides; they are self-slain. Rome fell only 
 because of its inner corruption; the beautiful sisterhood 
 of Greek states fell by their universal depravity; and 
 our nation will never fall before a foreign foe as long 
 as it is — what it is now in a greater degree than any 
 other — a nation that fears God, and works righteousness, 
 and counts the sunshine of His favor more precious than 
 
176 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 gold and silver, and whatsoever things may be weighed or 
 bought. ' 
 
 Then He tells them that if, on the other hand, they will 
 not obey his statutes and his commandments, that he will 
 walk contrary to them, and will scatter them among all na- 
 tions. I admit, at once, that this applies primarily to the 
 Jews ; there is no doubt that the blessing and the curse here 
 belong to the Jews ; and, while speaking of the blessing as 
 applicable to ourselves, we must not omit to add that the 
 curse is applicable to us also. Many Gentile Christians act 
 in a very unfair way ; they read the Old Testament, and 
 pick out all its bright promises and blessings, and they say, 
 " These are for us ; " then they read it again and pick out 
 all its curses, and they fling these contemptuously and un- 
 mercifully to the Jews. Now that is not fair. If the Jew 
 has the curse on him now, he has the blessing for him in 
 bright reversion. The curse has fallen upon him ; his land 
 is now the practical and visible transcript of those very 
 curses that are here pronounced ; read Chateaubriand's 
 account of his visit to it ; read any recent traveller ; read 
 Keith's " Fulfilment of Prophecy ; " read Bishop Newton ; 
 read Volney, the infidel, when he describes Palestine, if you 
 want the most complete evidence of the fulfilment of every 
 curse in this chapter. I will not ask the sceptic to read Dr. 
 Keith's book, because he is a Christian, and scepticism 
 quarrels with this ; but to read Volney's description of what 
 he saw in Palestine, and he was an infidel ; and you will 
 find it literally true that Volney, the infidel, unconsciously 
 writes, "Thy word, O God, is truth." Every curse has 
 been visited upon that land, and the Jew is the visible man- 
 ifestation at this moment of the awful judgments that have 
 been pronounced upon him. Look at the Jews in any land 
 at this moment. How do you account for the Jews ? The 
 Greek is gone ; the Albanian robber of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury is no more like the Greek of the days of Pericles, than 
 
LEVITICUS XXVI. 177 
 
 we are. The Roman is gone; the modern Italian is not the 
 ancient Roman. There is no one nation that retains its 
 nationality complete, entire, but the Jew. And you must be 
 aware, even in our land, of the truth of this ; a nation with- 
 out a country, a people without a home ; and bearing on his 
 face the unmistakable evidence of his origin ; and, also in 
 his restlessness, the evidence that the curse pronounced still 
 cleaves to him wherever he goes. You find the Jew by the 
 Mississippi, the Missouri, the Ganges, the Thames, every- 
 where ; in all latitudes, speaking all tongues, with an ances- 
 try in comparison of which the ancestry of our greatest 
 nobles is but of yesterday, and with hopes that have a bril- 
 liancy equalled only by our own. How any man can be a 
 disbeliever in the Bible Avith that deep-toned voice ringing 
 in his ear every morning, I cannot well conceive ; or how 
 anybody can read the Bible that predicts the destiny of the 
 Jews, and yet refuse to believe it to be inspired, I cannot 
 conceive. Yet the Jew is not forsaken ; he is cast down, 
 but he is not cast off; and it will not do for men in the pres- 
 ent day to say, "God has cursed them, and therefore I 
 curse them : " that is not right ; on the contrary, there is a 
 blessing in this book upon those that bless Israel, and there 
 is a curse upon those that curse him. "We are not to set out 
 to fulfd prophecy ; God will look after the fulfilment of his 
 prophecies ; we are to obey precepts by doing justly, loving 
 mercy, and walking humbly with our God. And, there- 
 fore, lest you should suppose that God has forsaken the 
 Jews, he says, at the close of this very chapter, " Yet for all 
 that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not 
 cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them 
 utterly, and to break my covenant with them ; for I am the 
 Lord their God. But I will for their sakes remember the 
 covenant of their ancestors whom I brought forth out of the 
 land of Egypt." I am one of those who may be mistaken, 
 who believe that they are on the very verge of their restora- 
 
178 SCRIPTUKE READINGS. 
 
 tion to their own great land ; a land still kept for tliem ; and 
 that the great tumult which is now agitating and darkening 
 the East, is the preparation of a way for an exodus to Pal- 
 estine, brighter and more glorious than that recorded in the 
 Book of Exodus. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 MINUTE LAWS — DEVOTED THINGS — EXCHANGES — DEVOTED PER- 
 SONS — JEPHTIIAh's daughter — THE CONSIDERATION OF THE 
 rOOR — THE TITHE-SHEEP. 
 
 We now arrive at the last chapter of a book, much of 
 which has been fraught with moral, evangelical, and practi- 
 cal instruction. You can easily see that in this chapter 
 Moses acts under the inspiration and the guidance of God, 
 as the great lawmaker and lawgiver of Israel. The chap- 
 ter is strictly and properly a summary of many of the laws, 
 stating most minutely the coins, their values, and the esti- 
 mation in which every thing was held, and for which a vow 
 might be exchanged. You cannot complain that these laws 
 are excessively minute ; for we all know that nothing can 
 be more intricate — too intricate and minute — than the 
 statute-book of our country, or the laws of the land, making 
 them sometimes to appear perplexing ; but all necessary for 
 giving effect, precision, and distinction, to the various laws 
 laid down for the regulation of mankind. Well, this chap- 
 ter is full of minute regulations which were necessary in a 
 day when an unenlightened race were the subjects of their 
 action, and Avhich are still necessary in our laAvs when more 
 enlightened people are subjected to their influence. We 
 know so well how the conscience can persuade the heart, 
 and how the heart can make a mere servant of the intel- 
 lect ; and construe things very plain, not in the direction of 
 equity and truth, but in the direction of the favorite passion, 
 the predominating preference, or the special personal inter- 
 
 (179) 
 
180 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 est that we have m view. It was, therefore, essential that 
 these laws, which were to govern a people in the desert, 
 should be so clearly, and distinctly, and minutely defined, 
 that it could scarcely be possible for them to misconstrue 
 them or to misinterpret them. 
 
 Now the first series of laws here laid down relates to 
 Avhat we have read — that persons might devote, or vow, or 
 dedicate their sheep, or their oxen, or the product of their 
 fields, or the fruits of their industry, to the Lord ; that is, 
 might give it for the maintenance of his temple, for the 
 maintenance of his altars, or in any shape for religious pur- 
 poses in the land of Canaan, and in the days of the sojourn 
 in the desert. If a person having made a vow of an ox, or 
 a shee^:), or of the fruit of the field, or of any other thing 
 which was capable of being vowed and dedicated to God, 
 might wish to retain it, a law or provision is here made, 
 that, instead of executing his vow by giving it in kind, he 
 might give it in money ; the shekel of the sanctuary being 
 like the pound note, the standard figure in the ecclesiastical 
 exchequer of Israel. We have, therefore, in this a pro- 
 vision for those who might wish not to give the precise 
 thing that they had vowed ; and they would naturally say. 
 How much shall I give instead ? They were not to be the 
 judge ; but the priest was the judge, and he could say. For 
 so much you can recall your vow ; and the judge himself 
 was to decide, not according to his own personal conviction, 
 but according to the express law in the statute-book, of 
 which he vras the impartial and authorized interpreter, and 
 according to which it was his bounden duty to act in decid- 
 ing a question. Thus, then, the first ten verses are all a 
 series of enactments providing for the revocation of a vow, 
 and showing that by paying so much the vow was thereby 
 substantially, if not verbatim and literally, fulfilled. 
 
 We read in the next place, that persons were not at lib- 
 erty to vow the first-fruits of the field, or the firstlings of 
 
LEVITICUS XXVII. 181 
 
 their flocks, for the plain reason that these were vowed al- 
 ready : God claimed them as his right, and these, therefore, 
 they might not vow at all. Then, again, a person devoted a 
 man — a father, a son, for instance, or a mother, a daughter 
 — to the Lord ; and in such a case it is said that one so de- 
 voted should be most holy. " None devoted, which shall be 
 devoted of men, shall be redeemed: but shall surely be put 
 to death." Now this expression, " shall surely be put to 
 death," is not strictly the rendering of the original, nor do I 
 think there is the least foundation for the stress that has 
 been laid upon it. It is literally rendered from the Hebrew, 
 " shall dying die ; " and the meaning is, that a person de- 
 voted in the way specified here, shall not be capable of having 
 a compensation substituted for him or her, but shall remain 
 a devoted person unto the day of his or her death. It is not, 
 " shall be put to death ; " and this shows that the interpre- 
 tation sometimes put upon the sacrifice of Jephthah's daugh- 
 ter, based in some degree upon this, is an unjust one. I do 
 not believe that Jephthah's daughter was put to death ; she 
 was not killed, she was simply devoted till the day of her 
 death, which occurred in the ordinary course of nature. 
 That she was not killed is to me obvious from this : that, 
 first, no sacrifice could be killed by any but a priest ; — but 
 Jephthah himself was a warrior, and not a priest, and he 
 could not sacrifice a lamb, still less a human being ; — and, 
 in the second place, it was strictly forbidden in the law of 
 Leviticus to sacrifice a human being. Human sacrifices 
 were abhorrent to the law of God ; and therefore God never 
 could have justified Jephthah in oflfering that as a sacrifice 
 which he had strictly forbidden in every part of his laAv. 
 And thus the passage here, " shall surely be put to death," 
 when it is really looked at as it means, does not indicate that 
 the devoted woman or the devoted man shall be put to death, 
 but shall remain devoted until the hour of death. But 
 you say what is the distinction between the former part of 
 
 16 
 
182 SCRIPTURE READINGS. 
 
 the chapter, where we read of vows of creatures to God, and 
 this latter part where it is another class devoted to the Lord ? 
 The vow was an ordinary expression, which might be very 
 rashly uttered ; but the devotion of an object was a solemn 
 and a sacred calling down the judgment of God upon the 
 individual if he did not fulfil it. It was a vow with a sort 
 of oath superadded to it ; and hence the original word for 
 " devoted " in the twenty-eighth verse, is cherem, in Greek 
 anathema. And it is very singular, that the institution wdiicli 
 exists in Turkey, the harem, is a word borrowed from the 
 Hebrew, through the Arabic, and it means strictly, certain 
 persons that may be devoted — to good, or to bad, or to neu- 
 tral, or to neither good nor bad purposes at all. The word 
 here for " devoted " is literally any one dedicated or devoted, 
 for that is the simple meaning of the word. And I ex- 
 plained to you before, that the Hebrew word kadosh, for 
 " holy," — the same as the Latin Avord sacer, and the Greek 
 word dyiog, — does not mean necessarily holy, though we so 
 translate it, but it simply means a person dedicated to a good 
 or a bad use. Now this person thus devoted in this way, in 
 this solemn manner, shall be incapable of being redeemed, 
 but shall continue a devoted being until the day of death. 
 
 Then the thirty-second verse is explained by reference to 
 a simple custom among the Jews concerning the tithe of the 
 herd or of the flock. And how very merciful, I may notice, 
 does God show himself now, as in a previous part of the 
 chapter — I ought to have alluded to it before ; " If a man 
 be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself 
 before the priest, and the priest shall value him ; according 
 to his ability that vowed the priest shall value him." It is 
 most beautiful to see in all the ancient statutes of Israel, how 
 the poor are emphatically cared for. It is not the rich and 
 the great that are most cared for, but the poor, the humble, 
 and the lowly. The provision here made is a very wise one ; 
 the tenth of the flock shall be holy unto the Lord. And the 
 
LEVITICUS xxvir. 183 
 
 way to know tlie tenth of the floek, is not for the tithe col- 
 lector to rush into the fold and pick out the best sheep or 
 the choicest of the flock ; but all the flock are to be placed 
 within a pen ; a narrow gate is to be opened, the sheep are 
 to go out from this ; when one goes out you know the rest 
 easily follow ; and then a person stands by — this was the 
 Hebrew custom — with a rod, and on the end of the rod red 
 ochre, or some other coloring substance ; and whenever a 
 tenth sheep came, he struck it on the back with this rod, and 
 that left a mark upon it ; and then the merciful provision is, 
 that the sheep so marked shall be the tithe of the flock, 
 whether it be good or bad : the beautiful impartiality, as well 
 as the tenderness and mercy of God running through the 
 whole of this book, and showing that the world is not so 
 much in advance of Leviticus as the world in its vanity 
 sometimes thinks ; but that many an addition to our statute- 
 book might be taken from what the sceptic would call, these 
 obsolete and antiquated laws. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aaron, prefigured Christ, 66; of- 
 fers a calf, 67 ; death of his sons, 
 70. 
 
 consecration of, 57 ; by IVIo- 
 
 ses, 58; in the presence of the 
 congregation, 60; hasted seven 
 days, 63. 
 
 Abel's offering acceptable, 17. 
 
 Absolution, corrupted form of, 91; 
 diflerence between the EugUsh 
 and the Romish, 92. 
 
 Adjuration, law and illustration of, 
 37. 
 
 Altar, fire of the, 46. 
 
 Animals, on the distinction between 
 " clean " and " unclean," 78; Dr. 
 Kitto on, 83. 
 
 Atonement, Dr. Bush on tlie word, 
 12; taught in the Levitical ap- 
 pointments, 21-44; necessary for 
 every sin, 41 ; must be personally 
 apprehended, 49. 
 
 , day of. 111. 
 
 Bible, The, the source of heathen 
 traditions, 47. 
 
 Blasphemy, nature and law of, 160. 
 
 Blood forbidden to be eaten, 27. 
 
 Bread, the memorial, 160 ; its mean- 
 ing, ib. 
 
 Burnt-oftering, nature of, 9. 
 
 Bush, Dr., observations on Leviti- 
 cus, 1 ; on ch. i. 3 ; on the use of 
 saU, 20; on ch. iii. 9, 28; on the 
 sin-offering, 34; on the sin of Na- 
 dab and Abihu, 75 ; on the lepro- 
 sy, 107; on the scape-goats, 117; 
 on marriage, 121 ; on the Sabbati- 
 cal year, 165; description of the 
 jubilee, 107. 
 
 Cain's worship compared with 
 Abel's, 17. 
 
 1 
 
 Church, The, has advanced in Avis- 
 dom, 158. 
 
 of Rome, its treatment of 
 
 the consecrated bread, 54; its re- 
 tention of Levitical ceremonies, 
 61; its doctrine of absolution, 90; 
 its ordination service, 142. 
 
 Consecration of the priests, offer- 
 ings at, 48; of Aaron, 57. 
 
 Convocation of the clergy, remarks 
 on the, 59. 
 
 Corruption of human nature, proofs 
 of, 97 ; acknowledgments of, 98. 
 
 Daily offering, law of the, 46 ; pre- 
 figured Christ, 47. 
 
 Daniel on the " sacrifice " and " ob- 
 lation," 17. 
 
 Death, punishment of, for miirder, 
 etc., 162. 
 
 Devoted, law of things, 180; dis- 
 tinctions respecting things, 182. 
 
 Disease and sin, 93. 
 
 , cure of, associated with 
 
 sacrifice, 94. 
 
 Egyptian literature, remarks on, 173. 
 
 Eucharistic or thank-oft'erings, 14, 
 52. 
 
 Faber on the scape-goat, 118. 
 
 Feasts, Jewish, purposes of their 
 institution, 152. 
 
 First-fruirs to be offered, 22, 154. 
 
 Food of the Jews, restrictions on 
 the, 82 ; Dr. Kitto on, 83. 
 
 Gleanings, law respecting, 155. 
 
 Goats, the scape, opinions respect- 
 ing, 117. 
 
 Hebrew idiom, remarks on, 89. 
 
 language, the primitive 
 
 tongue, 74. 
 
 Hebrews, Epistle to the, explains 
 Leviticus, 34, 58. 
 6* (185) 
 
186 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Holiness, definition of, 128, etc.; es- 
 sential to the Christian character, 
 129; highly important to the 
 Christian minister, 137. 
 
 Idols, or images, prohibited, 172. 
 
 Ignorance no excuse for sin, 31, 38. 
 
 Jacob's vow, 56. 
 
 Jephthah's daughter, the case of, 
 181. 
 
 Jesus healed the leprosy, 88, 101; 
 the only perfect Priest, 150. 
 
 Jewish festivals, rules for, 151 ; use 
 of, 152. 
 
 Jews, probably ignorant of typical 
 significance of sacrifice, 3; care- 
 fully presei'ved the Scriptures, 7 ; 
 kept from idolatry by minute pre- 
 scriptions, 15-23; insulated by 
 God from other nations, 82 ; holy 
 to the Lord, 125; suttering for 
 their disobedience, 176; a blessing 
 reserved for, 177. 
 
 John XX. 23, remarks on our trans- 
 lation, 90. 
 
 Jubilee, law of the, 165 ; object and 
 benefit of, 167; Bush's descrip- 
 tion of, ib. ; its lesson to us, 169 ; 
 a type of Christ's mission, ib. 
 
 Laity, utility of, in the church, 59. 
 
 Laws, summary of minute, 179. 
 
 Leprosy, the, a typical disease, 87, 
 93 ; referred to the priest, 88, 100 ; 
 formula used by the priest, 89; 
 dreadful efiects of, 94; caused 
 the insulation of its subject, 98; 
 similitude with sin, ib. ; no human 
 power can cure, 99 ; is contagious, 
 ?6. ; associated Avith guilt, ib.; 
 ceremonies on recovery from, 
 103; in a house, 106; remarks of 
 Dr. Bush, 107. 
 
 Leviticus, Book of, observations on 
 by Dr. Bush, 1 ; the Gospel con- 
 tained in, 6, 8; origin of the 
 name, ib.-^ time occupied, 7; in- 
 spii*ation of, ib. ; parallelism with 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, 34. 
 
 Lex talionis reconciled with'Chi-is- 
 tian precepts, 162. 
 
 Marriage, laws of, 121. 
 
 !Mcat-ofl"ering, explanation of, 16. 
 
 Ministers must show a good exam- 
 ple, 137; be sent by the Holy 
 Ghost, 140; are God's ambassa- 
 dors, 141 ; are stewards, 142 ; 
 must be apt to teach, 143 ; prayer- 
 ful, 144; must not be lords over 
 God's heritage, ib. ; not greedy of 
 
 filthy lucre, t&. ; not contentious 
 nor men-])leasers, 146 ; not given 
 to nuicli wine, 147. 
 
 Ministers, duties of the yjeople to, 
 148. 
 
 Moral significance of leaven, etc., 
 19 ; salt, 20. 
 
 Moses consecrates Aaron, 58. 
 
 Nadab and Abihu, destruction of, 
 70 ; remarks of Dr. Bush on their 
 sin, 75. 
 
 Oaths, remarks on the lawfulness 
 of judicial, 163. 
 
 Observances, why so minutely pre- 
 scribed, 15. 
 
 Oficrings, variety of, 18, 41 ; for 
 sins of ignorance, 32 ; of the 
 poor, 39. 
 
 , voluntary, 55. 
 
 Oil, for the candlestick, 158; its 
 symbolical use, 159. 
 
 Ordination of ministers in the Rom- 
 ish church, 142. 
 
 Passover described, 153. 
 
 Peace-oflerings, occasions of mak- 
 ing, 24 ; mode of making, 25, 26. 
 
 Penalties, civil, for offences against 
 God, 161. 
 
 Pentecost, feast of, 154. 
 
 Poor, ofierings provided for the, 39 ; 
 gleaninp left to the, 155 ; duty of 
 caiing lor the, ib. 
 
 Prayer must accompany means, 
 106. 
 
 Priest, High, not to uncover his 
 head, etc., 74; duties of, on day 
 of atonement, 111, etc. ; went 
 within the vail alone, 116. 
 
 Priests, provisions for the, 19; offer- 
 ings for the, 46; ministered bare- 
 foot, 62 ; officiating, must be with- 
 out blemish, 135; mles for their 
 ministry, 150. 
 
 Promises 'to obedience, 174. 
 
 Eighteousness a source of prosperi- 
 ty, 175. 
 
 Sabbatical vear, remarks of Bush 
 
 ^ on, 165. 
 
 Sacrifices prescribed in Leviticus ii., 
 9; typical, 2; rule of interpreta- 
 tion^ 4 ; simplicity of the Leviti- 
 cal, 9; mode of oftering, 10; ob- 
 jections to, on the ground of taste, 
 29, 65; the Divine intention in 
 appointing, 30, 64 ; for sins of ig- 
 norance, 31 ; accompanied by con- 
 fession of sin, 40 ; to be eaten the 
 day they were ofi'ered, 54. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 187 
 
 Salt, remarks of Dr. Bush ou the 
 
 use of, 20. 
 Scripture, all instructive, 51 ; spirit 
 
 of, must be copied, 61. 
 Seven, the perfect number, 66. 
 Shechinah, the, appears to Aaron, 
 
 67 ; to the people, 69. 
 Sin, a remedy for every, 41; the 
 
 leprosy of the soul and every fac- 
 ulty, 95, etc. 
 
 ,'forgiveness of, by the priest, 90. 
 
 Sin-otTering, proportioned to the 
 
 rank of the ofTender, 33 ; Bush on 
 
 the, 34 ; identified with the sin of 
 
 the offerer, 68. 
 Sins of ignorance, 31 ; against a 
 
 neighboi', 43. 
 Skin of the oUering to be the priest's, 
 
 52. • 
 
 Strong drink prohibited, 71, 73; tho 
 Hebrew word for, 74. 
 
 Tabernacles, feast of, 157. 
 
 Teetotal principle, remark on, 147. 
 
 Tithing the herd or flock, provision 
 for, 182. 
 
 Trespass-offering, law of the, 37. 
 
 Trumpets, feast of, 156. 
 
 Types, parables, or allegories, a fa- 
 vorite mode of teaching, 8. 
 
 Virgin Mary, her poverty, 86. 
 
 Water, washing with, antiquity and 
 universality of, 60. 
 
 Wines, nature of eastern, 148. 
 
 Worship of the tabernacie an inter- 
 esting studv, 15. 
 
 of God must be spiritual, 
 
 75. 
 
COMPANION 
 
 SABBATH MORNING READINGS. 
 
 THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 
 
 (1S9) 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This is not so much another and independent 
 work, as the complement of one actually in pro- 
 gress. The Sermons it contains were preached in 
 connection with the Expositions on Leviticus, and 
 are likely to cast a little additional light on a very 
 difficult, but precious part of the Sacred Volume. 
 
 (191) 
 
THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 " For if tlie blood of biills and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprink- 
 ling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much 
 more shall the blood of Christ, Avho through the eternal Spirit oflered 
 himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works 
 to serve the living God? " — Hebkews ix. 13, 14. 
 
 We have seen in the first chapter of Leviticus, which we 
 have this morning read, the letter of the Gospeh In the 
 verses that we have now read, we have what may be called 
 the spirit of the Gospel. The one is the outward and mate- 
 rial hieroglyph, the other is the inward and the spiritual 
 meaning. The one, or the letter, the worship on this 
 mount, with all its forms, its ceremonies, its sacrifices ; the 
 other is neither on this mount, nor on that, but the require- 
 ment that they who are in Christ worship the Father in 
 spirit and in truth. The one was the washing with water, 
 the purifying of the outward man ; the other is the washing 
 of the spirit, the renewing of the inward heart. Leviticus, 
 in the letter, could make a Jew outwardly ; the New Testa- 
 ment can make a Jew inwardly, whose praise is not of man, 
 but of God ; but in both, as I have stated, we have the 
 
 17 (1'^''^) 
 
194 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 same Gospel. Moses and Matthew equally sketched from a 
 grand original ; tliey equally described the Lord of glory, 
 the Sacrifice for sin, the Saviour of the guilty, only in differ- 
 ent shades and colors : in the case of Moses with more 
 splendid colors, in more gorgeous hues ; in the case of 
 Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, more fully, and sim- 
 ply, and transparently, but still the same Saviour. Moses 
 and Matthew spoke the same truths ; — the one with stam- 
 mering lips, the other clearly : the one upon the lower ; the 
 other upon the loftier, and the clearer key-note. They lived 
 in the same light ; but Moses saw Christ by moonlight, — 
 a veil of dark cloud all round him and over him : the other 
 saw Christ in the sunlight, — the clouds that are about him 
 only softening, not concealing the splendor of his glory. But 
 both looked to the same Saviour, — trusted in the same cross ; 
 the one in the world's infancy, the other when light and im- 
 mortality have been clearly brought to light. The fact is, 
 there never has been, from the moment that Christ was 
 preached in Paradise till now, but one Protestant and evan- 
 gelical religion. It has been from the beginning. Adam, 
 Abel, and Enoch, were Christians before the flood ; Abra- 
 ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, were Christians, amid their shin- 
 ing tents in the desert ; Moses, and David, and Hezekiah, 
 were Christians, amid the projected shadows of Sinai and of 
 Horeb ; Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, and John, and Peter, 
 and Paul, were Christians, who had seen Christ — the same 
 Christ — face to face ; Augustine, and Chrysostom, and Yig- 
 ilantius, were Christians in the patristic era, in the early 
 dawn ; and Cecil and Howell, and innumerable others, fa- 
 miliar to us personally, or familiar from their excellence 
 and the hfe they have left behind them, are Christians noAV, 
 upon whom the ends of the world have come. But salva- 
 tion by grace, through faith in the only Sacrifice, ever was, 
 now is, and always will be, the only mode of acceptance be- 
 fore God. 
 
THE CONTRAST. 195 
 
 It may be a?kcd by some, Why tliis progression in God's 
 revealing of himself'? Why did he not unfold at once, in 
 Eden, the institution of his mercy and his love — the Gos- 
 pel in all its fnlness ? It is one of the " why's " that a fool 
 can ask, and the wisest man can scarcely answer : but, while 
 we cannot solve it, we may in a manner vindicate it by ask- 
 ing. Why, if there be a God of goodness and of love, has he 
 been pleased not to reveal earlier some of the most benefi- 
 cent and useful discoveries of the age in which we now live ? 
 We can see progress in civilization, in literature, in science, 
 in political knowledge. May not all this be to teach us that 
 jirogress in God's revealing of himself is only part and par- 
 cel of the great plan that he carries out in his own infinite 
 W'isdom, in his preparation of mankind for a better, a hap- 
 pier, and a nobler state ? But we can see reasons in it that 
 no one can possibly fail to admit the value of: we can see 
 in this progress a constant teaching — a continuous impres- 
 sion. The human mind is less impressed by sudden liglit 
 than by the gradual and persistent influence of a continuous 
 one. Those truths that W' e search out for ourselves we rec- 
 ollect and feel more than those that are shortly and simply 
 told us. It seems a law in our economy, that any thing 
 that we have been long drilled and initiated in, and made 
 conversant with, comes to be part and parcel of the influen- 
 tial principles that direct, and guide, and shape the whole 
 life. Besides, we may not yet be able to answer these ques- 
 tions, because we do not see all God's ultimate designs. We 
 see but a part of God's great economy ; and it is very pre- 
 sumptuous in us to pronounce upon the whole, while we arc 
 admitted only to witness a part. When you read the preface 
 of a book, you would not dream of pronouncing upon the mer- 
 its of the whole from a perusal of the preface. When you see 
 the foundation of a building, you would not think of pronounc- 
 ing upon the excellence or the beauty of the edilice, either 
 from a brick selected from the whole, or from seeing the 
 
196 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 foundation of it laid. And perhaps we may learn, in after 
 ages, to feel some sense of shame that we cavilled where we 
 ought to have had confidence; that we doubted where we 
 ought to have been humble in our ignorance, and waited till 
 the God that gave the mysteries was pleased to make them 
 plain. 
 
 The Christian church never, from Paradise till now, was 
 without a sacrifice to make, or a sacrament to receive. For 
 four thousand years before Christ, sacrifices were offered up 
 day by day, in order to carry forward the hearts of the offer- 
 ers to Christ, the only and the atoning Sacrifice. For two 
 thousand years after sacraments have been celebrated in the 
 Christian church, pointing the faith of the celebrants back- 
 ward still to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of 
 the world. The sacrifices before Christ came, preached 
 Christ to come ; the sacraments since Christ came, preach 
 Christ who has come : but the centre and the object of both 
 was Christ, and both destitute of inherent virtue, and pre- 
 cious only as preaching simply Him who is all our salvation 
 and all our desire. 
 
 Faitii in Christ, as the only atonement, was equally requi- 
 site in him who brought his victim of old, and in him w^ho 
 now does this in remembrance of him. It was not the sacri- 
 fices that Moses offered that saved Moses ; but the one Great 
 Sacrifice to come, in whom Moses believed. It is not the 
 sacrament that we celebrate, that either regenerates us or 
 justifies us ; but the Christ who appointed those sacraments 
 in order to commemorate him. It was not the offering of 
 his lamb that saved Moses, but faith in Christ, the Lamb of 
 God. It is not coming to the Lord's Supper that does of it- 
 self any good to us, but faith in him who appointed that in- 
 stitution, rite, and sacrament, in order to commemorate him. 
 We see that whether it was under Levi or under Matthew, 
 whether it was in the economy that has passed aM^ay or in 
 the economy that still is, it was still personal communion 
 
THE CONTRAST. 197 
 
 with God, the exercise of personal faith in Christ that saved 
 the sinner, and not the sacrifice he offered,*or the sacrament 
 he celebrates, or the rite, however beautiiul, in whicii he en- 
 gages. Thus, personal apprehension, or trust — not ecch'- 
 siastical, not corporate, but personal trust — with the heart 
 and conscience in Christ, tlie Saviour of sinners, ever was, 
 now is, and ever will be, salvation to the chiefest of sinners. 
 Let us now ask. Who appointed these sacrifices ? You 
 must have noticed to-day, as we read the chapter, that they 
 were not first instituted in Leviticus, but regulated there. 
 God does not there appoint the sacrifices, but he assumes 
 the offering of the sacrifices as a habit that always had been. 
 Just as in the desert, the Sabbath was not then instituted ; 
 their memories were simply refreshed by the recapitulation 
 of it. So these sacrifices were not instituted by Moses in 
 Leviticus, but they were regulated and made subservient to 
 the great purpose for which God designed them. What is 
 the origin of sacrifices — whence did they originate ? It is 
 not, I think, possible, that if man had been left to himself, he 
 could have for a moment supposed that the sanguinary and 
 bloody rites in the Tabernacle, making its courts almost like 
 slaughter-houses, without any great lesson that it inculcated, 
 could have been acceptable to God. Man's finest feelings 
 would revolt from taking aw^ay the life of an innocent and 
 inoffensive lamb, incapable of injury, and by its very nature 
 unstained by any sin.- It is impossible to believe that he 
 could take, of his own spontaneous choice, such an animal, 
 and suppose that his shedding its blood, burning it upon an 
 altar, and letting it ascend in smoke and flame to God, — 
 that this destruction of a part of God's most beautiful work- 
 manship, could by any possibility atone for a moral trans- 
 gression, committed by him who should slay the animal and 
 offer it up to God. It does seem that man, as man is, if left 
 to himself, would have selected the ftiirest and the most fra- 
 grant flowers, least blighted by the taint of sin, that grew in 
 17* 
 
198 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the lingering sunshine, and under the shelter of the walls of 
 Paradise, and liave woven them into a beautiful garland, and 
 laid them upon the altar of God, and have asked God to ac- 
 cept these as the oiferings of his heart. But we are not left 
 to guess. Cain, from the instincts of his nature, did so, and 
 he was rejected : Abel offered an offering of a totally differ- 
 ent description, and was accepted. We have, therefore, 
 positive proof that sacrifices were not of human but of di- 
 vine origin. We find man, after his sin, and before he was 
 taught the gospel, conscious that there was in him some 
 great want, some terrible change ; and dreaming in his igno- 
 rance that the fever that he felt without was all, and not the 
 sin that touched the conscience within, took fig-tree leaves, 
 made himself a beautiful raiment from one of the trees of the 
 garden, and thought that thus he could right himself, and 
 would be beautiful before God as he was in the days of his 
 pristine innocence. But God did not suffer this ; he clothed 
 Adam and Eve in the skins of slain animals. For what 
 purpose were these animals slain ? We find that animal 
 food was not allowed till the days of Noah ; for two thousand 
 years Hesli was not eaten as part of the food of man. It is 
 therefore certain that the skins with which Adam and Eve 
 were clothed, were the skins of animals slain in sacrifice. 
 The instant Adam sinned, that instant the want of the Great 
 Sacrifice was felt in Paradise. Cain offers up beautiful 
 flowers and delicious fruits, as expressive of his allegiance 
 to God, and the fruits and the flowers are blasted, and the 
 offerer is branded : Abel takes of the firstlings of his flock, 
 offers up a lamb, sheds its blood ; the offering is accepted, 
 and the offerer is praised. We have, therefore, express di- 
 vine sanction, that sacrifices were of divine origin. Job 
 offered up a whole burnt-offering in case sin should cleave 
 to his sons ; Abraham, wherever he struck his tent, there 
 had his altar built ; and we find, in the Levitical economy, 
 sacrifices expressly authorized, commanded, and approved 
 
THE CONTRAST. 199 
 
 by God. We are thus certain that sacrifices are of divine 
 origin. Where, too, did the most barbarous tribes in the 
 backwoods and deserts of the world get the sacntices that 
 they offer? I am satisfied it is the remains of tradition. 
 Tradition has wafted on its wings certain primal and aborig- 
 inal truths ; and the most distant tribes prove, by their prac- 
 tice, their origin to have been where Ararat stood ; and the 
 remains of the religion that they practise to be distorted frag- 
 ments of the revelation of God himself. 
 
 If these sacrifices were of Divine origin, what was their 
 object — why were they instituted ? Was it a mere arbitra- 
 ry selection, or was there special fitness in the sacrifices for 
 the special purpose that God had in view ? What was their 
 object — what their end? We can answer some of these 
 questions from that infallible commentary upon Leviticus — 
 the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews. No sacrifices 
 offered by Aaron and his sons were ever regarded as substi- 
 tutes for, or as superseding, moral duties and obligations. 
 The same God that appointed the sacrifices to lead to the 
 knowledge of forgiveness, appointed the Decalogue, and for- 
 bade its violation. It is not true, therefore, that the atone- 
 ment offered in the Tabernacle or the Temple superseded 
 the moral obligation of compliance with God's holy law. 
 " Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself 
 before the high God ? Shall I come before him with burnt- 
 offerings, with calves of a year old ? Will the Lord be 
 pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of 
 rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgres- 
 sion, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? " No ! 
 " He hath showed thee, man, what is good ; and what doth 
 the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, 
 and to walk humbly with thy God?" No sacrifices that 
 man could offer could ever be a substitution for that. 
 
 These Jewish sacrifices did not atone of themselves. 
 There was no more expiatory virtue in the Levitical sacri- 
 
200 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 fice of a lamb than there is in the sacraments that we cele- 
 brate. There is no proportion between them. How can we 
 suppose that the blood of a dumb brute can possibly cancel 
 the transgressions of a responsible and immortal soul? 
 There is no proportion between them ; and to suppose that 
 any Israelite had his sins forgiven, really and fully, through 
 the blood of the sacrifice he offered, is to misunderstand the 
 whole of the Levitical economy ; for, says the apostle him- 
 self, if these sacrifices could have taken away sin, they would 
 have ceased to be offered ; because the worshipper, once 
 pardoned, would have had no more consciousness of sin. 
 But the fact that they were constantly offered, shows that 
 they could not take away sin ; because if they had taken 
 away sin they would have ceased to be offered, as having 
 done their work, and nothing more being left for them to do. 
 But the very fact that they were ceaselessly and continu- 
 ously offered proves that they could not take away sin. 
 Hence David, when he rose to the highest pitch of evangel- 
 ical experience, and writing after his sin, in Psalm li., says, 
 " For thou desirest not sacrifice ; else would I give it : thou 
 delightest not in burnt-offering." Now, if these had been 
 atoning, or expiatory, they would have been the very things 
 that God would have delighted in, that God would have de- 
 sired, and that David would really need. But David looked 
 beyond these, and saw Him who was the Antitype, the ob- 
 ject, and the end of these ; and he, therefore, prayed that 
 God would hide his face from his sins, and blot out all his 
 iniquities. I admit there were subordinate ends in all these 
 sacrifices ; but beyond all these, and beyond all doubt, the 
 great end of all Leviticus — its pervading aim, its object, its 
 meaning — was, to teach Christianity, which is one word for 
 Christ crucified. What is Christ crucified? Christianity. 
 What is Christianity? .Just Christ crucified. The lustre 
 of the victims of Levi was borrowed from the Cross : their 
 significance, their interpretation, is found in the Cross of 
 
THE CONTRAST. 201 
 
 Christ. Christ was not adapted to them, as the popular mind 
 often supposes, but they were preadapted to set forth Christ. 
 He was the arclietypal victim — they were shadows only to 
 signify Him. The proof of this is plain. These sacrifices 
 began in Paradise the moment that Christ was declared; 
 and they ceased on Calvary the moment that Christ died. 
 They were buried with Christ in his grave — only Christ 
 rose, and all the sacrifices of Levi remain behind. 
 
