IT. THE ACTUALLY AND INTRINSICALLY GREAT. It is or the most serious importance that: 1. In all things, weightier and lighter, we should study to follow the will of Christ. His will is revealed in his own words, and in the acts and words of his apostles. Thence we must studiously deduce his desire concerning us. 2. We should make all things conduce to a reverential spirit. "God will be sanctified," etc. The service which does not tend to impress the worshipper with the greatness, majesty, holiness, wisdom, faithfulness of God, is fatally defective, is essentially faulty. 3. We should -exalt Jesus Christ as a Saviour from sin. The prominence and priority given to the -sin offering in this book point clearly to the truth that" the Lamb of God that taketh -away the sin of the world" should have the principal place in Christian worship. He, the Divine Son, is also to be "sanctified in them that come nigh." 4. "\Ye should present the entire truth of revelation; not that part which we prefer, which falls in with -0ur tastes or acquirements, but the "whole counsel of God." Guiltily disregarding thege imperative matters, we (1) not only do not offer acceptable sacrifice, but (2) render -ourselves··obnoxious to our Master's Divine dissatisfaction, to his displacement of us from his service; to his severe rebukes (Rev. ii., iii.). The slightest deviation from the will of Chris-t, if caused by faulty negligence, and still more if due to wilful disobedience, fa a. serious transgression; on the other hand, faithfulness in small things, rendered cheerfully:ilnd in a. loving spirit, is cert.ain of Divine acceptance and approval.-0. Vera. 3-7.-Self-restraint a,nd utterance. "And Aaron held his peace," etc. The sequel to the sad story of the sin and death of Nada.band Abihu carrie.s with it three lessons we shall do well to learn. J. THAT A HAN IS LESS HONOURED BY EXALTED OFFICE THAN BY LOFTY ACTION. We pay a certain respect to Aaron as the first high priest of the ancient Law, type of the •• High Priest of our profession." But we pay a higher honour to him and feel a deeper regard for him, as one who acted nobly at a. most trying time. Such a scene might well have unmanned him. We could not have blamed him had he given way to violent agitation, even in the house of the Lord. 'l'here is, in sorrow, a descending scale, and bis was at the very bottom of its dark depths. Bereavement, the saddest of all losses; the death of a child, the saddest of all hcrea.vements; the death of two sons in their manhood, the saddest form which the loss of children can assume; its startling, awful iluddenness; its occurrence under the aggravating conditions of guilt and dishonour;- :SUch was· the staggering blow that fell on Aaron then I There is a nobleness of self- restraint which is truly touching, which excites our hearty admiration, in the fact that "Aaron held his pence." He did not give way to tempestuous emotion or to querulous .complaint·; he acted aa became him: standing where he stood in the near presence of God, he bore the blow in sacred silence, he opened not his mouth, he wos dumb, because he felt the Lord had done it (Ps. xxxix. 9). There is nothing manlier, nobler, more ndmimble than calmness in the overwhelmiug hour. It is born of (1) devout- ness, a profound sense of the presence and sovereignty of God; and of (2) self-culture, the training of our own spirit, the "keeping of our heart" (Prov. iv. 23). ·• .JI. THAT THE DEVOUT HEART WILL RECOGNIZE THE RIGHTNESS OF SUBORDINATING PERSONAL·BENTIMENT TO THE SERVICE OF GoD. (Ver. 6.) 'l'bis melancholy occurrence bad taken place in vindication of the honour of God (ver. 3). 'l'he one feeling which was to fill the hearts of those who stood before God was an unquestioning acceptance of the severe· and nfllictive decree of the Holy One. To show the ordinary signs of sorrow might be open to misconstruction; might appear as n protest against the denth- penalty. In the cause of righteousness the natural feeling of father and sons must be -energetically suppressed. And it was done. 'l'here come times in our history when, in the highest interests of all, in the service of God and of our kind, we aro called u·pon to make parental, conjugal, fraternal, friendly emotions give place to calmness of spirit. When that hour comes, we, if we have .Aaron's spirit, shall obey as he obeyed. 111. THAT 0oD DESIRES US TO GIVE PLAY TO HUMAN FEELrNG WHEN HIS LAW IS NOT BROKEN OB HIS SERVICE HINDERED THEREBY. 1. 'l'he relatives of the dead were to -carry their bodies decently and reverently "from h<:fore the sanctuary" (ver. 4). 2. 'l'he whole house of Israel were to "bewail the burniug which the Lord had kindled" (ver. 6). Where the lamentation was natural, and whPre there wu no peril IGO THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [ CB, X, 8-20.
of its being misinterpreted, it W88 not only allowed but encouraged of God. Stoicism is no J:"rt of Christianity. We are to be natural and sympathetic. Jesus" rejoiced in, spirit and" wept" himself. He intimated his wish that we should act naturally, in accordance with our surrounding circumstances and inward spirit (Matt. ix. 15-17; John xvi. 20-22; Jas. v. 13). Sympathetic as well as natural: "rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep," etc. (Rom. xii. 15).-0.