d of human holiness as a Divine gift, as far as the dispensation
of symbol and shadow could offer and express it. In him God came near to
sanctify and bless the people. In him the people came their very
nearest to God. And yet the very Day of Atonement, in which he might
enter into the Most Holy, was but the proof of how unholy man was, and
how unfit to abide in God's Presence. In himself a proof of Israel's
unholiness, he yet was a type and picture of the coming Saviour, our
blessed Lord Jesus, a wondrous exhibition of the way in which hereafter
the holiness of God should become the portion of His people.

Among the many points in which the high priest typified Christ as our
sanctification, there is, perhaps, none more suggestive or beautiful
than _the holy crown_ he wore on his forehead. Everything about him was
to be holy. His garments were holy garments. But there was to be one
thing in which this holiness reached its fullest manifestation. On his
forehead he was always to wear a plate of gold, with the words engraved
on it, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. Every one was to read there that the whole
object of his existence, the one thing he lived for, was, to be the
embodiment and the bearer of the Divine holiness, the chosen one through
whom God's holiness might flow out in blessing upon the people.

The way in which the blessing of the holy crown was to act was a most
remarkable one. In bearing HOLINESS TO THE LORD on his forehead, he is,
we read, 'to bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of
Israel hallow; that they may be accepted before the Lord.' For every sin
some sacrifice or way of atonement had been devised. But how about the
sin that cleaves to the very sacrifice and religious service itself?
'Thou desirest truth in the inward parts.' How painfully the worshipper
might be oppressed by the consciousness that his penitence, his faith,
his love, his obedience, his consecration, were all imperfect and
defiled! For this need, too, of the worshipper, God had provided. The
holiness of the high priest covered the sin and the unholiness of his
holy things. The holy crown was God's pledge that the holiness of the
high priest rendered the worshipper acceptable. If he was unholy, there
was one among his brethren who was holy, who had a holiness that could
avail for him too, a holiness he could trust in. He could look to the
high priest not only to effect atonement by his blood-sprinkling, but in
his person to s