 How conclusive is the evidence in all this that these sac- 
 rifices were not atonements, nor expiations — but voices 
 crying in the wilderness, " We are not that Lamb ; we are 
 only here to help you to see that Lamb ; and to lean, not 
 upon us, that cannot save you ; but upon the Lamb of God, 
 that takcth away the sins of the world." And justly do we 
 conclude, that if any thing besides this were the object of 
 the Levitical economy, it would be altogether unworthy of 
 God. If there be not meaning and mystery wrapt up in 
 these strange hieroglyphs, with their meaning and mystery 
 explained in Christ and in the New Testament, I never 
 could suppose that the God that gave that magnificent and 
 sublime expression of his will on Sinai — the Decalogue — 
 ever could have descended to tell you how to kill sheep, to 
 shed their blood, upon what side of the altar they should be 
 slain, and what robes the priest should wear when he slew 
 them. The contrast between the two is so great that you 
 cannot suppose that the God who gave the Decalogue in- 
 spired Leviticus, if Leviticus be an ultimate and a closing 
 thing. The fact is, — regard Leviticus as an ultimate ritual, 
 its prescriptions as stereotypes, and I could not accept it as 
 inspired : but rend the veil ; let the light of the New Testa- 
 ment fall upon the Old ; let the glory that shone on Mount 
 Tabor in the transfiguration light upon Moses, as he treads 
 the desert, and builds the Tabernacle, and names the sacri- 
 fices, — and I can see in every sacrifice the footprint of 
 Christ, in every utterance the Gospel of Christ, and in all 
 
202 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 Christ crucified — which is, Christianity. No one, there- 
 fore, should read the Old Testament without the New, nor 
 the New without the Old. Read commentaries and expla- 
 nations of both, by all means ; but read Leviticus, espec- 
 ially, in the light of the Epistle to the Hebrews. I do not 
 know what we should have done without tliat magnificent 
 commentary uj^on Leviticus — the Epistle to the Plebrews : 
 it is the key to it, it explains it, and puts it in its true light, 
 and shows its significance and its meaning most strikingly 
 and beautifully. 
 
 Having reached these conclusions, let me notice that these 
 Levitical sacrifices were always regarded as fit for food. 
 And I may mention, that while there was mainly and chiefly 
 great spiritual ends, you will find in Leviticus laws for food, 
 for clothing, and for social life, that we, of this nineteenth 
 century, are only beginning at this moment to learn. Why, 
 what do you find amongst the Jews now ? Tliey are not 
 certainly the cleanest or the most particular people in their 
 habits ; and yet, because they ritually observe certain laws, 
 you find them generally exempt from pestilence ; by their 
 law they are obliged at certain times to clean their house, 
 and to clean it thoroughly — not only those parts which are 
 seen, but every nook and corner of it. And what is the con- 
 sequence ? That the Jews, by the use of those means that 
 God in his providence has provided, are generally exempt 
 from those fevers, and pestilences, and other diseases, to 
 which Gentiles are more subject. And there are in the Old 
 Testament, in addition to its great moral laws, certain regu- 
 lations for social life and instructions with reference to it, 
 that make this nineteenth century in which we live look sav- 
 age and barbarous, in comparison of the habits of these un- 
 instructed, illiterate, and una^sthetic Jews, living nearly two 
 thousand years before Christ came into the world. 
 
 These animals that were ofiered in sacrifice were always 
 fit for human food. This law is not, I believe, morally bind- 
 
THE CONTRAST. 203 
 
 ing now ; the animal that rechcwcd its food, and whose hoof 
 was divided into two parts, was alone fit for human food to 
 a Jew, and also for sacrifice on his altar. For instance, the 
 pig was not allowed to be eaten bj the Jew — it was ac- 
 counted unclean. So, in the same manner, the dog, the 
 horse, with the wild beasts — necessarily unclean — were 
 not allowed to be eaten by the Jews. And you will find, 
 now, that your health is very much connected with the ob- 
 servance of these great laws ; and, it may turn out, on riper 
 investigation, that these laws, while they seemed to have 
 reference only to religious rites, were connected with the 
 social and physical well-being of the race of which we form 
 a part. The animals chosen for sacrifice were strictly to be 
 what were called " clean animals." This was intended to 
 indicate that as the Jew could only eat the clean animals, 
 so it was only the clean animals that were offered in sacri- 
 fice. Perhaps it meant, too, that just as what we eat is in- 
 corporated into our frame, and becomes part and parcel of 
 our bodies, so the Jew's interest in his sacrifices should be 
 something closer than sight, — something more intimate than 
 mere presence. It should be true of him and of us, " We 
 live ; yet not we, but Christ liveth in us." " My flesh is 
 meat indeed, my blood is drink indeed," — that is, we should 
 be so completely his that we are members of his body — our 
 happiness, our peace, our strength, our prospects, not ours, 
 but Christ's ; and ours because Christ's, and received through 
 him. 
 
 In the second place, the sacrifices were required to be 
 very valuable. If a man was very rich, according to his 
 wealth he was to give his offering ; if he Avas poor, he was 
 to give that which lie could afford ; — and the poor woman 
 that brought her turtledoves as a sacrifice, was as acceptable ■ 
 in the sight of God, as the rich man that brought his ox. 
 But the rich man was not to say. Therefore I will bring pig- 
 eons as a sacrifice ; but each, according to his ability, Avas to 
 
204 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 offer that which became him. And in these sacrifices, too, 
 there may have been certain types and symbols that Avere no 
 doubt of value. The patient ox, the meek lamb, the gentle 
 dove, may have been prefigurations of the Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 but the great idea that they inculcated — line upon line, and 
 precept upon precept, here a little, there a little — was the 
 idea of atonement. The great truth wath which the Jew 
 was indoctrinated in all his sacrifices, was this — that without 
 shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin. The 
 great idea that God designed to impress upon the minds of 
 the offerers, was this — that pardon of sin and sacrifice were 
 in some shape inseparable, and that without a victim's death 
 there never could be the sinner's forgiveness. Now, a great 
 thought impressed upon a people, and constantly elucidated, 
 ends in great acts. You very rarely find that a truth intro- 
 duced into the human mind is altogether without fruit in the 
 human life ; and, in order fully to develop and render clear 
 this idea, you will observe that the priest laid his hand upon 
 the victim's head, and confessed the sins of the people. Thus, 
 every Jew was taught the idea of transference of sin — trans- 
 ferring the similitude of his sin to the creature slain, and his 
 going free because that creature was slain. The idea of a 
 sin-bearer, as well as a sin-sacrifice, was thus made constant- 
 ly familiar to the Jew. And then the lesson still lasts for us. 
 How beautifully does that express what has been done by 
 Christ ! The Jew came, laid his hand upon the head of the 
 victim, and confessed his sins over it ; the victim was slain, 
 utterly consumed before God. The Christian lays not his 
 literal hand upon a literal victim, but he lays the trust of his 
 soul upon an unseen, but not an unknown, Christ ; and thus 
 reposing the hand of his heart, the confidence of his soul, 
 upon Him on whom were laid the iniquities of us all, for his 
 name's sake we are justified, acquitted, and accepted of God. 
 And hence, whenever the apostles designed to teach that 
 great truth which the Socinian so ignorantly denies — that 
 
THE CONTRAST. 205 
 
 Christ's death was an atonement, they could not have used 
 language that more distinctly or emphatically describes it. I 
 say, if you want to teach it, I defy you to employ language 
 that more clearly, distinctly, and emphatically inculcates the 
 expiatory character of Christ's death than that which the 
 apostles employ. And when they did so, the Jews, accus- 
 tomed for four thousand years to sacrificial rites, and the 
 Gentiles, still retaining, from tradition, some distorted re- 
 mains of primeval sacrifice, were both preimred to under- 
 stand them. And thus Christ, regarded as an atonement, 
 was not the objectionable thought to the Gentile. There is 
 no evidence that the Gentiles objected strongly to the idea 
 of Christ's death being atoning ; what they could not believe 
 was that he had risen from the dead ; — and the Jews 
 had no doubt of the meaning of Christ's death being aton- 
 ing ; their only doubt was, whether Christ was the Messiah 
 promised to the fathers. But the apostle argues with great 
 force in this chapter on the superiority of Christ's sacrifice 
 to all these ; for, he argues, with unconquerable logic, — If 
 these, the sacrifices of Levi, " sanctified," — that is, made 
 outwardly clean, " to the purifying of the flesh ; " that is, 
 translated into Levitlcal language, if the Jew was ceremoni- 
 ally clean, admissible into his temple, entitled to a place in 
 his nation, having a right to all the jDrivIleges that belonged 
 to the Jew in the literal Canaan — how much more will the 
 Christian, the true Jew, be admitted to all the privileges of 
 the Christian economy, and to the everlasting Canaan, the 
 true rest that remains for all the people of God ! The Le- 
 vitlcal sacrifices gave outward cleanness, outward rights, out- 
 ward privileges, outward hopes ; Christ's sacrifice gives in- 
 ward character, inward peace, inward joy. Inward hope ; and, 
 if these outward sacrifices gave all these national privileges 
 to that people, how much more shall the sacrifice of Christ 
 give pardon, peace, joy, to all mankind, that are taught by 
 
 18 
 
206 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 his blessed Spirit to rest on him, and to accept his sacrifice 
 as their only title to heaven ! 
 
 There is something in this most comprehensive — the 
 " How much more ! " is inexhaustible in its meaning. If the 
 Jew got so much by his sacrifices, what language shall ex- 
 press, what words shall paint, the blessings that shall flow to 
 the worst of sinners through faith in the death and sacrifice of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ ? 
 
 The apostle says, " Christ through the eternal Spirit offered 
 himself to God." You have h(3re proof of the doctrine of 
 the Trinity — Christ, the offerer; the Spirit, through whom 
 he ofiered ; and God the Father, to whom he offered. And 
 thus, when we are baptized, we are baptized in the name of 
 Christ, that offered the sacrifice ; in the name of the Spirit, 
 througli whom he offered it ; and in the name of the Father, 
 to whom he offered it. And when we are blessed, sacrifi.ce 
 is still interwoven with it. We are blessed in the name of 
 the Father, to whom he offered it ; in the name of Christ, by 
 whom the offering was made ; and in the name of the Spirit, 
 through whom the offering was made. There is found in the 
 baptismal name, there is found in the daily blessing, the idea 
 of sacrifice and sin forgiveness. It runs through the whole 
 Christian economy ; giving it all its coloring, its shape, its 
 light, and its life. 
 
 Christ himself was the priest. He, it is said, offered for 
 us. And what a blessed thought it is that we need no priests 
 in the Christian economy now, because there is nothing for 
 them to do. Christ offered himself — an Infinite Offerer, 
 presenting an infinite sacrifice : if not sufficient, nothing can 
 be ; and if sufficient, what is the use of priests ? Mark the 
 distinction : Christian ministers are called ambassadors, but 
 never priests officially. Now Avhat is the difference between 
 the two ? A priest is a man that holds a position before 
 God; an ambassador that puts God's Avill clearly and plainly 
 
THE CONTKAST. 207 
 
 before iis. The priest jiscends from the sinner to God, mak- 
 ing roeonclliahoii ; the ambassador comes from God down to 
 the sinner, prochximing reconciliation. Therefore, to admit 
 a Christian minister to be a sacrificing priest, is simply to be 
 guilty of utter apostasy from all that is distinctive of and pe- 
 culiar to that religion where we have not a sacrilice to make 
 US priests between man and God ; but a sacrifice to proclaim 
 from God — God reconciling the world unto himself, not im- 
 puting to men their trespasses. 
 
 And as Christ was the Priest, so we read, in the next place, 
 he was the Sacrifice. All the sacrifices then perished. Ilis 
 words, " It is finished ! " rung the death-knell of them all. 
 Aaron, and Levi, and Moses, and all the priests of the Tab- 
 ernacle, stood around Calvary when Christ died, and when 
 he said, " It is finished ! " they added, " Amen ! Our work 
 is done ; the Great Workman is here ; our sacrifices are fin- 
 ished, the True Sacrifice has come. Tliere is nothing more 
 for us to do ; the transient is merged in the eternal, the pro- 
 visional is merged in the perfect; Christ is come; and he 
 hath offered one sacrifice for sin, once for all. No other is 
 possible ; no other is needed. Instead of thinking of others, 
 let us rest more intensely upon this once for all, for the sins 
 of all that believe." 
 
 And what a truth is here! Deity, the altar; Jesus — 
 God-man — the priest; his humanity, the victim. The altar 
 was not the cross, but the Godhead ; the priest was not man, 
 but Christ himself: and the victim was his own spotless self, 
 without spot, without blemish, — his own holy and perfect 
 humanity. AVhat a grand truth is this, my dear friends ; 
 how instructive to us, that our religion is built upon that in 
 which a Triune Jehovah was concerned ; and if we rest here, 
 nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 
 that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He offered himself by the 
 Spirit. You will find froiti Christ's conception to the close 
 of his life constant allusions to the Spirit taking a part ; but 
 
208 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the very fact that He offered himself — no man living can 
 offer himself a sacrifice ; no man living has a right to do it ; 
 he may commit suicide, or he may commit murder, but he 
 cannot offer himself, — the fact that Jesus offered himself, is 
 the best possible evidence that Jesus was God. 
 
 The great truth which the apostle draws from this is, that 
 he might " purge your conscience from dead works to serve 
 the living God." The great truth is, that the very first effect 
 of the atonement is to be the extinction of that which is the 
 fever of the conscience — remorse ; and the introduction of 
 that which is the healing of the conscience — the peace 
 which passeth understanding ; the purifying of the conscience 
 from dead works, to serve the living God. Insensibility may 
 exist in men who, by constant excitement of the world, keep 
 down thought ; but wherever there is a thinking man, with 
 the knowledge of the New Testament and the Saviour, there 
 must be, at the recollection of sin, remorse. And there is 
 no feeling, I believe, so terrible as remorse. I can conceive 
 no agony more terrible than that. The poet, though not a 
 Christian, describes it when he says, 
 
 " The man that broods o'er shiful deeds 
 Is like a scorpion girt with fire, 
 In circles narrowing as it glows, 
 The flames around the captive close ; 
 So does the gnilty soul expire, 
 Like to the scorpion girt%ith fire. 
 So writhes the mind remorse has riven, 
 Unfit for earth, undoom'd to heaven ; 
 Darkness above, despair beneath. 
 Around it flame, Avithin it death." 
 
 Such is remorse in its intensest form ; and every one has 
 some knowledge what it is, though he never has had any ex- 
 perience of its terrible intensity. Then how is the conscience 
 purged from this ? If I address a sinner in this assembly, 
 who has the feeling of remorse at the recollection of sin, how 
 
THE CONTRAST. 209 
 
 does this atonement take it away? Not b}'^ destroyin<^ eon- 
 science. Peter's conscience was more sensitive after for- 
 giveness than it was before. Not, in the second place, hy 
 destroying the recollection of sin. You cannot forget a sin ; 
 if done, it cannot be cancelled, and ever after you must rec- 
 ollect it. In heaven they may recollect sin on earth ; and 
 praise llim only the more who graciously forgave it. It is 
 not, in the next place, by showing sin itself in a different as- 
 pect to man after he is converted. Then how is it ? Not 
 by your forgetting sin ; not by the conscience becoming dead 
 to sin ; not by sin itself being changed in its essential charac- 
 ter ; but by this — that you see in that Atonement in which 
 you trust that every thing that sin did is completely destroyed, 
 that every ruin that sin made is rebuilt. Was the law bro- 
 ken ? The atonement has magnified it. Was God dishon- 
 ored ? Through Christ he is glorified. Are you separated 
 from God ? By the atonement you are united to him. Are 
 you strangers and aliens by nature ? By this atonement 
 you are brought near to him. And your own minds can see 
 that the process of redemption so completely covers the 
 wreck or havoc that sin has made, that you repose in perfect 
 confidence upon it ; and the peace that passeth understand- 
 ing becomes your possession ; so that justified by faith we 
 have peace with God — not because we forget sin, not be- 
 cause sin is not sin, not because conscience is dead, but be- 
 cause we lay our hands upon the head of the spotless Lamb, 
 and are sure — sure as we are that we do so — that all the 
 curse, the condemnation, the misery of sin, is put away, and 
 so there is sunshine for cloud, and peace for trouble, and 
 hope where there was none before. 
 
 18* 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 
 
 " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not 
 in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our 
 sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." — 1 John i. 8, 9. • 
 
 You will see at once the allusion of the text to some of 
 those rites about which we have been reading in the fifth 
 chapter of the Book of Leviticus. I stated, at the close of 
 my short exposition of the chapter, that confession seems 
 always to have accompanied the sacrificial offerings of the 
 Jews ; confession referring to sacrifice, the sacrifice giving to 
 that confession all its virtue and vitality. We shall find in- 
 stances scattered throughout the whole Scripture of what 
 confession is — how full, how free, how truly the expression 
 of the inmost sentiments of the heart — not only in the New, 
 but in the Old Testament also. We have a very beautiful 
 definition of it in these words, in 1 Kings viii. 47 : " Yet if 
 they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were 
 carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee 
 in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We 
 have sinned and have done perversely, we have committed 
 wickedness ; and so return unto thee with all their heart, and 
 with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led 
 them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, 
 which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which tiiou 
 hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name ; 
 then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven 
 (210) 
 
CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 211 
 
 thy dwelling-place, and maintain their cause, and forgive 
 thy people that have sinned against thee." We have an 
 instance of it equally beautiful in the prophet Daniel, where 
 •we read that Daniel confessed in some such terms as 
 these : — "I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my 
 confession," — confession always suggestive of sacrifice to a 
 Jew's mind, and never detached or dissociated from it, — 
 " and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the 
 covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that 
 keep his commandments ; we have sinned, and have com- 
 mitted iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, 
 even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judg- 
 ments ; neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the 
 prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, 
 and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, 
 righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of 
 faces, as at this day ; to the men of Judah, and to the in- 
 habitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, 
 and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou 
 hast driven them, because of their trespass, that they have 
 trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion 
 of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, be- 
 cause we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God 
 belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled 
 against him." You have, therefore, in the first prescrij)tion 
 from the Book of Kings, what is to be the nature of the 
 confession ; and, in this instance, of prayer by Daniel 
 himself, a specimen of true, fervid supplication and con- 
 fession at the footstool of the Almighty. Li the Psalms of 
 David, every psalm alternates confession, forgiveness, and 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 Let us inquire and try to ascertain what are some of the 
 characteristics of true confession of sin. He that has never 
 confessed his sins to God knows nothing of what the very 
 first requirement or instinctive suggestion of Christianity is. 
 
212 CONFESSION THROUGH SACraFICE. 
 
 If we have never confessed to God when no ear couhl hear 
 but his, we have never yet sought truly, earnestly, and fer- 
 vently, the forgiveness of our sins ; and if we have never 
 sought it, we have it not ; and if we have it not, it is not 
 because we are poor, or ignorant, or unable, but wholly be- 
 cause we are unwilling humbly to confess our sins, and to 
 seek mercy and forgiveness from God. 
 
 Now, as flir as I can judge from all instances of confes- 
 sion recorded in the Word of God, we shall find that 
 wherever there was genuine confession of sin, whether it 
 was personal and private, or congregational and public, it 
 was always freely felt and freely expressed. It was not 
 something wrung from the j)arty confessing as a sort of 
 sacrifice, or a sort of ordinance ; but it was the free, the 
 full, the spontaneous pouring out of the inmost and deepest 
 compunctions of the soul in earnest prayer and communion 
 with God. Pharaoh, when he felt the judgments of God 
 upon him, confessed his sins only to return to his sins again. 
 When Balaam, the wicked and the false prophet, saw the 
 angel, he confessed his sin, but it was not true confession. 
 Judas, when he flung away the price of blood, confessed his 
 sin — "I have betrayed innocent blood ! " But these crim- 
 inals confessed their sins just in some such way as sailors in 
 a storm fling their cargo overboard, their hearts almost 
 going after it — obliged to do it in the hope of saving the 
 ship, but willing rather to retain it if they could save their 
 lives while they did so. Pharaoh, and Judas, and Balaam, 
 were ready to get rid of the sins that were conducting down 
 upon their heads the judgments of God, not that they liked 
 the sins less, but that they feared the judgments which those 
 sins were precipitating upon them. This is not true, or 
 Christian, confession of sin. 
 
 Wherever there is true confession, it will be full. It will 
 not be the confession of the sin that lies heaviest on the 
 conscience only, nor confession 'of the sins last recollected ; 
 
CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 213 
 
 but the confession of all sin. It will be taking all the 
 shame and the guilt of sin to yourself. Till Adam became 
 a Christian, his confession was not Christian confession. 
 "When his sin was brought to his conscience first, he said, 
 " The woman that thou gavest me, she gave me, and I did 
 eat." He distributed the blame between God and Eve ; 
 and, as for himself, he was as innocent as a lamb. " The 
 woman that thou gavest me," — why did you give her to 
 me ? " The looman that thou gavest to me, she gave me, 
 and I did eat." And then Eve, showing how human nature 
 had suddenly become depraved, when she was spoken to 
 said, " The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat ; " but, as for 
 me, I am perfectly innocent. Why did you make the ser- 
 pent ? Why did you suffer him to come here ? There can 
 be no guilt in me ; I am thus perfectly innocent. But when 
 they were brought to see themselves in the right light, and 
 to see the woman's seed that should bruise the serpent's 
 head, they learned with Abel, their second son, to confess 
 their sins freely, as well as fully, and to seek forgiveness 
 only through the blood of sprinkling. So Judas, when he 
 confessed, confessed the sin that was last perpetrated, and 
 the worst — his betrayal of innocent blood ; but he did not 
 confess the previous covetousness that led to it. A Chris- 
 tian's confession of his sins to God is full ; he not only con- 
 fesses outward acts, but inward feelings. And that man 
 who, when God alone hears, can unveil to God sins that 
 nobody else can see, and short-comings that nobody else 
 dreams of, and seeks forgiveness for those sins that are hid- 
 den from the world, as well as for those that the world takes 
 cognizance of — the man, in short, who can say from his 
 very heart, " O God, cleanse me from secret sins ! " gives 
 the strongest evidence that his confession is accompanied 
 wdtli forgiveness from the only Atonement from which for- 
 giveness comes. 
 
 In the next place, true confession of sins, such as is indi- 
 
214 CONFESSION THROUGH > RIFICE. 
 
 catecl here, mnst be not only free, nc ( ^ly full, but sir.icere 
 and uni'eigiied. You may repeat the m^t bp^iiutiful litii ^y 
 that ever was composed, and yet not co i'ess one single . '^ 
 You may use words the most express!^ of true contrii , 
 and yet there may not be the faintest r'ontrition in y 
 heart. Your lips may be most eloquent, ir heart may ■ 
 wholly dumb. Now God does not listen to what a m; 
 says, but to what a man's heart beats. God regards n-. 
 outward devotion only, but the heart, whether it be devc 
 tional or not. Many a person prays who does not say 
 many prayers ; and many a person says many prayers who 
 never prays at all. What God looks to, therefore, as the 
 organ of true confession is, the heart, — without the voice 
 if you like, but never the voice without the heart. Both, if 
 you can ; but if one must be absent, let it be the voice, not 
 the heart. 
 
 Confession must be to God, and to God alone. Fallen 
 and degraded as man is, he degrades himself below the 
 pitch to which sin has brought him, when he kneels down 
 before a priest, so called, and confesses in his ear the secret 
 thoughts, and imaginations, and sins of his heart. That is 
 deep and thorough degradation. God never degrades a sin- 
 ner, though lie will always humble him : but such confes- 
 sion as that is not humbling, it is degradation. And I may 
 here, without entering into controversy, just notice the text, 
 very often quoted for it : — " Confess your faults one to 
 another." There is a note in the Eoman Catholic Bible be- 
 low this text, which says, '^ Confess your faults one to 
 another," — that is, " Confess your sins to the priest." That 
 is a very extraordinary inference, — " Confess your sins 
 one to another — that is, confess your sins to the priests!" 
 And very justly did a poor Irish convert, under that noble 
 movement — the Irish Church Missions, say, " Here is the 
 advantage of notes to our Catholic Bible ; for how should 
 we have found out that we ought to confess to the priest, if 
 
CONFES ^. TIIKOUGII SACRIFICE. 215 
 
 it had not been for,,i! . note below the text in St. James, — 
 ' Cpnfess your siu^O/C to another; that is, to the priests?' 
 '\i,^ never could I ,vye discovered it except for that ' note.' " 
 l.,:?^ that note is n ^the interpretation of the text, but the 
 ^juration and di lorting of the text. The text is, " Con- 
 ;,s your iaultv .le to another;" and as to the whole sys- 
 .;ai of confessio p based upon it, there is here its utter dis- 
 ,oof. ''Is any ^ sick among you?" What is he to do? 
 ^.et him call for the priests of the church? No! no such 
 officer is known in the Bible ; but let him call for the " eld- 
 ers " of the church ; and then, when he calls for them, 
 what are they to do? Hear his confession and absolve 
 him ? Ko ! nothing of the kind — let him call for the elders 
 of tlie church, and let them pray over him. Nothing is 
 here about absolution. And then, if he hath committed 
 sins, not the elders of the church shall forgive them ; but 
 they, the sins, shall be forgiven him. And then, confess 
 your faults, not to a priest, but confess your faults " one to 
 another." If I have said a word to you that has given you 
 otfcnce, it is my duty to confess it, and your duty to forgive 
 it ; and if you have said a Avord against me, it is your duty 
 to confess, and my privilege to forgive. But here is a dis- 
 tinction which I wish you to notice. A sin has two aspects. 
 If I should steal a sovereign from a fellow sinner, my friend, 
 that act would have two aspects ; one aspect would be the 
 injury it does to my brother — the other aspect would be 
 the sin in its rebound that I commit against God. Now, as 
 far as it is injury done to my brother, he ought to forgive it, 
 and he can forgive it, and do it better than the priest can, 
 because the priest has nothing to do with it ; it was not com- 
 mitted against him, but against my brother : but, as far as it 
 is sin committed against God, and only against him, God 
 alone can forgive it, and to God alone, therefore, I confess 
 it. The fault — the injury — that I have committed against 
 another, that other forgives ; but the sin that is in it, which 
 
216 CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 
 
 slioots from the earth and strikes against heaven, God, 
 against whom it is committed, alone can forgive. Hence 
 David said — what we sung or prayed this morning — 
 " Against thee, thee only have I sinned," — that means, I 
 have injured Uriah, but I have sinned against thee. There- 
 fore he seeks forgiveness, not from the j^riest, but from 
 God — " Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy 
 loving-kindness ; according unto the multitude of thy ten- 
 der mercies blot out my transgressions." 
 
 Let me allude to another characteristic of all true and 
 genuine confession. All confession of sin is specific. While 
 there is a general confession fitted for the general congrega- 
 tion, there is the specific confession, peculiar to individuals. 
 Hence, in some of the most memorable instances in the Old 
 Testament, we find the specific sin added to the general. 
 Thus in Judges x. 10, " we have sinned against thee, both 
 because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim " 
 — the specific sin added. So the Israelites confessed that 
 " we have committed sin ; we have added unto our sins this," 
 namely, " that we have asked us a king." Added to their 
 general confession was the specific sin that lay the heaviest 
 upon the nation's conscience, or upon the individual's heart. 
 We may notice, too, that where there is real, specific con- 
 fession of sin, there is always aggravation, rather than dimi- 
 nution, of the sins that are confessed. Whenever the mai. 
 who is not enlightened, nor thoroughly in earnest, confesses 
 liis sins, there is always the echo of an apology ; he always 
 admits extenuating circumstances. But wherever you find 
 in God's Word true confession of sin, you find it always in 
 the language rather of aggravation than otherwise. For in- 
 stance, the Apostle Paul, after he was converted, confesses his 
 sin thus, in Acts xxvi. : " Which thing I also did in Jerusa- 
 lem ; and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having re- 
 ceived authority from the chief priests ; and when they were 
 put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I pun- 
 
CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 217 
 
 islied them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to 
 blaspheme ; and being exceedingly mad again&t them T per- 
 secuted them even unto strange cities ; " every word and 
 epithet implying the unnecessary cruelty he practised, and 
 the aggravated nature of the transgressions which he here 
 commemorates. So did Peter. In the touching incident 
 where our Lord looked upon him, and Peter went out and 
 wept bitterly, it is added, " When he thought thereon ; " it is 
 in our translation in Mark xiv., " he thought thereon ; " but 
 it means literally, " When he cast up all in his mind ; " when 
 he recollected how he was chosen from being a fisherman to 
 be an apostle ; how miracles had fed him ; how mercies had 
 accompanied him ; how Jesus had honored him as a bosom 
 friend ; how he had delivered him from every danger and 
 from every difficulty, and instructed him in ignorance ; — 
 when he cast up all these things in his mind, and then felt 
 that he had denied such a Benefactor, he went out and wept 
 bitterly. 
 
 We thus see, that wherever there is true confession, there 
 will be, not the diminution or extenuation of the offence, but 
 the full, candid, and specific admission of it. 
 
 There will be, in the next place, true sorrow. It is said 
 that David watered his couch with his tears ; and every tear 
 in David's case had a tongue. God " heard his weeping." 
 And the sorrow that is often deepest is least seen. " When 
 thou fastest, thou art not to appear to men to fast." The 
 sorrow that is deepest rarely finds outward expression ; and 
 often there is the keenest where there is the least evidence 
 of it before men. But wherever there is genuine confession, 
 there must be grief; the more real, as we are dealing in 
 confession — what, indeed, is essential to do — not with a 
 judge, not with a tyrant-ruler, but with God our Father. 
 Plence confession of sin is never that of a criminal confessing 
 to a judge, but of a son confessing to his father. Accord- 
 ingly, in those confessions that we find in the Bible, there is 
 
 19 
 
218 CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 
 
 always tliis filial character. Daniel says, " To the Lord our 
 God," — not " to the Lord God ; " but to the Lord our God 
 — filial trust. And again, the prodigal said, " I will arise 
 and go to w?/y father." Pie had asked from his master bread, 
 and he gave him the husks that the swme did eat. He then 
 says, "I will arise, and go to my father." Even in his es- 
 trangement from home, that beautiful relationship liad nei- 
 ther been merged nor forgotten. " We have an Advocate," 
 not with a judge, but an " Advocate with the Father, and he 
 is the propitiation for our sins." Thus, then, terror must 
 not blind the eye to the sight and apprehension of a Father ; 
 nor must' our recollections of God's justice, God's character 
 as the Creator and Governor of the universe, ever cause us 
 to lose sight of this — that God is our Father, and that we 
 are Ids children ; and you will find that the sense of the re- 
 lationship " Father," will make the sorrow deepest, the com- 
 punction tenderest, the confession truest, fullest, and most 
 real. 
 
 Yv^herever there is true confession, of the kind I have 
 mentioned, there Avill be, in as far as our conduct to man is 
 concerned, reformation ; in as far as our relationship to God 
 is concerned, reparation. Those things which we have done 
 which we believe to be wrong, it will be our study, our elFort, 
 to correct. The more we know of each other, the more Ave 
 se(.' remains to be forgiven ; the less we knovr, the more we 
 ei^uaT ; but he that knows his own nature best will be most 
 cui-ipassionate to the sins, most forgiving to \\\(}. faults and 
 iniquities, of others. But, in reference to God, what repa- 
 ration can we make ? If vre have misused our youth, we 
 cannot recall its morning beauty ; if we have abused our 
 manhood, we cannot bring back the sun from the -western 
 horizon to his noon, and live our life again. Then, what is 
 to be done ? All that Ave can do is, in the language of the 
 apostle, to seek for full forgiveness for the i)ast througli the 
 blood of sprinkhng, Avhich is ever offered, and to redeem the 
 
COXFKSSIOX THROUGH SACRIFICE. 219 
 
 time — that is, to i)ut into the remaining years of our life 
 intenser iisefuhiess to man, intenser devotedness to God. 
 Wherever there is genuine confession of sin, there will be, 
 not, indeed, any thing offered to God as a propitiation, or 
 any thing pledged to God as an atonement. The past never 
 can be recalled ; its deeds cannot be undone. I think it is 
 one of the most solemn thoughts in the world, that an act 
 once done may be forgiven, or forgotten, but it cannot be 
 annihilated — that is impossible. A thought once felt may 
 be forgiven, or forgotten, but it cannot be annihilated. 
 
 The future, from this very day, is open ; the years are yet 
 unpledged to sin, folly, and wickedness. AV'ell, if there be 
 earnest supplication for forgiveness for the past, the best evi- 
 denc(.^ that that sup[)lication has been sincere, that the con- 
 fession has been true, will be that we shall throw greater en- 
 ei'gy into the years that remain, do more good while we live, 
 and be more devoted to Him who has pardoned the past, and 
 given us grace to make better use of the future. 
 
 Having seen what confession is, let me notice, what fol- 
 lows so very beautifully, and what is so encouraging to those 
 who look back upon a past misspent — and no past of any 
 life in this assembly has been spent as it sliould be, thou^li 
 some pasts may be blacker and more stained than otiic-r.'- : 
 bat the futuni is before us, the past is gone from us — we 
 are assured that "if we confess our sins, God is faitiiful and 
 just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
 righteousness." Now let me show how veiy remai-kable 
 this language is. .Just in these very words we have opcmed 
 out the distinctive glory and excellence of real evangelical 
 Christianity — that God is faithful and just to forgive. We 
 can easily understand, " If we confess our sins God is faith- 
 ful and just to punish them." We can understand that the 
 justice of God metes out penalty for crime, Avages for work 
 done ; but, strange sound ! — sound that the ear of nature is 
 not accustomed to — if we confess our sins, he is not ready 
 
220 CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 
 
 to punish them, not faithful and just to destroy us, but " faith- 
 ful and just to forgive us." Now this is a truth that man 
 has the greatest difficulty in believing, and jet it is the very 
 truth that God is ever inculcating. How striking such words 
 as these wherein God says to sinners : " Come now,," — 
 how beautiful the term is ! — " Come now, and let us reason 
 together." God asking man to reason with him ! " Though 
 your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow : thougli 
 they be as crimson, they shall be as wool." How very con- 
 descending on the part of the great God — " Come now, and 
 let us reason together : though your sins be as crimson, they 
 shall be as wool ! " 
 
 But this confession to God — " if we confess our sins, he 
 is faithful to forgive " — assumes that he hears the confes- 
 sion. "If we confess, he is faithful and just to forgive." 
 Then God hears our confession, and there is no doubt about 
 it. You need not fear lest words uttered in silence and se- 
 crecy on earth have no echo in heaven ; you need not doubt 
 that the least feeling of sorrow that sweeps over the human 
 heart shall send a shadow into the presence of God himself. 
 He hears the pulse at the heart — the thought, the Avish, the 
 feeling, the desire — faster than we can utter them. Man 
 may be deaf, priests may be hostile, but God ever hears if 
 we confess our sins. Who cares whether a priest be willing 
 or unwilling to forgive it ? we need not feel alarmed at it. 
 If we confess our sins, God is faithful, whoever be unfaith- 
 ful ; and God is just, whoever be unjust, to forgive us our 
 sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
 
 But what is meant by that expression, " He is faithful " to 
 do it ? Human nature may arrive at this, — God may be 
 merciful to forgive us ; but — this is strange — " foithful and 
 just to forgive sin." It would seem altogether the very re- 
 verse of forgiveness that would flow from faithfulness and 
 justice ; but it is not so. To be faithful means to be stead- 
 fast to a promise made, a word given, or a declaration ut- 
 
COXFESSIOX THROUGH SACRIFICE. 221 
 
 tered. Now if you open any part of the Bible you will find 
 it full of promises of pardon, full of invitations to pardon, full 
 of types, shadows, institutions, all indicating the possibility 
 of jxirdon of sin. In one part, " I will be merciful to their 
 iniquities ; their sins and their transgressions will I remem- 
 ber no more." He says in another part, "Let the wicked 
 man Ibrsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, 
 and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon 
 him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." " All 
 his promises in Christ are yea, and Amen." " Faithful," 
 says an apostle, " is he who has promised." Now, wherever 
 you find a promise made in the Bible to you — that is, to 
 sinners — you may plead it with God in prayer : " O Lord, 
 show thyself faithful to fulfil in my happy experience this 
 blessed and consolatory promise ; " and the answer is, " God 
 is faithful." You need not doubt it ; you may assume it, you 
 may act upon it, and lay the whole stress of the future upon 
 the reality of it. 
 
