Primer of Christian evidence...

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What Christianity is ... ... ... ... 2

Christianity the Beligion of Jesus Christ ... ... 3

II

THE OLD TESTAMENT CONSIDERED AS A PREPARATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

§ 1. THE CHURCH OF THE PATRIARCHS.

I shall endeavor in the present chapter to give a detailed scheme of the history of the Church of God from the beginning, as the Bible brings it before ns. The Biblical history of the Creation is the history of the beginning of the earth considered as tlie abode of man. Man is described to us in his original state, the state in which God was well pleased with him ; then we have the fall and expulsion from Paradise (i.-iii.). The descendants of Cain developed a premature and corrupt civilization; the children of Seth called themselves by the name of the Lord (Gen. iv. 2G, margin), i. e. they acknowledged the Lord as their God in contrast with the rest of the world. Here then we have the Visible Church.

This Church continues, but is corrupted by mingling with the world (v., vi. 1-8). God's judgment falls on it, but the Church is preserved in the family of Noah; he offers sacrifice on coming forth from the ark, and God renews His covenant with him.

Then we have notices of the rise of the great nations of the world (Gen. x.) ; and in the history of Babel we see an attempt at a godless unity, an attempt renewed in succeeding ages in the world's history, and each attempt in turn brought to confusion. The progress of the Church of God continues in the family of Shem, and the call of Abraham is the beginning of an organized polity, more full and definite than we have had before. But a sign that God's kingdom is not confined to one family, but is wide as the world, is seen in Melchizedck, King of Salem (and therefore in all probability a Jebusite), and priest of the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth (Gen. xiv. 18-24).

In the solemn renewal of the covenant with Abraham, God's revelation is clearer than that to Noah. He opens to the Patriarch a vision of the future, as yet indeed but slight, yet fuller than has yet been made known (Gen. xv.).

Abraham's obedience to God's command to offer up Isaac was the culminating point of his faith and trust. It completed lu's self-surrender to God (Gen. xxii.). Compare with it Heb. xi, 17-19. On the death of his wife, his unfailing trust in the fulfilment of God's promise is seen in his refusal to mingle her dust with that of the people around. She shall be buried, and he with her, apart and alone. The blessing to the whole world shall come by the Church refusing to conform to the world.

The covenant with Abraham was renewed to Isaac, but his name does not come very prominently before us. In the days of Jacob and his sons we are brought into view of the ancient monarchy of Egypt. Of that monarchy, too, God reveals Himself the Lord and King, guiding it in His love and care, yet always keeping the Church distinct and apart from its idolatries. The Church and covenant are no longer confined to one man, as in the case of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for all Jacob's sons are recognized as the people of the Lord, and called by the distinctive name of Israel. In the contest between Moses as the representative of His people and Pharaoh the opposer and blasphemer of the Lord, we have a figure of the great battle between Light and Darkness which the history of the Church still presents.

In the wilderness w r e have the delivering of the written law, the establishment of a priesthood for the vicarious offering of sacrifice, and of a visible mercy-seat in a Tabernacle where God especially promised to be found of His people. The Tabernacle w x as carried about with the moving host in the wilderness, and on the settlement of the nation in Canaan was set up in Shiloh.

The period between the exodus and the entry into Canaan falls into four distinct periods : —

(a) The march to Sinai and encampment there (Ex. xv.- Nurn. x. 32).

(b) The advance toward Canaan (Num. x. 33-xiv.).

(c) The retreat and thirty-eight years' wandering (Num. xv.-xix.).

(d) The final advance to the Jordan (Num. xx., xxi.)

Of the period of the forty years 1 wandering we know almost nothing ; there are a few episodes of deep interest, such as the rebellion of Korah (Num. xvi.) and the history of Balaam (Num. xxii.-xxiv., xxxi. 1-8). But we see that all these long years Moses was patiently organizing the people under the direction of God, so that whereas they were little better than a horde of savages when they left Egypt, they were marshalled and arranged in regular order when they drew near to the Jordan.

The conquest of Canaan is narrated in the Book of Joshua. The kings of the sou'Ji were defeated at the battle of Makkcdah, and of the north at the waters of Merom (ch. i.-xii.). Then the land was divided among the tribes (xiii.-xxii.) ; after which Joshua, having convened the tribes, solemnly charged them to remember that they held the land as tenants under God. Then he died in peace, with the promise from them that they would follow his exhortations.

