appeared when He who was its substance was manifested. There was nothing in the Mosaic economy that could make the comers thereunto perfect; nothing that could really purge the conscience or cleanse the soul from moral pollution. Its action was typical, its power preparatory, and its purpose temporary; yet valuable to the Jewish nation, and, through it, to the world at large. The substance was of Christ. Not only is He Himself the substance, but all the truth and grace and glory prefigured by the Levitical economy belong to Him, and are, so to speak, stored up in Him. The reality of the good things foreshadowed by the symbols of Moses is reached in the Son of God. They belong to Him in respect of their source and their realization; and they can only be reached by men through living personal union with Him. The Jewish test of a religious life was conformity to the numberless and various regulations laid down in the books of Moses and prescribed by tradition; and the result of Christ's work was absolutely to supersede this whole legal system. His work was one of liberation; yet truly did He declare, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil;" for the substance is of His provision and possession.

What, then, are some of the "good things" which had their shadow in the Levitical dispensation, and which find their substance in Christ Jesus? The Apostle does not enumerate all the provisions of a prefigurative character in the Jewish system; he refers only to distinctions of meats, and the observances of days and seasons, probably with direct reference to some special aspect of the false teaching which prevailed at Coloss. But these may be regarded as representative of the whole. If we look somewhat more narrowly into the meaning and typical purport of the festivals, and even the distinctions of food, we shall see that they were institutions or appointments full of important instruction, having an aspect towards God and a direct relation to man.

The various arrangements of the Jewish law touching these points kept constantly before the minds of the people, that Jehovah their King was the God of nature, providence, and grace. The great annual festivals of the Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits, and the Feast of Tabernacles, were intended to represent the Divine character and government in all these aspects. The forgiveness of sin, the sustenance and provision of the soul, the providential guidance and fatherly care of life, were all pointed out in them, with the indication of an abiding home in a better and heavenly country, of which the earthly Canaan was but an imperfect type. The "new moon," or first day of the month, with its appropriate services, helped to maintain the thought in the minds of the people, that Jehovah, as the God of the sun and moon, and the Ruler of the seasons, was as truly the God of providence as of creation, ordering and guiding all things by the counsel of His will and the working of His power, wisdom, and love. The weekly Sabbath, with its rest, was expressly instituted as a memorial of God's creative energy. Then the ordinary sacrifices were to be doubled, and the shewbread was to be renewed, indicative of the truth that in Him we live, and move, and have our being. Something of the same great fact was also prefigured in the distinctions of meatsshowing that God is the source of life, and that His will is the law of life. The body requires sustenance; but its appropriate food was not to be everything that might be turned into an article of diet. The people were chosen by God, and their food was select, so that their life and its strength might be for Him. Manhood can be truly sustained only by the gracious provision of God, and in harmony with His will.

Now it is clear that the great realities regarding God pourtrayed in these ritual appointments are embodied in Christ.

He is the image of the invisible God. In His

miracles and ministry, in His life and death, in His resurrection and ascension, He gives the fullest personal representation of Jehovah as the God of nature, providence, and redemption; at once the Author, Ruler, and Lord of the spiritual life. In Him therefore, as the substance and antitype, all shadow and symbol disappear.

And surely these truths about God and His government have a direct bearing on man. The ancient ceremonial observances spoke to him of redemptive deliverance through the shedding of blood; of the necessity of a pure and holy life; of acceptable worship at the times and places where God condescended to meet with His people; of Divine rest in the sabbaths enjoined, and in the repose of the land itself at stated intervals of years; and of sacred joy in the blowing of trumpets and services of song connected with many of the festivals. All these facts and features of the spiritual life were shadowed forth in the ritualism of Moses; but "the body is of Christ." Only in Him do they find their substance. Redemption for us is by Him, in the ransom which He paid by the offering of His soul for sin. A holy life for us is reached in union with Him; for He is made unto us sanctification as well as redemption. Acceptable worship by us is through Him, and only through Him, for no man can go to God except by the Son; and now in Him the humble worshipper, without respect to sacred seasons or places, is graciously welcomed and richly blessed. Divine rest for man is in Him, and in Him alone; rest for the intellect in His truth, for the heart in His love, for the conscience in His cross. He is the true resting-place of human desire and hope; and the believer in Him rejoices with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

The shadow has passed away, but the substance abideth in Christ, our wealth and our possession for evermore. He is our Sacrifice and our Sabbath, the Living Bread from

heaven on which we feed, the Divine Rock from which the water of life is ever flowing. With exquisite tenderness and majestic authority, with individualizing and infinite love, He says to the "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," wherever His gospel reaches, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." Hail! Thou holy Lord and rightful King, be Thou All and in all to us, our Light and our Liberty, our Life and our Law. All things around us are unsubstantial as shadows: in Thee we have imperishable substance and everlasting glory.

XXIV.

The Presumption and Peril of Error.

"Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head."-COLOSSIANS ii. 18, 19.

H

AVING alluded to the ceremonies and sacred seasons of the Mosaic economy, and warned the Christian disciciples against being entangled by any system of ritualism, the Apostle advances to speak of the vain philosophy which he had previously referred to, and against which he wishes further to warn them. Another class of dangerous error to which the Colossians were exposed is here spoken of; and St. Paul, anxious that nothing should shake their confidence in Christ, or draw their minds away from the simplicity of the gospel, urges them to allow no one-with allusion probably to some individual false teacher to deprive them of their heavenly reward. He evidently saw danger to their faith and peace in the vain theories of a false spiritualism which was taught, and he warns them against it as an impudent and perilous imposition. The particular form of error which the Apostle denounces was perhaps local and temporary. Yet there is instruction in his words for all ages, and to which in our own day we do well to give earnest heed. Even the errors which he condemns will be found to