hough boiling does not
mutilate, it dissipates; a certain amount of tissue is lost, more is
relaxed, and its cohesion rendered feeble; and so the duty of its
complete reception is accentuated by the words "not sodden at all with
water." Nor should it be a barbarous feast, such as many idolatries
encouraged: true religion civilises; "eat not of it at all raw."

(Ver. 10.) Nor should any of it be left until the morning. At the first
celebration, with a hasty exodus impending, this would have involved
exposure to profanation. In later times it might have involved
superstitious abuses. And therefore the same rule is laid down which the
Church of England has carried on for the same reasons into the Communion
feast--that all must be consumed. Nor can we fail to see an ideal
fitness in the precept. Of the gift of God we may not select what
gratifies our taste or commends itself to our desires; all is good; all
must be accepted; a partial reception of His grace is no valid reception
at all.

(Ver. 12.) In describing the coming wrath, we understand the inclusion
equally of innocent and guilty men, because it is thus that all national
vengeance operates; and we receive the benefits of corporate life at the
cost, often heavy, of its penalties. The animal world also has to suffer
with us; the whole creation groaneth together now, and all expects
together the benefit of our adoption hereafter. But what were the
judgments against the idols of Egypt, which this verse predicts, and
another (Num. xxxiii. 4) declares to be accomplished? They doubtless
consisted chiefly in the destruction of sacred animals, from the beetle
and the frog to the holy ox of Apis--from the cat, the monkey, and the
dog, to the lion, the hippopotamus, and the crocodile. In their
overthrow a blow was dealt which shook the whole system to its
foundation; for how could the same confidence be felt in sacred images
when all the sacred beasts had once been slain by a rival invisible
Spiritual Being! And more is implied than that they should share the
common desolation: the text says plainly, of men and beasts the
firstborn must die, but all of these. The difference in the phrase is
obvious and indisputable; and in its fulfilment all Egypt saw the act of
a hostile and victorious deity.

(Ver. 13.) "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses
where ye are." That it was a token to the destroying angel we see
plainly; but why _to them?_ Is it enough to ex