three important respects in which the blood of sprinkling speaks better things than Abel's.

First, Abel's offering was made for his own sin, Christ's was not for Himself but for others. He was made sin for us. Atonement, or satisfaction for sin, can be of use only to sinners. Christ had no sin, therefore His sacrifice was not offered and did not avail for Himself. Abel's, because he was a sinner, was made and availed for himself only. The blood of sprinkling was then vicarious blood. It was shed for others, and was in the stead of their guilty blood. This then is an infinitely better thing which it speaks, than does the blood of Abel's offering.

The chief thing done for us in the substitution of this blood is that it relieves us from liability to suffer, which our substitute does for us. The sprinkling of this blood removes our exposure to the death penalty of our sin. The claims of justice no longer assert themselves upon us. For they have passed over to our substitute. He has in suffering for us, the just for the unjust, brought us to God. God looks on Him and deals with Him in our stead. We become His, and are called to live for Him, as He has died for us and risen again.

But not only is the blood of sprinkling vicarious, it is also of infinite merit and value. In this respect also it speaks better things than Abel's. His offering consisted of the choicest of his flock, was presented to God in faith and was so accepted by Him; but its value was exhausted on one person and at one time. Inasmuch as the blood of sprinkling was the life of

God's only begotten Son, its merit was, as the dignity of the victim, infinite. It therefore provided a fulness of pardoning grace as wide, deep and overflowing, as the sin of the whole human family. Surely the Scripture which declared Christ's ability to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him, or that which affirms we are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, utters only words of truth and soberness. Thus, then, Abel's offering, availed only for the one time and the one object, for which it was made, while Christ avails and has merit to cancel every sin, in every age, of every one who comes to God by Him.

Again the blood of sprinkling really effects the removal of sin, while that of Abel's offering expiates it only in a ceremonial and typical sense; it only made the offerer outwardly and legally free. Its value beyond this was in directing his trust to repose on the Divine promise, and his heart to receive the Divine love-experiences which come through obeying God's will. Through the outward and typical he was led to the inward spiritual thing signified and communicated. But neither this nor any typical sacrifice or service could effect pardon of sin, or give peace to the conscience. This, the blood of sprinkling, alone has power to effect.

In another part of this epistle, the writer makes all this clear when he teaches us that "If the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal

Spirit offered Himself. . . to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God."

These offerings removed sin ceremonially, not morally or spiritually. The blood of Christ sprinkled on the soul, and that only, has power to purify and pacify the conscience. For it alone reaches and removes the sense of guilt which lingers with the sinner. It accomplishes this because Christ has borne and removed the penalty of His transgression. The blood of sprinkling is superior to that of Abel's offering, then, because it is vicarious, because it is of infinite value and merit, and because it effects not a ceremonial but a moral and spiritual separation between us and the guilt of our sins, and gives us experience of the efficacy and merit of Christ's blood. You see also how much better things this blood speaks than did Abel's. How much wider and grander the range of its benign influence and effect; and for how much longer period it will avail.

May I ask you, my hearers, have you heard in the ear of your conscience and heart the voice of this blood speaking its better things to you? Has it spoken your pardon? Has it brought you peace? Has it called you to rejoice in God as those who believe on His Son ? If any of you who have not, desire to hear its better things, give ear to the record of God's way of saving Israel, on a night of distress and misery, by the blood of the Paschal lamb. It was by sprinkling it on the lintels and door-posts of their houses. There was no

death in the house on which this blood was

sprinkled. The family was safe when the destroying angel passed by. The sprinkled blood was God's appointed sign and token for sparing the firstborn in that house. It spoke good and glad things to all within.

Remember this blood of sprinkling cleanses and purifies us from, as well as atones for, sin. Some of those who now sing that sublime doxology, "Unto Him that loved us, and loosed us from our sins in His own blood," were once the chief of sinners. The wondering seer in the Apocalypse asks, as he beholds the white-robed multitude around the heavenly throne, "Who are they, and whence came they?" The reply is given, "These are they who have come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." They are now without stain. But they were redeemed and sanctified by the blood of sprinkling put upon them. And, beloved, if any of us come to the Mount Zion, the City of the living God, it will be with the blood of sprinkling upon us.

"How bright these glorious spirits shine!
Whence all their white array?

How came they to the blissful seats

Of everlasting day?

Lo? these are they from suff'rings great,
Who came to realms of light,

And in the blood of Christ have wash'd,
Those robes which shine so bright."

IX

THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF

CHRIST

"The unsearchable riches of Christ."-EPH. iii. 8.

66

Thy death not mine, O Christ,

Has paid the ransom due,

Ten thousand deaths like mine
Would have been all too few-
To whom save Thee,

Who can alone

For sin atone;

Lord, shall I flee ?"

-H. B.

IT is common now, as it has ever been, to reverence riches and those who possess them. In the old world as in the new, in the East Indies as in the West, in Asia as in America, men are esteemed great or insignificant, mighty or the opposite, in proportion to the measure of their wealth. When Pizzaro with his Spaniards invaded Peru, he found the king of that rude people living in a palace whose walls were adorned and inlaid with gold, silver and precious stones. Images; many of them grotesque indeed, but all of precious materials, filled its niches and adorned its walls. It was the dazzling of his wealth and the magnificence of his surroundings, rather than the nobility of the monarch's nature, or the endowments of his mind, which constituted his greatness in the estimation of his untutored people. Their estimate of their god was formed very much like that of their king, by the abundance of the gold