III. THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTI0 011' TJIE 0ll'll'ERING JS SURRENDER, ACK0WLEDG- :IIENT OF TIIE LoRD'B CLAIM OVER us. " Out of the herd or flock." That is, out of our own possessions, valued, known, intimately associated with ourselve.q. A religion which costs us nothing cannot be real. The more of one's self there is in it, the more really offered it is. The mistake of all ritualism is that it leads us to offer up another's offering instead of our own. We observe the rite, we repeat by rote the words, w~ listen to the music, but is the offering out of our own herd or flock? Jesus will have no disciple who does not first count the cost. IV. WHILE THE OFFERING IS VOLUNTARY, IT 18 STILL PRESCRIBED. "Ye shall bring your offering of the cattle." An enlightened recognition of Divine commandments is necessary to acceptable worship. "Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God," "Not every man that saith, Lord, Lord; .•. but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven "-",the things that I say." The liberty of the gospel is not licence. The doctrines, rules, and practical teachings found generally in the New '.l.'estament, though not systematized there, are yet positively given. While we are delivered from the bondage of a legal dispensation, we are yet under law to Christ. Will-worship is unchristian. Tendency of our time is to an individualism which is dangeroUB. The study of the Old Testament in the light of the New a wholesome antidote. Yet our faith must always work by love (vide Gal. v.).-R. Ver. 3.-The burnt sacrifice. The most ancient, that which represents all others. Notice-- I. THE HAIN PRINCIPLE REPRESENTEo-8ELF·SURRENDER IN ORDER TO SELF-PRE- SERVATION THROUGH TilE COVENANTED HERcY OF JEHOVAH. In this principle there are included these points: 1. Recognition of the supreme claim of God. 2. Substitu- tionary surrender, a life for a life, the victim for the offerer. 3. Ezpiation of :rin and acceptance, by the restoration of the covenant relations between God and man, proceed- ing from Divine love, but resting on the offering as representing a fulfilment on both sides of the contract-God forgiving, man obeying. 4. The union of the two elements of blood and fire, i.e. of atonement and purification, the negative holiness and the positive holiness, justification and sanctification, fulness of grace. II. DETAILS OF THE SACRIFICE. Ver. 3.-" Of the herd, . . . a male without 'blemish." God must have our best. We must make our religious service n reality, putting into it our strongest faculties, best opportunities, counting all things but loss for Christ. Examples in the offerings of grent faith. Nothing should be blemished in the house of God, in private religion, in acts of charity. " Thou. God seest me." "Of his own voluntary will." Although a law, it is of no validity but as an appeal to the free heart of man. Anticipation of the gospel, the Law a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. 'l'he highest state of life is when law is absorbed in the activity of the nature; we are likest God when we are by grace a law unto ourselves," willing to do his will." ".tU the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord." Here are the three elements of religion recognized: 1. Pu.blicily. 2. Fellowship. 3. Divine order. Secret religion is a contradiction. The profession is part of the sacrifice. " Thy vows are upon me, 0 Lord." The congregation is a cloud of witnesses, both sustaining persoual religion and supplying a constant test of sincerity. And whatever we do, we do before the Lord. His face we desire to seek, and in the light of his manifested favour we rejoice. There are special appointments which all true worshippers will honour: the sabbath, the Word, the congregation, the ordered life of the Christian Church.-R. Ver. 4.-" .And he shall put his hand U,1)0n the head of the burnt offering; and ii shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him." A most significant commandment, full of gracious meaning for those who observed it, I. ALL ATONEMENT RESTS Ul'0N FREE 0RACE. .. .Accepted for him to make atone- ment." God sets forth the propitiation, declares his righteousness for the remission of sins. It shall be accepted, not because it is in itself an equivalent, but because a merciful Father accepts it. II. THE VICTIM ACCEPTED PROCLAIMS THE CONDITIONAL NATURE 01" THE GRACE. It is free as being unmerited, and yet it is the expression of a loving will, and comes forth from an infinite nature. God forgives because he chooses to forgive, yet he for-- gives by the method which he proclaims. The lower sacrifice points to the higher. THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [ell. I, 1-17.
III. THE OFFERER'S FAITH JB AS TRULY NEEDFUL AS Tl!E VICTIM HE BRmas. "With- out faith it is impossible to please God." 'l'he he.nd put upon the head of the victim <1ignified tho identification of the offerer e.nd offered. Whether the confession of sins was included or not is of little importance. Faith is self-surrender. In e.11 atonement there are three parties represented-the offender, the offended, the mediator. 'l'he hand of the offender sets forth his whole activity and conscious self. His connection with the victim is itself confession of sin and acceptance of the covenanted mercy of Jehovah. We la,r our hand on the head of Jesus by the spiritual identification which includes the application of the mind to his truth, the yielding of the heart to his love, and the consecration of the life to his service.-R.