then I will set My face against that man and his family and cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech. Sermons
Leviticus 20:1-5 cf. Genesis 22:1-19; Micah 6:7. In this chapter we come to a catalogue of capital crimes. Upon the whole list of cases we need not dwell; but the first has some interest as raising the question of "human sacrifices." How early the terrible practice of offering "the fruit of the body" in atonement for" the sin of the soul" arose, we can scarcely say. It has been supposed to be as early, at all events, as the time of Abraham. Some entertain the notion that the sacrifice of Isaac was primarily a temptation to imitate the custom existing in the land. But if the horrible custom existed in Abraham's day, nothing could more clearly convey that the Divine pleasure rested in other sacrifices altogether than the details of the escape of Isaac. The custom of human sacrifices was widespread, as investigations show. Here and elsewhere the Lord sets his face against them. Let us see if we can grasp the principle involved. I. HUMAN SACRIFICE IS THE NATURAL CLIMAX OF THE SACRIFICIAL IDEA. "If no scruples," says Ewald, "held a man back from giving the dearest he had when a feeling in his heart drove him to sacrifice it to his God just as it was, then he would easily feel even the life of a beloved domestic animal not too dear to be given up at his heart's urgent demand, Nay, only in the offering up of life or soul, as the last that can be offered, did it seem to him that the highest was presented. But the logical consequence of such feelings was that human life must ultimately be looked upon as incomparably the highest and most wondrous offering, whether the life offered be that of a stranger or, as that which is dearest to one, that of one's own child, or even of one's self. Thus human sacrifice was everywhere the proper crown and completion of all these utterances of the fear of God." The case of Abraham is one in point. When God for wise purposes demanded the surrender of the only begotten and well-beloved son, Isaac, he asked the patriarch for the greatest conceivable sacrifice; and, so far as intention is concerned, Abraham made the surrender. It has been called on the patriarch's part a "magnificent and extraordinary act of romantic morals." While, therefore, it was in reality, as we shall see, a condemnation of human sacrifices as such, it illustrates their real spirit. II. HUMAN SACRIFICE IS AT THE SAME TIME SUCH A MONSTROUS AND EXTRAVAGANT EXPRESSION OF THE SACRIFICIAL IDEA THAT NOTHING BUT A DIVINE COMMAND WOULD WARRANT THE ENTERTAINMENT OF IT. What distinguishes Abraham's case in connection with the proposed sacrifice of Isaac from that of all other sacrifices of human life is that he had a command of God to go upon, while the others followed the devices of their own hearts. So sacred should human life appear to men, that the idea of taking it away should only be entertained under the most solemn sanctions. Besides, but for the sin-distorted mind of man, it would appear that the consecration of human beings as "living sacrifices," is in itself far higher and nobler than their death (Romans 12:1). To take innocent infants and place them in the flaming arms of Molech must appear a most monstrous and exaggerated expression of the sacrificial idea. But would God, in any circumstances, command human sacrifices? As a matter of fact, men were sacrificed through capital punishment. The present chapter is full of capital crimes. Men died under the direction of God for their crimes. This, however, is not the sacrificial idea, which involves the sacrifice of the innocent in the room of the guilty. This was doubtless what led the infants to be favourite sacrifices with the heathen - the innocency of the sufferer constituted the greater appeal to the angry deity. We observe, then - III. THAT GOD FORBADE, UNDER THE PENALTY OF DEATH, HUMAN SACRIFICES, AND IN THE ONLY CASE WHERE lie SEEMED TO DEMAND A HUMAN SACRIFICE HE HAD PROVIDED A SUBSTITUTE. He made the offering of children to Molech a capital crime. This was not aimed at the idolatry only, but at the unwarranted exaggeration of the sacrificial idea. Besides, in the ease of Isaac, just when Abraham was about to slay him, God interposed with a provided substitute. All God required in Abraham's peculiar case was the spirit of surrender. He guards, therefore, his prerogative of dealing with life, and enjoins his people only to take human life away when he directs them. They are not to presume to offer such a sacred gift as human lie upon his altar in the way of sacrifice. They may dedicate themselves and their children as living beings to his service, but their death he requires not in such a voluntary fashion at their hands. IV. AT THE SAME TIME, WE FIND HUMAN LIFE REGULARLY SACRIFICED IN THE ORDER OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND AT THE CALL OF DUTY. That is to say, though we have not monstrous and unhallowed sacrifices required of God at his altars, he does make demands on men and women to surrender, like Abraham, their sons, or to surrender themselves at the call of duty. This is indeed as real a sacrifice as in the arms of Moloch, and at the same time a far nobler one. In fact, self-sacrifice seems to be a law of providence in the case of all who would be truly noble in their careers. The voluntary element, coming in along with the sweet reasonableness of the sublime necessity, vindicates the morality of the whole transaction. Men and women cheerfully lay down their lives in gradual sacrifice to duty's call, or sometimes in sudden and immediate sacrifice. And the act is moral as welt as heroic. V. THIS LEADS TO A LAST OBSERVATION, THAT HUMAN SACRIFICE HAD ITS GREAT CULMINATION AND CLIMAX IN THAT OF JESUS CHRIST, For what God did not require from Abraham - the actual sacrifice of his son - he has required of