The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 220

and eager to receive. enlighten_m~nt from God (Ps. cxx_xix. _23). (3) A feaiful thing to think how many live and die III the love of tnat which 1s loathsome and will only learn in retributive scenes what an abominable thing is sin.-C. ' Ver. 3.-Health a duty as well as a blessing. Undoubtedly there were moral and religious grounds for the legislation of this chapter (see subsequent Homilies). It was designed to express and convey religious truth. But we may well believe that the Divine purpose therein was, in pa.rt, sanitary. It was chiefly as the Father of t~,eir spirits and Sovereign of their souls that God thus spoke on the "clean and the un- clean;" but it was also as the Author of their bodily frames. He desired that those who were to be known for ever as his people should be healthy in frame as well as pure in heart. The injunctions given in this chapter tended to that result.. Thosa animals there allowed are the best fitted for food. Human science confirms, here as elsewhere, Divine instruction. "The grain-eating and ruminative animals, which divide the hoof and chew the cud, are altugether the most healthful and delicrhtful for the table." The flesh of swine, interdicted by sacred Law, has been proved to be the 11ource of hurtful and repulsive maladies. No nation on earth has been healthier than the Hebrew. While providing for the religious education and moral security of his. people, God was concerning himself for their bodily well being. Health is the greatest of earthly blessings. Without it we can do little and enjoy nothing. With it we can accomplish much and triumph over almost every obstacle in our way. A sound constitution is a thing to be profoundly thankful for. But it is for us not only to accept this great gift thankfully, but also to guard it diligently and reli!!:iously. There are four reasons why we should regard it as a sacred duty to pre- serve the health of our body by those obvious means which are within our reach (activity, moderation, cleanliness, contentedness, etc.). L BECAUSE THE HUMAN DODY IS THE FAIR WORKMANSHIP OF GoD. That which 0111' heavenly Father has made so exquisitely (Ps. c:u.xix. 14) we should treat as a thing to be protected, to be preserved in its excellency. "Everything is beautiful in it& season;" every period and phase of our humanity-smiling infancy, blithe childhood, sunny youth, vigorous young manhood, grave prime, grey-headed age, etc. I!. BECAUSE THE IIUMAN DODY IS THE HOME AND 0BGAN OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT. In our bodies we ourselves dwell-our thinking, reasoning, loving, hoping, striving selves. Our bodily faculties are the organs of our spiritual activities; therefore they are sacred. ill BECAUSE THE HUMAN BODY IS THE DWELLING-PLACE OF THE HOLY GHOST. (1 Co,·. iii 16, 17; vi. 19, 20; 2 Cor. vi. 16). IV. BECAUSE HEALTH IS A CONDITION OF USEFULNESS. It is true that men have been found (like Richard Baxter) to work for years in sickness and pain, but it is only a few rare spirits that can triumph thus over bodily infirmity. If we desire to bear the fullest possible witness and to do the noblest possible work for our God and our generation, we must not be indifferent to the state of our body. The stronger and healthier we- are in our physical frame the more cheerful will be the tone of our spirit, the more attractive will be the aspect of our life, the more strenuous and the longer continued will be the labours of our hand.-C. Vers. 4-47.-Clean and uncZ,,.an-a lesson on sin, Why all these minute distinc- tions? Why disallow many creatures for food, the flesh of which is not unwholesome? What means all this elaborate system of the clean and the unclean, of that which may be taken and that wliich must be strictly and piously shunned? It was- I. AN EABLY LESSON IN A RELIGIOUS SCHOOL. The people of God were in process of spiritual cultivation; they were being thus trained for our benefit, that they might give to all lands and times a body of sacred truth which it took them long to learn. God would, with this end in view, implant within them, deeply rooted, the idea of holiness. This distinction of clean from unclean was a daily lesson in sanctity, iu the conception of separateness of the pure from the impure, of that which 11;1ight be partaken of from that which might not be touched, of that which could be liked and chosen from that which was to be detested and avoided, They could not fail to under- stand, they could not fail to be profoundly impressed with the thought, that all around them were things which, for God's sake, in obedience to his plain commandment, thcl[ CII. XI. l-4T.] THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 183