for hwman sin. In other words, Jesus Christ was born with a liability on account or the sine of others. Having entered into the human family, having condescended to be born, he became liable for the responsibilities and debts of the human family, and the ritual so regarded him. Not only so, but our Lord had entered upon his "bloody passion" when at eight days old he had passed throul!:h the painful operation of circum- cision. The rites in the temple thirty-three days after only expressed in legal form the liability on account of human sin upon which he had already entered. But if the atonement of the sin offering has thus a distinctive meaning in this exceptional case, the burnt offering had also its fulfilment. Mary dedicated, not only herself, but her Son, according to the Law of the Lord, "Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord," Simeon and Anna recognized in the infant the dedicated Messiah. Thus did Mary, as mother of Jesus, fulfil all righteousness. VI. WE ABE SURELY TAUGHT HEBE THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE THAT IT rs THROUGH BOBROW AND RUldILlATION THAT TRIUMPH IS BEACHED, The hope of a triumphant woman's seed sustained Jewish mothers in their sorrow. They looked for salvation through child-bearing, according to the idea of the apostle (1 Tim. ii. 15). God's meaning was through the child-bearing (8,a Tijs nirrO')'ovla.s), that is, the motherhood of the Virgin. Yet the hope sustained multitudes of mothers in their agonies. At length the Conqueror of the devil appeared. He came as an infant, and braved the dangers of development, and became "the Man of sorrows," and passed through death to victory. To the same law we must constantly conform. Humiliation is the price of exaltation in the case of Jesus and of all his people. The apostles had their season of sorrow in connection with Christ's crucifixion, and so sore it was that our Lord does not hesitate to compare it to a woman's travail; but at Pentecost they got the joy and exhilaration which compensated for all. The law of the kingdom is that we enter it through much tribulation. "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke xiv. 11). When we humble ourselves under a sense of sin, when we humble ourselves under a sense of unprofitableness, then are we treading the path which leads to power and triumph.-R. M. E. Vers. 1-8.-The statutes on maternity. We may seek- I. THE EXPLANATION OF THIS STATUTE. And we shall find the explanation (1) not in the notion that any actual sin is involved in it; (2) but in tho fact that there is connected with it that which is painfully suggestive of sin. (There was nothing actually "unclean" in the camel or hare, but it was constituted so because it was fairly suggestive of it.) 1. The sorrow of maternity (John xvi. 21) points clearly to the primeval curse, and therefore to the primeval siu (Gen. iii. 16). 2. The birth of o. human child means the entranco into the world of one in whom are the germs of sin (Ps. Ii. 6 ; !viii. 3 ; Eph. ii. 3). 3. Maternity suggests the sexual relo.tiou, and that suggests the abounding and baneful sin of impurity. Hence sin is associo.ted with the birth of the human infant, and the physical condition (ver. 7) attending it is typical of sin, constitutes "uncleanness," and necessitates purification. II. THE THOUGHTS WE GAIN FROII THIS STATUTE. we learn: 1. The communica- tiveness of sin. We transmit our follies, our errors, our iniquities, by ordinary generation. Our children, because they are our children, will go astray, and will be in danger of those very errors into which we ourselves have fallen. Those who become parents must take the responsibility of bringing into the worlcl children like themselve~, who will inherit their dispositions, their habits of thought, their character. Sin is communicated from generation to generation through heredity, and also through tho contagiousness of evil example. There is nothing more diffusive. 2. The extension of the consequences of sin. How sin sends forth its stream of sorrow I The pangs of maternity, answered by the opening cry of the infant as it enters the world-do these not speak the truth, that a world of sin is a world of sorrow, that succeedin"' generations of sinners are succeeding generations of sufferers, and that this will b~ so to the end of the world? 3. The removableness of guilt from the sight of God. The "uncleanness" of the mother was not irremovable. It did temporarily but did not permanently separate her from the sanctuary (ver. 4), After a limited retirement she might come with her sin offering and her burnt offering to "the door of the tabernacle" (vcr. 6). If she were poor she might bring an offering within the reach of the poores\ T,EV ITICUS. 0 THE DOOK OF LEVITICUS. [cH, XII. 1-8.
(,·,·r. S), and the priest would" make atonement," and she would" be clean" ('ver. 8). ,YhatcYer guilt we contract, whether in communicating evil to others or as the indirect consequence of the sin of others, by whatsoever our souls have been defiled, our lives stained and c~rruptcd, we may all come to the cross of the Redeemer and tbroucrh his !"<toning sacrifice be rnadc_clean in the sight of_God. And thus coming, our sin offering will not be unaccornpamed by a burnt offering; the forgiveness of our sin will be followed by the dedication of our whole selves to the service of the Lord.-C.