But the blood of Christ is intended to “purge the conscience from dead works.” The apostle says—“Ye are 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.” The Jews were in a state of bondage to the ceremonial law, toiling at the “dead works,” the vain and empty forms, which could never take away sin; and unjustified and unregenerate men are still captives of Satan, slaves of sin and death, tyrannized over by various evil habits and propensities, which are invincible to all things but “the blood of Christ.” He died to redeem, both from the burdens of the Mosaic ritual, and from the despotism of moral evil—to purge the conscience of both Jew and Gentile “from dead works, to serve the living God.” 2. We cannot “serve the living God,” without this preparatory purification of conscience. If our guilt is uncancelled—if the love of sin is not dethroned—the service of the knee and the lip is nothing but hypocrisy. “If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us.” Cherishing what he hates, all our offerings are an abomination to him; and we can no more stand in his holy presence than the dry stubble can stand before a flaming fire. He who has an evil conscience, flees from the face of God, as did Adam in the garden. Nothing but “the blood of Christ,” applied by the Holy Spirit, can remove the sinner’s guilty fear, and enable him to draw nigh to God in the humble confidence of acceptance through the Beloved. The service of the living God must flow from a new principle of life in the soul. The Divine word must be the rule of our actions. The Divine will must be consulted and obeyed. We must remember that God is holy, and jealous of his honor. The consideration that he is everywhere, and sees every thing, and will bring every work into judgment, must fill us with reverence and godly fear. An ardent love for his law and his character must supplant the love of sin, and prompt to a cheerful and impartial obedience. And let us remember that he is “the _living_ God.” Pharaoh is dead, Herod is dead, Nero is dead; but Jehovah is “the living God,” and it is a fearful thing to have him for an enemy. Death cannot deliver from his hand. Time, and even eternity, cannot limit his holy anger. He has manifested, in a thousand instances, his hatred of sin; in the destruction of the old world, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, the drowning of Pharaoh and his host in the sea; and I tell thee, sinner, except thou repent, thou shalt likewise perish! O, think what punishment “the living God” can inflict upon his adversaries—the loss of all good—the endurance of all evil—the undying worm—the unquenchable fire—the blackness of darkness for ever!