this was the moral element, the controlling motive power, in the life and denth of Christ, which made it infinitely precious in the eyes of God, and infinitely availnble for the remission of sins. 2. That God had sought for suck an atonement before and it kad not bem given, (see ver. 4: "Hang them up, ... that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel "). .And God had looked in vain nmong the children of men for any that should have perfect sympathy with his own hatred of sin, and perfect self-devotion in seeking to destroy it ( cf. Isa. !iii. 11, "my righteous servant;" lxiii. 4, 5; Matt. iii. 17, &c.). 3. Tliat Phinih.as "satisfied" the wrath of G<>d against sin, inasmuch as he gave ezpressum in the most open and public way to the real mind of God in respect of si'fl,. .And our Lord did not merely regard sin with the eyes of God, but he manifested unto all the world in the very highest sense the righteousness of God as arrayed against the sinfulness of sin. Beholding the carcases of those sinners, Israel awoke from his evil dream to a consciousness of what such lust really was. Gazing upon the dead face of him that was made sin for us, we realise what the hatefulness and hideousness of sin truly is. 4. That Phindias con· demned sin in the.ftesh by the death-since Mthing less would sujfke-{)f the sinners. .And God condemned sin in the flesh not by inflicting death, but by sencling his only• begotten to suffer death in the name and in the place of that sinful race with which he had wholly identified himself. 5. That Phinehas, having di,sp_layed and vindi- cated the righteoUS11ess of God, delivered the rest of Israel from the plague. Even so our Lord, having conciemned sin by his own death, through death destroyed the power of death, and delivered his brethren from the fear of death. 6. ThatPl,inehas received for his zeal Goil's covenant of peace, and the promise of an everlasting priest• hood. .And our Lord, for that be made atonement for the sins of the world, and reconciled in one life and death the holiness and the love of God, became himself our peace (Ephes. ii 14), and was made a priest for ever after the order of Melchiz- edec ( Heb. v. 9, 10). 7. That Phinehas could not abide because of death, nor his seed because of infirmity and change; wherefore the promise could not be fermanently made good to him. But Christ abideth for ever, for ever the same, etema inheritor of all the promises made to all holy men (Heh. vii. 24; xiii. 8, &c.). See the note above.,
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS .AUTHORS. Vere. 10--13.-.A terrible atonement. We see in this narrative- !. THE NATION WHICH Goo HAD BLESSED, CUBBED THROUGH ITB OWN BINS. The Israelites, impregnable against the curses of Balaam, succumb to his wiles. We dis- coT"er parts of a plot. In the foreground nre women (true daughters of Eve the tempter), alluring feasts, flatteries, idolatries. In. the backgro~!1d we discern !he malignant face of the covetous Balaam (eh. xxx1. 16; Rev. n. 14), and behind him his master the devil. Learn to discriminate the seen and unseen agents of temptation (Ephes. vi. 12), and to guard against the devices of our diabolical foe (2 Cor. ii. 11; xi. 14, 15). Sin did what Balaam could not do. The wrath of God, the plague on th~ thousands of Israelites_, the execut~on of the ringle_aders,. follow in quick succession. Note the destructiveness of sm. Of every smner 1t may be said as of .Achan, "That man perished not nlone in his iniquity." The guilt of the nation reached its climax in the shamelessness and audacity of the sin of Zimri. While shame, one of the precious relics of poradise, survives, there is more hope of restoration, but when shame is gone, sin is ripe for judgment (Jer. v. ?-9; vi. 15). If God's wrath had continued to bum, the whole nation must have pe11shed. II. THE WBATH BEHOVED BY A TEBRIDLE ATONEMENT. 1. The essence of it was not an outward act, but a state of heart. It was Pbinehas' zeal for God which mnde the act possible and acceptable. Just so in the aton~ment, of a very differe!1t character, made by the Lord Jesus Christ, the essence of 1t. was the zeal for the w_1ll of God which prompted the obedience unto death, the offenng of the bod,: of Chn~t once for all (Heh. x. 5-10). 2. The form of the atonement was a temble mnm- fcstation of the righteousness of God in the prompt punishment of the two nuda- cious transgressol'I!. They expiatl'd their crime by their lives. Phinehns' conduct, being inspired by godly zeal is justified by God himself. Instead of being treated as a crime. it is regarded a; a covering over of the nntion's sin. Where that sin CH, XXV, 1-18.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 351