Vers. 2-7.- Woman under the Law and under the gospel. Every childbirth re-echoes in the ears of woman the sentence passed upon her ancestress Eve. That such a season of rejoicing should be attended with such throes of agony speaks loudly of the curse entailed by sin. There is no earthly pleasure entirely free from its shadow, pain. Great movements of society, deep thoughts, even inspiring melodies, are not ushered into the world without the pangs of travail. l. THE LAW REMINDS US HERE OF WOMAN'S CONNECTION WITH THE PRIMAL SIN. ·1. She is to be considered "unclean" for a fixed period after bringing forth a child. In the first part of "separation for her infirmity," she communicates defilement to whatever she touch~s, and must therefore, as far as possible, remain apart. But in the succeed- ing thirty-three or sixty-six "days of her purifying," she may fulfil her domestic duties, only she must not come into contact with hallowed things, not partake of sacrificial meals, nor enter the sanctuary. Thus the fulfilment of her maternal hopes renders her unfit for a sea.son to join in the worship of the holy God. She is led to rejoice with trembling; she is at once exalted and depressed. She sees that the new life is not separate from corruption, is allied to uncleanness and death, and in order to be redeemed requires hallowing by obedience to God's ordinances. 2. To cleanse the mother from the stains of childbirth and to allow of restored fellowship with God, atonement is requisite. First a burnt offering, that the life spared and secluded temporarily may be wholly surrendered in spirit to the Author and Sustainer of life. '!'hen a sin offer- ing to expiate all ceremonial offences connected with the begetting of children. If these rites appertain simply to the parent, yet must the knowledge of them afterwards acquaint the child with the state of separation from God into which it was the nnwitting instrument of introducing the parent, and there is at least a hint that the origin of life is not free from taint. II. THE LAW Th'DICATES THE INFERIOR ESTEEM IN WHICH WOMAN WAS ANCIENTLY HELD. 1. '!'he uncleanness contracted by bearing a female child lasted twice as long as when a boy was born. This has indeed been explained on physiological grounds, as formerly maintained. But there is ample warrant for the other view (see 1 Sam. i. 11; Jer. xx. 15, and John xvi. 21, for the joy caused by the birth of a male child). In eh. xxvii. 5, the female is esteemed at half the price of the male. Each mother of a male might cherish the hope that to her was granted the promised seed-the Meffsiah. 2. No rite of initiation into the covenant for the female. The Jews regarded circum- cision as the badge of honour, the mark of privilege and blessing. Woman entered the nation without special recognition. She was not capable of becoming the head of a family, on whose proved nationality so much depended, for if she married she became a member of her husband's family. III. THE GOSPEL DIGNIFIES THE POSITION OF WOMAN. 1. It abolishes before the Lord distinctions of sex. "There is neither male nor female; ye are all one in Christ Jesus." "There is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision." Woman has equal rights with man, saving only what natural modesty forbids her claiming, and what is the general law promulgated from the first (Gen. iii. 16), that the husband shall rule over her. Both mrn and women are baptized (Acts viii. 12) and endowed with the Spirit. 2. lt is the glory of woman to have been the medium of the incarnation of the Son of God. Her shame is removed. Even the poverty of woman is ennobled by the example of the Virgin Mary bringing her "pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons." 3. Woman's quick appreciation of truth and steadfast fidelity are specially notable under the preaching of Ch1ist and the apostles. Ready to adore the Lord as an infant, to supply his wants during his ministry, to bathe his feet with repentant, grateful tears, to anoint him before his burial, to follow him on the road to Calvary, to be nearest to l-..rlil at the cross, and the first at his grave on the Resurrection morn, woman occupie11 OH. Xlll. 1-4-6.) THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 196
a place in the gospel recorils alike conspicuoUB and honourable. Nor are the faith and love and devotion of woman less marked in the Acts and the Epistles. Well has woman striven to erase the stigma of the first transgression. Eighteen centuries of the continually progressive elevation of woman in the social and mental scale have only attested the cardinal principles of Christianity. The position of woman in any nation now serves as an index to the s!3ge of civilization which it has reachP.d.-8. R. A.
Che. xii.-xv.-C'eremonial purificati011s. For defilement from secretions and from leprosy. The double object-to exalt the sacred laws, to honour the natural laws of health and cleanliness. Thus we are taught- I. RELIGION PRESERVES, PURIFIES, EXALTS HUMAN NA.TUBE. The facts of family life are to be connected with the sanctuary. The more we think of both the joyful and the sorrowful events of our individual and social life as intimately bound up with our religion, the better we shall be prepared to find God's blessing always both preserving and sanctifying. IL ALL REGULATIONS WHICH CONOERN THE BODILY LIFE AND THE TEMPORAL HAPPI- NESS OF MKN SHOULD BE SURROUNDED WITH RELIGIOUS REVERENCE. Science is a curse to the world unless it is the handmaid to religion. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost. Our earthly life is the threshold of eternity. III. TYPICALLY. Leprosy represents human depravity and misery. We see i~ brought into relation to the cleansing blood of atonement. The sin which works death both by the individual acts and by contact with others, both in person and in condition is cleansed away both in guilt and in power. The leper is not excluded from mercy b~t is dealt with by tho priest as having his place in the covenant. Our vileness dors n~t shut us out from the love of God, but his love is revealed as an atoning love. "He is able to save unto the uttermost," but it is "those who come unto God by him."-B.