it any outward token of his satisfaction. All might have been completed, and yet the happy certainty of the resulting blessing withheld. But it was his pleasure that the blessing should not be less really enjoyed than possessed. His people were to be rich in privilege, and to know it. No eye could follow Aaron when he lifted up the vail of the tabernacle, and entered upon his secret ministrations within; and proportionately with the high importance of his work, must have been the gratification derived from a visible symbolic transaction, as beautiful in its character as it was expressive and definite in the comfort it was designed to impart. The congregation beheld the live goat selected by the supreme will, for the purpose to which it was to be applied: they beheld Aaron lay both his hands upon its head, and make over it a minute confession of the long and humiliating list of the past year's offences; and if the recital of all their iniquities, and all their transgressions in all their sins, made, as well it might, even the children of Israel tremble, there was the remembrance that atoning blood had been sprinkled within the sanctuary; and the knowledge that the devoted animal, on the head of which these sins had been put, was presently to bear them all away into the wilderness, and would be seen no more again for ever.

This is the obvious signification of the ordinance of the scapegoat, which has been adverted to in the former parts of this Journal. Probably some may be of opinion that the difficulty connected with Azazel has often been over-stated, and that there is a strong primâ facie probability that any explanation of it derived from Jewish or heathen traditions, or depending upon them for any material support, is wide of the mark. The sufficiency of Scripture to be its own interpreter, must be insisted on; and to one who takes true and consistent ground in this respect, much learning and ingenuity will often appear to have been even worse than uselessly directed. Passing by the profane notion of Gesenius, Hengstenberg's view, even if open to no other objection, appears to encumber the subject with matter totally foreign to it, and destitute of the contextual support of the chapter. Is it not extremely unlikely, that so much as in the learned professor's view is made of Azazel, should not, if correct, have been more plainly intimated in the Scripture itself? But when we dismiss, as we may without ceremony, Egyptian comparisons, and lay aside Plutarch, as no help in this matter, are the Hebrew words really so perplexing as to oblige us to admit an antagonistic personality in Azazel? Many will, doubtless, think otherwise, and be dis

c Fürst's remark, Heb. Concord., s. v. 1, is a good rebuke to such speculations; 'cavendum est vero, ne figmenta, veritatis corruptelis orta, in hæc mysteria, a Deo revelata, profana cum sacris confundens, audacter inferas.' G 2

posed

posed to regard caper-emissarius, and its familiar English equivalent, as no such very bad interpretations of the original. At any rate, they will prefer to rest under the weight of one or two anomalies in the structure of a Hebrew compound, and a slight measure of embarrassment in its textual location, to adopting a theory which, to say the least, brings with it as many fresh difficulties as it removes old ones.d

It remains that we should now seek for something in the circumstances of the work of our Lord answering to the scape-goat. Had Israel, to whom, as a nation, the new covenant in the first instance referred (Jerem. xxxi.), not been, with only a few exceptions, in unbelief, probably we should have been able to trace the fulfilment of the outside typical ceremonies of this day, as readily as we can find the correspondencies of the inner ministrations in the Lord's work in the heavenlies. But the national unbelief of that people to whom both the types and the realities at the beginning exclusively belonged, would appear to have occasioned chasms in the fulfilment of typical Scriptures, similar to those we are compelled to admit in many prophecies (see Isa. ix. 6, 7).

The broken thread of types and prophecies will be resumed in the Lord's dealings with Israel in the latter day. Meanwhile, the body now constituting the Church, composed of believing Jews and Gentiles (Rom. xi.), has a title by faith to the blessings temporarily forfeited by the Jews through unbelief. We can thus, as the Israel of God,' apply to ourselves many a precious text in the Old Testament, in which Israel after the flesh has no property. Whilst remembering the dispensational characteristics of the Word, and avoiding the frequent mistake of a loose and erroneous application of promises and precepts which are confined to the peculiarities of dispensations that are passed, many still admit of being claimed and used now, 'All things are yours.' Israel does not yet recognize the value of Christ's blood shed upon the cross; they know nothing of its virtue in the heavenly places. The time has not come when they will say, 'All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all' (Isa. liii. 6); and no scape-goat has borne away their iniquities to the land of oblivion.

Nevertheless, those who are resting on the finished work of Jesus are not without the comfort shadowed forth by the scapegoat. After saying 'For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified' (Heb. x. 14), the Apostle adds,

d An additional argument is, that the two goats are a sin-offering (v. 5), and therefore only present two aspects of the same thing.)—Remark communicated by a friend.)

6

Whereof

Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.'

According to the above view, Christ's actual priestly ministrations for the church are (with reference to the types of this chapter) carried on in the garments of glory and beauty, those for which the white linen robes were provided being completely ended; so that a believer is now in possession of all the knowledge and privileges shadowed forth in Lev. xvi. To Him all is past; for him the burnt-offering (v. 24) has been offered, and the bodies of the victims have been burned without the camp (v. 27). But if a break must be made between verses 19 and 20 in the primary application of these ordinances to the nation of Israel, it may, and probably will, be resumed hereafter, when the prophecies concerning that people shall be fulfilled. It is true, no more blood will have to be shed; the heavenly places will be as ready for their worship when nationally converted as they are for each individual person, whether Jew or Gentile, who at present believes; but their admission into conscious liberty and realization of blessing may be connected with certain dealings on the part of Christ, resembling Aaron's work when he came out from the tabernacle. For a brief season the Lord may be presented to them, as it were, in the white linen; for it was in that dress that the high-priest confessed sins over the scape-goat; and it was only when the goat had been let go into the wilderness that he came into the tabernacle, put off the linen garments, and having washed his flesh with water, put on his (ordinary) garments, and finished with the burnt-offerings the ceremonial of the day.

