PEACE OFFERING. PASSOVER. 313 of a sweet savour," and "food," and "bread." Thus God rejoices over His people to do them good. And doth not Jesus, the Priest, get His portion too? Certainly, He "sees of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied." And the believer gets his share, for the sacrifice satisfies his conscience, and he feasts upon Him who giveth His flesh for the life of the world. It is indeed a PEACE OFFERING, for God and His people feast together in token of reconciliation, But perhaps the most remarkable of all the Jewish OFFERINGS, and which, more plainly than any, shadowed beforehand Christ Crucified, was the PASSOVER. Ex. xii. 11. The story of the plagues of Egypt, and of the institution of this feast which is still observed by Jewish families, is very interesting. But we must not dwell at length on it now. You can read it in your Bibles. After many punishments against which Pharaoh hardened his heart, God threatened to pass through the land and smite all the first-born. But He promised that He would pass over the dwellings of His people, leaving their firstborn unharmed. But only on this condition. They were to kill a lamb in every house, between three o'clock and six, and sprinkle its blood upon the posts of the door; afterwards, they were to roast it and eat it, and by no means to venture out of doors. And God said, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." And they did as they were commanded; and at midnight, as they stood silent and awe-struck, there rose upon their ears a loud and bitter wailing. The destroying angel had fulfilled his dread commission, and death was in every Egyptian house. But God was true to His promise. The Destroyer passed over every house where was the blood-red signal. Not a Hebrew died that night who had observed God's directions. And these were minute and significant. The lamb was to be without blemish. You know what that means. It was to be killed and roasted with fire. So we read 1 Cor. v. 7, "Christ our PASSOVER is sacrificed for us." Then, not a bone was to be broken. This was also prophetical of the Lamb of God, and, by a special providence, His sacred Body was preserved from fracture "that the scripture might be fulfilled." John xix. 36. The blood was to be sprinkled upon the door-post, which teaches us that nothing stands between us and God's judgments but the blood of Christ. It was not enough to have the slain lamb in the house; the blood must be upon the door. So no compliance can save us, unless the blood of Christ be appropriated to ourselves by a real faith. And as no Israelite died where the red sign was, so, whoso believeth shall not perish. Again, they ate their sacrifice, and were strengthened for their journey. And Christ is given to be fed upon. "Our PASSOVER is slain for us, therefore let us keep the Feast." They were to eat it with unleavened bread. The apostle explains this, "of sincerity and truth," instead of the "old leaven of malice and wickedness." Once more, it was to be eaten with bitter herbs. I know not whether this refers to repentance, or whether it has some deeper meaning. We all know that, often, bitter medicines are administered to provoke appetite. And, just so, without conviction and repentance there will be no relish for the Gospel, no appetite for Christ, nor disposition to receive Him at all. A German emigrant in America went out to hunt one Sunday, and had a bad fall from a high tree. The branch on which he rested broke, and down he went. In that moment, while falling, he prayed for the first time in his life. "Lord, have mercy!" he gasped, and straightway caught hold of another branch below, and was thus saved from a dreadful death. But his conscience was alarmed. "What, if de limb dat I caught mit my hands, had broke!" said he to a minister. "Oh, I had such ugly thoughts-such a load here in my breast. I got de Bible and said, Now I will see what I must do to have de load taken away. I open de Bible. O it make me feel so bad. It said, de wicked are turned into hell, and I was wicked. I thought I would die. I eats little, I sleeps little. I get so thin as a skeleton. I keep in dis way a good while; one day I get de Bible, and read, and read, and dare I see Jesus standing between me and my sins! My load den was gone. O, I was so happy-just so happy as miserable before. I could jump mit joy so high as de fence. I go and tell my bruders dat I found Jesus, dat He had taken away my sins,-but dey take me to be crazy! Dey had never seen dare sins nor Jesus in de Bible." Here is the secret of delight in Jesus Christ. The bitter herb of conviction of sin prepares the heart to receive the gospel with joy. May the Holy Spirit awaken your conscience and convince you of sin. Then will Christ be to your soul what MANNA was to the hungry wanderers in the desert, and what the PASSOVER was to those who were delivered by it from bondage and death. "While still absorbed in things of earth, Nor heeds the heavenly call; But when the Spirit shines within, And Christ is All in all," POLISHED SHAFT. Thirty-sixth Sunday. POWER OF GOD. PRINCE OF PEACE. PRINCE AND SAVIOUR. PEACE. PRINCE OF PRINCES. PLACE OF BROAD RIVERS AND STREAMS. WE shall make use of the Symbols on our list to-day, principally, to illustrate the sinner's translation out of darkness into the kingdom of God's Dear Son. You know an unconverted person is in the Bible spoken of as "dead,”-not literally, but spiritually. He seeks his happiness in self and sin, and, being alienated from God, is quite cut off from the true source of life. This melancholy condition is the opposite of that intended in the expressive phrase of the Apostle, "alive unto God." This poor soul is dead unto God. Alas! the inward eye sees not the worth of Christ, and therefore there is no movement of the affections towards Him. The inward ear hears not His loving words, and so there is no response in the heart to His awakening call. It is as though there were no speech nor language addressed to it. There is a thrilling story brought from the Arctic Seas, which, though oft repeated, never loses its impressiveness, because of the weird-like interest which gathers around it. Fifty years ago and more, some mariners sailing amongst the icebergs discovered a ship fast locked amidst the encircling ice. They hailed the strange-looking craft but there was no response. With great effort they succeeded in boarding her, and on entering the cabin were petrified at the strange scene that presented itself. At a table in the centre sat one who seemed to be the captain, the pen still grasped between his fingers; while, open before him, lay the log