Man's need of law--Man innately lawless--False philosophy--But
law must be suitable--Systems of law--The Mosaic only divine---Christ's
endorsement thereof --Importance of study because divine--Its admirable
character--Its public rehearsal in main features after Israel's entrance
into the land--Its commendation by Moses before his death--Aim of the law
as a mouth-shutter--Also its enigmatical shadowings of present rupture
and future reconciliation--Its mission in clearing the way for the grace
of God by bringing man under condemnation.
The world not without divine law before Moses--The times
of Abraham. Noah, Adam--The flood--The tower of Babel--Melchizedek, the
centre of divine law among descendants of Noah--A new start in Abraham
through faith--Not a new principle but the new form of an old principle--Adaptation
to altering circumstances--Divine law and priesthood as old as Eden--Every
obedient man his own priest from Abel to Abraham--The interval between
the covenant with Abraham and the exodus of Israel from Egypt under Moses--Lingering
traces of the knowledge of God--Balaam, the Egyptian priests--Perverted
remnants of knowledge--Heathen idolatries and ritualisms corrupt vestiges
of knowledge from Noah--From Abraham to Moses--Perfecting of individuals--The
bulk of Israel little better than the Egyptians--Ezekiel's testimony--Why
add God redeem them ?--Their organization as a nation, a measure with divine
aims irrespective of their character-Israel made willing by affliction
in Egypt--The negotiations between Moses and Pharaoh--The departure on
the night of the Passover--Through the Red Sea to the Wilderness--The call
of Moses to Sinai--The covenant proposed to the people.
Meeting with God--A divine address to the whole nation
from the summit of Sinai--Recital of the ten commandments in the hearing
of the whole assembly, by "a great voice"--The tables of stone--Their
description as "the moral law" objectionable--Morality not an
element in the nature of things--Morality extraneous to man and dependent
wholly on the law of God--Hence killing and not killing right by turns--"Moral
difficulties of the Old Testament" imaginary --Due to wrong ideas
of moral law--God's own description of the ten command-ments-The covenant
between Him and Israel--The rest of the law mere appurtenances and amplifications--Unsuitable
and unjust to regard the ten commandments in any other light than that
in which the Mosaic record exhibits them--A speech from God as the basis
of a national covenant--Afterwards "done away"--In what sense
done away--The new law in Christ revives their excellent rules of action--The
law of Moses unable to confer life because of human weakness--But made
operative through Christ, who was born under it and obedient in all things--Learned
misconceptions of the subject through wrong views of human nature.
Analysis of the ten commandments--Their order--God, family,
and other men--Their beauty compared with humanly evolved systems--Greek
and Roman civilizations---Contemporary laws of Canaan, Assyria, and Egypt
still worse--The uprise of the Mosaic law in their midst a miracle--The
first commandment mits incorporation of Israel's deliverance--The meaning
of this--Appeal to what Israel knew, and a guarantee of the historical
veracity of the exodus to all subsequent generations--The Decalogue and
the exodus bound together--Philosophy of the exodus--That God might be
known--Revelation a necessity --Knowledge of God rests on the evidence
of the senses--The Mosaic achievements in Egypt--Our conceptions of all
scientific phenomena must be subordinated to this--The logic of the first
commandment irresistible--The second commandment--God's jealousy of the
honour that belongs to Himself alone--The age of idolatry, continued in
the age of statues, busts and memorials. Likenesses of Greek and Roman
celebrities, but none of God's servants--Reflex effect of the commandment--Jealousy
as affirmable of God--Its difference from the human sentiment--Its basis
in wisdom and goodness--The third commandment--Reverence for the name of
God--Taking the name of God in vain.
The fourth commandment--More artificial in a sense than
the rest---The Sabbath law exclusively Israelitish--A beneficial institution--The
British nation and the Sabbath--The meaning of the Sabbath and the spiritual
objects of its institution--Its observance before the law--Its association
with the six days' creation work--Scientific objections--The earth more
than six thousand years old--The Bible account of creation not inconsistent
with this, but on the contrary involving it---The Pre-Adamite state of
the earth--The creation era--The angelic agents employed--Hebrew elohim
and Greek angeloi--Their resting and being refreshed--The creation
work--"Let there be light"--Light before the sun was made (to
appear)--The explanation--The making of a "firmament" resulting
in cloud and water--The formation of the seas, and the vegetation on the
upheaved land--Next the appearance of the sun, moon and stars--Dr. Thomas
on the subject--The explanation apparently strained and unnatural, but
not really so--The rule for settling the doubtful and the unknown--Christ's
endorsement of Genesis compelling unreserved acceptance--The possibility
if this without collision of truth--The statement that the Deity "rested
and was refreshed"--The Sabbath also a memorial of the Egyptian deliverance.
