What this perfect qualification was, we considered in connection with these earlier types, and need not repeat. Suffice it that it blended the assertion of every Divine right and prerogative that has been violated by man, as was beautiful in a representative man caused to draw near on behalf of the rest: "I will cause him to draw near and he shall approach unto me (Jer. xxx. 21). "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me" (Lev. x. 3).

These are two clues in the ephod to the subject of the condemnation of sin and the declaration of the righteousness of God in the crucifixion of Christ (qualifying him to be the representative high priest "to appear in the presence of God for us.") The constitution of the ephod (gold, blue, purple, and scarlet, on a ground-work of white), is a typification of the method of the development of Christ as the great high priest, and of the principles that have become incorporate in him as the result of that method. The gleaming shoulder-buckle of onyx stone, engraved with the names of the tribes, and the resplendent collection of twelve differently coloured gems, set in ouches of gold in the breast-plate-each having cut into it the name of a tribe-tell us of the objects of the priesthood.

The language of the type is this: "Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breast-plate of judgment upon his heart when he goeth into the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually," "and upon his two shoulders for a memorial " xxviii. 29, 12).

(Ex.

The heart to love and the shoulders to carry-in memory: this agrees with all that Paul tells us in the antitype concerning the priest. hood of Christ in Hebrews: "We have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God"-"to appear in the presence of God for us "called of God an high priest, after the (perpetual) order of Melchizedec," who "because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" and John: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous:" and again Paul: "Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Some see in the onyx stones and the breast-plate, the nation of Israel, since they contain the names of the tribes. This is not inconsistent with the apparently more limited application of the apostolic interpretation. It is not so limited as it seems. Who are the nation of Israel in the ultimate and final sense? Not every son of Abraham after the flesh. "They are not all Israel that are of Israel." The

commonwealth of Israel finally consists of those who are reconciled to God through Christ, many of whom are adopted Gentiles. They are a multitude that no man can number, and will finally fill the earth. They are comprehended in the twelve tribes in their final organisation. Meanwhile, they are represented in detail, in their development from generation to generation, by the same high priest who makes intercession for them all, according to their need. Therefore, the high priest's function could not be more appropriately represented than by the memorial names of the twelve tribes on heart and shoulder.

That precious stones should be used to represent them is an intimation that they will at last be both excellent and immortal. That they should be set in gold shows that faith will never be absent from our relation to God, though sight will blend with, and in a sense, swallow it up. That they should be called the Urim and the Thummim (Light and fulness) is an indication of the fact that without light, precious stones have no beauty; and that when the light shines upon them, their beauty is a radiant fulness. The light that developed the beauty of the stones in the ephod when Aaron "went in before the Lord" in the dark interior of the tabernacle, was the glory that dwelt between the cherubim. The antitype will be seen in its completeness when the glory of the Lord beautifies the perfected tribes of Israel with light and immortality.

When the glory of the Lord departed from the temple (Ezek. xi. 23) there was no answer from the glory that used to cover the mercy seat: the breast-plate of the high priest sank to a mere piece of lustreless jewelry. The ephod was no longer a medium of communication with God. This is why, afterwards, when a claim of belonging to the priesthood was put forward by certain families who could not show their pedigree on the return from Babylon, it was said to them that "they should not eat of the most holy thing till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim," that is, a priest with the means of Divine communication through the breast-plate, called, therefore, "the breast-plate of judgment " (Ex. xxviii. 30).

The breast-plate was held in its place by gold chains inserted in gold rings at the four corners, and ending in other rings. These other rings were fastened with a lace of blue to other corresponding rings fastened in the lower part of the ephod, and at the shoulder-buckles (verses 22-28). Considering the significance of gold as tried faith, we here have faith as the fastenings of the foundations of the commonwealth of Israel, and not only faith, but mutuality of healing-faithring to ring held with a lace of blue-" the mutual faith both of you and me" (Rom. i. 12). "Without faith, it is impossible to please

God." Faith suffuses the whole economy of things Divine, as a warming under-glow, pleasing to God, and ennobling and comforting to man. 8. The Mitre.-This was a head-covering of linen- -a crown of righteousness: a different thing, both in form and meaning, from the split, two-horned, towering headpiece of an ecclesiastical bishop: which identifies the wearer with the two-horned beast of the earth. The Aaronic mitre was a comfortable bonnet of white, surmounting the entire priestly outfit as the token of kindly purity presiding over all. The Papal head-gear is associated with a double-headed system of draconic rapacity and iniquity-Church and State-Pope and Emperor. But the linen bonnet (or mitre) was fronted by