In the period covered by the Book of Judges we see the nation in its early days often giving itself to violence and sin, but never Losing the witness of God which had been committed to it. The tribes were sometimes at war, not merely with foreign enemies, but with one another. The war with Jabin marks the last attempt of the old inhabitants to repossess themselves of the country; after that time we hear little more of them. The last remnant, the Jebusites, were dispossessed of Jerusalem by David (2 Sam. v.)

As the country became more settled, there was an evident tendency to monarchy. Moses had anticipated and provided for this (Deut. xvii. 14-end). Abimelech's attempt, for a while successful, marks this tendency. But it failed partly through the godless character of the man and his attempt, partly from its prematureness. But by the time the Book of Samuel opens unity was so far attained that Eli the priest was also judge of the whole people, and the same office was filled by Samuel.

§ 2. THE CHURCH UNDER THE MONARCHY

The song of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, is a song of the coming monarchy (1 Sam. ii. 1-10). It clearly regards that monarchy as on its way, and for the first time speaks of God as " the Lord of hosts." The First Book of Samuel is therefore sometimes called also truly " the First Book of the Kings." The orderly rule of Samuel and his rescue of the nation from ruin after the fall of Shiloh made the people more eager than ever for a king in order to preserve their unity. They sinned indeed in not referring the matter to God, in forgetting that He was the true Lord of the nation ; but He announced that He would grant their wish, yet all the while would rule them himself. So the monarchy began, and with it began also the period of the prophets. Moses, as we know, had been a prophet; but with Samuel began a regular prophetic order, and we begin to read of " the sons of prophets " (1 Sam. x. 10, etc.). Thus we see the prophetic order was established side by side with the royal, and the student will find constantly that the prophet was the Divine check against tyranny and wrong on the part of the king.

The teacher must remember that now we begin to have two, and sometimes more, portions of the Bible running side by side. We have a continuous narrative in the Books of Samuel and Kings, and from the death of Saul we have also the Books of Chronicles. But also we have the Book of Psalms to illustrate the history of David. The teacher will find it always an interesting subject with his pupils, when reading the history of David, to illustrate continually from the Psalms.

A contrast to the great empires of antiquity, where a man built a strong city and then proceeded to tyrannize over and enslave his fellow-men around, was the history of Jerusalem. The people of Israel emerged from slavery to be a race of freemen. Their education was carried on in the wilderness, and

HOW TO TEACH THE OLD TESTAMENT.

in the fields and Pastures of Palestine, until they became an orderly nation and kingdom. Then, and not until then, David took Jerusalem as the centre and citadel of that free kingdom, and set up the ark of God in the midst, the sign that God was the Ruler and King of the people. And then we have his desire to build a temple, not (it is true) granted to him, but recognized and blessed by God, who opens to him a vision of the greatness of the kingdom of David which shall be established forever (2 Sam. vii.).

§ 3. THE CHURCH OF THE DIVIDED KINGDOM.

The teacher will find a very valuable table of the kings of the two kingdoms in the " Aids to Bible Students," p. 115. This table also contains notices of the contemporary history of the world. I add here to what the reader will find in that table the passages of Holy Scripture, where the histories of the respective kings will be found.

b. c.

977. Rehoboam, 1 Kings xii. 1-24, xiv.

21-31; 2 Chron. x.-xii. 959. Abijarn, 1 Kings xv. 1-8; 2 Chron.

xiii. 956. Asa, 1 Kings xv. 8-24; 2 Chron.

xiv.-xvi.

916. Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.; 1 Kings xxii. 41-49.

892. Jehoram, 2 Chron. xxi.

885. Ahaziah, 2 Chron. xxii. 1-10.

884. Athaliah, 2 Kings xi.; 2 Chron.

xxii. 10, xxiii. 1-15. 878. Joash, 2 Kings xii.; 2 Chron.

xxiv.

838. Amaziah, 2 Kings xlv. 1-20; 2 Chron. xxv.

977. Jeroboam, I Kings xii. 20-xiv. 20.

95G. Nadab, 1 Kings xv. 25-31.

954. Baasha, 1 Kings xv. 27-xvi. 7. 932. Elah, 1 Kings xvi. 8-10. 931. Ziinri, 1 Kings xvi. 9-20. 929. Oinri, 1 Kings xvi. 21-28. 918. Ahab, 1 Kings xvi. 29, xxii. 40.

