shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an 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 firstborn 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 firstborn 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. 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 el we have beheld the dreadful consec

In

of defying the manifested will of an Almighty Being:-We have seen how the angel of the Lord went forth to smite an impenitent nation, and the mercy shown to that people whom Jehovah had chosen to place his name among. And now it behoves 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 pre

servation 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, 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."

we may

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 share his neighbour's lamb, nor suffer any part to be eaten, save in his own dwelling, 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 of the power of God. And as no grace 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

the