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Lord's Supper, "a man is as his brother." How, then, dare the Romish celebrant assume the sole right of participating or where is the warrant for "priestly" superiority in the "household of faith"?

V. 12.--Offer it for a thanksgiving. These "peace offerings" are of three kinds-thank offerings (vv. 12-15), votive offerings (v. 16), and voluntary offerings (vv. 16-18). [Comp. on chap. iii.]

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V. 18.-Neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it. The offerer was expected to see that the entire votive or voluntary offering was "eaten the same day" as it was offered; a regulation this which compelled him to hospitality, to invite together a sufficient number of neighbours or poor persons to the festal board. And if through inattention to this duty of considerate and generous hospitality any part remained uneaten that "same day," it must be completely consumed "on the morrow," or the offerer was liable to a serious risk-the part not consumed might fall into some person's hands after the limited time; and then the efficacy of the sacrifice would be entirely disannulled and the offerer must bring another votive offering and go through the regulations of lavish hospitality again, but with more promptitude and pre cision. A Christian must "not live to himself"; his care for others must be generous; he must be hospitable to the needy; and in his enjoyment of sacred privileges he must bring in others to share with himself the "feast of fat things," or his own selfish religious life becomes an abomination." V. 20.-Having his uncleanness upon him. The penalty of legal defilement was excision from the Lord's people. "Ye are a holy nation." Such was Jehovah's reiterated declaration; and every infringement of ceremonial sanctity was immediately stamped with disapprobation and disfranchisement. Shall not the Church of Christ be equally guarded from the presence of the unclean? Wherefore "let a man examine himself," and let those charged with the care of the Church preserve her fellowship from contamination by "trying the spirits." As for ourselves, this is the injunction for us to heed: "Wherefore come out from among them, be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing." Vv. 22-27.-Ye shall eat no manner of fat. . no manner of blood. [Comp. on chap. iii. 17]. That which was the Lord's man must not appropriate. What shall I render unto the Lord?" Our aim should be rather to exceed His specified requirements by offering something beyond, "some very precious alabastron, some free-will sacrifice of love "for the great love wherewith He bas loved us."

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V. 30.—His own hand shall bring the offerings of the Lord. Divine service could not be done by proxy. Just as at the judgment "every one shall give account of himself to God," so in now seeking appeasement and acceptance every soul must come to the Lord on his own behalf. "The Master calleth for thee."

V. 34. The wave breast and the heave shoulder. The spectacular movements of parts of the sacrificial victim before the altar intimated their consecration to Jehovah, and their performance was justified by the necessity of impressing on the people the supreme claims of God upon them when they brought their offerings. It was an uplifting of the sacrifice to Him who dwelt between the cherubim; a recognition of His unseen presence, a response to His solemn demands. A vivid realization of God within the sanctuary would constrain to more reverence in our offerings and actions. "Who hath required this at your hands to tread My courts?" (Isa. i. 12).

V. 37. This is the law of the burnt offering, etc. An enumeration of the various kinds of sacrifices, which carries the suggestion that Jehovah could omit no one from the list, that all were essential to His continued favour towards and fellowship with man, that the religious life could not be thorough if one were withheld-self-consecration, fellowship, atonement, reconciliation, peace.

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SECTIONAL HOMILIES.

Topic: INVARIABLE LAWS REGULATING SACRIFICIAL WORSHip (Vv. 1-10).

With minute precision God reiterates His requirements in sacrificial worship. Thus emphasizing the conditions of man's propitiation, and his acceptance with Him. "There is one law for them" (v. 7). Though some diversity existed in the details, e.g., as to the disposal of the blood of the victim by the priest [comp. ch. iv. 6, 7, with v. 2], and the sharing of the different parts of the animal; yet amid all diversity in details, an invariable law ruled in the arrangements, and this God again emphasizes. What was that invariable law? In chap. vi. 27, etc., the stress of Divine injunctions is laid on the quality of the sanctity distinguishing the sin offering and here it is reaffirmed (vii. 1) "it is most holy," and (v. 6) "it shall be eaten in the holy place, it is most holy." Ponder that inflexible requirement and consider that there are still inevitable laws and fixed conditions of acceptable approach to God.