897. Ahaziah, 1 Kings xxii. 51-end ;

2 Kings i. 896. Jehoram, 2 Kings ii.-ix. 26.

884. Jehu, 2 Kings ix.. x.

856. Jehoahaz, 2 Kings xiii. 1-9. 839. Jehoash, 2 Kings xiii. 10-xiv. 16.

HOW TO TEACH THE OLD TESTAMENT.

9. Uzziah or Azariah, 2 Kings xv. 1-7; 2 Chron. xxvi.; Joel.

Chron. xxvii.; Micah. 742. Ahaz, 2 Kings xvi.; 2 Chron.

xxviii.; Isaiah vii., viii. 726. Hezekiah, 2 Chron. xxix.-xxxii.;

Isaiah ix.-xxxix.

G97. Manasseh, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1-20. 642. Amon, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 21-end. 640. Josiah, 2 Chron. xxxiv., xxxv.;

2 Kings xxiii. 1-30; Habakkuk. 609. Jehoahaz, 2 Kings xxiii. 30-34 ;

Jer. xxii. 11, 12. 609. Jehoiakim, 2 Kings xxiii. 34,

xxiv. 1-6; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5-8. 598. Jehoiachin, 2 Kings xxiv. 8-16;

xxv. 27-30; Jer. xxii. 24-30. 597. Zedekiah, 2 Kings xxiv. 17-end,

B. C.

823. Jeroboam, ii.; 2 Kings xiv. 23-29;

Amos; Hosea. Interruption

of ten years. 772. Zechariah, 2 Kings xv. 8-12. 771. Shallum, 2 Kings xv. 13-15. 771. Menahem, 2 Kings xv. 15-22. 760. Pekahiah, 2 Kings xv. 23-26. 758. Pekah, 2 Kings xv. 27-31.

730. Hoshea, 2 Kings xvii.

The teacher will observe at a glance that the kings of Judah are much more fully dealt with in the Chronicles than in the Kings, whilst the latter book gives us much fuller information than the former about the northern kingdom, — Israel. Closer examination will show why this is so; the Books of Kings may be called a political history, the Books of Chronicles an ecclesiastical, and speaking therefore much of the Temple at Jerusalem, which was within the kingdom of Judah. In a nation where the State and Church were so closely united and intertwined, it was indeed a matter of course that each book shall say much concerning both ; still the Books of Chronicles, certainly written by one of the tribe of Levi, form the source from which we gain most information concerning the Temple worship and the priesthood during the days of the monarchy. The teacher, therefore, will be able to gather some very beautiful lessons concerning public worship and the ritual of Divine worship from these books.

As the Book of Psalms throws light on the life of David, so do the Books of the Prophets upon the history of the monarchy. In our blessed Lord's parable of " The Wicked Husbandmen," He shows how the prophets were sent to bring the erring nation to obedience to their king (Matt. xxi. 33-41).

There is one point which should not be passed over even in this short treatise. It is the fulness of the prophetic power which was brought to influence the northern kingdom. As if to compensate for the loss of the regular priesthood and Temple, God gave some of the greatest of the prophets to the kingdom of Israel. Elijah and Elisha were almost entirely ministers to that kingdom. We hear of no word of Elijah to Judah, if we except the posthumous letter referred to in 2 Chron. xxi. 12. Jonah had also a mission to the kingdom of Israel, though it is not detailed in Scripture (2 Kings xiv. 25).

§ 4. THE CHURCH IN THE TIME OF THE CAPTIVITY.

The direct historical narrative breaks off with the Book of Kings, and we have to piece it together by means of the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and of the Assyrian and Babylonian history. 1 The following slight table of the events of the seventy years' captivity and the return will, it is hoped, be a help to the teacher : —

G06. Judali under Jehoiakim made tributary by Nebuchadnezzar. Many Jews, chiefly of the richer classes, carried to Babylon ; among them Ezekiel, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael. (2 Kings xxiv. l-± ; Dan. i. These passages should also be read : Jer. xxvi., xxvii. 1-11 ; xxxv., xxxvi.)

598. Jehoiachin reigns three months. Jerusalem taken by the Chaldeans. Jehoiachin in exile. (Jer. xxii. 1-10.)

597. Zedekiah reigns as vassal of the Chaldeans for eleven years. (2 Kings xxiv. 17-20).

594. Ezekiel receives his call as prophet, by the river Chebar. (Ezekiel i.) The first twenty-four chapters of this prophet relate to the exiles in Babylon who were carried away at the first deportation. Then he has several chapters concerning foreign nations, xxv.-xxxii.

