ointments, and brought them to anoint Him on the first day of the week, but found the sepulchre empty, and were told that He was risen.

May there not have been in this act of anointing the Lord's head and feet, (and in so doing His body,) a foreshadowing of the costly value and sweet savour of His death which belongs to every member of the body of Christ in resurrection. The odour of that very precious sacrifice fills the house of God; and each member of Christ's body, of His flesh and of His bones, from the foot to the head, is accepted and loved by God according to the unspeakable value of Him "who gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour."

How we see the old things of the law rapidly coming to their close as the death of the Lord Jesus, the Lambof God, drew nigh; as the new eternal things were about to be established. Caiaphas breathes out a last utterance of wondrous import, in which all prophetic power of the Aaronic priesthood finally ceased. "Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." John xi. 49, 50.

Subsequently it would seem that the high priest committed a breach of the very law that constituted him. priest; so that he not only made void his priesthood,. but even exposed himself to the sentence of death. He rent his priestly clothes in the act of condemning Him, who through that very death to which he condemned Him, was to be raised up a High Priest for ever, after a new and eternal order.

"And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.

I

Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

"Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.

"What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death."-Matt. xxvi. 63–66.

66

Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

"And Jesus said, I am : and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

"Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses ?

"Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye e? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death."Mark xiv. 61-64.

This rending of the high priest's clothes was forbidden: first, in Lev. x. 6, "uncover not your heads neither rend your clothes, lest ye die," and subsequently a distinct precept was given to that effect" the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes."Lev. xxi. IO.

Although in both these cases the prohibition is made in connexion with mourning for the dead, yet the very fact of such being the case, would seem to imply that he must not do so on any other occasion. If in the first natural outburst of grief, because of a deep domestic sorrow, he was threatened with death if he rent his clothes, surely such an act could not be permitted under any other circumstances.

Whilst the Lord lay in the tomb, the last Sabbath day under the law was observed. We read no more of the keeping of that day in the Acts or in the Epistles. It is emphatically said in Luke xxiii. 56, "that the women returned (from the sepulchre) and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment." The chief Priests and

Pharisees on the other hand broke the Sabbath by sealing the stone and setting the watch over the sepulchre of Jesus. It is distinctly said that they came to Pilate the day that followed the day of preparation, the day of preparation being the day before the Sabbath. Matt. xxvii.. 62-66; Mark xv. 42. What a strange rest was this. last Sabbath! The last day of a creation week, when originally the morning stars had sung together, and the Sons of God had shouted for joy, at beholding the handy work of the Son of God. But how still, how silent all song and shout, whether in heaven or in earth. What a strange pause, an interval between the passing away of the old things and the beginning of the new :: not a real Sabbath of rest and joy.* Truly old things have now passed away: the Lord is risen indeed, and the law which made nothing perfect has been changed. A better hope has been brought in, established upon an entire change of priesthood. We have an everlasting. High Priest, an everlasting righteousness, an everlasting salvation, an everlasting covenant, an everlasting redemption, everlasting life. We are dwelt in by an eternal Spirit, and we are entering into God's eternal rest.

*The words, and they rested (Luke xxiii. 56) has in the Greek, rather the sense of silence and stillness, than the thought of rest from labour, or work. A participle of the same verb is used for "the dead of night." It was indeed a time of stillness like the dead of night, and yet what a mighty victory was won, "through death he (Jesus) destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil."Heb. ii. 14.

Twice only in Scripture is it said, "they rested on the seventh," or "sabbath day." Exod. xvi. 30, when the manna was given; and the above verse, in Luke xxiii.

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.

"And 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 vail before the mercy-seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.

"Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt offering."-Lev. xvi, 1—3. THE book of Leviticus seems to change its character and mode of teaching, after the 10th chapter. The sacrifices and consecration of the priesthood, which we have been considering occupy the first nine chapters. But when, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu, the priesthood had proved itself an utter failure, another course of instruction is pursued by the Lord, and we have first, descriptions of unclean animals, and next, chapter upon chapter detailing various uncleannesses-leprosy, issues, and the like. It is as if the higher mode of instruction had been first adopted by God, namely, to teach His holiness and hatred to sin, through the purity, and preciousness, and value of the sacrifices: and the priests having failed thus to learn that they had to deal with a Holy God, a lower course of instruction is adopted, teaching what man is, and what the world is; filled with iniquity and uncleanness. Then follows this grand chapter of the book.

In each of the first four books of the Word of God, there occurs one striking chapter to which we instinctively turn for typical instruction, respecting the great truths of salvation. The 22nd chapter of Genesis, Abraham offering up "his only begotten son," directs our thoughts to the Lamb of God. God's blessed Son, revealed to us in the Gospel by John.

The 12th of Exodus, is a foundation chapter from whence we gather the great truth of redemption by the blood, there for the first time prefigured.

This 16th of Leviticus which we are about to consider

is the great chapter depicting atonement and its results. It is frequently referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Whilst in the book of Numbers we have the ashes of the red heifer and the water of purification in the 19th chapter, which affords us deep lessons respecting the constant defilements we incur, and the constant need of the blood of cleansing.

God gave the directions contained in this chapter of Lev. respecting the day of atonement, after the death of Nadab and Abihu. On the very day* of their consecration (elated perhaps by the high position into which they had been brought) they " took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord." chap. x. i.

Fire had come out from before the Lord and had consumed the sacrifices upon the altar. These two eldest sons of Aaron should have taken coals of burning fire from off that altar fire which had come from the Lord. But instead of this, they put fire in their censers which was common to them, but strange to the Lord. May we not regard this as another form of Cain worship? Another warning against the unitarianism, or socinianism of the day? Cain offered an offering without the shedding of blood. His was a religion of works, though the name of the Lord was in it. His was not the worship of a false God-but it was false worship of the true God, worship which was not preceded by salvation.

Nadab and Abihu were quite correct as to censer, incense, and the holy place: but they did not recognize that it was the fire from God which had fed upon the sacrifices, and that no fragrance could come up to God from the hands even of His priests, unless through the sacrifice consumed in judgment on the altar. Christ may be owned as a true Christ. He may even be

*This, it would seem, was the case, from Lev. x. 19. "Aaron said, Behold this day have they offered their sin-offering and their burnt-offering before the Lord, and such things have befallen me." The sin-offering and burnt-offering to which Aaron here alludes, are those mentioned in Lev. ix. 2, 8-14, which were therefore offered on the same day that Nadab and Abihu perished