Ver. 6.-Generation, conception, and birth, not having anything sinful nece!sarily connected with them, the sin offering in this case is rather an intimation of original sin than an atonement for actual sin; the "sorrow" attached to childbirth being especially connected with the fall of man as a result of Eve's share in bringing it about (Gen. iii,. 16). There is nothing in the Bible to countenance ascetic or Manichman views of marriage intercourse. Where any prohibitory injunctions are given on the subject, the purpose is to avoid ceremonial, not moral, uncleanness (Exod. xix. 15 ; 1 Sam. :u.i. 4 ; cf. eh. xv. 18). Ver. 8.-Some fifteen hundred years after this law of purification after childbirth had been given to and by Moses, a man child was born in a country which did not at the time of the legislation of Moses belong to the Israelites, and which those whom Moses addressed had never seen. The country was Palestine, the city Bethlehem. The birth took place in a stable, for the mother was poor. For eight days she remained unclean, and on the eighth day the child was circumcised, and" his name was called Jesus" (Luke ii. 21). For thirty-three days longer she continued "in the blood of her purifying" (eh. xii. 4), and then" when the days of their purification according to the Law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice, according to that which is said in the Law of the Lord" (Luke ii. 22, 24). Had the mother been wealthy, she would have offered a lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or turtle-dove, for a sin offering, but though of the house and lineage of David, she was poor, and her sacrifice was therefore "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons"--<>ne of the birds being for a burnt offering, betokening the devotion of her life afresh to God after the peril that she had gone through; the other for a sin offering, recognizing her share in the penalty of Eve- as partaker in original sin. "On bringing her offering, she would enter the temple through • the gate of the firstborn,' and stand in waiting at the gate of Nicanor, from the time that the incense was kindled on the golden altar. Behind her, in the court of the women, was the crowd of worshippers, while she herself, at the top of the Levites' steps, which led up to the great court, would witness all that passed iu the sanctuary. At last one of the officiating priests would come to her at the gate of Nicanor, and take from her hand the poor's offering, which she had brouaht. The morning sacrifice w11s- 1()0 1'HE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [cu. xn. 1-·fl.
-ended, and but few would linger behind while the offering for her purification was ;actually made. She who brought it mingled prayer and thanksaivina with the t1ervice. And now the priest once more approached her, and, eprinkli~g h~r with the sacrificial blood, declared her cleansed. Her• first born' was next redeemed at the hand of the priest with five shekels of silver; two benedictions being at the same time pronounced-one for the happy event which had enriched the family with a firstborn the other for the law of redemption" (Edersheim, • Temple Service'), It was probably as she descended the steps that Simeon took the babe from her arms and blessed God and them, and that Anna II gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and siiake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (Luke ii. 38), "And when they had performed all things according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city Nazareth" (Luke ii. 39). 'l'hus obediently did the virgin mother of the Lord submit herself to the regulations of the Levitical Law, and thus humbly and graciously did the infant Saviour begin from the day of his birth to II fulfil all riahteous- ness" (Matt. iii. 15) in his own pers~n, though by the hands of others. " Lessons-I. To obey the positive laws and to submit to the positive institutions of the religious community to which we belong. 2. To take measures, when we have even involuntarily and without sin on our part ceased to be in open communion with ·God and God's people, to recover that communion. 3. To see that the measures which we take with this end are appointed by God or by his authority, and are in accordance with his will. 4. To be sure that such steps as v.•e taka be accompanied by an .acknowledgment of sin and a throwing ourselves for acceptance on the merits of the ~crifice of the cross (which is our sin offering), and a consecration of ourselves to God's ~ce (which is our burnt offering).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.