VI.--THE SABBATH IN GENTILE TIMES
The Sabbath among the Jews in modern times--The Sabbath
in Gentile Europe--Its observance a result of the establishment of "Christianity"
and a proof of Christ's resurrection--Substitution of the first for the
seventh day --How it came about --The modern contention for the observance
of the seventh day--Its unfounded character--The contentious activity of
the Judaizers in Paul's day--Paul's opposition to them--His prophecy of
their triumph--The Constantine church not an apostolic community, yet an
instrument of preliminary blessedness to the nations of Europe--The Mosaic
Sabbath not for the friends of Christ--Christ in relation to the law--The
end of it--The disannulling of it--The Sabbath law displayed--The Sabbath
in the days of Christ--His attitude anti-Sabbatarian ---even examples--The
apostles and the Sabbath--Their opposition to all observance of days--"The
Christian Sabbath" a mistaken phrase--The breaking of bread on the
first day of the week a different thing--The Sabbath in the age to come--The
Sabbath in Eden--No argument for times under Christ--The true Sabbath-keeping
in him.
VII.--THE REST OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Negative commandments--Not to do--How much human well-being
depends on this --Man's power to injure--Regulated by law, but law binding
by authority only, and authority arising from divinity--The necessity for
clear views here--Danger of setting aside obedience as the rule of righteousness--Moral
laxities due to wrong theories--Submission wrongly regarded as a symptom
of intellectual weakness--The FIFTH COMMANDMENT--Making light of father
and mother--Modern lack of reverence--The only cure--Wisdom of the commandment
to honour father and mother--Good effects on the children--Its reasonableness
in view of the part performed by parents--Respect for parents among the
Jews--Preparation for the other commandments--The SIXTH COMMANDMENT--"Thou
shalt not kill"--Divine law alone creates the moral aspect of murder--Indebtedness
of modern civilization to the effect of this law in many generations --Power
of law as a protection to life--A higher protection in love which came
after law--Under Christ, anger a crime--Obligation to love, one of the
obligations of the truth--Extending even to enemies--An apparent impossibility,
but possible when Christ is loved--The secret of triumph-Coming harvest
of love--The SEVENTH COMMANDMENT--The sexual affinity--Its power and its
blessedness when regulated by law--Necessity for iron barriers--Sophistries
born of lust-Ignorant rebellions of all kinds--The two principles which
settle the whole question--Libertinism--A short and decisive answer to
all demoralizing theories--The law of Christ a stage higher--Impure thoughts
forbidden--Powerful self-circumcision--The EIGHTH COMMANDMENT--Not a matter
of course---Wrongful taking made such only by divine prohibition--Atheism
undermining the foundations of property, leads to socialism and anarchy--The
divine recognition of personal possession as the basis of human society--Its
regulation only needed to make the earth an abode of joyful life---Individual
possession in the perfect age--The NINTH COMMANDMENT---The beauty of truth--The
fate of liars--THE TENTH COMMANDMENT--The finishing excellence---An uncovetous
eye--Superb character of the whole law.
The law of Moses a civil polity--More adapted than modem
systems to promote social well-being--The modem system a failure--Settlement
of the people on the land--Hurtful monopoly prevented by the law of Moses---pro
rata division among families on the basis of inalienable inheritance--A
nation of "landed gentry"--Self-extinguishing mortgages--Permanent
beggary impossible--Creation of large estates prevented--Preservation of
the social equilibrium--The divine land-law full of blessedness; the human,
full of woe--Possession of the land married to the worship of God the coming
cure for the world's evils--Not "nationalization" but familization
the true system--Objection on the score of increasing population --Every
seventh year a year of rest for the' land--The spontaneous harvest of that
year, the property of the poor--The miraculous double increase of the sixth
year--Levites to have no inheritance, but only residence at city centres--A
spiritualizing element in the population--Imitation in the parochial system
of Christendom--The law a failure in Israel's hands--Its resuscitation
and success under Christ.
IX.--PRIVATE LIFE AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
The land in the possession of the people, but something
else needful to prevent stolid dulness--Laws for the interweaving of God
with every occupation of life---The law as to things not to be eaten and
things not to be touched--Rest every seventh day--The rite of circumcision--Birth
of children--Presentation and redemption of the first born--Personal diseases--Defiling
contacts--God continually before the consciences of faithful men--The uncleannesses
of the law, ceremonial, not physical--Not the less powerful as a felt experience--The
law of taboo--Creation of the idea of holiness--National institutions--The
feasts--The passover--The feast of tabernacles--Extensive comings together
for a good time--A contrast to Gentile holidays--Conviviality with a rational
and spiritual aim--Celebration of the national deliverance--The calling
of God to mind--A joyous, subdued, ennobled nation--Presentation of the
firstfruits--Charms of the feast of tabernacles--Most beneficent of public
institutions--Calculated to produce a happy people.
