The second clause of this beautiful and impressive passage contains, in the form of a simple axiom, the leading principle of divine revelation. It is the key which opens, and the clue which conducts through every chamber of the treasury of truth. Those who decline its use stumble at the threshold, and grope in vain to find an entrance. The institution of sacrifices, -the consecration of the priest,-the inspiration of the prophet, the incarnation of the Redeemer,-the mission of the Apostles,—the work of the ministry of reconciliation, from its establishment till time shall end,—all derive their meaning and importance from the fact, "that without shedding of blood there is no remission."

It is to the work of the priest that our attention must be confined. When the father of every family was a priest, the altar was the place where he conducted the worship; and he could come with his household acceptably to God, only as he brought, like Abel, an animal sacrifice, a living victim, whose blood might be shed before it was presented upon the altar. When the Jewish dispensation was instituted, besides the particular offerings which were appointed for defined cases of transgression, and the numerous victims for the several extraordinary annual solemnities, twice every day the priests, on behalf of the people, were to shed the blood of a lamb, and to present its entire body on the altar, that it might be consumed in the fire which God had enkindled, and which the priests

were carefully to preserve from being extinguished. Connected with this rite, and dependent on its observance, was the promise, that God would dwell among the children of Israel, and be their God:

"Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even: and with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil: and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and açcording to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest's office. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God."*

The time of presenting the continual burnt offering, on the appointment of which this gracious promise

*Exod. xxix. 38-45.

was made, and on the observance of which its fulfilment depended, was at nine in the morning and at three in the afternoon. When the people rested in their encampments in the wilderness, they would at these hours of each returning day, have an opportunity of appearing before God at the door of the tabernacle, to perform the worship which was required, and enjoy the manifestation of divine favour which was promised. The tabernacle was pitched in the midst of the encampment, an open space for the reception of the people was left around it, and twice every day would there be a general movement towards it, from the tents of those who valued and desired to observe the institutions of God's appointment. The object, to which on each occasion every eye would be turned, was an innocent lamb, struggling under the hand of the priest, while the sacrificial knife was plunged into its veins, and the blood which was its life was poured out upon the ground. When, however, the people took possession of their respective inheritances in the land of promise, it was impossible that they should assemble daily before the Lord, at the place which he might choose for the tabernacle to be fixed; and the commandment to appear was then restricted to three times a year, at the great annual festivals. Still, the continual burnt offering was to be presented on behalf of the whole of the people as before; and the time of its presentation, morning and evening, was the hour of prayer throughout all the land. Those who dwelt too

far from the sanctuary to allow of their going to it, yet turned their faces towards it; and by virtue of the rites which were there performing, presented acceptably their supplications to God.

And be it remembered, that we possess other powers of vision beside the eye. The imagination can embody, and vividly present scenes which we know to be taking place beyond the ken of the eye; scenes, which we know have taken place ages before we came into existence; scenes, which we know will be unfolded in ages which are yet to come. And the workings of the imagination, when it is excited and impressed, not by the figments of human invention, but by the specific institutions, the simple narrations, the unerring testimony of the word of God, rise into the principle of faith, the operative principle in the life of the saints under every dispensation of religion which God has established in the world. Things, which are invisible to sense, are realized by the mind; their influence is felt; they are applied to for consolation; the actions are regulated by them with the same decision and force as though they stood out in material forms before the eye, and spoke with audible voices to the ear. The most simple and unlettered Christian, who has implored the promised influences of the Spirit of God, understands and feels this; and needs no corporeal representations to bring his mind into contact with the cross of Christ, and the cleansing, tranquillizing, joyinfusing efficacy of his atoning blood. The man who

has not this principle of faith, may have his feelings wrought upon by well-contrived scenic exhibitions or by powerful local associations; but, in his highest state of excitement, he will be as far from the enjoyment of peace with God, of fellowship with him, and of conformity to his image, as he was before. He may, as did many of the crusaders, weep floods of religious tears on one day, and burn with deadly rage, or indulge in gross licentiousness, on the next. The religion which ministers only, or principally, to the senses, will often feed the fires which corrupt nature has enkindled in the breast, and by the frequent and specious demand for the exercise of the passions, give intensity to their strength, and confirm them in a dominion more powerful and despotic than they would otherwise have possessed. Such a religion, wherever it has been found, has come not from above, but from beneath. God's institutions have ever presented enough that was material to lay hold on the inferior part of our nature,-to show, that the body and its senses, as well as the soul and its nobler faculties, are his, and were made for his service; but then, what has been material in his institutions has been constructed, like the ladder which Jacob saw, to facilitate our ascent to a region which is ethereal, to associate us with attendants which are spiritual, to bring us into the secret place of his own presence, that we may converse with him as the Father of our spirits, and dwell under the shadow of his wings.