At the same time, it must be observed that, in order to satisfy the requirements of law, the union between the sinner and Christ must be a real and personal union, not theoretical only, nor fictitious. There is no

legal equivocation. The union must be a union like that of the husband and wife in regard to property, or the head and hand in regard to crime. Justice will not be fooled into mercy by a pretended union which exists only in fancy, and has no reality in fact.

T was on the first day of the second year after the exodus from Egypt that the Tabernacle was completed and set up in the wilderness of Sinai (Ex. xl. 17).

"Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle" (Ex. xl. 34); "and the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying" (Lev. i. 1).

:

Such is the introduction to the Gospel of Leviticus. And now began the fulfilment of the promise that had before been made unto Moses :"I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel" (Ex. xxv. 22).

Thus, "while the moral law was given with terror from a burning mountain in thunder and lightning, the remedial law of sacrifice is given more gently from a mercy-seat, because that was typical of the grace of the gospel, which is the ministration of life and peace.' *

With sacrifice, as a propitiatory rite, mankind had long been familiar; but now, to a single nation, separated from the rest of the world, and set apart as the typical Church of God, was to be given a fuller knowledge of the way of life.

Judaism was the projected shadow of a coming reality; and from the substance it derived its shape and outline. But its higher teachings

Matthew Henry.

I.

were less for the Church of that day than for the Church of the future and of all time. Its ordinances and symbols were to the Jew what the alphabet and primer are to the child; but in their spiritual significance they are for the Christian, to whom they furnish the most exquisite illustrations of the gospel, and which, as divinely given, cannot mislead if but rightly interpreted. For Judaism, "in its expiations, in its washings, in all its solemnities, constituted a volume of prophecy expressed by signs, in which the atonement of Christ, the sanctification of the Spirit, and the leading doctrines of the gospel, were prefigured. But the service of the tabernacle was a record, the language and characters of which few of those who were perpetuating understood. Being typical and prophetic, it was necessary that it should be prescribed with the most minute exactness; that the observance of every tittle should be enforced, and no discretion allowed for deviating from the formula, for adding, diminishing, or altering. The performance of such a service was like taking a copy of a book in an unknown tongue, where the alteration of a word, or a letter, or a dot, may destroy the sense in some material point. It was therefore the will of God that it should be performed according to the letter of the commandment."*

The earlier economy thus embodies everlasting truth, and will to the end of time form an instructive portion of the Word of God. Nor is it too much to say that, as a dictionary is required to interpret the words of a new language, so the words and facts of the gospel can be

"The Three Temples of the One God," by Bishop Hinds.

At first, however, the ritual of Leviticus is embarrassing. For instead of the one primeval sacrifice, of unmistakable significance, and "majestic in its simplicity," we have a multiplicity of offerings, and are at a loss to read their distinctive lessons. Their number and variety, with the confusing effect of cross-lights, seem only to create haze and uncertainty. We feel, too, as if the completeness and sufficiency figured by the one great sacrifice were impaired and weakened by the many. And the embarrassment is not a little increased by the unexpected, the singular order in which the offerings come before us. For the sin-offering, now specifically appointed, is neither foremost, nor of unlimited intent. On the contrary, it comes after the peace-offering, and seems designed for sins of ignorance only! All this is perplexing. By-and-by, however, when the right view-point is found, the lights combine, and the Mosaic system stands out clearly defined in every feature, --a grand unity, instructive not only in each of its members, but instructive likewise in the order of their collocation. Each offering is seen to represent some one use or aspect of Christ's atonement; the whole group being required to set it forth in the fulness of its adaptation to the needs of the true Israelite, with the development of whose inner life and experience the arrangement of the group is found to be strikingly accordant.