Phylacteries--The place for God in human life--The law
of Moses as a policy of civil life--Gentile imitations--Responsibility
for effects of individual action on others--Accidental injuries--The unprotected
roof--The goring ox--The unguarded pit--The straying beast--Losing borrowed
articles--Another man's wife--Theft--Restitution--Sale of the thief--Stoning
him on refusal to work--Carlyle's rapture--Anti-slavery sentiment---Immortal-soulism
and modern objections to the law of Moses--Comparison with Egyptian and
Assyrian practices--An enemy's interests to be conserved--Just judgment
in all things --Majorities not to rule in such matters--The condemnation
of tale-bearing, revenge, and cruel sport--Inculcation of mercy to the
blind, the deaf, the poor, the distressed--Lending to be ready and free
of usury--Liberal-handedness in the harvest field--Honour to grey hairs--Protection
of female chastity--Death to the adulterer--The law, holy, just, and good,
but Israel disobedient-- A time of reformation coming.
XI.--THE COVENANT AT SINAI AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE TABERNACLE
First visit of Moses to the summit of Mount Sinai--Readiness
of the people to promise obedience when he came down--The writing and reading
of the laws added to the ten commandments--Ceremony of ratification of
the covenant to obey--Concealed meanings--Silence with regard to the objects
of what was commanded to be done--"All things by the law purged with
blood"--The connection of this fact with death as a thing due---But
the blood-shedding, being that of animals, only typical--The antitype in
Christ--His own subjection to the purifying process--Paul's testimony and
the common view--The lesson of sacrifice: not human punishment but divine
vindication--The enforcement of the will of God as the law of human action--Heathen
religions and substitutions--Moses and Aaron and seventy elders invited
to see the glory of God on the mount after ratification of the covenant---The
parallel in Christ's ascension--The throne of Eternal Light--Immensities
of universal space--Six days cloud and silence--Adumbration of divine chronology
in the shadowed substance--The "devouring fire on the top of the mount"--A
counterpart--Command to make the Tabernacle --Exhibition of the plan to
the eyes of Moses--Specially qualified artisans for the work of construction--The
practical significance of the divine care for accuracy in the matter--The
people invited to provide the materials of manufacture--The significance--The
raw material for the final divine encampment on earth furnished by the
human race--The voluntary character of the supply--Free-will the basis
of God's work with man--The making of the tabernacle--Its details as "the
form of knowledge and the truth"--Christendom astray in rejecting
the divine pattern--Every son of God a miniature tabernacle.
XII.--ALLEGORICAL TRANSACTIONS AT SINAI
Specifications for the construction of the tabernacle--Twice
set forth in a "thou-shalt make" and an "and-he-made"
series--Meaning of this apparently needless duplication--"Establishment"
by doubling--Also the two phases of divine procedure: first plan; then
fulfilment; command, then obedience; prophecy then history--Mutiny of Israel
during the absence of Moses in the mount--The anger of Moses on coming
down and finding the people in the act of idolatry--His flinging the tables
of the law out of his hand--Parallel in Christ---Also in the return of
Moses to the top of the mount to intercede for Israel--The exhibition of
the divine glory to Moses between the "thou-shalt-make" and the
"and-he-made" phases of the work--The glory of his face when
he came down--The need for a veil--The historical counterpart in the days
of Christ, and in days to come--The breaking and replacing of the tables
of the law--The discernible parallel in the course of events since and
in the prophetic sequel--The strangeness of such occurrences being made
typical of future events--In reality an added beauty of the work of God--The
pattern and quantities of the tabernacle--A meeting place with God and
not merely a portable convenience--The order of making, different from
the order of specification--A probable reason--The ark and the tables of
the law--The cherubic figures--The throne of God in Israel's midst--The
shadows involved in their construction--God in manifestation--To be known
only by revelation--The position of the ark at the very centre of Israel's
encampment--To be approached only by sacrifice--One of the secrets of popular
distaste.
XIII.--THE ARK AND ITS CONTENTS
The tabernacle as an intimation of incompleteness in the
union between God and Israel--Also as a prophecy of the way in which true
union would be effected--Substance and shadow--Christ the way in head and
body--The ark as a container --Its contents--First, the tables of stone--Typical
of the divine law in the heart---Glorious state when this is affirmable
of all men--Second, Aaron's budded rod--Its history--Typical of divine
choice and appointment as the basis of acceptable service--Divine purpose
at the root of human well-being--Its budding as a type of the resurrection--The
golden pot of manna: eternal life through Christ---The material of the
ark: wood covered with gold--A prophecy of tried faith and resurrection
recompense.--The blood-sprinkled mercy seat and cherubim all of gold--The
perfect mediator--The glory between the Cherubim, the participation of
the Eternal Father, in salvation through Christ--God at every stage--The
crown of the ark, intimation of royalty--The rings of, pilgrim mobility
in this state--The poles of, qualified carriers--Staves always in their
place, faithful men always at work--The golden censer--Nadab's and Abihu's
disobedience and death--Incense typical of prayer--The sweetness of the
incense and its smallness--The antitype in Christ--Prayer a pleasure to
God--Prayer in the immortal state--Praise its chief element--The memory
of the one great sacrifice in the age to come.