589. Zedekiah applies to Egypt for help, whereupon the Chaldeans immediately besiege Jerusalem again.

1 There is a very good sketch of the history of the great empires in the Aids, pp. 96-109. — The Bible and the Monuments.

586. Jerusalem is destroyed, and the king taken prisoner. (2 Kings xxv. ; 2 Cliron. xxxvi. ; Jer. lii. ; Ezek. xxxiii. 21.) The greater part of the people carried away to Babylon. Jeremiah writes the Lamentations. Gedaliah is appointed governor by Nebuchadnezzar, but is killed by Ishmael. Many of the people flee into Egypt, and take Jeremiah with them. (2 Kings xxv. 22-26 ; Jer. xliii.)

581. Ezekiel's vision of the new Temple (Ezek. xl.-xlviii.)

580. Nebuchadnezzar sets up his golden image in the plain of Dura. (Dan. hi.)

570. Nebuchadnezzar's madness. (Dan. iv. 22, 27, 29, 33.)

564. His recovery.

562. His death. Accession of his son Evil-merodach. Jehoiachin taken out of prison. (2 Kings xxv. 27).

560. Evil-merodach slain ; succeeded by Nergal-sharezer the Rab-Mag, i. e. chief of the Magi (see Jer. xxxix. 3, 13), called Neriglissar in Josephus. He married Nebuchadnezzar's daughter.

556. Nergal-sharezer succeeded by his son Laborosoarchod, a child, who is murdered within a year.

555. Nabonadius succeeds (called by Herodotus, Labynetus), He appears to have married a (laughter of Nebuchadnezzar. Having associated with himself Belshazzar as joint-king, he marched against Cyrus king of Persia, who was at war with Croesus king of Lydia, leaving Belshazzar in charge of Babylon. Cyrus routed Nabonadius (who thereupon shut himself up in Borsippa) and marched against Babylon.

538. Belshazzar's impious feast, interrupted by God's awful message. Babylon taken by Cyrus, who committed the rule of the city to Darius the Mede. (Dan. v.)

538. Daniel cast into the lions' den. (Dan. vi.)

536. Death of Darius. Cyrus ruler at Babylon. His decree restoring the Jews, an answer to Daniel's prayer. (Dan. ix.)

§ 5. THE CHURCH FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE END OP THE OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.

536. Return of the exiles from Jerusalem under Zerubbabel. (Ezra i.-iii. ; 2 Cliron. xxxvi. 22, 23). The rebuilding of the Temple begins.

529. Cyrus dies, and is succeeded by his son Cambyses, called in Ezra iv. 6 Ahasuerus (Persian and Sanskrit name for " king "). The adversaries of the Church try to stop the building of the Temple. (Ezra iv. 6.)

521. Death of Cambyses. Accession of a Magian impostor who pretended to be the younger son of Cyrus, Smerdis ; called in Ezra iv. 7 Artaxerxes, i. e. ft great warrior." The enemies repeat their attempt, and the Temple works are stopped.

521. The false Smerdis is slain, and succeeded by Darius Hystaspis. (Ezraiv. 24 ; v., vi.) Under him the Temple works are recommenced.

517. Temple completed. (Ezra vi.)

490. Darius invades Greece ; but is defeated at the great battle of Marathon.

485. Xerxes, who succeeds his father Darius, is the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther. A great feast which he gives to his nobles leads to the deposition of Queen Vashti. He invades Greece, but is defeated at the battles of Salamis and Platsea. On his return Esther is made queen.

473. Hainan's plot. Institution of the Feast of Purim.

4C4. Artaxerxes Longimanus succeeds his father Xerxes.

457. Ezra goes up from Babylon, under commission from Artaxerxes, with a large company of Jews. (Ezra vii., viii.) His reformation of religion and manners. (Ezra ix., x.)

444. Nehemiah goes up to Jerusalem, sent by the same king, as Tirshatha, or ''governor." He repairs the broken Avails, notwithstanding the cowardice and sloth of the Jews and the spite of their enemies. (Neh. i.-vii.) Solemn assembly of the people, and high festival. The covenant renewed. (Neh. viii.-xii.) His reformation.

430. With the prophet Malachi the Old Testament Scriptures close.

§ G. THE CHURCH PROM THE CLOSE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES UNTIL THE COMING OF CHRIST.

