THE LOOKING-GLASS AND THE LAVER. 173 



should wash and be clean, and thus have the blessed- 

 ness of the pure in heart and life, who should see the 

 living and true God. These mirrors, in which the 

 women of the Hebrew congregation saw their features 

 passively reflected, were adapted to their noblest pur- 

 pose when they became the active agent in producing a 

 purity and comeliness in which the Divine Being should 

 see the reflex of His own image. The whole trans- 

 action is a most beautiful and expressive symbol of the 

 vast difference between the beauty which man sees in 

 himself, and the beauty which God induces in him by 

 the means of grace. In fact, the whole gospel scheme 

 might be represented to the eye pictorially by these two 

 emblematical objects the looking-glass and the laver ; 

 for it shows us to ourselves, and it cleanses us from our 

 impurity. 



i. Let us look, in the first place, at the gospel as a 

 mirror showing us to ourselves. Contemplating the 

 features of our character in our own natural looking- 

 glass, we are satisfied with the image that is reflected 

 there. Comparing ourselves with ourselves we have no 

 sense of contrast ; we come up to our own ideal ; we 

 realize our own standard of goodness. Comparing 

 ourselves with others we are raised in our own esti- 

 mation ; we see many guilty of meannesses and follies 

 which we should scorn. We feel like the self-righteous 

 Pharisee in the temple, and thank God that we are not 

 as other men, or as the publican beside us. But the 

 gospel is the true mirror in which we see our true image 

 reflected. Even those who like the Hebrew women, 



