But there is another most marked point of contrast to which I have already alluded, but which we ought to consider more carefully before we close. There was an essential difference of character between the redemption price in the case of the first-born and in ours. In theirs there was no shedding of blood. There was substitution, but not blood-shedding. The life of the child was not forfeited to the law, so the life of the substitute was not taken in its stead. It was a gift of service for service, the service of the Levite for the service of the child. Then again it was a mixed, and composite substitution. The substitution of the Levites was insufficient, so the defect was made up by the 1365 shekels of silver. But in our case, as our lives were forfeited by sin, His life was given in our stead; and who shall say that it was insufficient? May we not rather say, ‘She hath received at the Lord’s hand double for all her sins,’ for ‘with Him is plenteous redemption?’ We have no need to supplement His sacrifices by silver. It appears that St. Peter had reference to this very contrast and to those supplemented shekels, when he said, 1 Pet. i. 18, ‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers: but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.’ Some people might possibly think more of redemption if the redemption price consisted of gold and silver, for they seem to care more for money than for the most precious blood of Christ; at all events, they appear to cling much faster to it. But what can money do for you when you are face to face with God? And what can man do for you when your conscience is bowed down by the weight of sin? No vicarious work of other men, and no gifts, however great, can set you free from the yoke and condemnation of the law. That will never enable you to say, as was said to me last week by one well known to many of you, ‘The whole weight is gone.’ No, indeed! All the Levitical service that conscientious men may offer to God, and all the accumulated wealth that the richest amongst us may tender as a redemption price, will all together utterly fail to take the weight from one sin-burdened soul. But the precious blood of Christ, of Christ Jesus the one divinely-appointed substitute, that is enough; enough, though quite alone, enough to redeem us from the whole curse, and to redeem us from it for ever, that so, by His boundless grace, we may be set apart as the first-born unto God, and live and die amongst those who are written in heaven. IV. THE BONDSMAN. ‘After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him.’—Lev. xxv. 48.