This division of the history of the ancient Church of God does not fall strictly within the history of the Old Testament. We gather it partly from the writings of Josephus, partly from the Apocrypha, partly from profane authors. All that can be done here is to name the principal epochs.

The Jews continued under the rule of Persia as long as that monarchy lasted. The Samaritans being refused communion with them, Manasseh built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim, b. c. 409.

In B. c. 333, Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, conquered the Persian king Darius, and the Persian monarchy was at an end. This event was the means of spreading the Greek literature and language all through the East, and thus a great help was prepared for the spread of the Gospel. He founded the city of Alexandria, and under his sanction great multitudes of Jews took up their abode there. In after years, when many of them had forgotten their native tongue, the Old Testament was translated into Greek for their use; this is the translation called the Septuagint. When Alexander died, in 323, his conquests were divided between four generals. Palestine lay between the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt, and became a battle-field of these rival kingdoms, being seized again and again, first by one power, then by the other.

The tyranny and cruelties of Antiochus Epiphanes, who became king of Syria B. C. 175, led to the rising of the Jews under the brave Maccabees, and Palestine again became independent b. c. 141, about the time when Rome, by the destruction of her rival, Carthage, and the conquest of Corinth, was consolidating her colossal power round the Mediterranean Sea. Thus began, at Jerusalem, the dynasty of the Asmonaeans. It lasted till B. c. 70, in which year a dispute between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, the great-grandsons of Simon the brother of Judas Maccabaeus, led them to appeal to the Roman general Pomj^ey, who had been achieving great victories in the East. He came and made Judaea subject to the Roman power. Then came the civil wars of Rome, and at the battle of Philippi, b. c. 41, the Republic was overthrown, and the Empire took its place under Augustus Caesar. Two years before, Herod, an Edomite, had succeeded in persuading the Romans to make him king of Jndaea. During his reign, and under the Empire of Augustus, our Blessed Saviour was born.

III. The Old Testament Considered As The Preparation For

CHRIST.

I have spoken of the Bible as the interpreter of history ; I turn now to a subject never to be lost sight of by the teacher. "We are told (to quote the Revised Version) in Heb. i. 1 that God spake of old " unto the fathers in the prophets, by divers portions and in divers manners." Always, as the New Testament teaches us, the eternal purpose of God was before Iliin in the revelation of the Old Testament, of gathering together all things in Christ. The revelation was "by divers portions,* 1 it was not all given at once. The light became clearer as the world moved on. Of the "divers manners, " too, we shall see as we read. But though the revelation was progressive, there is enough to show us the unchanging character of God's purpose from the beginning.

1. Sacrifice. — Let us start with these words from Rev. xiii. 8. "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. " Before Adam sinned, the Lamb had been slain in the eternal counsels of God. It was no afterthought following that sin; it was an essential part of the very nature and character of God. Here we stand to-day between two eternities. We look back upon the past, and that is all mystery : the eternal existence of God, the mutual love of the Father and the Son. We look into the future, and see ourselves in the great eternity, and all is solemn mystery there. And between them the unspeakable Love has placed us to adore and believe; to believe that there is and has ever been, by some divine necessity beyond our comprehension, a combination of sacrifice and power. This serves to explain the fact that wherever we meet with any sort of religion in the wide world, there is sure to be sacrifice in some form. The miserable and ghastly form which it takes among the African tribes, who slay their fellow-creatures before their idols, is a caricature proving that there must have been a true form of sacrifice at first which came down from heaven. The false forms are found in the heathen religions ; the true in Holy Scripture.

2. Abel's Sacrifice. — The first direct mention of sacrifice is that of the sons of Adam (Gen. iv.) Cain's offering was rejected ; Abel's was accepted. Whether the difference lay in the characters of the two men, or in the nature of their offering, we are not told ; but as one reads the rest of the Bible it seems almost clear that it was, in part at least, the second of the two. The brothers stood in a world which had been polluted by sin, but which had also received a covenant of deliverance. We know that this covenant rested on the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, though not yet revealed to the world. Their lives, like the life of every man born into the world, lay in the redemption by Christ. This was the law of their existence, and therefore must be the basis of their worship. The sacrifice of Abel's lamb was an expression of this ; the offering of fruits was not. The one, but not the other, imaged the Divine Sufferer. From the first the lamb was the standing symbol and type of the Redeemer.