XIV.--OUTSIDE THE VEIL IN THE HOLY PLACE
The holy of helios a meeting place with God--A truth lost
sight of by natural thinkers, that God cannot be discovered or communed
with, apart from His own disclosures of Himself--"THERE will I meet
thee"--A revelation and a prophecy--The day when the curse is removed
and complete communion established--The present a time of divine silence
though not of divine inaction--The veil concealing the ark--Why it was
there--Its significance of flesh-nature in its Christ form--Rending of
the veil as to death and resurrection--Composition of the veil--Different
materials blended--The significance of this complexity--The fine-twined
linen--Sinlessness--The divine sonship of Jesus--"Josephism"--The
scarlet significant of sin--How this applied to Jesus, a sinless man--The
babe of Bethelem--Adamic flesh and blood--A sinless man subject to the
consequences of sin--The difficulties raised---Chiefly of Romish origin--The
blue and the purple--Healing and royalty--All the foreshadowings realized
in the righteous : son of David--The four pillars on which the veil was
suspended--Do they denote the "four evangelists" ?--The gold
hooks and silver sockets--Outside the veil in the holy place--No wisdom--No
light except from the seven-branched candlestick--The significance in probation--The
oil and the beauty of the oil--The trimming of the lamps morning and evening--The
daily reading of the Scriptures--No "light of nature" adequate
to the revelation of God--"Natural religion" a myth--Will worship--The
incense altar in front of the veil--Altar of sacrifice outside--The incense
altar inside, a speaking symbol of the essentiality of prayer to acceptable
worship--No strange incense or strange fire--God's own truth the basis
of approach--The blood-sprinkling on the altar of incense once a year,
an intimation that contact with the sacrifice of Christ is essential to
acceptable prayer--No relation to the stranger in any way--The table of
shewbread--Twelve cakes, twelve tribes--Israelitish character of the whole
polity of true religion--Salvation pertaining to the Jews--Modern forgetfulness
of this--The divine plan one from the beginning.
XV.--OUTSIDE THE TABERNACLE--AMONG ITS BOARDS AND COVERINGS
The incense on the shewbread--The eating of the bread
by the priests--The gold-lined walls of the tabernacle a powerful condemnation
of the modern attitude towards faith--The reasonable character of faith
as an exacted condition of divine acceptability--The vision of the golden
city--The curtains at the door of the tabernacle--The material of the curtains
the same as that of the veil--The meaning of this--The same Christ in another
relation--The five pillars, five men permanently distinguished in the work
of preaching Jesus as the door--The sockets of brass--The boards composing
the tabernacle--The mechanical compactness of the whole structure--A probable
spiritual significance--The boards considered as types of individual men--The
four corner pairs braced together--Prominent divine servants in couples
at turning points in the nation's history--A structural parable with doctrinal
and prophetic significances--The coverings laid over the tabernacle--first,
a composite gold-hooked fabric in ten parts, of similar material to the
veil--second, a larger covering of goat material tacked together with brass
hooks--third, a covering of red ram's skins, and fourth, of badger or seal
skin--The literal purpose of the coverings--The spiritual significance,
both as to %he material and the method of make-up--first, the Christ body--second,
ecclesiasticism--third, the civil power--fourth, nature.
XVI.--THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE
Tabernacle fenced off by a curtain wall of linen hung
on wood pillars in brass sockets--The material--Its significance in righteousness--The
world outside the divine economy--"They that are in the flesh cannot
please God"--Men must come inside the walls of righteousness--The
four pillars of the gate, the gospel narrators--The 56 pillars of the court,
notable servants of God--Significance of the brazen sockets, the setting
in the earth, the shittim wood of the pillars and the silver mountings--The
uncircumcised not eligible for entrance--Nature, object and appointment
of circumcision--Obedience and not gratification the ground of acceptance--The
common thought opposed to truth--Invented religions of no final value--Natural
religion a myth--The lesson of the tabernacle --God's appointment the basis
of acceptable approach--Circumcision plus sacrifice in the worshippers--The
brazen altar of burnt-offering inside the court--The necessity and meaning
of sacrifice--First in type, then in Christ--Why animal sacrifice was inadequate--The
truth proclaimed by all sacrifice, that man is separated from God and can
only return in God's way--The popular fallacy about being "good"
as the way to be saved--The relative positions of God and man forgotten--The
Gospel and the Mosaic institution at one in declaring man's position to
be hopeless apart from God's own methods and appointments--The laver--After
sacrifice, washing---Confutation of modern views--"The blood"
only an ingredient in the process of salvation--Probation--After reconciliation,
reformation--After death (and resurrection), the judgment---Correspondence
of the Christ-doctrine and the Mosaic parable.