himself. The demand for a human sacrifice made only apparently in the case of Isaac, was made really in the case of Christ. An innocent, sinless human being was once commanded by his God and Father to lay down his life and bear, in doing so, the sins of man. Hence we find him saying, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again" (John 10:17). It would seem a harsh command, a cruel necessity, were it not that the Father and Son are essentially one, and the commandment that the Son should die was virtually Divine self-sacrifice. "He who is sent is one in being with him who sends." The atonement of Christ is really the self-sacrifice of God. Hence the only human sacrifice demanded is God incarnate responding to himself. The necessity for thus atoning for human sin at the expense of self-sacrifice is in the main mysterious. But its very mystery makes it more deeply profitable to faith. How great must God's love be when it leads him to lay down his own life and die ignominiously in the interests of men! The ram which was offered in the stead of Isaac is the type of the self-sacrificing Jesus who was offered for us. - R.M.E.
Ye shall be holy unto Me: for I I. Let us endeavour TO EXPLAIN THE MEANING, AND THE FORCE OF THAT REASON FOR WHICH HOLINESS IS SO UNIVERSALLY ENJOINED. "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." And so God's holiness is made the motive for ours. And why? The Lord our God is holy; therefore should we labour to become so likewise, in order that we may become like Him in the most lovely and glorious of His attributes. We should labour to become like Him in the most lovely and glorious of His attributes in order that by so doing we may become well-pleasing in His sight; and, by becoming well-pleasing in His sight, to attain to that eternal happiness which God hath prepared for all those who, because they are like Him, He will condescend to love.II. Having seen why the holiness of God is proposed to us as the motive to become holy, let us proceed to examine into THE NATURE OF THAT HOLINESS WHICH WE ARE COMMANDED TO IMITATE, THAT WE MAY HAVE A MODEL OF THAT WHICH WE ARE TO PURSUE. 1. First of all, then, we are taught that God is a Spirit. As the heavens, therefore, are higher than the earth, so also must we place our conceptions of what constitutes the essential holiness of the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, above the pollution of every earthly passion. Therefore in knowing, in the first place, what is the model of that holiness of God which you are to pursue, you must first of all remember that no earthly pleasure, no carnal imagination must have a place within the sanctuary of the heart. The utter banishment of all these lusts, then, both from our minds (lest they be defiled), and from our actions (lest they become unholy), must be the first of our labours, must be our perpetual care. 2. But God is not holy in Himself alone, He is holy also in His acts towards every creature in His power. And herein we have another point on which we are to labour after the similitude to God's holiness; we must throw aside every regard towards the persons of men, which courts the lofty, which rejects and despises the lowly man; we must account the welfare of all an object of our care; we must consider none too mean to be helped by our hand — none too high to mete out to them things which are expedient and their due. We must think of all, we must feel for all, we must be just to all; and so to show forth the similitude of God's holiness to all. 3. Thus holy in Himself, and holy in His acts, God is holy, in the third place, in the manner in which He regards both sin and the sinner. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil; and the wicked, though he be exalted, shall not stand in His sight, for He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. To turn, then, away our eyes, lest we look upon vanity, and to separate ourselves from all commerce with ungodly men — to give no encouragement to transgression, nor to the transgressor — to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to reprove them, both in word and deed — these are the duties to which in imitation of God's holiness this third particular would more particularly direct us. III. BUT WHO IS SUFFICIENT FOR THESE THINGS? Imperfectly as we have delineated the holiness of the Lord, few as are the features which we have had time to detail, yet who can consider his own failings in life without confessing how feebly he has attained to the conformity of the Almighty's holiness? When the text is taken in itself, as the measure of the duty required of all, and when we compare it with our weak and wavering performances, there is nothing left for man but destruction and despair. But the same God, who hates every unholy person and thing, has made a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it. Christ has fulfilled the law of holiness for man ; and He who knew no sin, has been made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. This is at once the apparently great mystery, and this the consolation of our religion. (C. Benson.) (Jas. Vaughan, M. A.) II. HOLINESS WAS MADE FOR ALL. It is the end for which we were made, for which we were redeemed, for which God the Holy Ghost is sent down and shed abroad in the hearts that will receive Him. God did not will to create us as perfect. He willed that we, through His grace, should become perfect. But what He willed that we Should be, that, if our will fail not, we must become. His almighty will vouchsafes to depend on ours. What God commands; what God wills; what God so willed that He made us for this alone, that we should be holy, and being holy, should share His holiness and bliss — that must be within our reach if we will. III. THE MISTAKE OF MISTAKES IS TO THINK THAT HOLINESS CONSISTS IN GREAT OR EXTRAORDINARY THINGS, BEYOND THE REACH OF ORDINARY MEN. It has been well said, "Holiness does not consist in doing uncommon things, but in doing common things uncommonly well." Few can ever do great things, and the few who can do them can each do but few. But every one can study the will of God, and can give great diligence to know it and to do what he knows. Your daily round of duty is your daily path to come nearer unto God. