Ver. 13.-The advent of the mw and the doom of the old. I. WE MUST LOOK AT THIii CHARACTER OF THE NEW. Mere novelty by itself counts for nothing. Ma.n's new things are too often brought in, not because they are needed, but frOJ;!l mere restlessness, love of change, and self-glorifica.tion. The right principle of change is necessity, super- sed)ng the old because it has done its work. That is the principle, we may be sure, on which God acts. 'l'hus we must not too readily assume that the introduction of the new is the doom of the old; that is, using the word " old" in the sense of long- established. New philosophies, new schemes of the universe, rise up threa.tening the long-established gospel; but in time the philosophies become old, unsa.tisfying, and vanish away, while the gospel remains, still welcome, still powerful. II. GoD'S WISDOM IN DOING THINGS AT THE RIGHT TIME. God's new things e.lways come in at the fulness of time. The first covenant had done its work, but those who upheld the forms of it were the last to see this. Nay, more; just in proportion as the inward reality vanished did they cling with tenadty to the outward form. If it had depended on the rulers of Jerusalem to say when the new covenant was needed, it would have been a long time in coming. Man by himself cannot be trusted to say when the season of decrepitude for any institution has come. God t.akes the laws of necessary change into his own hands, and makes it evident to those who have eyes to see that his new things have n~t come without necessity. The new state of things needs to be experienced as a reality, and then it approves itself as an improvement on the old ; it becomes plain that the old was not an end in itself, but only a stage toward the attainment of the new. Whatsoever new thing is true and manifestly serviceable must make its way; and it is well for its own sake that the way should be ma.de through difficulties and discouragements. They are wise who can see in time the difference between a mere novelty and a novelty that has conquest and resistless growth in it. 'T'hc bringing in of the new wine-skins is the doom of the old ones.-Y.
EXPOSITION. and the table, and the Bhewbread; which is CHAPTER IX. called the holy plaoe. And after the seoond The sphere of Christ's "more excellent veil, the tabemaole whioh is oa.lled the holy ot holies ; having a golden oemer, and the ministry," BS the "Mediator of a better a.rk of the oovenant overlaid with gold, covenant," having been shown to be else- wherein was a golden pot b.aving the mailD.11, where than in the earthly tabernacle, the and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables ministry itself is now contrasted with I.hat of the covenant ; and over it the ohernbim of the superseded priesthood. With this ot glory overshadowing the meroy-seat ; of whioh things we cannot now speak partiou- view the latter is described, and shown to larly. The tabernacle BS a whole is first express in itself its own insufficiency and to spoken of; and then its two divisions, called point to a more availing one to oome. respectively " the first " and "the second" Ver. L-Then verily (or, now indeed) the tabernacle. The a.ccount of them is from :lint covenant also ( or, even the first oo-oenant) the Pentateuch, and describes them as they had ordinances of divine servioe, and a originally were. 1n the then existing temple worldly sanctuary (rather its eanctuary _of there were neither ark, mercy-seat, nor cheru- thu world (-ro ii-ywv ICOC1fLEIC011). The definite bim, though the ceremonies were continued article points to the well-known one of the as though they had been still there. The Mosaic dispensation, which, unlike the true ark had been removed or destroyed in the one was in its bearings, a.a well as locally sack by the Chaldeans, and was never and materiallv, of tuis world only). This replaced (for the Jewish tradition on the sanctuary itself is now first described in subject, see 2 Mace. ii. 1-8). Josephus necel!Sa.ry preparation for an e.ccount of Bays(' Bell. Jud.,' v. 5. 5) that in the temple priestly ministrations in it. of his day there was nothing whatever Vera. 2-5.-For there was a tabern.aele behind the veil in the holy of holies ; and me.de; the first, whc,rtl.11 was the candlestick, Tacitus informs us (' Hist.,' v 9) tb.11.t, when OH, IX. 1-28.] 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 227