XVII.--THE PRIESTS AND THEIR ATTIRE
The setting-up of the tabernacle necessitated intermediaries--Israel's
uncleanness --Mercy to be shown but not at the sacrifice of holiness--God
would be approached only through a man of His own choice, assisted by men
of His own appointment-Aaron and his sons-Qualifications-The antitype in
Christ--Christ as both sacrifice and priest--The brethren or Christ and
the sons of Aaron--The priests to be dressed in a particular way, "for
glory and for beauty" --The beautiful meanings condensed into this
expression--The ways of man naturally base and hideous--The works of the
flesh and the works of the Spirit---The great contrast between the natural
and the spiritual--The true meaning of the word "spiritual"--The
antitypical glory and beauty of the Aaronic garments --The materials--God
in every aspect of them--Man acceptable only when clothed in vestments
of divine origin and significance--The condemnation of all human invention
in religion--The ephod--The order of investiture--The coat--The girdle
of the coat---The robe with bells and pomegranates, the bottom fringe--The
ephod and its attachments--(shoulder buckles and breastplate)--the most
complicated, beautiful, and significant of all the priestly garments--The
Urim and the Thummim--The mitre---The plate of pure gold on the forehead,
inscribed "Holiness to the Lord"--The clothed high priests "bearing
the iniquity of the holy things", a strange expression become intelligible--The
antitype in Christ.
XVIII.--THE CONSECRATION OF AARON AND HIS SONS
The tabernacle made in twelve months after the exodus--Setting
it up--Investiture of Aaron--Washing with water--The antitype in Christ---A
difficulty dissipated --Different sorts of the same nature--Jesus' human
nature mentally washed by the Spirit--Putting on the coat--The antitype--The
ephod with its adjuncts of glory and beauty--The anointing with the holy
oil--Typical of the anointing with the Spirit---The sprinkling of the oil
and sacrificial blood upon every article in the tabernacle--The antitypical
application--An objection as to the uncleanness of the children of Israel--The
difficulty experienced by various thinkers as to Christ---His sacrifice
"for himself" first---The statement that it was so and the "necessity"
that it should be so--The blending and poising of apparently opposing principles--The
end of all difficulty in the reception of the testified facts--For himself
that it might be for us--The contrast between Christ as he now is and as
he was--A "body prepared" for the abolition of death--A reverence
for Christ "not according to knowledge"--The condemnation of
sin in the flesh--An inspired expression defining a truth not in collision
with any other--God's objects in the case the key--The relations of the
Creator and the created--Forgiveness after the amende honorable--The
significance of bloodshedding--The declaration of the righteousness
of God--Inspired definition of the object of the death of Christ---Jesus
not to be regarded as an individual merely, but as the representative of
his people--"Crucified with Christ"--Forgiveness through the
forbearance of God--The curse of the law brought on Christ by the mode
of his death--The whole principle--Redemption achieved in Christ for us
to have on conditions--Destruction of the typical analogies of the Law
of Moses by the erroneous views of the death of Christ.
Inauguration of the daily service of the tabernacle--The
offering of the ram of burnt offering and the ram of consecration--A counterpart
in Christ concealed by some views--Roman Catholic and Protestant views--Other
views--Christ cannot be kept out of his own sacrifice--The bullock carried
out of the camp and the ram not so carried out--Right ear, right hand,
right foot touched with the blood of consecration--Waving of the parts
in the hands of Aaron--The accompaniments of unleavened bread, oiled cake,
and wafer--The significance--Active, joyful, holy life--Realized in Christ's
present state--The deeper meaning of the consecration services--"So
hath the Lord commanded" but with fore-shadowings afterwards intimated--Purposed
metamorphosis of the race by voluntary sacrifice--Only a partial experience
now--The future---Activity--"Doing his pleasure" a cheering prospect---Eating
of part of the ram--Seven days in succession--The surplus destroyed--"Too
late"--The eighth day of the service typical of post-millennial experience--Israel
on their faces before the manifested glory of the Lord--The sacrificial
foundation of eternal glory always in remembrance.
XX.--THE ROUTINE SERVICE OF THE TABERNACLE
The tabernacle ready--Its services meaningless mummery
to the naturalist--its real character as means of creating the conception
of holiness--its immediate object and its secondary significance--Misapplications
in the ecclesiasticisms of the age--Church consecrations--Ritualisms---
Semi-Mosaic religionism not without its use--Routine services of the tabernacle
daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly--The daily incense, lamp-trimming and
lamb-sacrifice (morning and evening)--The counterpart in daily life---The
light, Bible reading--The incense, daily prayer--The daily sacrifice, Christ
in the head, heart and hand of true worshippers--The daily meat and wine
offering--Strength and gladness in the service of God--Mosaic condemnation
of Laodiceanism and the loose thoughts of moralists--The Sabbath day in
the tabernacle--Double services: why?--The new moon celebrations--Benefits
conferred by the moon--Appreciation of the works of God--The motions of
nature in their relations to the contriving energy of God --God's delight
in the recognition of His wisdom--The new moon in the age to come--A succession
of joyful activities in the new heavens and new earth.