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9. The Plate of Pure Gold.-Engraved with the words, "Holiness to the Lord," and tied with a lace of blue to the forefront of the mitre. The explanation connected with it was this: "It shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts and it shall be always upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord" (Ex. xxviii. 38). "The iniquity of the holy things" is at 'first sight a strange and obscure expression. It becomes intelligible when we look into it. The holy things were the things which Israel were required to offer, whether as free-will offerings, or first fruits, or sacrifice. They were made holy in being consecrated to God: but as emanating from an unclean people, they were considered as tainted with their unholiness, and therefore as unfit for presentation, except through a cleansing medium. This cleansing medium under the law was the high priest. The defilement came upon him, but was neutralised, as we might say, by the ceremonial holiness of the ever-visible assertion of the holiness of God on the frontal plate of gold. Thus he was qualified to "bear the iniquity of the holy things" without harm, and the offerings through him (with the plate" always upon his forehead") were accepted before the Lord."

"the

This was the type. The antitype is manifest in Christ, mediator between God and man." Mankind are unfit to offer God anything in which He can take pleasure, by reason of their state—“ alienated by wicked words "dead in trespasses and in sins "—which are apostolic definitions (Col. i. 21; Eph. ii. 1). "We are all as an unclean thing: and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Is. xiv. 6). Yet we are invited to come: yet not in our own capacity, but through one who has borne the iniquity of the invited worshippers in partaking their unclean nature and coming under the curse of the law which condemned their transgressions, and triumphing over it by resurrection. He has thus borne the iniquity of the antitypical holy

things without harm by reason of that " Holiness to the Lord,” which in a tried faith was exhibited to all Israel when manifest in their midst as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and since more conspicuously shown in the preaching of the Apostles: "whom God hath set forth as a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God: to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus" (Rom. iii. 25-26). Like Israel's gifts, we are "accepted before the Lord," notwithstanding our imperfections, because of the proclamation of the holiness of the Lord in the life and death of the high priest through whom we come. But this feature is more particularly exhibited in the consecration of the high priest with the blood of sacrifice, which we shall next have to consider in connection with the order of investiture.

CHAPTER XVIII.-THE CONSECRATION OF AARON AND HIS SONS.

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'N about twelve months from the night that Israel broke up their settlement at Rameses in Egypt, and marched at the command of Moses to their first encampment at Succoth, the various parts and appurtenances of the Tabernacle had been made and finished, and were brought to Moses by those of the children of Israel who had made them. 66 According to all that the Lord commanded. Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. And Moses looked upon all the work, and behold they had done it as the Lord commanded, even so had they done it; and Moses blessed them" (Ex. xxxix. 42-43).

Tabernacle " on the first Moses did so, fixing the cords, and placing the

Moses then received orders to set up the day of the first month of the second year." sockets, rearing up the pillars, fastening the various coverings and hangings in their several specified positions : putting the ark and the mercy-seat and the cherubim inside the veil, and the candlestick and the table, &c., in the holy place, in the various places appointed for them. Having set the bread in order, and lighted the lamps, and offered incense on the golden altar, there remained the consecration of Aaron and his sons for the exercise of the priests' office-as to which, elaborate directions had been given and were now carried out.

"This," said Moses to the assembled congregation, as he proceeded with the ceremony of consecration, "is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done," and the narrative describes in great detail what was done, including the investiture of Aaron with the holy garments— in the order of which, as remarked in the last chapter, it may be possible to discover the shadowed history of the development of the antitype for in his official relations, Aaron was undoubtedly a type of Christ.

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First, Moses washed Aaron with water. This is the type of moral cleansing, as we saw in connection with the laver, as also shown in David's expression, "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity” (Psa. li. 2). Water," as a figure, is used by Jesus to represent the Holy Spirit (Jno. vii. 38-39). Aaron stood to represent the seed of Abraham. The washing of Aaron with water was, therefore, a prefiguration of the moral cleansing to be effected in a son of Abraham