The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 37

the cow was selected as the colour or the blood which atoned ; and so completely was the victim regarded as a substitute, that every ministrant at the ritual was rendered unclean thereby, and the high priest was precluded from officiating, lest he be inca- pacitated for his other exalted functions, and so his son, his nearest kinsman, and official representative took his place. Thus, in pictorial and impressive form, the momentous truths were inculcated of death as the punishment of sin ordained by the Divine anger, and of the counteraction o! the influence of death by an appointed substitute. There is not a detail of the involved ritual which cannot be explained by the aid of such principles as we have deduced. So, too, so elaborate a ceremonial as the consecration or a priest becomes at once lucid, brilliant, suggestive, and religious by the application of the principles in question. A11 we have seen, a bullock and two rams, unleavened bread and wheaten cakes, were brought to the door of the tabernacle, where the candidates to be initiated were washed with water, arrayed in official garments, anointed with the holy oil, atoned for by a sin offering, sanctified by a burnt offering, and admitted to fellowship by a peace offering In one significant particular the ritual of this closing sacrifice differed from that customarily observed in sacrifices of the same class. After the habitual imposition of the hand, and slaughter, some of the collected blood was put upon the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the toe of the right foot, and was sprinkled upon the clothing of the newly ordained priest, in addition to the usual smearing of the horns of the altar. Now, as most investigators have pointed out, this consecration consisted of two sets of three acts. In the first place, there was a solemn purification, an express investiture, and a formal anointing; and in the second place, there followed a triple sacrifice in the noteworthy order of a sin offering, a burnt offering, and a peace offering. Every detail is luminous and has of itself a profound suggestiveness for the age contemporaneous, and although the minutim of the rite only receive their full illumi- nation in Christianity, they nevertheless conveyed many a valuable lesson to the Jew. In fact, in its adaptation of the general ritual of Levitical sacrifice to the ordination of priests, the prescribed ceremonial is a simple and intelligible object-lesson in the requisites of acceptable religious service. In the set washing with water we have, as Oehler put it," a symbol of the spiritual purification without which none can approach God, at least to atone.'' In the investiture there is the visible assumption of the priestly office. In the anointing, the Divine seo.1 is attached to such acceptance of office; whereas the sin inherent even in an accepted priest must be removed by a sin offering, upon which may follow the expressive sacrifices of consecration and fellowship. As for the varying features in the peace offering, where a different blood manipulo.tioa is gone through, what change could be more signlficant? Before admission to the communion of priests, and of tho Deity whom the priests serve, there must be a specific atonement, and the atoning blood of the ram, "the ram of consecration," is placed not only in contact with the altar, but with the person and garments of the newly ordained llriest, the very ceremonial signifying that the ear and hand and foot, which are to be swift. to serve, must be atoned for before they are hallowed, and that the very garments of office must be cleansed before dedication to their sacred use. With such daily observances, the Jewish year ran its course, the customary worship repeated evening and morning, in combination with the voluntary expression of religion by sacrifice, associating absolution, confession, and adoration with all the phases and grades of the national life. If the tribe of Levi sanctified itself by holy service in sacrifice, by the same means the farmer sanctified his toil, the mother her child, the father his akill, the prophet his calling, the ainger his talent, the prince his government, and the elders thoir nation. Day by day these Levitical sacrifices went  xxvi THE LEVITICAL SA.CHU'ICES LITE!tALLY CONSIDEUED.