Several annual services in the tabernacle--The year in
the life of man--The Passover --Not only Israel's deliverance from Egypt,
but the highest spiritual attainments typified--A significant association--Moses
and Christ the two poles of God's great work--The world's scepticism as
to Moses an insult to Christ who endorsed him, and to God who appointed
the passover--The recognition of the exodus required at our hands--Our
generation condemned, and its clerical leaders in unbelief--The feasts
of the firstfruits, founded on an institute of nature--God's beneficence
in the harvest, yet the Egyptian deliverance to be interwoven in its thanksgiving
services--The special services in the tabernacle--The wave-sheaf followed
by the offering of a lamb--In seven weeks, on the completion of the harvest,
two loaves of the new flour, accompanied by the sacrifice of seven lambs--The
significances--Gratitude for the God-given bread of the field to be mixed
with the acknowledgment of sinnership in blood-shedding--A prophecy of
the sinless man through whom alone God will be approached in worship--Sinners
not acceptable without the name of Christ on them--Human resentment of
this appointment--The firstfruits in the antitype of Christ and his people--The
two phases: the single sheaf and the two loaves seven weeks after--Ascension
and Pentecost--A chronological inexactness with probable design--The feast
of ingathering--The most elaborate of the tabernacle services --The seventh
month--first day, a holy convocation: tenth day, day of atonement: in five
days after, the construction and occupation of arboreal booths --The natural
charms of such a feast--The numerous but gradually-diminishing sacrifices
in the tabernacle--The Kingdom typified--The grand assembly on the eighth
day, the close of the Kingdom.
Various occasions of voluntary service--The altar of earth--Or
stone undressed--The correspondence in Christ--Josephite fathership excluded--Divine
origin of Jesus--"Voluntary will" as an element in the
sacrifices--A far-reaching principle, at the root of the problem of evil--The
attitude of the atheist and the meta-physician-Facts and philosophic triflers--Human
power of choice--God's aims in creation--His pleasure in man, but in what
relation ?--Obedience free and uncompelled--The door opened for evil in
the conditions of the highest good--Evil came in through this door--Man
guesses: the Bible reveals--The final triumph--The process slow because
the result stupendous--Means and ends--Man allowed to fall, that he may
in the end know God in His true supremacy and kindness--The myriads who
perish--No difficulty in view of man's mortality --The bright morning of
God's perfected work--Responsiblity and judgment as arising out of free
will--The relation of light---The fatalism of the Turk--The gloom of the
Calvinist---Hurtful reactions in modern libertinism.
XXIII.--THE MALE ELEMENT IN SACRIFICE
Form of approach to God prescribed--Not anything acceptable--Cain
and Abel--The killing of a living creature---The pouring out of its blood--The
divine explanation --A "male without blemish"--The sex feature
prominent--The female subordinate--Why ?--Historical facts and natural
adaptations--"The new woman" fighting against nature--Man having
the first place in redemption--Salvation by a man, not by a woman--The
woman subordinately instrumental--Relative .positions of man and woman--Beautiful
when determined by law--Naturalism contrary to nature--Human folly on the
subject--The so-called "divine feminine" in the Godhead--All
creation one stuff in different forms--The lessons of a zoological collection--Its
application to the difference between man and woman--The same stuff differently
organized--The organic power rooted in divine will--God manifestly in the
mysteries of nature, but not to be found till He brought Himself near in
revelation--God one and as lovely as we could wish Him to be--A great King
not a Queen, but with more than a queen's loveliness--The eternal masculine---The
burnt sacrifice, a male figure of Christ--The anti-typical offerers--"Faith
in his blood"--Rest--The sacrificial sheep or goat--Preparation of
the Lamb of God--Difficulty to human understanding because men try to square
it with human thoughts--Doves and pigeons in sacrifice--The same lessons
as applied to Christ---"Crop and feathers" cast aside--Body cloven,
but not parted--Spiritual analogies.
XXIV.--MEAT OFFERINGS AND PEACE OFFERINGS
Love-offerings--Gifts to God--Highest pleasure to God
and man--Meat offerings acceptable through the priest and on the altar
only--Easy to understand when divine teaching allowed to prevail--Christ
the way--Meat offerings to be drowned in oil--The place of joy in the service
of God--For sinners to mourn, for the righteous to rejoice--No place for
the gloomy religion of the cloister and the cell--Meat offerings to be
garnished with frankincense--The place of praise--Man likes it but God
claims it and permits it to man only when he has had his superlative portion--All
meat offerings to be seasoned with salt--The antitype--Sound, wholesome
savory principle--Hearty loving intelligence essential to acceptability--No
leaven--A serf-propagating thing tending to deterioration--Analogy to the
operations of "malice and wickedness"--No liberality to God acceptable
if offered with a wicked mind--Such an act possible--Honey also forbidden--The
sweetness of self-gratification--Enjoyments permitted and enjoyments forbidden--Self-glory
the anti-typical honey--The use made of the meat offering--Part burnt and
part eaten--The significance--God and man conjoined in the object of gift--Oblation
of the first cut corn, waved, not burnt--The probable meaning--A meat offering
from the first cut corn might be burnt--The reason--The meat offering as
the expression of friendship--The peace offering, pointing to reconciliation--Must
be a living creature for sacrifice --Might be a female--The reason--Mother
of the Saviour--Woman saved by the "child-hearing"--Offerings
to be brought by the offerer, and not by deputy--The fat as well as the
blood--Why--The priests to have the chief part---Mis-application by the
clergy--The antitypical house of Aaron.
