UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 139 



tisement by this figurative retribution ; and 

 3rdly, a firm belief in the efficacy of the great 

 final atonement. The Jews well knew," added 

 my uncle, " that none of these sacrifices had in 

 themselves sufficient value to clear the criminal, 

 or to procure his pardon ; they knew that they 

 were only instituted as a public avowal of his 

 crime, and as a type of the perfect expiation to 

 be afterwards made by Christ for the sins of 

 mankind. 



" It was indeed the object of all the sacrifices 

 of the Mosaic ritual, to impress the people with 

 the necessity of expiation, even for involuntary 

 offences ; and to fix in their minds that awful 

 maxim, as St. Paul expresses it, that ' without shed- 

 ding of blood there is no remission.' This lesson 

 was inculcated in the earliest sacrifice upon re- 

 cord when respect was had to Abel's sacrifice 

 of the firstlings of his flock, rather than to the 

 husbandman's offering of the fruit of his ground ; 

 and afterwards in the covenant with Noah, as 

 well as in varions parts of the Mosaic law, where 

 blood was in the most absolute way prohibited 

 to be eaten, as being a holy thing consecrated to 

 llie purpose of general expiation. This expiatory 

 virtue, however, the apostles emphatically say, 

 belonged not to the blood of bulls and of goats, 

 but to the blood of Christ, of which the other 

 was only a temporary emblem." 



My uncle then read to us the several parts of 



