pleted Revelation, of which the various portions are not only connected with each other, as parts of the one narrative, but in which the earlier and more obscure are illustrated and made plain by the later and clearer portions. Thus, the Section before us can only be understood by the explanation which is afforded us in the conclusion of the Sacred Volume. It relates the most extraordinary of all the institutions of the Mosaic Law, the command to slay and burn a heifer, red in colour, blemishless, or free from any spot or blemish, and which had never been submitted to the yoke of labour in the field. This heifer was to be conducted without the camp (Numb. xix. 1–3). It was then to be slain. Its blood was to be sprinkled seven times before the door of the tabernacle (ver. 4). The whole body of the red heifer was then to be burnt. Cedar wood, hyssop, and a piece of scarlet wool, were to be cast into the fire. The priest who kindled the fire was to be considered unclean till the day ended. Then any one of the congregation of Israel who was not ceremonially unclean, collected the ashes, and laid them up in a clean place without the camp. There they were to be kept till they were mingled with water to be sprinkled on any worshipper or believer who had contracted the impurity of touching the dying, or the dead (ver. 5-18). All these were most extraordinary enactments; but, what was still more wonderful, the person who sprinkled the unclean with the water, thus mingled with the ashes of the heifer, became himself unclean, while the polluted person whom he sprinkled became and remained free from his pollution (ver. 18-22). Such was the law of the red heifer. And this law is not only thus singular for its peculiar clauses, it is rendered more remarkable from these four circumstances:-It was declared by the Jews to be so difficult of explanation, that not even Solomon could comprehend the reasons of its peculiarities. It was the chief law after the priesthood of Aaron had been established by the miracle of the budding, blossoming, and fruit-bearing of his almond-tree sceptre. It was the last law previous to the thirty-eight years' wandering in the wilderness from the encampment at Sinai commenced. And it is the law which is only explained to us in the termination of the argument of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which he proves the superiority of the Divine priesthood of Christ to the human priesthood of Aaron. All these circumstances united render the Nineteenth Chapter of the Book of Numbers one of the most peculiar in the Old Testament. What can be the meaning of the ordinance of the red heifer? and what can be the causes of those strange enactments? To answer these questions, we must regard the whole Bible as one book, and consider the one object of that book. We shall then find that the ordinance of the red heifer in the beginning of the Volume, interpreted in the Epistle to the Hebrews at the end of the Volume, affords us an illustration of the one object of the completed Revelation, which constitutes the contents of the whole Scripture. The one object, the chief, we may say the sole object of Revelation is, to teach the believer the great truths,—that the soul of man can only be saved by these two means, his faith in the atonement of Christ, and his obedience to the influences of the Holy Spirit. Now the design of the Law of Moses was twofold. One design was, to separate the people from the heathen nations around them; the other was, to serve as a guide to bring the people, by means of the mysterious ordinances of the Law, to the knowledge of the two truths relating to the atonement and to the necessity of Divine influences. The manner in which these truths were taught to the Jewish Church was, that actions and ordinances were decreed which represented other and future actions or events. The Passover, we are assured, was an event, or a collection of events, which shadowed forth the future sacrifice of the true and better Passover. And that we may not be led away by our own imaginations or fancies, we are expressly told that "Christ is our Passover;" and we are accustomed, therefore, rightly and properly to believe that the various circumstances which were ordained to be observed at the commemoration of the Jewish Passover were appointed to shadow forth, as prophetic emblems, the circumstances attendant upon the sacrifice of Christ.-So it is with the ordinance of the red heifer. We are expressly told, that as the sprinkling of the people with the water which was mingled with the ashes of the red heifer, the cedar, the hyssop, and the scarlet wool, was blessed, or sanctified, by the Great Lawgiver of Israel, to the purifying of the believer who had become ceremonially unclean by touching a dead body; so also the blood of Christ, who, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, which He possessed without measure, and by which He offered Himself to God as an atonement, shall "cleanse the conscience from dead works," that he who is so cleansed may "serve the living God'."