substantially the same thought. The great danger to which believing Hebrews were exposed was relapse into their old forms, justly indeed venerated by them, until superseded by the glorious person of the "Son." They were in danger of bringing HIM down to the level of their hereditary thoughts of Messiah; and adjusting their worship accordingly. The grandeur of the opening of the Epistle to the Hebrews, at once defines its object. An Israelite instructed in his own privileges, "much every way," could only forego them by the apprehension of a dignity proceeding from the same God immensely higher than that which he already possessed. Such a dignity the Apostle presents as held out by the God of his fathers in the person of "the Son," one in whom there was essential glory. By how much He excelled in his own person angels, Moses, or Aaron, by so much is there a dignity and efficacy in his ministry, work, and offices, in every respect above all which was to be found in their own ordinances. Others had been dignified by the glory set on them, it was his sole prerogative to throw his own proper glory into all that which he undertook. This consideration explains the awful solemnity of the warnings found in the 6th and 10th chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews, warnings so awful that hardly a saint in one stage or other of his experience has escaped being exercised by them. And well it is that it should be so, for how readily is Christ displaced from his rightful supremacy in the heart. If He be, as assuredly He is, the grand ordinance of God, the recurrence to the ancient ordinances of God Himself, which in their highest sense, were bare shadows of a wondrous reality, must be deeply offensive to God. It was really "drawing back unto perdition;" turning aside from Him, who in Himself and by what He has wrought, is the salvation of God, to "dead works" which have no power "to purge the conscience." How much the solemnity of these warnings was needed, let the downward course of the Church testify, boasting of its temples, priesthood, rituals, and ceremonies, things which when viewed in the light of these warnings plainly declare "a falling away."

These warnings admit of a pointed application to our own consciences. They present to us a great principle,

viz. the great danger of resting in those truths which are common to believers under every dispensation, to the neglect of those which are characteristic of our own dispensation. The result of neglecting the truths which are special and characteristic, is uncertainty even as to the truths which are common to all dispensations. "Repentance from dead works, faith towards God, the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment," are presented by the apostle as "the principles of the doctrine of Christ" (or as in the margin, "the word of the beginning of Christ") such truths as a believer, before the manifestation of the glory of the Son, and of his accomplished work, might fully have recognised. These are the truths from which, as a basis, the apostle would lead them on to perfection, so as to instruct them in the new and higher order of priesthood, in order to sustain and refresh their souls in the course of struggle, temptation, and conflict. Besides this, the knowledge of this priesthood would actually lead their souls into the same order of worship on earth, as they would more happily know in heaven. It would be their alone power of deliverance from "the rudiments of the world." Actually we do find a large portion of those really quickened by the Spirit, in much uncertainty as to the peace of their souls. They have not "gone on to perfection," so as to realise the present priestly service of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, as the gracious provision of God to maintain their souls in realised nearness to Himself, even in that very nearness into which they are brought by Christ, who suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust to bring us to God." It is an undeniable truth, that we cannot learn in heaven itself a deeper truth than the cross of Christ; but it is by following on to know the Lord in all His present gracious ministrya ministry, the value of which unfolds itself, in proportion as we are learning experimentally what we are in ourselves, and where we are, that our souls alone enter into the depths of the cross. On the other hand, the very liberty of entering "into the holiest of all,' only magnifies the wondrous power of that cross, as being the path which leads us into so privileged a place.

But in fault of "going on to perfection," the soul becomes busied about many circumstantials, which the Spirit characterises as "rudiments of the world," and instead of enjoying and living in the power of heavenly realities, has need to be taught what be "the first principles of the oracles of God."

Such, alas, is the fascinating power of "rudiments of the world," that at the present moment it appears the peculiar danger of the church. Wherever they are introduced, it is truly sorrowful to witness in those who are really Christ's, the manifest decline of spirituality. Such expressions as, "Beware lest any man spoil you,"-"Let no man beguile you," become pregnant with meaning. The real point at issue is now, as it ever has been, whether the world civilised, or even Christianised, or Christ himself is the object of our hearts. Are we content with perfection in Christ? or do we seek something besides what we are, and what we have in Him? The arduous ministry of the apostle was to present "every man perfect in Christ Jesus," by not allowing any foreign element, which, pretending to embellish, would in reality obscure the dignity of the believer in Christ. If we are desirous of attainment, and O that it may be so! may it be according to the tenor of the apostle's prayer, "That we might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good word, and increasing in the knowledge of God." PRESBUTES.