But ere we go on to speak of the several oblations now instituted, let us glean such notices of sacrifice as the earlier Scriptures afford. These notices are of the most incidental kind, and singularly few, considering the supreme import

44 Christ and the Scriptures," by Saphir.
Stewart, of Cromarty.

the field from which we gather them stretches over a period of twenty-five centuries; a duration so vast that, in comparison, the existence of Judaism is little more than a parenthesis between the patriarchal dispensation and the Christian. Nor do we learn from these Scriptures the origin of a rite, which yet has been the fundamental principle of all religions, the central point of worship everywhere and in all ages. That sacrifice, however, was of divine appointment, there can be no doubt. For how else can be explained the universal prevalence of an observance so extraordinary, so contrary to natural reason, as that of vicarious atonement-the notion that guilt can be expiated by other blood than that of the offender! The third of Genesis, however, sheds a light upon the darkness. For it tells us that "unto Adam and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them" (Gen. iii. 21). "Much is hidden in these words. With a sense upon the surface, there is a sense also below the surface. The sinner can only be clothed at the cost of a life. Some harmless beast, which had not died if they had not sinned, must perish, and perish by God's immediate decree, that they may be clothed; that what covered it may thenceforth cover them, being the garment in which they may not be ashamed to appear before God. In this view, that offering was the first of a long series, a type and a shadow, a prelude and a prophecy of that coming Sacrifice, in which all the others were to find their consummation and their end. The third of Genesis is assuredly the most important chapter in the whole Bible. It is the only chapter which, could we conceive it withdrawn, would leave the rest of Scripture unintelligible.*

The earliest sacrifice mentioned in Scripture is the burnt-offering of Abel (Gen. iv. 4, 5). Brief but full of meaning is the record, for it tells us that "the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering; but to Cain and to his offering he had not respect,"-thus proving the divine appointment of sacrifice,-for not after man's device will the Lord be worshipped, but only

*Archbishop Trench.

in a way marked out and prescribed by himself (Mark vii. 7). Next comes the burnt-offering of Noah, when "the Lord smelled a sweet savour," and 66 set his bow in the cloud," in token of his covenant of mercy (Gen. viii. 20, 21; ix. 13). Then follow the offerings of Abraham, whose altars built here, built there, as he journeyed along a land not his own, marked a life of faith, and betokened the presence of a reconciled God (Gen. xii. 7, 8; xiii. 4). Of Isaac there is the one instance at Beersheba, where he builds an altar to the God of his father Abraham (Gen. xxvi. 23-25); but that sacrifice was to him no strange thing is plain from the touching words on Mount Moriah, "My father! behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burntoffering?" (Gen. xxii. 7). Of Jacob, too, the notices are scant. When re-entering Canaan, he rears an altar in the field bought of the sons of Hamor, calling it El-elohe-Israel (Gen. xxxiii. 18-20). And when, after long years of vicissitude, Bethel is made his dwelling-place, an altar is erected to Him who had there appeared to him in the day of his distress, when he fled from the face of Esau his brother; and that hallowed spot is made yet more memorable, for there God "talks" with him, and the promise is renewed," Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name" (Gen. xxxv. 1–15). And yet again, when full of years, and about to go down with his sons into Egypt, we find him sacrificing to the God of his father Isaac, and this at Beersheba (Gen. xlvi. 1-3), the place where Isaac himself had sacrificed, and perhaps was wont to sacrifice; for these few instances of sacrificial worship are to be viewed as but illustrations of what we may well believe to have been the patriarchal usage and custom.*

Generations now pass away, nor until the seed of Jacob have multiplied into a nation do we meet with another reference to sacrifice. It is on the eve of the exodus, when the herds and flocks of Israel are demanded of the stubborn King of Egypt for offerings to the Lord (Ex. x. 24-27).

Thus, however brief the summary, we trace, from Eden to Sinai, the one way of reconciliation,

Genesis xxxi. 54 is omitted, as referring, perhaps, to a feast rather than a sacrifice. See marginal reading. But the feast may have followed upon a sacrifico.

the same from the beginning down through all the ages; but the further back, the higher and purer seems to have been the knowledge of God. For with the earlier patriarchs God walked and talked, awakening, by personal intercourse and teaching on his part, that acquaintance with himself for which man was created; for as speech lies dormant in the heart of a child till called into exercise by the speech which he hears around him, so it is only his own "I am the Lord," that calls forth the response "Thou art my God."*

