i!eparated from the new races coming from Noah. Abraham is separated from the idolatrous Chaldeans, Isaac is separated as the sole heir of the covenant. Jacob, Judah, and Ephraim are separated by Divine interference with the right of eldest sons. The nation of Israel is separated from all nations to be the repository of God's revela- tion. The tribe of Levi is separated to special service in the Divine tabernacle. Saul is separated to be the first king. David is separated from the sheepfol<ls. Our Lord separates twelve from among hie disciples. Barnabas and Saul are separated unto the work of the ministry. Fixing our attention on the senses in which the Levites were separated from the coni;:regation, we may learn some of the ways in which we should regard ourselves now as " separated unto God." The Levites were not made a distinct class, dwelling together; they lived about among the people, and shared the common life. They worked for a part at least of their living; their families grew up around them; they joined in the local feast as well as in the yearly festival. Their pleasures and their daily interests were precisely those of the people about them. And yet they were God's by special call and consecration. Wheresoever they went the stamp of the Holy rested upon them. Their very presence tended to check sin, and to purify the social atmospheres, The distinctness of the Levites belonged to their character, spirit, and tone of conduct. And they were called to a particular service. '!'hey were to attend on the worship of the tabernacle, taking their orderly turns. They were selected by God for this one life-work, "to bear the vessels of the Lord." They were called to receive a trust, and called to manifest the spirit which was becoming to that "trust." Still we find separation unto God quite compatible with taking our place among our fellow-men, and entering heartily into everything that properly belongs to family and social and national life. The world in which we live is God's world. In it there is nothing unclean, save to him who makes a thing unclean. Work is holy; rest is holy; pleasure is holy; friendship is holy. The Christian and the Christian Church stand out from all the world, and are set "in the world's eye;" and yet it is equally true that the Christian and the Christian Church blend and mingle in every sphere of life. 'l'hey force no distinctions upon men's notice, and yet they are " separate" everywhere. Their distinction comes out of their first and ruling principles. The thought of God, the reference of all things to the will of God, and the effort to be in full harmony with the mind of God, are so essential to the Christian, and so characteristic of him, that he must bring the sense of God's presence into every life-association. And just in this lies his peculiarity and his mission. When a Jew looked upon a Levite in the midst of the people, he thought of Jehovah. When a Jew talked to a Levito, if he wa8 a true Levite, he would make tho man feel God's relation to the matter in hand. And so it is the Christian's mission to be an open "epistle of Christ." Levites failed from their duty, and from the joy of their duty, when they began to count their separation unto God a light thing. And this came about by their not putting their hearts into their work; by their nourishing jealousies and envyings; and by their failini to recognize how their work fitted into the great whole of God's service, Do we think it a small thing to have been separated unto God? Do we think unworthily of the talent com- mitted to our trust? Can it be a little thing to be God's priests and Levites in his great world, ministering his tr~h, his will, his love, to men? Can it be a little thing to be the " candlestick" that holds out the light of God's holiness and God's gospel to men? Here is one chief root of the Christian evils which we deplore-under-valuing our Christian atanding; under-estimating our Divine call, and the mission which is given us to fulfil. "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."-R. 'l'.
Ver. 3.-0onsecrated maturity. On the occasion of the" census," the tribe of Levi had not been taken. A special enumeration of them was now made, and the pattern of the Mosaic census was followed. Those at the age of thirty and above, but under fifty, alone were numbered. But the years from thirty to fifty represent and include a man's maturity; and, in the case of the Levites, this their maturity lay as a " li1'ing sacrifice" on the altar of God's service. It appears that our Lord began his ministry at the age of thirty. But " who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken." For probably at most three years of his maturity did he lie a I. CHRO~ICLES, 20 386 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [cH. xxm. 1-32.