I. METHODS OF WORSHIP MAY VARY, BUT HOLINESS IS INEVITABLE IN ALL.

1. Moral qualities are essentially more valuable than outward rituals.

2. Modes of approaching God, though important, fail to win Divine favour, if the inmost state is alien to His will.

3. Sanctity is the most precious quality in man. Not grandeur, not punctiliousness, but holiness.

4. This holiness indicates not so much moral faultlessness and absolute perfectness in the offerer, as sincerity, humility, "a right spirit," a reverence of God, and a trustfulness in His grace. [See Addenda, p. 100, True Worship.]

II. All propitiatory acts are secondary to THE SUPREME FACT-DEATH FOR SIN. 1. First in order of time: the offering was to be slain (v. 2). After that was done, then began the ritual. Any attempt to draw near God until the atonement death is a realised fact is an intrusion, an anachronism.

2. First in order of consequence: the worshipper must substitute a victim's life. Or he himself must die! Shielded from death by substitution, he may then seek God by propitiatory ritual or reconciliatory worship.

3. Calvary was thus the consummation of all types: Death for sin making possible man's approach to God.

III. Offerings to God must always be THE CHOICEST IN OUR POWER TO PRESENT. 1. Vast variety was allowed and ordained in the sacrificial offerings. God permits and approves our various gifts; every oue bringing his distinctive offering; every life presenting its special and peculiar quality. Considerable freedom in choice is granted.

2. Yet the invariable law rules-God must have the finest, the very best. The vital parts, the choicest of the inwards of the victim were claimed for Him (vv. 3-5).

3. Each worshipper has to bring something of peculiar preciousness to God, something additional to atonement. Yes; beyond Christ's death, God asks the very choicest qualities of the life of all who seek Him. [See Addenda, p. 100, Offerings for God.]

IV. ABSOLUTE CONSECRATION MARKED WHATEVER WAS PRESENTED TO THE
LORD. "It is most holy."

1. There might be no taking back that which had been offered. Think on
Ananias and Sapphira.

2. No one might share that which "pertained unto the Lord." [Comp. v. 20.] Hence: once dedicated to the Lord we are His absolutely and always. And whatever is dedicated to the Lord nore may partake with Him-it is is only.

Topic: THE SACRIFICE OF PEACE OFFERING (Vv. 11-18).

"And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the Lord," etc.

In the ritual of the Hebrews there were three great classes of offerings: the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the peace offering. The meat and drink offerings were secondary, and usually were offered in connection with other sacrifices.

The burnt offering and the peace offering were known before the giving of the law. The sin offering was instituted in connection with the law, as made necessary by it.

The law of the peace offering is given last in publication of the sacrificial arrangements, as if to declare that it naturally follows the others as a sacrifice of completeness (as expressive of restored fellowship between God and man); aud also that every view of Christ is gathered into it.

I. The peace offering is a SACRIFICE OF THANKSGIVING.

Three forms of it are specified :

(1) The offering of thanksgiving, i.e., for some special blessing.

(2) The vow, the fulfilment of a promise to God.

(3) The voluntary offering made from a principle of gratitude, when, with no special occasion, the worshipper called upon his soul and all within him to bless and praise God's holy name.

It was a peace offering, a national thanksgiving, which Solomon made at the dedication of the temple. It is this sacrifice so frequently referred to in the Psalms.