 But it is added, he is not only fait/if id, but he is aho just 
 to forgive us our sins. He hjust to forgive us our sins! 
 Merciful to forgive, we do understand; but, just to forgive! 
 how can that be ? Here is the very attribute, justice, which 
 is the exactor of penalty, declared to be the missionary of 
 pardon. Here is the very attribute that we have always 
 regarded as hostile to our admission into heaven now pro- 
 claimed to be not only friendly, but to embosom the very 
 riglit and title of our admission. Here is what we always 
 rc^jarded as the G;reat obstruction to our entrance into heaven 
 announced to be the great impulse, and incentive, and at- 
 traction to it. How can this be? I answer: Exclude the 
 Atonement, of which all the atonements in Leviticus wci'e 
 dim prefigurations, and there is no solution of it ; l)ut admit 
 the great thought of an Atonement, and it is as plain and 
 clear as daylight itself. 
 
 Unless there be some process by which God can \indi- 
 19* 
 
222 CONFESSION TnilOUGII SACRIFICE. 
 
 cate Ills law, satisfy his own everlasting and immutable 
 attributes, and yet extend forgiveness, God cannot be faith- 
 ful and just to forgive us our sins. But there is such a pro- 
 vision. Christ bore the penalty, paid the price, endured 
 the curse, exhausted the punishment (vary the phraseology 
 as you please) ; and God, having received from him, my 
 representative (I do not stop to discuss the principle of ac- 
 cepting a substitute for us ; I only assert it as fact, enun- 
 ciated in the Bible) — God having accepted Christ as my 
 substitute — Christ having borne all that I had deserved as 
 a sinner, and having done all that I owed as a creature, — 
 there is no sin on me to be punished, whatever sin there 
 may be in me unworthy of heaven ; for I can plead before 
 God, — Why should I suffer when my Representative has 
 suffered for me ? Why should I be excluded from heaven 
 when my Representative has made a way for me ? Thou 
 art a just God : thou dost not exact the price twice ; thou 
 dost not demand the penalty twice ; and therefore in Him 
 who is my representative, my substitute, my righteousness, 
 I ask not of thy mercy only to forgive me, but I ask of thee 
 to be faithful to thy word, and just by Christ Jesus, to for- 
 give me all my sins, and to cleanse me from all unrighteous- 
 ness. It is mercy that I can plead it; it is justice that God 
 thus bestows it. Do not, therefore, if I speak to a sinner — 
 or rather, to a Christian — do not, therefore, think that the 
 law will stand in your way to heaven; do not fear that 
 God's attributes will stand in your way to glory. All his 
 attributes, instead of being your enemies, are your irresisti- 
 ble and eloquent advocates. God's attributes are sentinels 
 around the chiefest of sinners that flee to him through 
 Christ, as the mountains stand around Jerusalem. In other 
 words, there is no condemnation — to whom ? There is no 
 curse, no hell, no punishment — to whom? Not to those 
 that are perfect, not to those that never sinned, — but 
 "there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ 
 
CONFESSION TIIROUGIT SACRIFICE. 223 
 
 Jesus," their representative, tlieir substitute. And how 
 beautiful is that text wliich I have often quoted, — " lie 
 Avas made sin for us, that we might be made rigliteousness 
 in him ! " How was he made sin for us ? Our sins were 
 hiid on him — therefore he bore the consequence. How are 
 we made righteousness by him ? By his righteousness haid 
 upon us — therefore we inherit the consequences. If God 
 was just when he let forth his wrath upon Christ because 
 of our sins upon him, not in him, God will be but just to let 
 forth the expressions of his love because of Christ's right- 
 eousness upon us, not in us. When Christ died in agony 
 upon the cross, there was nothing in him worthy of death ; 
 when I shall be admitted into heaven at the judgment-seat, 
 there will be nothing in me worthy of eternal life. Christ's 
 title to a cross was my sin on him ; and my title to a weight 
 of glory will be his righteousness upon me. God therefore 
 is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
 from all unrighteousness. What a glorious truth ! No 
 man who understands justification by fliitli in the righteous- 
 ness of Christ will ever become a papist — it is imj^ossible ; 
 and nothing will save you from superstition and delusion, 
 and all the mummeries of exploded and miserable supersti- 
 tion, except a clear living grasp of this, that we need noth- 
 ing to perfect a title which is perfect, because Christ's; we 
 need nothing to increase an atonement which is all effica- 
 cious, because Christ's ; we are comj)lete in him, all our 
 salvation and all our desire. And to show you that my 
 conclusions are not mere conclusions of the intellect, an 
 apostle could say, after speaking of such truths as these, 
 " Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? " — 
 that is, God's people. Will God do it ? No, says the apos- 
 tle, " It is God that justifieth." What is meant by justify- 
 ing ? To justify is explained for instance, in the Proverbs, 
 where he says, " He that justifieth the wicked and con- 
 demueth the just, doeth abomination." In other words, who 
 
221 CONFESSION THROUGH SACKIFICE. 
 
 shall justify the wicked, pronounce them innocent or unim- 
 peachable who are really criminal? Well now, to justify 
 us is to pronounce us just through the justice of another, 
 who are otherwise criminal; and our justification lies not in 
 our grace of holiness, but in God's act of grace ; not in our 
 deeds, but in his deed of absolution and forgiveness ; not in 
 my estimate of myself, but in God's sentence upon me. 
 Well, now, says the apostle, " Who shall lay any thing to 
 the charge of God's elect?" Not God, "it is God that jus- 
 tifieth." " Who is he that condemneth ? " Not Christ. " It 
 is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is 
 even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession 
 for us." And therefore he adds — mind you, Paul, a sin- 
 ner, according to his own confession the chiefest of sinners, 
 whose early life was employed in persecuting and proscrib- 
 ing and murdering the followers of Jesus ; this Paul, by 
 grace, was brought into that state that he could say, " Who 
 shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, 
 or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, 
 or the sword ? I am j^ersuaded, that neither death, nor life, 
 nor angels, nor j)rincipalities, nor powers, nor things pres- 
 ent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 
 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." What a triumphant 
 clause ! and yet it is not the language of presumption, it is 
 the language of humble trust. Presumption means think- 
 ing that God can pardon without a sacrilice — that he can 
 be just to forgive without an atonement ; but humility is 
 feeling we have nothing and deserve nothing ; but feeling 
 that God is so faithful, so just, that we can anticipate far 
 richer results than we enjoy in the present : that nothing 
 shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 Now that expression, " faithful and just to forgive us our 
 sins," reminds me of the infinite variety of expressions that 
 
CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 225 
 
 God uses to tell us Low complete tliis act of forgiveness is. 
 He is faithful and just to forgive us. I do not know any 
 one thought clothed in such variegated drapery as the 
 thought of God's forgiving sin. lie varies the pliraseology 
 not to express his meaning, but to interest and engage our 
 hearts. For instance, in one part he calls it " remission of 
 sins." Man is in bondage, surrounded by dungeon walls ; 
 the chains of his sins bind him to the spot. God touches 
 his chains, they are dissolved by the touch, and he has re- 
 mission of sins, or the loosing of his bonds. Then another 
 phrase he employs is, " not imputing our sins." They are 
 countless as the sand, they are innumerable as the hairs on 
 our head ; and yet he does not impute them. Why ? Be- 
 cause he imputed them to Christ. Another expression is, 
 " Not remembered " — "I will remember their sins and 
 their iniquities no more." In the Levitical sacrifices there 
 is a remembrance of sin made every year, but by this sacri- 
 fice there is no remembrance of sin forever ; as if God, in 
 order to convince us of the completeness of the pardon, had 
 said, that they shall be expunged from his memory forever. 
 Again, he uses the expression, " Cover their sins " — 
 " whose sins thou hast covered." The Hebrew word, hapliar, 
 which means to cover, and from which our English word 
 " cover " comes, is the word used in the Old Testament for 
 the atonement; and the meaning of it is, that just as a man 
 covered with a robe — an external robe — has thus con- 
 cealed from the eye under-robes that may not be so fair or 
 beautiful; so a sinner — sinner in himself — having spread 
 over him the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness, thus has 
 his sin covered. And the meaning of it is, not that it is a 
 material transaction, but that God will deal with him just as 
 if he were spotless as the driven snow, unstained, beautiful, 
 and perfect. 
 
 Another expression is, " Taking aAvay our sins." The Is- 
 raelite confessed his sins over the head of the scape-goat ; 
 
226 CONFESSION THROUGH SACKIFICE. 
 
 then the o:oat was dismissed into the desert ; and the sins of 
 the Israelite, thus confessed, were typically transferred to the 
 goat, and never any more heard of. 
 
 Another expression is, " Blotting out." Just as if your 
 sins were like inscriptions upon the sand of the sea-shore, 
 washed out by the first wave of infinite and boundless love. 
 
 Another expression is, " Casting behind his back." In one 
 passage, " Our secret sins hast thou set in the light of thy 
 countenance," — a most awful exj)ression ; but in order to 
 show you the completeness of his forgiveness, " All our sins 
 he has cast behind his back." And again, the expression 
 occurs, " cleansing " — " the blood of Christ," that is, the 
 efficacy of his sacrifice, " cleanseth from all sin." Another 
 passage which contains almost every epithet is, " Who is a 
 God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, that passeth by 
 the transgression of the remnant of his heritage, that keep- 
 eth not his anger for ever, delighteth in mercy ? He will 
 turn again, he will have compassion upon us, he will cast all 
 their sins into the depths of the sea." Now, if meaning is 
 not conveyed by these expressions of the completeness, the 
 instancy of a sinner's forgiveness, then this Book has no 
 meaning at all. But why all this — why all this phraseology 
 so varied, so cumulative ? The answer is, — It is so difficult 
 to persuade you that God will do it. As I have often said, 
 it is the simplicity of Christianity that is its stumblingblock. 
 It is not a sacrifice to offer, a priest to sacrifice it, penance to 
 do, payment to make ; but it is just to believe this truth, em- 
 bosomed in the text on which I am preaching to you this 
 day ; and which I have unfolded, not wandered from. The 
 man that can take this text home with him, and Avith his 
 heart feel it, and from his heart confess, and with his heart 
 believe — that man is a true Christian, and the rest of his 
 life hereafter will be irresistible demonstration that he is so. 
 And hence it is added here, while God is faithful and just to 
 forgive us our sins, he is also to cleanse us from all unright- 
 
CONFESSION TIIliOUGII SACRIFICE. 227 
 
 coiisness. Now this is somctliing additional. jMany persons, 
 wlicii tlicy hear the evangelical minister preach, and pro- 
 nounce that onr admission into heaven is not because of any 
 thing we may do, but in spite of it — when they hear the 
 minister preach that our title to glory, our admission into 
 heaven, is not in consequence of any thing done by us, but 
 in spite of every thing done by us in the past, they say, 
 " Why, if people act up to that minister's prescriptions, they 
 will plunge into every sort of sin; they will feel that sin is 
 no barrier to their admission into heaven." That is what 
 you feel, I dare say, Avhen you look at it from a distance ; 
 but you well know that when a man has got this sense of 
 God's fatherly goodness he has received a new life, and he 
 does not want to do what he wanted to do before. This is 
 not a theorem for man to act upon, but it is a life for man 
 continually to live. Wherever there is the pardon of sin by 
 an act of grace without, there is the ceaseless extinction of 
 sin by the Spirit's influence witliin. Our pardon is a change 
 of state ; our cleansing from all unrighteousness is a change 
 of character. Because we say good works are of no use as 
 our title to heaven, we do not say we are not therefore to do 
 good works ; our title to heaven is irrespective of them alto- 
 gether, but our fitness for heaven is just that character which 
 you have — living soberly and righteously in this present 
 world. We lost our title to heaven in Paradise ; Christ has 
 restored it in his righteousness. We defaced our image of 
 God in Paradise, and the Holy Spirit restores that image by 
 his presence. So that a Christian forgiven freely through 
 Christ's righteousness, and accepted and justified, is day by 
 day sanctified — day by day he seeks love to guide him, 
 grace to influence him, the Holy Spirit to keep him from 
 fill ling. 
 
 Having seen the very substance and pith of all that is 
 most precious in the gospel, let me ask. Have you — hast 
 thou, ever confessed thy sins, thy secret sins ; the sins of thy 
 
228 CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 
 
 youth, the sins of thy riper years, the sins of the solemn 
 things, the omissions you have made, the commissions you 
 have perpetrated ? You have confessed them in the sanc- 
 tuary, but have you ever confessed them when no mortal ear 
 could hear them at all ? Have you ever been alone with 
 God ? Have you ever felt, have you ever realized, being 
 alone with God ? You must one day be so ; you must walk 
 through the valley of the shadow of death alone ; you must 
 render up the ghost alone. Physicians may accompany you 
 to the brink of the grave ; enter they cannot. They may 
 go with you to the very verge of the valley of the shadow 
 of death ; accompany you they cannot. Is it not well, is it 
 not expediency, is it not duty, — oh, no ! is it not rather pre- 
 cious privilege in this life, to be occasionally alone with God ? 
 Do not let every man say, " This is meant for a whole audi- 
 ence ; " it is meant as much for you A, for you B, for you C, 
 as if you and I were the only two speaking together this day. 
 What one so grieves is, that persons treat an appeal to their 
 consciences as porters treat a heavy load — when six carry 
 it, it is very light upon each shoulder. And you think, be- 
 cause there are some seventeen hundred listening to me, 
 therefore a very small and infinitesimal quantity of it ex- 
 tends to you. But what I say to all I say to each, as if that 
 individual were the only one present. I ask, — Have I ever 
 been alone with God ? Have I confessed to him my secret 
 sins — sins the world does not know, sins that may be for- 
 given, but that cannot be forgotten ? My dear friends, if it 
 has never been so, I will not pronounce on such — that is 
 not my function ; but I will say that he has great reason to 
 suspect if he be a Christian at all. Pie may be an amiable 
 man — a gentle, quiet, charitable, generous man ; and all this 
 he ought to be. Surely, surely, all this you ought to be. 
 But there is something more than that; there is relationship 
 to a God we need restored ; there is restoration to an image 
 we have lost ; there is reinstatement in a favor we have for- 
 
CONFESSION THROUGH SACRIFICE. 229 
 
 felted : have we found tliat ? Our sun is setting behind the 
 western hills : will he rise to us more beautiful in the ever- 
 lasting east ? The tide is ebbing : if we miss it, our voyage 
 to the everlasting haven may be lost for ever. Is our trust 
 on the Rock of Ages ? Is our confidence in God's fiuthful- 
 ncss and justice to forgive us our sins — suppose death were 
 now to overtake you (and I am not supposing any thing very 
 extraordinary) what would you say, what could you say? 
 Oh ! ^vould you be constrained to say, " I heard truths that 
 would make the lost in misery leap for ecstasy, that angels 
 listen to, and are startled by their music ; and I heard them, 
 and went, one to his farm and another to his mechandise ; 
 and I have not rejected — for I never was bold enough to 
 do that — but I have neglected the great salvation!" 
 
 But how shall we escape, if we, not reject, but neglect, so 
 great salvation ? 
 
 20 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SACRIFICE OF SWEET-SMELLING SAVOR. 
 
 "And walk in love, as Christ also hatli loved us, and hath given himself 
 for ns an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." — 
 Ephesiaxs v. 2. 
 
 TiiK words of St. Paul, in liis Epistle to the Epbesians, 
 "- And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath 
 given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a 
 sweet-smelling savor," best illustrate two or three expres- 
 sions almost similar in word which have occurred in the first 
 three chapters of the Book of Leviticus. In the course of 
 these three chapters we have read very frequently the ex- 
 j)ression, " Sweet savor unto the Lord," " A savor of a 
 sweet smell," or " A sweet-smelling savor unto God." Thus 
 in the first chapter, at the ninth verse : " A burnt sacrifice, 
 an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord." 
 Thus again, in the seventeenth verse : " It is a burnt sacri- 
 fice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the 
 Lord." In the second chapter, at the ninth verse : " It is an 
 offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord ; " 
 and again, at the fifth verse of the third chapter : " It is an 
 offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord." 
 You observe that almost at the close of every offering, and 
 as the consequence of the presentation of every victim, if 
 acceptable to God, it is presented under the exj^ressive and 
 the beautiful figure of a sacrifice, fragrant of a sweet smell, 
 acceptable to Him by whose order it has been oflfered, and 
 
 (230) 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF SWEET-SMELLING SAVOR. 231 
 
 in order to propitiate or draw down whose mercy it lias 
 been presented by the offerer. 
 
 Now, the words of Paul, that I have just read in his 
 Epistle to the Ephesians, are the echo of the words of 
 Moses, in the first three chapters of Leviticus : in fact, the 
 verse I have given is an epitome, or summary in brief of 
 the meaning, the end, and the object of the many sacri- 
 fices, presented by many priests, which could never take away 
 sin, now summed up, rejiresented, and finished in that one 
 Sacrifice offered once for all upon the cross, through which 
 we have access to God, and by which we are sanctified. 
 
 The apostle then speaks of Christ himself, as the Giver, 
 who gave himself; he then speaks for what he gave him- 
 self; he then describes that gift under the figure of an offer- 
 ing and a sacrifice ; and then he describes its acceptableness 
 to God under the figure of " a sweet-smelling savor unto 
 God." 
 
 AVe have first of all, then, in this resume of the end and 
 object of all the sacrifices of Levi, the Giver who gave 
 himself Who was he ? First, he was man. We assert, 
 just as strongly as the Socinian can assert, that Jesus Avas 
 man. It is the glory of the Gospel that he was so. The 
 object of the evangelists is not to prove that he was God ; 
 every Jew believed that the Messiah was God ; but the 
 difficulty that the Jews felt was, — had he become man? 
 which the Jew constantly and consistently denied. Kow, 
 we assert that Jesus was man, in all points as we are ; — in 
 liis heart the echo of our wrongs ; in his nature sympathy 
 with our sorrows and our sufferings that are deepest ; in all 
 points touched and tempted like as Ave are: but oidy with- 
 out sin, which is no part of humanity. Sin is no part of 
 me. When God made me, he did not make sin in me ; sin 
 was no part of man when God pronounced him in Eden to 
 be very good. So Christ Avas perfect man. And, in the 
 next place, he Avas a royal man. He Avas descended of a 
 
232 THE SACRIFICE OF 
 
 royal, but a cllscrowned family ; sunk by poverty, affliction, 
 obscurity. And he was royal in that he was a king. " Art 
 thou a king ? " " Thou sayest," — that is, I am. All the 
 prerogatives of royalty were, and are, his. 
 
 But whilst he was man — a sinless man, and a royal 
 man — he that gave himself was also God. I cannot con- 
 sent to weed out the texts that say Christ was God, and 
 fling them away, and fasten on the texts that say he was 
 man, and strain and stretch them to the utmost. I must 
 read the Bible just as God has inspired it ; and if I read 
 upon the one page, " The Word was made flesh," — " Jesus 
 is a man of sorrows ; " why should I weed out of the next 
 page, " By him all things were made ; and without him was 
 not any thing made that was made." — " And though in the 
 form of God, and thinking it no robbery to be equal with 
 God, he took upon him the form of a servant ? " How can 
 the Socinian say the forin of God is not the same as God ? 
 Then, I must add, the form of a servant is not the same as 
 a servant. But if the taking upon him the form of a ser- 
 vant, means that he really became a servant; so, in the 
 form of God, and thinking it no robbery to be equal with 
 God, means that he was God over all, blessed for evermore. 
 But I need no text to demonstrate that Christ was God, ex- 
 cept the simple prediction, that he is to be the Judge of all 
 flesh. If God be not upon the judgment-seat, where can he 
 be? If there be a place where the presence of Deity is 
 demanded, it is that place where all hearts will be laid 
 bare — where all destinies will be adjusted — where the 
 mighty group will consist of the milhons and millions of the 
 world from the beginning. If man be capable of searching 
 all hearts, fixing all destinies, and, with perfect accuracy, 
 dealing with each according to what he is, man cannot be 
 what he is defined to be in the Bible — the frail, the imper- 
 fect, the weak, the limited creature, that our own expe- 
 rience also attests him to be. And, at all events, if Christ 
 
SWEET-SMELLING SAVOR. 233 
 
 be not God, the inhabitants of heaven must be guilty of 
 blasphemy. I open the Apocalypse ; I gaze in at that door 
 which John saw opened in heaven ; I listen to the anthems 
 tliat arc there. No Socinian can be there ; it is impossible 
 he could join in the hymns of heaven. How could a So- 
 cinian say, " Unto him that loved me and washed me from 
 my sins in his own blood, unto him be gloiy and dominion 
 forever and ever ? " How could a Unitarian say, " Wor- 
 thy is the Lamb that was slain to receive praise, and thanks- 
 giving, and glory, and honor ! " — " Thou hast redeemed us 
 by thy blood out of every kindred, and every nation, and 
 every tongue, and w^e shall reign with thee ? " That is the 
 language of adoration, of praise, of prayer. 
 
 Thus, then, the Being who gave himself was God — first 
 man, a sinless man, a royal, though a discrowned man ; and 
 lastly God. 
 
 Now, what did he give ? He gave himself, Mark the 
 language — gave^ not was induced to give, or permitted to be 
 given, or had exacted from him — he gave freely, gener- 
 ously, as the expression oi irrepressible love, in the exercise 
 of boundless benevolence : he freely gave. And he gave — 
 what ? Not an angel ; the highest hierarcli about the throne 
 has no more holy light than he needs for himself. He has 
 nothing to spare for me. Every creature is made with suffi- 
 cient for its own orbit, and for the continuance of its own 
 beautiful and holy being; but it has nothing to spare for 
 others. And he did not give any saint. The virgins that 
 were wise had oil in their own lamps; they had none to 
 spare for others. The highest Christian in this assembly 
 has grace ; he has none to spare for another. He can tell 
 you where he got his supply — where you are welcome to 
 go also for supply ; but he can spare nothing, nor give ought 
 of what God has given him for himself. Nor did he give 
 riches. INIoney, that has the most rapid currency on earth, 
 has no currency in heaven ; it has not the impress and the 
 20* 
 
234 THE SACRIFICE OF 
 
 superscription of Him who reigns supreme there. " Ye are 
 not redeemed with gold or silver, or any such corruptible 
 tiling." Nor, in the last place, did he give the blood of bulls 
 and of goats, which were shadows of that which should be. 
 Tliese, I say, so frequently alluded to in Leviticus, were the 
 dim footprints of his advent; leading the believer to stretch 
 his hopes onward to the cross, and to rely on and glorify 
 him. If these sacrifices could have atoned for sin, having 
 done their work, they would have ceased to be offered. But 
 the fact, says the apostle, that they were offered year by 
 year, was proof that they never could make the comers 
 thereunto perfect. He therefore gave, not the blood of bulls 
 and of innocent goats, but something more precious than all 
 these. He gave himself. He was man, that he might be 
 capable of suffering what we had drawn down upon our- 
 selves ; he was God, that he might be able to give virtue to 
 all those sufferings that should make them, not the sufferings 
 of a man, but the sufferings of an atoning and an expiatory 
 victim. He gave himself. He gave his body to sorrow and 
 the sword ; he gave his soul to sorrow, but not to the sword ; 
 he gave his deity neither to sorrow nor*to the sword, but to 
 communicate virtue, efficacy, all that was needed to render 
 his sufferings not those of a creature enduring chastisement 
 from a father, nor of a criminal enduring punishment from a 
 judge ; but of a victim, making expiation for the sins of all 
 that believe. 
 
 And he gave himself alone. There was no partner in his 
 agony. When Mary obtruded herself upon him, he re- 
 pelled her firmly, but gently. And as there was no partner 
 in his agony, as he trod the wine-press alone, and of the 
 people there was none with him, as there Is no salvation in 
 any other name given among men, so there will be no sharer 
 in his glory. He endured the cross ; he must wear exclu- 
 sively the crown : he bore all the penalty, and exhausted It ; 
 he must receive all the glory of the ransom of his precious 
 blood — he crave himself alone. 
 
SAVEET-SMELLING SAVOR. 235 
 
 And to whom did he give himself? lie gave himself 
 to God, says the apostle, in the text. Against God we had 
 sinned ; to God was the reparation due. He was the party 
 offended; the great obstruction was between him and us. 
 Till he was satisfied, sinners, by the very nature of the 
 thing, never could be saved. Whilst he gave himself to God, 
 says the apostle, he gave himself to God for us. Now let any- 
 body read the language of Leviticus, and see what is said 
 of the different sacrifices, offerings, holocausts ; and then read 
 what is said of Christ's death, and see the very same lan- 
 guage applied to Christ's death that was applied to the 
 offerings, the victims, and the sacrifices of Levi ; and then 
 say, is it possible to come to any other conclusion than this 
 — that Christ lived and died for us, not an example how 
 purely we should live, nor a precedent how magnanimously 
 Ave should die, but an atonement, a substitute, a vicarious 
 offering, a sacrifice for our sins, that they might be forgiven, 
 and that the guilty might be gloriously saved ? 
 
 He gave himself, first, it says in our text, an offering for 
 us — an offering and a sacrifice. His whole life was an 
 offering, his M'hole death was a sacrifice. I say his whole 
 life was an offering. He opened his ear to every command 
 of God, and did it. He did for us creatures in his life all 
 that we ought to do. His obedience, it is true, was exem- 
 plary, just as the exactions of the law are obligatory; but 
 this is the emphatic distinction of his obedience — that he 
 obeyed as our representative and substitute, not as a model 
 for us to imitate, but as an offering for us to plead ; not as 
 an example for us to follow only, but as a righteousness for 
 us to put on. He did what as creatures we had not done ; 
 he obeyed a law which, as creatures, we could not obey ; 
 and thus his whole beautiful and spotless life was a holy and 
 a spotless offering to God of absolute, unspent, and unwaver- 
 ing obedience ; not for me to imitate merely, l)ut for me to 
 put on, to be clothed in, to plead as my right and my title 
 
236 THE SACRIFICE OF 
 
 to heaven, saying to God at the judgment-seat, "I have 
 obeyed that law in Christ my Head and Representative ; 
 and therefore I am entitled to all the promises and the bless- 
 ings it contains." 
 
 But while he lived as an offering, it is added he died also 
 as a sacrifice. He gave himself, says the apostle, an offering 
 and a sacrifice. His tears of angui^h, his agony of soul, his 
 painful death, closed by his last cry, " It is finished ! " was 
 the complete holocaust, the complete burnt sacrifice made 
 upon the cross for us and for our sins. And just mark how 
 complete this character is. As creatures we owed obedience 
 to the law of our Creator ; Christ gave it for us. As sinners 
 we had incurred the curse of God our Judge ; Christ bore 
 that curse for us. So that when I am asked, why should 
 not the curse fall upon me, with its ceaseless and corroding 
 pressure ? I answer. My Head, my Representative, my Sub- 
 stitute, has borne it, and exhausted it for me. Why should 
 I be admitted into heaven, not having obeyed the law ? My 
 answer is, My Head, my Representative, accepted by God 
 for me in my stead, has obeyed the law for me. Therefore, 
 justified by his righteousness, forgiven by his sacrifice, there 
 is no sin on me, while there are many sins in me ; and I am 
 clothed with spotless righteousness ; and may be presented 
 in him, and through him, and by liis merits, part and parcel 
 of his glorious church, without spot or blemish, or any such 
 thing. How complete is a sinner in Christ the Saviour ! 
 
 Let us notice in the next place, that this sacrifice and 
 offering is described as a sweet-smelling savor ; and for this 
 I have especially selected the text. What is meant by this ? 
 We find it explained in the Book of Genesis, where Noah, 
 after he came forth from the ark, offered up a sacrifice, a 
 burnt-offering; and the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and 
 the Lord said, I will not again curse the ground for man's 
 sake. W*e have the very same expression explained, 
 rather than used, in Philippians iv. 18, where the apostle 
 
SWEET-SMELLING SAVOR. 237 
 
 says, " But I have all and abound ; I am full, having re- 
 ceived of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from 
 you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well 
 pleasing " — that is the explanation — " to God." Now, 
 what was it in Christ that was thus well pleasing or accept- 
 able to God? It was not, as the Unitarian would say, his 
 holy and spotless obedience, his pure life, only that was thus 
 acceptable ; it was no doubt ; but the apostle says, the thing 
 that was acceptable to God — that was a sweet-smelling savor, 
 that rose to heaven like an ascending cloud of delicious fra- 
 grance, was his sacrifice and his offering. It was not aii ex- 
 ample of a sweet-smelling savor, but a sacrifice and an offering 
 of a sweet-smelling savor. In other words, what God re- 
 gards specially as acceptable to him, is the atoning death, 
 the meritorious righteousness of Christ, our substitute, our 
 sacrifice, and our salvation. But, you ask, Why should this 
 be specially pleasing and acceptable to God ? Has God any 
 j)leasure in suffering ? We are told he has no pleasure in 
 the death of a sinner ; how much less could he have had 
 pleasure in the death, the agony, the suffering of the spotless, 
 the holy, the blameless. Son of God ? He could have had 
 no pleasure in this. Then what was it that made these suf- 
 ferings so fragrant before God? Christ explains it. He 
 says that what made him endure the cross with such delight, 
 was the joy set before him. Isaiah thus explains the joy set 
 before him, " He shall see of the travail of his soul," — that 
 is, the result of it, — " and he shall^be satisfied." And, 
 therefore, just as Christ bore the cross for the sake of the 
 magnificent results it should achieve, so God looked at his 
 sufferings, and saw through them those glorious harvests of 
 which angels shall be the reapers, and on which God should 
 look Avith infinite satisfaction, and unspeakable delight. 
 
 But Vv'hat are some of the results accomplished by this 
 offering and sacrifice that make it a sweet-smelling savor, 
 acceptable to God? I answer, first, the law of God is vin- 
 
238 THE SACRIFICE OF 
 
 dicaled in the death of Christ, and covered with a richer 
 kistre than it ever could have been covered with if Adam 
 and Eve had remained' in their first innocence, and Eden re- 
 tained amarantliine verdure and beauty. The law set in the 
 innocence of first obedience would have been beautiful ; but 
 the law in the setting of Christ's obedience for ns is more 
 lustrous and splendid stilh It is more seen to be holy, just, 
 faithful, indestructible, because, God would rather than that 
 one jot or tittle should pass from his law, that the whole of 
 humanity should perish, or his own Son its substitute, should 
 suffer in its stead. 
 
 And, in the second place, it is a sweet-smelling savor to 
 God, inasmuch as God's children are all saved through it. 
 I cannot conceive the universe to have any order, God's law 
 to have any fixity, God himself to be a holy God, if he ad- 
 mits the guilty and the innocent, the fallen and the unfallen, 
 equally to the enjoyment, or relatively to the enjoyment, of 
 the glories of the blessed. It was impossible that man could 
 be saved by nature by the law as he is, without some inter- 
 position that should satisfy all demands, meet every necessity, 
 make provision for every requirement, and enable God, if I 
 may use the expression, to receive the guilty as if the guilty 
 had never fallen. Now in Christ's death sin is forgiven, and 
 the sinner is saved, while the law is upheld, and God is glo- 
 rified. And the sin, while forgiven to the sinner, is by the 
 same process made more hateful to the sinner ; so that there 
 is not only pardon for the past, but in the same process by 
 which the pardon is conveyed, there is a guarantee that there 
 shall be greater, richer, nobler conformity to God's law in all 
 the future. 
 
 And in the next place, the sacrifice was a sweet-smelling 
 savor to God, inasmuch as it gives glory to himself. You 
 see much of God in creation, and if it had never been stained, 
 creation's bright mirror had reflected vastly more of God's 
 goodness than it now does ; we see much of God in the law, 
 
SWEET-SMELLING SAVOK. 239 
 
 — " Thou slialt, and thou shalt not ; " and its exactions, which 
 extend not to words and deeds, but to thoughts and imagina- 
 tions : but we see vastly more of God — of his holiness, of 
 his justice, of his truth, and of his love in the forgiveness of 
 a sinner, through Christ tlie sacrifice, tlian we ever could 
 have seen if Calvary had never been, and Christ had never 
 suffered. And I doubt not that what has been transacted 
 upon this earth is not for this earth alone. This earth is the 
 mirror into which all the orbs of the universe, circling it as 
 in a splendid zone, continually gaze to learn how holy God 
 is — that rather than that his law should be broken his Son 
 should suffer to see how just God is, and, above all, how lov- 
 ing God is ; that he so loved the guilty in their ruins, that 
 he would do any thing short of the sacrifice of his law to 
 save them ; " he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believeth on him might never perish, but have eternal life." 
 The chapters of this world's history will be read for millions 
 and millions of years to come. I have no doubt that this 
 earth is the most wonderful phenomenon in time or in eter- 
 nity. I have no doubt that this world, with all that has 
 taken place upon it, is a spectacle that angels and unfallen 
 worlds will never weary in gazing at. It is God's great les- 
 son book for all the universe beside ; and as orb after orb, 
 and race after race, hear of its wondrous tidings, they will 
 join with the redeemed that are around the throne in new 
 bursts of song, in new anthems to Him that loved us, and 
 washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
 kings and priests unto our God. 
 
 Let me notice, in the next place, that it was this perfume 
 that made the offerings of Levi at all tolerable to God and 
 
 I to man. I can conceive nothing in itself more offensive than 
 the ancient temple or tabernacle ; it was almost a sort of 
 slaughter-house ; the constant bleeding of slain lambs and 
 sheep, and bullocks, was a most offensive, painful, undesirable 
 
240 THE SACRIFICE OF SWEET-SMELLING SAVOR. 
 
 this ofFering that was to be in the fulness of the time that 
 mingled with the smoke of Levi's sacrilices, and made them 
 acceptable before God. Take away Christianity from Le- 
 viticus, and Leviticus would only be fit for the gods of the 
 Pantheon ; but let the light of the evangelist fall upon the 
 face of Levi — let the offering of Christ be seen in their 
 burnt-offerings — let this perfume be smelt in their ascend- 
 ing smoke — let the shadow of Jesus be seen upon the walls 
 of the ancient sanctuary, — and what in itself Avas so offen- 
 sive to flesh and blood becomes beautiful, and holy, and fra- 
 grant, and acceptable to God. 
 
 And, lastly, it is this sweet-smelling savor of Christ's sac- 
 rifice, and the advocacy that follows it, that render all that 
 we think, all that we do, our best and our holiest acts, ac- 
 ceptable to God. You have it fully explained in that very 
 beautiful passage in the Apocalypse, where we read that an 
 angel, namely, Christ, stood at the altar of incense, where 
 the high-priest stood, having a golden censer, which the high- 
 priest alone had ; and there was given to him much incense, 
 the sweet-smelling savor of his own sacrifice, that he should 
 offer the incense with the prayers of all saints, to give per- 
 fume, and efficacy, and acceptance to those prayers, upon 
 the golden altar which was before the throne ; that our pray- 
 ers, and our praises, and our acts, and our alms, may be thus 
 acceptable to God, not in themselves, but because put into 
 the golden censer, mingled with the ascending perfume, 
 which, like a sweet-smelling savor, rises to God, ever an ac- 
 ceptable sacrifice. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OUR ADVOCATE. 
 
 '■ My little children, these things wi-ite I unto you, that ye sin not. And if 
 any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the 
 righteous ; and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, 
 but also for the sins of the whole world." — 1 John ii. 1. 
 
 You will easily perceive that the text I have selected al- 
 ludes almost in word to the sins of ignorance of which we 
 have been reading in the fourth chapter of the Book of Le- 
 viticus. The provision, as I explained, in that chapter, is 
 for sins committed in ignorance ; the provision in the text I 
 have quoted is, " If any man sin " — whether he know it or 
 not ; be it a sin of ignorance, or a sin of wilfulness — " we 
 have an advocate with the Father," who is, what the sacri- 
 fice in Leviticus was typically — "the propitiation," the 
 atonement " for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for 
 the sins of the whole world." 
 
 I know nothing so satisfactory to the Christian, or so pre- 
 cious, as the truths enunciated by the Evangelist John. And 
 whether we take his beautiful gospel called " the Gospel of 
 the Father," because it is the fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of believers that that personation of love mostly 
 dwells on — or, whether we take his Three Epistles — one 
 general, and the other special, to an Elect Lady — we find 
 in all these precious truths which make miserable hearts 
 happy, lead sinful souls to the knowledge of forgiveness, and 
 the victims of despair to be the inheritors of a blessed hope 
 
 21 (211) 
 
242 OUR ADVOCATE. 
 
 beyond the sky. How precious the sentiment in the first 
 chapter here — " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son," — not 
 once cleansed, and has now lost its efficacy, but cleanseth — ■ 
 the present tense — in 1854 just as fully as 1800 years ago! 
 And it cleanseth, not from some sins ; not from trivial ones, 
 or what are called venial ones ; but from all sin. What a 
 truth to live with ! What a hope to die in ! Not the literal 
 blood — as it was literal in the case of the slain bullock — 
 but the precious efficacy of it. Christ is sacrificed for us, an 
 offering and a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savor ; meaning 
 that the sacrifice burned upon the altar is thus presented 
 amid incense in the holy of holies, and, as the ceaseless per- 
 fume of that deed that was done on Calvary 1800 years ago, 
 it rises to heaven like aromatic incense, and spreads to the 
 skies, exhilarating to all that are there, and acceptable like 
 a sweet savor of perfume before the Most High. 
 
