The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 390

gospel. The Lamb has been &lain, the atonement complete, and, consequently, poor sinnem are summoned to joy, It would be no such joyful message if we were summoned to establish our own righteoUBness instead of submitting, as now, to the righteousness of God. It is a present salvation, on the ground of the finished sacrifice of Jesus, which constitutes the fountain of the purest joy. No such joyful trumpet-tones were ever heard by human ears in other religions as God gives when he says, "I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. vi. 2). IL THE GOSPEL TRUMPET BUllMONS us TO REST. On the Feast of Trumpets" ye sball do no servile work therein." It was a summons to sabbatic rest. And truly the gospel is a call to put off the servile spirit, the obedience which comes through fear, and to enter into God's rest. "We who believe do enter into rest." Christian experience is sabbath rest after the worry of worldly experience. We lay down our burden, and pass into Divine peace. The Saturday evening of experience is when, through grace, we put away our worldliness, our feverish anxieties, our low and selfish ideals, and the eabbath morning experience is rest in God's love and bounty. III. THE GOSPEL TRUMPET SUMMONS us TO PERSONA.I;, BAORIFI0E. If the servile work is to be surrendered for sabbath rest, we must go forward to the duty indicated. "But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord." For this is the gospel plan- acceptance and rest on the ground of a completed sacrifice, and the personal dedication as a living sacrifice in gratitude for such unmerited favour. From the one Great Sacrifice for us we proceed gratefully to such personal sacrifice as God's honour and glory require. The love manifested in the sacrifice of Christ "constrains us to live not unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again" (2 Cor. v. 14, 15). Self- righteousness is not self-sacrifice; rather is it proud bargaining for that which God offers as a gift. But, when the gift is accepted, self is in the acceptance crucified, and a life of devotion becomes self-sacrificing indeed. fV. THE GOSPEL TRU14PET IS TO BE BUCOEEDED BY THE TRUMP OF THE RESURRECTION, All who in their graves of sin hear the voice of the Son of God, and who, through hearing, live (John v. 25), are destined to hear another joyful note from the same trumpet: "For the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life" (John v. 28, 29). This is" the voice of the archangel and the trump of God" through which the dead in Christ shall rise (1 Thess. iv, 16 ). " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: (for the trumpet shall sound,) and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. xv. 51, 52). Such are the summonses which God gives to men to privilege, to peace, and at the last to everlasting felicity. The preachers who give no uncertain sound, but proclaim with trumpet-tongue the gospel, are the heralds who are preparing for the day of the Lord, with its everlasting rest and light and love 1-R. M. E. The annual repentance-the Day of .Atonement. Ch. xxiii. 26-32 ; cf. eh, xvi.; Heb. ix. 12. Into the ritual of the Day of Atonement we need not here enter, after what has been said on the subject under eh. xvi. But the reference here is to the spirit of repentance which was to characterize the people on that day. It was, in fact, a call to the whole congregation to repent and be reconciled to God. As the Day of Atone- ment is in all respects the climax of the sacrificial worship, it may be useful here to notice the spirit which belonged to that worship and the corresponding spirit in man which it demanded. I. THE SPIRIT OF JUDAISM 18 THAT OF EXCLUSION FROM THE DIVINE PREBENOE. Ever since man's fall until the vail was rent at the death of Jesus, man was deservedly kept at a distance from God. Sin is a separating power; as long as it is harboured it prevents near access to him. And even when, in the Exodus, God delivered a chosen people to bring them to himself (Exod. xix. 4), they were only permitted to come up to certain barriem round about the holy mount. When, moreover, the Lord transferred his dwelling-place from the top of Sinai to tho tent or tabernacle provided by his pilgrim people, he insisted 011 having a pdvate apartment, railed off from vulgar gaze, o.nd only OH, XXIlI, 6-44.) THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 356