WEDNESDAY BEFORE EASTER.

Our High Priest on His Day of Atonement.

PART II.

2. THE High Priest began his work by offering, in his usual beautiful vestments, the daily morning sacrifice. This sacrifice was not a sin-offering, but a burnt-offering. The distinctive thought involved in this form of sacrifice was dedication. It began indeed with the death of the victim and the sprinkling of its blood, since only through the portal of repentance and forgiveness, of confession and absolution, can the sinner draw near to present himself before God. But these were only preliminary to the consumption of the entire victim, with its meat-offering and its drink-offering, in the fire of the brazen altar. Herein is symbolized the perfect dedication, the entire consecration of the whole man-body, soul, and spirit-to God's service; the surrender of the will, the renunciation of self, the devotion of all that we have and all that we are.

The Morning Sacrifice of our great High Priest is thus described in the Epistle to the Hebrews:*

"When He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me. Then said I, Lo, I come to do

Thy will, O God."

*Heb. x. 5.

"When He cometh into the world”—still arrayed therefore in the glory which He had with the Father before the world was—in this morning of the Day of salvation He said, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God! yea, Thy law is within My heart." Even before the Incarnation, then, there was a sacrifice offered by the Son, and accepted by the Father. It was the sacrifice of burntoffering,—the surrender of self to do the Father's will, the voluntary submission to every form of humiliation and suffering through which the necessities of the case might lead Him, that God might be glorified and man saved.

"Thou wast the Morning Lamb, Lord Jesu Christ!"

Angels and archangels may have assisted, adoring, at the Sacrifice; but the Son alone could offer it.

3. We now see the High Priest of Israel divesting himself of his glorious robes, and putting on the plain white linen garments proper to the special office of the day,—the sin-offering. By this is symbolized the Incarnation of the Son of God. "Being in the form of God," says St. Paul," He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." In the "garments for glory and for beauty" of this form of God" He had laid Himself at His Father's feet, a whole burnt-offering, to do His will. But now, to deal with sin, it is needful that He assume our inferior nature. He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."

*Heb. ii. 14-17.

4. The sin-offering on the Day of Atonement consisted of a bullock and a goat. The use of these two animals under the Law was very uniform and intelligible. The bullock always belonged to the priesthood: it was the appointed sin-offering in all cases where the sin to be atoned for affected the priesthood, or the people in their priestly relations. And upon the Day of Atonement it was expressly ordered that Aaron should take the bullock "for himself, and make an atonement with it for himself, and for his house."* To this the writer to the Hebrews alludes, when he says, speaking of the High Priest's office,-" by reason hereof" (that is, of being compassed about with infirmity) "he ought, as for the people, so for himself, to offer for sins."+ The goat, on the other hand, in the only place where its use is defined, is said to be "for the ruler ;+” and the ruler is the representative of the people in their natural standing and civil relations. Thus it is consistent to read, as regards the Day of Atonement-" Then shall he kill the goat of the sin-offering, that is for the people.”§

Now if the bullock be the sin-offering for the High Priest himself, it would seem that it could have had no part in the sacrifice of Christ, Who is without sin. But let us hear the Epistle to the Hebrews :||—

"Such an High Priest became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, 'separated (Gr.) from sinners, and made higher than the heavens: Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people's; for this He did once, when He offered up Himself."

*Lev. xvi. 6. † Heb. v. 3.

Lev. iv. 22. § Ibid. xvi. 15.

Ch. vii. 26, 27.

Observe that the contrast is not "Who needeth not, as they, to offer first for His own sins and then for the people's" but "Who needeth not "-now, in His glorified state—" to do this daily, for He did it once for all." In what sense, then, can He who is without sin be said to have offered for His own sins? The same Epistle gives us the answer :

For

“We have not an High Priest which cannot be touchedwith-the-feeling-of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. every high priest, taken from among men, is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so for himself, to offer for sins. So also

Christ in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered : and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him, called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec."

No words of our own shall be added to this picture: it is one rather for the silence of devout thought and hallowed meditation.

But if it be asked, "What is the house" (that is, family) "of this High Priest for whom, as for Himself, the bullock was offered?" the answer is not difficult. It includes all who share in His priesthood, who like Him are ordained

*Ch. iv. 15-v. 10.

for men in things pertaining to God. And, in a larger sense, it embraces the whole Church, which in Him is a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices. The sins which she commits are different from those of common men; they pierce with a special pang the heart of her Lord and Husband; they are priestly sins, marring her witness and ministry to the world, choking its communications and impeding its access to God. With the pressure of these foreseen offences upon His soul, He offered the priestly bullock for Himself and for His house. But He is the propitiation, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. The goat, as well as the bullock, finds its place in His offering. The ordinary sins of ordinary men were all borne by Him, and confessed and absolved in His person; so that He is the Saviour of all men, though specially of them that believe.