longer envy Judah, and Judah no longer vex Ephraim," how will a sense of the greatness of the change, and a remembrance of the distracted state gone by, add to the bliss of the perfected saints, and sweeten the cup of felicity which God's people shall drink together for ever!

come.

2. Divisions now prepare the way for the peace and unity that are to Divisions testify of the existence of evils of which they are the natural fruits. By their means, the attention of the Church is turned to these evils, and fixed down upon them. This is no small advantage. The removal of these evils is necessary to the welfare of the Church; no sure, or safe, or lasting peace can be enjoyed while they remain. It is, therefore, a most important thing that the Church should be led to aim at their removal, and to direct the whole energy of her prayers and exertions against them. And believers will err much if they seek to heal divisions in any other way. Let them beware of patching up a premature peace. The outward form of unity is a mockery, and the maintenance of it a hypocrisy and a sin, when unity of heart and principle does not exist. It is only a pernicious semblance of peace that can be reached, so long as the roots of discord and schism are not pulled up. We must therefore restrain within bounds our thirstings after peace, till the obstacles between us and the only peace that is desirable are taken out of the path. As yet, it is far too soon to call out for peace. We must be patient, and wait a while, if we would not have a peace that brings ruin along with it. No peace worth the having can come, until the interests of truth and purity are secured-until truth obtains its rights, and purity begins its reign. "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable." This is the necessary order; let us not forget it. What we have now to do is, to maintain, exhibit, and spread the truth; to preserve and enlarge the sphere, and to increase the amount, of its influence. Our present duty is to go to the deep sources of the divisions we bewail, and apply a remedy there. That which now we ought to desire and to pray for is a day of the Lord's great power, when every valley may be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low, and the highway of peace may be prepared. That which now we should pant for is the grace of the spirit to destroy all sin, and to knit the hearts of all men in the love of the truth. We should now long to see the little stone of Christ's kingdom dash in pieces the mighty image of Satan's dominion, and become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth. Then there will be peace. The peace of God will reign then. "Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and

in quiet resting places." There will be unity then. "The envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim." "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one King shall be King to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. And David my servant shall be King over them, and they all shall have one Shepherd; they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them."

SERMON XXVI.

CHRIST OUR HIGH PRIEST, BEARING THE INIQUITY OF OUR HOLY THINGS.

BY THE REV. HORATIUS BONAR, KELSO.

"And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre shall it be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the LORD."-EXODUS xxviii. 36-38.

THE sacrifices under the Law were of various kinds. They were not merely numerous and often repeated, but they were manifold in their nature and design. True, there was but one altar-one High Priestone tabernacle-all foreshadowing the one Saviour; but there were manifold offerings, differing the one from the other, to set forth the "manifold grace of God," and the manifold perfections of Him in whom "it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell." Thus these sacrifices, by means of their diversity, were all the more exactly fitted to prefigure Him who is the fountain opened for all sin and for all uncleanness; and the High Priest, in the continual offering up of these, as well as in the performance of the various kindred offices pertaining to the tabernacle, did the more fully exhibit him in all his completeness as the servant of the varied wants of sinners.

The variety of these sacrifices was not an arbitrary and capricious appointment. It was not for mere pomp and show. It was not the idle filling up of an unmeaning ritual for the sake of novelty and effect. God had a special purpose to serve in so ordaining it. It was by this means that he descended to particulars in teaching Israel his name as the Lord God "merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." Before this he had proclaimed, by the general ordinance of sacrifice, that there was forgiveness with him through the blood-shedding of a substitute; but now he enters into more minute detail, in order to shew that there is suitable and special provision made for every kind of sin, and every class of sinners. Thus, no guilty conscience could be left with the impression that there was no offering suited to its case; and every Israelite was made to feel, that while the searching eye of God rested upon every sin with which he was chargeable, there was at the same time the most ample provision made for its being put away. A general

No. 27.-SER. 26.

