Thus we can gather up the most valuable points from this fifteenth chapter of Leviticus. We learn, in a very striking manner, the intense holiness of the divine presence. Not a soil, not a stain, not a speck, can be tolerated for a moment in that thrice-hallowed region. "Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile My tabernacle that is among them." (Ver. 31.) Again, we learn that human nature is the ever-flowing fountain of uncleanness. It is hopelessly defiled; and not only defiled, but defiling. Awake or asleep, sitting, standing, or lying, nature is defiled and defiling: its very touch conveys pollution. This is a deeply humbling lesson for proud humanity; but thus it is. The book of Leviticus holds up a faithful mirror to nature: it leaves "flesh" nothing to glory in. Men may boast of their refinement, their moral sense, their dignity: let them study the third book of Moses, and there they will see what it is all really worth in God's estimation. Finally, we learn afresh the expiatory value of the blood of Christ, and the cleansing, purifying, sanctifying virtues of the precious Word of God. When we think of the unsullied purity of the sanctuary, and then reflect upon nature's irremediable defilement, and ask the question, However can _we_ enter and dwell _there_? the answer is found in "the blood and water" which flowed from the side of a crucified Christ--a Christ who gave up His life unto death for us, that we might live by Him. "There are three that bear record in earth, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and," blessed be God, "these three agree in one." The Spirit does not convey to our ears a message diverse from that which we find in the Word, and both the Word and the Spirit declare to us the preciousness and efficacy of the blood. Can we not therefore say that the fifteenth chapter of Leviticus was "written for our learning"? Has it not its own distinct place in the divine canon? Assuredly. There would be a blank were it omitted. We learn in it what we could not learn in the same way any where else. True, all Scripture teaches us the holiness of God, the vileness of nature, the efficacy of the blood, the value of the Word; but the chapter upon which we have been pondering, presents these great truths to our notice, and presses them upon our hearts, in a manner quite peculiar to itself. May _every section_ of our Father's Volume be precious to our hearts. May _every one_ of His testimonies be sweeter to us than honey and the honeycomb, and may "_every one_ of His righteous judgments" have its due place in our souls. CHAPTER XVI.