year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh. Else would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more conscience of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when He [Christ] cometh into the world, He saith,

Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
But a body didst Thou prepare for Me;
In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hadst
no pleasure
Then said I, Lo, I am come
(In the roll of the book it is written of Me)
To do Thy will, O God.

Saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein (the which are offered according to the Law), then hath He said, Lo, I am come to do Thy will. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second. By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. x. 1-10). The Prophet Isaiah showed beforehand the spiritual meaning of such animal sacrifices by the wonderful prophecy of the Lamb of God (Isa. lii. 13-liii, fin.), who, in God's "eternal purpose", had been "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. xiii. 8). As this one perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world has been once offered, animal sacrifices, which were merely types and shadows of it, are no longer needed. Hence Christians offer none. Nor do the Jews, since their Law forbids them to offer sacrifices except in Jerusalem, where the Temple stood; and as the Mosque of ‘Umar now occupies its place, Muslims themselves prevent the Jews from there offering sacrifices. Instead, however, of slaying animals in sacrifice, Christians are bound to offer themselves, body, soul and spirit, to be

a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice unto the Living God, thus fulfilling the meaning which underlay the Whole Burnt Offerings of the Mosaic Law (compare Rom. xii. 1, 2; I Pet. ii. 15).

Again, in the Torah ablutions of the body are enjoined. For this doubtless there were two reasons. In the first place, God wishes us to keep our bodies clean and healthy, since He has made them. Filth of body generally leads to defilement of spirit. In the second place, it was intended that men should learn by experience that by washing the body the spirit is not purified from past sins, nor the mind from evil thoughts and desires. Hence, to satisfy our spirits' need for holiness, without which no man can see the Lord, it became evident that Jewish ablutions were ineffective; that they were merely types and shadows of a true and spiritual purification, which can be obtained only through the blood of the Lamb of God, which through faith in Him cleanses from all sin. Therefore the true Christian should obey the direction of the Apostle who says, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. vii. 1). Both bodily and spiritual purification are necessary, but the former will not produce the latter.

Again, in the Torah it was commanded that only in one place should sacrifices be offered to God (Deut. xii. 13, 14), the place which God promised to choose "to put His Name there", that it might be considered in a typical sense to be His habitation (Deut. xii. 5). This place was at first Shiloh (Josh. xviii. 1), and afterwards Jerusalem. Yet King Solomon, who built the Temple, declared that it was not really God's dwelling, but only a sign of God's presence among His people, for He said: "Will God in very deed dwell on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded!" (1 Kings viii. 27). Isaiah taught the same doctrine, for in his book we read: "Thus saith