e and change into each
other! If all the mistakes could be forgiven and set right, how much
evil, virulent and unmixed, would there be left in the world, do you
suppose?"

"Not more than there was before the mistakes began," replied Vireo.
"Like the Arabian genie, the monster would be drawn down from its
horrible expansion to a point again,--the point of a possibility;
the serpent suggestion of evil choice. When God has done his work of
forgiving, there is where it will be, I think; and the Son of the
woman shall set his heel upon its head."

"I wish I could see what lies behind this," said Mr. Kirkbright.
"'He shall abide in it unto the death of the high-priest,' and after
that, 'the slayer shall return into the land of his possession.'
That might almost seem to point to the old sacrificial idea; the
atonement by death. I cannot rest in that. I wish I could see its
whole meaning,--for meaning it must have, and a meaning of _life_."

"A temporary ministry; a limited exile; the one the measure of the
other," sail Hilary Vireo, slowly thinking it out, and taking the
book from the hand of his friend, to look over the words themselves,
as he did so.

"The glory is in the promise: 'he shall return into the land of his
possession.' His life shall be given back to him,--all that it was
meant to be. It shall be kept open for him, till the time of his
banishment is over. Meanwhile, over even this period is a holy
providing, an anointed commission of grace."

"But hear this," he continued, turning to the Epistle to the
Hebrews, "and put the suggestions alongside. All but God's final and
eternal _best_ is transitional. 'They truly were many priests,
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But
this man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable
priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost,
that come to God by Him.' Did it ever occur to you to think about
that saving to the uttermost? Not a scrap of blessed possibility
forfeited, lost? All gathered up, restored, put into our hands
again, from the redeeming hands of Christ? Backward and forward,
through all that was irretrievable to us; sought, and traced, and
found, and brought back with rejoicing; the whole house swept, until
not one silver piece is missing. That is the return into the land of
our possession. _That_ is God's salvation, and his gospel! That is
what shall come to pass. Not yet; not while we are only under th