re priesthood abolished. The Old
Testament sacrifices consisted of bullocks, sheep and goats. To these
life was not spared. For the sacrifice they were slain, burned,
consumed by the priests. But the New Testament sacrifice is a
wonderful offering. Though slain, it still lives. Indeed, in
proportion as it is slain and sacrificed, does it live in vigor. "If
by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live."
Rom 8, 13. "For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Col
3, 3. "And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with
the passions and the lusts thereof." Gal 5, 24.

14. The word "living," then, is to be spiritually understood--as
having reference to the life before God and not to the temporal life.
He who keeps his body under and mortifies its lusts does not live to
the world; he does not lead the life of the world. The world lives in
its lusts, and according to the flesh; it is powerless to live
otherwise. True, the Christian is bodily in the world, yet he does not
live after the flesh. As Paul says (2 Cor 10, 3), "Though we walk in
the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh"; and again (Rom 8,
1), "Who walk not after the flesh." Such a life is, before God,
eternal, and a true, living sacrifice. Such mortification of the body
and of its lusts, whether effected by voluntary discipline or by
persecution, is simply an exercise in and for the life eternal.

15. None of the Old Testament sacrifices were holy--except in an
external and temporal sense--until they were consumed. For the life of
the animal was but temporal and external previous to the sacrifice.
But the "living sacrifice" Paul mentions is righteous before God, and
also externally holy. "Holy" implies simply, being designed for the
service and the honor of God, and employed of God. Hence we must here
understand the word "holy" as conveying the thought that we let God
alone work in us and we be simply his holy instruments. As said in
First Corinthians 6, 19-20, "Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
... and ye are not your own ... therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit, which are God's." Again (Gal 6, 17), "I bear
branded on my body the marks of Jesus." Now, he who performs a work
merely for his own pleasure and to his own honor, profanes his
sacrifice. So also do they who by their works seek to merit reward
from God, whether temporal or eternal. The point of error is, they are
not yet a sla