hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.' We learn from this and similar passages that the Levitical ceremonies foreshadowed the atoning death of Christ and the blessings He bestows, and that when the realities are come, the types are no longer needed (see also Col. ii. 16-17).

3. With respect to the kingdom of God.

By the kingdom of God we mean the institutions which God graciously commenced on the earth for the purpose of reclaiming mankind from the power of sin and Satan, bringing them into communion with Himself, and thus preparing them for heaven. Now in this kingdom of God, or religious economy, as it existed during the Mosaic dispensation, there was much that had an exclusively national character. Israel was God's chosen people (Exod. xix. 5; Deut. x. 15), a 'kingdom of priests,' a 'holy nation' (Exod. xix. 6), and God even called them His 'first-born son' (Exod. iv. 22). They were 'the children of the kingdom' (Matt. viii. 12; xxi. 43); and in their temple at Jerusalem God had 'caused His name to dwell' as in no other place on earth (see Deut. xii. 5, 11, with 2 Chron. vii. 16; and Neh. i. 9), whilst all other nations were living in ignorance (Acts xvii. 30) and 'suffered to walk in their own ways' (Acts xvi. 16). Therefore if any believing Gentile wished to be recognized as a full member of the kingdom of God, he had first, by circumcision, to be naturalized in the Jewish community (Exod. xii. 48),

which, priding itself on its peculiar privileges (Rom. ii. 16-20), despised utterly all who did not undergo that initiatory rite (1 Sam. xxxi. 4; Eph. ii. 11). But with the coming of Christ the kingdom of God dropped its mere national character, or its exclusively Jewish form and colouring, and stood forth fully developed in its universal and truly spiritual nature. His precursor, John, told the Jews plainly, 'Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham' (Matt. iii. 2-3, 9). St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Romans (ii. 28-9), 'He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.' Circumcision as a religious practice is entirely done away with in the gospel, as seen from Gal. v. 2, where the Apostle declares, 'Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing;' and from Col. ii. 11, where he says to the Christians, 'In whom ye were also circumcised, with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.' Jesus Christ Himself states, 'The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, there! for lo, the kingdom of God