gression, God will take into his own hands is repeated in a different connexion in the punishment of tho offenders; not only ver. H. is he to be cat off or excommunicated by Vers. 13, H:.-Negatively, it has been politiCRI o~ ecclesia_stical auth~rity, but God ordered tho.t blood shall not be eaten; posi• himseU will set his f&0e against that soul tively, that it is to be offered to God. But that eateth blood, and will out him off from there may be cases where the latter com- among his people, by death, or suoh means mand cannot be carried out, as when ani- as he chooses to adopt. Then follows the mals arc killed in hunting. On such reason for the prohibition, For the life of occasions the man who kills the animal, the flesh is in the blood. The blood may whether he be o.n Israelite or o sojourner, not be ea.ten because it is the vehicle oflife, is to pour out the blood thereof, and cover literally, the soul of the fash, that is, it is it with dust, regording it as a sacred thing. the seat of the animal life of the body. Vere. 15, 16.-'fhere is still another pos- "It is the fountain of life," says Harvey; sible case. The blood of an animal may "the first t.o live, the last to die, and the not have been shed, or not shed in such a primo.ry seat of the animal soul; it Ii ves way as to make it flow abundantly, as when and is nourished of itself, and by no other the animo.l bns died a natural death, or been part of the human body." In consequence killed by wild beasts. In this ,case, e.s the of possessing this character, it is to be re- blood still remains in the body, the flesh served, to make an atonement for your souls may not be eaten without defilement. The upon the altar; for thus only blood became defilement may be cleansed by the unclean qualified for the purpose of atonement. man washing his olothes and bathing, but The clause, for it is the blood that maketh if he neglect to do this, he shall bear his an atonement for the soul, should be trans- iniquity, that is, undergo the consequence lated, for the blood maketh atonement by of his transgression, which he would not means of the soul, i.e. by means of the life have undergone had he been ceremonially which it contains. It is because the blood cleo.nsed ( cf. Exod. xxii. 30; eh, xi. 39 ; is the vehicle of the animo.l's life, and re- Deut. xiv. 21). The prohibition of the presents that life, that it serves to cover, or eating of blood was continued by the make atonement for, the soul of the offerer Counoil of Jerusalem, bnt the observance of of the sacrifice, who presents it instead of the regulation we.s no longer commonded e.s his own life. a duty binding on all men, but as a conces- Ver. 12.-This verse emphatically restates sion to Jewish feelings, enabling Jewish that the atoning power of the blood, as being and Gentile converts to live together in the eeat of life, is the reason tlmt the eating comfort (see 1 Sam. xiv. 32; Ezek. uxiii. .of it is forbidden, and the same statement 35; Acts xv. 20),
HOMILETICS. Vers. I-9.-Sacrifice is not in itself enough; there must be uniformity in the manner in which it is offered, and identity of place in which it is made. The seven first chapters of the Book of Leviticus have given a minute statement of the ceremonies which are always to be unfailingly observed. Incidentally, it had been taught in these chapters that the place of sacrifice was the court of the tabernacle, but now every other place of sac1ifice is stringently forbidden. l. THE TABERNACLE A.ND AFTERWARDS THE TEMPLE WERE THE CENTRE OF TlIE JEWISH CHunCH, A.ND THEREFORE OF THE JEWISH STATE. Every community which is to be permanent mnst have a central idea, and that idea must be embodied in some formula, or still better in some institution. The tabernacle or the temple was such an institution to the Jew. It summed up in itself, and was the symbol to the .raw of all that he valued. It was the rallying point of the nation, the thing that each citizen was willing to live for and die for, whatever other differences might divide him from his fellows, This gave a strength and unity to the different tribes, which would other- wise have probably all fallen apart, and though it was not strong enough to prevent the great schism, Jeroboam's plan of supplying ita place by an unreal substitute showed its force; it survived the destruction of the material temple by Nebuchadnezzar, preserved the exiled fragments of the nation during the Captivity, and inspired courage to return to Jerusalem and rebuild what they had lost. Nay, even now its memory keeps together the scattered members of a dispersed nation, and forms them into one 1,eoplt. en. xvu. 1-16.) THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 263