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.) I. A UNIQUE CODE OF MORAL AND SACRED LAWS. "Ye shall keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and do them" (ver. 22). No other people had a standard of morals, or a directory of religious regulations comparable to these.II. A STUDIOUS AVOIDANCE OF THE CUSTOMS OF UNGODLINESS. "Ye shall not walk in the manners of the nations," &c. (ver. 23). Conformity to the world was prohibited. However sanctioned, or desirable, or seemingly harmless, the customs of the ungodly were to be shunned. III. A CAUTIOUS SELECTION OF SOCIAL ENJOYMENTS AND INDULGENCES. "Ye shall put difference between clean and unclean," &c. (ver. 25). Palate not to be gratified, tables not to be spread with promiscuous viands. God's wish and word were to rule them in every enjoyment, and self-restraint was to mark them in every gratification. IV. A HERITAGE OF SPECIAL PRIVILEGES AS GOD'S PEOPLE. "Ye shall inherit their land, a land that floweth with milk and honey," &c. (ver. 24). Sinners lose earthly felicities, as the penalty of their impiety: "therefore I abhorred them" (ver. 23). The godly possess rich heritage of good as the mark of God's favour: "I will give it unto you to possess" (ver. 24). V. A SEAL OF DIVINE SANCTITY RESTING UPON THEM: They show themselves to be — 1. Divinely "separated" (ver. 24), from other people. Their history and career attest God's dealing with them as with no other people. 2. Divinely sanctified. "Ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people" (ver. 26). For the very "beauty of the Lord" rests upon the character and conduct of those He redeems. Note:(1) God claims His people: they are not their own; may not follow their own desires and delights; He is their law, they must surrender to Him. "That ye should be Mine" (ver. 26). It is a blessed fact co belong to God: but it carries its obligations.(2) Privileges are conditioned upon fidelity (ver. 22). The inheritance would be forfeited if obedience were withheld. All God's covenant promises to us wait upon our loyalty to Him. "Ye are My friends if ye do," &c. (W. H. Jellie.) The various laws which the Jews received from God through the medium of Moses were all meant to promote social, personal, political, national morality; to keep the people distinct from infecting elements around them, separated and hedged off from the possibility of contagion; so that whatever defiled them might be seen not to come from others, but to rise from the depths of their own fallen and depraved hearts. "Therefore I have separated you from all people, that ye might be unto Me," He says, "a peculiar people"; and the great end that He contemplated constantly was their holiness — that they might be a holy people. The word "holy," in fact, means properly, separated — set apart to some purpose or object or end. But in order to make their holiness still more likely He presented ever before them a grand model. "Be ye holy," is His constant phrase, "for I the Lord am holy." "Ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the Lord am holy." It is well known that a people become, to a great extent, what their god or their gods are. The gods of the heathen were most of them monsters of lust. Jupiter was depraved; Mercury was a thief; others of their gods were infected with the greatest crimes; as if their villainy upon earth gave them a title to a niche in the Pantheon of heathenism. You must expect, from such gods in the theology of a people, bad lives in the history of that people. If the model be so bad, how low must the imitator and the worshipper be! But before the Jews there was placed the magnificent ideal of all that was holy, pure, just, perfect. The nearer they approached God, the nobler they became; the farther they receded from Him, the more degenerate they became. They had the standard infinitely remote, but infinitely perfect, ceaseless approximation to which was their nation's strength, its glory, and its happiness. Thus the Jews were selected that they might be holy. They had a model constantly before them they were to imitate, that they might be holy. And they were chosen for this grand destiny not because of their own virtues — for, strange enough, their very mercies the corruption of their hearts turned into their own merits, and the more God favoured them, with a perverse ingenuity the most remarkable, when we know it was so often rebuked, the more credit they took to themselves; and He tells them that He chose them, not because they were greater or more excellent than any other nation, but because, in His own sovereignty, He set His love upon them. Thus they were hedged round with ceremonial laws; they had presented before them a perfect, infinitely perfect, Model; they were selected by distinguishing grace in order to reach and strive after this great destiny; they had ringing in their ears every day the law, "Thou shalt love," which is translated into practical language, "Thou shalt be holy," in order that they might obtain the end for which they were chosen and blessed and favoured — to be a separated people and a holy people to the Lord. Now, what the Jews were meant to be nationally we Christians are meant to be personally. We, too, are selected and favoured for this purpose; and we shall find all the economy of the New Testament constantly contemplates the holiness of God's people as the great end and object and aim of our Christian privileges and blessings and mercies upon earth.I. But, first of all, LET US