inspired account of the "sons of Aaron," the priests, without being struck with how much they had to do with the sacrifices. They were constantly serving in the sanctuary-"the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God." (Heb. ix. 6.) Being there, and in constant intercourse with the high priest, their head, and in communion with God's revealed will, it was for them on certain occasions to sound the silver trumpets, to make known what they had learned in the service of the sanctuary; it might be to "blow an alarm" for the camps to " go forward" and "take their journeys," or to "blow” for the gathering together of the congregation. (Num. x. 2-8.) Sure it is that those now who are abiding in the Lord Jesus-our Sanctuary-living by the faith of Him, in communion with Him, will know His mind, and be able to make it known to others. They only can intelligently discern and enter into the blessedness of going forward in His name, following Him, or of being gathered together in His name, or in time of difficulty and distress thinking of His name, and being saved from their enemies.

But priestly work now is spiritual. These shadows instruct us, but are not the very image. Jesus, the Son of God, has come, and is gone up into heaven, and given us the Holy Ghost. Thus we have the Spirit of "love, and of power, and of a sound mind.” The darkness, too, is past, and the true light now shineth. We are then, as an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Priestly work, then, I repeat, now is spiritual, and "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." (Galatians v. 22, 23.) We are, as God's priests, to offer spiritual sacrifices; not carnal activities -"the desires of the flesh and of the mind"-but that which is in the energy of the Holy Ghost, who glorifies Christ in all the variety of His workings in bringing forth fruit in its season. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise! We read, too, of sacrifices of joy, of presenting our bodies a living sacrifice; and those who are so practically linked with Christ as to be outside the camp, bearing His reproach, are exhorted "by Him to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name." (Heb. xiii. 15.)

"Unto Him that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen."

PROVERBS.

WE find Christ in the book of Proverbs. In the eighth chapter He is spoken of as wisdom," "the wisdom of God," "set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was . . . daily Jehovah's delight, rejoicing always before Him, whose delights were with the sons of men." (12-36.) Again, who else but God and His beloved Son could be referred to in such

questions as, "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in His fists? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What

is His name, and what is His Son's name, if thou canst tell?" (xxx. 4.) But further; who can read such detached sentences as, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity," and not think of Jesus? (xvii. 17.) Or, "A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it; whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth" (xvii. 6), without being reminded of "the unspeakable gift ?" There are many other such allusions in this blessed book.

There are many quotations from the book of Proverbs in the New Testament which thus attest its divine authorship. Our Lord seems to have referred to this book in His ministry. Compare Matthew xv. 4 with Proverbs xx. 20, and Luke xiv. & with Proverbs xxv. 6, 7, and John vii. 38 with Proverbs xviii. 4, and v. 16. The apostle Paul also quoted from Proverbs. Compare Romans xii. 20, 21 with Proverbs xxv. 21, 22, and Hebrews xii. 5, 6 with Proverbs iii. 11, 12. James also in his epistle evidently referred to Proverbs. Compare James iv. 6 with Proverbs iii. 34.

Peter too, in both his epistles. Compare 1 Peter iv. 8 with Proverbs x. 12, and 2 Peter ii. 22 with Proverbs xvi. 11.

It is not so clear as to whether John quoted from this book, but 1 John i. 8 and Prov. xx. 9 look something like it.

Proverbs is a peculiar book. We do not find the work of redemption in it, nor dispensational truth, nor the history of God's people, or of God's ways with them, as in many other parts of Scripture. But it is full of instruction as to wisdom, the wise way of walking through the earth, and of managing many of its

daily details. It is emphatically the children's book—instruction to those who have to walk here as being in relation to God. The apostle teaches us this in Hebrews xii.: "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children," and then quotes from Proverbs iii. 11, 12. Hence the repeated use of the words "my son " in the earlier chapters.

The first nine chapters give us general principles, beginning with the object of the book "to know wisdom and instruction." It shews us that what especially marks" a wise man " is that he will "hear," that the foolish refuse to hear, that "the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge," and that such should practically be separate from "sinners." The second chapter shews that the fear of the Lord and knowledge of God -true wisdom-is found by those who receive His words, hide them, incline their ear, apply the heart, cry after knowledge, lift up the voice for understanding, seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasure. Such too will be kept from the two prominent evils"the evil man"-rebellion, the spirit of the antichrist, and "the strange woman"—the corruptions of the truth and ways of God. In the third chapter we are taught the blessedness of wisdom's ways. The fourth that we should cling to wisdom as the principal thing, enter not into the path of the wicked, keep in the straight path, setting a watch on our heart, our tongues, and our feet. The fifth chapter shews the sorrow and distress connected with having to do with the " strange woman." The sixth gives still further warnings against slothfulness, and the corruptress, setting also before us the six things which the Lord hateth, and the

blessed peace and security enjoyed by those who bind the words of God upon their heart. In the seventh chapter we learn the absolute need of keeping the words of God, laying them up, being so familiar with them as to have them as it were bound upon the fingers, so as to be kept from the fatal seductions of the enemy. The eighth chapter tells us who wisdom is, and the ninth the two voices round about us; the glad tidings of the grace of God—wisdom's voice; and the seducing voice of the corruptress-" the foolish woman"—whose guests are in the depths of hell.

From the tenth chapter onward, we have a series of brief, pointed, detached sentences, no doubt deeply important as marking out the wise way of meeting the daily matters of life, some of them giving remarkable allusions to Christ, His ways, and throne. Chapters xxv. to xxix. are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah King of Judah copied out. Chapter xxx. are the words of Agur, and chapter xxxi. the words which the mother of King Lemuel taught him.

ECCLESIASTES.

HERE we have the experience of a wise man-endued with wisdom by God, having almost everything on earth that his heart desired, and finding "all vanity and vexation of spirit." He looks too at others in their various circumstances, and notices many sore evils. Even as to knowledge, he found "in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." It is an important book, because it answers the question which almost every one is trying to solve,