But whatever that earlier light, and whatever the subsequent darkness, we now reach a period when the Scriptures disclose a fuller revelation both of man's duty and of the way of salvation. For the chosen people are to be taken into covenant with Jehovah; and, as preparatory to that august transaction, the law, at first written in the heart, but now well-nigh obliterated, is spoken to the ear with "the voice of words," and afterwards engraven on tables of stone: the gospel rite of sacrifice too is enjoined anew, with promise of divine acceptance. The circumstances are of dread solemnity. For the people are brought out of the camp to meet with God, and stand at the nether part of Mount Sinai, which is altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descends upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascends as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quakes greatly (Ex. xix. 17-20). And so terrible is the sight that the people remove and stand afar off (Ex. xx. 18), and even Moses is overcome of terror (Heb. xii. 21). But immediately they are reassured. "An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt - offerings......in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee" (Ex. xx. 24). Thus, as in the case of man's first sin, the revelation of mercy follows close upon the sense of guilt and shortcoming.

And now that both law and gospel have been set forth anew, there ensues the ceremonial of the covenanting.

First of all, certain statutes-judicial, ritual, and moral-are delivered to Moses for the observ ance of the commonwealth. These are recited

*Luthardts' "Fundamental Truths."

in the audience of the people, who make answer, "All that the Lord hath spoken will we do." They are then inscribed in a book called "The Book of the Covenant."* The altar is now built with twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. The offerings are presented, and of the blood, half is sprinkled on the altar. The words of the book are again read in the hearing of the people, who again make answer, "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." The remainder of the blood is then sprinkled on the book and on the people, Moses saying, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words."†

The covenant being thus solemnly ratified, there follows a marvellous communion. For Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, are called up to the mount to eat bread in the presence of God. "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 its clearness."

The transition is from Sinai to Zion. The blackness, and darkness, and tempest are gone, and through an atmosphere of crystalline purity the azure sky appears, like a pavement of blue, betokening peace." The saints of the Lord, thus "gathered unto him," and now "in covenant by sacrifice" (Ps. 1. 5), eat and drink before him, and upon the nobles of Israel no hand is laid (Ex. xxiv. 1-11).

Such, briefly, was the ceremonial of this great covenanting, and such the fellowship that followed. To Israel, a people ransomed and thus "near unto Jehovah," the Decalogue is evangelized by its preface, "I am the Lord thy God which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." We speak of the true Israel, the Church of God; and here, as throughout, we refer, not to what the Jew understood, but to what Judaism prefigured.

But all this while there is neither priesthood nor ritual, nor has Jehovah a dwelling-place

* This book consists of Ex. xxi., xxii., xxiii.

† Ex. xxiv. 3-8; also Heb. ix. 18-20, printed in full. "The Oriental sapphire is of a blue, sky colour, or fine azure; whence it is that the prophets describe the throne of God as it were of the colour of a sapphire; that is, of celestial blue or azure." (Ezek. x. i.)—Cruden.

among his people; and months must yet elapse ere the typical institutions of Judaism come into existence.

To Moses, however, instructions are now given to prepare a tabernacle according to a pattern shown to him, and "in each bolt and partition significant.' He is directed to separate Aaron and his sons to the priest's office (Ex. xxviii. 1); a ceremonial of consecration is prescribed (Ex. xxviii.); a daily burnt-offering enjoined (Ex. xxix. 38); and the acceptance of the sacrifice is graciously promised. After a wondrous communing of forty days, the man of God descends from the mount bearing in his hands the "two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God" (Ex. xxxi. 18.)

At length the sacred tent is reared, and the glory of the Lord fills it; the tabernacle of God is with men, and he dwells with them; they are his people, and he is their God.

And now has arrived the fulness of the time for the symbolic Gospel of Leviticus. From the tabernacle the Lord calls (Lev. i. 1), and as Moses draws near there is heard "the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy-seat that was upon the ark of testimony from between the two cherubims" (Num. vii. 89). For thus graciously did the Lord "talk with Moses, and speak unto him face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Ex. xxxiii. 11).

