fect" (Hebrews x. 1), even so the fulfillment is better than the promise. The antitype is better than the type. The thing signified is better than the sign. Abundant illustration of these thoughts may be found by comparison of the Old and New Testaments, and especially by the study of this epistle to the Hebrews.

More particularly the sprinkled blood of Jesus Christ tells us of guilt of deepest dye more emphatically than could be told in any other way. God could not give a stronger attestation of the evil of sin and of His hatred of it than by the gift of His well-beloved Son for its removal. In no other way consistently with His character could the guilt of sin be washed away.

It tells us of infinite love and mercy, of inexorable justice and holiness, and shows us how all the attributes of God are harmonious.

It speaks of the impossibility of salvation by any human work or by man's wisdom. Else why did Christ die if man can save himself? Many have been and are the systems of religion which men have devised to take the place of the simple doctrine of Christ and Him crucified.

The sprinkling of this blood tells us in the words of John the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." To this one sacrifice the sacrifices of flocks and herds innumerable for four thousand years directly pointed. This gave to them their only value and significance as acts of worship. Without this, they had been a useless waste and an unmeaning shedding of blood.

This sprinkling tells us of an atonement not only necessary, but actually made. It teaches us that there is no need of any repetition of the sacrifice nor of any additional merit. It is already infinite in value for the chief of sinners. Sufficient for all who ever will come. Yet only those who do actually come shall enjoy its benefits.

It speaks of faith as a necessary condition of the saving. benefit. Believe, only believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but whosoever believeth not, shall be damned. (Mark xvi. 16.)

This blood speaks of justification complete, full, and gracious. For "through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts xiii. 38, 39.) "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." (Rom. viii. 1.)

This blood of Jesus speaks of peace. "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. v. 1.) Who Himself dedeclared, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John xiv. 27.)

It speaks of reconciliation. "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us unto Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2 Cor. v. 18, 19.)

It speaks of joy. "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." (Rom. v. II.)

Precious texts! Precious truths! Time would fail to unfold and illustrate them all. Beloved Christian friends, drink of the cup of consolation drawn from such a cluster. It speaks in tones of consolation and comfort. Το those who have accepted the sprinkling it gives assurance of safety, even as to the Israelites, who had obeyed and sprinkled the doorposts, did the blood of the paschal lamb.

Contrast the condition and feelings of the saved Israelites with those of the Egyptians.

Reception of the sprinkling, or looking by faith to Christ for that sprinkling, is our present duty and privilege. It implies also our entering into covenant with and engagement to be the Lord's. How important to have that sprinkling applied to our own hearts and consciences!

The blood of Jesus speaks to some in tones of warning. It tells of the danger of those who, being not sprinkled, reject the blood of Christ. It calls to you. "Refuse not Him that speaketh." If you condemn the Hebrews for crucifying their Messiah, in what respect are you better than they, you who reject that same Saviour? The sacrifice which He made of Himself is far more valuable, far more effectual, than all the blood of all the flocks and herds which ever have been slain-above all the merely human victims which could be offered.

Not by the terrors of Sinai, but as you value the joys and happiness and glory of the celestial city, while an innumerable company of angel-ministering spirits would rejoice in your salvation; as God is calling and assembling from the four quarters of the earth His elect people, whose names are written in heaven; as you must soon stand before the great Judge to render an account how you have improved your talents and opportunities; by the happiness of saints made perfect and as you would meet them in glory, since Jesus has shed His blood, one drop of which is far more efficacious than all the rivers of the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain, "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven!" (Hebrews xii. 25.)

SAVED BY A LOOK.

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”—John iii. 14, 15.

These words form a part of the conversation which our Lord and Saviour held with Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who came to Him by night and heard His discourse respecting regeneration and the plan of salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ plainly referred to a well-known event in the history of the forty years' wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness. By the authority of His example we are fully warranted in marking the analogy between the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness and the lifting up of the Son of man on the cross, and in regarding one as typical of the other. Having so recently been called in the most solemn of sacred ordinances to behold the Lamb of God as a sacrifice for sin, it is proper for us yet to linger a little while near the same scene.

After the Israelites had spent nearly forty years in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan they were not permitted to pass directly through the land of Edom, but were compelled to go around its borders and by the way of the Red Sea, where they encountered new and great difficulties, which discouraged their hearts and gave fresh occasion for murmuring against Moses and the Lord, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. God, who had defended them, and had visited their enemies with plagues and had thus brought upon the land and in the houses of Egypt the plague of the frogs, with the same power visited His people with chastisement in the shape of fiery serpents; called fiery as some suppose from their color, but as others, with more reason, say, because of the inflammation and burning thirst occasioned by their venomous bite. It is not said that they were flying serpents, and the existence of