DEFINE WHAT HOLINESS IS. The word means simply separation. So the Latin word sacer, from which comes our word "sacred," is employed to denote profane as well as sacred — means wicked as well as holy. Hence the expression "Auri sacra fames," literally translated, "The sacred thirst of gold," but strictly and properly, "The accursed thirst of gold." The meaning, therefore, of a holy person is one severed or separated to something; and when applied to that which is pure and just and true it means separated to God. And we can only form an idea of what holiness is by seeing it defined by God, as embodied in His character and explained at length in His Word. Holiness in a Christian is just separation, sanctification, severance from the excessive love of things lawful, from the forbidden love of things sinful, to the growing love of what God has commanded in His holy Word, and of the grand image that God has depicted in every page of His revelation. II. Now having seen what this holiness is, let me state, in the next place, HOW CHRISTIANS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT ARE CONSTANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH IT. 1. They are elected to it. He has chosen us in Christ from the foundation of the world, that we should be holy. 2. Now, this holiness, in the next place, is true and lasting beauty; it is real and original beauty. The King's daughter has all her beauty within, that needs a spiritual eye to discriminate and discern. The mass of mankind can only see glare, pretension, gaudiness, but the true Christian sees a city where the world sees none, for Christ, when He came to His own, His own recieved Him not; there was no beauty in Him that the world should desire Him. 3. And this holiness, too, of character is the highest possible honour. It is the livery of Heaven; it is the very robes of the King of glory; it is the dress which He prepares for His own; it is the Apocalyptic garments "white and clean, which are the righteousness of saints"; it is the raiment white and clean which no moth can gnaw, which no rust can decay, which no thief can break through and steal. 4. Arid, in the next place, this holiness is fitness for heaven. A man without an ear cannot enjoy music. In the same manner, a person without a sanctified heart, without holiness, is not fit for heaven. 5. In the next place, it is the distinguishing mark of the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this that makes a Christian; and without this he cannot see God or put forth any valid claim to be a Christian at all. 6. In the next place, the Holy Spirit is the Author of this holiness. III. Thus we have seen what this holiness is and who is the Author of it; let me notice now THAT ALL THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE GOSPEL ARE MEANT TO PROMOTE IT. Preaching is meant to promote it; sacraments are meant to promote it; the reading of the Bible is meant to promote it; the teaching of teachers is meant to promote it; all our schools and institutions, our preaching and hearing, our praying and communicating, are all helps that, by the blessing of the Spirit of God, bring us nearer to Him who is the Fountain of all holiness, of all light, and of all life. IV. And in the next place, ALL THE CHASTISEMENTS OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE ARE MEANT TO PROMOTE THIS. (J. Gumming, D. D.) Holiness! There is sweet music in the very name. It tells of sin subdued, of boisterous passions lulled, of fiery lusts becalmed, of miry paths made clean. It sets before us a pure walk, where peace and joy go hand in hand, and scatter heaven-born fragrance round. Holiness! To cause this lovely plant to thrive, its roots to deepen, and its branches to bear fruit, is one grand purport of the scheme of grace. The Lord's own voice proclaims, "Ye shall be holy: for I am holy." Holiness falls short when it falls short of God. But perhaps you say such glorious lustre is too bright for sight. The heavenly sunshine dims the dazzled eye. But still draw near. God's Holiness, in human form, has visited and trod our earth. Jesus takes flesh and tabernacles here. His walk in our soiled paths is clean as on celestial pavement. Mark every act. Hear every word. They have one feature, holiness. Mark next the soil in which this flower has roots, the seed from which it springs. Man's pride must here lie low. It never thrives in Nature's field. Neither can hand of Nature plant it. When sin came in each gracious fibre died. The curse fell blightingly on earth, bat most so on the human heart. The thorns and briars of the outward world are dismal emblems of the wilderness within. God's likeness was effaced at once, and hideous enmity established its one rule. How, then, can holiness revive? Until the waste becomes a garden the plant cannot be set; until Heaven gives the seed it can nowhere be found. God must prepare the soil. God must infuse the seed. The work is wholly God's. Next mark the renovating means. The wondrous engine is the gospel truth. The Spirit wins by charming notes. He opens ears to hear new melody. He gives the eye to see new scenes. He reveals Christ, the beauty of all beauty. He shows the cleansing blood, the sympathising heart, the perfect refuge, the all-sufficient aid. These sights wave a transforming wand. A new affection subjugates the man. Jesus and purer hopes now occupy the mind. Darkness is passed. The true light shines. The grace of faith springs up. This is the chain which binds the soul to Christ and makes the Saviour and the sinner one. A channel is now formed by which Christ's fulness plenteously flows down. The barren branch becomes a portion of the fruitful stem. Christ's vital juices permeate the whole. The limbs receive close union with the head, and one life reigns throughout the total frame.