“Ask yourself what lesson this would have taught you had you been one of the children of Israel,” said Mrs. Temple. “When you beheld the Tabernacle with the wondrous cloud resting upon it, and gazed through the opening in front on the veil which hid from your eyes the more dazzling glory within—that glory which was a sign of the immediate presence of God, into which on pain of death you dared not enter—what would have been the thought uppermost in your mind?”
“The thought that God was terribly holy, and that no human being was fit to come near Him,” replied Lucius, gravely.
“But one man was allowed to draw near,” observed Mrs. Temple.
“Only the high priest, and that with the blood of a sacrifice,” said her son.
“And so mankind were taught that there is a way to approach a holy God, but only one way; they were taught that sacrifice was needful, that WITHOUT SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS NO REMISSION (forgiveness of sin), Heb. ix. 22.
“But, mother, surely God does not require the blood of bulls and goats!” cried Lucius.
Mrs. Temple in reply turned over the leaves of the Bible, till she found the fortieth Psalm, and then read aloud,
“Burnt-offering and sacrifice hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo! I come; in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” It is the Lord Jesus Christ who says this by the mouth of David. The blood of lambs and other creatures was worthless, save as signs and pledges of the precious blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin, (John i. 7,) the blood of Him who is indeed the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world (John i. 29).
“It seems so sad that the Lord, who had done no sin, should have to bear all that agony on the cross,” murmured Lucius.
“Christ bore it in our STEAD,” said Mrs. Temple; “He suffered the punishment for sin, that sinners, repenting and believing, might be saved, forgiven, and made happy forever.”