HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 47-59.-Impure surroundings. Our garments are our immediate surround- ings, and there may be in them as well as in ourselves that which is offensive and "unclean." There was an impurity in the garment as well as in the human body against which the Law provided. 'l'he classing of clothes and houses with the human skin as leprous, "has moved the mirth of some and the wonder of others but the analogy between the insect which frets the human skin and that which frets the garment that covers it, between the fungous growth that lines the crevices of the epidermis and that which creeps in the interstices of masonry, is close enough for the purposes of ceremonial law." The legal provision here made for the leprous garment ■ uggests to us- L THE D,{PUBE BUBBOUNDINGB BY WRICH WE MAY BE ENVmONED. These are many: 1. Depraved tastes and cravings in our body (for the body is the immediat~ clothing of 1he f'J)irit). 2, Unholy companionships, a. Corrupt political associ"tioiis. 4, lmpure, cnt. XIV. 1-32.] THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS, 213
demoralizing books (or any form of hurtful literature). 5. Injurious occupation-that which wounds the conscience or enfeebles the inner life. 6. A deadening Church-a. religious society where the form without the power of godliness is left. IL THE DIVINELY SUGGESTED TREATMENT OF THEM. We gather from these verses that we should: 1. E.urcise vigi?ance in detecting. With the same carefulness with which the priest ma.de himself sure in the matter of the leprous garment (veni. 50-57) we must make certain whether there be in any of our surroundings--or of those for whom we are responsible-the plague which will work spiritual mischief in the heart and ultimate ruin to the character. 2. Make serious effort to cleanse. If, after seven days, there had been no spreading of the plague, the priest was to wash the garment (ver. 54), and if the plague departed, it was to be washed a second time, and then it was clean (ver. 58). .All that was salvable was to be saved. If by vigorous and repeated washing any spotted garment could be preserved., it was not to be destroyed . .All that is reformable in our institutions and surroundings must be reformed. We must cleanse where we can make pure and where it is unnecessary to destroy. But sometimes we must: 3. Unscrupulously destroy. When unmistakable signs of leprosy appeared, the priest was to" burn that garment;" it was to "be burnt in the fire" (ver. 52). When we find in anything that surrounds us end that is exerting an influence upon us, that which is really hurtful to us-that which would lead us astray from God, we must sacrifice it altogether, at whatever cost (see Mark ix. 43--47). Our belong- ings must be put into the fire rather than be permitted to stain our soul.-0.
EXPOSITION. made up his mind that he was clean. 2. An CHAPTER XIV. earthen vessel was brought with fresh water, and one of two birds was killed, and its THE FORM 01!' PURil!'IOATION 01" THE LEPER blood was ollowed to run into this water. (eh. xiv. 1-32). This is the most minute of 3. The otl!er bird was taken o.nd dipped in all the forms of purification, those for purifi- the vessel, with II piece of cedlll' wood and cation from contact with o dead body (Numb. hyssop, which hod first been tied together xix.) and for the cleansing of o defiled by o band of scarlet wool; and the leper was sprinkled seven times with the blood ond Nazarite (Numb. vi.) being alone to be water dripping from the feathers of the compared with it in this respect. Some living bird. 4. The priest pronounced the purifications were accomplished, as we have man clean. 5. The bird was let fly into seen, in o very summ11ry manner: one who the open field. 6. The man washed his touched the corcase of a beast that had clothes, shoved his whole body, and bothed. died a natuml death had only to wash his 7. He returned within the camp, but not yet to his tent. clothes (oh. xi. 40). The greater ond more Ver. 3.-The priest. The ogent is still signific11tive the defilement, the more care- the priest, not the physici11n. The priest ful and the more signifioative must be the shall go forth out of the oamp. "Moy we cleansing. Leprous uncleanness excluded not (ns Hesychius suggests) see o figure the leper both from the oamp ond from the here of the comp11ssion of our Great High Priest, who has gon8 forth out of he11ven sanctuary, from the rights bolh of citizen- itself, the comp of angel hosts, and hos ship and of Ohurch-membership, with whioh come dowu to earth, not only to ex11mine the rights of the family were also associated ; but to he11l the moral leprosy of sin, ' to consequently there had to be a double form seek and to save the lost• (Luke :s.ix. 10), of restoraliou, each with its special cere- and who c11refully examines and scrutinizes monies. The manner of the first reconcilia- all the secrets of oll he11rts (Heb. iv. 12)? And he was exempt from all coutagiou of tion is detailed in vers. 1-8, of the second sin while he lived and moved among sinners in vers. 9-32. (Matt. ix. 11; Lulce xv. 1), and wos 'holy, Ver. 2.-This shall be the law of the leper harmless, and undefiled' (Heh. vii. 2G)" in the day of his oleansing. The ceremonies (Wor<lsworth). And the priest sh&ll look. In in the first stage of cleansing, which restored l11ter times it was ordered th11t tho ex11mina- the outcast to the common life of his fellows, tion was not to take place on the sabbath, were the following: I. The priest formally nor in the early morning, nor in the late examined the leper outside the camp, and afternoon, nor inside a house, nor on a 2a THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. (cB. XIV, 1-82,