book, as though he had just been making notes of some passing event. The startled visitors looked at him, half suspecting he would speak, so life-like was his aspect. They saluted him but there was no response. And round the cabin, sitting or reclining on the lockers, or lying on the floor, were the crew, attired in their usual dress and presenting a similar appearance of life. Half affrighted at the spectacle, some of them shouted; but none heard, none moved hand or foot. While the glassy stare of their eyes, and their inflexible posture, soon convinced the most incredulous among them that they were gazing upon inanimate corpses. They had been in this state for years, and were thus strangely preserved by the frost which had arrested and congealed the vital stream in their veins. For aught we know, that ship, with its ghastly freight, is drifting about to this day, amidst inaccessible hummocks of ice far beyond human ken; the hapless crew dead, notwithstanding the attitude and appearance of life;-just as we find whole communities of souls dead towards God, notwithstanding forms of godliness and attitudes of devotion. How is this state of things to be altered? Ask some and they would say, "Startle them into life by signs from heaven. Send an angel to arouse them, or one raised from the grave." Thus the Jews require a sign. Alas! that would be like galvanizing a dead body. The muscles might move, the dead man might sit upright, but he would be a dead man still. Ask another, and he might say, "Convince him by argument, allure him by persuasion, set before him his own interest, and the claims of religion." Thus the Greeks seek after wisdom. But what saith the Scriptures? Go, tell him the story of Christ Crucified. This, (not the mere story, but the Christ in the story,) is the it. POLISHED SHAFT in God's Quiver, (Isa. xlix. 2,) which, faithfully presented, is the proper instrument for conviction and awakening. It is God's own ordinance for this end. And it will be effectual whenever the demonstration of the Spirit accompanies "Of what use," might Ezekiel have said, "is it for me to prophesy to dead men's bones? How can that wake them up?" It could not wake them up. It was the power of God accompanying His own means that was to do that. "What good will seven plunges into the waters of the Jordan be to a leper?" asked Naaman. None at all, ordinarily. But it was God's plan in this instance, and so, when tried, it was effectual. On the inhospitable shores of Greenland, devoted missionaries long laboured without success to teach the savages the first elements of religion. One day, when the missionary sat in his hut, translating a portion of John's Gospel, who should come in but the chief, Kajarnak, accompanied by a party of men as wild as himself. Seeing a pen in the missionary's hand, he said, "What are you doing? Writing," said the missionary. "Writing ?-what is writing?" said the other. The good man explained what writing was; and then said, if he would sit down he would read to him what he had been writing. Kajarnak listened while the account of Christ's sufferings was read to him,-the agony, the scourging, the mocking, and the crucifixion ;-and as the reader went on, the listener became deeply interested. At last he asked, "And why did they treat Him so? What had the Man done?" "Oh," said the missionary, "this Man did nothing amiss, but Kajarnak did. Kajarnak murdered his wife; Kajarnak filled the land with his wickedness, and deserved to go to hell. And this Man suffered in order to bear Kajarnak's punishment, that Kajarnak might not go to hell." And then he explained the gospel plan, and told him all about God's love and Christ's work for sinners, till big tears were seen to roll down POWER OF GOD. PRINCE AND SAVIOUR. 317 Kajarnak's cheeks, and, unable to restrain his feelings any longer, he rose from his feet, threw himself into the missionary's arms, and cried, "Oh, tell it me again,-tell it me all over again, for I too would like to be saved!" The missionary told it him all over again. God blessed the words; he became a changed man, and was afterwards a useful preacher to his countrymen. Notwithstanding, then, that "Christ Crucified" is "to the Greeks foolishness, and to the Jews a stumbling-block," the Apostle glories in Him as the "POWER OF GOD,"-the POWER OF GOD unto Salvation. 1 Cor. i. 24. A mighty Power there is in the story of Christ Crucified. The three thousand who were received into the church on the day of Pentecost, and the two thousand who followed them within a day or two, were trophies of this power. Peter did but preach to them the Christ Whom they had killed, and this Christ was the POLISHED SHAFT by which conviction was aroused, and their enmity slain; the Weapon, "mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds" of unbelief. And not only that. The convinced sinner sees that there is, in this Christ, exact adaptation to all he wants. "The Power of God!" he cries. Why, power is just what I want. I feel that there is a dreadful power in sin to hold me fast, a terrible power in evil habits to enslave me still, a formidable power in Satan to withstand all my struggles in the right direction. And I require a Power on my side, a supernatural Power, a Power greater than all the power that is against me." 66 Well, this very POWER is Christ Himself. No less an influence must be at work within you. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" Then may ye who are accustomed to do evil, learn to do well. It is not mere doing good, but being good, that is required. Selfish and debased, there must be a holy nature imparted. Dead in trespasses, what is wanted is "newness of life." At enmity with God, you require a "right spirit." You cannot otherwise do what is right before God. But then the new life, the right spirit, the holy nature, cannot continue to act or even exist a day without Christ. The Living Christ is the POWER that must actuate you from first to last. It cannot be too plainly asserted, nor too deeply pondered, that real religion is and must be a supernatural thing. It is Christ in the soul, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith. Nothing less than this is the POWER of God unto salvation.— Then there is another Title under this head, a most grand and imposing Title :-"He is exalted at God's right hand a PRINCE AND SAVIOUR, to give repentance and remission of sins." PRINCE AND SAVIOUR. Acts. v. 31. Is the sinner distressed with the remembrance of his sins? This SAVIOUR PRINCE "hath power on earth to forgive sins." But observe, He never forgives without repentance. What is repentance? "Sorrow for sin," says |