TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY.-EVENING.

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you,

Ezek. xxxvi. 25.

THIS promise is addressed to the Jews, and contains an assurance of their final restoration to the favour and service of God, as is manifest from the context, Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God,' ver. 28. Then the heathen, that are left round about you, shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate; I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it,' ver. 36.

Viewed in this application, the promise is singularly rich and precious. For how great is the guilt of Israel! Yet shall it be removed. How deep their depravity! Yet shall it be healed. How inveterate their sinfulness! Yet shall it be overcome. They crucified the Lord of glory, and cried out, 'His blood be upon us, and upon our children;' for eighteen hundred years they have continued to 'trample under foot the blood of the Son of God;' and by an obstinate perseverance in iniquity they have done despite to the Spirit of his grace. Yet is there mercy in store for them. The blood which they shed shall be applied to them for cleansing. This is the clean water spoken of in the promise. It can, and will make even guilty Israel clean. 'There shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.'

What exalted views does such a promise give us of the redeeming power and love of God! It is, indeed, a satisfying evidence of the precious doctrine of the apostle Paul, 'Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.'

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towards them are illustrative of his dealings towards us. They are a living exemplification of the depth of the divine love, and the power of divine grace. Hence Christians are addressed, Ye are come to mount Zion, and the city of the living God' to all the promises and privileges of ancient Israel. The clean water of Calvary has healing virtue for the souls of men in all ages and countries. And the rich promise upon which we dwell may be pleaded wherever there is guilt to pardon, or impurity to cleanse, or ungodliness to change. The address is to sinners, ‘ye shall be clean.' And O how various and valuable the blessings which it contains.

It is a promise of pardon. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.' 'In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. There is no amount of crime beyond the reach of pardon. In this respect well might Jehovah say by the prophet, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.' He pardoned Saul of Tarsus and Mary Magdalene. There may be defilement which water cannot cleanse, but there is no guilt which the blood of Christ cannot remove.

It is a promise of purity. And hence is it accompanied with this explanation, 'A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.' The blood of Christ is the 'laver of regeneration,' in which the soul is washed, and in which, while its guilt is removed, its nature is changed. However hardened in sin before, it becomes tenderly alive to the claims of God and the obligations of his service. Its views, and dispositions, and purposes undergo a complete revolution. It may truly be said, 'If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.'

It is a promise of external holiness, as well as inward purity. For it is added, 'I will cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.' When sin is pardoned, it is not that it may be contracted afresh. On the contrary, a powerful motive arises hence to avoid it in future. A sense of pardoning mercy is a mighty sanctifying principle. And when the heart is renewed, this is the qualification for a godly life. Till then the inclination is wanted; but as soon as this is done, holiness becomes the delight of the soul. As Jesus is loved,

so is he imitated and obeyed. The more his work is considered, the more powerful its influence in determining to walk after his precepts. The very habit of the Christian is always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in his body.' He feels the force of the poet's sentiment—

'Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding Lamb!
The grand morality is love to thee.'

But let us not omit to notice that it is a promise upon which we have been meditating. A promise! Therefore we must come to God by prayer, and plead it with him. His language is, 'I will for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.' A promise! Therefore we must receive the blessing gratuitously. We cannot purchase it. While we dream of a price, we hinder our reception of it. We are to ask and receive. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to apply the blood of Christ to the conscience, and this is the exhortation of Jesus, 'If your fathers, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto their children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?'

TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY.-MORNING.

be 'holy, and just, and good.' Holy! distinguishing in every instance between right and wrong, good and evil. Just! determining the claims and duties of all intelligent creatures. And good! securing the best interests of all who obey it. Now to this law are all subject, at all times, and in all things. None can escape from its observation, or evade its requirements. Nor can it relax its demands, nor forego its obligations. Wherever sin is found, the law detects and condemns it. It is the guardian of Jehovah's character, while it is the expression of his will. Nothing, therefore, can it tolerate that is contrary to the nature and the will of God.

And how illustrative of both the nature and the law of God have all his dealings towards mankind been. His law was published with a solemn sanction, 'in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' And since it has been violated, the history of guilty man has been a record of 'weeping, and lamentation, and woe.' 'By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.

One sin involved a world in ruin. And as in this sinful world iniquity has abounded, so have the divine judgments been poured out. These have sometimes been general, as when the waters of the deluge swept away, in one awful destruction, the guilty inhabitants of the earth. At other times they have been more special, as when, provoked by special transgression, God destroyed the cities of the plain with fire and brimstone. And still are they manifest in the individual his

xxxiv. 7.

