"He is not _ashamed_ to call them brethren." NOTE.--I purposely forbear entering upon the subject of the offerings in chapter xxix, inasmuch as we shall have the various classes of offerings, in all their minute detail, fully before us in the book of Leviticus, if the Lord will. CHAPTER XXX. The priesthood being instituted, as in the two preceding chapters, we are here introduced to the position of true priestly worship and communion. The order is marked and instructive, and, moreover, precisely corresponds with the order of the believer's experience. At the brazen altar, he sees the ashes of his sins; he then sees himself linked with One who, though personally pure and spotless, so that He could be anointed without blood, has, nevertheless, associated us with Himself in life, righteousness, and favor; and, finally, he beholds, in the golden altar, the preciousness of Christ, as the material on which the divine affections feed. Thus it is ever; there must be a brazen altar and a priest before there can be a golden altar and incense. Very many of the children of God have never passed the brazen altar; they have never yet, in spirit, entered into the power and reality of true priestly worship. They do not rejoice in a full, clear, divine sense of pardon and righteousness,--they have never reached the golden altar. They hope to reach it when they die; but it is their privilege to be at it _now_. The work of the cross has removed out of the way every thing which would act as a barrier to their free and intelligent worship. The present position of all true believers is at the golden altar of incense.