(Dean Law.) Christ is the Pattern, the Sample, the exemplary Cause of our sanctification. Holiness in us is the copy or transcript of the holiness that is in the Lord Jesus. As the wax hath line for line from the seal, the child limb for limb, feature for feature, from the father, so is holiness in us from Christ.( M. Henry..) There is an energy of moral suasion in a good man's life passing the highest efforts of the orator's genius. The seen but silent beauty of holiness speaks more eloquently of God and duty than the tongues of men and angels. Let parents remember this. The best inheritance a parent can bequeath to a child is a virtuous example, a legacy of hallowed remembrances and associations. The beauty of holiness beaming through the life of a loved relative or friend is more effectual to strengthen such as do stand in Virtue's ways and raise up those who are bowed down than precept, command, entreaty, or warning. Christianity itself, I believe, owes by far the greater part of its moral power, not to the precepts or parables of Christ, but to His own character. The beauty of that holiness which is enshrined in the four brief biographies of the Man of Nazareth has done more, and will do more, to regenerate the world and bring on everlasting righteousness than all the other agencies put together. It has done more to spread His religion in the world than all that has ever been preached or written on the evidences of Christianity.(T. Chalmers, D. D.) The saintly and learned Archbishop Ussher was frequently urged by a friend to write his thoughts on sanctification, which at length he engaged to do; but a considerable time elapsing, the performance of his promise was importunately claimed. The Archbishop replied, "I have not written, and yet I cannot charge myself with a breach of promise, for I began to write; but when I came to treat of the new creature which God formeth by His own Spirit in every regenerate soul I found so little of it wrought in myself that I could speak of it only as parrots, or by rote, but without the knowledge of what I might have expressed, and therefore I durst not presume to proceed any further upon it." Upon this his friend stood amazed to hear such a confession from so grave, holy, and eminent a person. The Archbishop then added: "I must tell you we do not well understand what sanctification and the new creature are. It is no less than for a man to be brought to an entire resignation of his own will to the will of God, and to live in the offering up of his soul continually in the flames of love, as a whole burnt-offering to Christ; and oh l how many who profess Christianity are unacquainted experimentally with this work upon their souls!"At one of the ragged schools in Ireland a clergyman asked the question, "What is holiness?" A poor Irish convert in tattered rags jumped up and said, "Please, your Reverence, it's being clean inside."True holiness is a plain and an even thing, without falsehood, guile, perverseness of spirit, deceitfulness of heart, or starting aside. It hath one end, one rule, one way, one heart; whereas hypocrites are, in the Scripture, called "double-minded men," because they pretend to God and follow the world; and "crooked men," like the swelling of a wall whose parts are not perpendicular nor level to their foundation. Now rectitude, sincerity, and singleness of heart are ever, both in the eyes of God and man, beautiful things.(H. G. Salter.) -And have you never cried in your hearts with longing, almost with impatience, "Surely, surely there is an ideal Holy One somewhere, or else how could have arisen in my mind the conception, however faint, of an ideal holiness? But where? oh, where? Not in the world around, strewn with unholiness. Not in myself, unholy, too, without and within, and calling myself sometimes the very worst of all the bad company I meet, because that company is the only company from which I cannot escape. Oh! is there a Holy One whom I may contemplate with utter delight? and if so, where is He? Oh I that I might behold, if but for a moment, His perfect beauty, even though, as in the fable of Semele of old, the lightning of his glances were death."(Charles Kingsley.) In elocution there is what rhetoricians term a "second voice." It comes after an orator has been speaking sufficiently long for his lungs to become thoroughly warmed. The diversified ligaments and muscles and membranes which compose or influence his vocal organs then take on a more perfectly adjusted action, and the voice grows flexible and full and rich, able to express "thoughts that breathe and words that burn." There is a vision known to opticians as "second sight." In their later years many people come into possession of this. They can lay aside their spectacles, worn perhaps for a quarter of a century, and with the naked eye read the finest print. I have seen octogenarians whose eyesight was apparently as good as in the palmiest days of their youth. There is a mental perception enjoyed by multitudes of thinkers which seems to them like a "second intellectuality." It is broader, clearer, and more satisfying than was the first. It is reached after a night-time of doubt and darkness, during which one's theories seem like chaos and one's beliefs like desperate guesses. It comes after a transition period, when, like Noah's ark, the mind can find no Ararat on which to anchor. Then breaks in a new light; the shadows flee, the heterogeneous mass of speculations begin to crystallise; a form appears, and he who had well-nigh become Diogenes the Cynic begins to develop into Socrates the Philosopher. So there is a "second religious experience," deeper than the first. It lies beyond the surf of unbelief and partial consecration, and is reached by launching out into the deep of an unreserved dedication to God. Many have attained unto it and enjoy "the rest of faith." Others are hungering after this more perfect righteousness, and will not hunger long in