'By no means!' The phrase is intended to be a strong expression of that which is affirmed. But the expression is not stronger than the reality. God cannot-will not-on no account-by no means clear the guilty.'

His nature forbids it. They who know him must join with the prophet in saying, 'thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. How hateful sin is to a good man when he turns his eyes from the sight of it, loathing it in his very soul, and feeling towards it only hatred and disgust. But feeble are the emotions of the purest hearts when compared with the displeasure of a pure and holy God. "Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight; thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing; the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceit

ful man.'

The law of God forbids it. This law is correctly and beautifully described by the apostle Paul to

'be sure your sin will find you out,' and who have usually found, sooner or later, that verily there is a God who judgeth in the earth. To all which must be added the day of righteous retribution, when God will lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet, and detect, and expose, and punish the guilty.

Nor will the mercy of God extinguish the attribute of his justice. Let us particularly observe the connection in which we find the subject of our meditation. The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.' The highest expression of mercy is joined with the strongest assertion of justice. And these are obviously brought together for the sake of warning and instruction. Let us carefully weigh the truths which are thus presented for our consideration.

We learn that while God delighteth in mercy

Thus conspicuous was the hand of God in the whole scheme, originating, executing, and consummating it. O! how they misrepresent our views who think we make Jehovah a hard master, requiring to be pacified towards his sinful creatures by a sacrifice that should satisfy his justice. True, his holiness and truth required that an atonement should be made for sin, in order that it might be pardoned; but let us not forget that the atonement he required was by himself provided, that in the depth of his counsels, and the infinity of his love, he found the remedy, and proclaimed, 'Deliver from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom.' We find the origin of the scheme for man's deliverance in the doctrine of the psalmist, The Lord is full of compassion;' or in the same truth, more strongly expressed, by the apostle John, 'God is love."

2. But let us clearly understand what it was Jehovah did for sinners. He laid our iniquity upon him.' Words could not more clearly express the idea of substitution. In the most literal sense, our iniquity was laid upon Christ. This was required by the nature of the case, for sin must be punished in the nature in which it was committed; and as Christ took our nature to qualify him to stand in our place, he took also our sin that he might suffer in our room. In this doctrine alone do we find the meaning of the Mosaic ceremonies. To instance one out of many, let us remember the design of the scapegoat on the solemn anniversary of expiation, as described by the pen and authority of inspiration, ‘Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. Perhaps it would not be possible, in any other arrangement, more completely to exhibit the doctrine of substitution. Nor is it less manifest in the personal history of Christ himself. He was sinless; yet was there no sorrow like

ing sorrowful, even unto death;' language which could arise only from the pressure of suffering under sin. We may, and must acquiesce in the plain testimony of the apostle Paul, God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;' not a sin-offering merely, as some would have it, but sin, inasmuch as our sin was reckoned to be his, and he was treated as though it were his own. This is the plain doctrine of the scriptures; simple and satisfactory, the Son of God in our nature, taking our sin, bearing its punishment, and bearing it away to the land of forgetfulness. What a provision! Meeting all the necessities of the case, as respects the honour of God, the character of his law, and the safety of sinners.

3. And for whom did the Lord make such a provision? We are told, ‘He laid upon him the iniquity of us all. The expression is certainly designed to declare the infinite efficacy of the atonement. In the death of Christ there is merit enough to satisfy for the remission of sins unto millions of apostate worlds. Are we then to infer that all the iniquity of all men was literally laid upon Christ? This cannot be, else none would suffer for sin, for Christ's death has availed to atone for all the iniquity laid upon him. Are we taught, then, that only some iniquity of every sinner was laid upon him? This cannot be admitted, for then none would be saved, as against every one some iniquity would lie. We are shut up to one interpretation—the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of all whom he represented, of all whom the Father gave unto him, of all who should be united to him, of all who would believe upon him. And thus interpreted, this mode of expression is worthy of the Spirit by whom it is employed. It is so universal as to hold out a warrant to all who will, that they may come and trust in him. Yet is it so limited as to remind us, that except we believe in him we cannot be saved. Let us then consider ourselves addressed in the solemn, searching question of our Lord, to the blind man whom he had healed, 'Dost thou believe upon the Son of God?' And may we be enabled to reply, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.'