Forbear

The offerings now appointed constitute a system of religious worship and instruction. They form a group of five members, each member with a minute law or ritual of its own. With these subsidiary laws, however, it is not our purpose to deal, their recondite prefigurations requiring the finest perception of gospel similitude and the ripest maturity of judgment. ing then all that is exquisite in symbolism, we would deal with the system in its larger features only. We would speak of it in its unity and in the relation of its parts; and, after the fashion of a skeleton map, understood at a glance and easily remembered, would trace the comprehending outline and contained divisions: and this in the hope that the presentation, however blank and meagre, may remove some of the perplexities commonly

* Dr. C. J. Vaughan.

experienced by the reader of Leviticus, and, like the map, prepare for the study of what lies within.

1. The first in order of the group is the Burnt-offering (Lev. i.). This great oblation, the primeval, catholic sacrifice appointed in the beginning, when as yet there was neither Jew nor Gentile, having descended from age to age, is now adopted as the foundation of the Jewish system. Representing the atonement of Christ in its infinite fulness, and instituted for the sins, not of any one people or nation, but for the sins of the whole world, this offering holds the foremost and chief place in the Mosaic ritual. It formed the grand, public expiation for the commonwealth of Israel, and availed for sins of whatever kind. It was the root or stock from which all the other offerings sprang,—the basis on which the entire system rested, it comprehended all within itself. This great offering was presented daily, a lamb morning and evening; weekly, the victims being doubled on the Sabbath; monthly, their number being increased at new moon; and yearly, for at the Passover and other annual solemnities they were still further multiplied (Num. xxviii., xxix.). It was a holocaust or "whole burnt-offering," the carcass of the victim being wholly consumed; and it was the continual burnt-offering," one victim replacing another upon the altar without pause or intermission.* It was thus an everliving sacrifice, undying efficacy being symbolized by its ceaseless continuance. It was also of "“a sweet savour unto the Lord" (Lev. i. 9, 13, 17), and ever burning on the altar, made "continual intercession."

Some are of opinion that this oblation pointed to the whole work of Christ upon earth: not to his atonement only, but also to his life-long obedience; that along with "reconciliation for iniquity," it figured "the everlasting righteousness" (Dan. ix. 24)-zeal, like a consuming fire, rendering his entire life a holocaust, "an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour" (Eph. v. 2).

Though in an especial sense a public oblation, the burnt-offering might be presented by any

| Israelite on his own behalf. "He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle,......and he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make an atonement for him" (Lev. i. 2-4).

Of all the offerings, this only could stand alone. The others, when presented, went along with it; but none of them for an instant interrupted or set it aside. So far from being independent, each of them rested on this as its basis, and was but an index or exponent of some one feature or result of atonement, or of some use of it according to the changing circumstances of the worshipper. Hence the poor man's handful of flour, though a bloodless sacrifice, availed as a sin-offering no less than the rich man's bullock; for both rested alike on the burnt-offering, and, through it, pointed to the atonement. Indeed, the sinoffering itself, as we shall presently see, was but a specific appropriation of this fundamental obla

tion.

In the sacrifices thus viewed the burntoffering as comprehending in itself all the others, and they, again, as but unfolding it in its various uses and shades of meaning-in this, we conceive, is to be found the explanation and the key to the sacrificial system of the Jews. So viewed, all becomes consistent and harmonious. Each offering contributes a light and a meaning of its own; and together, their lights, instead of intermingling to confuse the vision, blend into one full and clear illumination, making the vision greatly more distinct and perfect.

Before passing from this oblation, let us observe that at the inauguration of the Tabernacle service, on the day when Aaron entered upon his ministry as High Priest, "there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell upon their faces" (Lev. ix. 24). Can we wonder that, seeing the victim taken and themselves set free, there should follow the shout of a great deliverance-this solemnized joy and lowliest adoration? For thus was the altar "the meetingplace of mercy and truth" (Ps. lxxxv. 10), and Israel's God manifested as at once a just God and a Saviour " (Isa. xlv. 21). It was probably of