 " If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves." 
 There is no perfection upon earth ; we cannot have on earth 
 the innocence that Adam had — it is gone ; we cannot have 
 on earth the perfection that saints in glory have — it is not 
 come. Our condition upon earth is a law in our members 
 Avarring against the law of our spirit ; the ascendancy ob- 
 tained through struggle ; imperfection upon earth ; the 
 Christian life, like the April da,y, sunshine and showers in 
 succession, cloud and brightness alternating, but ending at 
 length in a bright sky that never shall be clouded. If any 
 man say, " I have no sin," that man is either trying to de- 
 ceive me, or he deceives himself. Then what does he say? 
 " If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the 
 truth is not in us ; but " — beautiful addition ! — "if we 
 confess our sins," — not to the priest, because we have not 
 sinned against him ; but to God, of whom he is speaking, — 
 " if we confess our sins, God is " — not merciful ; that you 
 could easily suppose — but he is faithful to his promise to 
 forgive — " lie is faithful and just." God is just while justi- 
 
OUR ADVOCATE. 243 
 
 fyiiig tlie believer. IIow beautiful, that the two attributes 
 of God that human nature would quote against forgiveness, 
 as it imagines, the apostle quotes as the very two that seal, 
 and sanction, and proclaim our complete forgiveness — '' lie 
 is faithfid and just to forgive us our sins ! " And then again, 
 lest poor human nature should forget this precious resource, 
 he repeats, "If any man sin" — whether the high-j^riest, or 
 the ruler of the people, or one of the common people, or 
 one of the congregation — " if any man sin," — whatever 
 he be, whatever his age, his position, or rank — "if any 
 man sin, we have " — we have, not hope for — " an advo- 
 cate with the Father ; and he is the propitiation for our 
 sins ; and not for ours only," but it is available to all the 
 ends of the earth, for all that will accept it. 
 
 Thus, we see how much of the Gospel is in this beautiful 
 epistle, even on its very preface. He begins the second 
 chapter with this remark, " My little children." When John 
 wrote this epistle, he was very nearly ninety years of age ; 
 the Book of Revelation was written in Patmos when he was 
 nearly a hundred ; but he was at least ninety when he wrote 
 this epistle. Pause to imagine, that beautiful grey hair, 
 resplendent with the first beams of the approaching glory ; 
 and think of that venerable saint, ripe in grace, and conse- 
 crated, not otherwise, by years, addressing believers as his 
 "little children," — his family, his flock — and saying, "I 
 Avrite unto you," not that you may reverence me, or do any 
 thing for me ; but " I write unto you that ye sin not." And 
 what does he teach by this ? That the whole strain and 
 tendency of Christianity, the whole scope of God's revealed 
 Word, is to put an end to sin. Its promises, its precepts, its 
 hopes, its requirements, its thoughts, all go to put an end to 
 sin. Nobody can deny, whatever else he may assert, that 
 the Bible's tendency is to make man holier and happier even 
 upon earth ; and if we did not see its tendency, it so fre- 
 quently asserts it, that we cannot possibly deny it. " Ye are 
 
244 OUR ADVOCATE. 
 
 a cliosen generation, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, to 
 show forth the praises of him who hath called you from 
 darkness into his marvellous light." " The grace of God 
 teacheth us to live soberly, righteously, godly, in this pres- 
 ent world, looking for that blessed hope." The best evi- 
 dence of Christianity is its fruits. I do not say there may 
 not be noble, honorable, impressive traits in human charac- 
 ter without Christianity ; but I do say that wherever Chris- 
 tianity is, those traits will be, and not only will they be, but 
 they will be beautified, and inspired, and covered with a 
 richer glory. When we assert that man is fallen and cor- 
 rupt, we do not mean to say that earth has become a Pande- 
 monium, and that men are become demons. This is not 
 true. There are still on the surface of humanity the linger- 
 ing rays of Paradise ; there are still in the hearts of human- 
 ity the feelings that were first felt in Paradise ; there is 
 much that is beautiful in human nature developed by its 
 finest specimens ; but we must also admit that there is much 
 that is degraded and desperately wicked In these, and de- 
 veloped by its worst ; and we still more maintain that the 
 only power that can lift human nature to that table-land on 
 which it will shine most beautiful, and bear its most fragrant 
 fruit, is the Gospel of the Son of God. 
 
 " Little children, I write unto you that ye sin not." This 
 is the end and object of my writing. But he says, " If any 
 man sin." He says, it is quite jjlaln that while this is what 
 we ought not to do, it is right that there should be a pro- 
 vision made for Avhat will occur in the case of every man, 
 in every age, and under every circumstance. " If any man 
 sin, we have an advocate with the Father." And then this 
 is connected with the previous passage — that " if we say 
 we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." But the phrase, " If 
 any man sin," implies that purity and holiness will be the 
 spontaneous fruits of Christum character, and that the sin 
 will be incidental or accidental. He assumes throughout 
 
I 
 
 OUR ADVOCATE. 245 
 
 the whole passage, that not to sin is the polarity or the ten- 
 dency of a true Christian ; but he also admits the possibility, 
 nay, the probability, nay, the certainty, of a flaw in the 
 best — sin in the holiest; and therefore he states the pro- 
 vision, " If any man sin." Man breathes an infected air ; 
 he has a law in his members still warring against the law 
 of his soul : and he that knows his own heart best will be 
 the first to sympathize with the infirmities, the sins, as well 
 as the fears of the rest of mankind. The least enlightened 
 are the least sympathizing ; the truest Christian has ever 
 the richest sympathy. The high-priest of old had infirmi- 
 ties and ignorances that he must atone for ; but our Great 
 High- Priest alone has no ignorance or infirmity of his own 
 to atone for ; but it is said, we have one who can sympathize 
 with our infirmities, and can have compassion on the igno- 
 rant, and on them that are out of the way. 
 
 Having thus seen the introduction to the provision, let me 
 notice now its two leading positions — namely, an Advocate 
 with the Father, and a propitiation for our sins. 
 
 We have, first of all, he says, an advocate with the 
 Father ; a paraclete : the Avord, singularly enough, applied 
 to the Holy Spirit of God, meaning one that represents us. 
 In fact, excluding the infirmity that cleaves to the human, 
 it is just the advocate and the chent in the human court ; 
 but instead of an advocate and a client having to deal with 
 a judge bound to rigid law, it is an Advocate with our 
 Father, dealing with his children according to mercy, as well 
 as justice, after love as well as truth. We have an Advocate 
 with the Father, and thus, as our advocate, Christ appears 
 in heaven. How significant is that expression of the apostle 
 — " Christ has gone to heaven to appear for us ! " There 
 is no intimation that he speaks for us in heaven ; whilst he 
 luis still human lips, and a human heart, and human sensi- 
 bilities, yet there is no evidence that he speaks for us. All 
 that the apostle says, is, that he appears for us. Let him be 
 
 21* 
 
246 OUR ADVOCATE. 
 
 dumb, the spectacle is intensely eloquent ; let our Advocate 
 say nothing, yet there he is, with all the traces of his agony 
 — with all the trophies of his victory — our representative, 
 the first-fruits of our humanity ; so that whatever he de- 
 serves we deserve ; whatever he is — whatever he has at- 
 tained — we may be. There is the possibility of our ad- 
 mission into heaven, for a human one has gone before us ; 
 there is the certainty of our admission, for our Advocate is 
 there pleading for us ; and pleading, not with a judge that 
 delights to repel us, but with our Father, too happy (if I may 
 speak in language strictly human) to have an opportunity of 
 letting forth his mercy upon us. An Advocate with the 
 Father. 
 
 We notice, in the next place, while he is our Advocate 
 with the Father, it is in connection with forgiveness. " If 
 any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father." What 
 is the use of the advocate here ? To obtain for him that sin's 
 forgiveness. If sin were impossible in Christians, then an 
 advocate would be unnecessary in heaven. As long as we 
 have an advocate Avith the Father, so long there is the pos- 
 sibility of our sinning upon earth. And what does he say 
 when he secures for us forgiveness ? He answers the law, 
 replies to every objection. What does an advocate do now ? 
 If an honest one, and not one that gets up and speaks lies in 
 order to let a criminal escape, he will put every point that 
 is favorable to his client in the most prominent light ; and he 
 will also, if the law goes against his client, state what reasons 
 there are for softening or mitigating the penalty of the law. 
 He will not deny his guilt, but he will show reasons for a 
 mitigated sentence. Our Blessed Lord does not deny our 
 sin in fact, or guilt, but he shows how it may be pardoned. 
 He does not deny that God is just, but he shows (I am 
 speaking of course in human speech ; it is all seen, it needs 
 not to be laid out in heaven in detail ; but I am analyzing it 
 and stating in fragments what we can only comprehend iu 
 
OUR ADVOCATE. 247 
 
 fragments,) shows God's justice, and truth, and foitlifulness, 
 and love, may be more glorious, may be seen by the universe 
 more intense in their character, by the forgiveness of the 
 greatest sinner that has recourse to the Advocate with the 
 Father, than they ever could have been seen by the ex- 
 tinction of our orb, and the condemnation of all his progeny 
 upon it. Now what a blessed thought is this — that our 
 Advocate in heaven, whether in speech or otherwise, is at 
 this moment showing that there are no such reasons for our 
 ruin, as there are for our salvation ; that there are ten thou- 
 sand times ten thousand more reasons why you and I should 
 be saved for ever, than there are why you and I should be 
 condemned. It is easy to teach men to be terrified at God, 
 and to think of God as a terrible and an awful Being, 
 ready to consume them in a moment ; but it is very difficult to 
 persuade them that God seeks to bless them ; that there is 
 nothing to prevent his richest blessing descending upon them ; 
 that the obstruction is not in Christ, the Way, but in their 
 own hearts. " Ye will not come to me, that ye may be saved." 
 Now, argues the apostle here, " If any man sin," it is not, 
 as in the case of thousands, to drive you to despair. He 
 does not say. If any man sin, let him despair; but. If 
 any man sin, here is the provision. We have an Ad- 
 vocate. The tendency of a sinner when he sins, when 
 he has been unfortunate enough to sin, — for of all mis- 
 fortunes on earth that is the worst — is to run and hide 
 himself from God — there is no doubt of this — and to try to 
 get rid of the thoughts of his sin ; and he thinks that he 
 gets rid of his sin by getting rid of the thoughts of it : as 
 an ostrich, pursued in the desert, buries its head in the sand, 
 and thinks the Arab steed will be unable to overtake it, 
 because it cannot see it. But that is not the way. John 
 says, If any man sin, we are not to try to forget it, nor are 
 we to despair ; but we have an Advocate for such a contin- 
 gency, to whom we may go and receive instantly forgive- 
 
248 OUR ADVOCATE. 
 
 ness. Ask nature, " If any man sin, what is he to do ? " 
 Nature must answer, " I know not, and have been unable for 
 six thousand years to discover." Ask the law, " If any man 
 sin, what is he to do ? " It will answer, " There is only for 
 him a fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation." 
 Ask the Pope of Rome what he is to do. Kneel down and 
 confess to a priest, and get absolution ! Ask the Holy Spirit 
 what he is to do. If any man sin, we have not a j^riest to 
 introduce us, not a saint to guide us, but access, personally, 
 directly, and without obstruction, to an Advocate with the 
 Father, who is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours 
 only, but for the sins of the whole world. Beautiful and 
 blessed gospel ! Is any man sick ? We have a Physician. 
 Is any man in debt ? We have the great Paymaster, Jesus 
 Christ. Any man dying ? We have Life. Any oj^pressed ? 
 We have an Advocate to take up our cause. Any man 
 guilty ? A Propitiation for our sins. 
 
 Our Redeemer is here set before us officially — our Ad- 
 vocate. I want you to see the full stress of this. When 
 we look upon Christ as our advocate, then he becomes most 
 dear, most precious. But he is our advocate, because it is his 
 office. When a man holds an office, I apply to him in the 
 expectation that he w^ill fulfil the duties of that office. If 
 I go to a physician, I do not expect that he is to send me 
 away, or that he is to talk politics or science, but that he is 
 to learn what my complaint is, and prescribe for its cure. 
 If I go to a lawyer, I do not expect that he is to explain 
 statutes or Acts of Parliament to me, but that he is to fulfd 
 his office, and defend my cause. I exj^ect the sun to shine, 
 because he is appointed for that purpose ; I expect the stars 
 to twinkle at night, because such is their use ; and I ex- 
 pect Jesus — I say it with reverence and with joy — to 
 intercede for me, and plead for me, and take up my cause, 
 because it is his office to do so. He is set forth, says the 
 apostle, to be the propitiation for our sins, through faith in 
 
OUR ADVOCATE. 249 
 
 lii3 precious blood. Now wlint a truth is hero, — that uo 
 man can go to Christ as his advocate, and be rejected ! It 
 is his office to intercede and to plead. 
 
 But this expression, "If any man sin we have an advo- 
 cate with the Father," implies that we have an advocate to 
 apply to. We must fill up the sentence. " If any man sin, 
 we have an advocate with the Father to cqjply to ; " not to 
 pay for, not to search out, not to invent or create, but ready 
 for his function, rejoicing to do his work, as the sun like a 
 bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, and like a strong 
 man to run a race, to apply to. And it is without any loss 
 of time. " If any man sin we have an advocate ; " not, we 
 have to wait till arrangements are made, till adjustments are 
 all filled ; not, as we have to do when we go to consult a phy- 
 sician or a barrister, till his chamber is emptied of crowds of 
 previous applicants. But if any man sin, we have an advo- 
 cate now, without interruption, without delay, and without 
 obstruction of any kind, to apply to, who is the propitiation 
 for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the 
 whole world ; and the lightning flame does not flash from 
 one end of the globe to another with such rapidity as the 
 prayer of a sinner addressed to Jesus passes to the mercy- 
 seat ; for the promise is, " Whilst they are yet speaking, I 
 will answer." Faster than an angel's wing can clip, the 
 j)rayer of the humblest sinner rises to our Advocate. 
 
 Not only is it without loss of time, but w^e have an Advo- 
 cate to apply to without labor. It is not now in Jerusalem 
 the only place where sacrifices can be offered, where the 
 higli-priest can be seen, and engaged to intercede and i)lead 
 for us. It is not now on this mountain, nor on that moun- 
 tain, tluit we have to pray. Tliere are no deserts to cross, 
 there are no distances to span, no broad seas between, but, 
 without loss of time, without labor, v;ithout toil, everywhere 
 and anywhere, on the ocean and on the land, in the height 
 and in the depth, — if any man anywhere sin, we have an 
 
250 OUR ADVOCATE. 
 
 advocate everywhere to apply to, and he is the j)i*opItiation 
 for our sins. 
 
 AVe have this Advocate to apply to without any interme- 
 diate party. You have not to ask a priest to introduce you, 
 or to heg that he wdll use his patronage with your Advocate 
 in your behalf. What a precious thought ! The groimd- 
 work of Protestantism, that is, of Bible Christianity, is, that 
 the sinner may approach the Father, through Christ Jesus, 
 without asking the leave of priest, or presbyter, or prelate, 
 or poj)e, or any human being, or angel, saint, or cherubim. 
 It is your privilege ; and he that seizes his privilege most 
 vigorously — acts upon it most instantly — is not guilty of 
 the greatest presumption, but rather manifests the deepest 
 humility. True humility is in doing what God bids us. If 
 our most gracious Queen were to command the poorest and 
 the humblest widow to step into her carriage wath her, it 
 w^ould be true loyalty and true obedience instantly to accept 
 the oifer ; and it would not be the truest and the noblest 
 response to say, " I am not worthy." The King of kings 
 bids you come to himself; true humility is to say, " Blessed 
 Lord, to whom can we go but unto thee ? Thou hast the 
 words of eternal life." 
 
 An advocate clearly imi^lies a judge as well as a client ; 
 but this advocacy relates to a judge who is our Father. I 
 have heard some one say, the Lord's Prayer, which begins 
 w^ith " Our Father," is not Christian enough : a more stupid 
 or unscriptural opinion I cannot conceive it possible for 
 human lips to express. The reason given for it is, because 
 Christ's name does not occur in it. But who prayed it? 
 Christ himself. When he first prayed it, he was the spokes- 
 man : when he knelt upon the streets of Jerusalem, with 
 that frail group of twelve fishermen and publicans around 
 him, and said, " Our Father," he presented in this the em- 
 bodiment of my text. " If any man sin, we have " — and 
 there he is — " an advocate with our Father " which art iu 
 
I 
 
 OUR ADVOCATE. 251 
 
 heaven. Every time, therefore, that you say " Our Fatlier," 
 remember it implies the intermediation of our Advocate 
 Avith Ilim. 
 
 But the second division is, "the propitiation for our sins." 
 This advocacy is so precious, because based upon a previous 
 fact, namely, his propitiation. " We have an advocate with 
 the Father, wlio is the propitiation." The advocacy within 
 the veil is contingent, and based upon the propitiation with- 
 out the gate. You remember the high-priest first made 
 atonement outside ; then he brought some of the blood into 
 the holy place ; and amid much incense he interceded ibr 
 the tribes of Israel. Our High-Priest suffered, says the 
 apostle, without the gate : he then passed into the true holy 
 of holies, and there his advocacy is what John, in the Book 
 of Revelation, called the " much incense " in the golden 
 censer of the angel, or the Angel Lord, the Great Iligh- 
 Priest. " Another angel came and stood at the altar, hav- 
 ing a golden censer, and there was given unto liim much 
 incense," — that is, the advocacy rising from the atonement 
 on Calvary, as the incense ascended from the sacrifice in 
 the ancient economy, that he might offer it in this golden 
 censer; the high-priest alone having a golden censer, the 
 other priests having silver ones. That incense, or advocacy, 
 he offers with the prayers of all saints — that is. Chris- 
 tians — gi^'ing its perfume, its fragrance, its value, its 
 acceptance, to every prayer that every Christian offers 
 either in heaven or upon earth. Our High-Priest, having 
 suffered upon the altar, now stands with the golden censer. 
 Having been our Atonement, he is now our Advocate with 
 the Father. Because he is our Atonement, therefore the 
 expression occurs, " Jesus Christ the righteous.'' Why 
 righteous — why is this alluded to? Because it is in virtue 
 of his being the Righteous One, — the Lord our Righteous- 
 ness — that he stands before the altar, and advocates our 
 cause, and pleads for us. The word " propitiation " is not a 
 
252 OUR ADVOCATE. 
 
 very common word in the Bible, althoiigli analogous words 
 are so. The word itself occurs in our English version in 
 three parts : — Romans iii. 25, " Whom God hath set forth 
 to be a propitiation through fjiith in his blood ; " again, in 
 1 John iv. 10, " He loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro- 
 pitiation for our sins ; " and also in our text, " He is the 
 propitiation for our sins." It is ikaoTrjpLov, the word usually 
 applied to the mercy-seat in the Temple and the Tabernacle 
 of old ; and it means, that just as that mercy-seat covered 
 the two tables of the Law that were below it, muffling their 
 thunders, and satisfying their exactions ; and, secondly, as 
 upon that mercy-seat there was an unearthly glory that was 
 first kindled from heaven, and from which the fire on every 
 altar, and the light in every lamp was kindled, — so is 
 Christ to us. How remarkable, that all the lights and fires 
 of the Temple of Israel were kindled from the celestial 
 flame that was in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar 
 of fire by night, and that afterwards settled between the 
 cherubim on the mercy-seat. Christ is our mercy-seat, to 
 which we may go. The vail that kept Israel o^ from it is 
 now rent. When Christ died, the vail of the temple was 
 rent in twain ; and now every Christian, being a priest, has 
 access to the holy of holies, where Christ, our Advocate, is. 
 This propitiation was his atonement or his sacrifice for our 
 sins. What he did upon the Cross on Calvary is the propi- 
 tiation — what he does now in heaven is the advocacy that is 
 built upon it. And I may explain still further, by stating 
 that the Hebrew word applied to " atonement," occurs, I 
 should think, some hundred times in the Old Testament 
 Scripture, corresponding to the Greek word here translated 
 " propitiation." That Hebrew word is Kaphar, and what is 
 very singular it is one of those Hebrew words which still 
 occur in our language. We use the word " cover," which is 
 derived from the Hebrew word Kaphar. Throughout the 
 Levitical economy, and in the Book of Leviticus, it is the 
 
OUR ADVOCATE. 253 
 
 word constantly used for atonement — propitiation. It is 
 employed by the Psalmist, when he says, " Blessed is the 
 man whose iniquities are covered," — tliat is, atoned for, ex- 
 piated ; and the idea evidently designed to be conveyed is 
 this: — that just as a robe laid over an object conceals it 
 from the out^\'ard gaze, so God will deal with them that be- 
 lieve on Jesus, as if all their sins were covered over with the 
 spotless robe of his righteousness, and, in the language that 
 he himself sanctions, he will see no iniquity in Jacob, and no 
 perverseness in Israel. What a beautiful thought, that our 
 sins are covered by the robe of the Redeemer's righteous- 
 ness ; so that a Christian shall stand before the judgment- 
 seat, and be holy and happy, because he has washed his 
 robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb ; and 
 thus serves him day and night without ceasing ! 
 
 Because Christ is our advocate with the Father, therefore 
 the propitiation has been completed. You remember tliat 
 the high-priest only passed into the holy place to advocate 
 after he had offered up the victim without ; and it was a law, 
 that, whilst the high-priest was in the holy of holies pleading, 
 no atonement of any sort must, or dare, be offered up with- 
 out. What an extinguisher is this to the view of the Trac- 
 tarians and Romanists, with respect to the Lord's Supper — 
 that it is a propitiatory sacrifice ! Our Advocate is in the holy 
 place pleading ; and it is a law of his appointment that no 
 sacrifice must be going on without — that is, upon earth. 
 Then what have we to do ? Not to make a sacrifice, but to 
 plead one already made ; not to offer an atonement, but to 
 say, " We are satisfied with that atonement that God has 
 given us." AVhat is involved in the awful notion of offering 
 up Christ upon the altar, as it is called, is the terrible thought 
 that Christ is not enough for us ; we must make another sac- 
 rifice of our own as well. My dear friends, we have a vSac- 
 rifice that needs not to be repeated ; it was completed when 
 
 22 
 
254 OUR ADVOCATE. 
 
 Jesus cried, " It is finished ! " and on the force of that he 
 now offers up a ceaseless advocacy beside the throne. 
 
 He is the " propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours 
 only, but for the sins of the whole world." I think those 
 that try to explain this by the supposition that this means, 
 not for the Jews only, but also for the Gentiles, utterly mis- 
 understand its meaning. Whatever the meaning be, that 
 cannot be it. First, John was not writing to Jews, but to 
 Christians ; after the Jewish economy had ceased, when the 
 Tem2)le had gone, an4 all its glory had passed away. And, 
 therefore, this is not the explanation of it. My idea is, that 
 John wrote it to rebuke the particularism — if I may so 
 phrase it — the bigotry, the exclusiveness of existing Chris- 
 tian churches, who believed that they had taken the place of 
 the Jews, and that those within their own narrow limits alone 
 could be saved. We believe, that this propitiation is avail- 
 able to the greatest savage as well as to the most civilized. 
 We do not assert that it is a propitiation accepted by all — 
 this is a very different thing — nor a propitiation that all 
 will accept, nor a propitiation that all will be forgiven by ; 
 but, we do assert that it is a propitiation available to every 
 man, of every degree, and of every stamp ; of every country, 
 and every kindred, and every place upon earth : and if any 
 man does not accept it, it is either because he does not know 
 it, or because he will not accept of it when it is offered to 
 him. We do not believe, as I have said before, that there is 
 any decree driving men to hell. We do not believe in any 
 man being driven to eternal misery in spite of himself. Nay, 
 I do not believe that any man is going to perdition without 
 his knowing it well enough. If I address any that are re- 
 jecters of this gospel, they know quite well that they are so 
 — they know that it costs them the greatest trouble to keep 
 down the remonstrances of conscience ; and I am persuaded 
 that it gives a man a great deal more trouble and agony in 
 
OUR ADVOCATE. 255 
 
 order to go clown to hell than it ever co:^t a saint to get to 
 glory. How many sermons have you to quench, what re- 
 flections liave you to keep out, what pangs of conscience 
 have you to get rid of; what pleasures, what dissipations 
 have you to follow, in order to kill time, that would otherwise 
 be insufferable ! 
 
 My dear friends, there is a Propitiation, the efficacy of 
 which is sufficient for all — the offer of which is made to all. 
 "Why should any man reject it ? Is it something terrible to 
 be a Christian — is it something sepulchral to be a child 
 of God ? I believe that a true Christian can listen to sweet 
 music wdth greater ecstasy, can gaze upon the beautiful pan- 
 oramas of the world with greater delight, can go forth and 
 enjoy the bright morning sun, and retire at evening twilight 
 wath greater pleasure, than the man who is living without 
 God, and w^ithout Christ, and without hope in the world. 
 If to be a Christian meant to go and be a nun or a monk, I 
 could understand people refusing to accept it ; this Avould be 
 natural : but we do not ask you to renounce the v/orld, but 
 to be in it, and to have your hearts above it. A Christian 
 may be a soldier, or he may be a sailor, a merchant, a trades- 
 man, a lawyer, a physician ; and the man will best serve his 
 Queen who most loves and serves his God. We may de- 
 pend upon it that Christianity will make every relationship 
 more beautiful; it will make every duty more lightsome; 
 because when tliere is within a heart at peace wuth God, all 
 nature without will reflect peace and satisfaction on you. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PEACE WITH GOD. 
 
 "Therefore being justified by faith, Ave have peace with God through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." — Romans v. 1. 
 
 You will remember that when I read the first chapter of 
 the Book of Leviticus, descriptive of expiatory sacrifices, I 
 addressed you upon the nature of the offering of Christ, his 
 sacrifice once for all for the sins of them that believe. When 
 we read the second chapter of Leviticus, descriptive of the 
 meat-oiferings that were to be presented by Israel, I showed 
 that under our economy our true meat-offering is not what 
 they presented, but ourselves. " We beseech you hy mercies 
 that ye present," not meat-offerings of corn, and bread, and 
 oil, and wine, but " that ye present your hodies living sac- 
 rifices, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." 
 
 Having now read of the peace-offering, expressive of peace 
 between God and Israel, I here select a text that is the sum- 
 mary of the chapter — "Tlierefore being justified by faith," 
 in the ex})iatory offering finished eighteen centuries ago, we 
 have now, not to present a peace-offering but to taste the 
 sweetness, the joy, and the satisfaction of peace with God 
 through Christ, the only atonement. 
 
 The blessing brought before us is peace, and the Avay by 
 which it is enjoyed, is also described. This will lead me to 
 show you what is the nature of true peace, in contradistinc- 
 tion to the mockery of it that prevails in the imagination, 
 and sometimes in the convictions, of many. 
 
 (25G) 
 
PEACE WITH GOD. 257 
 
 Almost every chapter in the Bible is eloquent with the 
 blessings of peace. If Ave look at Christendom, we should 
 think that man came into the world especially desirous to 
 fulfil the prophecy, " 1 am come not to send peace on the 
 earth, but a sword : " but if we look into this blessed Book 
 we shall see that the direct tendency of every truth, and 
 doctrine, and promise, and precept, is glory to God in the 
 highest, on earth peace, and good-will among mankind. 
 
 Wherever the tree of life appears in its congenial soil, the 
 rich blossoms of joy, the precious fruits of peace, grow upon 
 its branches over all the world : notwithstanding its storms, 
 its clouds, and its controversies, there is breaking out day by 
 day, in greater fulness, and in richer beauty, the covenant 
 bow — the bow of promise and j)eace, to all mankind. How 
 often does the Scripture speak of peace ! " This man " — 
 speaking of the Saviour — " shall be our peace." How beau- 
 tiful that text, " Thou, God, wilt keep in perfect peace the 
 man " — not who is rich or who is great ; not who is praised, 
 not who is distinguished by his fellow men — but "the man 
 that trusteth in thee," or " whose mind is stayed on thee." 
 Again, the Saviour says, " These things have I spoken to 
 you that in me " — whatever you have in the world — " ye 
 may have peace." And, again, the apostle says, " Our feet 
 shod with the preparation of the gospel oi peace.'' The very 
 definition of Christianity — its distinctive and emphatic defi,- 
 nition — is, " The kingdom of God is not meat, nor drink," 
 — nor is it clothing, I may add, nor is it Episcopacy, nor 
 Presbyterianism, nor Congregationalism, nor fasting, nor 
 feasting, but it is — oh ! that we only felt it more to be so ! 
 — " righteousness, peace, joy, in the Holy Ghost." Now 
 men wlio do not exhibit these graces in their lives, and feel 
 their influence in their hearts, — may be Churchmen — it 
 is easy to be so, — they may be Dissenters — it is easy to 
 be that ; but they are not Christians. The distinctive char- 
 acter of a Christian is,.that his heart is the throne, and his 
 
 22* 
 
258 PEACE WITH GOD. 
 
 bosom the home, of righteousness, and peace, and joy ; and 
 his life radiates upon the world the grand blessings that he 
 has felt and tasted within him. 
 
 Now this text, "Justified by faith we have peace with 
 God," gives us the root of peace, and the way in which it 
 grows, the process by which it is to be implanted or infused 
 into our hearts, and the exclusive and only condition of the 
 obtainment of so great and so precious a blessing. It teaches 
 us that peace grows only on truth. There is no such thing 
 
 — and it is well for our own safety and comfort we should 
 know it — as peace upon any tree indigenous to the earth ; it 
 is only to be gathered from the tree of truth. Truth and peace 
 are both of them most desirable ; but if it is necessary that I 
 should part with one of them, then I would rather part with 
 peace than with truth ; because if true peace be the blossom, 
 and truth the plant on which it blossoms, if I part with the 
 plant, next Spring there will be neither truth nor peace ; but 
 if I part with the blossom — peace — and leave the plant in 
 the soil, it will hear the sound of the footstep of returning 
 Spring, and, under gentle suns and soft showers, it will bring 
 forth fiiirer blossoms than it had before. The wisdom from 
 above is first pure — that is, it is truth; then it is peaceable. 
 Better to keep from truthful controversy if we can avoid it ; 
 but we should still less indulge in peaceable falsehood; 
 rather we must seek, what is freely offered to us all, peace, 
 
 — the ceaseless and the fragrant blossom that grows on truth, 
 a living and indestructible jjlant. 
 
 But before submitting to you the nature of this peace, let 
 me notice some of its counterfeits. First, there prevails 
 very widely among mankind what I may call the peace of 
 ignorance — a peace that rises from ignorance, as miasma 
 rises from the swamps, or neglected and untrodden deserts 
 of the world. As long as a man is ignorant of the infinite 
 purity of God, of the exactions of his holy and his uncom- 
 promising law, and of his own corrui|t, flillen, depraved, and 
 
PEACE WITH GOD. 259 
 
 guilty nature, so long that man fears nothing, he is therefore 
 troubled by no disquiet — he has, in its perfection, what the 
 prophet calls " peace, peace, when there is no peace at all." 
 But such peace is the quiet of fallen nature, not the peace 
 of the everlasting gospel. The first ray of truth will dis- 
 turb it — the first flash of the great white throne will scatter 
 it like a cloud ; and it will be found that he that trusted on 
 such a peace, leaned upon the pointed spear, that pierces to 
 the quick the deepest him that leans upon it hardest. The 
 peace that springs from ignorance is no peace at all. I can 
 only account for the thoughtlessness of the great masses of 
 mankind, with respect to the things that belong to their eter- 
 nal peace, on the supposition that they are ignorant of the 
 nature of God's law and holy character, and of their own 
 fallen condition at the same time. If these three great facts 
 were vividly impressed upon their hearts, the false peace 
 would instantly be broken, and they would begin to look 
 beyond for the peace that passeth understanding, that a 
 stranger cannot intermeddle with. 
 
 But there are some men, in the second place, who have a 
 peace that may be called the peace of formalism — that is 
 to say, they have some slight views of what God is, some 
 vague impressions of what their own guilt is ; and, in order 
 to get rid of any disquiet from these impressions of their 
 own ruin, or any forebodings of penalty from God's charac- 
 ter, they indulge with more than pharisaic precision in the 
 forms they love, or the formalities of the communion to 
 M'hicli they may belong. One repeats prayers nine times 
 a-day ; another counts beads ; a third goes a long, a painful, 
 and a weary pilgrimage ; another goes to church as a duty, 
 another goes to chapel as still more his duty ; and another 
 reads chapters of the Bible — it matters not whether it be 
 catalogues of names, as in Numbers, or the 8th chapter of 
 the Epistle to the Ivomans ; he derives equal instruction and 
 equal nutriment, — that is, none, — from either. And such 
 
260 PEACE WITH GOD. 
 
 persons fancy that wlien they have thus gone to church, and 
 said their prayers, and read their chaj)ter, they have done 
 their duty ; and having done their duty, they gather their 
 mantle round them, indulge in the quiet but dreamy notion 
 that now all is well, and they have peace with God. Such 
 peace is absolute delusion; it is a peace, but it is not the 
 peace ; it is an opiate that deadens the pain, but does not 
 cure the disease ; it is a quiet that will last in sunny and in 
 calm weather, but it will be rent to atoms by the first storm 
 that beats upon it, and the issue be only more disastrous. 
 
 There is the peace of self-righteousness. And when I 
 allude to this, do not misunderstand me. The most self- 
 righteous people are not always the most righteous. On the 
 contrary, we shall often find that the man rests most upon 
 his own doings who has fewest doings to rest upon ; and that 
 he is the most self-righteous who has the least personal 
 righteousness to lay any stress upon. It seems a strange 
 phenomenon; though not an unusual one, that the less that 
 one has of moral worth, the more he seems to make of what 
 he has ; so that no man is looking more intensely for heaven 
 in virtue of his own deserving than he who has very little to 
 lean on, either in heaven or on earth. You fancy, first of 
 all, that God is not so severe ; and the language of Satan to 
 Adam is echoed in your bosom — " Hath God said " — he 
 knows it is all sham, it is all pretence ; you will not die, why 
 should you be alarmed ? God is not so severe ; is his law 
 so strict ? He will let it down to my convenience ; he will 
 connive at my sins. My dear friends, if that were God's 
 character I could have no confidence in him at all ; no confi- 
 dence in the decree that condemns sin, no confidence in the 
 law that will not inflict its penalties as well as give its re- 
 wards ; and if you could show me that your notion of God is 
 a just one, my whole confidence in his government, in his 
 law, in his promises, in his words, would be literally gone 
 for ever. But he will stand through everlasting ages to the 
 
TEACE WITH GOD. 261 
 
 aphorism he has substantially repeated in almost every page 
 in the Bible — " The soul that sins shall die ; " and he will 
 stand eternally to the glorious truth that follows it — " The 
 blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin." God 
 will not dilute his law in order to save a world ; he spared 
 not his own Son in order to deliver a single soul. The peace 
 that springs from self-righteousness, I have said, is an ex- 
 tremely subtle, but a no less false and destructive one. I 
 have seen persons rejoicing in their attainments, believing 
 that this is the evidence of grace ; and I have seen others 
 sorrowing that they had no attainments, and thinking this 
 was the evidence of grace. Now the fact is, self-righteous- 
 ness can laugh and sing when it exults in what it is, and self- 
 righteousness can weep and cry that it has not something to 
 exult in, or in which it can glory. So j'ou will hear other 
 persons say, " I am not satisfied with my faith ; I fear I have 
 very little faith ; and I am not at all satisfied that my faith 
 is true." My dear brother, if you were satisfied wdth your 
 faith, that w^ould be the very worst sign that your character 
 develops. The question is not, are you satisfied with your 
 faith ; or satisfied with your attainments ; but are you satis- 
 fied with Christ the Saviour ? This is not the dispensation 
 of " ^Vell done, thou good and faithful servant ; " this is the 
 dispensation of struggle, of fear, of perplexity, often of grief; 
 hereafter will be the time, for " AYell done, thou good and 
 faithful servant." 
 
 Another person will say, and think it is the evidence of 
 the highest grace, " I do not grieve over my sins as I ought." 
 If you did grieve over your sins as you ought, you w^ould be 
 so delighted with yourself that you would trust in that very 
 grief as the ground of your acceptance before God. What 
 we are to glory in, wdiat we are to be satisfied with — the 
 richest glory that embosoms a ransomed and redeemed saint, 
 is Christ alone, all our righteousness, all our salvation, and 
 all our desire. 
 
262 PEACE WITH GOD. 
 
 There Is another peace which I must allude to — the 
 peace that springs from feeling. You say, " I was at tlie 
 communion table, and I felt so calm ; I have prayed, and I 
 have felt so much delight in it ; I have read the Bible, and 
 I have felt so much joy." Well, all this is right ; these are 
 proper feelings : but if you say, " Therefore I have peace," 
 then you are turning holy feelings mto grounds of trust and 
 confidence. Our peace is to come, not from what we feel, 
 nor from our tears, nor our smiles, nor from our expe- 
 rience, but from our being justified by faith in Christ Jesus ; 
 and therefore only we have peace with God, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 The true peace that springs from the source I have 
 pointed out — and the only source — has certain character- 
 istics also. I may just notice here, as a preliminary remark, 
 that you will find that a ripened saint, when he comes to a 
 dying hour, looks less at what he is, and what he has done, 
 and what he has been, than a very young or inexperienced 
 Christian ; because he has that clear view of the only Foun- 
 tain of peace that he dare go nowhere else. 
 
