THE Secret Flow of Sin from the Natural Beart, TYPIFIED IN THE RUNNING ISSUE. I KNOW THAT IN ME, THAT IS, IN MY FLESH, DWELLETH NO GOOD THING.” Rom. vii. 18. CHAPTER XV. Vers. 1, 2, 3. "And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean. And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his fresh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness." MOSES and Aaron are both of the disease of leprosy, xiii. 1. a law laid down, Moses alone speaks only to the lawgiver. addressed, as in the case Wherever there is only hears the voice. God But, in cases where dis ease is prescribed for by special rules, Aaron is joined with Moses. Is this because a priest-a high priest― ought to have much compassion, and might be more likely to learn compassion while hearing the tone of pity in which the Lord spoke of man's misery? This secret uncleanness, known only to the person's self, represents the secret sins, or the secret, quiet, oozing out of sin from the natural heart-its flow of pollution while not a word is spoken, not an act done, not a motion in the eye of our fellow-men. The more disgusting the images, the more is it meant to express God's extreme abhorrence of the sinful state; just as in 1 Kings xiv. 10, and elsewhere, indignation at the ungodly is expressed by most contemptuous language. Oh! that we felt the shame of sin! O! to be confounded because of our inward hardness! Ashamed so as not to look up because of secret unbelief, secret pride, secret selfishness, secret lusts, secret painting of the walls with imagery! Some think this disease was sent as a judicial punishment; for it is so referred to in 2 Sam. iii. 29; and Mark v. 29, calls it "uaori," "a scourge." To a Jew it was the more hateful, as being pollution where the seal of circumcision had been. Indwelling sin thus shows its existence in closest neighborhood to the blood-sprinkling of Jesus. The difference in the kind of the disease (ver. 3) does not change its polluting character. Sin may be flowing freely as a stream, or may be brooded over till the soul is like a stagnant pool-in any form it is hateful to the Holy One of Israel. The lively imagination of a gay, poetic mind is not less sinful when it scatters forth its luscious images, than the dull, brutal feelings of the stupid, ignorant boor. "Thou desirest truth in the inward parts." "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright"his countenance shines in upon the cleansed, bloodsprinkled soul, gazing on its purity with true delight, while he turns away from the sickening sight of the unwashed conscience and the "sinner lying in his blood." Vers. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. "Every bed whereon he lieth that hath the issue, is unclean: and everything whereon he sitteth shall be unclean. And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And We have already had occasion to notice the limited time “until even." (Chap. xi. 25.) But let us further observe, that under the law we seldom find immediate pardon. The legal ceremonies were thus like the pool of Bethesda-imperfect types of Christ. What joy there is in immediate pardon! To pass at once from hell to heaven, from the fangs of Satan, the smoke of hell, the angry recrimination of a tossed conscience, and the dread of a frowning God, to the peace and love of the Saviour's holy bosom! The law had a shadow of good things to come, but was not the very image of those things. Again; let us notice that one touch conveyed uncleanness so full is the cup, that if shaken at all its pollution trickles over. What a glorious contrast have we in Jesus! He touches (Mark i. 41), and lo! the holy stream of health flows from him. Or another touches him, and disease flies away. (Mark v. 28.) We are here taught the disgusting constancy with which our original, deep-seated corruption will naturally discover itself. In all situations, towards all persons, at all seasons, this filthiness of the secret soul may be traced. In ver. 4, the man is represented as unclean when he lieth down to sleep, or even to rest at noon. * Ah! yonder lies a sinner, and the very ground under him is accursed. His very pillow may shortly become a spear under his throat; just as Jonah's rest soon became a tempestuous sea. A friend comes to see him and gently awakes him, but touches his couch in so doing, and becomes thereby unclean (ver. 5); for the man is all polluted. However amiable the friend you visit, yet if still in his unhealed corruption, your intercourse with him spreads its baleful influence over you. You have insensibly been injured by the contact. Oh! how we should watch our souls in mingling with a world lying in wickedness! Oh! how holy, how marvellously strong in holiness was Jesus! who breathed this polluted air and remained as holy as when he came. If the man leave the spot, and another occupy it, that other has seated himself in the sinner's place (ver. 6), and the memory of his sin is not gone. He is in contact with a polluted thing. As when one of us now reads the details of a sinner's career, and our mind rests thereon, we are involved in his sin. If a physician (ver. 7), or an attendant, touch the sick man's flesh, he is in contact with sin, and becomes polluted. This legal consequence of any actual contact with the defiled, shows us, no doubt, the danger and hazard of even attempting to aid the polluted. It is at the risk of being ourselves involved in their sin. Therefore, it must be watchfully done, not boldly and adventurously. You breathe an impure atmosphere: proceed with caution. * So is used in 2 Sam. iv. 5, when Ishbosheth was reclining in the heat of the day. If (ver. 8) any even accidental touch occur-as if the diseased man spit or sneeze, so as anything from him reaches the bystander, pollution is spread. An accidental word, a casual expression, an unexpected look, may suggest sin; and if it does, forthwith wash it all away ere evening comes. "Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath." Leave no stain for a moment upon thy conscience. When the man rides forth, lo! yonder is a sinner; and his saddle is polluted; and the mattress he spread on the floor of his tent for a temporary rest in his journey (ver. 10) is so polluted that the attendant who lifts it is defiled. Oh! sad, sad estate of man! In going out or coming in, in the house or by the way, his inward fountain of sin flows on unceasingly, and the Holy One of Israel follows him with his eye to mark him as a sinner. Nay, if he put his hand forth (ver. 11) to touch any one-to give him a friendly welcome, or aid him in any work, he conveys pollution, unless he have first "rinsed his hands in water." The sinner, whose natural heart is still unhealed, cannot do even a kind act without sin— his only mode of doing so would be "washing in clean water." And the vessels he uses (ver. 12) must be broken or rinsed in water; even as the earth, on which the sinner has stood as his theatre for committing evil, shall be broken in pieces by the fire of the last day ("all these things shall be dissolved," 2 Pet. iii. 11), the trial by water being already past. Vers. 13, 14, 15. "And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue, then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean. And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord unto the door |