There is much that is fearful about the history of the Fall, — God's righteous anger — man driven from Eden — a threatening glare upon his path from the flaming sword behind him. But a figure comes between. The shadow of the slain Lamb falls along the lengthening way; and in that shadow man crosses the wilderness of this world to a nobler Eden than he leaves.

3. Extension of the Law of Sacrifice. — The teacher studying the records of God's revelation of Himself will not fail to note how, whenever He renewed, or extended, or enlarged His covenant with the patriarchs, there was always some extension of the law of sacrifice. Thus, after the Flood, when He renewed His covenant with Noah, we are told that Noah offered of every clean beast and of every clean fowl. So when God promised Abraham the land of Canaan, there was a special solemn sacrifice (Gen. xv.).

4. The Significance of the Sacrifice of Isaac — The great chapter which relates to the sacrifice of Isaac stands midway in the world's history between the sacrifice of Abel and those appointed under Moses — midway in meaning, midway in time. For the sacrifice of Abel expressed the ground of man's hope, the slain Lamb ; but did not explain. Abel brought the firstling of his flock, and was accepted for his obedience and trust; and that was all. But in the case of Abraham and his son we have the very image of the great Offering to come. 1 The well-beloved son, the representative of the whole race, is voluntarily offered by the father, — voluntarily offers himself. "They went both of them together," as we are told twice (verses 6 and 8); one in purpose, one in mind. The father binds the son ; the son unresistingly suffers himself to be bound. The type is complete. No type afterwards added anything to the fulness of this sublime prophecy-in-action. The sacrifices of Moses taught the people more concerning the benefits of sacrifice, gave fuller information on details; but the truth itself that the Lamb was slain from all eternity was never more fully foreshadowed and exemplified than in the sacrifice of Isaac.

We may, I believe, put it this way. In Isaac, Abraham saw the day of Christ (John viii. 56). Moses showed how the sacrifice of Christ would be applied. Just as in the New Testament the Gospels tell us how Christ died, and the Epistles tell 1 low the sacrifice is applied to the heart and the conscience; each has its work, and one completes the other.

Space would fail me in trying to bring before the teacher all the points of this Divine history ; I can only just indicate some. (1) Abraham learned that his sacrifice would of itself not avail ; it would not have satisfied his craving to serve God. He learned that all human sacrifice could be only typical. Man could provide no fitting offering, and therefore the Lord provided. (2) Isaac looked round for a victim. There was none (Cf. Isa. lxiii. 5). (3) They went together and alone; the servants could not enter. No mortal can enter into the secret work of the Father and the Son (Cf. John xvi. 32; Isa.

1 The chapter is one of the Proper Lessons for Good Friday.

lxiii. 3). (4) Compare Gen. xxii. 6 with John xx 17. (5) Read the commentary supplied by Ileb. xi. 17-19.

5. The Paschal Lamb. — The sacred history plainly indicates all through the Book of Genesis that it is moving steadily to a "far-off great event." The whole tenor of the promises bade the receivers look forward. The captivity in Egypt marks an epoch in the history of the Church. It was not only a type of the battle of the Church with sin, but it was a preparation of the family to become a nation. When the time came for the development of this nation by their leaving the land of bondage, the great sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb was ordained. That was not only a sacrifice, it was also a feast ; not t only a type of the offering of Christ, but the beginning of a new state of things. The lamb, after being slain, was eaten. Xo part was burnt on an altar. Only that which the worshippers could not eat was to be burnt with fire. The animal was to be dressed whole, not even a bone was to be broken. There is (if one may say so) a lavish abundance of emphasis in the way that all this is laid down, all indicating a truth so precious that words are too weak to express it, viz., that in His Covenant of Redemption God gives us in Christ His best, and gives it all. He keeps nothing back, and it is all for us. It is not merely a propitiation for guilt, it is an eternal life and joy. Our redeemed human nature partakes of the whole nature of an Incarnate God.

And when we read the discourses of our Lord in St. John xiii.-xvi., with these ideas in mind, the history of the Passover throws light upon them which was not there before. Those discourses are the Divine interpretation of the central act of the Old Testament, out of which arose the central act of the Xew. The Passover of the Christian Church was the death and the rising again of the ancient rite. The typical Passover vanished; but the Christian Eucharist arose at the same instant, and its forms still gave forth the same lesson which the forms of the elder rite had taught, but spiritualized and glorified like EzekiePs temple.