vain. Multitudes more are wishing for but making no determined efforts to secure it. They are like travellers ascending the valley of Chamounix, who catch glimpses of Mont Blanc, and though longing to stand on its glittering summit, have no expectation of ever doing so. I recall a memorable Sunday afternoon when, from an hotel window in Geneva, seventy miles distant, I caught my first view of that celebrated landmark. The setting sun was transmuting, as no other alchemist ever could, its whole immense top into one gorgeous mass of burnished gold, and the desire to visit it came upon me like a spell. But the city of Geneva, with its bright stores and historic church and marvellous watch factories, its bridges across the crystal river, and its romantic lake, lay at my feet, and I fingered; and when at last I sought the shining mount, like most tourists I was satisfied to reach its base and gaze upon it from below. So it is with thousands of Christians. Before their raptured vision rises, in their best moments, the Mount of Holiness. They sigh for its lofty experiences, but still view it from afar, or journey no farther than its foot-hills. Would they but climb its rising footways and scale its magnificent peaks, a second and deeper experience would be theirs.(Sunday School Record.). Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron. If there is one fact more notably emphasised than another in this address to priests, it is this: their —I. ABSOLUTE AND INDESTRUCTIBLE RELATIONSHIP. Every son of Aaron was a "priest." Of this union with Aaron it is observable that — 1. It results from a living relationship. By birth he was connected with Aaron, a lineal descendant of God's high priest. And no truth is more a truism than that every Christian is by birth-relationship connected with Christ — the moment he is quickened and becomes a believing and a living soul, he is a "priest unto God." By no process of spiritual development or self-culture or studied effort does the convert to Christ become a "priest"; he is that by virtue of his living relationship to the High Priest: for as all the sons of Aaron were priests, so are all the sons of God through their connection with Christ. 2. The relationship is inalienable and indestructible. Conduct is not the basis of relationship with Christ, but life. A son of Aaron may be defiled "for the dead" (ver. 2), yet he did not thereby cease to be related to Aaron. If we were only priests to God as our conduct was faultless, who could stand? We are all unclean; defile ourselves continuously with "the dead," the guilty and contaminating things of earth. But "our life is hid with Christ in God"; and by virtue of that life-union we remain priests. 3. Imperfections of nature and character do not sever relationship. A "blemish," deformity of body, prove a disqualification for ministry, but did not destroy association with Aaron. Yes; there is exclusion from high and honoured services in consequence of irremediable defect and fault; and Christians with incurable weakness of disposition, worldliness of sympathy, infirmities of character, vacillation of purpose, are thereby set aside from honour in the Church and highest ministries for their Lord; yet still the relationship to Christ continues, for it is a birth-relationship, based upon a life-union with Jesus. But though relationship is absolute and indestructible — II. PRIVILEGE IS DEPENDENT AND CONDITIONAL. 1. Defilement is a disqualification for near fellowship and highest enjoyment of the priestly relationship.. Contact with "the dead" was forbidden; it excluded the priest from the service of God until cleansed anew and so reinstated. All contamination works disqualification, therefore "touch not, taste not, handle not." A priestly life should be pure. 2. Defect is a disqualification for highest service for our Lord.(1) Physical deformities even now form a natural barrier to the loftiest offices in the Church of Christ. Not unfitting the sufferer for many lowlier and less public ministries; for sacred grace is not dependent upon physical "form and comeliness."(2) Defects of character, of mental and moral constitution, also exclude from loftiest stations and services in the Christian kingdom. They are a barrier to such positions in the Church as require noblest qualities of character: for eminence gives influence; and he who moves in the public gaze must be free from such weaknesses of will, or principle, or conduct as would lay him open to inconstancy. (W. H. Jellie.) Holy unto their God I. THE HONOURABLE POSITION OF THE PRIESTS.1. They are sanctioned by God, consecrated to His especial service, they bear His stamp upon them, wear His livery, and receive of the honour that belongs to Him. 2. They perform the high function of offering the bread of God. This phrase included not only the placing of the shewbread in the sanctuary, but also the presentation to God of the various sacrifices which become the materials for His glory and praise. The enlarged priesthood of the New Testament, embracing the whole body of believers in Christ Jesus, are similarly dedicated to sacred office. They present spiritual sacrifices, they "showforth the excellences of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvellous light." II. HONOUR INVOLVES OBLIGATION AND RESTRICTION. Many acts permissible to the people were not so to the priests. They were evidently to be models of holiness in their persons, families, and social relationships. Men like the idea of occupying posts of dignity, but do not sufficiently realise the responsibilities thence accruing. We are always more anxious to get than to give; sinecure livings are at too high a premium of estimation. III. PERFECT HOLINESS IMPLIES BEAUTY, LIFE, AND JOY. It is in opposition to disfigurement, death, and sorrow. How different this conception of holiness from that of gloom and moroseness which many