shewing-forth of pardon by the institution even of one offering, would doubtless have relieved the troubled soul; and though it might not dissipate every fear, would yet convey to it a precious message of peace by such a manifestation of the forgiving love of God. But this minute specification of diverse sacrifices for diverse sins was fitted to set the conscience still more at liberty, and to enable an Israelite to come to God as one who knew that his iniquity was covered. That distance from God, and distrust of his mercy, which the idea of imperfect or uncertain forgiveness necessarily produces, was thus removed, and the lingering suspicions of the sinner's doubting heart fully met and dispelled. No one could imagine that his condition had been overlooked by God, or that his case was so peculiar as to be without a remedy. No weary burdened sinner could say that the declaration of pardon was too vague and general to yield sure and abiding comfort. Oh, how has that God who knows not merely our sins but our suspicions and sorrows, herein manifested the greatness of his compassion towards us, and shewn that his desire is not merely to forgive us, but to make us know that we are forgiven-to give us perfect peace by removing from us all our iniquities as far as the east is from the west!

But, then, in the very act of offering these sacrifices there was sin. When the sinner brought the lamb or the goat to the altar, there was sin committed in the very act of bringing it. There was, for instance, the imperfect conviction of the sin confessed-the want of a deep sense of the holiness of that God against whom the transgression had been committed, and of the purity of that law which had been broken. There was the coldness, the irreverence, the deadness, the wandering, the many impure motives that mingled with the act of service. There was the defective realization of Divine things-the want of due solemnity-perhaps, too, the grudging of the animal offered up. These, and many similar shortcomings and sins in the way of bringing the sacrifice, could not fail to make the Israelite feel that iniquity was spread over all his holy things, and must be removed before they could be accepted. The thought, too, that God saw in him far deeper sin than he himself understood or imagined, must have led him to ask, how the sin of his holy things was to be forgiven? If, indeed, when he came to the altar of God he could have come with a perfect heart, without a wandering thought or impure desire, then he might be content with the sacrifice itself which he presented. But when he was conscious that in every part of his holy service he was sin ning still, the anxious inquiry could not but be prompted, "How are the sins of my holy things to be put away?"

How was this to be remedied?

How, then, was such a case to be met? The offering of another sacrifice would not accomplish this, for in that

also there would be sin, so that another offering would be required again. No repetition of sacrifices, however numerous and costly, could provide for this; for still in the offering of each sacrifice there would be sin committed by the worshipper. Nor could this case be remedied by simply forgiving the sins counected with the sacrifice, without any special mention of the way in which this forgiveness was to come; for this would countenance the vain idea that there were some sins which did not require the intervention either of priest or sacrifice for their remission; whereas every part of that ritual was so constructed as to teach them that every sin needed special provision for its taking away, and that for every sin there was such special provision made. Besides, such a way of pardon would seem to imply, that if a man but brought the appointed offering, it did not matter how imperfectly he presented it. Nor would it have done merely to ordain that the high priest should bear the iniquity of the holy things of Israel. This would give the idea that he did not need that forgiveness himself—that there was something about him which exempted him from the guilt of his fellow Israelites, and that he, though a sinner like other men, could yet his own self "bear iniquity."

None of these ways was at all adequate to the end designed. None of them would have given a true idea of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. None of them would have suitably set forth the provision which God has made for its complete removal. None of them would have fully satisfied the conscience of the worshipper, or given him the assurance that his imperfect services were accepted, and all the defects cleaving to them purged away. Besides, if there were no special and solemn provision made for this case, it would imply that the sins of their holy things were less heinous than others; whereas it was God's manifest intention to declare, in the most effectual and impressive way, that these iniquities were even more hateful than the transgression itself for which the sacrifice was brought to the altar.

God provided another and a more excellent way. He did not institute a new sacrifice he did not merely announce a pardon for such transgressions, nor did he simply say the high priest shall bear these iniquities. A far more perfect method was adopted-not a sacrifice, but a person-not merely a person, but one in peculiar circumstances. The high priest was appointed to bear them, but then it was in a robe of a most peculiar kind. It was not his usual raiment, nor was it his raiment on the day of atonement. It was a dress which seemed to array him with more than mortal holiness-a dress which shadowed forth the divine perfection of the sin-bearer-a dress which at once proclaimed the need for pardon, and gave the assurance that it was all provided for and secured.