XXV.--BURNT OFFERINGS, SIN OFFERINGS, AND TRESPASS OFFERINGS
Compulsory and voluntary offerings--An adaptation to spiritual
need--The diversity of offerings a perplexity at first--The difference
between the different classes of offering--Gradations of atonement--Different
degrees of sin--Presumptuous sin unatonable--The burnt offering--Why so-called--The
type involved consumption of sin nature--The crucifixion--Flesh and blood
to cease from the earth--Those who deny Christ's inclusion in his own sacrifice--The
removal of the ashes in the morning--The change of the mortal in the day
of Christ--The sin offering--Sins of ignorance--Why should they require
atonement---An escape from a false position--The ignorant sin recognizable
when it "comes to knowledge"--An offering required, forgiveness
offered--The reasonableness of the whole procedure--No accountability where
there is no knowledge, but sin, sin, all the same--The offering for sins
of ignorance--Wherein they differed from other offerings--An intenser repudiation
of sins of ignorance--Why ?-Unconscious sin more hateful than known and
acknowledged sin--How often may we grieve Him in our ignorance when self-pleased--The
Laodiceans--Necessity for judging ourselves by the word--Cause of fear,
ground of comfort --"The spirit itself helpeth our infirmities"--The
antitypical eating of the sacrifices--The danger of false theories of the
sacrifice of Christ--Why the flesh of the sin offering "most holy"--The
antitype in Christ--The trespass offering--the distinction from the sin
offering--All trespass is sin, but all sin not trespass --"All manner
of sin forgiven unto men, except blaspheming of the Holy Spirit" --The
combined effect of all the sacrifices.
Special impurities and special purifications---Childbirth--A
period of seclusion for the mother--Then sacrifice--Spiritual intimations--Propagation
a provisional thing Marriage absent from the perfect state--Males to be
circumcised the eighth day--The mother remaining 33 days unclean--Probable
antitype--Uncleanness for a female just double the number of days--Good
remarks by brother Harvey, of London, on the difference between the man-child
and the woman-child of this ordinance--The male-child type of Christ with
his 33 years of natural life; the woman-child of his bride, who had personal
sins to be atoned for--The number of days, 66, with an added six to represent
the false or pretended Papal Bride--The moral and prophetic teaching of
the type.
Disease and its treatment, evidently with a typical significance--Diseases
of dis-organization--Leprosy and issue--Healthy mortals and unhealthy mortals--Human
frailty and human wickedness--Curable and incurable leprosy--The spiritual
meaning--Forgiveness of sin but only when not persisted in --The ceremony
of the reception of the cured leper--The sacrificial lamb and the two birds--The
allegory of the two birds, one killed and the other liberated--Orthodox
misinterpretation inseparable from a false view of human nature --The key
to this parable in the apostolic doctrine of the death of Christ-- Christ
the two clean birds in death and resurrection--The cedar wood, hyssop,
and other adjuncts--The work of Christ through the apostles--The law as
to issue--Its recognition as defiling--The spiritual import--The periodical
infirmity of woman as the subject of sacrificial purification--The typical
intimations --an ordinance that does for woman what circumcision does for
man--Both the helpless subjects of vanity, with hope.
Special reprobation of death as a cause of defilement
by contact--The cleansing--The water of separation--The ashes of a slain
heifer--Why such stringent measures ? --A deep subject---The origin of
death in relation to man--Death in the animal world--Attested revelation--Adjustment
of revealed truth to natural fact--Human mortality the result of sin--The
awful thing meant by sin--Life: what is it ?--An insoluble problem--Revelation--God
the fountain of life--Death the negation of His own work and the penalty
of treason--Death destroyed by death in Christ--Some admirers of Christ
horror-struck without a reason--The Papal view and its mischievous results--A
wrong idea of God's objects--Subject difficult but beautiful and essential--John's
emphasis on the subject of Christ having come in the flesh--An immaculate
Christ as unfit for the object of sacrifice as a seeming Christ---Approach
unacceptable without a true discernment of the principles on which God
is willing to receive erring man to friendship--The red heifer--the colour--the
condition--the killing--the priestly presentation--the sprinkling of the
blood seven times--the burning--the left ashes--the cleanness of the man
gathering them--All types realized in the work of Christ--Christ's forbidding
Mary to touch him after his resurrection--Object of the various sacrificial
ordinances--A solemn and imperative lesson--The holiness of God--An unbelieving
and disobedient world.