entertain. Let young people know that God loves pretty children, and handsome men and women, when the glory of the Spirit is thus reflected in the outer person; He delights in the vigour and innocent mirth of the young, and in the happy enthusiasm, the lively rejoicing of their elders, when these are the outcome of righteousness and devoted service. The imperfection of this present state is evident in the fact that holiness does not mean exemption from anxiety and tribulation. It sometimes appears as if the most faithful children of God were visited with heaviest chastisements. We are assured of a future state where these contradictions shall be removed. The ideal shall not only be approximated, but attained to; "death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying, nor pain any more: the first things are passed away," symbolical and ascriptional righteousness shall give place to real perfect holiness; in the presence of God there shall be fulness of joy. (S. R. Aldridge, B. A.) It is a truth which ought ever to be before the minds of those who minister in holy things, and deeply graven on their hearts, that righteousness of life and consistency in private conduct is the most vital element of a preacher's power. Let his ordination, his talents, his attainments, his eloquence, be what they may, without a life corresponding to his teachings he is only "as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." Actions speak louder than words. Character is more eloquent than rhetoric. What a man is always has more weight than what he says. And in the same proportion that an unholy life weakens a minister's influence, does uprightness, fidelity, and consistency, enhance it. A truly honest and good man, whatever his sphere, will always have weight. However people may revile his profession, they always feel rebuked in his presence, and pay homage to him in their secret souls. There is might in virtue. It tells upon a man in spite of him. It strikes at once into the heart and conscience. And when a minister has a pure and spotless life to sustain his profession, he becomes a host in strength. Jehovah says of His priests, "They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God." "He that ruleth among men must be just, ruling in the fear of the Lord." But the law prescribes for the domestic relations and social surroundings of the priest as well as for his personal perfections. Upon this point also it becomes a minister to be particular.I. The ancient priest was REQUIRED TO BE PHYSICALLY PERFECT. Otherwise he could not be a fit representative of that perfect humanity which was found in our Saviour. He was required to be without bodily blemish, that Israel might know what sort of a Priest Messiah to expect. Their eyes were to be directed to Jesus as one "altogether lovely." II. The ancient priest was REQUIRED TO BE PROPERLY AND PURELY MATED. As a type of Christ in all other respects, so was he also in his espousals. The Lamb is not alone. He has His affianced bride — His holy Church. He hath chosen her as a chaste virgin — as one whom "the daughters saw and blessed." Not a divorced woman — not a vile offender — not an unclean thing — is the Church of Jesus. And the priest's wife had to be pure to typify these pure espousals of the Lamb, and the excellencies of that Church which He has chosen for His everlasting bride. III. It was required of the ancient priest THAT HIS CHILDREN SHOULD BE PURE. The transgression of his daughter degraded him from his place. It is one of the demands laid upon Christian pastors to have "faithful children that are not accused of riot, nor unruly." The reason is obvious. A minister's family, as well as himself, is made conspicuous by the very nature of his office. Their misdeeds are specially noticed by the world, and readily laid to his charge. Any unholiness in them operates as a profanation of his name. It is so much taken from his power. The Holy Ghost therefore calls upon him to "rule well his own house, having his children in subjection." But the law was typical. It relates to Christ and His Church. It points to the fact that everything proceeding from His union with His people is good and pure. IV. There are other requirements which were made of the ancient priests, both in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters, which I will sum up under the general name of HOLINESS. They were not to defile themselves with the dead, or by eating improper food, or by contact with the unclean, or by irreverence towards the holy things. They were to be very particular about all the laws, and to devote themselves to their office as men anointed of God. In one word, they were to be holy; that is, whole, entire, complete, fully separated from all forbidden, and fully consecrated to what was commanded. This was necessary for personal and official reasons; but especially for the high priest as a type of Christ. It was a requirement to shadow forth the character of Jesus, and the sublime wholeness and consecration which were in Him. Men have despised and desecrated the sanctity of everything else related to religion; but when they came to the character of Jesus, their hands grew powerless, their hearts failed, their utterance choked, and they turned aside in reverent awe of a goodness and majesty which could not be gainsaid. Infidelity itself has freely and eloquently confessed to His matchless excellence. Paine disavows "the most distant disrespect to the moral character of Jesus Christ." Rousseau is struck with admiration at His excellence. "What sweetness, what purity in His manner! What an affecting gracefulness in His delivery! What sublimity in His maxims! What profound wisdom in His discourses l What presence of mind, what subtlety, what truth in His replies! How great the command of His passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who could so live, and so