Christ our Passover.

I.

Israel in Egypt.

"For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."-1 COR. v. 7.

THE passover, the ceremonial of which is laid down in Exodus xii., was clearly a typical institution; it was designed to foreshadow a glorious Sacrifice, that should be finished in the fulness of the times. The shadow that appeared in the land of Egypt is now lost in the splendor of that perfect consummation, finished in the land of Palestine, resting upon which for the pardon of all transgressions that are past, life becomes to us no more a painful fast, but a joyous and blessed festival. The institutions of Levi are only explicable in the light of the New Testament. Were there no New Testament, our inference would be that the God who gave that holy, spiritual Law on Mount Sinai, never could have descended to institute the burdensome A 2

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code of ceremonies scattered throughout the pages of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy; but the moment the light of the New Testament falls upon the Old, it reveals the passover as a page of ancient Christianity. The Jew learned through the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb that was slain in the midst of Egypt, that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, and was taught to anticipate therein that perfect Sacrifice that was to be made in the fulness of the times.

There were two distinct classes at the time that this ceremonial was instituted by God. There were first those who had inward character. The Israelites believed in God, and were obedient to his Law. There were those, in the second place, who had outward circumstance, arrayed in all the pomp, and possessed of all the riches of Eyppt. The Hebrews were Christians, but slaves; the Egyptians were idolaters, but princes and rulers; the one had character, the other circumstance. The outer circumstance, which is the gift of Providence, must be left upon the margin of the grave. The inner character, which is the inspiration of the Almighty, immortal and indestructible, shall emerge from the wreck of the outward tenement, and praise God with the saints that are about the throne. Let us, like Moses, prefer inner character to outer circumstance; let us prefer Christianity, or goodness, to circumstance, or greatness.

God takes notice of those distinctions to which I - have alluded. He saw those who were his own, and singled them out for exemption from the destroying stroke; and he saw and took cognisance of those who were not his own, and left them to the issues of their

own great transgressions. God sees the character that is within, and passes by the circumstances, however splendid, that are without.

Those distinctions that were practically brought out between the Israelites and the Egyptians in the land of Egypt, will be brought out in permanent and impressive relief at the judgment day. At that day a distinction will be made, and only two classes will be recognised, the blessed of the Father, who have been made by grace what grace alone can make them; and the cursed of themselves, who have made themselves what human nature left to itself has the awful power to make itself. Our great anxiety, in the prospect of a judgment day, should be not what we have, but what we are; not what providence has given us, but what grace has made us; not what we seem to be, but what we are when seen by the Searcher of all hearts.

It was not the inner distinction of the Israelite that constituted the ground of his exemption, when the destroying angel passed through the land of Egypt. Both the Israelite and the Egyptian, however distinguished in the sight of men, were, as to merit, on the same dead level. The Israelite no more deserved heaven by what he had done than the Egyptian did. The moral character of the one was vastly above the level of the moral character of the other: but it was not the Israelite's inner piety that spared him from the visitation of the angel; and it was not, perhaps, the Egyptian's moral depravity that brought down the judgment of that consuming visitation. The whole reason of the exemption of the Israelite lay in the blood sprinkled on the lintel; and the whole ground of the destruction of the children of Egypt lay in the

fact, that they refused to sprinkle that blood upon the lintel. The lamb was offered to all who would have it; the blood might have been sprinkled upon any doorpost by any one who had faith in its efficacy, and wherever the angel saw that blood he reverently retired. It is so in our great passover. Our safety from the destroying angel, whatever he may be, is not our loyalty, however beautiful; our morality, however pure; our patriotism, however sincere; our conduct, however exemplary. I am not asserting that these things are worthless, or have no place; I am only showing that they do not belong to the place of our justification in the sight of God. I do not say that men are saved without holiness, but I do not assert that men are not saved by or on the ground of their holiness. If Christ be our passover, it is not what we are in ourselves, but the fact that his atoning blood has been sprinkled on the lintels of the heart, that will constitute our great exemption in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment. No inner excellency that we have is our merit; no sacramental rite or ecclesiastical ceremony is the ground of our exemption; there is saving and atoning efficacy only in one element, the blood that was shed on the cross for the salvation of the guilty. It is not a carnal, but a spiritual element. It is not touched by sense, but taken by faith. It is not something that we see, but something that we lean on. It is not an earthly element that the human senses may take cognisance of, but a divine fact, the efficacy of which extends through all ages. Here, then, is the ground of our pardon, or our exemption in the sight of God, namely, the Atonement, to vary the phraseology, or the death, or expiatory Sacrifice of the Son of God.

Holy character will be wherever there is a Christian trust; but no holiness that can emulate within, no character that the Spirit inspires in the human heart, constitutes the ground of acceptance and acquittal in the sight of God, without which we can never pass the ordeal of a judgment morn, or be admitted with the saints of God into glory everlasting. In this one truth, that Christ is the antitype of the ancient passover, we have evidence that Christ's death was not, as rationalists assert, a mere example, but that it is, as the Christian believes, an atoning, expiatory, and meritorious Sacrifice. It never could be said that the passover lamb was slain as an example, where there was no example. It never can be said that Jesus died as an example, because such is not typified here or elsewhere. He lived as an example; he died an expiation. His death was not that of a martyr, but a victim. And hence, the Christianity we preach is not a merely directive system, but a remedial one. Seneca made the very just and natural remark, "God is just; therefore he will punish; and therefore he will never pardon." If any should say, Why should we not suppose that God would pardon? I ask, To what degree of guilt will God's pardon go down? Do you mean that God's pardon will reach to all? Then the distinctions between vice and virtue are destroyed. Do you mean that God will punish all? Then there will not be one remnant of humanity to praise him. How high will God's justice rise in punishing, and to what depth will God's mercy descend in pardoning? You cannot answer. We cannot explain the possibility or the probability of forgiveness, until we open the New Testament, and find the solution of the inexplicable