02.10 The Abolishment of the First Covenant (Part Two)

Sunday, February 19, 1899; 10:30 a. m.

SERMON No. VI. —THE ABOLISHMENT OF THE FIRST COVENANT (PART 2).

Text: "And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me (Rom 7:10-11)." That I may keep before you what I have undertaken to do I repeat the proposition that I submitted last night: The old covenant including the law or the ten commandments, the statutes of Israel, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the ministration—every sentence of it, every phrase of it, every word of it, every jot of ii. every tittle of it, is done away. I am sure there is not am thing evasive or ambiguous about that. If I can prove it, well and good. If I cannot prove it, well and good. I think the passages which I have just read to you are at least a very strong argument tending to show that if the old covenant is not abolished it should be. Paul doubtless puts himself in the place of the Hebrew nation when he declares that the commandment was ordained to life but took advantage of him and he found it to be unto death. I shall give you the exact words of Moses on this point: "Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments; which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord (Lev 18:4-5)." Israel, however, found that instead of life there was death, because in the very nature of things on account of man’s weakness it was utterly impossible for any human being absolutely to keep the law. Hence the commandment which, if it had been kept, would have brought life, being broken, brought on death. It is well for us to study a little the connection in which these passages are found. They are a part of a very long and a very conclusive argument by the apostle Paul on the very question that we have under consideration. He declares that Israel had become dead to the law by the body of Christ. He declares that having become dead to the law by the body of Christ, they were married unto one who was raised from the dead. He declares that they were delivered from the law. He declares that he would have had no lust if the law had not commanded him not to covet. He declares that sin took occasion by reason of the commandment and slew him. Then he comes down to the statement: "And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death." What a strange, what a remarkable conclusion this! What docs it mean? This and nothing more: That the Law-giver held them to strict accountability and therefore when a man broke the law he had to suffer. And he teaches the lesson that instead of bringing life the law spread punishment, suffering, death, everywhere. Hear Paul again: "Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression (Rom 4:15)." The law was added because of transgression, amplified because of transgression, administered because of transgression, perpetuated because of transgression; the penalty was executed because of transgression until the Lord should come, until the Lord should die and bring in, not law in the sense of Moses’ law, but in the day of liberty. I think this will bring your minds up fairly and squarely to the issue that we have before us, and I therefore resume my argument where I left off last night. The entire system was the ministration of death. Let us go back to Sinai and review the situation and assert a few elementary facts. At the inauguration of the law thousands suffered the penalty for its wilful infraction. At the very dawn, at the very first day I may say, of the administration, the character of the law is shown fully, freely, conclusively in the fact that the dead and dying lay everywhere throughout the camp of Israel because they had trampled under foot the commandment of God. In reality the law was the ministration of death. It is so designated in the New Testament. Hear Paul again: "For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died (Rom 7:9)." What was true of Paul was true of myriads—true of all Israel from Sinai to the Cross. Men heard the law, accepted the law, promised to obey the law, but failing, the penalty of the law was swift and absolutely sure. Is it not remarkable in view of the fact that the first converts to the Christian religion knew of all this, knew the law, knew the ministration—is it not remarkable I say that these very people, after having been brought into the church of Christ, should undertake to bring in also the law of Moses and declare that except the disciples of the Lord kept the law also they could not be saved? The elaborate argument of Stephen recorded in the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles was really the first effort on the part of the disciples of the Lord to combat the mighty influence of the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the other people who were zealous of the law. Stephen began with the very dawn of their history and fact by fact, argument by argument, climax by climax, conclusion by conclusion, finally drove them before him until they could not endure any longer and instead of patiently listening to him stopped their ears, ran upon him and put him to death. The agitation continued and spread not only throughout Jerusalem and unto the churches of the Gentiles, but it was intensified as the years went on and I would have you remember that not less than three of Paul’s epistles were written for the purpose of counteracting that very influence. Last night I brought up the testimony of Paul who was the last to see the Lord after He had gone up on high, and the testimony of James and the testimony of the entire church at Jerusalem, going to show that those who understood the Gospel, believed it, and were willing to trust it, had no thought that they were required to go back to Moses and the law. But these Judaizing teachers were energetic, persistent, intense and almost unconquerable. They were everywhere spreading their heresy. They even went to the extreme of declaring that not only was it policy, not only was it wisdom to keep the law of Moses, but that it was indispensably necessary to salvation. Paul contended against this conclusion. His epistle to the Romans was written to counteract it. His epistle to the Galatians was written for the same purpose. His epistle to the Hebrews was also written in order to set forth in detail what the Law of Moses was, what the ministration was, what the ordinances were; what the Gospel is and the relationship of one to the other, and argument by argument, fact by fact, precept by precept, line by line, conclusion by conclusion, he came down to this last statement—triumphantly laid it down, glorious in its simplicity and absolutely effective in its results: "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second (Heb 10:9)." While these three epistles were written in order I may say to counteract the influences of these Judaizing teachers where their influences were most potent, the apostle recognized the fact that these agitators were even where. Some of them had gone to Corinth undoubtedly, because in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians Paul argued most earnest!} in detail, and with effective logic and power, that the old administration was done away. This argument is recorded in the third chapter of Second Corinthians. I shall read it and expand it passage by passage. Speaking of himself and the other apostles and teachers, he says: "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament: not of the letter but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and graven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away; How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished (2Co 3:6-13)." I call your attention to some very remarkable statements here—important I may say as key­words or key-statements to the entire situation. First, the apostles were ministers of the New Testament or Covenant. Second, they were not ministers of the Old Testament or of the Law. Third, the letter—the law, killeth. Fourth, the spirit or the Gospel giveth life. Fifth, that which was written and engraven on stones was the ministration of death. Sixth, it was a ministration of condemnation. Seventh, its glory is done away, and finally its glory is no glory—it sinks into utter insignificance when compared with the glory of that which is now, the ministration of the righteousness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Notice particularly that he sums the whole thing up and says, that it is condemnation, is death, and that its glory has passed by reason of the overshadowing glory of the new and better covenant. What does he mean by the ministration of death having been written and engraven on stones? Whatever that is, he declares that it is done away. Let me raise some questions therefore: What was written upon stones? Is that ministration still in force or it is abolished? The answer is here plain, unmistakable, unequivocal: It is done away. Its glory was abolished forever, and this means that the law is abolished forever. It cannot mean anything else. If you confront any of the teachers of our times with a statement like that the answer will be that it is not a fact that the ten commandments were done away—that Paul had in mind only the carnal ordinances, the ceremonial law, the ritualistic service at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. But he does not say that. He does not intimate that. He does not suggest that. He does not insinuate it even in the remotest degree. Let us come right down to the phraseology and to the facts in the case and let us meet the issue fairly, squarely, honestly, scripturally, or not at all. What was written and engraven on stones? Was it the ceremonial law? Every student of the Bible knows that it was not. Was it the law regulating the service at the door of the tabernacle of Israel in the hands of Aaron and his sons? No. What was it? Certainly one thing is true and that is this: Whatever was written on tables of stone was, in Paul’s estimation, the ministry of death and whatever was written and engraven on stones was, in the estimation of Paul, done away. He says it in plain words. I think it will be well to call for the testimony of Moses now and let us find out what was really written on the stones: "And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God (Exo 31:18)." But one witness is not enough for some people and I will give you another: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments (Exo 34:27-28)." Hear me: Not one single word, not one single jot, not one tittle of the law was written on the tables of stone save the ten commandments that God originally proclaimed from the summit of Sinai. As we are dealing with the question of the covenant it will be well to refresh your minds just a little on this point and prove that what was engraven on the stones was the covenant and that the covenant was therefore the ministration of death. The proof is right here at hand: "And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone (Deu 4:12-13)."

