f the victim. A means was thus provided by
which it was transferred to the sanctuary. By the offering of blood, the
sinner acknowledged the authority of the law, confessed his guilt in
transgression, and expressed his desire for pardon through faith in a
Redeemer to come; but he was not yet entirely released from the
condemnation of the law. On the day of atonement the high priest, having
taken an offering from the congregation, went into the most holy place
with the blood of this offering, and sprinkled it upon the mercy-seat,
directly over the law, to make satisfaction for its claims. Then, in his
character of mediator, he took the sins upon himself and bore them from
the sanctuary. Placing his hands upon the head of the scapegoat, he
confessed over him all these sins, thus in figure transferring them from
himself to the goat. The goat then bore them away, and they were regarded
as forever separated from the people.

Such was the service performed "unto the example and shadow of heavenly
things." And what was done in type in the ministration of the earthly
sanctuary, is done in reality in the ministration of the heavenly
sanctuary. After His ascension, our Saviour began His work as our high
priest. Says Paul, "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with
hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us."(693)

The ministration of the priest throughout the year in the first apartment
of the sanctuary, "within the veil" which formed the door and separated
the holy place from the outer court, represents the work of ministration
upon which Christ entered at His ascension. It was the work of the priest
in the daily ministration to present before God the blood of the
sin-offering, also the incense which ascended with the prayers of Israel.
So did Christ plead His blood before the Father in behalf of sinners, and
present before Him also, with the precious fragrance of His own
righteousness, the prayers of penitent believers. Such was the work of
ministration in the first apartment of the sanctuary in heaven.

Thither the faith of Christ's disciples followed Him as He ascended from
their sight. Here their hopes centered, "which hope we have," said Paul,
"as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even
Jesus, made an high priest forever." "Neither by the blood of