were;

and the Gospel teaches us that "every creature of God is good," and we are "to call nothing common or unclean." Even the touch of any of these animals, after they were dead, defiled; so that the person that touched them was obliged to wash his clothes, and be for a while unclean, and keep company with no one. And the very things which they touched must be washed as unclean; and if they were made of earthenware, they were to be broken. By these things they were taught to avoid everything that could pollute them. And this shows us, as in a glass or picture, how much God hates sin, which is to the soul much more defiling than these things could be to the body, and highly offensive to his holy nature.

WE

The Laws on the Leprosy.

LEVITICUS XIII., XIV.

E often read in Scripture about lepers. The leprosy is a very loathsome and destructive disease. These chapters describe the disease as it existed in men, in clothing, and in dwellings.

In men this disorder affects the skin, and produces white scurf and scabs, and corrupts the whole mass of blood. It is dangerous to touch a leper, for the disorder is very infectious. Travellers in the East have seen people afflicted with it; and they say that it defiles all the skin, and swells all the joints of the body, particularly the wrists and the ankles, so that the sufferer is a pitiable object. The poor who have this disorder beg with buckets to receive the alms; perhaps, because they will not touch the money, which people would then be afraid of taking.

The leper, under the law, was commanded to show himself to the priest; and Moses being divinely taught to point out the signs of a dangerous leprosy, gave proper directions for examining him. If the disorder was of a bad kind, the leper was to be separated from society; he was to tear his clothes, as the Jews did in extreme grief; he was to throw off his turban, and have his head bare; and to put a covering upon his upper lip, his jaws being tied up with a linen cloth, as the dead were bound up; and in addition to these marks, by which he might be known and avoided, he was to cry, "Unclean, unclean ;" and he was to dwell alone, and at a distance from the camp.

When a leper was cured, there were several ceremonies to be gone through, which are mentioned in the fourteenth chapter.

The leprosy in clothes seemed to have been something like moths in garments; and it is supposed that it was caused by a kind of insect getting into them.

The leprosy in houses certainly resembled what builders call the dry-rot, which now gets into houses, beginning at the foundation, and causing all the timbers soon to rot, even to the top, if not speedily cured. It is thought that a sort of worms produced this evil. In some cases this leprosy was very obstinate, and the house was in consequence entirely pulled down.

Now, you may wonder why there is so much about this leprosy mentioned here; but we have told you, that all things under the law were shadows or representations of spiritual things, or things relating to the soul, and which still exist. Do you know that you have got this dangerous leprosy? We will tell you what it is-Sin: for "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Sin defiles the soul before God, as the leprosy defiles the body. Sin is infectious, and one sinner destroys much good.

For this reason, perhaps, a bird was killed at the ceremony of the purification of the leper, to show that Christ died for our sins; and another bird was let loose, after being dipped in the blood of the slain bird, to show forth the resurrection of our Saviour, in consequence of having done away our guilt, by his death in our stead, who otherwise deserved death.

The leprous house may, in the same way, show us that, as there is sin in our mortal body, which is the house of the soul, and which sin exposes us to pain, decay, and death; so it is only by the pulling down of the body, or house, that we can entirely get rid of sin; and then, when the believer's body is turned to dust, God, who first made it, shall make it again, and change this vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto the glorious body of the Redeemer.

The Scape-Goat.

LEVITICUS XVI.

THE grand subject of the sixteenth chapter, to which your attention is

called, is the great day of atonement, on which the SCAPE-GOAT was made to bear the sins of the people. The numerous other sacrifices were for particular persons, and on occasions which respected objects of a moré limited nature, but on this occasion an atonement was made for the whole Israelitish nation: this happened once a year: the whole service of the day was performed by the high priest, who was to be dressed, not in his

splendid robes, but in an humble dress of linen: he was to bring, first, a sin-offering and a burnt-offering for himself; to offer first his sin-offering, and then to go within the veil with some of the blood of his sin-offering, burn incense, and sprinkle the blood before the mercy-seat. Two goats were to be provided for the people; lots were then to be cast, to know which goat to offer: this was done by putting two pieces of wood, stone, or metal, into a pot, on one of which was written, "for the scape-goat:" the

goats then stood on the priest's right and left hand, and as he took out the papers with both hands, the one to whose lot that name fell was to be set free. The one goat was then slain as a sin-offering for the people; and the blood of it, and of the other sin-offering, was sprinkled upon the altar. The other was to be the SCAPE-GOAT, or the goat which was allowed to escape: the high priest laid his hands on his head, and then confessed the sins of Israel; and he was to bear away these sins into the wilderness, to which he was led and allowed to go free. Burnt-offerings and sinofferings were then added: altar, and the flesh without the camp. The people rested from labor on that day, and they mourned their sins. This was the practice on the day of atonement.

the fat of the sin-offering was burnt on the

You will wonder how the SCAPE-GOAT could bear away the sins of the people; but you must understand that this scape-goat was to typify or exhibit, as in a picture, the great Saviour of sinners, JESUS CHRIST, of whom the sacrifices were constant representations. We are pardoned through the death of Christ, who "died for our sins," if we believe on him; and we