Repetition is sometimes a profound necessity. I therefore turn and give you Paul’s testimony again. I want to place his testimony and the testimony of Moses side by side and then we can draw a conclusion without doing violence to either: "But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away; How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious (2Co 3:7-8)?" Conclusion: The ten commandments engraven on stones by the finger of God constituted the covenant with Israel, and the great apostle of the Gentiles meeting the arguments of the Judaizing teachers in the early church, declared that that which was engraven on the stones was the ministration of death, that it was done away and was succeeded and overshadowed by the ministration of the spirit of God through Jesus Christ His Son. But I raise an important question here: Why were the ten commandments, why were the statutes of Israel, why was the whole institution the ministration of death? Paul gives us a good idea in the text. He said that which was ordained unto life he found to be unto death because he broke the law and that was the experience of everybody. If all the laws of this State, or of your State had the death penalty attached to them there would be an execution every day. Suppose that all of the laws of the School of the Evangelists had the death penalty attached to them? We would only have a graveyard here now and a memory of the things that were! And so it was with Israel. The death penalty was attached to almost every law, and therefore there was death everywhere, mourning everywhere, and crying everywhere, and graves of criminals everywhere. That is what the law was. The great difficulty with the Judaizing teachers in the ancient church and in the church now is that they have undertaken to discover some method—I know not what it is, it has not been properly defined and described and surveyed, but some method by which the law can be pulled over into the church and the penalty left back with the Jews! It never did work in the apostolic church; it will not work in the church now. "The ministration of death written and engraven on stones!" And here I lay down a proposition that will probably be startling in its nature, in its scope, in its sweep, in its influences on your thought and on the thought of others: Every commandment with a single exception—and I can make out a good case on that—uttered by the voice of Jehovah from mount Sinai and written by Him on the tables of stone had attached to it the penalty of death. It is not very remarkable therefore that Paul should look back over the whole scene and say that it was the ministration of death. Suppose a. man should be elected to the presidency of the United States on the platform that every man who violated any law or any part of the constitution of the government, or of any state thereof should be put to death. If anybody survived that administration, and perhaps the executioner would, if he did not die from overwork, he would look back over the whole thing and say that this was a ministration of death from the beginning. Let us see if I can establish what I have said about the ten commandments being the ministration of death. Paul, you notice, just sums it all up. Paul knew and I am going to tell you every word of it. He was a mighty lawyer educated in his own country, but failing to receive all he desired, he went to Jerusalem and sat at the feet of the mightiest lawyer of his day, Gamaliel, and was instructed in the principles of Moses’ law. Therefore I say Paul could have made just exactly the speech that I am going to make but he covered the whole thing with one statement and said it was the ministration of death and there are thousands of people today that believe that Paul made a mistake or that he blundered or that he told something when he said that which he could not prove because they argued stoutly, persistently, earnestly, energetically, that ye are yet under Moses as well as under Christ.

