could they have for service? And what power can he have who is toiling on in dreary discouragement with the chain of unforgiven sin riveted on his soul? It is only the free man that can walk with God and serve Him. And now let us turn back to the text, and see how it deals with the difficulty. It draws the contrast between the purifying of the flesh and of the conscience, and it shows how the sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer could accomplish the one, but how the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ could alone affect the other; for it is that, and that alone, that could ‘purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God.’ The reason is obvious. That atonement wrought out by Him, was the atonement planned in the eternal covenant of God, and, when the time came, completed on purpose to meet the case of all sin,—not merely of outward acts, but the deep inward corruption of the heart; not merely by external restoration, but by complete, internal restoration to God’s love. It concerns the depths of the soul; and so completely blots out all sin, that the soul itself, whatever it has been, is now in Him spotless before God. This is the one secret both of peace and service. Till your conscience is thus purged through the blood of Christ, you will never know what it is really to serve the living God. And now look at the great contrast of the text, and mark well the difference between those sacrifices and ours. The sacrifice in the type was of very little value. The poor kid was led to the altar, and no one mourned its death; the poor scapegoat was left alone in the wilderness, and no one gave it a thought: a few shillings, or even pence, would replace it with another. It was picked out from the flock by what we should call mere chance, and no one missed it afterwards. But how different is our Sacrifice! Consider for a moment the description given of it in this verse. * * * * * (1) Our Lamb was ‘Christ,’ the Messiah, the Son of God! As St. Peter said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ (2) Our Sacrifice was offered in the eternal purpose of God; or, according to the text, ‘through the eternal Spirit.’ It was not an accidental selection, but a gift predetermined in the counsel of Jehovah, so that He is described by St. Peter as ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.’