Various prophecies of a great national humiliation to precede blessing may be, perhaps, viewed in this connection. (See e. g. Joel ii.; Zech. xii. 10-14; xiii. 1.)

An exposition of the typical signification of the ordinances of the day of atonement that shall be consistent in all its parts, and free from the loose and arbitrary mode of handling typical subjects, which tends much to obscure their beauty and instructive

• The application of this text to the subject of the scape-goat in its bearing on our actual circumstances, I owe to the suggestion of a friend who has long given minute attention to the types of Leviticus, and whose work on the Tabernacle and its Vessels, &c., it is to be hoped, will not now remain long unpublished. "I think also,' he adds, "that the Lord coming with peace, and showing his hands and side to the disciples, was virtually the scape-goat to them. They needed no Holy Ghost (as it were), as we do to tell us. Probably Israel will, in like manner, look on the pierced One as Thomas did, and He will thus fulfil the scape-goat to them by and bye.'

Lev. xxiii., in its allusion to the day of atonement, lays all its stress on the affliction of soul on that day, and passes over all the peculiarities of ch. xvi. This will probably be the way Israel will keep it hereafter.'-(Communicated by the friend above alluded to.)

ness,

ness, and retard a sound understanding of them, will probably not be found, in some respects, an easy task by any, and it is one the writer of the above remarks by no means pretends to have accomplished; nevertheless, he offers them under correction of the spiritual judgment of others, and he will be glad if they contribute, even in a small measure, to the better understanding of the chapter. For some of the thoughts he is indebted to others, though alone responsible for the mode of their presentation.

A few remaining particulars are now to be noticed.

The reality of the imputation of sin to the victim is further set forth by the direction to Aaron (v. 24) to wash his flesh with water in the holy place; by a similar direction to the man that let go the goat (v. 26); and to him who burned the bodies of the animals outside the camp (v. 28). So thoroughly was sin regarded as transferred to these victims, that even the necessary contact with them brought with it defilement. Thus really was Christ made sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor. v. 21).

6

The burnt-offering typifies Christ in death, in contrast with the meat-offering, which sets forth his living character. In the former the laying on of hands, as others have observed, identified the worshipper with the acceptableness of the victim: the same act in the sin-offering identified the victim with the guilt of the offerer, thus expressing the two-fold aspect of the work of Christ. In the sweet savour of the burnt-offering our persons are accepted by God; its value is put upon them: it is not merely the getting rid of sin, although this aspect of the one sacrifice of Jesus is nevertheless described as atonement (Lev. i. 4), implying perhaps that the absence of good, as well as the presence of evil, needed to be covered. Now the recognition upon earth of the value of Christ as the burnt-offering seems appropriately to come after his offering for sin, his entrance by his blood into heaven, and the certainty of the possession on our part of the resulting blessings. And thus the arduous and important services of the day of atonement were closed by sacrifices which adumbrated the imputation of Christ's excellency to the worshipper; and the congregation beheld their high-priest once more clothed in his beautiful garments, standing by the brazen altar, from which the offerings made by fire sent up a sweet savour unto the Lord.

The application of v. 27 is made by the Apostle in Heb. xiii. 11-13. When we have understood the value of the blood brought into the sanctuary for sin, we are required to follow Jesus to the outside place, and to partake of the shame and reproach which he endured from an unbelieving world, and which will ever, in various degrees, attend the truthful confession of his name.

THE

THE SCHOOLS OF THE HEBREWS.

By DOM. AUGUSTIN CALMET.

Translated from the French by the Rev. ALEXANDER J. D. D'ORSEY, High School, Glasgow.

SCHOOLS have always been regarded amongst polished nations as the principal support of states. In schools are formed the clergy, the judges, the magistrates, the people: it is in them we learn religion, law, history, language, and science-knowledge the most important to the commonwealth, and the most useful in active life. It is on this account that the most enlightened princes and legislators have always considered the establishment and support of schools as the thing, above all others, most meriting their care; and they have ever directed their earliest efforts to the erection of academies, to the choice of masters, and the general promotion of the education of the young. We shall not at present extend our paper by citing the example of other nations in proof of our position; we confine our remarks to the Hebrews. We are about to exhibit amongst them an uninterrupted succession of schools and prophets, from Moses to Jesus Christ; after which, we shall examine what they tell us of their schools and of their studies, from their dispersion by the Romans till our own times.

The ancient Hebrews have, beyond all other nations, a double advantage as regards their schools. The first is connected with the worth and dignity of the masters, who were nearly all prophets or priests of the Lord. The second relates to the object of their pursuits, which were almost entirely restricted to the study of the divine law and the prophecies. Amongst other nations, philosophy, astronomy, geometry, music, rhetoric, and poetry, were held in high esteem. These arts were little cultivated by the Hebrews. Religion formed almost their sole pursuit. Hence arose their attachment to their rites and ceremonies, their strict obedience to their laws, their attention to the just education of the young, their love for their native land. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were men filled with the spirit of the Lord, who took care themselves to train their families in knowledge, and in the fear of the Almighty. This knowledge was preserved amongst them, unaltered, unwritten, in man's memory

a

Joseph. contra Appion. lib. i.

alone