r such a fashion as
to shut out any suspicion that the merit of Levi had prevailed where
that of Israel at large had failed. It was not because Levi executed
vengeance on the idolaters that he was chosen, for the choice was
already made, and made in the person of Aaron, who was so far from
blameless in that offence.

And perhaps this is the distinguishing peculiarity of the Jewish priest
among others: that he was chosen from among his brethren, and simply as
one of them; so that while his office was a proof of their exclusion, it
was also a kind of sacrament of their future admission, because he was
their brother and their envoy, and entered not as outshining but as
representing them, their forerunner for them entering. The almond rod of
Aaron was dry and barren as the rest, until the miraculous power of God
invested it with blossoms and fruit.

Throughout the ritual, the utmost care was taken to inculcate this
double lesson of the ministry. Into the Holy Place, whence the people
were excluded, a whole family could enter. But there was an inner
shrine, whither only the high priest might penetrate, thus reducing the
family to a level with the nation; "the Holy Ghost this signifying, that
the way into the Holy Place hath not yet been made manifest, while as
the first tabernacle (the outer shrine--ver. 6) was yet standing" (Heb.
ix. 8).

Thus the people felt a deeper awe, a broader separation. And yet, when
the sole and only representative who was left to them entered that
"shrine, remote, occult, untrod," they saw that the way was not wholly
barred against human footsteps: the lesson suggested was far from being
that of absolute despair,--it was, as the Epistle to the Hebrews said,
"Not yet." The prophet Zechariah foresaw a time when the bells of the
horses should bear the same consecrating legend that shone upon the
forehead of the priest: HOLY UNTO THE LORD (Zech. xiv. 20).

It is important to observe that the only book of the New Testament in
which the priesthood is discussed dwells quite as largely upon the
difference as upon the likeness between the Aaronic and the Messianic
priest. The latter offered but one Sacrifice for sins, the former
offered for himself before doing so for the people (Heb. x. 12). The
latter was a royal Priest, and of the order of a Canaanite (Heb. vii.
1-4), thus breaking down all the old system at one long-predicted
blow--for if He were on earth He could not so much as be a priest at all