and illustrated the objects of their faith, at the same time materialised and localised them. Previously to that time, there was nothing more sacred than the saints themselves, and no spot of ground that was not for the time being. consecrated by their devotions. But when God, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, came in very deed to dwell upon the earth, as the Shekinah over the mercy seat, all was changed. The golden palace in which He dwelt, and where He manifested His presence between the Cherubim, received and gave a consecration to all around it compared with which the saints themselves were common and unclean.

It was the necessary consequence of this visible manifestation of Deity that a higher sanctity should pertain to the material palace and throne of the great King. The etiquette of His court and the reverence that was due to His Person, required not only that the objects that were set apart for His service, but the men that were permitted to stand in His presence, and through whom alone His subjects might approach him, should have a consecration higher than that of other men. Sacrificial worship, which before was free to all, and might be celebrated wherever there was a worshipper, not only under the Abrahamic but under the Edenic covenant, was restricted to the tabernacle and temple service; and the blood thenceforth could be sprinkled only by consecrated men. It might almost be said that the Levitical system consisted in the consecration of certain persons, certain places, certain things, certain times, and certain actions, in order to represent or illustrate the Person and the work of the Redeemer.

Under the temple system, therefore, the sinner dared not come into God's immediate presence, even with the shedding of blood, except by means of a priest and

mediator. Neither could his prayers be offered in the temple without the incense being offered at the same time at the golden altar. Until the death of Christ there was no access to a holy God under the Levitical system even for His own people without both a priest and a sacrifice. Again, the high priest as a type of Christ might alone enter within the veil, and that only once a-year, and not without blood. This was sacerdotalism in its highest and most perfect form, and being an ordinance of God, it was both lawful and appropriate.

But when the fulness of time was come, and when Christ Himself appeared to put away sin, by being Himself both the priest and the sacrifice, the shadows were no longer necessary or even useful, and were therefore withdrawn. Had they been allowed to continue, they would have only distracted the attention of the worshippers, and withdrawn their eyes from the great High Priest Himself and His great atonement, which were thenceforth to be the only objects of their faith. Instead of being burdened with the outward and bodily services of a material sanctuary, the Christian was set free to worship God in spirit and in truth, unencumbered with ritualistic forms, and to devote all the energies of his mind and body to the great work of the world's recovery to its allegiance to God.

The Levitical system having been thus fulfilled and set aside, the Abrahamic covenant alone remained in all its simplicity and spirituality. There were thenceforth no men more sacred than the saints; there were thenceforth no more sacred places where men must worship the Father; there were thenceforth no more sacred things or times or actions, any more than in the days of Abraham. These were the weak and beggarly elements of a carnal dispensation, which, having served its purpose, was done away.

The shadows were past and the true light shone, which was Jesus, the Mediator of a better covenant.

During the whole time of our Lord's ministry on earth, the kingdom of heaven was only "at hand," but did not appear until the day of Pentecost, which ushered in the new dispensation. The birth and even the death and resurrection of Christ made no change in the administration of the Church, which still remained under the Levitical law. Our Lord came for a twofold purpose. He came as the Fulfiller of one dispensation, and the Originator of another and a better. He came to fulfil and put an end to the Levitical system by ascending to the upper sanctuary, and, as our great High Priest, presenting to the Majesty on high the blood that was shed on Calvary. As His reward He received the Holy Ghost from the Father, and shed it down upon His Church to endue it with evangelistic power.

But, although the Levitical system was de jure abolished, de facto it was allowed to continue until the temple was destroyed; and then, as the temple was the only place where sacrifices could be offered, the Levitical system entirely disappeared. Even the Jews themselves to this day acknowledge that it cannot be revived, except by a new revelation from heaven.

Between the day of Pentecost and the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jewish Christians were under a twofold system of ordinances. Our Lord, in kind consideration of Jewish prejudices, did not suddenly put an end to the Levitical worship, although the Gentiles were exempted from its observance. It was a state of transition, preparatory to the final extinction of the Mosaic system. The Jewish Christian continued to be a Jew, attending the feasts, circumcising his children, and otherwise conforming to the weak and beggarly elements of the old dispensation.

The benevolent character of that arrangement is shown. by the fervency with which they clung to the law, even when they knew that it was dethroned and divested of its power. Paul himself became a Jew to the Jews, that he might gain the Jews. He circumcised Timothy because his mother was a Jewess, although he sternly refused to allow Titus to be circumcised, because both of his parents were Gentiles. Although he rebuked Peter for withdrawing from his Gentile brethren, which was not required by the law of Moses, he considered himself free to conform to the Jewish ritual whenever it was expedient for him to do He shore his head at Cenchrea in fulfilment of a vow, and was at charges with four of his Jewish brethren, when they purified themselves by offering the sacrifices that were to terminate their Nazarite obligations.

SO.

At the destruction of Jerusalem the last vestige of the Levitical system disappeared, but it was far otherwise with the synagogue; because, not being a part of the Levitical system, it was independent of either the temple or the priesthood, so that when they disappeared it was unaffected by the change. It belonged to the Abrahamic and not to the Mosaic type, being spiritual and social, not typical and ritualistic; and, as the Christian dispensation is the continuation of the Abrahamic, so is the Christian worship the continuation of the synagogue.

CHAPTER III.

THE SYNAGOGUE THE GERM AND MODEL OF THE

N°

CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

one can read attentively the Acts of the Apostles without observing with interest, if not with surprise, how little change took place in the religious habits of the early Christians. In the first place we must keep in mind that for at least ten years the Christian Church consisted exclusively of Jews. Not a single Gentile was admitted by baptism without himself and his children being circumcised, and thus becoming bound to keep the whole ceremonial law. We must also keep in mind that until the death of Stephen, the followers of Christ were in favour with all the people; and although the rulers were mad against them, and were afraid that they would bring the blood of the murdered prophet to their charge, they dared not use any violence against them lest they should be stoned.

Conybeare and Howson suggest that as there are in Jerusalem a synagogue of the Cilicians, and a synagogue of the Alexandrians, so there might also be a synagogue of the Nazarenes. These gentlemen entirely misunderstood the relations which subsisted between the believing Jews and the rest of the population in Jerusalem at that time. Although one of the peculiarities of the Christians was that they had meetings among themselves, the disciples of Jesus, at that time, and long after, were no