Beasts dying of themselves unfit for food--The reason
not hygienic but spiritual --The flesh of particular creatures unclean--The
principle of refusal--List of unfit animals--The classification based on
spiritual significance--The principle allegorically involved--Peter and
the vision of the knit sheet--The distinction of the meats done away--Still
natural distinctions remain--Things good, things evil--Licence and fastidiousness
alike to be avoided--The cud-chewing and hoof-parting animals---The sort
of men that answer to the type--Spiritual food and spiritual life--Ruminating
animals--The truth a thing for constant use--The typical eating of clean
animals only--The avoidance of ungodly men--Dividing the hoof--surefootedness--Some
all theory, and no action--The pig among the Jews--Pork and anti-pork controversy
among the Gentiles--Singular state of things in view of the sow being a
creature that symbolizes executive efficiency but indifference to the will
of God--The moral combination most odious to God--The hygienic aspect of
the question the least important--The law against unclean animals done
away, but the thing signified remaining for ever--The classification of
fowls and fishes on a different principle but meaning the same.
A man at liberty to dedicate himself to God--The Nazarite
not to drink wine--The reason--Interference with the natural equilibrium
of the mind--The typical significance--Spiritual inabriation--Acceptable
Nazariteship founded on cairn reason leading to strong love--The true Nazarites
not shouting or theatrical religionists--Forbidden to cut the hair -The
meaning--To come at no dead body--Domestic inconveniences--Jesus, the great
Nazarite, made light of natural ties--The relationships of those who are
sanctified by the truth--The Nazarite defiled by the sudden death of another
near by--Important things suggested--The remedy for lost days--Confession,
forgiveness, and reformation--The Nazarite's separation a parable of probation--The
prominence of favour in the process of salvation--The saints saved as forgiven
men--The typical counterpart of the sacrifices to be offered by the Nazarite
at the end of the days of separation.
Gratitude yearning for utterance--Suitable provision in
the law--Dedicating property to God--Redemptions on payment of money on
a scale of values--Personal consecrations--Devoted things unredeemable---Samuel--Jephthah's
daughter--The typical distinction between sanctification and devotedness--This
mortal and the immortal beyond--God only fitly served in the latter--The
apparent inference from special consecrations that Israel were at liberty
to live secular lives--A mistake--Only special holiness in the midst of
a holy people---A type of what is coming--Provision for sanitation--Far
better than modern sewage schemes--A clean, holy, happy earth coming--The
antitype--The incorruptible camp of the saints--A perfect nature--perfect
digestion--No residue---A pleasing prospect--Food not necessary to life
in the future state, but assimilable to the spirit substance of the new
body and a source of pleasure and refreshment --Wizards--The reason of
their not being tolerated--Necromancers, witches, diviners, familiar spirits
and all pretenders, and robbers of the glory of God.
The non-muzzling of oxen in treading out the corn--A typical
significance encouraging to workers--Unequal yoking of ox and ass--A lesson
on the limits of practical co-operation--Neck not to be put in the same
yoke with the unbelieving--The first numbering of Israel in the wilderness--Names
of the enumeraters--Their meanings--A concealed prophecy in a dry list---The
numbering a preparation for inheritance--A pattern as to days to come--The
life of the redeemed not a social chaos--Exact in number and definite in
station--The second numbering--The number about the same after forty years--Its
probable significance in the second and .final adjustment of human affairs
at the close of the thousand years--Exclusion of the tribe of Levi from
the census--Given to God--Counterpart in the saints given to Christ---The
Bride in the endless age--Captains, guides, and officers for ever--The
immortal population in the perfect age an organized and well-ordered society--The
honour of being called to the millennial kingdom greater than the millennial
invitation to life eternal--The saved state a state of endlessly-varied
and joyful activity.
Extraneous but related matters--The present of wagons
and oxen by the twelve princes--The divine acceptance of the present--The
lesson of the incident---Unprescribed co-operation acceptable if in harmony
with the principles of divine work--Another instance in Jethro's recommendation
of helpers to Moses--Modern applications--Shadowing of the work of Christ
in the age to come--The twelve apostles on twelve thrones--Reigning and
co-operating--Yet individuality of thought and volition--The offering of
the princes besides the present of the wagons and the oxen--Twelve similar
offerings on twelve successive days--Why ?--A probable explanation--The
nature of the offering and its typical significances, pointing forward
to the perfect service of God--Orders to march--Order of procession--beautiful
order--No hitch--A foreshadowing of the perfect order that will prevail
in the age of glory--The end of these commentaries --The law, though ended
in Christ, to be brought into force again in Israel's midst at their restoration--The
testimony that it will be so--General prophetic allusions to the same effect--In
the day of Christ, the Law of Hoses the understood typical memorial of
the work accomplished in him--The last injunction of the Old Testament,
to remember the Law of Moses--The hostile attitude of the nineteenth century--In
the twentieth century, the law enthroned in Zion.
