ples, are an obvious provision for the sense of spiritual need which is deeply felt in the heart of man. For men are the offspring of God, and they come into conscious being possessed of a religious nature that instinctively feels and yearns after the living God. And the most ancient forms of priestly mediation between man and God evince an inborn yearning of the soul for peace and favor with the Author of its being.

3. Moses and Samuel as Mediators. Moses is represented as preeminently a mediator between Israel and God. The people were filled with a deep sense of awe, and they said unto Moses: "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die. . . . And they stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was" (Exod. xx, 19, 21). We also read that "Jehovah spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Exod. xxxiii, 11; comp. Num. xii, 8; Deut. xxxiv, 10). We find remarkable examples of Moses pleading before Jehovah in Exod. xxxii, 31, 32, and Num. xi, 11-15, and in the first-mentioned intercession he is spoken of as "going up unto Jehovah" to make atonement for the sins of the people. Similarly Samuel the prophet is besought to pray for the sinful people that they may not die (1 Sam. xii, 19-23). He offered burnt offerings to Jehovah, cried out aloud unto Jehovah, and was signally answered in behalf of Israel (vii, 9, 10). In all this he acted the part of a mediator and priest.

4. The Levitical Priesthood. Moses was of the tribe of Levi (Exod. ii, 1), and according to the Levitical tradition he consecrated his brother Aaron to the priesthood, and the sons of Aaron were thereafter set apart by a perpetual statute to execute the office of priest in Israel. According to Exod. xiii, 2, 12, 15; xxii, 29, Jehovah claimed all the firstborn of Israel as his peculiar possession, but he substituted the tribe of Levi for the firstborn of all the people, and ordained that they alone should minister in holy things before him (Num. iii, 12, 41, 45; viii, 16-19). The trustworthiness of this Levitical tradition has been questioned, for subsequent to the times of Moses we read of such men as Gideon and Samuel and David and Solomon and Elijah offering sacrifices before Jehovah, apparently without any knowledge of such exclusive right of the descendants of Aaron. The great prophets from Samuel to Jeremiah show no such respect for priesthood, burnt offerings, and sacrifices as a knowledge of such a Mosaic appointment of Aaron's sons and the elaborate ritual of Levitical worship would naturally command. The probability is that this elaborate ritual of priesthood and offerings and multiplied ceremonies was of slow growth, and did not reach the completeness in which it

now appears in the Priest Code of the Pentateuch until the time of Ezra and the second temple. But the story of the wandering Levite in Judg. xvii, 7-13, the eagerness of Micah to secure his priestly services, his subsequent capture by the Danites to be the priest of their tribe, and the fact that he is called "the son of Gershom, the son of Moses," and that "his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land" (xviii, 30), show the priestly standing of the Levites in those unsettled times. Moreover, the ministration of Eli, the priest, in a temple of Jehovah at Shiloh, and a going up "from year to year to worship and to sacrifice unto Jehovah of hosts in Shiloh," as recorded in 1 Sam. i, 3-9, point to a very ancient seat of Levitical worship at that place, where, according to Judg. xxi, 19, an annual "feast of Jehovah" was observed. The priestly prerogatives of the whole tribe of Levi are also clearly witnessed in Deut. xviii, 1-8. But our concern is not so much with the history of the Levitical priesthood as with its mediatorial significance. The officiating priest at the altar of sacrifice acted not for himself alone. He was mediator and representative of other worshipers before God. He was required to care for everything pertaining to the altar and the holy places (Num. xviii, 5, 7), to offer incense, light the lamps, attend to the showbread, and keep the fire continually burning on the altar of burnt offerings. The priests were also to be teachers of the law (Lev. x, 10, 11; Deut. xxxiii, 10). Their highest service, however, was to officiate in the offering of the various sacrifices described in the elaborate ritual of Lev. i-vii. In this they appear as the divinely ordained representatives of all Israel. The most solemn and significant service, developed in the later history of the Levitical priesthood, was that of the high priest on the day of atonement. Having washed his body and put on the hallowed garments, he proceeded to offer the burnt offering and the sin offering to make atonement for himself and for his house (Lev. xvi, 2-6). After this he took the censer full of burning coals, and burned incense so that the fragrant cloud arising therefrom covered the mercy seat above the ark; then he took the blood of the bullock which served as a sin offering for himself, and afterward the blood of the goat which served as the sin offering of the people, and, passing within the inner veil, sprinkled the blood of the bullock and goat upon the mercy seat, and thus "made atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel" (Lev. xvi, 12-17). In all this symbolical service the high priest appears as a representative of all Israel, a sanctified and sympathetic mediator between a sinful people and a holy God, and the mediation which he effects is supposed to accord with the holiness

of God on the one hand, and the needs and necessities of the people on the other.

5. The Sacrificial Offerings. The office and work of the Levitical priesthood cannot be fairly set forth without at least a brief notice of the various offerings which were required by the laws and regulations of the Priest Code. These sacrificial offerings early acquired the threefold character of (1) self-surrender and selfdedication of the worshiper to God, (2) thanksgiving for his benefits and mercies, and (3) propitiation for sin. Cain and Abel are represented as bringing fruits of the ground and firstlings of the flock to present before Jehovah, and both fruits and firstlings are called a лn, offering, or gift (Gen. iv, 3-5). The burnt offerings of Noah after the flood (Gen. viii, 20-22) were of the nature of thanksgiving and dedicatory worship. The ancient records of the patriarchs show a noticeable connection of their sacrifices and their prayers. We are not able to determine how far the idea of sacrificial blood in the earliest times was conceived as an expiatory offering for sin, but it is evident that in every case the sacrifice offered was a formal expression of self-surrender to God. The animal sacrifice, in its pouring out of the warm lifeblood of the victim, was suggestive of a vicarious offering up of life in accordance with what was believed to be the good pleasure of God, and the accompanying acts of festivity and thanksgiving were expressive of the worshiper's trust in God and of his delight in the conscious acceptance of all his benefits.

