according to this position before God. Upon the hem of the robe of the ephod there was the desirable fruit, and the testimony of the Holy Ghost, which depended on the Priesthood. I think that Christ, in entering heaven, made Himself heard through the Holy Ghost in His people-hem of His garments (compare Psalm cxxxiii.); and He will make Himself heard through His gifts when He comes out also. Meanwhile He bears also within, the iniquity of the holy things, in holiness before the eternal God (this holiness is upon His very forehead). They are presented according to the divine Holiness in Him. The sons of Aaron were also clothed. Their natural nakedness was not to appear, but the glory and the honour with which God clothed them. The girdle of service also distinguished them. For their consecration they were all washed. Aaron and his sons together always represent the church, not as gathered in a body (a thing hidden in the Old Testament), but in varied positions sustained individually before God. There is only one sanctification for all. In His nature Christ is the spring and the expression of it. We are made partakers of it, but it is one. Aaron is anointed separately without sacrifice, without blood. But His sons are sprinkled with blood upon the ear, the thumb of the right hand, the great toe of the right foot. Obedience, action, and walk, being measured, guarded, both through the price and through the perfection of the blood of Christ. And then they were sprinkled with blood and with the oil of consecration, that is to say, set apart by the blood and by the unction of the Holy Ghost.

e Aaron is always united to his sons in such types, for Christ cannot be separated from His own, or they would become nought. But He had been anointed personally, without blood, a thing that has been verified in His history. He was anointed while on earth: His disciples after His death. He received the Spirit for the Church in a new way (Acts ii. 33), when He was risen from among the dead by the blood of the eternal covenant, for it is according to the efficacy of that blood in behalf of His people that He has been raised as the Head of it.

All the sacrifices were offered. That for sin, the burnt-offering of a sweet-smelling savour, the ram of consecration (which had the character of a peace-offering), accompanied by the meat-offering. These sacrifices have been explained elsewhere, and I only recall their import. Christ made sin for us, first need of the soul. Christ obedient unto death, devoting Himself to the glory of His Father, and to us as belonging to the Father. The communion of God, of the Saviour, of the worshipper, and of the whole church-and Christ devoted in holiness of life upon the earth. It is to be observed, that when Aaron and his sons were anointed, the sons and their garments were anointed with him, not with them. Every thing is connected with the Head. Aaron and his sons eat the things with which the atonement had been made. Then, connected with this priesthood, comes the perpetual sweet-smelling savour of the burnt-offering, in which the people present themselves before God-sweet-smelling savour which is found there, as it were in the midst of the people, according to the efficacy of which they stand in His presence round about. There God met the people. With the Mediator He met above the ark without veil, and gave him commandment for the people according to His own perfection. Here He puts Himself on a level with the people, though speaking with the Mediator. The dwelling of God in the midst of the people is sanctified by His glory. The tabernacle, the altar, the priests, are sanctified, and He dwells in the midst of the people surrounding Him: for this purpose had He brought them up out of Egypt.

Having thus established the priesthood, and the relationship of the people with God, who dwelt in the midst of them; the intercession of Christ, in grace; all that was in Him, ascending as a sweet savour to the Lord is presented; and His service in making the manifestation of God in Spirit shine forth. The people were identified with this service through redemption. They could neither be there, nor serve; but they were all represented as redeemed. We then have the laver between the brazen

f

altar and the tabernacle. Purification for communion with God, and for service to Him therein: first, the whole body, then the hands and feet (for us only the feet, as our walk alone is concerned), every time they took part in it. Finally, we have the oil and the incense; the fragrant oil which was for priests only: the nature of man, as man, could not partake of it. The incense typifies the precious perfume of the graces of Christ, He alone answers to it. The Sabbath was added to the tabernacle of the congregation, as a sign, as it had been to every form of relationship between God and His people: for to be made partakers of God's rest is what distinguishes His people. In fine, God gave Moses the two tables of the law.

