eed
which unquestionably connected itself with Divine action and revelation
in the past, and which presented itself actually to them under the
embodiment of a widespread but coherent nation, all descended from
Abraham and Israel, and of a glorious "city of solemnities," and of a
temple which was itself a wonder of the world, and of which every detail
was "according to a pattern" of Divine purpose, and in which all the
worship, all the ritual, done at the altars and within the veil, was
great with the majesty of Divine prescription? There the pious Israelite
could behold one vast sacramental symbol of JEHOVAH'S life, glory, and
faithfulness. And the living priesthood that ministered there, in all
its courses and orders, was one large, accessible organ of personal
witness to the blessings assured to the faithful "child of the Law."

It demands an effort--and it well deserves an effort--to realize in some
measure what the trial must have been for the sensitive mind of many a
Jewish convert to look thus from the Gospel to the Law as both shewed
themselves to him then. Even now the earnest and religious Jew, invited
to accept the faith of Jesus, has his tremendous difficulties of
thought, as we well know, although for so many ages Jerusalem has been
"trodden down," and the priesthood and sacrifices have become very
ancient history. But when our Epistle was written it was far otherwise.
True, the great ruin of the old order was very near at hand, but not to
the common eye and mind. It may be--for all things are possible--that
the Papal system may be near its period; but certainly there is little
look of it to the traveller who visits Rome and contemplates St. Peter's
and the Vatican. As little did the end of the Mosaic age present itself
as probable, judging by externals, to the pilgrim to Jerusalem then,
when, for example, the innumerable hosts of Passover-keepers filled the
whole environs of the city, and moved incessantly through the vast
courts around the sacred space where the great altar sent up its smoke
morning and evening, and where the wonderful House stood intact, "a
mountain of snow pinnacled with gold."

Think of the contrast between such historic invitations to "walk by
sight" towards the bosom of Abraham, and the call to "come out and be
separate" in some Christian upper-room, devoid of every semblance of
decorative art and dignified proportion, only to listen to the Word, to
pray and praise in the name of the