irertainly he is in a very different position from one who lets lust and pride lead him against truth and light. But the evil done in ignorance is evil none the less and men !1eed to be wakened up_ to consider ~ow much t~u~h and rifhteousness they are still ignorant of. The past 1s not done WI th because 1t 1s past. rhe future has its roots in the past, and this yearly remin<ler of sin among God's people of old should teach us to desire reminders of the sin of life, not merely at particular seasons, but as often as possible. II. Wm HAVE OUB REMINDERS Ol!' BIN. Bodily reminders in the shape of disease and weakness consequent on evil courses of life. Reminders in the feelings of the heart consequent on disappointment and failure from eel.fish courses of action. Especially the Christian, the devout Christian, bas his reminders at the Lord's Supper. Jesus himself spoke of this institution as an uvd.µ1111,m. It was to remind his people of Himself but this very reminding included many things beside. Jesus must be remembered 'with certain surroundings, and no sinner can remember him rightly without remembering his sins at the same time.-Y. Vers. 19-22.-Approaching God. I. WHY THE APPROACH IS TO BE MADE. There needed the statement of no reason here ; the necessity of approach is assumed. The great thing required was to substitute a new ground and a new mode of approach for a ground and a mode which had become nseless, nay, even harmful. The Israelite had always acknowledged that he must approach Deity in some way or other. If God bad not appointed a certain way of access in the Levitical ordinances, the Israelite would have taken bis own way. Indeed, it is lamentably plain that too much he did take his own way. He bad to be turned from the golden calf by the sharpest of chastisements, and many a .century elapsed before image-worship and debasing rites lost their hold upon him. Moses and the prophets, say all the representatives of Jehovah under the first covenant, had quite as hard work to tum away their fellow-countrymen from image-worship as the writer of this Epistle afterwards bad to turn them away from types to antitypes, from shadow to substance, and from a temporary discipline to itH abidicg result in the Christ. The approach to God may be looked at as either a need or a duty, and whichever aspect be considered, it is evident that a loving, foreseemg God will provide the way. He provides the right way to the right end. Let us try to imagine him leaving Israel to its own devices when it escaped from Egypt. The people would 8till have built altars, slain sacrifices, and appointed priests. What God does is to deliver the conscience from the tyranny of every idolatry and bring it under reason- able government and guidance. He frees human religious customs from cruelty, lust, superstition, and makes them typical aud instructive. And now we come to the means of a full approach to God in Christ, is it not plain that all this is to supply a corre- sponding need and give scope for a corresponding duty? Jesus tells us there is a true Vine; so there is a true altar, a true sacrifice, a true Priest. 'l'he image-worshipper, whose darkened heart is filled with falsehoods about the nature and the service of God, is yet faithful to what he thinks to be right. Shall we be less faithful, who have opportunities for such service and such blessing. II. THE GROUND OF .APPROACH. '!'he spirit of man has to find its entrance into tbe holy place, and has to give its reason for confidence in expecting admission-a reason which every man must apply to his own undeI'l!tandmg, so as to make his approach as practical, as persevering-, as possible. It is not expected of us, who have no experience of the details of Mosaic sacrificial institutions, to appreciate all the details here. We have not to be won away from sacrifices of beasts and dependence on an earthly priest. But, nevertheless, we must apprehend that the only ground of satisfactory approach to God id in Christ. There is no way to reach harmony with that great Being in whom is light and no darkness at all, and who cannot be tempted with evil, save through Christ. In Christ there is hope for the sinner, something to draw him, somethin~ to lift him above useless resolutions and vain struggles. Jesus Chiist is the Way. "You have come to Mount Zion," says the writer in eh. xii. To the real Zion, which is part of the city of the living God. Ilut we are brought there that we may be safely nnd permanently introduced into the true holy of holies, and into that communion with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which gives purity and blessedness. 111. 'l'mi: MOPI!. OJ' APPROACH, The whole man must be united in a true approach 292 THE EPISTLE TO 'l'HE HEBREWS. [CH, X, 1-39,
to God. It is now that we have to approach, and there can be no separation between the inward and the outward man. The heart must be right and the body must be right. Mere bodily approach could never have profited at any time, save to the extent that it freed the worshipper from the penalties of complete disobedience. But still bodily approach has its place. With the body we have to serve God; and cleanliness is °:ot only a wholesome and a comfortable thing-it is also sacred. People have some- times been exposed to ridicule by quoting the common saying, "Cleanliness is next to godliness," as being from the Scriptures. They are not so far wrong, for that is what this _rassage virtually says. Then with a true heart, and a vigorous, prosperous faith bearing us onwards, we shall make a real and secure progress towards possession of the mysteries of godliness.-Y.