In connection with the Passover celebration there were two peace offerings: the former of these is continued in the Pascal supper, which is a sacrifice of peace offering, a feast of thanksgiving for God's greatest gift to men, a service by the Church to be joyously observed. At the sacramental table we should (1) thank God for all special exhibition of Divine goodness; (2) should joyfully fulfil our promises to Him, those sacred covenants into which, in trial or difficulty, we have entered with Him; (3) should make our voluntary offerings, in view of the constant mercies of God, the daily and hourly grace; not the freshet water in the stream of Divine providence, but the constant flow from the inexhaustible upper springs." How well do these befit all our approaches to God, how well, of all places, do they befit the sacrifice of the Communion!

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II. The peace offering is a SACRIFICE OF FELLOWSHIP.

This idea lies at its centre. The peculiar feature of it was the sacrificial meal; the priests shared in what was offered; the offerer also partook; the offering was presented to God, and part thereof consumed, as if by llim, upon His altar.

1. It was an act of communion with God. He gives us back a portion from the altar. Christ is our sacrifice. At the Communion we partake of the Paschal Lamb. God gives us His flesh to eat, His blood to drink. When we came home as returning prodigals the Father set the table for us, and sat down with us: "Let us eat and be merry," He said. At the Communion Christ says, “Let us eat :

let us drink." He sits at the table with us.

2. So also the sacred meal was an act of mutual communion. It was a social meal the priest, the worshipper, his family, and other friends shared with him. So was it in the peace offering of the Passover; so in Solomon's great feast of dedication; so it is at the Communion table. We partake of Christ together. Holy fellowship, of loftiest, tenderest experience.

What a beautiful relation of Christian to fellow Christian is here exhibited. How the fact of our having sat at Christ's table together, partaken of the Lamb

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CHAP. VII. 11-18.]

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THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS.

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of God, commits us to purest brotherly love, most free from all self-seeking, alienation, suspicion, bitterness; charges us, "Ye are members one of another." How much is meant when we are exhorted to "be at peace among yourselves." It is to be in fellowship in the sacrament, in offering together our offering of peace, partaking together our joyous supper at which the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost unite with us. Is true communion anything less than this?

III. The basis of communion in the peace offering is SACRIFICE: and, in the sacrifice, THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD,

The shedding of blood in this particular sacrifice does not represent, as in the sin offering, the act of atoning for sin. 1. The bleeding Christ, as our Peace Offering, is not our Sin Bearer. But His blood in this offering also declares that an atonement has been made, and that the sole ground of fellowship with God is in the reconciling blood of the Lamb. "But now in Christ Jesus," etc. (Eph. ii.

13, 14).

2. We follow our sin offering with the peace offering of the sacrament, and we constantly renew our sacrament to express our joy in redemption, and our recognition of the sole ground of it, the blood of the Redeemer. The sacrament

is only an act of communion with him whose sins have been washed away in the "fountain filled with blood." We must make our peace offering on the basis of a previous sin offering of atonement for our soul.

3. Communion with God is impossible, on any natural basis, without the blood of Christ. You speak of enjoying communion with God and with good people; is it in the blood of the Son of God? Certain tribes in Africa have a custom which they call blood-brotherhood, the most sacred of all relationships. By the mutual transference from the veins of each to the other of their blood, two become in the most binding and inevitable manner brothers. Ours is a blood-brother. hood, fellow Christians; only with us the seal of the covenant is the blood of Christ.

IV. The peace offering REQUIRES HOLINESS IN THE WORSHIPPER.

This fact is expressed in the provision that "unleavened bread" should be offered as a part of the sacrifice. Yeast or leaven was a symbol of corruption. The absence of leaven suggested the absence, therefore the removal, of sin.

If in your heart there is a preference for sin let it concern you. Ask yourself, how can this be, if you are a new man. [See Addenda, p. 100, True Worship.] V. In the peace offering THE SINFULNESS OF A NATURE PARTIALLY SANCTIFIED is confessed.

With the offering of unleavened bread one of leavened bread was also to be made. This was not a part of the sacrifice, but a meat offering accompanying the sacrifice. It is particularly stated that the bread was leavened; i.e., the principle of corruption was within, and working in it. Since our conversion we are not sinners as before; cannot make God an absolutely holy offering.

