whole series of events is wonderfully adapted to
illustrate the course of Christian experience, and who shall say that
God did not order it with a view to this end? We do not resolve it into
mere type. We acknowledge it to be true history, valid to the men of
that age--a true earthly deliverance, guidance, and sustenance in the
wilderness, conducting to the possession of a true earthly inheritance.
But we say that it is a history so ordered by God as to typify the
higher pilgrimage of the believer to the heavenly Canaan. It is
undeniable that the writer to the Hebrews regards the rest of the
covenant people in the land of promise as a type of the rest of heaven.
Heb. 3:7-4:11. And if that part of the history was typical, it is
reasonable to infer that the whole was typical. It belongs to the nature
of a type that it should, on the one hand, come short of the fulness of
meaning that belongs to the antitype, and, on the other, should contain
some things which find no correspondence in that which it adumbrates.
The priesthood of the sons of Aaron, as we shall see, typified Christ's
priesthood, but only inadequately, as a shadow represents the substance;
while sinfulness, which belonged to all the priests of Aaron's line, not
only did not correspond to the character of the Antitype, but was in
contradiction with it. So is it also with the historical types that have
been under consideration. They represent the antitype inadequately, and
only in certain respects.

* * * * *

II. RITUAL TYPES.

5. The _sacrifices_ were the central part of the Jewish ritual. But
sacrifices imply _offerers_, a _personal God_ to whom the offering is
made, and a _priesthood_ through which it is presented. In the primitive
ages of the world, men offered sacrifices in their own behalf and that
of their household in whatever place it was their chance to sojourn.
Gen. 4:4; 8:20; 12:7, 8; 31:54; 33:20; 35:1, 7; 46:1; Job 1:5; 42:8. But
upon the establishment of the Mosaic economy, the priestly office was
restricted to the family of Aaron. Thenceforward all who wished to offer
sacrifices must bring them through the mediation of the priests of
Aaron's line. It belonged to the nature of the Mosaic economy, that God
should have a visible dwelling-place among the Israelites. The
directions for the construction of the tabernacle with its furniture are
introduced by the words: "Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell
a