the holy ties that forbade him approach to sisters and step-sisters. Aunts, and brothers' wives, in short, all relations in turn, seem only to be fuel to lust, which consumes the fence, and rages till it expire in its own indulgence.

O! what a land! Who wonders that its people were rooted out! The only wonder is that the Lord could have borne the very sight of the land any more! Should he not blot it out from his creation? He did so to Sodom and Gomorrah. But, lo! he rather will purge it, and people it with a new race! I think I can see in this how Jehovah gave a token that even so will he deal with this whole wicked earth! He will not blot it out of creation-nay, it shall remain forever a monument of his long-suffering. He will cleanse it soon by the appearance of Joshua in flaming fire; and then shall it be" the New Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness!"

Even thus, also, O sinner, with thy polluted soul! Every sin and vice, and lust, and passion has had its seed in thee if not its spring-time when it grew to flower and baneful fruit. But the Lord, instead of destroying thee, can cleanse and save! The priest on his throne comes in to thee: thou art washed! "Be holy, for he is holy !"

Vers. 22, 23, 24. "Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them; that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nations, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhor them. But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people."

pen and counterfeit seals, and a conjuror with his magical books and characters.

The Lord tells them of the inheritance he has provided for his Israel. They are to walk on the banks of streams whose verdant banks are fed upon by flocks and herds; and in climbing their rocks they are to find honey flowing forth for their use. "Milk and honey" are representatives of all abundance. It is a land which the Lord is not ashamed to give them. (Heb. xi. 16.) But here they are to walk in holiness-separated from other people. The former inhabitants were "abhorred" by the Lord for their sins; they are to be loved, and to love in return. Israel's land is to be a theatre whereon heavenly character and heavenly joy shall be displayed, and the eye of the Lord shall look with delight on holy deeds and holy desires. All this is to be produced by their being made to feel free grace and flowing love. They do not get the land on conditions. It is given freely; and, being given, they are then commanded to be holy. The God of grace is visibly at work here-placing them in the midst of blessing, and then saying, "Now wilt thou surely love me." “He first loved us !" must be the spring of Israel's obedience. What strength there must be in that spring! It is sufficient to counteract all the sinful propensities of Canaan! Sinai's loud thunder failed, but the silent love of Zion overcomes!

Vers. 25, 26. "Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine."

It is instructiv to observe that God enjoins the observance of the ritual of worship very strictly; and this

is done with the view of severving them more completely (ver. 26) from the people of the land. The form of church government is not in any way the essence of the truth, but it is the fence around the truth. It is not the jewel, but it is the precious case that encloses the more precious jewel. Whatever form of worship is best fitted to effect this purpose is surely the best for our adoption. If people, on the other hand, are led to mistake the case for the jewel, then the great design is lost. In Popery and Puseyism, and whenever the forms of worship are such as engross the eye and the heart, the truth is lost, out of sight. Our unattractive Presbyterianism is a rough case in the view of many; but it certainly answers the blessed end of preventing any from resting in it as if itself were the jewel. Its very plainness leads the inquirer to go deeper in, and find the glorious view of God manifest in flesh, which it is intended to fence and guard. How uninviting to Israel these laws as to "clean and unclean”—and yet their observance led to humble and solid inquiry after the Holy One.

Ver. 27. "A man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them."

This is not the same as ver. 6. This is the case of the wizards themselves, not of those who go to consult them. If found, wizards, and all of that class, are to be put to death. Israel is to remove stumbling-blocks. Israel must keep so far from the evil as even to extirpate it. None but Jehovah shall be honored.

Israel must live in open and avowed enmity with the serpent and the seed of the serpent. There is to be no compromise. And this shall throw them entirely upon

the Lord for strength. They are to wage war with Satan; to storm his strongholds; to crush the adder and dragon in their den; to refuse any offer of peace on the part of their great foe. Hell would hate no portion of earth so intensely as Canaan in the days of believing Israel. And yet no region on earth was half so secure ; for the strength of heaven-the breadth of heaven's shield, and the edge of heaven's keen sword, became Israel's safety. "The Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him." "Happy art thou, O Israel!

O people saved of the Lord!"

Personal Duties of the Priests.

A BISHOP MUST BE BLAMELESS."-1 Tim. iii. 2.

CHAPTER XXI.

Vers. 1, 2, 3, 4. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people: but for his kin, that is near unto him, that is, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, and for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him, which hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled. But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself."

THE fourth verse assigns the reason why the priest is not to be allowed, like all other men, to defile himself for every relative or friend that dies. He is "chief man among his people"*-guardian, or superintendent of the community at large; and of course, therefore, could never be out of mourning if he were to mourn for every one in the community that died. Whereas, he is a public character, sustaining important relations to the people in their religious rites and in their approach to God.

He is, however, not to be devoid of sympathy and feeling. Nay, he is fully permitted to pour out his grief

* Not “husband,” for then would have been joined with by; but like the construction of. And so Jeremiah iii. 14, has it.