 Rutherford, the celebrated Professor of Glasgow Univer- 
 sity, — whose letters are so beautiful, and whose piety and 
 learning were so great, — when he came to his death-bed, 
 was asked what he could rely on ; and he said, " There is 
 but one text in the Bible" — and recollect that this was a 
 man illustrious for his spirituality : his life, his treasure, his 
 heart was in heaven — " There is but one text in the Bible 
 that I dare lay stress on ; and, blessed be God ! that text is 
 so strong that I can trust mine eternal life on it — ' Him 
 that Cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out.' " Justified 
 by faith, Rutherford had thus peace v.dth God through Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 But there is a true peace. What are the characteristics 
 of it? First, the peace that springs from justification by 
 faith in Christ is a purely spiritual peace. I mean by this, 
 
PEACE WITH GOD. 2G3 
 
 it is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Now to 
 know whether any grace you have be really a divine and a 
 true one, you may determine by this criterion : — Whatever 
 peace, or joy, or any other emotion in our heart does not 
 reflect Christ, and point to Christ as its author, and cast 
 upon him all the glory of it, is not a true Christian grace. 
 If it be implanted by the Holy vSpirit, what will be its ten- 
 dency ? " The Spirit shall take of the things of Christ, and 
 show them unto you ; " and thus will glorify, not you, but 
 Him. If, therefore, your peace be sacred, and the Holy 
 Spirit be its author, the necessary result of that peace in 
 your heart will be, — "I give all the praise, not to my 
 l^rayers, not to my reading, not to my discharge of duty, not 
 to my suflering evil for Christ's sake ; but as this peace is 
 from Christ, to him I give the glory. It is a leaf from the 
 tree of life, and he has all the praise, and he shall have all 
 the honor." This is the evidence of true peace. 
 
 The i^eace of a Christian is an intelligent peace. It is 
 not, as some people tell us, fanaticism, extravagance. It is 
 not feeling separated from the Bible, or rambling impulse ; 
 it is connected with a Divine source. When the Holy 
 Spirit implants peace in a Christian's heart, he does it in 
 connection with his own Word. Any feeling that you have 
 disunited from the Bible you ought to doubt the origin and 
 nature of. The Spirit teaches the Bible — honors the 
 Bible ; and whatever seems a grace in your heart, disunited 
 from the outward inspired Word, you may doubt its origin, 
 you may suspect its nature. But this j^eace is implanted by 
 the Spirit through the knowledge of Him whom the Bible 
 reveals — Christ crucified. 
 
 This peace, the true spiritual peace of the Christian, is 
 perfect, complete. He is kept in perfect peace. But the 
 most experienced Christian will say, "I have not always 
 j)eace. IIow can it be perfect peace ? " I answer. Its ebbs 
 and its flows are not changes in the peace, but the faihng 
 
264 PEACE WITH GOD. 
 
 and the faltering of your grasp of it. The peace is perfect, 
 but Ave possess it steadfiist in our hearts in the ratio of the 
 tenacity of our faith ; and wlien we have not perfect peace, 
 it is not that Divine peace has failed, but that the faith that 
 holds it on our part has faltered. God's peace is in itself 
 absolutely perfect ; but it is in our experience relatively im- 
 perfect. But when our peace is disturbed, our joys diluted, 
 our sunshine clouded, we are not to say, " God's mercies 
 have failed," but. My faith has faltered ; and, " therefore, I 
 have not the full enjoyment of what I otherwise should 
 have." 
 
 This peace, as possessed by a Christian, is independent of 
 all outward things. A Christian meets with storm, and 
 rain, and Avind, and tempest, just like the rest of mankind. 
 He has sickness in his frame, sorrows and ills in his home, 
 bereavements in his family, like the rest of the world. The 
 world draAvs its peace from things that are around it ; there- 
 fore, Avhen these things fail, its peace goes ; — but a Chris- 
 tian draAvs his peace, not from things that are around him, 
 but from the Fountain of peace that is above him; and, 
 therefore, Avhen the fig-tree ceases to give fruit, when there 
 is no herd in the stall, when the vine yields no blossom, the 
 Christian's source of peace remains inexhaustibly the same : 
 he rejoices in the Lord, and joys in the God of his salva- 
 tion. DraAV your happiness from outAvard things, and you 
 will find it the most precarious possession in the Avorld; 
 trust in your Avealth, draw your peace from your home, 
 your family, your friends — from any earthly cistern, and 
 you stand in jeopardy every hour : but let your peace, your 
 joy, your happiness, floAv from the great Fountain that never 
 fails, and then, though the earth be removed, though the 
 mountains be cast into the midst of the sea, though the 
 waves thereof do roar, and though the hills shake Avith the 
 swelling thereof, you have a river, Avhose streams cease- 
 lessly flowing make glad the city of our God; the holy 
 
PEACE AVITU GOD. 2G5 
 
 place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in tlic 
 midst of her, therefore she shall not be moved. The Chris- 
 tian's peace is an inner grace, drawn from a heavenly source, 
 unaffected by outer thing?, and, therefore, it ebbs not and 
 flows not with them. The work of righteousness is peace, 
 and the effect of peace is quietness forever. 
 
 A Christian's peace is permanent ; it lasts forever. It is 
 not overthrown by the things that shake the foundations of 
 the world's peace. If subtle casuistry carps at his Bible, if 
 powerful objections are launched against its distinctive 
 tenets, if difficulties in the way of the acceptance of the 
 truth are brought before him that he cannot solve, a Chris- 
 tian does not say. Therefore my hope, my peace, my joy, 
 are all gone ; but I am persuaded from the past that what I 
 do know in the Bible is divine ; and I am sure it will come 
 out in the future, that what I do not know there is no less 
 so : and he, therefore, waits until that time when what he 
 knows not now he shall know hereafter. Many true Chris- 
 tians I have met with live in fear of some scientific dis- 
 covery, or in alarm at some infidel objection, or in amaze- 
 ment at some new phenomenon ; and foolishly enough they 
 begin, not to doubt their own weakness, but to question their 
 religion. Now, if you have a true apprehension of God's 
 word, you will not be moved, whatever obstacles may be in 
 tlie way of it. You must not think because you cannot 
 answer an objection to the Bible that the objection is there- 
 fore unanswerable. A very important thought to be carried 
 with us is, Because I cannot answer this objection it does 
 not follow that it never has been answered, or that it cannot 
 be answered. On the contrary, if you will wait a little, you 
 will find that all things that seem to be obstructions to the 
 truth, are becoming part and parcel of its glorious channel ; 
 and all those things that seem to be difficulties in the way 
 of its acceptance, incapable of removal, are melted daily 
 into its majestic current ; and, from the depths of earth, and 
 
 23 
 
2G6 PEACE WITH GOD. 
 
 from the heights of heaven, from all sciences, and all litera- 
 ture, and all researches, there is emerging every day, Avith 
 more eloquent emphasis, " Thy word, O God, is truth." 
 Let not, therefore, your peace be disturbed by objections or 
 difficulties that you cannot now solve, but which have been 
 solved, or can be solved, and will be solved hereafter. The 
 peace of a Christian is permanent. It survives all — it 
 outlives all ; it grows like the oak, only stronger and more 
 deeply rooted by the storms that beat upon it, until it is 
 transplanted into that better rest where there is no more 
 storm, nor trial. 
 
 Having seen, first, the brands of spurious peace, and, sec- 
 ondly, the characteristics of true and Christian peace, let 
 me now allude, in the third place, to the ground of true 
 peace — namely, "justified by faith, we have peace with 
 God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." To be justified, 
 means simply to be acquitted. The apostle has explained 
 it in previous chapters. To be justified, means to be ac- 
 quitted from the consequences of the ill we have done, and 
 to be admitted to the blessings and the happiness which, by 
 our conduct, we have forfeited. " Justified by faith," says 
 the apostle, " we have peace with God." But how justified ? 
 Jesus became our representative. I do not stop to explain 
 how natural, or reasonable, or probable this is. It is the 
 fact. Jesus became our representative ; he omitted nothing 
 that we owed — he committed nothing that was sinful. He 
 bore our sins on his own body — paid and exhausted the 
 penalty. He earned back the heaven we had lost by his 
 righteousness, and, believing on him, we are justified. Adam 
 siimed ; we, his children, share in his guilt, and are delivered 
 to its consequences. Jesus bore Adam's sin; and all the 
 children of Adam that will flee to Christ, the second Adam, 
 escape the consequences of that sin. Adam forfeited heaven 
 by his want of original righteousness ; and we, Adam's chil- 
 dren, have forfeited heaven also. Jesus regained heaven, 
 
PEACE WITH GOD. 267 
 
 by obeying the law that Adam could not obey ; and we the 
 children of the second Adam, believers in Christ, have 
 restored to us the heaven we had forfeited for ever. Thus, 
 justified by what Christ has done for us, not by any tiling 
 done in us, we have, says the apostle, peace with God through 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 But he states here that we are justified by fiiith. What 
 is meant by being justified by faith? It is this. Faith, the 
 distinctive grace of the Christian, lays hold upon that which 
 Christ has done, and thus we are justified. The ground of 
 my pardon at the judgment-seat is not faith, any more than 
 it is works. I am not justified now by orthodoxy of belief, 
 any more than I am justified by perfection of good works or 
 good living. The old ■ formula was, " Do and live ; " the 
 formula now is, not " Believe and live," as if belief took the 
 place of doing, and life were the consequence of either, but 
 it is, " Do and live," and that formula is still obligatory. 
 " Do and live ; " only when Adam heard it, he had to do the 
 work, that he might get the wages. When Adam's lost 
 family hear it, they have to receive the required righteous- 
 ness already done by Christ for them, and thus they get the 
 Avages ; but, in either case, God demands a perfect righteous- 
 ness, or conformity to his holy law, before he will give 
 heaven to anybody. In Adam's case it was, " Do it per- 
 sonally, and you will obtain it personally." In our case it 
 is done for us, and, because done for us, not by us, we obtain 
 the everlasting rest that remaineth for the people of God. 
 The greatest faith is not a great salvation, and the least faith 
 is not a little salvation. The greatest faith, that can remove 
 mountains, has no more salvation than we need; and the 
 least faith, that trembles on the verge of extinction, has no 
 less salvation than we actually require. Faith, however, is 
 not the bread ; it is rather the mouth that eats it. It is not 
 the brass serpent, but the eye that looks at it. When a poor 
 beggar gets alms, it is not his hand that he thanks, but the 
 
268 PEACE WITH GOD. 
 
 donor; and when we exercise faith, or, in more common 
 language, trust, or confidence in God, we exercise a grace 
 that God gives ; — for that faith is not our OAvn, it is the gift 
 of God ; and we are saved, not by belief, but by Avhat belief 
 clings to — Christ's finished sacrifice. It is very important 
 to understand this, because the world objects to evangelical 
 religion, alleging that all that you want for heaven is a cor- 
 rect creed ; and the worldling, unenlightened, looks for 
 heaven, thinking all that he needs is a tolerably consistent 
 life ; whereas faith is not illumination in the head, it is not 
 even law in the conscience, it is not even love in the heart, 
 but the trust of the whole man on Christ, our only title to 
 heaven, the King that governs us by the law in his own 
 •word ; the prophet, that teaches us the way, the truth, and 
 the life. 
 
 Is it true that we were at war with God ? Many a benev- 
 olent and amiable man shrinks in horror from the idea tliat 
 he ever was at war with God ; but it is true of the most 
 amiable as well as of the most wicked. The natural heart, 
 before it is regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, is not 
 only hostile to God, but it is enmity to God. The precise 
 occurrence in providence may never have overtaken you 
 that shall develop this latent enmity ; but God says it is there, 
 and whether you feel it or not, you may depend upon it 
 that it is so. Now then, he says, when we are justified by 
 faith, persons that were at war with God shall have peace 
 with him. But, how have we peace with God ? We find 
 that instead of asking us to make an atonement which we 
 never can, he invites us now to accept pardon of all the sins 
 that are past. We find now that God is not a God hating 
 us, hostile to us, ready to destroy us, as the natural man 
 thinks ; but a God so loving us, that he gave his only be- 
 gotten Son, that Avhosoever believeth on him might not perish, 
 but have eternal life. Now, the natural man's conviction, 
 and I a^^peal to your own experience, is, that God is an 
 
PExVCE WITH GOD. 2G9 
 
 angry being. Your notion of religion, the first notion you 
 liad, was that it was a very awful thing ; the Bible, a very 
 gloomy thing ; and that the minister of the gospel was only 
 fit to precede the dead to the grave. The notion that you 
 were taught in the nursery, and that has grown up with you 
 to manhood, is, that religion is a gloomy thing. And hence, 
 the man whose countenance has glowed with joy when he 
 spoke of his family, of his politics, of his wealth, of the world, 
 fiills into another key when the subject that comes up is re- 
 ligion. "Why this ? My dear friends, if there be a joyful 
 thing upon earth, it is religion. If there be a ground of thank- 
 fulness upon earth, it is the Bible. If there be a topic about 
 which the heart should bound wiiile it feels — if there be a 
 subject which should be spoken of in strains of praise, not in 
 sepulchral and gloomy tones, it is rehgion. For what is it ? 
 God is my Father, heaven is my everlasting home ; Christ, 
 the Saviour of souls, is my Brother, my Priest, my King, my 
 Prophet, my all ; God, instead of waiting to destroy me, waits 
 to bless me ; instead of keeping me off, he bids me draw near ; 
 instead of my father's house having prejmrations to punish 
 me, the prodigal, it has preparations for a joyous festival, 
 because the lost is found, the dead is alive, the prodigal is 
 come to himself, to his Father, and to his God. Therefore, 
 being justified by the belief, by the faith, by the knowledge 
 of this, I have peace with God in his holy law. The mo- 
 ment I find that Christ obeyed it, that he bore the curse, and 
 exhausted the penalty, I do not say any more, as the worldly 
 man says, God's law is too severe; his exactions are too 
 great ; we never can do what he requires : I discover that 
 God's law is holy, and just, and good, and true ; and I am 
 satisfied with its severest exactions, because I find that Christ 
 has fulfilled it, and made it honorable for me. 
 
 I have peace with God as he is revealed in creation. 
 The natural man thinks that the world now is just as God 
 23* 
 
270 PEACE WITH GOD. 
 
 made it. This world is not now as God made it. No doubt 
 the traces of his hand, the footprints of his presence, are 
 many and beautiful; but the marks of irruptive and de- 
 structive elements are irresistibly plain on every side. God 
 did not introduce autumn, decay, winter, plague, pestilence, 
 war, famine, death. These are not God's children. God 
 surely did not pronounce these to be very good, when he 
 had finished this beautiful orb. You say. Why did he 
 permit them ? That I cannot answer ; but that he did not 
 make them, and send them originally when he made the 
 world, that the Bible does answer. But when the natural 
 man looks at this world, thus covered with the traces of 
 wrath, of sin, of disease, and of death, he becomes vexed and 
 irritated. It is inexplicable to him ; he cannot understand 
 it, and comes naturally to the conclusion that the God that 
 made it is a wi'athful being. But when I discover Christ, 
 the Saviour, the gift of His love ; when I discover that the 
 earth was made by God, holy, beautiful, and good ; that 
 God raised a cross upon it, and sent his Son to die there in 
 order to restore it ; and that my sin, not the fiat of God, in- 
 troduced our woe, our diseases, our calamities, and our mis- 
 eries, justified through Christ Jesus, my atonement, my 
 rigliteousness, my all, I have peace with God, as he speaks 
 from Sinai — peace with God as he rides upon the whirl- 
 wind or treads upon the sea — peace with God in creation, 
 and in revelation also. I have also peace with God in all 
 his providential dealings. The natural man, for instance, 
 loses the property to-day he had accumulated by the labor 
 of twenty years. If he sees God at all in the loss, he repines, 
 and murmurs against him. The parent loses the babe that 
 she loves, or the home is deprived of its chiefest ornament 
 and glory. In that home there are loud, repining, murmur- 
 ing complaints against the severity of God, who has nipped 
 the blossom before it was blown, or blasted it after it was so. 
 
PEACE WITH GOD. 271 
 
 But a Cliristian reasons thus : — Not, God liates rac because 
 he has sent this suffering ; but God is my Father, therefore 
 this suffering must be working out the peaceable fruits of 
 rigliteousness. The natural man reasons, from what he 
 suffers, upward to what God is. The Christian man reasons 
 from what God is, down to the character of what he suffers. 
 The natural man says, I am sick, I am poor, I am pained, I 
 am dying, therefore God hates me. The Christian says, God 
 is my Father, therefore sickness is chastisement, not punish- 
 ment ; losses and cares are not penal, but paternal ; and all 
 these things, because God is my Father, are working for 
 good to me, his child. 
 
 I have peace with all mankind. The Christian pities 
 the sins, prays for the souls of those that are around 
 him. He rejoices in their excellences, and prays for 
 their increase, in those that are Christians, along with 
 himself. As much as lieth in him, he lives peaceably with 
 all men. 
 
 Have we any experience of this peace ? Have we got 
 rid of the false peaces that, like opiates, lull, but do not re- 
 move the pain ; and are we introduced into the true peace, 
 the lustre of the shining star, that sets not for ever and 
 ever ? Are we deriving the peace that we feel in the pros- 
 pect of death, in the prospect of a judgment-seat, in the 
 prospect of the troubles that are coming in the world, not 
 from something that we are, or any thing we have done, but 
 only from this — that Christ is our only Saviour, and that 
 we are his redeemed and ransomed ones ? If you have not 
 this peace, pray for it. There is not a blessing that God 
 refuses to prayer, and there is not a blessing that he has 
 promised to give Avithout it. I cannot explain why prayer 
 should move the Arm that moves the universe. I only 
 know that it is his ordinance ; and his promise that if Ave 
 ask the greatest things through Christ, we shall olitain 
 them. Pray, then, ^hat he would justify you freely by 
 
272 PEACE WITH GOD. 
 
 his grace, tliat lie would enable you to trust implicitly 
 on the Saviour ; and, so justified, and so trusting, to 
 have that peace that passeth understanding, that will keep 
 the heart and mind continually, through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE GROUND OF JOT. 
 
 " And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 by whom we have now received the atonement." — Rojian's v. 11. 
 
 You must have noticed that, in the fourth chapter of 
 Leviticus, there occurs frequently the expression, " to make 
 an atonement," with the victim or the sacrifice that is offered 
 by the priest on behalf of the sinner. For instance, in the 
 twentieth verse, we read that the priest shall take it, " and 
 make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them." 
 Again, in the thirty-first verse, " And the priest shall burn 
 it upon the altar, for a sweet savor unto the Lord : and the 
 priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be for- 
 given him." And in the last verse of the same chapter, 
 " The priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he 
 hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him." You see, 
 then, constantly repeated throughout this cliapter, at the 
 close of every sacrifice, offered according to the requirement 
 of God, that the object of that offering or sacrifice was to 
 make an atonement for sin, or, as it is otherwise rendered, 
 an atonement for the sinner. 
 
 All this, as I have said before, was purely ty[)ical. 
 There is nothing in the sacrifice of a lamb or a bullock 
 expiatory or atoning, any more than in the presenting of a 
 few flowers, or the burning of a little incense. It was, 
 however, the mode instituted by God to foreshadow, and to 
 lead the beholder, in Levitical days, to the Atonement which 
 
 (273) 
 
274 THE GROUND OF JOT. 
 
 should be made at the end of that dispensation, and it, hav- 
 ing been fuiislied on the cross, and having made an end of 
 sin, we now can say, what the Jew could not say in the days 
 of Levi, " AVe joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 by whom we have now received that which was typified by 
 all the atonements of Aaron, and which gave to those atone- 
 ments their vitality and their virtue — the atonement made, 
 once for all, for the sins of all that believe." 
 
 This word, " atonement," does not occur very frequently 
 in the New Testament ; it is often rendered by the expres- 
 sion, perfectly parallel in meaning, but different in form, 
 sometimes translated " reconciliation." It is defined and 
 well expressed by an apostle, the author of the Epistle to the 
 Romans, who says, in 2 Corinthians v. 19, "to wit," explain- 
 ing the atonement, telling you what it is, " to wit, that God 
 was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" — making 
 the atonement for them — "not imputing their trespasses 
 unto them, and hath committed unto us the w^ord of recon- 
 ciliation," or the message of the atonement. " Now, then," 
 says the apostle, " w^e are " — what the priests of Levi were 
 not, in a more full and precious sense — " ambassadors for 
 Christ, as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you, 
 in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God " — that means, 
 receive ye the atonement ; for he says — this is the explana- 
 tion of it — God hath made Christ, who knew no sin, to be 
 sin for us, to bear our sins on his own body on the tree, that 
 we might be made the righteousness of God by him. Thus 
 we sec the apostle explaining, in his Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians, the meaning of the expression, " atonement," as used 
 in his Epistle to the Romans. The original has been ren- 
 dered by sopie into English, by the word supposed best to 
 express its real meaning — at-one-ment, because it makes 
 those who were at issue to be at one. They think that the 
 word, instead of being pronounced by us " atonement," ought 
 to be more properly pronounced, " at-one-ment," being that 
 
THE GROUND OF JOY. 275 
 
 great truth whicli brings into unity those that sin had rent 
 and severed ibr ever, and without whieh an earth all sin, and 
 a God all holiness, never could have met — the one receiv- 
 ing glory, and the other receiving happiness. 
 
 The idea implied in the Atonement is, that there was sep- 
 aration between us and God that needed to be put an end to. 
 This fact is expressed most plainly by God himself, when he 
 says, " Your sins have separated between you and me." Sin 
 is essentially the rending element in the universe. It once 
 split earth from heaven, and would keep it away from heaven 
 for ever if it were not in love, and mercy, and grace, that 
 Christ reunites the broken-ofF earth to the great continent 
 of glory, of which it once formed a part, and from which sin, 
 and sin alone, has rent and separated it. But, thus separated 
 from God, we are brought to be at one by the Atonement. 
 Man, however, could not make the atonement. He was the 
 guilty party, without strength as well as without title and 
 without character ; and God, therefore, the oftended party, 
 who was under no obligation to do it, but merely from love 
 and mercy, interposed a Great Sacrifice, by which we might 
 be reinstated without doing injury to his law, his character, 
 and his government. " Him hath God set forth to be the 
 atonement, or the propitiation for our sins." He gave Christ, 
 as an expression of his love, a satisfaction to his justice, and 
 an atonement for our sins. And now, therefore, God, Con- 
 sistently with all he has said, and ever will say, and consis- 
 tently with all he is, and must ever continue to be, can let 
 forth upon the guilty those expressions of his love which be- 
 longed only to the pure, the unfallen, and the holy ; and re- 
 ceive sinners to his bosom, showing, in his reception of the 
 sinner, at once his hatred to the sin and his love to the man, 
 and covered with a richer glorj^ when he does so, than if this 
 earth had been cast into hell, and all its inhabitants destroyed 
 for ever. 
 
 This atonement is called by the apostle here the atonement ; 
 
 \' 
 
276 THE GROUND OF JOY. 
 
 ill contradistinction to the numerous atonements made typi- 
 cally by Levi. AYe have received now, not an atonement 
 needing to be rej^eated to-day and to-morrow, and incapable 
 of taking away sin, because if it should do that it Avould not 
 need to be repeated ; nor does it teach that we have to make 
 an atonement, or can make it; — we receive Avhat has been 
 already made, perfect, complete, available for ever — the 
 once-for-all sacrifice or atonement made for sins. In other 
 Avords, the atonement predicted by prophets, promised by 
 God, foreshadowed in the sacrifices of the Tabernacle and 
 the Temple, anticipated by pious patriarchs, proclaimed by 
 John the Baptist, recorded by evangelists, preached by apos- 
 tles, believed in by all true Christians, is the very life, and 
 substance, and central truth of the Christian economy. 
 
 This atonement, it is said here, we have received. How 
 have we received it ? What does the apostle mean by that 
 expression ? The best and most precious medicine is of no 
 value in disease unless it be taken as prescribed ; the crown 
 of a kingdom is worthless to me unless it be put in my pos- 
 session ; and the atonement may reconcile earth to heaven, 
 and heaven to earth, but if I be not interested in it, for all 
 Ijractical purposes it is to me as if it never had been made, 
 except that it may aggravate my condemnation that it was 
 oftered to me, and I refused and rejected it. Receiving the 
 atonement is just believing what God says about it — hiying 
 the stress and trust of the soul, in its hopes of heaven, and 
 expectancy of glory, upon it ; pleading with God, that we 
 k'now he loves us, that he delights in mercy, and that now 
 there is provided by his love, what was devised by his wis- 
 dom, a grand fact, a great economy — the atonement, by 
 which he can be a just God, while he justifies the sinner, and 
 spare me in spite of my sins, in accordance with his hiAv, 
 showing at once his reverence for law, and for his own glory 
 also, when he forgives and pardons me, a sinner. To re- 
 ceive the atonement is, therefore, not to bring something to 
 
THE GROUND OF JOY. 277 
 
 it, but to accept it as a ground on wliich God can forgive ; to 
 accept the delineation of it in the Bible as a truth that God 
 has taught, and to deal with God, sinners though we be, as 
 if wo had what in Christ we do have, welcome access into 
 his presence, notwithstanding our sins, and pardon for them 
 whilst we obtain access to him, and confess their miture, 
 their aggravation, and their guilt. This is the whole secret 
 of salvation — to treat God's word as truth, to act upon it, 
 to take it as reality, to venture into the valley of the shadow 
 of death, with no other trust but this, with no other hope but 
 this, with no other plea at a judgment-seat but this, with no 
 other hope of admission into heaven except what springs 
 from this, — that Christ is the great Saviour, and I, the chief- 
 est of sinners, can look to him, and lean on him as my Sav- 
 iour. Thus we receive the atonement. 
 
 Now, says the apostle, the result of our receiving — 
 that is, believing or trusting in the atonement made by 
 Christ once for all, the antitype of all those recorded in 
 Leviticus — is, that we joy in God. Have you ever 
 noticed how frequently joy is spoken of in the Bible, 
 not as the incidental possession of one, two, or three dis- 
 tinguished Christians, but as the ordinary level of Christian 
 life and character ? For instance, we read, " We rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Again, 
 "The God of all peace fill you with all joy in believing." 
 " The fruit of the spirit is joy." " Ye shall go out with joy." 
 " These things have I spoken unto you, that your joy may 
 be full." The apostle says, " Rejoice ; and again I say, re- 
 joice." If we look to the precedents of illustrious Chris- 
 tians, we find joy to have been not their occasional but 
 almost their ordinary possession. Anna said, " My heart 
 rcjoiceth in the Lord ; " David said, " My soul shall rejoice 
 in God ; " Abraham saw Christ's day afar off, and leaped 
 for joy ; and the early Christians had such joy in their hearts 
 that they took even joyfully the spoiling of their goods. 
 24 
 
278 THE GROUND OF JOY. 
 
 And an apostle felt it to be so real, that lie said, " Count it 
 all joy when ye fall into divers afflictions and tribulation " 
 So that if the Bible describes what is really Christian ch 
 acter, if it be a jDortrait of Christian experience, there ou<. 
 to be more joy in Christian hearts than generally is fou; . 
 there, more happiness in Christian experience than is ofte;n 
 the case. The apostle does not say we may rejoice, or 
 occasionally we have rejoiced ; but he lays it down as if it 
 were the ordinary tone and feeling — "We joy in God 
 through Christ Jesus, through whom we have received the 
 the atonement." The joy of the world is extremely evanes- 
 cent, because it is fed from incidental, perishable, and un- 
 satisfactory things. The brightest joy that this world has, 
 like Jonah's gourd, springs up in a night, and in a night it 
 dies. It is an incidental, occasional, and always a perishable 
 thing. I do not say it is sinful to rejoice in our friends, in 
 our acquaintance, in our health, in our prosperity, in a beau- 
 tiful day, in the bright sunshine, in the country, on the sea- 
 side ; there is a joy that springs from these things perfectly 
 moral, and therefore in its place truly proper. But there is 
 a joy richer than all, which ought and which must supersede 
 all, — the joy that we have in God through Jesus Christ, 
 from what God is, from what he has given, from what he 
 has promised, and from what we may expect when Ave enter 
 into the joy of our Lord, and are admitted to his presence, 
 where there is fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore. 
 Hence the joy of a Christian, described here by the apostle, 
 is abundant. Our Lord says that he has taught us, and 
 spoken to us, that our joy may be full. The joy of a Chris- 
 tian is heart-felt joy. It is not the joy of the senses, or the 
 imagination, or the eye, or the ear, which is all that can be 
 said of natural joy ; but it is the joy of the heart ; — your 
 hearts shall rejoice. And it is a joy, too, so deep and real, 
 that, unlike earthly joys, it is not dependent on any shape or 
 sense. If our water is drawn from a spring, that water is 
 
THK GROUND OF JOY. 279 
 
 abundant or it fails according- as tlie spring is ; but when 
 is drawn from an inexhaustible source, it lasts for ever, 
 he joys of this world evaporate, and are dried up when they 
 >e most wanted ; but the joy of a Christain is very mucli like 
 ne of the springs that are found amid the Alpine glaciers — 
 tney are not frozen in winter ; and in summer, when other 
 springs are dried up, they How fastest and yield the most 
 abundant supply. So the Christian's joy, drawn from an in- 
 exhaustible source, is permanent, and outlives those things 
 that extinguish the natural man's joy. Hence that beautiful 
 passage, never too often quoted, — "Although the fig-tree 
 shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the 
 labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; 
 the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no 
 herd in the stalls ; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy 
 in the God of my salvation." In other words, the prophet 
 says, in a darker and cloudier dispensation, that the joy that 
 he had was so deep, so cordial, so little dependent upon 
 earthly springs, that when all those springs shall be dried up, 
 and every thing that he has shall disappear, he shall have 
 left that which the world cannot take, as it could not give, — 
 joy in the God of his salvation. The Psalmist said very 
 beautifully, — " Oh send forth thy light and thy truth. Then 
 will I go to the altar of God." If he had stopped there, he 
 would have been a mere cercmonialist, a tractarian, or a 
 Romanist ; but he adds, — " I will go to the altar of God — 
 to God my exceeding joy " — the altar, a step towards Him 
 who was the end of the altar in that dispensation. A Chris- 
 tian joys, then, in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost. He joys in the Father, because he is his Father ; 
 we joy in Christ Jesus, says the apostle, as our Saviour ; 
 and we joy in the Holy Ghost, for the kingdom of God is 
 righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. We joy 
 in his love that has come forth on its holy and beautiful em- 
 bassy to save us; we joy in his holiness and justice, which, 
 
280 THE GROUND OP JOY. 
 
 instead of being against us, as they would have been, if there 
 had been no atonement, are now for us ; for he is faithful 
 and just to forgive us through Christ, the atonement. We 
 joy in God's providential government, because we feel that 
 our Father not only made all but rules all. And, whatever, 
 therefore, betides a Christian, he believes to be a missionary 
 from God ; and that all things, however they feel or look al 
 the moment, really and truly are working for good to them 
 that love God, and are the called according to his purpose. 
 
 Thus a Christian joys in God's character, as revealed in 
 Christ ; he joys in God's providential government, feeling 
 that nothing can separate him from God, and that all things, 
 under God's touch and impulse, work for his good, and di- 
 rectly, or indirectly, prove to us mercy, blessings, and bene- 
 fits. He rejoices in God also, not only from what God is, 
 but also from what God has done and will do. Because our 
 sins are pardoned, for we have remission through his blood, 
 even the forgiveness of sin, we joy in God, through Jesus 
 Christ, by whom we have received the atonement. We joy 
 in God, through Christ's atonement, because thereby the 
 Holy Spirit is given to every true Christian to enhghten 
 him, to sanctify him, to comfort him, and so to apply to 
 his heart the joy of God, that that joy shall be to him 
 actual. 
 
 We joy in God, through Christ's Atonement, because 
 thereby death is destroyed ; the sting of death is taken 
 away. In a Christian's case death does not cease to have 
 being; the soul of a believer parts from its earthly tene- 
 ment just as does the soul of an unbeliever ; but you know 
 that the same outward fact may have very different aspects 
 to different persons. The pillar of cloud and of fire, when 
 it seemed all brightness to Israel, was all blackness to Egypt 
 that was behind : and so death may be all blackness to the 
 unconverted man, and yet all briglitness to the Christian. 
 The same outward fact, therefore, may present itself in 
 
THE GROUND OF JOY. 281 
 
 different aspects to different men, according to the character 
 and spiritual condition of these in the siglit of a holy God. 
 Now, to a Christian, death has lost his bitterest element. 
 There is the pain of sickness, there is the agony of dying; 
 but, in a Christian's conviction and experience, there is not 
 in death the sting, because sin is pardoned and put away ; 
 and death, therefore, is but the uncoiling and the unwinding 
 of life, the summons to the soul to leave its tenement of 
 clay, and move to everlasting refreshment ; to his body the 
 repose in the dust till the resurrection morn, to his soul 
 instant and blessed entrance into glory. 
 
 And we joy in God, through Christ's atonement, because 
 thereby the way to heaven is revealed to us, — the future is 
 also revealed to us. Eternity is not now an undiscovered 
 and an unknown land. If it were so, we should dread it. 
 Man is prone to fear what he does not know. The thorough 
 knowledge of a thing is almost alone sufficient to dissipate 
 fear. Let the disease that attacks you, let the epidemic 
 that overtakes you, be dreadful in its character as it may — 
 the thorough comprehension of it is the dispersion of all 
 fear about it. So, in reference to eternity ; as long as it is 
 an unknown land, so long it is fearful; but, when it is 
 thrown open, irradiated by the Sun of Righteousness — 
 when we see the land, that is afar off, lying in the light of 
 the King whom we see in his beauty, to use the words of 
 Isaiah, our fears are scattered, we perceive that it is our 
 home, that our Elder Brother is there, that our nearest rela- 
 tives wait to welcome us, and we strike the tent in the 
 desert, and take our march to the better land, not as to a 
 strange place and a foreign people, but to our home, where 
 our Father, our friends, and our brethren are. 
 
 And lastly, we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 because we not only know what heaven is, but also the way 
 
 to it. If any one should say, with Thomas of old, "Lord, 
 
 show us the way," — we know not whither thou goest, and 
 
 24* 
 
282 THE GROUND OF JOY. 
 
 how can we know the way? — the answer to such is just 
 what it was to Thomas ; and it ought to be as entire satis- 
 faction to us as it was to him — "I am the way, tlie truth, 
 and tlie life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." 
 By that atonement we have opened up to us that way ; and, 
 therefore, an apostle says, " Having therefore, brethren, 
 boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," — 
 that is, the atonement — "by a new and living w^ay, which 
 he hath consecrated for us through the vail," — which he 
 hath rent, and so laid open a heavenly and a better land, — 
 " which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is 
 to say, his flesh. And having an high-priest over the house 
 of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance 
 of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
 science." Let us "joy in God through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." 
 
 Let us, therefore, regard Christianity not as a religion of 
 gloom, but of joy ; not as sepulchral in its aspect, and sorrow- 
 ful in its tones, but as bright, radiant, full of hope, fitted to 
 cheer, to animate, and to delight. The clouds of despair and 
 darkness may still rest around Mount Sinai, but about the 
 Cross ail is brightness, because all is jDcace. Therefore " we 
 joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we 
 have now received the atonement." And, if we ourselves 
 have received it, we have tasted something of its joy, though 
 we may constitutionally differ from each other. One man 
 is more susceptible, more sensitive than another. One can 
 weep when another cannot ; we have different constitutional 
 sympathies : yet if our joy be not an overflowing passion, it 
 will be a steadfast, i3ermanent principle. If it be not, as it 
 is in some, bright sunshine, it will be at least j^lain daylight. 
 If we be Christians, we must have some experience of, and 
 some acquaintance with, that joy with which a stranger can- 
 not intermeddle. If we have received this joy, let us seek 
 to spread it. It is the law of good news that we cannot keep 
 
THE GROUND OF JOY. 283 
 
 it to ourselves ; if it be that wliicli will benefit others, by a 
 law of our nature we shall make it known. Have we learned 
 that there is an Atonement, that we may receive — not pay 
 for, or toil for, but receive ? Are ^ve resting on it ? If we 
 are not, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, 
 so freely offered, so available to all ? If we have received 
 it, let us tell others of it, directly or indirectly — by word, or 
 by tract, or by Bible, or by life — in any way we like : but 
 let us try, according to our means, or measure, or talent, or 
 temperament, to let others know that Christianity is our hap- 
 piness on earth, and the dawn, even before time closes, of 
 that full joy Avhich shines without a cloud and without sus- 
 pension, in the better land for ever and ever. 
 
