Let the Bureau of Charities continue its scientific work of investigation, registration, information, and coördina tion, supported by the community and the churches, and Christianized and vitalized by the love for the poor which the church can impart even to routine work. Let social settlements be founded in the most destitute parts of the city to illustrate the spirit of helpfulness. Let the Salvation Army and Volunteers continue their valuable relief work for the needy. But let the church in federated strength, wasting no resources and committing no sin in creating a pauper class, care for its own poor with the loving spirit of Christ, and then accept its responsibility to take, in the name of the Master, help and cheer, and advice and work, to the poor of the city. When it is discovered that a man is an incorrigible pauper or a parasitical drunkard, let him be placed in some moral pesthouse, where he will not infect the community-life any farther. The gospel thus preached in the language of brotherliness, with a crucified and risen Christ as the Saviour from sin presented in loving testimony, and illustrated by cheerful helpfulness, would I believe help to bring in the Millennium quicker than any method now in use by the Christian church. Can the Master who fed the hungry multitude with the bread of life and the bread of the fields be given any better chance to get into the lives of men than through the open doorway of a similar service?

When Benjamin West desired a model for the hand of Christ in one of his most famous paintings, he remembered the symmetrical hand of Mr. Morse, the inventor, and this hand became the model of the Christ hand. In the world's idea of Christ, let the cross stand for his heart, the Bible for his voice, conscience for his eye, but your hands and my hands for the Christ hands which reach down underneath the world's woe and alienation and destitution, and in his name raise it up into the sunlight of godliness.

ARTICLE VI.

JEHOVAH'S PROTEST AGAINST THE ALTAR

SERVICE.

BY THE REVEREND MOTIER A. BULLOCK, d.d.

WHEN the altar service in the Jewish Church became more formal than vital, Jehovah protested against it in the strong language of Isa. i. 11-15, and Jer. vi. 20 and vii. 21-23. In the protest is pointed out the true and acceptable service, the service of obedience. In this article we would consider: (1) The Import of the Altar Service; (2) The Use and Meaning of Blood in Sacrificial Offering; (3) The New Testament Use of these Old Testament Symbols.

THE IMPORT OF THE ALTAR SERVICE.

It will serve our purpose to take the one which typifies the office and mission of the Messiah. In the sin-offering, lamb, or whatever

the priest took the life of the ox, the animal was chosen, the best and most precious of the flock, without spot or blemish, and confessing, for or with the persons bringing the offering, their sins, and, sprinkling the altar with some of the blood which had been shed, burned the flesh upon the altar as an offering to Jehovah, while the penitent sinner received the blessing of pardon and the joy of reconciliation.

We observe: (1) that this offering cost something-it was the choicest of the flock, perhaps the pet of the household; (2) that its life was surrendered for another life; (3) that only as the one bringing the offering looked upon that life as given for himself, in penitence of heart accepted

it as for his own life, did he receive the pardon of the Lord and the assurance of forgiveness.

The whole altar service was a great moral object-lesson, teaching (1) that sin meant the loss of life and the destruction of the soul; (2) that God could not smile on a sinning and unforgiven people; (3) that salvation from sin could not be without such an expression of divine disapproval of all transgression, yoked with divine mercy, that the transgressor of the law would feel the heinousness of sin and the loving-kindness of forgiveness, and thus be led into a life of obedience. The whole service had this end in view; for, said Jehovah, "Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."

It is easy for any stated service to degenerate into a mere formality, a mechanical action in which there is no heart, no real penitence, no realization of the fact that a life is being surrendered in place of that of the transgressor, and that the gracious acceptance of that surrendered life is the condition of taking away the sin from the transgressor himself. As a matter of fact, the altar service had thus degenerated in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah; hence Jehovah's protest.

THE USE AND MEANING OF BLOOD IN SACRIFICIAL

OFFERING.

We read, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission" of sins. It is important, then, that we know what is meant by such language. The expressions "surrendering its life," "giving its life," "taking its life," are in harmony with the true import of "bloody sacrifice." The Old Testament states that "the life of the flesh is in

the blood" (Lev. xvii. 11). Has science gotten beyond that statement? If the life is in the nerves, or spinal cord,

or ganglia of the brain, the expression would have to be changed to meet the facts of modern discovery; but, as still looked at from the scientific point of view, the expression is true to fact, and certainly need not in any way mislead the popular mind.

The shedding of blood without which there is no remission of sins means, then, the surrender of life for life. What, then, was the significance of the sprinkling of shed blood upon the altar of sacrifice? It was a token of cleansing, of purification. But how can blood, which defiles, be used to cleanse? Simply because it meant the life of the victim, and therefore the life of the transgressor. The penitent, then, was cleansing his life through his of fering unto the Lord. From this point of view the "bloody sacrifice," the offering of one's very life to God, was most impressive in its moral teaching, beautiful in its service, and in no way repulsive.

Some shrink from the expression blood in the Jewish and Christian religions, because they think of the material blood, instead of the life for which it stands in both Testaments. It is the mechanical action in the service, the material substance, from which they shrink, and which unconsciously, it may be, they transfer to the Christian conception of the atonement, and so reject the doctrine. Now is it too much to say that the Lord protests against such a gross and materialistic view of the atonement just as emphatically as he did against the formal altar service? But it may be said, "Is not this the common conception? Does not blood atonement mean just this?" That may depend upon whether we interpret blood as it is interpreted in the Scriptures, or as it is seen on the battlefield! It means life in the altar service, life in the doctrine of the atonement, and can in no sense be repulsive to the most sensitive but understanding heart. It is the perversion of its use that repels.

THE NEW TESTAMENT USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SYMBOLS.

In the light of the above interpretation, we can profitably consider some of the New Testament passages about the power of Jesus' blood. John says, "But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John i. 7). To make this a little more clear, we should bear in mind the testimony of John the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John i. 29). We also read that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John iii. 16). The Son of God is also the Son of man, and acts for humanity. As the Lamb of God he is the sin offering, taking away the sin of the world; for God "hath made him to be sin [a sin-offering] for us" (2 Cor. v. 21). He steps into our place, and bears upon himself the stripes by which we are healed. It is in the highest and truest sense of the word his life that cleanses us, saves us, and translates us into his own image. As that life of sacrifice for man is accepted by us in faith, pardon is granted, and we become children of God, adopted into the household of faith.

The cleansing of our life through his life is conditioned upon our walking in the light as he is in the light, or in faith and obedience living the Christ life on earth. Accepting him who lived and died for us is present salvation; walking in the light as he is in the light is continued salvation. It was not an altar, but a cross, upon which the Lamb of God was placed. But it is not the method of his death which is so important, as is the fact that he gave up his life for us; and this vicarious sacrifice involves his birth, growth, private and public life, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, and the ever-living Christ, making inter