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THE

Preacher's Complete Homiletical

COMMENTARY

ON THE

OLD TESTAMENT

(ON AN ORIGINAL PLAN).

With Critical and Explanatory Notes, Endices, &c., &c.

BY

VARIOUS AUTHORS.

New York

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

LONDON AND TORONTO

1892

THE

PREACHER'S COMMENTARY

ON THE BOOK OF

LEVITICUS:

CONTAINING

SUGGESTIVE READINGS: Being comments on each chapter, Didactic and Experimental.

HOMILETICS: Consisting of three hundred and fifty Breviates and Outlines on Sections, Topics, or Verses of each chapter. ILLUSTRATIONS: Furnishing apt incident or quotation on Homiletic Themes.

the

BY THE

REV. W. HARVEY JELLIE,

Author of "The Preacher's Commentary on Jeremiah," etc.

Assisted in the Homiletics by

REV. FREDERICK W. BROWN.

New York

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

LONDON & TORONTO

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PREFACE.

HAVING regard to the Commentaries on Leviticus already in existence, ponderous with erudition and criticism, claiming also to be literary and exegetical, this "Homiletical Commentary" has deliberately shunned the profundities of scholarship, and works along practical and experimental lines. From first to last,

distinctive in this intent, it has quietly kept to its homiletical aim. Perhaps it may be found, on that very account, none the less serviceable as a help towards pulpit preparations. In its Readings, Homilies, and Outlines it seeks throughout to be suggestive and didactic, searching amid Hebrew ordinances for universal obligations, and gospel teachings in the sacrifices and rites of the Wilderness.

To read the book of Leviticus in its rich significance, the Tabernacle Revelations must be pondered in connexion with the "Word made flesh who tabernacled among us"; its Altar Sacrifices be read in the light which radiates from the sacred Cross; its Priestly offices and sanctions be viewed as foreshadowing the Christian's privileges and ministries; and its Moral Enactments be regarded as affirming those virtues essential through every age in man's relation to man. The Levitical ceremonies and ritual are picturesque delineations of the doctrines and duties of Christianity.

A cursory survey of this book of the Decalogue might dispose preachers to conclude that it contains few themes suited to present day needs; this error may explain why sermons on texts in Leviticus are so strangely rare. Closer acquaintance with its contents, and the appliance of a steady interpretative faculty to its symbols, will reveal that scarcely a Doctrine of Grace is lacking in those sanctuary ceremonies, whilst a wealth of Ethical Instruction dwells in the regulations of the Israelitish Camp.

The endeavour to force a homily from any and every text has been honourably abandoned. Whatever verses or themes presented a natural basis for homiletic effort, there an outline or breviate has been furnished. If this Commentary were compacted of homiletics which no preacher could use and no congregation would hear, it would merit the rebuke-"To what purpose is this waste?" The age is greatly too earnest to greet or value mere dexterous products which can serve no practical end.

Each chapter opens with Suggestive Readings, which it is hoped will afford

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