CHAPTER VII, 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 
 
 " I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present 
 your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
 reasonable service." — Komans xii. 1. 
 
 We have seen, in the second chapter of Leviticus which 
 we have read, the prescribed offerings that were to follow the 
 propitiatory sacrifices. We have seen that these, in some 
 degree, represented and set forth the spiritual and eucharistic 
 sacrifices that all believers are to make. AYe have in this 
 verse, in the prescriptions of the apostle, a definition and 
 description of those sacrifices, as first and chiefest, the living 
 man, surrendered to God that made and redeemed him, a 
 living sacrifice, rational, intelligent, and spiritual ; and this 
 proclaimed to be now, in opposition to the offerings once 
 given, an acceptable sacrifice to God. 
 
 You will notice, first of all, that the apostle does not enjoin 
 this by the force of apostolical authority. He might have 
 said, "I command you to do so;" he might have said, 
 "Present your bodies;" but he does not do so. Every 
 sacrifice, as we shall see by and by, must be voluntary. He 
 therefore beseeches not commands, — "I beseech you by 
 the mercies of God." He speaks as a father to his children, 
 as a friend to his friends, as a teacher to his pupils ; ever 
 feeling, what we need also to feel, that never is authority 
 
 (284) 
 
THE CnmSTIAN OFFERING. 285 
 
 SO impressive as when clothed in love ; and never does a 
 command so deeply strike the heart as when it comes from 
 a heart that truly loves. 
 
 He beseeches them, not by the authority of Christ, 
 though he might have done so ; but " by the mercies of 
 God." He takes his stand not on Sinai, but on Calvary ; 
 he makes the fulcrum of his appeal not legal, but evangeli- 
 cal ground. He who thinks that God is an ever exacting 
 Master, will give him reluctant and very imperfect service ; 
 but he who looks upon God as exacting nothing, but giving 
 all, will present to him his body a living sacrifice, his reason- 
 able and his acceptable service. Think less of God as com- 
 manding, more of God as bestowing ; and by a law that has 
 its explanation in our nature, you will serve him most. It 
 is not a slave that hears a tyrant commanding that gives 
 him his best service ; it is a son that listens to a father's re- 
 quest that yields the most beneficent and joyous offering. 
 
 But, it may be asked, what are these mercies ? It is a 
 singular fact, that the Hebrew word rendered so generally 
 " mercy," has usually no singular number — it is generally in 
 the plural ; as if one could not have one mercy without hav- 
 ing innumerable mercies in its train. But wdiat is mercy ? 
 It is love in contact with sin. If there had been no sin, we 
 never had known what mercy is. Love lights upon the un- 
 fallen ; love, refracted into mercy, lights upon those who are 
 the victims of sin. And how shall we enumerate God's 
 mercies ? Pardoning mercies, sanctifying mercies, preserv- 
 ing mercies, comforting mercies, redeeming mercies : mercies 
 in creation, mercies in providence, mercies in redemption. 
 "Who does not feel that all his paths, from infancy till now, 
 have been paved with mercies ; that the bitterest cup he has 
 drank, in his bitterest moments, had in it sweeter mercies than 
 he ever deserved ? Our mercies, if we had eyes to see, are 
 like the stars of the sky in their number and in their bril- 
 liancy ; hke the flowers of the earth in their fragrance and 
 
286 THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 
 
 their beauty ; unexpected, often unasked, always and every- 
 where undeserved. That man is bhnd that cannot see liis 
 mercies ; he is insensible, indeed, who does not feel them ; 
 and he will not be a long possessor of them, or long enjoy 
 them, who does not give to God what he deserves — a tribute 
 of thanksgiving and praise for his possession of them. I 
 know not a more beautiful recapitulation of mercies than the 
 very first hymn that we have often sung : — 
 
 " When all Thy mercies, my God, 
 My i-ising soul surveys ; 
 Transported with the view, I 'm lost 
 In wonder, love, and praise. 
 
 " Oh ! how shall words, with equal warmth, 
 My gratitude declare ; 
 That glows within my ravish'd heart ! 
 But Thou canst read it there. 
 
 " Thy providence my life sustain'd, 
 And all my wants redress'd ; 
 When in the silent womb I lay, 
 And hung upon the breast. 
 
 " To all my weak complaints and cries, 
 Thy mercy lent an ear. 
 Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learn'd 
 To form themselves in prayer. 
 
 " Unnumber'd comforts to my soul 
 Thy tender care bestow'd, 
 , Before my inftmt heart conceived 
 
 From whom those comforts flow'd. 
 
 " When in the slippery paths of youdi, 
 With heedless steps, I ran ; 
 Thine arm, unseen, conveyed me safe, 
 And led me up to man. 
 
 " Through hidden dangers, toils, and deaths, 
 It gently clcar'd my way ; * 
 
THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 287 
 
 And through tiic pleasing snares of vice, 
 More to be fear'd than they. 
 
 " When worn witli sickness, oft hast thou 
 "With health rcncw'd my face ; 
 And when in sins and sorrows sunk, 
 Kcvived my soul with grace. 
 
 " Thy bounteous hand with worldly bliss 
 Hath made my cup run o'er ; 
 And, in a kind and faithful friend, 
 Hath doubled all my store. 
 
 " Ten thousand thousand precious gifts 
 My daily thanks employ ; 
 Nor is the least a cheerful heart, 
 That tastes these gifts with joy." 
 
 " I beseocli you, therefore, by these, the mercies of God, 
 that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, accept- 
 able unto God, which is your reasonable service." 
 
 But not only does Paul allude to the mercies of God, but 
 he uses also a preposition of great significance. He says : 
 " I beseech you, therefore" " Therefore " is illative, or in- 
 ferential ; it denotes something that he had said before, on 
 the ground of which he urges this duty. So that my text 
 is what mathematicians call " a corollary," drawn from a 
 theorem, or a proposition previously established. But what 
 has he been establishing here ? He has been laying down 
 all the doctrines of grace ; and he argues that, because these 
 truths are revealed and inspired by God, therefore, instead 
 of living m disregard of all the moral duties of the law, you 
 are constrained, by an impulse the more powerful, because 
 it is grace, to present your bodies living sacrifices to God. 
 What are the truths that Paul has previously established, 
 not only with irresistible reasoning, but under the inspiration 
 of the Spirit of God ? In a previous part he has shown, 
 that there is no condemnation in heaven or in earth, from 
 
288 THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 
 
 law or Gospel, to them that are in Christ Jesus. He has 
 shown, in the next place, that the righteousness of Christ is 
 unto all, and upon all that believe ; their only justification in 
 God's sight. He has shown, in the next place, the election 
 of God ; that it is not of him that walketh, or of him that 
 runneth, but of God. The previous chapter — the eleventh 
 — of the Epistle to the Romans, is the strongest declaration 
 of what we call the doctrine of election — what is sometimes 
 called divine predestination, but which really is, when ex- 
 plained, what it is called more frequently in the Bible, the 
 doctrine of grace, of sovereign grace. The common notion 
 of persons that do not know the Gospel, is that God has pre- 
 destinated some men to eternal hell, and other men to eter- 
 nal heaven. That is not the language of the Bible. I have 
 stated before my belief that God has predestinated nobody 
 to hell. I do not believe that God drives any man to hell ; 
 I believe, on the contrary, that God has so loved the world, 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that ivhosoever believetli 
 on him may not perish, but have eternal life ; and if any are 
 lost in everlasting ruin, the reason of their loss is not in God, 
 but wholly in themselves. I have often quoted the passage, 
 and it is one that needs to be often quoted, because impor- 
 tant : — " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- 
 dom " — inherit, relationship — " the kingdom prepared for 
 you " — prepared for you — " from the foundation of the 
 world." But how different is his lanc^uage to the lost : " De- 
 part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting " — not " Depart 
 from me, inherit," but "Depart from me ye cursed, into ever- 
 lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels " — not 
 meant for you, not designed for you, not got ready for you, 
 but prepared for the devil and his angels. The contrast be- 
 tween these two is most instructive : the one is, " Come, 
 ye blessed of my Father ; " the opposite is, not " Depart, ye 
 cursed of my Father," but " Depart, ye cursed." " Come, ye 
 blessed of my Father, inherit ; " the other is, " Depart, ye 
 
THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 289 
 
 cursed " — not " inlierit," but " Depart, ye cursed " — go on 
 as you have been going ; go on in the course you have taken 
 upon earth, and continue it for ever and for ever. The one 
 is, "inherit the kingdom" — the palace of kings and of 
 priests ; the other is, " everlasting fire " — everlasting, in spite 
 of all the criticisms put upon the word. It is utterly impos- 
 sible for any enhghtened biblical scholar — with all respect 
 for Professor Maurice — to come to any other conclusion 
 than this : that if heaven be everlasting, and not a transient 
 rest, hell is everlasting, and not a temporary purgatory. I 
 cannot come to any other conclusion ; and I do think that 
 the learned professor would have done far greater service if 
 instead of trying to explain away the misery of the lost, he 
 had tried to show how welcome, how free, how open to every 
 soul under heaven, are all the glories and the privileges of 
 the blessed. If any soul perish, the strength of our appeal 
 is in this, that it perishes a suicide. There are none but 
 suicides in hell — that is, men self-slain. I know the diffi- 
 culty in believing this — I know how we ministers often put 
 obstructions in your way, instead of making plain the i^ath 
 of the Lord, by metaphysical questions, whilst Ave ought 
 simply to state, as the Bible plainly tells us, that there is no 
 decree in the past, or in the present, between one soul and 
 Christ Jesus this moment ; that there is nothing to prevent 
 every sinner in this assembly — the oldest, the worst, and 
 the vilest — from having perfect peace, through the blood 
 of sprinkling, without money, and without price, and without 
 delay, this very day. It is the very goodness of the offer 
 that makes men think it too good to be true — it is the very 
 simplicity of the Gospel that makes men hesitate to close 
 with the glorious offers, and find, what they may now find — 
 perfect peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 "We are sure, however, that there is an election to heaven, 
 or, in other words, we believe in the sovereignty of God's 
 grace. Every soul that is saved feels that, before he came 
 
 25 
 
290 THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 
 
 to God, God drew him to him ; that God spoke to him be- 
 fore he rephed ; that the first impulse that leads him to 
 heaven was communicated by God, often when he has sought 
 it not, often when he expected it not, and always when he 
 deserved it not. Well, grant me that God first draws me 
 to follow him, without my wishing to do so first, and I do 
 not care whether you say that God purposed to do so mill- 
 ions of years ago, or whether he purposed to do so five min- 
 utes ago — it is all the same thing, because it is sovereign 
 on God's part. Grant me, based on this, that I can deserve 
 nothing, that I can purchase nothing, that I can do nothing, 
 and that God must do all, or I am lost, and you withhold 
 from me predestination or election as a word, but you have 
 given me all that that word really contains. 
 
 Now the whole of the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Eomans is an mifolding of the doctrine of election. Some 
 men would say. If we are elected to heaven, then we may 
 live as we like. But the answer of the apostle is, Because 
 you are chosen to heaven, therefore present your bodies 
 living sacrifices, which is your reasonable service. Because 
 you are not justified by any thing you can do, because you 
 are not sanctified by yourselves, but by the Spirit of God, 
 therefore do jnstly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your 
 God. In other words, the very truths which the world 
 thinks open the floodgates of all licentiousness, are those 
 Avhich the apostle says constrain to whatsoever things are 
 pure, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are hon- 
 est, and lovely, and of good report. And let me add, too, 
 that election, as stated in the Bible, is neither stated as it is 
 in the 17th Article of the Church of England, or as it is in 
 our Confession of Faith. In both of these documents it is 
 defined too much as a hard, dry, theological dogma. It is 
 like a flower preserved between the leaves of a book — very 
 beautiful, but very withered, and very dry. But in the 
 Bible, it is presented in all its freshness, not as a mere dogma, 
 
THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 291 
 
 but elofliocl in the beauty, and tlie interest of a living reality. 
 Tiie man whose heart is not changed by the S[)irit of God, 
 may talk about election as long as he will, but he talks about 
 something he does not possess ; and the man who does not 
 believe the truth may talk about predestination as long as 
 he will, but he has no lot or interest in Christ's reconcil- 
 iation. If you will take care that you elect Christ as your 
 only Saviour, — we can guarantee you that he has elected 
 you to be the heirs of his glory, — make yourselves sure of 
 the lower evidence, and you need not be afraid of the higher 
 result. Do not try to look into God's hidden book in heaven, 
 to find your name there ; but look into God's revealed book 
 upon earth, and see what your character is there ; and if 
 you find that it agrees with what is there ; you may be sure 
 that your names are w^'itten in the Lamb's Book of Life. 
 It is a most precious and interesting truth, that all the doc- 
 trines of grace are represented by the apostle as leading, — 
 not as the world would say, to the practice of evil, but to the 
 practice and to the preference of what is good. " Therefore," 
 he says — " therefore, because these truths have been re- 
 vealed : because you are chosen in Christ from the foundation 
 of the world, because you are justified by his righteousness 
 alone, because you are the sons of God, and if sons, heirs of 
 God and joint-heirs with Christ ; because you are the inmates 
 of the kingdom of heaven, therefore, on this very ground, 
 " present your bodies, work out your salvation with fear and 
 trembling." " It is God that worketh in you ; " but because 
 God has thus vouchsafed his grace, and given you full, free, 
 and irrevocable pardon through his own mercy in Christ 
 Jesus, present your bodies living sacrifices to GoJ, '-your 
 bodies" — the language is Levitical: it is plainly Aaronitic 
 and sacrificial. It is equivalent to saying. Present all you 
 are, all that you have, all you possess, a living sacrifice, ac- 
 ceptable to God. And when the sacrifice was presented by 
 an ofterer of old, the very first idea of it was renuuciation 
 
292 THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 
 
 of all right to it ; when he liad laid it upon the altar he gave 
 up the whole of* his interest in it : it was transferred com- 
 pletely. And when you, therefore, present your bodies to 
 God, you give up your own interest in them ; you cease to 
 care about them in the sense of carking care ; you cease to 
 be anxious to provide for them ; you have committed them 
 to God to be dedicated to his glory, to be taken care of in his 
 providence, and when deposited in the dust to be watched 
 over by his omnipresence, till fit to be companions for the 
 glorified and immortal souls. Your feet are to walk in his 
 ways, your hands to fight the good fight, your ears to listen 
 to his word, your hearts to love him, your intellects to study 
 his character ; all your faculties, however gifted, to minister 
 to him ; all your affections, however dear, to cluster round 
 his throne ; v»'hatever you are, and have, and feel, and enjoy, 
 to be consecrated to Him who has redeemed you by his blood, 
 and made you sons and heirs of his glory. 
 
 It was to be a voluntary offering. No sort of sacrifice in 
 ancient days was of any worth unless it was voluntary. And 
 you recollect when we read of the erection of the Tabernacle, 
 how strongly it was insisted upon by Moses that every 
 offering that was made should be purely a voluntary offering. 
 And by the teaching of the apostle, you are still to present 
 your bodies. The spontaneity of the act is part of its essen- 
 tial excellence. Hand-work, however beautiful, never can 
 take the place of heart-work. What you do, whether in word 
 or in deed, you are to do all to the glory of the Lord. 
 
 But you are to present this body of yours, we are told, 
 a living sacrifice. There were two kinds of sacrifices. 
 First, — animal sacrifices, as recorded in the first chapter 
 of Leviticus ; these were* expiatory, and are gone, now that 
 Christ, the true sacrifice, is come. There were, secondly, — 
 eucharistic sacrifices ; these are in the second chapter, and 
 such are the sacrifices that we are now to offer to God. We 
 have these very sacrifices noticed by inspiration itself. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 293 
 
 Isaiah says, — " They shall bring all your brethren for an 
 offering unto the Lord." Here are men represented as an 
 offering unto the Lord. And, in this very epistl<3 — Uuj 
 Epistle to the Romans — the apostle tells us, in language 
 exactly of the same kind, — " That I should be the minister 
 of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of 
 God, that tlie offering up of the Gentiles might be accepta- 
 ble, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." Here you have 
 the phrase applied to Gentiles — that is, to Christians. 
 Therefore our bodies are to be presented to God, not as 
 expiations for sins they have done, but as expressions of 
 gratitude and devotedness to Him, who, by one Atonement, 
 has forgiven all sins of the past, and who asks us now, by 
 the mercies we have so richly received, to consecrate our- 
 selves as ministers and servants unto him who loved us, and 
 gave himself for us. 
 
 This offering of our body is represented by the apostle, 
 here, as a living sacrifice. The Jew presented the slain 
 victim as the shadow of the Great Expiation for his sins. 
 In the peace-offering he presented bread, or flour, or corn, 
 and oil, and frankincense, as the expressions of his grati- 
 tude to God. But we present a sacrifice, nobler than the 
 Jews ; which, though infinitely distant from Christ's offering 
 of himself, is, next to Christ's, the greatest that can be 
 offered on the altar, or presented to God himself. Tiie life 
 tliat is offered, is life in its noblest development — the life 
 of the individual heart ; a living dedication to Him who has 
 redeemed it by his precious blood. And the apostle uses 
 tlie word " body," to denote that it is not merely a quiescent 
 feeling, but active — the body, the exponent of the wants 
 of the soul, the will of the heart, and the principles of the 
 mind. 
 
 This sacrifice that we are to offer is called a holy one. 
 You remember the victims selected for the altars of Aaron 
 were to be without blemish, without spot. And the strict 
 
 25* 
 
294 THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 
 
 meaning of the word " holy," I think I told you before, is 
 properly separated, sequestrated, set ajmrt. You have the 
 Avord holy applied to profane things in the Bible, as you 
 have it most generally applied to good, or pure, or noble 
 things. And the reason is, that whatever is set apart is 
 called in the Hebrew hodosh, — in the Greek ayiog, — Latin 
 sacer, holy, or sacred. We find the expression in a Latin 
 poet, auri sacra fames — Hterally, "the sacred thirst of 
 gold ; " but properly it means, " the accursed thirst of gold ; " 
 showing us that the meaning of the word sacer, or " holy," 
 is simply that which is set apart for a specific purpose. 
 When, therefore, we are told that our bodies are to be holy 
 or sacred, it means separated from the subjugation of Satan, 
 separated from the service of sin, disinfected of every 
 earthly taint, and of every mortal alloy, presented in all 
 their purity to God ; so that to take that body and use it for 
 sin, is the same .as to desecrate the temple and profane the 
 worship of the living and the true God. " Know ye not 
 that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost ? " 
 
 It is said in the next place, to be "• acceptable unto God." 
 The sacrifice made by us of our bodies is said to be accepta-' 
 ble to God. There are many sacrifices that men make, 
 which are not acceptable. They may be good, or they may 
 be pure, but the sacrifices are not therefore acceptable. He 
 that clothes himself in coarse raiment, lives in a hermitage, 
 separated from the rest of mankind, eats coarse food, fasts 
 all day, and prays all night ^- such a man is not presenting 
 an acceptable sacrifice. He may do it from a pure motive 
 and with a good intent ; but the question that will be put 
 to him, is, — " Who hath required this at thy hands ? " 
 When you ask the question, — " Wherewithal shall I come 
 before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God ? 
 Shall I come as the Romanist ? Shall I come before him 
 with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old, with rams, 
 and rivers of oil ? Or shall I, like the heathen, give my 
 
THE CHRISTIAN OFFERIXG. 296 
 
 first-born for the sin of my soul ? " — however good your 
 motives, however divine your end, yet all such things are 
 blasted, because they are forbidden. " He hath showed 
 thee, man, what is good. And what doth the Lord re- 
 quire of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to 
 walk humbly Avitli thy God ? " This is acceptable service 
 to God. 
 
 Not only is it acceptable service, but it is called in the 
 next place your reasonable service. The word reasonable 
 conveys the idea of something that contrasts with the mate- 
 rial and the carnal. It is not a service of beasts and of birds, 
 of bread and of corn, but the oiFering of something that re- 
 lates to the soul, or the mind ; and, therefore, it contrasts 
 with what is pompous, splendid, and magnificent. The 
 acceptability of a sacrifice is not the splendor or riches of 
 them that present it — it is not magnificent accompaniments 
 of swinging censers, ascending frankincense — it is not 
 gold and silver vessels, — altars on which are piled the 
 riches of the earth, — these are no contributions to the ex- 
 cellence or the acceptability of the sacrifice ; — it must be 
 the sacrifice of the heart, the offering of the willing mind ; 
 the victim that God himself has enjoined : this only is ac- 
 ceptable to him. 
 
 Having seen the meaning of the text, let us next notice, — 
 it is our duty to comply with the prescription of Paul. All 
 you have is not your own, but God's. To him you owe the 
 loyalty of subjects, the obedience of creatures, the praises 
 and- the acclamations of redeemed saints. This is the tax 
 you owe to the King of kings ; this the tribute he demands ; 
 it is your duty cheerfully to pay it. But, in the next place, 
 it is your j^rivilege. We have too much of Sinai in the 
 disposition of us all. We are so prone to think upon what 
 we must do, and what we ought to do, and so averse to con- 
 sider what we may do, and what it is our privilege to do. 
 Your question here ought not to be, Ought I to do this ? but, 
 
296 THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 
 
 May I do this ? It is privilege that God permits you to 
 worship him — it is privilege that he permits you to read 
 his Holy Word. We ought more to feel that we may^ than 
 to feel that we must. And to present this sacrifice to God 
 is our interest; for it is not only reasonable — the most 
 reasonable thing upon earth is Christianity, the most irra- 
 tional thing under the sun is scepticism; your consciences 
 respond to my words when they testify within you that it is 
 reasonable, but it is right, we ought to do it, but our pas- 
 sions, our preferences, and our prejudices, will not let us do 
 it ; it is our interest to do it, for it is acceptable to God. 
 Wliatever he is pleased to accept, surely it is our interest to 
 offer. And it is to be done, as I have said, in faith. We 
 are not to think that any thing, anywhere offered, is accepta- 
 ble to God ; but we are to offer what he prescribes on the 
 altar — Christ — that he has appointed, to the glory of the 
 name of Him who loved us, and gave himself for us. And 
 when we think that we owe to God all we have as crea- 
 tures, all we taste every day of his providential goodness, 
 all we hope for as the purchase of atoning blood, do we not 
 feel, with an emphasis which these things ought to impart, 
 we are not our own, we are bought with a price — the pre- 
 cious blood of a Lamb? therefore, let us glorify God with 
 our souls and our bodies, which are his ; or, translated into 
 my text, " Present your bodies living sacrifices, acceptable 
 unto God, which is your reasonable service." In one 
 sense — and here lies the greatness of man, but a great- 
 ness that embosoms his noblest obligations — brethren, all 
 things are yours — whether the learned Paul, or the elo- 
 quent Cephas, or life with its trials, or death with its fears, 
 or things present with their anxieties, or things to come with 
 their hopes — all these things are yours ; you are magnifi- 
 cent possessors, you have a great inheritance ; but, we must 
 add what inspiration adds, you, the inheritors of all these 
 things, are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Therefore, glorify 
 
THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 297 
 
 God with your souls and your bodies, wliicli arc liis. All 
 that you have is a trust ; you are but trustees. Your money 
 is not your own ; your time, your health, your strength, arc 
 not your own. AYliatever you have, you have as a trustee. 
 What would you say of that man who should take the 
 money intrusted to him, and lay it out upon himself — what 
 would you say of that Christian who begins his prayer, 
 " God be merciful to me, and bless me, that thy ways may 
 be known upon earth — that I may be a missionary — that 
 I may diffuse the knowledge of Christianity, or thy saving 
 health among all nations ; " but who spends it totally upon 
 himself? I do not say that you are not to enjoy whatever 
 God gives you in his good providence. We do not advocate 
 macadamizing all society, and reducing it all to the same 
 dead level. I think that would be most absurd. AVhile 
 each man lives in the sphere in which Providence has 
 placed him, and by doing so, confers the greatest good upon 
 society around him, yet the poorest and the richest together 
 must know that they have more than they can use — that 
 there are mouths to be filled, nakedness to be clothed, igno- 
 rance to be taught, the weak to be raised up, the bowed 
 down to be upheld ; and a large world around looking for 
 him that hath to go and help them that have not. Let us, 
 then, my dear friends, as thus redeemed of God, as having 
 all things from him, present our bodies living sacrifices unto 
 Him. Our lives are not our own. Never forget that we all 
 think, because we have a sort of personaliFy in our expe- 
 rience, that our life is our own. But what is the fact ? Your 
 life — for a single day, of every day — is in your trust only. 
 Men talk of the need of miracles ! Why, every morning 
 God gives you a new life ; every beat of your heart is a new 
 burst of life to you ! The constant tendency of life is to 
 go out — like a spark on the sea, like warmth in winter. 
 And there are, in every part of that poor body of yours, ten 
 thousand chemical laws ready, the instant life lets go its 
 
298 THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 
 
 hold, to seize upon that body, and reduce it to a mass of 
 corruption so loathsome, that the nearest and the dearest are 
 compelled to bury it out of sight in the grave. And whose, 
 then, is your life ? God's ! And, if we owe life to God, 
 surely we ought to consecrate it to his service. I have 
 often thought that we have in sleep something like a fore- 
 taste of what death is. I seem to have a sort of hold upon 
 my life when I am awake ; but when sleep begins to steal 
 over me, I feel as if I were letting go my life, that I have 
 no power over it, that some one above me must take care of 
 it, or I shall never wake again. Thus, sleep is a shadow 
 and a foretaste of the grave, and shows, to the strongest and 
 the healthiest, that in God you live, and move, and speak, 
 and walk, and have your being. Therefore, therefore — I 
 repeat the illative particle of the apostle — j^resent that 
 body continually to God, a living sacrifice. 
 
 And, lastly, our souls are not our own. God gave them, 
 God has redeemed them ; and the way to find our souls in 
 everlasting joy is the way of consecrating them now to 
 God's service. Priests on earth, consecrating all we are to 
 him, we shall be consecrated as priests and kings to God in 
 heaven, worshipping and praising him forever. And those 
 bodies that we have consecrated now, whilst the soul dwells 
 in them, will one day be raised from the grave, where they 
 must be deposited for a season ; and the fallen shrine of 
 humanity shall be rebuilt at the sound of the last trump, 
 and be the home of a glorious, immortal, and happy inhabi- 
 tant. Consecrated on the altar below, our bodies shall be 
 crowned on the throne that is above. The direction we 
 have taken upon earth shall not be arrested, but perpetuated 
 hereafter; and committing soul and body, and all we are, 
 with all our cares, our fears, our doubts, our difficulties, unto 
 Him, who is able to keep what we have committed to him 
 against that day, let us not doubt for a moment that the soul 
 that he has washed in his blood, the instant it leaves its 
 
THE CHRISTIAN OFFERING. 299 
 
 eartlily tenement, is a worshipper beside his tlirone ; and 
 the dead dust that we lay beneath the green sod, and over 
 which the grass grows for a season, shall every atom of it 
 hear the last trump, and soul and body, widowed for a sea- 
 son, shall be wedded again forever ; and so we shall be no 
 more priests, with stammering lips and trembling hands pre- 
 senting these imperfect offerings below, but priests and 
 kings, singing, in a strain that will ever swell and never 
 cease, " Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our 
 sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
 unto our God, to him be glory, and thanksgiving, and 
 praise." Amen. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE GREAT QUESTION. 
 
 " Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the 
 high God ? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves 
 of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or 
 with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? shall I give my first-born for my 
 transgression, the fruit of ray body for the sin of my soul ? He hath 
 showed thee, man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of 
 thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy 
 God?"— MiCAiivi. 6-8. 
 
 Generally speaking, the unconverted man has no 
 anxiety on the subject of religion at all; or, if a feeling 
 flits through his mind on his responsibility to God, and his 
 prospect of aj^pearance at the judgment-seat, it is transient, 
 and dismissed or buried amid other thoughts as speedily as 
 possible. The Avorldly man thinks of religion as a mere 
 aifair, cherished by a few, but for which the multitude have 
 very little time, and about which they need feel very little 
 concern. The feeling is, one man likes painting, another 
 man likes poetry, another trade, and another religion ; every 
 one to liis own taste ; let every one follow his own pursuit. 
 Religion is regarded as one amid many accomjilishments ; 
 and the plea is, " It is not my taste ; it may be yours : let 
 us agree to differ." This is the common feeling. Any thing 
 more miserable one can scarcely conceive ; for religion, in- 
 stead of being a subject numbered Avith the many for each 
 to pursue according to his taste, or for others to reject accord- 
 ing to their convictions or preferences, is that great truth 
 
 (300) 
 
THE GREAT QUESTION. 301 
 
 that concerns every man, that affects every man, and that 
 creates by its presence a load of responsibility inexhaustible 
 on earth as his own immortality, and which Avill meet 
 him at the judgment-day as a savor of life, or a savor of 
 death. 
 
 When a step further is taken, and the thoughtless man 
 is convinced that his soul is in peril, is satisfied that death 
 does not end him, but only transfers him, and tliat by Avhat 
 he is on earth will be determined what he shall be forever, 
 then his first thought is to get rid of religion altogether; 
 like the fool, he says in his heart, " No God ; " like the 
 ostrich before her pursuer, he hides his head in the earth, 
 and hopes, because he does not see his peril, that there is 
 none behind. 
 
 But when even this is found untenable, and a new, deeper, 
 and more penetrating impression is produced ; when he 
 sees what God is, and feels what he himself is ; and when 
 all the opiates of the world will not deaden the feeling, and 
 all the dissipation of life will not kill, conceal, or extirpate 
 the thought ; then he asks, almost in the agony of despair, 
 " If this be so, wdierewith shall I come before the Lord, and 
 bow myself before the high God ? " That is, in other 
 words, the question, " AVhat must I do to be saved ? How 
 shall I get salvation, and, through salvation, peace with 
 God, peace with my own conscience, and with all man- 
 kind ? " 
 
 The answer to that question is contained in the sequel of 
 this passage. It is obvious that acceptance is here do 
 scribed by the phrase, " come before God." " Wherewith 
 shall I come before the Lord?" that is, how shall I be 
 accepted of him ? The thoughtless man says, " No God ; " 
 the Christian walks with God, lives before God, does all he 
 does, thinks what he thinks, pursues what he pursues, under 
 the eye of his Father and his God. The question, there- 
 fore, of the thoughtful man is, " How shall I come before 
 
 2G 
 
302 THE GREAT QUESTION. 
 
 this Being? I, clad with sin, before perfect purity — I, 
 pressed down by my transgressions, before a holy and just 
 God ? "Wherewith shall I be entitled to his presence, armed 
 against his righteous judgments? what will constitute me 
 the recipient of his sparing mercy, and embosom me in his 
 everlasting and precious love ? " Thus, the soul, awakened 
 to a sense of its ruin, asks earnestly the question, " Where- 
 with shall I come before God ? " 
 
 The first thought is, to take something that is within one's 
 reach, and to offer that, if peradventure God will accept it. 
 Hence the very first question, " Shall I come before him 
 with burnt offerings ? Shall I renew the rights and cere- 
 monies of Levi ? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands 
 of rams, if I had them ? Would the sacrifice of so many 
 lead to his forgiving sins, and accepting me as his child ? 
 Or shall I do what is desperate, almost impossible, certainly 
 sinful, — slay my first-born, and offer him for the sin of my 
 soul ? " My dear friends, when a person is under deep con- 
 viction of sin, there is no agony he will not endure, no sacri- 
 fice he will not make, no dear and cherished thing that he 
 has, which he will not freely part with, if that agony can be 
 laid, and the sure and certain expectancy of happiness can 
 only be made intelligible and clear to him, or the prosj)ect 
 of meeting God, a just God, and yet a Saviour. 
 
 The reason why such things are thought of is this, that 
 God is seen high, holy, just, true ; that the sinner sees him- 
 self low, sinfid, ruined, guilty ; and the difficulty that occurs 
 to his mind is, How shall such a one be just with God? He 
 hears ringing still from the heights of Sinai, " The soul that 
 sins shall die ; " in his own conscience the echoes of that 
 sound are not yet laid ; and, under the feeling of self-con- 
 demnation within, and in the sight of a condemning God 
 without, he asks in agony increased, but not lulled, " Where- 
 with shall I come before the High God?" Is there any 
 thing on earth that will introduce me ? Is there any thing 
 
THE GREAT QUESTION. 303 
 
 upon earth that I can do that I may propitiate him ? lie 
 mentions all the sacriiices recorded here ; and the soul feels 
 that they are all vain. No tears shed like the rains in 
 April can wash away the least transgression ; no blood of 
 victims slain upon a thousand altars can expiate a single sin ; 
 no resolution for the future, no correction of conduct you 
 can conceive, attempt, or accomplish, will be any compensa- 
 tion for the law you have broken, and the sins you have 
 committed in the past ; and the very first discovery that the 
 sinner makes after the })roposal to give thousands of rams 
 and rivers of oil, and the fruit of his body for the sin of his 
 soul, is the fact that neither by these, nor by sacrifices, nor 
 by offerings, nor by deeds of law, of any sort, or shape, or 
 value, can a man be justified in the sight of God. 
 
 But the answer is given ; for never does the Holy Spirit 
 propound a dithculty without indicating a solution of it. 
 " He hath showed thee, O man, what is good." This clause 
 is quite distinct from the rest. " He hath showed thee, O 
 man, what is good ; " that is, you need not ask, " How can I 
 appear before God ? " any more ; for God has shown you. 
 Then there follows a question quite distinct from this 
 answer, " AVliat doth the Lord require of thee, but to do 
 justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy 
 God ? " 
 
 It is said, " God hath shoAved thee, O man ; " that is, he 
 has told you. How has he told you ? In types that fore- 
 shadowed the way ; in prophecies, the musical announce- 
 ments of it ; in doctrines that clearly, distinctly, and umnis- 
 takably describe it ; in sacraments that are the seals, the 
 pledges, and the signs of it ; and in words which the way- 
 faring man cannot misunderstand. Or, it is, he hath shown 
 thee this, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not 
 perish, but have everlasting life." "In Christ, we have 
 redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." 
 
304 THE GREAT QUESTION. 
 
 " He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, 
 but for the sins of the whole world." " By him all are justi- 
 fied from all things, from which they could not be justified 
 by the law of Moses." " Herein is love, not that we loved 
 him, but that he loved us, and gave his Son to die for us." 
 " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." There- 
 fore, cease to propose rivers of oil ; give up dreaming of 
 rams, and the sacrifice of goats and bullocks upon earthly 
 altars ; lay aside all idea of giving thy first-born for the 
 sin of thy soul. There is nothing to be done ; it is finished. 
 There is nothing to be sacrificed; the sacrifice has been 
 made. There is nothing to be suffered ; the penalty has been 
 paid. There is nothing to be given in exchange ; for Christ's 
 righteousness, our title to heaven, is unto all and upon all 
 that believe, for there is no difference. There is an end of 
 penances, and tears, and mortifications, and pilgrimages, and 
 fasts, and alms, as atoning or expiatory in any way, or 
 shape, or degree. It is finished. There is a perfect Saviour, 
 a jDerfect title, a perfect Sacrifice ; and as free to the poor as 
 it is necessary to the rich ; for it is without money and with- 
 out price. " He hath showed thee, O man, what is good." 
 This is truly good ; it is the good news ; and if I were to 
 translate it into New Testament language, I would render it 
 thus, " He hath spoken to thee, man, the Gospel." For 
 wdiat is the Gospel ? Good news. " He hath showed thee 
 what is good " — told you the glad tidings of good. And oh, 
 how good is it ! Suited to the sinner, for it descends into 
 the deepest depth into which he has fallen. Suited to him, 
 for it takes him as he is, in order to make him what he 
 should be. Jt is good, for he has not to wait for it a single 
 hour, nor to pay for it a single penny ; but just as he is, to 
 go in Christ's name to God just as He is, and to taste the 
 good things he has provided, and to hear the good news, and 
 justified by faith thus to have peace witli God — delivered 
 from the greatest evil, i\aised into the greatest safety— -trans- 
 
THE GREAT QUESTION. 805 
 
 ferred from " the Mount that might be touchecl, where was 
 blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of words ; 
 so that even Moses himself did exceedingly Tear and quake, 
 and brought to Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living 
 God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com- 
 pany of angels, to the general assembly and church of the 
 first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the 
 Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and 
 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." This is good. 
 It is the good news, the good result — the one so joyous to 
 the ear, the other so satisfying to the heart. And, as we 
 hear it, are we not constrained to exclaim, what Micah says 
 in another part of his prophecy, "If this be so, who is a God 
 like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the 
 transgression of the remnant of his heritage ? lie retaineth 
 not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He 
 will turn again ; he will have compassion upon us ; he will 
 subdue our iniquities ; and thou wilt cast all their sins into 
 the depths of the sea." 
 
