ragsd ;" so that we still have reason, like holy Job, to " lothe and abhor ourselves in dust and ashes e." The external signs of sorrow which were prescribed to the leper, we should com- mute for those which indicate true contrition : " Rend your heart" says the prophet, " and not your garments1." We should " walk humbly with God," and so much the more when we find that "he is pacified towards use." And, as they who had only been suspected of the leprosy were required to wash their garments'1, so let us, who yet retain such awful memo- rials of it, " wash ourselves from day to day in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness " ]
dIsai.lxiv.6. eJobxlii.6. fJoelii.l3. eEzek.xvi.63. hver.34.
cxxx.
Lev. xiv. 4 — 9. Then shall the priest command to take for him. that is to be cleansed, two birds alive and clean, and cedar- wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel, over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar-ioood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off' all his hair, and ivash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days. But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head, and his beard, and his eye-broius, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes; also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.
THERE is an indissoluble connexion between duty and privilege, though that connexion is, for the most part, but little understood. Our privileges are in general supposed to arise out of the performance of our duties; whereas the reverse of this is more generally true: privileges are freely bestowed upon us. by God according to his own sovereign will and pleasure; and these operate as incentives to love and serve him. The blessings of election and vocation