-This expression gives us the key to the meaning of the singular law before us; and the interpretation, therefore, of the Section may be thus given: "Command the children of Israel that they bring as a sacrifice a red heifer, which the Egyptians venerate, and refuse to sacrifice, because they deem it sacred to their goddess Isis; and by thus sacrificing in the manner which the Egyptians regarded as profane, separate themselves by a wide and impassable barrier from that idolatrous people." Then followed the enactments relating to the second object of the Mosaic Law, the shadowing forth of the future Sacrifice, which we can now explain, and thus interpret: "Let the heifer which you select be free from spot, as Christ was from the yoke of a burthened conscience; and be led out of the camp to be slain, as Christ suffered without the walls of Jerusalem'. As the blood of the heifer was sprinkled seven times, as the perfect number, the blood of Christ was seven times sprinkled, beginning with the drops of blood at Gethsemane, and proceeding with the crown of thorns before Pilate, and ending with the piercing of His hands, His feet, and His side upon the cross. As the body of the heifer was burnt with cedar, which was the emblem of incorruption, with the hyssop, which was the emblem of removed defilement, and the scarlet wool, which was the emblem of the sin of the soul, so Christ suffered as the sacrifice which united the incorruption of His own nature, the removal of the sin of man, and the transference of that sin to Himself. As the priest who sacrificed the heifer was rendered unclean by that act, the Jews who sacrificed Christ were polluted (ver. 7, 8). As the man who gathered up the ashes became unclean, because he was not sprinkled with the water with which the ashes 1 Heb. ix. 13, 14. 2 Luke xxiii. 33. John xix. 17. 20. were to be blended, so may we say that even the believer in the sacrifice of Christ remains defiled, unless the removal of the power of sin, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, shall follow the pardon of the sin, which is purchased by the sacrifice of Christ (ver. 9, 10). As he who touched the body of the dead was unclean till he was sprinkled with the water which was mingled with the ashes, so is that soul unclean which is contaminated by the spiritually dead, till it is cleansed by the Holy Spirit from the dead works which denote his spiritual death (ver. 11-19). As the unclean person who was not sprinkled with the water was to be cut off from his people, so shall every man who is not sprinkled with the living water which God's Holy Spirit alone pours forth, be cut off from the Church of God (ver. 20). And as the man who was clean, and free from the imputation of defilement, was deemed to be unclean if he touched the water which purified his brethren, so shall that otherwise blameless man, who sees, believes, and as it were handles the doctrines and truths revealed by the Spirit of God, be deemed himself defiled, polluted, and unclean, unless he be also sprinkled with the living water, which unites the Atonement that pardons sin, with the influence which removes the power and dominion of the sin that is pardoned (ver. 21). He, who professes the religion which does not unite faith and holiness, himself remains unclean, and is the cause of contamination to others; for it is expressly declared, that he who is touched by the unclean. becomes also polluted (ver. 22). And thus does this most difficult portion of the Law of Moses illustrate the whole object of Revelation. The Christian religion, and the Jewish religion, as they proceed from the same God, have also the one, same, only object,-to make their receivers "a peculiar people, zealous of good works"." Both were intended to bring men to Christ for pardon, and to the Spirit of God for inward holiness of heart. Virtue, faith, and holiness, ever have been the triple crown of the stedfast believer in the Jehovah of the Book of Revelation, whether he be of the Church of the Patriarch, the Israelite, or the Christian. BEFORE CHRIST NUMBERS XIX. 1 And the LORD spake about 1471. unto Moses and b her 3 And ye shall give her unto unto Eleazar the priest, Aaron, saying, that he may bring her 2 This is the ordinance forth without the camp, of the law which the LORD and one shall slay hath commanded, saying, before his face: Speak unto the children of 4 And Eleazar the priest Israel, that they bring thee shall take of her blood with a red heifer without spot, his finger, and sprinkle *Deut. 21. 3. wherein is no blemish, and of her blood directly before upon which never came the tabernacle of the conyoke : gregation seven times: 1 Sam. 6. 7. с 3 Tit. ii. 14. BEFORE CHRIST d Exod. 29. 