Enough, I trust, has been said to show the grounds upon which the Levites stood before God. These grounds were free and _eternal grace_--grace exercised toward them through the blood, which is the only channel through which grace can flow. Man has been found to be _utterly ruined_ before God, and therefore it must be a question either of salvation through _free grace_, or eternal damnation; for "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh living be justified." But then, while man is by nature utterly unfit to render anything like an acceptable righteousness or service to God, yet, when God gives us _new life_ through grace, He, of course, looks for the development of that life. In other words, grace brings the soul into circumstances of responsibility and service, and it is as we meet those circumstances that God is glorified in us and our souls grow in the knowledge of God. Thus it was in the case of the leper: up to a certain point in his history he had nothing to do, _the priest_ was the sole actor. But when the priest had done his part; when, by virtue of _the blood_ which had been shed, he had pronounced him "clean," the leper had _then_ to begin to "_wash himself_" (Lev. xiv. 8). Now we shall find that the history of Levi develops all these principles most fully. We have hitherto been engaged with Levi's condition and character by nature and also the wondrous remedy devised by grace to meet him in his lost estate, and not only to save him _from_ that estate but also to raise him up to an elevation which could never have entered into the heart of man, even into the very tabernacle of God. We shall now, with God's blessing and grace, proceed to examine that high elevation to which we have referred, and also the service which it involved, as put before us in NUMBERS iii. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, _Bring the tribe of Levi near_, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him. And they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of the congregation, to do the service of the tabernacle. And they shall keep _all the instruments of the tabernacle_ of the congregation, and the charge of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle. And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron, and to his sons: they are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel" (vers. 5-9). Here, then, God's marvelous purposes of grace toward Levi fully open before us, and _truly_ marvelous they are indeed. We see that the sacrifices were but a means to an end; but both the means and the end were in every way worthy of each other. The means were, in one word, "death and resurrection," and _all included therein_. The end was, _nearness_ to God, and _all included therein_.