 And mark how good this is. When God thus pardons, 
 he does not compromise his own character. The beauty of 
 the Gospel, that which meets our ditficulties, satisfies all our 
 anxious fears, doubts, perplexities, misgivings, is this, — that 
 wdien God thus justifies the guiltiest, he receives to himself 
 the greatest glory. He does not become unjust that he may 
 have mercy ; but he is just while he justifies. When, there- 
 fore, you ask God to show you what is good by manifesting 
 himself to you as the sin-pardoning God, you do not ask him 
 to do a thing that is either difficult, or incompatible with his 
 own character, or inconsistent with his own attributes ; but 
 you ask God to do that which he delights to do, to give for- 
 giveness to the greatest sin, acceptance to the guiltiest sin- 
 ner, that thereby he may derive glory to his name, and be 
 manifested as a God to whom there is none in the heaven 
 or in the earth like ; who pardoneth sin, and passeth by the 
 
 26* 
 
SOG THE GREAT QUESTION. 
 
 transgression of the remnant of his heritage. Such then is 
 the answer to the question. 
 
 And now, \yimt will be the character exhibited by those 
 who have found and felt this thing in their ow^n happy ex- 
 2)erience ? This is what they will do. They will "do justly, 
 and love mercy, and walk humbly witli their God." You 
 will do all that God requires of you, not as the price of this, 
 but as the evidence of your gratitude for it ; for he shows 
 you the good thing first — he asks of you the good character 
 next. He does not say, " Do justly, and love mercy, and 
 walk humbly with thy God, in order that you may reach 
 the good thing ; " but by grace freely he tells you how you 
 are pardoned, and he says, " Now what I ask of you, not 
 as a compensation, not as a reward, but as the instructive 
 and joyous expression of your own most grateful and loving 
 hearts, is, that you, my children, will go forth to a world 
 that disowns me and dislikes you, and show them that free- 
 dom from the curse is not freedom from devotedness to God, 
 and justice to man, and love to all mankind ; but that those 
 who are freely pardoned are fully characterized by all the 
 fruits that adorn the Christian character, win enemies to its 
 acceptance, and give glory to Him who has done so much 
 for them." 
 
 What then does He require ? First, that you will " do 
 justly ; " — in the warehouse, in the shop, in the counting- 
 house, wherever you are, that you will do justly. Do what 
 is just. How beautiful is that ! There is joy in being just ; 
 there is a satisfaction in doing what is honest. There need 
 be; and there must be, no pride in it ; and yet, the conscious- 
 ness that one is doing what is right, is by a law lasting as the 
 attributes of Deity, in its place, in its nature, and in its meas- 
 ure, a spring of satisfaction and delight. 
 
 And not only "doing justly," but "loving mercy," — the 
 recipients of so great mercy as that which God has shown 
 going forth and displaying mercy, in their measure, and 
 
THE GREAT QUESTION. 307 
 
 according to their means, among all mankind. Not imitat- 
 ing the servant who received great forgiveness from his lord, 
 and then went to a fellow-servant, and said, with all the im- 
 periuous exacting of tyrant from a slave, " Pay me that tho 
 ow^est ; " but showing mercy, where mercy can be exercised 
 without violating the law, or injuring the duties that you owe 
 to yourself, your family, and society. Thus let mercy be 
 shown, and you will find that it will be twice blessed ; like 
 the gentle rain that drops from heaven, it wdll bless him that 
 gives, and him that takes. 
 
 And not only "love mercy," but "walk humbly." No 
 proud thoughts can lodge in that heart that feels that it was 
 grace that forgave it ; that forgiveness is not the reward of 
 any thing done by it, but the result wholly of something 
 done for it. Wherever that feeling exists, and in proportion 
 to the force with which it exists, wdll be that humility which 
 looks upon others as better than oneself, and walks, like Noah, 
 and Enoch, and Abraham, humbly before God. 
 
 Thus we see that our religion leads to true holiness, and 
 that the man who has seen with greatest clearness, and felt 
 in greatest powder, God's goodness in the forgiveness of his 
 sins through Jesus Christ, will manifest to the world the ut- 
 most amount of the Christian character, by doing justly, and 
 loving mercy, and walking humbly with liis God. 
 
CHAPTER IX, 
 
 CHRISTIAN PRIESTS. 
 
 " By him thei*efore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, 
 that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." — Hkbkews 
 xiii. 15. 
 
 You will recollect, that after reading the seventh chapter 
 of the Book of Leviticus, I noticed, what so much distin- 
 guishes that chapter, — the offering of a eucharistic or thanks- 
 giving nature, frequently and fully enjoined and elucidated 
 throughout it ; and I stated that these, under the ancient Le- 
 vitical economy, were the modes appointed by God himself, 
 by which the Jew expressed to that God his gratitude for 
 those mercies which were showered down upon him ; and 
 that though the mode be altered under the Christian and 
 the evangelical economy, yet the substance remains still 
 obligatory upon us all. We, too, are to offer sacrifices of 
 praise and thanksgiving as truly as the Jew, because we 
 have mercies as many, as rich, as impressive, as his. These 
 are not two antagonistic religions — the Levitical and the 
 Evangelical ; but the same religion, expressed in the one in 
 one way, and expressed in the other in another — a simpler 
 and more spiritual way. The Gospel is according to Levi, just 
 as the Gospel is according to John. It is the same Gospel, 
 expressed in types, and forms, and ceremonies, many thou- 
 sand years ago, but now brought clearly to light, and of 
 
 (308) 
 
CHRISTIAN PRIESTS. 309 
 
 which the grand and distinguishing characteristic is, "Neitlier 
 on this mountain nor on that mountain, when ye worship 
 the Father, but they that worship God should worship him 
 in spirit and in truth," — for such now God seeketh to wor- 
 ship him. 
 
 The Psahns of David have fully as often songs of praise 
 as they have earnest supplications and petitions for mercy. 
 One psalm is often a prayer for mercy and forgiveness, but 
 the very next psalm is a song, a rich song of thankfulness 
 for mercies and blessings received. The same lips that 
 poured forth the fervent litany contained in Psalm LI. 
 poured forth the brilliant and expressive song of thanks- 
 giving contained in Psalm CIII. We shall find in the 
 Psalms all the lights and shadows of Christian experience — 
 the expressed want that is felt to-day, the joyous thankful- 
 ness that is sung to-morrow. Gratitude, or thanksgiving, 
 is a virtue not altogether a stranger to the human heart. 
 Even the great poet could teach, that to call a man unthank- 
 ful was to brand him with the heaviest infamy. There is 
 something even in the wreck of human nature that shows us, 
 that to be thankful for a blessing is one of the simplest and 
 first duties that devolve upon us after the receipt of it. We 
 may thank the wrong object, we may thank imperfectly, but 
 still wherever benefits are received, generally speaking, more 
 or less of gratitude is felt. But when this feeling of grati- 
 tude is inspired by the Spirit of God, then it shoots far above 
 all terrestrial objects, and finds its repose, its resting-place, 
 and its object, only in the good, the munificent, the unwearied 
 Giver of every good and of every perfect gift. Now, ac- 
 cording to tlie prescriptions of Leviticus, the Jew expressed 
 liis thankfulness by sacrifices most burdensome, most heavy, 
 constituting a load that our fathers were unable to bear. 
 But the same language is used by the Apostle Paul that 
 Levi would have used, and explained by the apostle as a 
 more spiritual and simple duty. Still we have an aliai', still 
 
310 CHRISTIAN PRIESTS. 
 
 we have sacrifices, still we have priests, but of a very dif- 
 ferent description from those that are delineated in the Book 
 of Leviticus, or instituted by God under the Jewish economy. 
 I have said we still have an Altar. The apostle tells us 
 that. In this very chapter he says, " We have an altar, 
 whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle ; 
 wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with 
 his own blood, suffered without the gate." The apostle 
 plainly tells us, that Jesus is the Christian's altar ; and to 
 show that he is the altar, you have only to recollect that it 
 was the altar's function to give to the sacrifice, or to the gift, 
 all its virtue and its excellence. " It is the altar that sancti- 
 fieth the gift." And the apostle here speaks of priesthood 
 and sacrifice, when he says, " By him " — that is, by Christ 
 — " let us " — the priests — " offer the sacrifice of praise and 
 of thanksgiving ; giving thanks to the name of God." Then, 
 when we offer our sacrifices, whatever they may be, we are 
 to do so, not upon the golden altar of Levi, from which fra- 
 grant incense rose under the ancient economy in ascending 
 and acceptable clouds to God ; but by Him who is the an- 
 titype of the golden altar, who is not only the golden altar but 
 has the golden censer ; on v/hich, with the much incense of 
 his intercession, the prayers of" all saints" — that is, all be- 
 lievers — are constantly presented and offered unto God. 
 It is translated into other words by the apostle, when he 
 says, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, " Giving thanks always, 
 for all things, unto God, even the Father, in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ." To present the sacrifices of thanks- 
 giving by Him, as the golden altar, or to present them in 
 his name — the only name given among men whereby we 
 can be saved — is all one and the same thing. His name 
 cleaves a passage to the skies for the earnest petition, for 
 the fervent praise. No man, however excellent, no prayer, 
 however spiritual, no praise, however beautiful, cometh unto 
 the Father, but by Christ the altar, in the name of Christ 
 
CHRISTIAN PRIESTS. 311 
 
 the Metliator, through him in whose golden censer it is 
 phiced, and thus accepted of the Most High. 
 
 You will notice, too, that Jesus is not only the golden altar, 
 but the brazen altar. The brazen altar was for the sacri- 
 fice of propitiatory victims ; the golden altar was for the as- 
 cending incense ; and what was offered on the golden altar, 
 was done after the offering on the brazen altar was pre- 
 sented without. Now, Christ was the altar of brass, in that 
 he made thereon a perfect propitiation for the sins of all that 
 believe, even to the end of the world ; and he is the golden 
 altar inasmuch as all incense of praise and thanksgiving 
 must be presented by him continually. The work of the 
 altar of brass is finished : when he suffered without the 
 gate he made an end of sin ; he finished transgression, he 
 brought in everlasting righteousness. No atonement now 
 can be made ; none is needed to be made. The merits of 
 that one atonement are inexhaustible whilst there is a sin to 
 be forgiven, or a sinner among mankind to be saved. But 
 there is still the work of the golden altar, or the offerings of 
 praise and thanksgiving by him, as the apostle calls it, con- 
 tinually. And whenever, therefore, we present praise or 
 thanksgiving to God, we are to do it in the name, or upon 
 the altar, or by and through Christ Jesus ; and God asks of 
 us, not what he asked of the cliildren of Israel — the herd 
 of the stall, or the fruit of the vine, or the oil of the olive — 
 but the glad thankfulness of a thankful heart ; and he asks 
 us to express it in the simple language of fervent praise. 
 It is not enough to feel it ; we must express it. It is not 
 enough to be thankful ; we must say so. It is not enough 
 to pray with the heart, but we must, when we have oppor- 
 tunity, pray with the lip. It is not enough to praise with 
 the heart, but we must, when we have opportunity, praise 
 with the lip. The apostle adds, " The fruit of your lips." 
 Not simply the expression of the heart, which is the chief 
 thing, but also the fruit of the lips, which will always follow 
 
312 CHRISTIAN PRIESTS. 
 
 wherever it is truly felt. That is, the apostle teaches us that 
 the Christian religion is to be first a thing of the heart, but 
 not only to be a thing of the heart, — it is to be first, a thing 
 of the heart ; it is to be secondly, as a necessary sequence, 
 a thing of the lip and of the life. And, therefore, Christians 
 in the congregation are to join in prayer and in praise ; they 
 ought by the bowed knee, or the open lip, to praise and 
 pray to Him, who has promised to be present wherever he 
 is pleased to record his holy name. 
 
 Having seen the altar, having seen also the sacrifices that 
 we are to render, let me notice, in the next place, that all 
 true Christians are hereby designated priests. " By him 
 offer:"" that is jmestly language. But to whom does he 
 speak ? He speaks to the Christian Jews — the laity — 
 scattered through the whole Roman empire. In other words, 
 he speaks to us believers in every age and every place of 
 the world. And this language is only in keeping with the 
 rest of the New Testament. " Ye are a chosen generation, 
 ,a royal priesthood." Again, says John, "Unto him that 
 loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and 
 hath made us kings and priests unto God." Therefore no 
 minister of the Gospel is a priest in any other sense than 
 that in which a layman is. There is no more priesthood 
 among the Christian ministry than there is among the Chris- 
 tian laity. The humblest believer is as much a priest, as 
 the highest archbishop. One may differ from the other in 
 this, — that the one is a pastor, an evangelist, a teacher, a 
 bishop, a presbyter ; but they do not differ in that one is a 
 priest, and the other is not. All Christians are priests, be- 
 cause all have the same sacrifices to offer, — namely, praise, 
 thanksgiving, soul, body, and spirit, good works, beneficence. 
 " To do good and to communicate forget not," " for with such 
 sacrifices God is well pleased." And the minister of the 
 Gospel has no sacrifice to offer that a Christian layman has 
 not to offer also. The Lord's Supper is not a sacrifice ; bap- 
 
CHRISTIAN PRIESTS. 313 
 
 tism is not a sacrifice ; a sermon is not a sacrifice ; and 
 therefore lie has no sacrifice to offer that a Christian has not 
 to offer ; for all of us are equally enjoined to offer sacrifices 
 that belong to all, and are peculiar to no one class distinc- 
 tively. All should thank God; and a layman is to do it 
 as much as a minister ; all should do good ; all should pre- 
 sent offerings — soul, body, and spirit, a living sacrifice. 
 Therefore, all Christians are priests ; and what a grandeur 
 does it impart to the humblest offering, that it is as sacerdo- 
 tal an act, as priestly an act, as beautiful before God as any 
 victim that the priests of Levi ever slew, or that the patri- 
 archs of the world ever presented on their early altars ! 
 
 These sacrifices, says Paul, we are to offer to God con- 
 tinually. Now here the language contrasts with the Levit- 
 ical. Under the Jewish economy there were stated days, 
 stated hours, and stated places ; under the Christian econ- 
 omy there is no place unclean ; there is no day uncanonical ; 
 anywhere,' everywhere, any time, always ; when the heart 
 feels grateful it can light up the incense of its offerings, the 
 expressions of its thankfulness, to God that giveth. There 
 is no spot in the earth on which you may not do so ; there 
 is no employment that is lawful in which you may not do so. 
 As we have always wants, therefore we are to pray always. 
 As we are receiving always blessings, therefore we are to offer 
 the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving continually. And 
 he who feels most wants, and finds most supply from God, 
 will always feel most gratitude, and express it most contin- 
 ually to God. 
 
 The language of the apostle is, in the next place, evidence 
 that such offerings are acceptable to God. He would not 
 bid us offer them if they were not so. The ancient Jew had 
 the most entire conviction that when his priest presented for 
 him the victim, on which he laid his hand, or the eucharistic 
 offering, expressive of his gratitude, the God of Abraham 
 waited to accept it : and we may have as entire confidence 
 27 
 
314 CHRISTIAN FRIESTS. 
 
 as ever the Jew had, that the song of praise, however low, 
 will reach the skies ; that the voice of prayer, however ob- 
 scure, will pierce God's ear ; and that He that heard Abra- 
 ham, and vouchsafed his answer to Levi, will equally hear, 
 and answer, and bless us also. And when we think, my dear 
 friends, of all that we have to be thankful for, we feel how 
 appropriate on all occasions is the prescription, " Let us offer 
 to Him the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving continually." 
 Our mercies are fresh every evening, and they are renewed 
 every morning. The 103d Psalm is a bright string of bright 
 mercies, for which we should praise God. " He forgive tli 
 our iniquities ; he healeth our diseases ; he redeemeth our 
 life from destruction ; he crowneth us with loving-kindness, 
 and with tender mercy ; he satisfieth our mouth v/ith good 
 things ; he executeth righteousness and judgment for all that 
 are oppressed ; he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, 
 plenteous in mercy ; he will not always chide ; he hath not 
 dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to 
 our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, 
 so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far 
 as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our 
 transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, 
 so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." " Therefore let us 
 offer unto him the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving con- 
 tinually — that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his 
 name." And when we think of all the blessings that we 
 have received in the past, we cannot too earnestly confess 
 our sins, or too enthusiastically appreciate our mercies. 
 There are blessings of a temporal kind, that grow around 
 God's footstool ; these are showered down upon us equally 
 from on high ; and for these it becomes us also to praise him. 
 By sin we have forfeited all ; and therefore the least pulse 
 of a healthy heart, the least bread in your basket, is re- 
 demption mercy ; and for that we ought to thank and praise 
 him. And there are what are called spiritual mercies, for 
 
CHRISTIAN PRIESTS. 315 
 
 which we should praise him — pardoning mercies, redeem- 
 ing mercies, sanctifying mercies, adopting mercies; — the 
 gift of his Son ; the sending of the Holy Spirit ; the posses- 
 sion of a Bible in our own tongue ; freedom to read it ; lib- 
 erty to speak out what we have read from it ; a place of 
 worship ; means of grace ; hopes of glory ; some humble 
 reason for believing that we have felt the force, and tasted 
 the blessedness of these tilings. Are not these words of the 
 apostle applicable to us ? " Let us offer to him the sacrifice 
 of praise continually ? " 
 
 To show how natural gratitude is, or rather, how reasonable 
 it is, let me notice, that to own our receipt of blessings that 
 we have asked, is the least that we can do for them. Prais- 
 ing God is just acknowledging to God the receipt of the 
 blessings that we ask from God. It will not do to pray like 
 Christians, and possess as if we were atheists. The sense 
 of want that the Spirit insj)ires will always end in praise 
 that the Father will accept. 
 
 And then, in the next place, this praise is the declaration 
 with our spirit that God is the Fountain of all our blessings. 
 "VVe are sometimes apt to look at the gift, and to forget the 
 Giver ; we are sometimes apt to trace our best blessings to 
 secondary sources ; — and no one doubts that there are sec- 
 ondary sources, or secondary causes. The minister who has 
 been the means of enlightening you, you ought to be thank- 
 ful to ; but your thankfulness should never rest with him, but 
 rise far above him, and reach God. The physician whose 
 skill has cured you of disease, is a secondary instrument ; 
 thank him, but your thankfulness should rise far above him, 
 and reach God. We are all prone enough to give the 
 thanksgiving — that is, the sacrifice — to the secondary 
 cause ; let us however look above it, and present the sacri- 
 fice of thanksgiving chiefly to God, and that continuall} 
 And you may depend upon it, he will not be a long posses 
 sor, or a glad possessor of great mercies, who is not a thank 
 
 v. 
 
316 CHRISTIAN PRIESTS. 
 
 ful possessor. Slighted mercies are always the sharpest 
 judgments. Let us not then own our sins as some do, think- 
 ing they are far less than they are ; and let us not own our 
 blessings, as some do, thinking they are far fewer than we 
 deserve. Let us be humbled by a sense of our sins ; let us 
 be thankful for the enjoyment of our mercies. Let both bring 
 us to present sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God — 
 that is, the fruit of our lips — by Christ Jesus continually. 
 
 But this language seems to relate specially to publicly 
 doing so. You will observe the whole Epistle to the He- 
 brews is the exposition of temple rites, temple ceremony, 
 temple sacrifices ; and being temple language it is of course 
 descriptive of or allusive to public worship. Thus, therefore, 
 he implies we are not only privately, not only in the family, 
 but in the sanctuary by Christ Jesus, in whose name we 
 meet, in whose name we are baptized, in whose name we 
 are blessed, to present the sacrifice of praise and thanks- 
 giving to God continually, giving thanks to his name ; or, as 
 it is in the margin, " confessing his name," — not ashamed 
 of it, not ashamed to proclaim it, boldly avowing whose we 
 are, whom we serve, and to whom we feel indebted for the 
 least crumb of bread, and for the brightest crown of glory. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE OBJECT AND END. 
 
 " But when the fuhaess of the time "was come, God sent forth his Son, 
 made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were 
 under the law, that Ave might receive the adoption of sons." — Gala- 
 TiANS iv. 4, 5. 
 
 You Avill at once perceive that the expressive statement 
 I have read is an epitome of the birth, the hfe, the sorrow, 
 the death and sacrifice of the Son of God. It knits together 
 in one the transactions of Christmas, Good-Friday, and 
 Easter ; it tells us that He was born, that he redeemed us ; 
 and that by that redemption which he accomplished on the 
 cross, we now, by his grace, receive the adoption of sons. 
 Every clause in the verse I have read is most suggestive 
 and instructive. The Great Personage here described is 
 called the Son of God. " God sent forth his Son." His 
 assumption to be the Son of God was to the Jews that heard 
 the assumption, the evidence that he blasphemed. They 
 said, " Art thou the Son of God ? And he said unto them. Ye 
 say that I am." That does not mean, " You say so, whether 
 I be so or not ; " but it means, " You say that very thing 
 which I am, namely, I am the Son of God." Well, wliat 
 followed ? They said, ^' What need we any further witness ? 
 for we ourselves have heard out of his own mouth ; " or, as 
 27* (317) 
 
818 THE OBJECT AND END. 
 
 it is in a parallel statement, " He is guilty of blasphemy.'* 
 Now, every Jew understood that the epithet, " Son of God," 
 meant and conveyed essential Deity : they were the best 
 judges of their own language ; and if the assumption of that 
 relationship had not conveyed the claim of essential Deity, 
 then, when the Jews so understood it, and so understood 
 Christ to assume to be, and if he had not been Deity he 
 would instantly have explained to them, " I am not God, 
 and therefore I am not guilty of blasphemy ; I do not pretend 
 to be so, and your interpretation of the phrase is too strong." 
 But he never did so. If Jesus was a mere man, and in no 
 sense God, then he imposed pretensions on mankind utterly 
 irreconcilable with the pure and holy character he sustained 
 throughout ; but if he was God, then the expression, " Son of 
 God," which he assumed for himself was only his asserting 
 that which we can otherwise demonstrate — he is God over 
 all, blessed for ever. So means also the expression, " Though 
 in the form of God, and thinking it no robbery to be equal 
 to God, he took upon him the form of a servant." Now ask 
 the Unitarian interpreter what is meant by Christ taking the 
 form of a servant ; and he will answer. He became literally 
 a servant, obedient to God. Very well ; if, " being in the 
 form of a servant," means that he was literally a servant, 
 then the corresponding clause in the text, " the form of God," 
 means also that he was literally God. It is impossible to 
 escape from admitting that Christ was God any more than 
 it is possible to escape from admitting that he was man. 
 Prove to me that Christ was not God, and I will prove to 
 you by stronger reasons, that he was not man. It is easier 
 in the Gospel to find proofs of the Deity, if possible, than it 
 is to find proofs of the very humanity of Jesus. He was the 
 Son of God ; in asserting that, he assumed for himself the 
 attribute of Deity. 
 
 But I take the text before me in its successive steps. 
 *' God sent forth his Son." "Well now, that alone would 
 
THE OBJECT AND END. 319 
 
 prove that Jesus was surely something more than man. If 
 he Avas sent forth by God, then he had an existence previous 
 to his birth in the inn, and his life as the Man of sorrows. 
 lie sent forth his Son. 
 
 That Son was " made of a woman." A true and real 
 humanity ; our sensibilities, our susceptibilities, our openness 
 to joy, our liability to sorrow, to woe, to tears and suffer- 
 ing; all these Jesus became. We never for one moment 
 refuse to believe that he was man ; it is plain he was man, 
 and perfectly, completely so — sin only excepted. But you 
 say, We find all men sinners. But then that does not prove 
 that sin is part of humanity. When you go into an hospi- 
 tal, you find men sufferers under some disease ; but that 
 does not imply that that disease is part and parcel of human 
 nature. Sin was something that crept into human nature — 
 a miasma ; where it came from, how to explain its entrance, 
 we know not ; but this we know, that man was made holy 
 and happy, and sin entered afterwards, and death by sin. 
 So Jesus was perfect man. Now if he had been a sinner, 
 he could not have been perfect man, but an imperfect, cor- 
 rupt, and fallen man ; and, being sinful himself, he could not 
 have been sacrificed for us. But man he was ; he wept, he 
 rejoiced, he was hungry, he was thirsty, he was weary. 
 " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." He was 
 God manifest in the flesh. " God sent his Son, made of a 
 woman." The contrast is remarkable. It may be said of 
 you and me, honi of a woman ; but the expression here is 
 remarkable, made of a woman. Sent; — here is a previous 
 existence ; subsequently to his being sent, he was made 
 of woman. This at least would demonstrate a previous 
 existence. 
 
 Then at the next clause, " He was made under the law." 
 Not the ceremonial law, but the moral law ; because Paul 
 was writing to Gentiles : and the result of this redemption 
 is, that we should receive the adoption of sons — a moral 
 
320 THE OBJECT AND END. 
 
 result accruing from Christ being under the moral law. In 
 Paradise, when we were made, we were placed under the 
 law. Obedience would have been perpetual peace with 
 us and God; disobedience the doom denounced upon it — 
 the wages of sin, namely, death. Now Jesus became sub- 
 ject to the law just as Adam was, for he obeyed it, and 
 earned its reward. Being a representative then of us, if he 
 had faltered or fallen he would have lost himself, if that 
 were possible, and we should have lost our restoration. 
 Adam, placed under the law, broke it, and brought death 
 into the world, and all our woe ; Christ, placed under the 
 law, kept it, and brought righteousness into the world, and 
 its everlasting reward. Adam in Paradise was made a 
 representative personage: and we are fallen in him the 
 instant we are born into a fallen world. Jesus came into 
 the world a representative personage, and we that believe in 
 him are justified by what he did, and admitted to the heaven 
 that we justly forfeited. Thus our restoration travels along 
 the very line of our ruin ; redemption is the unwinding of 
 what the fall has wound up and done ; and, therefore, as by 
 the disobedience of our first representative head, who was 
 human, all men are constituted sinners ; so by the obedience 
 of our second Adam, our second representative Head, all 
 that believe on him, that are willing to accept of it, that will 
 step out of the first Adam relationship, and come into the 
 second Adam relationship, will be justified, acquitted, ac- 
 cepted, and saved. 
 
 - 1 take a step further, as a proof of the essential deity of 
 our Lord. If his calling himself the Son of God was proof 
 of Deity, if his being sent and made of a woman is evi- 
 dence of previous existence, I go a step further ; and I say, 
 that if I wish the most powerful proof that Jesus was God, 
 I would just quote this incidental one — " made of a woman, 
 made under the law." All of us are by nature under the 
 law. The very condition of creatureship is obedience to 
 
THE OBJECT AND END. 321 
 
 law. We are subjects of the Great Sovereign, creatin-es of 
 the Great Creator, children of the same Fatiier ; and ne 
 are born under the hiw, to obey it ; and if we disobey it, 
 that is our ruin. But Christ was made under the hiw ; and 
 that expression, made under it, implies that he was originally 
 not under it ; and if not under law, he was originally above 
 law. And who is above law ? Only the Legislator, or the 
 great Maker of Law. And therefore the very words, 
 " made under the law," are to me iiTCsistible, and I think to 
 every sound mind irrefragable proof, that if the apostle 
 Avrote by inspiration, and understood his own language, he 
 taught in this passage that Jesus previously existed, that 
 Jesus was above law, therefore the Maker of Law, the Leg- 
 islator, or the Lord of law ; and that those who conclude 
 that he was God over all, blessed forevermore, are not 
 guilty of extravagance, do not pervert plain passages, but 
 assert what is indisputable and demonstrable fact. 
 
 Now, I quote these incidental proofs of the deity of 
 Jesus, not, in my humble judgment, that we need them ; for, 
 take away that truth, and I do not think that Christianity 
 would be glad tidings to all mankind. It seems to me that 
 if all that the New Testament is, be merely a clear exhibi- 
 tion of God's law, it is not necessary. The Ten Command- 
 ments tell clearly enough what God demands, and our own 
 consciences tell us plainly enough that we cannot keep 
 them. And if, therefore, Christianity be merely a clearer 
 unfolding of duty, greater encouragements to do it, I can 
 only say it is a step a little in advance of Socrates and 
 Plato ; I cannot see in it that which I want as a poor sinner. 
 If I am in an hospital, I do not want to be taught to walk ; 
 I want to be cured of my disease, and then instinctively I 
 shall walk. I am sick ; I want a physician, not a model. I 
 am a sinner ; I need not simply to be told what it is to do 
 right, but I need to be informed how sin shall be pardoned ; 
 not only to be told that it could be pardoned, but be so satis- 
 
322 THE OBJECT AND END. 
 
 fied that God is holy, and just, and true while he pardons 
 my sins, that I shall have confidence in his government, 
 confidence in his promises, and believe that it is his glory to 
 forgive as well as that it is possible that I can be forgiven. 
 
 And therefore says the apostle, he was made of a woman, 
 made under the law, for what purpose ? " To redeem them 
 that were under the law." Not to be a model to us ; not, 
 he was made of a woman to teach us ; not to show how a 
 martyr can die : but he was made of a woman, made under 
 the law, to receive redemption by a price, redemption 
 through his blood ; to bear my sins, that I might never bear 
 them ; to obey my law, that I, who have broken it, may not 
 be condemned by it ; to rescue me from the condemnation 
 of sin, from the pollution of sin, and from the power of sin. 
 He came an expiation, not a mere example ; he died a vic- 
 tim, not a mere martyr. His sufferings were not for his 
 own sins, but the iniquities of us all were laid upon him. 
 He was wounded for our transgressions ; the chastisement 
 of our peace was upon him. What beautiful combinations 
 there are in every passage that describes what Christ was ! 
 What evidences of his holiness, what lights revealing to us 
 his grandeur, what proofs of the Sufferer, what proofs of the 
 Kincr of kings and Lord of lords ! I think the whole biog- 
 raphy of Christ in the Gospels is utterly inexj)licable, 
 except on the hypothesis that God was there, treading on 
 the waters of the sea, hushing the fierce winds, quickening 
 the dead, weeping, rejoicing, triumphing, doing miracles that 
 were divine, and bearing burdens that were human — the 
 presence of God manifest in the flesh. Grant that one 
 truth — that Jesus was God in my nature, and the whole of 
 the New Testament is luminous, harmonious, plain. 
 
 In noticing the character of Jesus — his remarkable and 
 striking character — the agony that he endured in the gar- 
 den — the sorrow tliat he felt everywhere, we see what in- 
 tensity of feeling was always and everywhere in the char- 
 
THE OBJECT AND END. 323 
 
 actcr of Josus. Tlie.c was a simplicity, and yet a solemnity, 
 which indicated, even when he Tejoiced in spirit, that it was 
 but the rii)ple of the wave on the surface ; the awful depths 
 of his soul below were undisturbed in their great and holy 
 calm. In reading his life, all must notice the intensity of 
 his feelings. And one can see how natural this was. There 
 are moments in everybody's history — what are called criti- 
 cal, it may be rare moments — when the whole future de- 
 pends upon a step or a decision that you form that very day. 
 And when the destinies of others, as well as our own, are 
 contingent upon our decision, then the pressure becomes 
 overwhelming, and decision is courted as the only ])Ossible 
 relief. Jesus ever felt this intensity of feeling, because ayarj 
 word he spoke, every act he did, every thing he said or suf- 
 fered, all involved and related to the glory of God, and the 
 salvation of innumerable souls. If an individual man feels 
 at one moment so intensely that decision in any shape is re- 
 lief to his irrepressible feelings, how must Jesus have felt 
 when, being a man just as we are, he felt the whole weight 
 of the world, and the whole responsibility of the salvation 
 of millions and millions contingent upon every decision, 
 upon every step, upon every act of that wondrous biography! 
 But more than that ; when Adam, our representative, stood 
 with the weight of our condition and destiny upon his shoul- 
 der, Adam was in a beautiful spot, breathing a balmy air, 
 all things cooperating with him, nothing calculated to irritate, 
 to exasperate, or to grieve him ; but when Jesus came into 
 our world to redeem us that were under the law, he came 
 into a world fallen ; the very men he came to save in that 
 world shouted and cried, " Crucify him ! " every thing to 
 grieve him was in it, nothing holy, beautiful, or good. He 
 must, however, have felt, if I may apply such a phrase to 
 him, the awful responsibility of being the Sacrifice — the 
 Saviour, by what he was, and did, and said, and suffered, of 
 unnumbered millions of mankind. But what is more, when 
 
824 THE OBJECT AND END. 
 
 Jesus came into this world to redeem us that were under the 
 law, he was, in all he thought, and felt, and said, alone. We 
 know that in a critical moment, when much may depend 
 upon our decision, we call in a counsellor. Sympathy 
 softens the bitterest sorrow, and lightens half of the heaviest 
 load : and when it is a matter involving great difficulty, the 
 advice of a friend, a judicious counsellor, how precious is it ! 
 But when Jesus came to redeem us, he was, in the most 
 awful sense of the word, alone. He trod the wine-press 
 alone ; he had sympathy nowhere upon earth ; he had advice 
 nov.'here, if he needed it, upon earth. At his death all for- 
 sook him and fled ; at the solemn moment of the Supper 
 they began to dispute which should be greatest and chiefest 
 in the kingdom of heaven ; he was, from first to last, alone ; 
 and the loneliness of his agony, even when in the midst of 
 crowds, was part and parcel of the weight, and poignancy, 
 and pressure of that cross which he had to bear. And not 
 only was he alone, but he was accused by man, he was 
 tempted by Satan in the hour of frailty and weakness ; all 
 elements against him ; all hostile, none friendly. And yet, 
 in spite of all, in the midst of all, he finished transgression, 
 made an end of sin, brought in everlasting righteousness ; 
 and by him, thus made under the law, made of a Avoman, 
 frail, weak, sorrowful, suffering, we are redeemed as by his 
 blood, and made kings and priests unto our God, — and 
 unto him for ever and for ever. Here, then, we have the 
 good news of the Gospel — these are good news I am speak- 
 ing to you this day, not as a teacher of what you should be, 
 but as a preacher of a cure provided for you sinners. The 
 very key-note of the glad music of the Gospel is, that He 
 is come to seek and to save them that are lost- — ^that he was 
 made under the law, not to teach, not to present a model, 
 but to redeem them that were under the law. The great 
 peculiarity of Christianity is, that it is a remedial system ; 
 the pulpit is a place for prescriptions for the sick, the sinful, 
 
THE OBJECT AND END. 325 
 
 and the Jyinj^, not a desk for giving directions to them that 
 are whole. The pulpit of a Unitarian is simj)ly a desk 
 from which he snows down cold directions to men, on the 
 supposition that they are strong and able to walk to heaven. 
 But the pulpit of them that believe in the deity of Christ is 
 a place from which are scattered more beautiful, and ten 
 thousand times more precious than from an earthly pharma- 
 copoeia, prescriptions for the sick, the sinful, the dying, the 
 chiefest of sinners, insuring instant pardon and eternal 
 peace through the blood of Him that was made of a woman, 
 made under the law, to redeem us, that we might receive 
 the adoption of sons. 
 
 Then behold v/hat a dignity the incarnation of Christ con- 
 fers on human nature. Beautiful thought ! the Architect 
 of this wondrous house of ours has taken up his residence in 
 the midst of it ; a fragment of my nature is glorified, and in 
 the presence of Him who dwelleth in light inaccessible, and 
 full of glory ; and that portion of my humanity is there, not 
 as a fact dead and done with, but as a proof and pledge to 
 me that the way is open to me to the same height, and that 
 through that precious sacrifice of Jesus I can be raised and 
 elevated too. 
 
 In the second place, what a sublime dispensation is the 
 Gospel; what strange antagonisms are concerned in it; 
 infinitude and finitude, eternity and time, weakness and om- 
 nipotence, life and death, God and man, heaven and earth ! 
 These antagonisms welded in one, constitute the peculiarity 
 of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Sin was a system of dislo- 
 cation, of disruption, of fracture ; love in the Gospel is the 
 grand system of union and of concord. This earth, w^hich 
 sin struck off from the great continent of heaven, and left a 
 lonely isle upon the bosom of the desert sea, is, by Christ's 
 redemption, reattached to the great continent of heaven, 
 and partakes again of its sunshine, its happiness, and its 
 
 28 
 
32G THE OBJECT AND END. 
 
 joy. He has redeemed it and us, that we may receive the 
 adoption of sons, and cartli be restored with all things. 
 