Some claim that they have no sin. They are deceived. no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." with pangs of conscience ever keener:

"Break off the yoke of inbred sin

And fully set my spirit free."

but sin is in us. We

"If we say we have We need cry to God

VI. In the peace offering THE WORSHIPPER WAS TO KEEP NEAR THE SACRIFICE. 1. This is suggested in the regulation that the offering was to be " eaten the same day." If the offerer had been allowed to keep the offering over day after day he would be tempted to make his communion meal off unwholesome meat, less than the freshest and best. Do not let the sacrifice be abandoned, allowed to suffer neglect. Keep near God. Renew your sacrifice daily.

Think

2. We tend to make religion consist of other elements to the exclusion of sacrifices. We conceal from ourselves, in attention to externals, that the life of religion is devotion, and that the life of devotion is the element of sacrifice. The early Church kept near the Sacrifice. They communed daily. The freshest offering is best. The near place is the place of fellowship; keep near Christ. 3. The suggestions of the peace offering are most practical for any one who seeks to live close to God.

(a) It is the complete offering: expressing the idea of the burnt offering, entire consecration; of the sin and trespass offerings, atonement for sin; and it expresses its own characteristic idea, the joyous communion of the soul with God and all saints.

(b) It suggests all the possible relations of Christ to the soul which sacrifice can embody. Keep we Christ ever before us in all His offices.

(c) Daily we should remember that the condition of daily communion is a daily offering.

Whosoever so approaches God, Christ is his peace.

However far away sometime, daily he is now brought nigh by the blood of Christ, daily he finds the middle wall of partition broken down, and the way into the holiest place opened. -Rev. Geo. R. Leavitt. [Compare Homilies on the Peace Offering, pp. 30:37 infra.]

Topic: THE BELIEVER'S PEACE AND PORTION (Vv. 29-31).

(1) There is nothing that men more require in their natural and restless condition than peace, a composed and assured state of mind. The need is, however, to be met; the amplest provision has been made for its being met; and we have only to appropriate to enjoy it. (2) Yet there are but few who avail themselves of the provision. Instead of being restful, men are disquieted; dissatisfied instead of contented; apprehensive instead of assured. A broad gulf separates them from the Centre of their being, and from all that is serene and satisfying.

I. TO HAVE GOD IS TO HAVE PEACE: for He is the God of peace; especially as revealed and given us in Christ. But what is given may be enjoyed, as what is offered may be received. Then let the gift be accepted, and the peace you desire will "keep your heart and mind," and this in all circumstances. The winds of adversity may smite you, and the waters of affliction overwhelm you; but as God is greater than these, He keeps in the perfectness of peace the minds that are stayed upon Him.

II. Such peace is FOUND IN CHRIST ALONE; not in anything done by Him, or given by Him, but in His personal indwelling. The apostle's declaration is, that "He is our peace" (Ephes. ii. 14). [See Addenda, p. 100, Sacred Peace.]

The knowledge of Him will illuminate, and the faith of Him will impart security; but you must have Himself to have the portion that will satisfy, and the peace you need.

III. But not only is Christ our peace, but from being the ATONER, our peace OFFERING, He gives Himself to God an offering and a sweet smelling savour, and then to us who trust in Him for deliverance and satisfaction.

The ancient Jewish sacrifice of the peace offering illustrates this. (1) The material of which it consisted was either a bullock, heifer, lamb, or goat; but in all cases it was to be "without blemish." God is entitled to the best, and will receive nothing less. Yet how often is less than what He asks offered Him! That they who so act by Him should have few answers to their prayers, and little satisfaction in their religion, can be wondered at by no one.

(2) Peace offerings were offered by persons who, having obtained forgiveness of sins, and given themselves to God, were at peace with Him. Friendship with God was the principal idea represented therein.

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