“No,” interrupted Agnes, “the sacrifice was the type, the sacrifice whose blood had been shed.”
“Both high priest and sacrifice were types of our blessed Saviour,” replied Mrs. Temple. “The Lord was the victim offered, and He was also the high priest who made the offering, for He laid down His life of Himself, since no man had power to take it from the Almighty Son of the Most High.”
“Was there any particular meaning in the veil of the Temple being rent in twain from the top to the bottom, as soon as our Lord died on the cross?” inquired Agnes, who had been listening with serious attention.
“We cannot doubt it,” answered her mother. “The Temple was the far larger, more substantial building which took the place[A] of the Tabernacle of the wandering children of Israel; it, too, had its veil of rich work to shut out from mortal view the Holy of holies. But as soon as the One great Sacrifice had been offered on the cross, when the dying Lord could cry out ‘It is finished,’ then followed the rending asunder of the hiding veil, as a sign and type that all the Lord’s people, through His precious blood, might freely enter heaven, the real Holy of holies, and appear without dread of meeting His wrath in the presence of God the Father.”
FOOTNOTE:
[A] The Temple standing at the time of our Lord’s death was not Solomon’s, which had been burnt more than six hundred years before.
