of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Mat 26: 28); when his great forerunner speaks of him as "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world" (Jno. 1: 29);--or Peter (1 Eps. 2:24) as "bearing our sins in his own body on the tree;" or Paul (2 Cor. 5: 21) as being "made a sin-offering for us that we might be made the righteousness of God' in him," it is simply impossible to disprove the reference of these terms and phrases to the Mosaic system-impossible to give them any other sense than that which is illustrated in the bloody death of the sin-offerings and burnt-offerings of that ancient law.

Thus with bands which no sophistry can sever, the Old Testament and the New are bound together, and the atonement prefigured in the former is embodied and made perfect in the latter. The almost ceaseless blood-sheddings and blood-sprinklings of the former culminate in the latter in the one great scene of deathagony and blood on Calvary. The grand idea of expiatory suffering-of the vicarious death of the innocent in place of the guilty, which ages of ceremonial sacrifice had been setting forth and working into the minds of all reverent worshipers, had prepared the way for Christ's disciples to understand the mystery of his bloody death and to teach the Christian world in the writings of the New Testament how the blood of Jesus “takes away sin.”

In closing our notice of this religious system, let us revert for a moment to the fact that all its important features were so many important steps of progress in the manifestation of God to man. These were lessons in advance of all that had preceded on that greatest of all questions-How shall man approach his Maker, and how shall he offer acceptable worship?That God deigned to come down and dwell with his obedient people is the precious truth which underlies all these provisions for his worship. How shall man treat this Heavenly Guest; how adjust himself to this pure and majestic Presence; with what state of heart; with what purity and cleanliness of person; with what offerings and sacrifices and of what significance ?—These are the points embraced in these great lessons taught in this religious system. The perpetual inculcation of

cleanliness and of conscientious, scrupulous care; the practice of perpetual thanksgiving; but above all, the copious illustrations of the great idea of bloody sacrifice to take away sin;-these have been already named as the salient features in this system, and all (it will be noticed) are points of progress. Bloody sacrifices and altars appear in the worship offered by Abraham, Noah, and even Abel. But how much more fully is their true import unfolded here? Here is confession of sin on the part of the worshiper; here is the symbolic transfer of sins by imposition of hands upon the head of the victim brought out to die: here is the sprinkling of his blood all round about the altar; upon the very mercy-seat and immediately in the presence of the Holy One who sat beneath the cherubim; upon the worshipers also gathered round the bloody altar: here are the special solemnities of the great day of atonement in which the whole sacrificial system culminated-all combining their significance to unfold the great idea of the vicarious sufferings of an innocent victim in place of guilty

men.

CHAPTER XX.

HISTORIC EVENTS OF HEBREW HISTORY FROM SINAI TO THE JORDAN.

The Golden Calf.

WE dropped the thread of this history at Sinai to study with undivided attention the civil code of Moses and also the religious system. We now resume it.

Moses tarried on the Mount forty days to receive from the Lord the civil statutes in detail and also all his instructions in respect to the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the ritual. The time seemed long to the restive people. They became utterly impatient; they lost faith in God and in Moses; fell back upon their previous Egyptian notions; and consequently applied to Aaron, saying: "Up, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses-the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt-we wot not what has become of him." Aaron replied: "Break off and bring to me your golden ear-rings." Whether he hoped they would withdraw their request when they saw how much it was to cost them does not appear. But it does appear that their enthusiasm for idol gods was equal to this sacrifice of their golden ornaments. They brought them freely as Aaron had proposed, and he made of them a golden calf. Strangely enough, the people greeted this senseless thing with the shout: "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." What could this mean? Did they really believe that this calf was the power that brought those plagues on Pharaoh; that rolled away the waters of the Red Sea; bore them safely over, but hurled destruction on Pharaoh's host? Did they see the Power that wrought all these wonders in this powerless calf? Or did they assume that the Invisible Power which achieved this work was well represented by this golden image?-The ineffable folly of idolatry according to either notion staggers us; we know not what to make of it. If the facts were not

so patent the world over and through all the ages of the race, it would be our first impulse to assume it all a fiction and to say-Men never could be so supremely silly and foolish as to suppose the Great God to be like a calf! or as to suppose that a calf, whether of gold or of flesh and blood, could be a God!

We are tempted to digress, perhaps too much, into a discussion of the philosophy of idolatry. On this point it must suffice to say that no philosophy of such a fact can ever be satisfactory save one that assumes and makes large account of human depravity-thus: Some recognition of superhuman power is inevitable; it is in man's deepest convictions, and can not be got out. But men shrink from the near presence of a pure, sinhating God. Any thing else is more endurable. Give us (they say) some God to worship who will not disturb our sinning, or some way of worshiping the Supreme which will at least put that pure, all-searching Eye farther off. And as to the reasonableness of such notions of God, there is only this to be said: Sin makes men think like fools; sin makes men act like fools!——This philosophy of idolatry, and this only, touches bottom and must stand. In the case before us, it is noticeable that the people were charmed with this new worship, for they could sit down to eat and to drink and rise up to play! A fine time they had of it. There was no troublesome sense of a pure, sin-hating God there. The question how this calf could be the same God who brought them out of Egypt was of the least possible concern to them.

Aaron is swept along in the current of this mad infatuation. When he saw this calf, he built an altar before it and made proclamation: "To-morrow is a feast to the Lord." Full of heart for such a service " the people rose up early on the morrow and offered burntofferings and brought peace-offerings; they sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play."

A view of this scene from another stand-point follows next in the narrative. We are shown what transpired. on the Mount where the Lord, Moses, and his servant Joshua were still engaged together. The God of Israel whose eyes are in every place, apprised Moses of what the people were doing. In words adapted to make Moses feel his personal responsibility, and perhaps to intimate

that for himself he must disown such a people, he said "Go, get thee down, for thy people, whom thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves." They have made and are now worshiping a golden calf as the God that brought them out of Egypt. -The Lord closed with a proposal which was in many points of view intensely trying to Moses; viz. that Moses should suffer the Lord to consume this corrupt people. Then he would make the posterity of Moses a great nation, in place of rejected Israel.Did the Lord say this to prove Moses in the line of personal pride? However this may have been, the result was morally sublime. The temptation (if we may call it such) made no impression. Moses passes it by as a thing not to be thought of. The Lord seemed to anticipate that Moses would pray for the people, and therefore said "Let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them.” Not deterred a moment by this, "Moses besought the Lord his God and said: Why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people [not merely "my people"] which Thou [not I] hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand"? He boldly argues the case: Why, Lord, shouldest thou give occasion to the Egyptians to say that thou broughtest forth this people only to slay them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth? What will be said of thy solemn oath to Abraham to multiply his seed as the stars and to give them Canaan? How will these things bear upon thine own glory before earth and heaven?

This is a most remarkable case of prayer. Was ever mortal more bold and more persistent, despite of all the Lord had said which seemed to shut the door and bar off all entreaty? Yet Moses prevailed, and it does not appear that the Lord rebuked him for his persistence or for his boldness. It is simply said "The Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." This point being so far gained, Moses must go down to the people. With the two stone tablets of the law in hand and Joshua by his side, he descends the mount. Joshua's ear first caught the sound from the camp. His military antecedents suggest to him a a battle: "There is a noise of war in the camp." With