14. BEFORE CHRIST 5 And one shall burn the day he shall be clean: but about 1471. heifer in his sight; d her if he purify not himself the about 1471. skin, and her flesh, and her third day, then the seventh blood, with her dung, shall day he shall not be clean. he burn: 13 Whosoever toucheth 6 And the priest shall the dead body of any man Lev. 14. 4, take e cedar wood, and that is dead, and purifieth Lev. 4. 11, 12. 6, 49. Lev. 11. 25. & 15. 5. ch. 8. 7. hyssop, and scarlet, and not himself, defileth the Lev. 15. 31. & 22. 3. Lev. 11. $2. ch. 31. 20. 9 And a man that is Hebr. 9. 13. clean shall gather up the vering bound upon it, is ashes of the heifer, and unclean. lay them up without the 16 And P whosoever › ver. 11. camp in a clean place, and toucheth one that is slain it shall be kept for the con- with a sword in the open gregation of the children of fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean unclean seven days. 21. b ver. 13, 20, Israel for a water of separation it is a purification for sin. ch. 31. 23. i ver. 16. Lev. 21. 1. 6, 10. & 31. 19. Lam. 4. 14. 9 ver. 9. 10 And he that gathereth 17 And for an unclean the ashes of the heifer shall person they shall take of wash his clothes, and be the ashes of the burnt + Heb. dust. unclean until the even: and heifer of purification for it shall be unto the children sin, and running water + Heb. living of Israel, and unto the shall be put thereto in a be given, stranger that sojourneth vessel : among them, for a statute for ever. waters shall Gen. 26. 19. 18 And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip Ps. 51. 7. it in the water, and sprinkle 11 He that toucheth ch. 5. 2. & 9. the dead body of any †man it upon the tent, and upon shall be unclean seven all the vessels, and upon days. the persons that were there, 12 He shall purify him- and upon him that touched self with it on the third a bone, or one slain, or one day, and on the seventh dead, or a grave: Hag. 2. 13. + Heb. soul of man. ch. 31. 19. k BEFORE CHRIST Lev. 14. 9. BEFORE CHRIST 19 And the clean person the water of separation hath about 1471. shall sprinkle upon the un- not been sprinkled upon about 1471. clean on the third day, and him; he is unclean. on the seventh day and : 21 And it shall be a on the seventh day he shall perpetual statute unto them, purify himself, and wash that he that sprinkleth the his clothes, and bathe him- water of separation shall self in water, and shall be wash his clothes; and he clean at even. that toucheth the water of t ver. 13. 20 But the man that separation shall be unclean shall be unclean, and shall until even. not purify himself, that 22 And "whatsoever the "Hag. 2. 13. soul shall be cut off from unclean person toucheth PRAYER.-LET US PRAY, that we learn from the institutions of the Law of Moses the Christian lessons of separation from the world, the necessity of faith in the atonement of Christ to remove the guilt and punishment of sin, and the necessity of the Holy Spirit to destroy the power of sin in the heart: that we never be guilty of the sin of despair, knowing that Christ has died to save us; and never be guilty of the sin of presumption, knowing that the Holy Spirit is granted to cleanse us. ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who of Thy tender love towards mankind hast sent Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ to take upon Him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross; and who hast been graciously pleased to shadow forth the doctrines of the Gospel of Christ in the institutions, and ordinances, and sacrifices of the Law of Moses; so grant us Thy grace, we beseech Thee, that we remember the words of Thy servant, that "if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" And ever may we serve Thee in life, in death, and for ever. Enable us to serve Thee in life: as these members of Thy Church in the wilderness were separated from the world of idolatry and sin around them, when they sacrificed to Thee the idols of Egypt; so give us grace to become more and more separated from the follies, the sins, and the idolatries, of the men of the world around us: so may we sacrifice to Thee the love of money, which is idolatry; the thoughtless pursuits of amusement and pleasure, which is idolatry; and the restless anxiety for honour, fame, and praise, which is idolatry. Awake us from spiritual death. Cleanse our conscience and our heart from the works of death, from the maxims of the world, and from compliance with the frivolous, the vain, and the irreligious, who are dead before Thee; living without thought, without prayer, and without the holy hope which gives the soul to Thee. Cleanse our conscience from all the works of death. May Christ be to us the spotless and blameless sacrifice which never knew the yoke of sin; which for us men, and for our salvation, suffered without the camp. As the Priest in the olden time did sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice seven times Heb. ix. 13, 14. |