of the sins of the flesh have been put off from us as regards all judgment and wrath of God. We (not our evil nature) have been reconciled to God. 2nd Cor. v. 18; Col. i. 21.

This is the great aspect of atonement. For what troubles us most, is the constant presence of an evil heart, an evil nature; an inclination for sin, which will make itself to be felt notwithstanding all our efforts towards practical holiness, and notwithstanding we are new creatures in Christ, and notwithstanding the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. As believers

we have a right to look at this, the old man, and say, it has been crucified; it has been condemned once for all; it has been judged under the full wrath of God, poured out upon His own Son for us. And there is 66 now no condemnation of any kind to us-no condemnation on account of this evil nature which we still know to exist-no condemnation on account of weakness, failures, ignorances, sins. The uncleannesses and transgressions of the people entered the sanctuary of God, and had to be met by the blood of atonement, or otherwise wrath must have burst forth from before the Lord upon the people, or God must remove His dwellingplace from the midst of them.

"The patterns of things in the heavens were purified with these," (sacrifices) but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices* than these, for Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Heb. ix. 23, 24.

Notwithstanding our manifest sins and uncleannesses, of which to a great extent we are unconscious, Christ has opened the way for us into the very glory of GodHe has preceded us there with His own most precious blood-and now we can draw near with confidence,

*This is the only place where the word sacrifices occurs in the plural, when the death of the Lord Jesus is spoken of. In all probability it is used to express the fact of His one sacrifice embracing every varied aspect of the many sacrifices offered under the law.

without defiling with our presence the holiest of all. We can confess our sins before the mercy-seat itself. We can bring our deep necessities, and find mercy and grace to help us. We can offer thanksgiving, praise and worship which God can accept because of the sweet savour of that precious blood. We can say, without fear, "thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret (sins) in the light of thy countenance,” (Psa. xc. 8.) because we know Christ is in the presence of God for us; His precious blood is in the very light of the glory of God on our behalf. The sins which have reached to heaven have been covered; blotted out by that sprinkled blood. "We have come to God, the judge of all." We have heard His sentence pronounced upon us as guilty and defiled sinners. We have seen that sentence executed in the death of His own Son. We have been justified from sin through that death, "justified by his blood." Rom. v. 9; vi. 7.

We have come "to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant;" the High Priest in the presence of God for us, ministering to us all the blessings of that new covenant. We have come "to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel;" the blood of sprinkling upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat. God said to Cain respecting the blood of Abel, "the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand." Gen. iv. IO, II. The blood cried for vengeance. The blood of sprinkling to which we have come, speaketh incessantly mercy and grace; answers every accusation; calls down ceaseless blessings; cleanseth from all sin; utters a voice which delights the ear of God; and which enables Him to open His hand and fill us with good. The word " speaketh" is a blessed word, in contrast not only with the blood of Abel which cried for vengeance, but with the blood of bulls and of goats, which spoke but for a moment, and effected nothing in

reality. Whereas this blood speaketh on and on with a ceaseless still small voice of power, until the day of full redemption, when the resurrection of the Church in glory will manifest for ever its mighty efficacy: and the voice of the precious blood will continue to sound until Israel, God's chosen nation, and others redeemed out of the world during the 1000 years reign of Christ, are clothed with immortality.

SPRINKLING THE INCENSE ALTAR.

"And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.

"And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.-Lev. xvi. 18, 19.

THE words "until he come out and have made an atonement," see ver. 17, seem at first to be violated by the beginning of the above passage, "and he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord."

"The altar before the Lord" is not the altar of burnt-offering in the court of the tabernacle, but the altar of incense in the holy place; so that Aaron did not go out of the tabernacle itself, he only went out from the holy of holies where the ark stood into the holy place. He did not go out into the court of the tabernacle until he had finished the work of atonement towards God, for himself, and the people; and also had cleansed the holy places.

The blood of the bullock, the sin-offering for himself, and for his house; and the blood of the goat, the sin-offering for the people, was put upon the horns, and sprinkled seven times upon the altar of incense, as the blood of the same sin-offerings had been before sprinkled

on the mercy-seat and ark. By this means the altar was cleansed and hallowed from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel. In Exod. xxx. 10, this atonement is anticipated. "Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the Lord.'

The mercy-seat was the throne of glory where God manifested His presence-He dwelt between the Cherubim. The incense altar was the holy vessel from which, day and night, the holy perfume ascended from burning coals of fire, filling the tabernacle with fragrance. It was, we may say, the active vessel of the tabernacle. The blood of atonement accomplished a double purpose: the uncleannesses, transgressions, and sins of Israel were purged away from before God in the holiest; and the altar of incense was cleansed from all defilement attaching to it through their uncleannesses, and was made ready to receive the burning coals and incense as if it had been for the first time made and hallowed for that purpose.

We see in this type a figure of the atonement completed by the Lord Jesus with regard to the purging of our sins, and the consequent exercise of His priesthood in ceaseless intercession, like the golden altar before the Lord, continually sending up its cloud of sweet incense. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, these two blessed services of our great High Priest are clearly distinguished from one another. If we regard the question of atonement for sin, the Lord Jesus has sat down, having completed that work. Four times in this Epistle are the words "sat down" repeated.

"When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high," i. 3.

"We have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens," viii. I.. Every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take

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away sins: but this one, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God," x. II, 12.

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God," xii. 2.

The expressions are remarkably varied in these four passages as to where the Lord has sat down. "On the right hand of the Majesty on high."

"On the right hand of God."

"On the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens."

On the right hand of the throne of God."

We may gather some instruction from these changes of expression. In the first quotation there seems to be a striking contrast between purging sins, and the Majesty on high. Who could have expected that one who had been engaged in such a work as cleansing away sins, with all their guilt and defilements, would have immediately taken His place at the right hand of the highest glory? Yet such is the dignity of His person, and such was the greatness of His work-such the lowliness of His obedience, that He was exalted to the highest place of glory, from the lowest place of suffering and humiliation.

A cross of curse and shame where He purged our sins, followed by a grave in which His body lay in the helplessness of death, was the pathway taken by the Lord Jesus to reach His place of super-exaltation.

In the second quotation we have Jesus as the High Priest sat down on the right hand of God, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever. In many of our Bibles the stopping of this verse is different, reading thus-" when he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down." And this perhaps is the more correct punctuation. The purport of the passage being to tell us that Christ has sat down in perpetuity, or for ever, in