 Plow guilty, I ask, in the next place, are we if we neglect 
 so great salvation ! Men perish not generally by rejecting 
 the Gospel, but by neglecting it. I very much respect a 
 sceptic who says, " I have examined all proof, investigated 
 all history, read thoroughly the Bible, and I have formed 
 the conviction that the Bible is not true." I think he is 
 dreadfully misguided ; that he is terribly mistaken. I can 
 barely conceive such a result possible ; and in past instances, 
 such as Paine, and Voltaire, and Rousseau, most of them 
 admitted they had never read the Bible, except some texts, 
 that they might make merry with. But I say, suppose it to 
 be possible that a man comes to the conclusion of being a 
 sceptic, after thorough investigation, I will respect such a 
 man. I understand his position. I lament it, I deplore it, 
 I think he is greatly misguided ; yet I respect him : but I 
 can scarcely respect the man who knows the Gospel, and 
 neglects it ; who has not the manliness to reject it, or the 
 piety to accept it ; but lives, with truths sounding in his ears 
 enough to raise the dead, and to electrify them that are most 
 insensible, and yet lives, and speaks, and talks as if no 
 Christmas had ever shone upon our earth, and no agony and 
 bloody sweat had ever been recorded in the annals of man- 
 kind. Well might an apostle say, " How shall we escape, 
 if we " — not reject, but if we — " neglect so great salva- 
 tion ? " " For if we sin wilfully, after that we have re- 
 ceived the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more 
 sacrifice for sin." " He that despised Moses' law, died with- 
 out mercy, under two or three witnesses ; of how much 
 sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, 
 who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath 
 counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sancti- 
 fied, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit 
 of grace ? " 
 
THE OBJECT AND END. 327 
 
 What a dignity is confeiTcd upon the sorrows and tlie 
 sufferings of Christ! Eaeh tear cancelled a sin — each 
 agony exhausted a curse. His sufferings were the suffer- 
 ings of man, but made precious, infinitely ])recious, because 
 the sufferings of God in our nature. And, in the next 
 place, what ground of trust have we in the Gospel ! When 
 we rest upon this blessed Jesus as our Saviour, we do not 
 rest upon an arm of fiesii. Though he was made of a 
 woman, though he was made under the law, yet when we 
 rest upon him, we do not rest upon a mere arm of fiesh. I 
 could trust my wealth to a man ; I could trust my name, 
 my credit, my character to man ; I could trust any thing I 
 have in this world to man ; and there are men, who are not 
 Christians, most honorable, most upright, most just, in whose 
 hands I could place untold millions ; and this we ought to 
 be, but that is not all. I say I can trust every thing I have 
 in this world to man ; but there is one thing I would not 
 trust to the Queen upon the throne, I would not trust to the 
 highest angel that is beside God's throne, and that is, my 
 soul. I must have God to take care of my soul, or I will 
 risk the experiment of taking care of it myself. If Christ 
 were a mere man, I could not trust him with my soul. He 
 might falter, he might fall. It is my all ; if it is gone, it is 
 gone forever — if it is lost, it is irretrievably lost. But I 
 know in whom I have believed, and that He is able — there 
 is the glad tidings — that he is able to keep what I have 
 committed to him against that day. 
 
 Thus we have learned in the light of the New Testa- 
 ment, that Leviticus is not without its meaning, its object, 
 and its mission. It is full of Christ. Its harmony and 
 its glory are in Ilim. Many a humble Israelite learned 
 from Levi what we learn more easily from Matthew, and 
 John, and Paul — the way to heaven. Its dim lights 
 disclosed the everlasting rest — the price of it, and the 
 precious blood by which its heirs have been redeemed. 
 
328 THE OBJECT AND END. 
 
 The Jews lived in the grey and misty dawn, — we in noon- 
 day. But the same sun gives the morning twilight, who 
 pours down the effulgence of noon. Ours is greater privi- 
 lege. It is, therefore, greater responsibility. O Eternal 
 and Blessed Spirit, who spake by the prophets, teach us, seal 
 us, sanctify us I 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 LAST APPEAL. 
 
 " And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." — Joii:s v. 40. 
 
 , I STATED, in the course of my explanatory remarks on 
 the instructive chapters of Leviticus I have read — for they 
 are instructive in more tlian one great feature of tlie Chris- 
 tian economy — that tlie leprosy, there so graphically de- 
 scribed, was, if left to itself, a fatal disease. It brought 
 death to him who was its victim, unless means were inter- 
 posed to neutralize its influence, and to arrest its effects. 
 The fact is, all disease is more or less connected with death ; 
 it is supposed, by those most competent to pronounce on the 
 subject, that there is no such fact on earth as perfect health ; 
 that the instant we are born, the curse, pronounced in Para- 
 dise, has its response in every nerve and member of our 
 physical economy, and we begin, having eaten thereof, im- 
 mediately to die. I stated, however, that all disease is evi- 
 dence of sin. If there had been no sin to infect the world 
 with its poison, and to project its dark and baneful shadow 
 over an orb that once was beautiful and fair, there had been 
 no aches, and ills, and sickness, and old age, and decay, and 
 death. One disease, however, is singled out from the rest, 
 and made the great characteristic type of that inner univer- 
 sal disease, of which all outer maladies are the sad and sor- 
 rowing progeny. The great typical disease was that spoken 
 of in the chapter, and it is the type of sin in the heart, the 
 
 28 * (329) 
 
330 LAST APPEAL. 
 
 inner disease of all humanity. Now we were told, that, 
 iniless God himself cured the leper, there was no cure for 
 him ; that, tlierefore, his going to the priest was to ascertain, 
 Have I that disease or not? If he had it not, he needed 
 not to seek a cure ; but if the priest pronounced, from cer- 
 tain symptoms, that it was that disease, then it was the duty 
 of the leper to detach himself from society, to go to God, the 
 Great Healer, and to ask the cure of his disease from him. 
 We do not need a Jewish priest, or any other priest, to tell 
 us, that the great inward malady is in us all ; that sin has 
 entered, circulates its poison through every vein, irritates 
 every faculty of the soul and every affection of the heart 
 with its poison ; and that unless we are healed by Him, par- 
 doned by Him, our sins removed by Him who alone has 
 power, and is willing to pronounce judicial absolution, we 
 never can be healed, or pardoned, or forgiven at all. Hence, 
 the grand prescription, applicable to all in this assembly, 
 like a leaf that has fallen from the tree of life, legible also 
 to all, is, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
 be saved." Come unto Him, the Physician that heals, the 
 Sacrifice that atones, the Prophet that teacheth, and you 
 will have everlasting life. And then the complaint that he 
 is constrained to utter is, " Ye, notwithstanding you are con- 
 scious of this poison in you ; ye, notwithstanding you feel 
 this moral malady is upon you ; ye, the victims of a disease 
 that must drag you to everlasting ruin if not arrested, 
 cured, and healed, be astonished, O heavens, and wonder, O 
 earth ; ye, the victims of such a malady, will not come unto 
 me, that you may get that which you can get nowhere 
 else — life, health, and happiness forever." 
 
 I have selected these words, then, after giving this intro- 
 ductory explanation of their connection with the malady de- 
 scribed in the chapter we have read, in order to meet, and, 
 if possible, to obviate, difficulties, real or imaginary, felt by 
 many in accepting the great prescription of the Gospel ; 
 
LAST APPEAL. 331 
 
 namely, believe on Christ, come to him, rest upon him, and 
 have everlasting life. Now, one of the most common excuses 
 urged by persons to whom I address the solemn responsibil- 
 ities under which they live, is that you admit yourself that 
 the regeneration of the heart is an act of sovereignty. You 
 admit yourself that man cannot turn, or convert, or change 
 himself. How, then, can we believe in Christ, unless we 
 get Divine power ? And does not the impossibility of doing 
 so suggest to us the duty of waiting till Christ is pleased to 
 change the heart, and to enable us to believe in his holy 
 name? Now, I admit at once, you cannot. But then I 
 must distinguish. There are two cannots: there is the 
 cannot which is, physically and strictly, " I cannot ; " and 
 there is a cannot which, translated into honest language, and 
 as it sounds in the presence of the Almighty, is, " I will not." 
 The question, therefore, is, whether your " cannot " is " will 
 not" — physical or moral inability? That there are two 
 such inabilities is obvious from the language that we use. 
 We say, " An honest man cannot steal." Why ? Because 
 he will not. We say, " A thief cannot steal." Why ? Be- 
 ause he can get nothing to lay his hand upon. The one, there- 
 fore, cannot steal, because he is utterly indisposed to dis- 
 honesty ; the other cannot steal, because he cannot get any 
 thing to lay his hand upon. So, we say again, " The poor 
 cannot give money at a collection," because they have none 
 to give. We also say, " A miser cannot give " simply be- 
 cause, though he has plenty to give, he has not a heart to 
 give. AVe see, therefore, a broad distinction, between cannot, 
 the result of physical inability, and cannot, as a mere " will 
 not," or being willing to do so. 
 
 When I bid you believe on Christ, or, in the common 
 language of Scripture, come to Christ, — your answer is, " I 
 cannot." Do you mean, then, that you have no capacity for 
 salvation, or do you mean that you have no inclination to 
 accept of salvation ? I answer at once, If you have no ca- 
 
332 LAST APPEAL. 
 
 pacity for salvation — If you are utterly incapable of accept- 
 ing the Gospel — then you have a most excellent and valid 
 excuse, and there will be no i^unishment. If it really be a 
 valid excuse, good, sincere, real, that you are incapable of 
 being a Christian, you will never be condemned for not being 
 a Christian. For instance, when a lunatic speaks profane 
 language we do not think of blaming him, because he has 
 lost the balance of his mental powers, or those mental powers 
 are so disordered by disease, or the physical disorganization 
 of them, that he is unable to regulate his own conduct, or to 
 do that which is right. Duty always falls before a valid 
 excuse. But is your excuse of this sort ? Is your " I cannot " 
 of this sort ? Are you sure it does not imply, or conceal 
 almost from yourself, the latent, but criminal resolution, " I 
 will not believe, because there is something that I love better 
 than the service of God, the salvation of the soul, the hopes 
 of glory ? " Now, if it be the latter, if it really be the latter, 
 that you will not, it is no excuse whatever. For a man 
 to plead that he cannot do what God bids him, because 
 he so loves sin, is outrageously absurd ; it is to make sin 
 an excuse for sinning, and to plead one crime as an 
 apology for perpetrating another. But if your excuse 
 be of the first sort that I have alluded to — namely, that 
 you cannot, physically cannot, that is a very ditferent ex- 
 cuse. I ask you, Why have you come to this conclusion ? 
 I press you closer, and I ask you, Why have you come to 
 the conclusion that you cannot physically, mentally believe 
 on the Lord Jesus Christ, come unto him, and be saved by 
 him? If you say — and you say so far very justly — that 
 we are all fallen creatures ; that Ave suffer by Adam's sin ; 
 the taint of it, and disorganization of it, has overtaken us, and 
 we are all conscious of it, and therefore we cannot believe ; 
 if you say so, I ask. Is your will extinguished with the rest 
 of your mental and your material economy ? Do you find it 
 as matter-of-fact that Adam's sin has taken away your will ? 
 
LAST APPEAL. 333 
 
 Do yon never choose what you love in this worhl, and re- 
 ject what you hate ? Is not this proof of a will ? Are you 
 not, on the contrary, perfectly conscious that you do choose 
 to do this thing, and you do choose not to do that thing? 
 And if you choose to sin, it would be absurd to say tliat 
 Adam's sin is to bear the blame, and that you, sinning from 
 your own deliberate choice, are to be regarded as innocents 
 on earth, and to be exculpated at the judgment-seat of Christ^ 
 
 Let us therefore look at the whole of these objections, and 
 see, if we possibly can, where the difficulty lies. Why is it 
 that man will not come to Christ, or translated into popular 
 language, why is it that men will not become Christians ; 
 why is it that they will not take the way to heaven, and be 
 holy and happy for ever and ever ? I answer first. The 
 difficulty is not on the part of God. You cannot say that 
 God is opposed to your coming to heaven. You cannot 
 show me a brand that he has affixed upon you. You arc 
 not conscious of weights that he has hung to your soul, that 
 drag you necessarily downwards to the depths of perdition. 
 You can see no obstruction that his hand has planted ; you 
 can hear no fiat that his lips pronounce. On the contrary, 
 every page of his holy word leads you to believe that he has 
 no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but rather that he 
 should turn from his wickedness and live. 
 
 In the second place, the difficulty cannot lie in Christ's 
 atonement being insufficient. You cannot say his blood 
 cleanseth from some sins, but not from all sin. You cannot 
 say he is able to save a few, but that he is not able to sare 
 all that come to him, seeing that " he ever liveth to make 
 intercession for them." His sacrifice is of infinite efficacy ; 
 and if there were millions of worlds that needed to share in 
 its efficacy — when millions had been saved through it, its 
 virtue would be inexhaustible still. You cannot, therefore, 
 say that his righteousness is not enough to cover you, that his 
 blood is not enough to cleanse you, that his death is not a 
 
334 LAST APPEAL. 
 
 sacrifice sufficient for you. You cannot, in the next place, 
 say that Christ is unwilling to redeem you. Open the New 
 Testament : what does he say ? " Come unto me, all that are 
 weary and heavy laden." What is his complaint ? " Ye 
 will not come unto me." What is his invitation ? " Look 
 unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth." 
 
 You cannot urge, in the next place, that the Holy Spirit 
 of God is unwilling. He strove with the antediluvians, he 
 strives with us. He inspired apostles to preach, evangelists 
 to record the glad tidings that we now hear. And, there- 
 fore, whether I look to what God the Father has done, or to 
 what Christ is doing, or to what the Holy Spirit has to do, 
 I am constrained to conclude, that the obstruction, whatever 
 that obstruction may be, is not uj^on the part of Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost. 
 
 But is it, in the next place, in God's own word ? Is the 
 Bible so dim a lantern that it cannot light you on your way 
 to heaven ? Does it disclose the road that leads you to the 
 Lamb so imperfectly that yo.u stumbk3 at every footstep? 
 The very reverse is the fact. All the clouds of Scripture 
 float in the upper realms, to w^hich no human wing can soar ; 
 but all the sunshine of Scripture, with scarcely a cloud or 
 a shadow upon it, is upon the lower levels, w^hich it is our 
 duty and privilege to tread. There are mysteries in the 
 Sacred Volume so impenetrable that no genius has pierced 
 them at any time ; but the great truths that relate to our 
 salvation are so plain, that critics may err, scholars may 
 stumble, but the wayfaring man wdll not err when he looks 
 into them. 
 
 Will you say that the obstruction to heaven and to happi 
 ness is in the greatness of your sins ? That is no obstruc- 
 tion at all ; because the answer to that is, " Though your 
 sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; though they 
 be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." No man that 
 hears the Gospel will be lost because of his sins ; the con- 
 
LAST APPEAL. 335 
 
 derailing sin will be that lie rejected the remedy for them. 
 The heathen may be judged by a law that they have broken, 
 but they that hear the Gospel will be judged by their recep- 
 tion or rejection of the remedy provided. Now, your sins 
 are not an obstruction to heaven : Christ's blood will wash 
 them all away ; the Holy Spirit can give you grace to re- 
 pent of and to renounce them. Well, then, what is your 
 reason — what is your excuse ? Do you answer, " We have 
 not power to know God, to love God, to believe on the 
 Saviour, and to accept heaven ? " I ask, " Have you not 
 understandings that can distinguish a sovereign from a shil- 
 ling, a good shilling from a bad one ? Have you not hearts 
 and affections that can love many things, and hate many 
 things? Have you not a conscience that still feels, and 
 responds to a sense of responsibility? Then what is the 
 reason ? Is it, again I ask, want of capacity ? Are you 
 utterly incapable of being made Christians ? If you have 
 the incapacity wl ich I have referred to, then the Gospel is 
 no more addressed to you than it is to trees and stones, to 
 the fishes of the deep, and to the cattle on the hills ; because 
 you are incapable, you say, of being benefited by its grand 
 provision. And if this be true, then God will punish with 
 eternal misery infinite multitudes for not doing w^hat they 
 have no capacity to do ; and his tyranny Avill be as great as 
 that of the Babylonian despot who punished with death the 
 wise men that could not declare the dream that he himself 
 had forgotten; and the slothful servant that brought his 
 talent in a napkin unused, because he believed his master to 
 be a hard man, reaping where he had not strewed, instead 
 of being worthy of that retribution wherewith his conduct 
 was visited, acted justly, honestly, and conscientiously. If 
 God punishes for incapacity, then there is no such thing as 
 mercy ; for mercy is deliverance from deserved punishment. 
 But your punishment would not be deserved, and therefore 
 mercy could not be exercised. And yet the law does not 
 
336 LAST APPEAL. 
 
 seem to show tliat it is want of capacity ; for what is its de- 
 mand ? Nothing more reasonable. It does not say, " Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with an angel's fervor or with 
 an archangel's force ; " but, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart." Now, I ask any one in this assem- 
 bly, Are you conscious, not that you have loved God as you 
 thought his law demanded, but have you really loved him 
 as much as you could ? No one in this assembly can say, 
 "I have loved God as much as I. could ;" but, "I know that 
 I have neither loved God nor my neighbor as much as 1 
 could." 
 
 But Avhat an idea would this give of the Gospel ! If man 
 is utterly incapable of believing in the truths of the Gospel, 
 of embracing the only Saviour of the guilty, and accepting 
 that which is the way to heaven, and becoming a new crea- 
 ture by the influence of transforming grace, then God's jus- 
 tice enacts the penalty of eternal death on man who cannot 
 do what God has commanded him to do ; and when he saw 
 this to be the case, rather than that all humanity should 
 perish he gave his Son a sacrifice, to rescue us from an un- 
 just, an undeserved, and an iniquitous punishment. And 
 when he has done so, he offers us salvation on terms of which 
 we are incapable, — namely, repentance and faith ; and 
 threatens us with everlasting wrath for not doing what we 
 ai*e incapable of doing — believing in his testimony, and 
 resting on his precious sacrifice, and entering into heaven 
 through his blood, and through his merits. Now this would 
 not be the good news ; this would not be a Gospel to us, 
 but the very opposite to the Gospel. But when we open 
 those parts of the Bible that allude to the triumj^hs, and the 
 spread of this Gospel, we find very different portraits of it. 
 For instance, it is stated by one apostle, that " not many 
 wise, not many mighty, not many noble, are called" of God; 
 " but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to 
 confound the wise ; and the weak things of the world to con- 
 
 i 
 
LAST APPEAL. 337 
 
 found the things which are mighty." And our Lord says, — 
 " I thank thee, O Father, that thou hast hid these things from 
 the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." 
 And do you not find it fact that a peasant becomes a Chris- 
 tian, and a philosopher remains a sceptic ? Do you not see 
 many a man with a very humble mind become a true be- 
 liever, and many a man with a very powerful intellect remain 
 in atheistic infidcHty ? What is the reason of this ? The 
 reason is obvious ; — that if there be capacity in the hum- 
 blest intellect there surely must be capacity in the highest ; 
 and that if the weakest mind can believe and receive the 
 truth, and rejoice in it, the most powerful intellect may not 
 and dare not plead, " I am not a Christian, because I could 
 not be so ; " and at the judgment-seat none shall be able to 
 say, " I am not saved, because I could not be saved." Every 
 intimation about the judgment-seat leads us to conclude the 
 opposite ; that the lost are sunk to the depths of woe, just 
 because they would not be saved, and that if any perish, 
 they perish not because they cannot help their destiny or 
 avert their doom, but because they loved sin more than its 
 correlative ; they loved the way of the scoffers more than 
 the way of the sons of God ; and every man in this assembly 
 is perfectly conscious that the evil that he does is his own 
 free, deliberate choice, and that the reason he is not a Chris- 
 tian is that he is shuffling with God, that he is trifling with 
 his conscience, and that he will not entertain the question 
 like an honest man, and look responsibility in the face ; and 
 whenever the thought lives in his reason, and his responsi- 
 bihty comes near to his conscience, he goes to painting, to 
 poetry, to music, to the world, to politics, to literature, to any 
 or to every resource, in order to stave off the evil day, and 
 then he follows up all with that most soothing opiate, 
 " When I have a convenient season, I will take the whole 
 subject into my serious consideration." You know that this 
 is your own portrait; you know that if you sketched it 
 29 
 
338 LAST APPEAL. 
 
 yourself you couicl not do it more exactly. The whole diffi- 
 culty lies in the inclination. " Ye will not come to me." 
 " Why will ye die ? " " How often w^ould I have gathered 
 thee as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings ! " and 
 his answer is, " Ye will not." Your " I cannot be a Clms- 
 tian," translated into intelligible language, is, "I will not be 
 a Christian." If you ask, Then what does the Holy Spirit 
 do ; do you disregard, or ignore the great work of the Spirit 
 of God ? I answer, Certainly not. No man ever entered 
 into heaven who was not transformed and regenerated by 
 God's Holy Spirit. But what does the Holy Spirit do ? 
 He does not destroy one man in order to construct another 
 upon his ruins. As in the resurrection of the body, it is 
 the same body that rises again, so in the religion of the soul, 
 it is not another soul, another memory, another conscience, 
 another imagination ; but it is the inspiration, the conversion, 
 the expansion, the enlargement, the transformation, of all the 
 faculties of the soul. The Spirit's great w^ork is to make us 
 willing. And what is the evidence of it ? " Work out 
 your salvation Avith fear and trembling ; for it is God that 
 w^orketh in you to Avill and to do of his good pleasure." He 
 convinces of sin, he brings all things to your remembrance, 
 he works within you to will and to do of his good pleasure. 
 But do you say, " My heart is so depraved, so wicked, that 
 I cannot believe ? " That is, simply translated into plainer 
 language, " I am so bad that I do not desire to get better." 
 The very wish to be a Christian is the first sound of that 
 footfall that precedes your acceptance of the truth. The 
 very desire to have a new heart, is the inspiration of God, 
 that will unfold itself in the prayer, " Create in me a clean 
 heart, O God ; renew a right spirit within me." 
 
 One refuge to which man retreats very often, is that he is 
 a free agent. " I can repent, believe, and be a Christian 
 when I like." The precedent for that is the precedent of 
 one whose history and life do not give much encouragement 
 
LAST APPEAL. 339 
 
 to imitation. Felix said, " When I have a convenient season, 
 I will send for thee." That convenient season never arrived. 
 And when man is driven out of that refuge, he Avill then 
 say, "Man can do nothing; Iliad better therefore remain, 
 rest on my oars till God is pleased to change iny heart." 
 Hell is paved with good intentions ; remember, duty is in 
 the present, never in the future. God's command should 
 have from you not an echo, but an answer ; and that an- 
 swer not to-morrow, but to-day ; and he that puts off the 
 duty that devolves upon him to-day till to-morrow, merely 
 more courteously, but not less truly, says to God, " I will 
 not obey thee." 
 
 And in the next place, when you say that " God must 
 change the heart, therefore I need not do any thing," I 
 answer, God is a God of means. I admit he can work with 
 means, or without means, or against means ; but his great 
 law is, that he works by means. If you say that you cannot 
 change your heart, is there nothing that you can do ? 
 "When you try to open the Bible, does any thing shut it in 
 spite of you? When you try to read the Bible, do your 
 eyes instinctively close, and does the type convey no mean- 
 ing? When you come to the house of God, does any one 
 snatch you away ? When you listen to a sermon, does any 
 thought come into your mind that you cannot quench by tlie 
 volition to do so ? Does any anxiety come in there tliat you 
 cannot expel if j^ou will only make the attempt to do so ? 
 Can you not pray ? Can you not read books that will in- 
 struct you in the v/ay to heaven? You ki^ow you can. 
 When you have exhausted all that is within your own reach, 
 and then feel that you are no nearer heaven than when first 
 you began to inquire, it will be time enough to say, " I be- 
 lieve I am a hopeless reprobate, and that there is no possi- 
 bility of being saved ; and therefore I give up all for lost." 
 But think one moment what is the drift of all I have been 
 saying. All this seems to me almost a reproach upon the 
 
340 LAST APPEAL. 
 
 Gospel, and an insult to you. Why, what are the difficul- 
 ties I am combating ? Tliey must surely be imaginary. If 
 the Gospel be indeed a penance, painful and laborious, that 
 its recipient must endure ; if this Gospel be a nauseous drug 
 that you must take three, four, six, eight times a day during 
 all the remainder of your life hereafter, — then I might 
 spend the force of argument, and endeavor by eloquent ap- 
 peal to try to induce you to commence to take this nauseous 
 drug. But surely, good news among men, glory to God in 
 the highest, on earth peace, forgiveness for the greatest sin, 
 welcome for the greatest sinner, regeneration for the hard- 
 est heart, and salvation for the oldest criminal that hears the 
 Gospel, are joyous — oh ! surely, it is an insult to your good 
 sense to urge you to lay aside excuses for rejecting your 
 happiness, for refusing to be happy, the sick for not going to 
 a physician, the dying for not having life, the lost for not 
 being found ! One wonders that any one hearing a Gospel 
 that would electrify the lost, can for one moment need a per- 
 suasive to believe, to rejoice in, and be happy. Let me ask 
 you again, what is this Gospel ? Do you desire to see God 
 in the aspect of a Father ? Do you desire to see Him that 
 made you, your Legislator and your King, not preparing 
 punishment for his returning prodigal, but looking out if he 
 can see the first sign of his shadow, or hear the first footfall 
 of his approach, and the instant that he hears or sees one 
 poor sinner running from his ruin, and seeking forgiveness 
 and acceptance in the bosom of God, giving signal to all the 
 choirs of the sky, who sing for joy, " One lost sheep is found 
 — another dead one is alive — another poor prodigal has 
 come to his home." Or do you desire to find the way to 
 everlasting life, the way to everlasting joy ? Where can 
 you find it but in this blessed Gospel ? Ask nature, and in 
 all her oracles she is dumb ; try it by Mount Sinai, and you 
 may as well climb to the fixed stars as climb by it to heaven. 
 The door of innocence is shut, the door of the law is impas- 
 
LAST APPEAL. 841 
 
 sable ; but here announced upon the banks of the Jordan, 
 and upon the streets of Jerusalem, a sound more musical 
 than ever fell upon the listening ear of mankind, "I am the 
 Avaj ; no man cometh to the Father but by me." Do you 
 nc^ed a persuasive, do you need argument, and eloquent ap- 
 peal to urge you to enter upon that way, to lay hold upon 
 this Blessed Saviour, and to give utterance to the deepest 
 feelings of your heart, " Lord, to whom can we go but unto 
 thee ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Or again, do 
 you desire to have the forgiveness of your sins? Do you 
 wish to know the only possibility of that — how shall sin be 
 forgiven, how shall mine iniquities be pardoned? Ask any 
 religion you like, and it can give you no answer. Ask the 
 deist, and he hopes that you may obtain forgiveness, but he 
 cannot assure you. Ask the Unitarian, and he thinks God 
 will be merciful, he hopes there will be mercy. God says 
 he will forgive ; but how he can be just and yet justify, he 
 knows not. But ask the Bible, ask the evangelist, ask the 
 Holy Spirit who inspired that evangelist to record that tes- 
 timony ; and he will tell you that in Christ God is just, whilst 
 he justifies the very chiefest and worst of sinners. What a 
 magnificent truth is that ! Not, God is merciful to forgive us ; 
 we can easily understand that ; but what a truth — " God is 
 faithful and just to forgive us our sins ! " Such a statement 
 is that of an inspired evangelist, or it is the Avild hallucination 
 of a lunatic. It can be nothing between the two. But " we 
 know in whom we have believed." In Christ we have re- 
 mission and forgiveness of sins. If then you are conscious 
 you are sinners, and there is no one in this assembly tiiat 
 does not feel that ; if you know that sin is misery on earth, 
 and misery hereafter, when things seen and palpable have 
 passed away ; if you know the wages of sin is death ; if you 
 believe what the Bible tells you, that you are shut up in the 
 prison of condemnation by nature, criminals, without God 
 and without hope, — then, if freedom to the captive and 
 
 29* 
 
342 LAST APPEAL. 
 
 health to the diseased need no urging ; if food to the hun- 
 gry needs not the accompaniment of persuasion to make him 
 eat it, how is it possible that this good news, the chiefest 
 Saviour for the chiefest sinner, needs arguing, persuasion, 
 remonstrance, reasoning? One would think the difficulty 
 would be to prevent all humanity rushing with lightning 
 speed to the bosom of God, and having instant peace, and 
 pardon, and acceptance. Oh ! shall the fishermen forsake 
 their nets, and the publican his receipt of custom, and royal 
 ones their thrones, and philosophers their studies, and come 
 and worship the Infant Jesus ; and shall we go one to his 
 farm, another to his merchandise, and another to his home, 
 and all say, " We will send for him at a more convenient 
 season ? " My dear friends, the guilt that will ruin thou- 
 sands is not that they have broken God's law, but that they 
 have heard such a Gospel as this, and utterly despised it. 
 And let me remind you of that awful truth — I think the most 
 awful in the New Testament — that rejecting is not such a 
 sin as neglecting. I can respect the infidel Avho says, " I 
 have examined the Bible " — he may have examined it very 
 imperfectly — " and the conclusion I come to is, that the 
 Bible is not true." I can respect that man — he is most 
 honest he is most candid — whilst I bitterly deplore his misfor- 
 tune. But when a man hears the Gospel, and puts down his 
 own conclusions on what he has heard, and lives in contempt- 
 uous neglect, I can understand the force of that awful ex- 
 clamation of an apostle, " How shall we escape ; " not if we 
 reject — that is bad enough — but " how shall we escape, 
 if we neglect so great salvation ? " 
 
 Now, I ask you. Have you ever spent as much time upon 
 the investigation of the way to heaven, of the truth of Chris- 
 tianity, as you have spent in reading some ancient history, 
 or deciphering some curious manuscrijit, or ascertaining the 
 medical properties of a plant, or analyzing the crystals of a 
 mineral? Are there not thousands upon thousands who, 
 
LAST APPEAL. 343 
 
 if they would only honestly and impartially reflect, would see 
 that no time is regarded by them as too great to be expended 
 upon scientific matters, and that minutes are thought to be 
 most unworthy sacrifices when expended upon ascertaining 
 if this be God's Book, and if they be walking in the way 
 that leads to heaven. Why, how can we answer for these 
 things — how can we excuse ourselves at the judgment-seat? 
 If this Bible be true, often has the infidel said, there are not 
 half a dozen believers in it ; if this Bible be false, it is not 
 to be received with any intermediate treatment. I cannot 
 accept Christianity as a piece of state policy ; I cannot ac- 
 cept the minister of the Gospel as one merely to keep the 
 common people in order. I regard religion as the great in- 
 structress of the soul, the way to God, to heaven, and to 
 happiness ; and, if this book be not that, then it is the most 
 awful blasphemy : it cannot be burned too soon. And what 
 we are called upon to come to, is to one or other of these 
 conclusions ; — either put the book into the fire, speak man- 
 fully, say, " I do not believe in God, or in heaven, or in hell, 
 or in the immortality of the soul." I can understand that — 
 that is most consistent ; but any thing between that, and 
 vital, living, evangelical, thorough Protestant Christianity, I 
 know not. There are but two grand consistencies in the 
 world ; — the man that musters hardihood to live, as live he 
 may, in the freezing vacuum in which the soul cannot 
 breathe and wing cannot soar, called Atheism, or the man 
 that lives in the happy, the holy, the blessed hope, that God 
 is his God, eternity his life hereafter, infinitude his home. 
 There is nothing consistent between. Socinianism is a huge 
 inconsistency, Tractarianism is a huge inconsistency, Deism 
 is a huge inconsistency. Atheism is a consistency — the 
 consistency of the polar iceberg it may be, but it is consis- 
 tency — living Christianity is also a consistency; and be- 
 tween these two there is not a resting-place for the soles of 
 your feet. 
 
M4: LAST APPEAL. 
 
 Or, on the otlier band, do you desire your hearts to be re- 
 newed by God's Holy Spirit, — do you wish to be made tit 
 for heaven ? Jesus appeals to you, and he says, " If ye, 
 fathers and mothers, with all your faults, know how to give 
 good gifts to your children, how much more will your heav- 
 enly Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask him ? " 
 One would think it would need no reasoning to make you 
 pray, " O God, give me thy Holy Spirit." Or, do you desire 
 to join, in the better land, the groups of them that have pre- 
 ceded you ? Do you desire to mingle with cherubim and 
 seraphim, and those that worship God in the upper sanctuary ? 
 How did they get there ? There is not a soul in heaven 
 that did not get there by one only process. One asks, " Who 
 are these that I see in heaven clothed in white robes — 
 wdio are they ? " The answer is, " These are they that have 
 washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the 
 Lamb. Therefore are they before tlie throne of God, and 
 serve him day and night without ceasing." Now you can 
 get there by the same process. There is but one word that 
 is the password of heaven and earth ; there is but one way 
 that leads to glory, to honor, and to immortality, — and that 
 is, Christ. It is his precious blood, it is trust in God's love 
 manifested to us in and through Christ the Mediator, and 
 applied to us by his holy and his blessed Spirit. You 
 are in a world of trial. I speak to men of every section, 
 sphere, and class, in our social superstructure ; I speak to 
 those that have aches, and ills, and cares, and bitter recollec- 
 tions ; and, worse than bitter recollections, foreboding fears, 
 and sorrows, and trials, the dim presentiments of which are 
 all that they feel now. In such a world we need not only 
 guidance, but comfort. Where will you go amidst the 
 accumulating weaknesses of age, amidst the darkening of 
 lights that once made your home all brightness; and the 
 exhaustion of a fire that once made it all cheerful — where 
 will you go for comfort ? All the cisterns of this world are 
 
LAST APPEAL. 345 
 
 broken cisterns. I cannot conceive how a man can liave one 
 moment's happiness or peace who lives to fifty, sixty, seventy, 
 and sees son, daughter, brothers and sisters, and fathers and 
 mothers, and friends, all swelling the dim procession to the 
 grave, and knows not Christ. Where can that man's happi- 
 ness be ? If there be no meeting place, no blessed reunion, 
 no repairing of shattered groups, no completing of broken 
 circles, no hope beyond the grave, no light of glory upon the 
 l^ale flxce of the dead, then of all men we are most miserable, 
 and a dog's life is better than that of a human being. But 
 we need consolation, and, blessed be God ! we know where 
 it is to be found. And if, my dear friends, I bring you to 
 that hour which comes to all, and that must also come to 
 you, I ask, what then will be your comfort ? You may de- 
 pend upon it, when you lie down upon the last bed, and the 
 quivering pulse gives evidence of the approaching severance, 
 all the honors that could be snowed down from roj^al thrones, 
 all the riches that could be piled around you in the largest 
 coffers, you have no idea how poor, worthless, miserable, 
 unsatisfactory they will seem to you in that hour, and dur- 
 ing that agony : they can tell you best who have gone 
 through it. Those things that you are now clutching 
 at, those treasures you are now striving after, on a dy- 
 ing bed will be to you as wretched clay, and worthless, 
 even more worthless than that. But if, on a dying bed, 
 you know that the sun of your life, that sets in the darken- 
 ing west, will rise beautifid and glorious, in the everlasting 
 east ; if you feel that your death is but the officiating min- 
 ister parting from the shattered temple in which it has done 
 service so long, and singing, as he emerges from the ruin, 
 his happy and his blessed " Now, Lord, lettest thou thy ser- 
 vant depart in peace ; " if you feel, as the Gospel teaches, 
 that the day of your death is only your coming of age, and 
 that your last breath makes you free of a glorious universe, 
 
346 LAST APPEAL. 
 
 what comfort, what peace ! If this be true, what a glorious 
 rehgioii is the Gospel ! If this book be true, and if what I 
 am now stating be its fair, as it is its fair and impartial in- 
 terpretation, then to a Christian there is no dying. I need 
 not tell you that there is no such thing as universal night. 
 When it is night upon this hemisphere, or on this side of 
 the globe, it is bright daylight upon the other hemisphere. 
 And there is no such thing as death. Your emergence from 
 the shadows of time, the hemisphere of earth, is only your 
 crossing the line, and entrance into the bright sunshine that 
 lies perpetually upon the opposite side. There is no such 
 thing as extinction or annihilation to a Christian. We 
 think so ; and, as I have often said to you, we dishke to die ; 
 and quite right. It is an instinct of my nature to live ; and 
 I believe the wish to die is a sinful wish — it is a suicidal 
 wish. Our wish should be to live for ever ; I have often 
 said, we were never made nor meant to die. Sin has done 
 that. But when I can look at death in the light of Chris- 
 tianity, I can see that just as my body is undergoing complete 
 dissolution every seven years, and new particles taking the 
 place of the old, so the grave will be but the last of its 
 changes, and its last change will be there under Christ's presi- 
 dency. How beautiful is the phrase, a cemetery, literally a 
 sleeping-place ! — the body calmly waiting for the resurrec- 
 tion hour, wliilst the soul, the man, myself, that which thinks, 
 feels, lives, and loves, is ministering before the throne of 
 God and of the Lamb for ever! 
 
 If this Gospel do contain such truths as these, must I urge 
 them upon you, my dear friends ? In the depths of his con- 
 science every one in this assembly knows — and there is my 
 strength, — that I am perfectly right. You do not need 
 argument — your own hearts, your own consciences, are my 
 witnesses ; and between these truths and the conscience of 
 man there is that perfect harmony which makes the infer- 
 
LAST APPEAL. 347 
 
 ence irresistible, that the God who made my conscience, in- 
 spired this Gospel ; and I speak to you words of soberness 
 and truth when I bid you believe on Him, and remind you 
 that there is no excuse that Avill stand for a moment's inves- 
 tigation for not believing on Jesus, and so liaving life ever- 
 lastinof. 
 
 END. 
 
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 PRINTED IN U.S.A.