I will just turn to the commandments and give them to you and refer you to the passages and the penalty. I shall treat the first two as one. The first and second commandments were against idolatry: "And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any tiling that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments (Exo 20:1-6)." Idol making, image making, idol worshiping, image worshiping—what was the penalty? Let Moses answer: "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you (Deu 13:6-11)." Not only this, but God declared that where idolatry was introduced into a city, that not only should the inhabitants be slain, but that the city should be burned in order that every vestige of idolatry or of idol making and idol worshiping should be wiped from the face of the land that he loved (Deu 13:12-17). The third commandment was against taking the name of God in vain: "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (Exo 20:7)." What was the penalty? Let Moses answer: "And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; And the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shemolith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan: ) And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be showed them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death (Lev 24:10­16)." The fourth commandment was that they should observe the sabbath day: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it (Exo 20:8-11)." Moses is very careful, very specific, goes very much into detail as to how God designed that this day should be kept. What was the penalty? Let Moses answer, for he was there and knows: "And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the Lord hath commanded, that ye should do them. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day (Exo 35:1-3)." Again: "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone him without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses (Num 15:32-36)." Sabbath day—violation—death—no mercy! The fifth commandment was that every Israelite should honor his father and his mother: "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee (Exo 20:12)." What was the penalty to that? Let Moses answer: "And he that smiteth his father or his mother, shall be surely put to death (Exo 21:15)." The sixth commandment was against killing—against the unlawful taking of the life of a human being: "Thou shalt not kill (Exo 20:13)." What was the penalty? I answer the penalty was death. Hear Moses: "He that smiteth a man so that he die, shall be surely put to death. And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die (Exo 21:12-14)." Again, and the statements are even stronger than these. Let Moses speak in his own language: "Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death. And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are; for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel (Num 35:31-34)." The seventh commandment was against adultery: "Thou shalt not commit adultery (Exo 20:14)." Penalty, death. Proof: "And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death (Lev 20:10)." The eighth commandment was against stealing: "Thou shalt not steal (Exo 20:15)." What was the penalty for this? Not always but often, death: "If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him (Exo 22:2)." The ninth commandment was against false witness. What was the penalty? I answer, under certain circumstances, and often, death. Proof: "If a false witness rise up against any man, to testify against him that which is wrong; Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges which shall be in those days: And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; Then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you. And thine eye shall not pity: but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot (Deu 19:16-21)." If a man sought by false witness to procure or cause to be procured the death of another man, the law said that he should surely die. The tenth commandment was against covetousness: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s (Exo 20:17)." I intimated at the beginning that I could not establish that in every case the penalty was death, that there was a single exception, but I thought I could make a strong case out of that. Covetousness is the unlawful desire for that which is another’s. It is all right to buy, to give an honest equivalent; but to take or to desire to take, without an honest equivalent is covetousness, and therefore a sin. I will give you the proof from the New Testament. These are the words of Paul: "Covetousness, which is idolatry (Col 3:5)." If Covetousness is idolatry and if men were slain on account of idol worship, then they must have been slain on account of Covetousness. I will not say that this absolutely proves it. but we have two illustrations in the Old Testament. At the siege of Ai, Achan, the son of Carmi, unlawfully coveted and unlawfully rook that which was not his own (Jos 7:20-26). Penalty, death. Ahab unlawfully coveted the vineyard of another. That covetousness led to murder (1Ki 21:1-29). Penalty, death. But I do not care if you want to say that I have not made out the case on this. If ninety per cent of the commandments had attached to them, unequivocally and positively the penalty of death, then I am justified, and Paul is justified in saying that the whole institution was a ministration of death written and engraven on stones, and instead of trying to revive the law, instead of trying to resuscitate the law, instead of trying to bring the law, or the commandments, or the covenant, or the administration, or the Aaronic priesthood into the church of God, we ought to be thankful that our Father is better to us now and that it depends upon us more and more to serve Him because we love Him, not to serve Him because we fear Him. I have already intimated to you that the sword of punishment hung over the Israelites from the cradle to the grave.

