utmost misery and desolation. Yet the spirit of this infatuated monarch relented not; and after the indignation of the Most High had been manifested by a series of calamities, each one of which was sufficient to convince him that he strove against a strength that was invincible, another visitation of a most awful character was denounced against him and his people. And Moses said, "Thus saith the Lord, At midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, and also all the first-born of cattle; and there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more." "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation - of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house; your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats; and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening, and they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side-posts, and on the upper door-post of the houses wherein they shall eat it and they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs shall they eat it. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste: it is

the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you, to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations." And Moses and Aaron gave this charge unto the children of Israel; and when they heard it, "they bowed the head and worshipped."—"And it came to pass in that night that the Lord smote all the first-born of Egypt; and there was a great cry throughout the land, for there was not an house of the Egyptians where there was not one dead.' "And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: a foreigner or an hired servant shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof." And the Israelites did as the Lord commanded, and the destroying angel touched them not. "By faith they kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood."

CHAP. XXXI.—In the preceding chapter we have beheld the dreadful consequences of defying the manifested will of an Almighty Being:-We have seen how the angel of the Lord went forth to smite an impeni

tent nation, and the mercy shown to that people whom Jehovah had chosen to place his name among. And now it behooves us reverently to ponder the sacred instruction conveyed by the institution of that most remarkable ordinance of the Passover; which, whilst it was designed to commemorate the marvellous preservation of the Israelites, was, in all its details, a perfect type of that propitiatory offering which was made upon Mount Calvary for the redemption of a fallen world. For, as saith the Apostle, "Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us."

In the awful mission of the destroying angel, we behold the symbol of that eternal death which awaits the unpardoned sinner; and in the blood of the lamb sprinkled on the lintels and door-posts of the habitations of Israel, we see the type of that blessed application of the blood of Christ, by which, through living faith, the soul is exempted from the perdition that is reserved for the ungodly. This "blood of sprinkling' was the token appointed by Jehovah for the preservation of the Hebrews: well might the Apostle say, it "speaketh better things than that of Abel:" for the blood of Abel cried unto God from the ground for the punishment of the murderer; but the blood of Christ, thus prefigured, is the substance of that mercy-the· seal of that everlasting covenant-by which sin is blotted out and its merited punishment averted. The lamb was roast with fire, significant of the suffering of Christ for our redemption; and as the Israelites kindled the fire, and felt its heat, we may understand that it was an emblem also of that "baptism of the

Holy Ghost and fire" which we must experience. And as the flesh of the Paschal lamb afforded nourishment to the natural body, so doth the spiritual participation of the flesh and blood of Christ impart to the soul the strengthening virtue of immortal life. Christ himself declared, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you-Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life."

The lamb was, by the command of God, eaten with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs-significant, as the Apostle shows, of the only state of mind in which we can partake of the true supper of the Lamb: viz., "with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth;" and in that penitent condition of soul, by which we are brought through the strait gate, into the narrow way of humiliation and self-denial. And, as the passover was eaten in haste, and with the requisite equipment for the journey before them, so must the visited children of the Most High strive, without any delay, to seek an interest in Christ; and, fleeing from the wrath to come, "run with patience the race set before" them. And, as no man was to "carry forth aught of the flesh abroad," to be partaken of by others, but each was to eat it in the "one house," where its blood was sprinkled, so the Christian cannot impart to another the efficacious virtue of divine life: "No man can redeem his brother"-every soul must work out its " own salvation with fear and trembling," through the power of the grace of God. And as "no foreigner or hired servant" could partake thereof, so none but the spiritual

Israel, none but those who, by regeneration, are become the seed of faithful Abraham, can feed on this heavenly passover. The lamb was to be eaten without a bone being broken; which, as the beloved disciple of Christ testifies, was typical and prophetic of the crucified body of the Lord Jesus. And the month of their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt was, ever after, the beginning of the year to the Israelites: a striking type of that new life which the soul experiences that becomes converted to God, and redeemed from the bondage of sin.

CHAP. XXXII.-During the ages that preceded the coming of the Messiah—God manifest in flesh-there was, by divine appointment, a long period of preparation for the revealing of that perfect law of righteousness -"the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,"-which superseded the external ordinations of the Mosaic economy, and very gradually, through the ceremonial observances of that dispensation, and by the light of prophetic vision, was the nature of the Christian covenant shadowed forth. We have, in the last chapter, dwelt on the institution of the feast of the passover, and have seen how remarkably it typified the redemption which is in Christ; but it was reserved for the disciples of Jesus to behold the full unfolding of the glorious mystery which was veiled under the carnal ordinance. We find that John the Baptist, who was sent to bear witness of Christ, and to prepare the way before him, thus announced him to the Jews, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!" And