the
morning when Aleck called me for breakfast I felt that every fibre of my
body was springing for action, and with the last touch leaping from my
bed the first day of new life went into history.

CHAPTER IV

_High Priest_

For the benefit of those who ignorantly, if not deliberately by deceit,
misled to believe that the priest has any authority, which the truly
converted Christian could not exercise, the present chapter is offered
in the spirit of love without any fear of contradiction or dispute,
because the facts given here are well established upon the Scriptural
Truths and the reader may at all times maintain the proofs to disprove
refutable arguments of persons whose only purpose is to serve their own
individual interests.

The priest, one who officiates in secret offices, it is the definition
given in Webster's dictionary. And from the most authentic Biblical
concordances we derive the following information: The priest under the
law was a person consecrated and ordained of God, not only to teach the
people and pray for them, but also to offer up sacrifices for his own
sins and those of the people. The priesthood was not annexed to a
certain family, till after the promulgation of the law of Moses.

Before that time the first born of every family, the fathers, the kings,
the princes, were priests, born in their city and in their own homes.
Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Job, Abimelech and Laban, Isaac and
Jacob, offered themselves their own sacrifices. In the solemnity of the
covenant that the Lord made with his people at the foot of Mount Sinai,
Moses performed the office of meditator, and young men were chosen from
among the children of Israel to perform the office of priests. But after
that the Lord had chosen the tribe of Levi to serve him in his
tabernacle, and that the priesthood was annexed to the family of Aaron,
then the right of offering sacrifices to God was reserved to the priests
alone of this family.

Duties of the priests: The priests were required to prove their descent
from Aaron, to be free from all bodily defect or blemish; must not be
observed mourning except for near relatives; must not marry a woman that
had been a harlot; or divorced, or profane. The priest's daughter who
committed whoredom was to be burned, as profaning her father. The
priests were to have the charge of the sanctuary and the altar, which
being once kindled the priest was always to keep it burning. In later