Note, page 179. Hebrews xiii. 8. "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever:"-How blessed a contrast is this to "All things are vanity," as to every man - LXX. Ps. xxxix. 5, on which Bythner thus remarks:

'Every man is all vanity;" as all is vanity, so the vanity and misery which are scattered piecemeal among other creatures, seem in man alone to be collected together. And thus man stands forth as the compendium of all the vanities, which exist in creatures. With inanimate, he is subject to change-corruption; with animate, to alteration-death; with those which have feelings, to joy and grief; with angels (who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation), to inconstancy, etc.; and thus he rushes into the sinners' abyss.

No. XIX.

NUMBERS. a

THE Book of Leviticus contains-the revelation of God

sitting upon the throne, where He places Himself that He may be approached by the people-that of the priesthood brought into proximity to the throne, as far as men could have access to it; and then, the promulgation of the commandments relative to these two great facts, in that which concerned the generality of the people.

In Numbers, we have the service and walk of the people, consequently, that which relates to the Levites and the journey through the wilderness. Now, as Leviticus ended with regulations and warnings respecting the possession of the land, and that with regard to the rights of God, and consequently to the rights of His people, the book of Numbers brings us to the entrance of the people into the land at the end of the wilderness journey, and speaks of that grace, the effect of which was to justify the people, notwithstanding all their unfaithfulnesses.

The first thing to be noticed is, that God numbers His people exactly, and arranges them, once thus recognised, around His tabernacle: sweet thought, to be thus recognised and placed around God Himself!

Three tribes on each side of the court kept the tabernacle of the Lord. Levi alone was excepted in order to be consecrated to the service of God: therefore the tribe of Levi encamped according to their families directly round the court. Moses, Aaron and the priests were placed opposite the entrance whereby God was approached. The least things in the word deserve to be noticed. Ps. lxxx. is entirely opened by the position of the tribes. The spirit of the Psalmist asks, in the last days of the desolation of Israel, for God to lead them and to manifest His power as He did when He led them through the wilderness; he asks for the power of His

This has been perused by the Author since being translated and printed. ED.

presence on the ark of testimony, as God manifested it when it was said, at the moment when Israel set forward, "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered." Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh were the three tribes nearest the ark in the camp of Israel; that is why it is said, in the second verse of the Psalm, "before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh."

In the setting forward of the camp, the order given was, that the tabernacle surrounded by the Levites, should be in the midst of the tribes, as it was when the camp was at rest.

In chap. ii. we find that another arrangement took place as a matter of fact.

In chap. iii. we have the Levites set apart, according to the thoughts of God, for service. They are a figure of the Church, or rather of the members of the Church in their service, even as the priests are the figure of the Church drawing near to the throne of God.

The Levites were first-fruits offered to God, for they were instead of the first-born in whom God had taken Israel to Himself, when he smote the first-born of the Egyptians. Thus it is, that the Church is as the first-fruits of the world, holy to the Lord. The number of the first-born being greater than that of the Levites, those that were over were redeemed, as a sign that they belonged to God, and the Levites became God's possession for His service (ver. 12, 13). It is the same with regard to the Church: it belongs wholly to God to serve Him down here. But, besides, the Levites were entirely given to Aaron the high-priest; for the service of the Church or of its members is wholly dependent on Christ in the presence of God, and has no other object but that which concerns Him, and that which is connected with the service which He Himself renders to God in the true tabernacle. The service of the Church has no value (on the contrary, it is sin), except so far as it is united to the priesthood. Consequently our service is absolutely good for nothing, if it be not linked, in its details, with our communion with the Lord and with the priesthood of Christ. Christ is "a Son over His own house"; "there are differences of administrations, but the