die, without weakness and without ostentation?... Yea, if Socrates lived and died like a sage, Jesus lived and died like a God." What would man be without Christ — without His holy life? In Him, and in Him alone, earth rises into communion with heaven, and light shines in upon our benighted humanity. V. There is yet one particular in the requirements concerning the ancient priests to which I will refer. It is said of the high priest, "HE SHALL NOT UNCOVER," &c. (Leviticus 21:10-12). That is to say, he was not to allow any natural sympathies to interfere with the pure and proper discharge of the duties of his high office. Some have regarded this as a coldness and harshness thrown around the old priesthood, which has nothing to correspond to it in the Christian system. I do not so understand it. The very reverse is the truth. The high priest was a great religious officer for the entire Jewish nation. He belonged more to the nation than to his family or himself. It would therefore have been a most heartless thing to allow a little natural domestic sympathy and affection to set aside all the great interests of the Hebrew people. So far from throwing a chilliness around the high priesthood, it gave to it a warmth and zeal of devotion, and showed an outbreathing of heart upon the spiritual wants of the congregation, superior to the love of father or mother. And it was meant to shadow forth a precious truth: viz., that Christ, as our High Priest, consecrated all His highest, warmest, and fullest sympathies in His office. He loved father and mother, and was properly obedient to them; but when it came to the great duties of His mission, the interests of a perishing world were resting upon His doings, and He could not stop to gratify domestic sympathies. Rising then above the narrow circle of carnal relationships, "He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, Behold My mother and My brethren!" His sympathies are those of the spirit, and not of the flesh. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.) Any blemish. — To be a child of God is one thing; to be in the enjoyment of priestly communion and priestly worship is quite another. This latter is, alas! interfered with by many things. Circumstances and associations are allowed to act upon us by their defiling influence. We are not to suppose that all Christians enjoy the same elevation of walk, the same intimacy of fellowship, the same felt nearness to Christ. Alas! alas! they do not. Many of us have to mourn over our spiritual defects. There is lameness of walk, defective vision, stunted growth; or we allow ourselves to be defiled by contact with evil, and to be weakened and hindered by unhallowed associations. In a word, as the sons of Aaron, though being priests by birth, were, nevertheless, deprived of many privileges through ceremonial defilement and physical defects; so we, though being priests unto God by spiritual birth, are deprived of many of the high and holy privileges of our position by moral defilement and spiritual defects. We are shorn of many of our dignities through defective spiritual development. We lack singleness of eye, spiritual vigour, whole-hearted devotedness. Saved we are through the free grace of God, on the ground of Christ's perfect sacrifice. "We are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus"; but, then, salvation is one thing, communion is quite another. Sonship is one thing, obedience is quite another. These things should be carefully distinguished. The section before us illustrates the distinction with great force and clearness. If one of the sons of Aaron happened to be "broken-footed, or broken-handed," was he deprived of his sonship? Assuredly not. Was he deprived of his priestly position? By no means. It was distinctly declared, "He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy." What, then, did he lose by his physical blemish? He was forbidden to tread some of the higher walks of priestly service and worship. "Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar." These were very serious privations; and though it may be objected that a man could not help many of these physical defects, that did not alter the matter. Jehovah could not have a blemished priest at His altar, or a blemished sacrifice thereon. Both the priest and the sacrifice should be perfect. Now we have both the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice in the Person of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.(C. H. Mackintosh.) People Molech, MosesPlaces TemanTopics Astray, A-whoring, Commit, Cut, Evil, Face, Family, Follow, Harlot, Lewdness, Midst, Molech, Myself, Play, Playing, Prostitute, Prostituting, Themselves, Whoredom, WhoringOutline 1. Of him who gives his seed to Moloch4. Of him who favors such an one 6. Of going to wizards 7. Of sanctification 9. Of him who curses his parents 11. Of incest 13. Of sodomy 15. Of bestiality 18. Of uncleanness 22. Obedience is required with holiness 27. Wizards must be put to death Dictionary of Bible Themes Leviticus 20:5 7206 community 7332 child sacrifice Library Tenth Day. Holiness and Separation. I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. And ye shall be holy unto me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from other people that ye should be Mine.'--Lev. xx. 24, 26. 'Until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy.... All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord.'--Num. vi. 5, 8. 'Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered without the … Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ Seventh Day. Holiness and Obedience. Annunciation to Joseph of the Birth of Jesus. Self-Denial. Epistle Lxiv. To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli . Eleventh Day. The Holy one of Israel. Jesus Fails to Attend the Third Passover. 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