I do not stop here. Not only was the penalty of death attached to nine out of the ten commandments, certainly, and probably to the tenth, but the penalty of death was attached also to many of the statutes of Israel, but I shall give you only a few illustrations. The priests of Israel, those who were supposed to be God’s holy servants, were always in danger of death. The death penalty hung over them, the sword of justice hung over them, from the day of their consecration unto the day of their death. I will give you the proof of that. Allow me to read the words of Moses: "And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a stature forever throughout your generations: And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses (Lev 10:9-11)." Again: He did not dare go into the tabernacle to serve God without a remembrance of the fact that the probable death penalty was hanging over him and that the sword of vengeance might be unsheathed at any time. Proof: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat; When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord; So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them even to him and to his seed throughout their generations (Exo 30:17-21)." There was to be a carefulness, a deliberation, a solemnity about the service that certainly did bring a man’s heart clown low. Proof: "And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them a censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them; and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace (Lev 10:1-3)." A parallel to this: Imagine a man standing up to preach the Gospel of the Son of God, reading a hymn, reading from the prophets and from the Gospels, with a sword of vengeance hanging over his head, and you will understand the responsibility of the priesthood of Israel.

Passing from the priesthood to the people we have it recorded that the restrictions were just as strong, just as hard, and just as merciless: "Thou shall not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people (Exo 22:28)." The word "gods" there means the rulers. Imagine if you can a man in our day being prohibited from criticizing the administration of the courts under the penalty of death, and you know about how a Hebrew had to live. He had to keep his mouth shut, he had no right to say a word about the decision of the judge. If it suited him, well and good, if it did not, well and good. But again, and here is stronger proof than that: "If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy, within thy gates; then shall thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; And thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment: And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall show thee; and thou shall observe to do according to all that they inform thee: According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor to the left. And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear, and fear and do no more presumptuously (Deu 17:8-13)." Try to bring that home to you. You have a case that goes up before the Supreme Court of the State and it is decided against you and you walk out and say that you do not think you got justice. Under the law of Israel that meant death. Oh we have liberty under the Gospel, we have liberty under the laws inspired by the Gospel of Christ. If the judge does not decide it according to our opinion we transfer it from one court to another until we get to the highest. If it still goes against us we have a right to say that the judge has perjured himself and he has not done his duty, and you can appeal from the judge of the Supreme Court to the people again. Oh the beauty, Oh the liberty, Oh the glory of the administration of law especially where the flags of Britannia and Columbia wave! Again: Under the administration of the law, the ministration of death, a man was not permitted, save he be of the proper family, to enter the house of God. How strict that was! How awful that was! How terrible that was! How merciless that was! Here is the proof right at hand: "And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death (Num 1:51)." Imagine if you can a condition of affairs when only the preacher can go into the house of God, and that any man who approaches nigh unto the sanctuary of his God shall be put to death, and then you will know something about the ministration under which Moses and Israel lived! And again, on the day of atonement certain regulations were laid down and they were remarkably strict. If a man persists in sinning now, judgment may slumber long, but it was not so under the law. I call your attention particularly to one statement here: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And ye shall do no work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people (Lev 23:26-29)." Imagine if you can a state of affairs in our time when a sinner, refusing to hear the Gospel call, thrust out of his neighborhood, thrust out of his State, is thrust out of his country to wander forever in exile. That was the law of Moses! Let me tell you brethren: The shortest road and the best schedule to the understanding of the New Testament is to comprehend what is meant by the ministration of death. We talk about Apostolic New Testament Christianity. Brethren listen to me! It means that it is a new institution, that the day of the law has passed, that the day of earthly vengeance is gone, and that although the world stands in guilt before God, that Jesus Christ on His throne holdeth out the scepter of mercy to every ransomed sinner, to you, to me!