contracted defilement by touching a dead
body.[171] He also was cleansed by having the ashes of a heifer
sprinkled upon his flesh. Why, the very defilement is unreal and
artificial. To touch a dead body a sin! It may have been well to make it
a crime from sanitary considerations, and it may become a sin because
God has forbidden it. So far it touched conscience. When Elijah
stretched himself upon the dead child of the widow of Zarephath three
times, and the soul of the child came into him again, or when Elisha put
his mouth upon the mouth of the dead son of the Shunammite, his eyes
upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and the flesh of the child
waxed warm, God's holy prophet was defiled! The mother and the child
might bring their thank-offering to the sanctuary; but the prophet, who
had done the deed of power and mercy, was excluded from joining in
thanksgiving and prayer. If the defilement is unreal, what shall we
think of the means of cleansing? To touch a dead child defiles, but the
touch of the ashes of a burnt heifer cleanses! Yet natural conscience
felt guilty when thus defiled, and recovered itself, in some measure,
from its shame when thus made clean.[172] Such men resemble the persons,
referred to by St. Paul, who have "a conscience of the idol."[173]
Judaism enfeebled the conscience. A man of morbid religious sentiment
is often defiled in his own eyes by what is not really wrong, and often
finds peace and comfort in what is not really a propitiation or a
forgiveness.

On the other hand, Christ entered the true holiest place by His own
blood. He offered Himself. The High-priest is the sacrifice. Under the
old covenant the victim must be "without spot." But the high-priest was
not without blemish, and he offered for himself as well as for the
errors of the people. But in the offering of Christ, the spotless purity
of the Victim ensures that the High-priest Himself is holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. For this reason it is said here[174]
that He offered Himself "through an eternal spirit," or, as we should
say in modern phrase, "through His eternal personality." He is the
High-priest after the order of Melchizedek; and He invests the sacrifice
with all the personal greatness of the High-priest. Is He "without
beginning of days or end of life"? So also His sacrifice abides for
ever. His power of an indissoluble life belongs to His atonement. Is He
untouched by the rolling stream of time? H