(1) Cereal Offerings. The elaborate ritual of the Priest Code carefully distinguishes between bloody and bloodless offerings. The cereal offerings, or "meal offerings," consisted of corn in the ear, fine flour, and cakes baked or fried, and were accompanied with olive oil, frankincense, salt, and wine (Lev. ii). These were associated with libations, or drink offerings, of wine, and both together were a devout acknowledgment, as stated in 1 Chron. xxix, 11-14, that all things in the earth and heaven belong to Jehovah, and that all offerings which man can make to God are but a giving back to him some respectful portion of what he himself has bestowed. (2) Blood Offerings. The offerings which involved the shedding of blood, according to the ritual of Lev. i-vii, were of four kinds: the burnt offering (ny), the peace offering (na), the sin offering (non), and the trespass offering (DN). The first two were in large part, like the meal offering, expressive of self-dedication and thanksgiving. The "whole burnt offering" symbolized the offering up to God of all that the worshiper represented, himself body and soul, his family and household, his property of every sort. All these were regarded as God's gracious gifts to him, and were to be held in

readiness for any service of God to which they might be put. The peace offering was a public declaration of peaceful and friendly relationship between the worshiper and his God. The sacrificial feast which accompanied it was a joyful expression of fellowship with God, as if the happy participants were really eating and drinking in the presence of Jehovah.' But the sin offering and the trespass offering were preeminently designed to make atonement for the sins of the people. They presuppose a separation between the worshiper and God, and also a deep sense of guilt which must have, in order to remission, the shedding of the lifeblood of the vicarious victim. The law of the trespass offering (DN), according to Lev. v, 14-vi, 7, and Num. v, 5-8, contemplated individual offenses which call for restitution. If the trespass were a criminal appropriation of another's goods, the guilty man was required to restore in full, and also to add a fifth of its value as a fine. When the offense was an act of carnal impurity with a bondmaid the priestly law contemplated the deed as an infringement of the rights of property which demanded open satisfaction (Lev. xix, 20-22). Probably also some similar thought of compensation for lost service, or of fine for censurable defect, entered into the reasons for the trespass offering required in the case of the Nazarite (Num. vi, 12) and of the leper (Lev. xiv, 11-18). The trespass offerings accordingly contemplated individual offenses involving the consciousness of personal guilt.

(3) The Sin Offering. But among all these offerings the most solemn and impressive appears to have been the non, sin offering, the detailed ritual of which is read in Lev. iv, 1-v, 13. A specific order of procedure and various sacrificial victims were ordained according to the rank and position of those for whom atonement was to be made. But whether the offender be the anointed priest, the whole congregation, the civil ruler, or one of the common people, in every case the atonement called for the shedding of blood. The only apparent exception is that of one so poor as not to be able to bring even "two turtledoves or two young pigeons" (v, 11-13). But the flour which in such case was allowed as a substitute, was not to be mixed with oil or frankincense, but to be burned upon the altar, and upon "the fire offerings of Jehovah" (). Thus it was made to partake of the atoning efficacy of the animal sacrifices and reckoned as a real sin offering. The representative and propitiatory character of the sin offerings is seen

1 Sacrifices on high places, like the one indicated in 1 Sam. ix, 12, 13, 23-25, were obviously of the nature of a public banquet at which the people and their God feasted and rejoiced together. 1 Sam. xx, 29, is evidence that families were wont to observe such sacrificial meals together. Comp. also xvi, 2-5, and Gen. xxxi, 54.

in the fact that they were required not only for individual offenses, and sins of ignorance, but also for the whole people. They were offered on the great national feast days, on the occasion of consecrating the priests, and at the dedication of the tabernacle. They appear in most solemn significance in the ritual of the day of atonement (Lev. xvi). Everything connected with the ceremonies of that day was of the most awe-inspiring character, and the service was ordained not for specific and individual sins, but rather to "make atonement for the holy sanctuary and the tent of meeting, and the altar, and the priests, and all the people of the assembly." After all the other expiatory rites of an individual character, and aside from those of the other annual feasts and of the new moons (Num. xxviii, 11-15), the ritual of the day of atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month assumes that there is yet some defilement or deficiency which ought to be provided for in most impressive form. And so on that day the high priest must take the censer full of burning coals from the altar, and sweet incense and the blood of the sin offering, and go within the veil and let the cloud of incense cover the mercy seat, and sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat seven times.

6. The Goat for Azazel. The ceremonial of confessing all the iniquities of Israel over the head of the goat that was "sent away for Azazel into the wilderness," which formed also a notable part of the ritual of the day of atonement, deserves at least a passing notice. Whatever the origin of this part of the ceremonies, and whatever the real meaning of the word Azazel, formal confession of all their sins and putting them upon the head of the goat, which "bore upon him all their iniquities unto a solitary land," were a striking symbolical picture of the expulsion of sin and iniquity from the people of Israel. It was a public declaration that the sins of all the people were now sent away from them unto their own place, transferred to the abode of the evil spirits in the desert.' Thus both the people and their dwellings would be conceived as purged from the guilt and judgment of transgressions.

7. Symbolical Significance of the Blood. The classic passage in the Levitical law which defines the symbolical import of the expiatory offerings of blood is Lev. xvii, 11: "The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given (appointed) it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes

Compare the "passing through waterless places" (Matt. xii, 43), and the "casting into the outer darkness" (Matt. viii, 12), and "departing into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. xxv, 41), as a going forth to one's appropriate place.