Whilst God was thus preparing the precious things connected with His relationship with His people, the

g

f It was the washing of water by the Word: the purification of the worshipper, that is, of the heart, to constitute him one-in nature first, and then in practice-if he had failed in it; for communion requires not only the acceptance, but the purification of the person. Without that, the presence of God acts on the conscience, not in giving communion, but in showing the defilement. Christ, even as a man, was that by nature, and He kept Himself by the words of God's lips. With us, it is received from Him; and we must also use it to purify ourselves. The idea and measure of the purity are the same for Christ and for us-" he that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked," "to purify himself, even as He is pure." For the ordinary relationship of the people, looked at as worshippers, it was the red heifer (Num. xix.), the ashes of which were put into running water; that is, the Holy Spirit applied, by the Word, to the heart and conscience, the sufferings of Christ for sin to purify man: sufferings which could have all their moral and purifying power, since the remembrance shewed forth that sin had been consumed in the sacrifice of Christ Himself for sin, as to imputation, by the fire of the judgment of God. The blood of the heifer had been sprinkled seven times before the door of the tabernacle-the place where we have just seen, God met the people.

The tabernacle had a double character. It was the manifestation of the glory of the heavenly things, and a provision for a sinful people to be brought near again to God there. It is interesting to consider the tabernacle under another aspect; for, as a pattern of heavenly things, it is of the highest interest. First, it signifies the heavens themselves; for Christ is not entered into the tabernacle, but into heaven itself. In a certain sense, even the universe is the house of

people only thinking of what they saw in their deliverer, completely abandoned the Lord: a sad and early, but sure fruit of having undertaken obedience to the law as a condition, in order to the enjoyment of the promises. Aaron falls with them.

Such being the state of the people, God tells Moses to go down; and now everything begins to be put on another footing. God, in His counsels of grace, has not only seen the people when they were in affliction, but in their ways. They were a stiff-necked people. He tells Moses to let Him alone, and that He would destroy them, and make of Moses a great nation. Moses takes the place of mediator, and, true to his love for the people, as God's people, and to the glory of God in them, with a self-denial which savoured of this glory, sacrificing every thought of self, intercedes in that magnificent pleading which appeals to what that glory necessitates, and to the unconditional promises made to the fathers. And the Lord repented. The character of Moses shines in all its beauty here, and is remarkable amongst those which the Holy Ghost has taken pleasure in delineating, according to the precious grace of God, who loves to describe the exploits of His people, and the fruit they have borne, though He Himself is the source of them.

h

But it was all over with the covenant of the law; the

God; but moreover, the unity of the Church as a heavenly building is presented by it: we are His house, the tabernacle of God in Spirit. It is the body of Christ. These two meanings are closely connected in the beginning of the third chapter of Hebrews. Christ, God, has built all things, and we are His house. He fills all in all, but He dwells in the Church; it is a concentric circle, although quite different in its nature. Compare the prayer in Eph. iii. which also connects these two things. In another point of view, the person and the fulness of Christ Himself are there; for God was in Him, and thus the rending of the veil is applied by the Apostle to the flesh of Christ, or, if you please, the veil itself, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. It is evident, that the dwelling-place of God is the central idea of these things, just as a man lives in his house, in his property, etc.

This is a universal principle. Solomon, Nehemiah, and Daniel only go back to Moses-an important remark as to the fulfilment of God's ways towards Israel.

first link-that of having no other gods-was broken on the part of the people. They had made a complete separation between themselves and God. Moses, who had not asked God what was to be done with the law, comes down. His exercised ear, quick to discern how matters stood with the people, hears their profane and light joy: soon after, he sees the golden calf, which had even preceded the tabernacle of God in the camp, and he breaks the tables at the foot of the mount; and, zealous for the people towards God, because of His glory, he is zealous for God towards the people, because of that same glory. And Levi, responding to his call, says to his brethren, the children of his mother, "I have not known you," and consecrates himself to the Lord. Moses now, full of zeal, not according to knowledge, but which was permitted of God for our instruction, proposes to the people his going up, and "peradventure" he shall make an atonement for this sin. And he asks God to blot him out of His book, rather than that the people should not be forgiven. God refuses him; and, while sparing them through his mediation, and placing them under the government of His patience and long-suffering, puts each one of them under responsibility to Himself—that is, under the law. Thus the mediation of Moses was available for forgiveness, as regards government, and to put them under a government, the principles of which we shall see by-andbye; but it was useless as regards the atonement which would protect them from the effect of their sin, and withdraw them from under the judgment of the law. God commands Moses to lead the people to the place of which He had spoken, and His angel should go before

him.

What a contrast do we here remark, in passing, with the work of our precious Saviour. He, coming down from above-from His dwelling-place in the bosom of the

i Hence it is, that this revelation of God, though the character proclaimed be so abundant in goodness, is called by the Apostle the ministration of death and condemnation. For if the people were still under the law, the more gracious God was, the more guilty they were.