Footnote: fta1 In presence of those to whom he was well known, he could say, “I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day” ( Acts 23:1, R. V.). And with reference to his past life, he could write, “As touching the righteousness which is the law, found blameless” ( Philippians 3:6, R. V.).

Footnote: ftb1 These are the words of one of the most popular exponents of the new Gospel. I quote them without pretending to understand them.

But the stranger could ally himself with the Covenant people, and obtain the blessings of the Covenant. Let us not be misled by the critics into supposing that the Divine Mosaic code was harsh to the stranger.

There never was a code more considerate or kind. (See ex. gr. , Leviticus 25:35; Numbers 15:15-29; Deuteronomy 10:18,19; 14:29; 16:11; 23:7; 24:17-21; 26:11-13.)

Footnote: ftc1 Both A. V. and R. V. ignore the word both in the passage, and the both requires the last and to be rendered “even,” for redemption is a blessing not additional to, but inclusive of, righteousness and sanctification. The construction is the same as in ver. 24 (both Jews and Greeks). ftc2 The intervening chapter, deal altogether with the Tabernacle. ftc3 “The only priests under the Gospel, dezignated as such in the New Testament, are the saints, the members of the Christian brotherhood.

As individuals all Christians are priest alike.” —BISHOP LIGHTFOOT, Philippians. ftc4 Lightfoot's Philippians (“The Christian Ministry”). Lest a false impression should be derived from his words, Dr. Lightfoot goes on to mark the distinction between what is essential to Christianity, and what is practically necessary or expedient. “It must be evident,” he says, “that no society of men could hold together without officers, without rules, without institutions of any kind.”

Footnote: ftd1 The historical reference in chapter 11:28 does not affect this. ftd2 See note 2 of Significance of the Pass-over. ftd3 Katallasso; used in Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 5; and in an intensified form in Ephesians 2:16 and Colossians 1:20,21.

Footnote: fte1 Leviticus 13:1 13. The objection urged by Edersheim, that modern medical science would not accept the disease here described as leprosy, does not affect what I have here written. The ordinance was for a primitive people in primitive circumstances, and the language of the passage above quoted leaves no doubt whatever that the disease was to be treated as leprosy. Language, indeed, could not be plainer. We have a precise parallel to this in England at the present time. As a mild case of small-pox is sometimes mistaken for chicken-pox, it is proposed that this comparatively harmless disease shall be brought under the law which requires all small-pox cases to be reported and isolated. Nothing, moreover, in Edersheim's criticisms can affect the typical significance of the passage and of the rites unfolded in it.

Footnote: ftf1 See R. V. In the “Received Text” louo is used in error for luo . ftf2 This may account for the two readings of Revelation 22:14, “Blessed are they that wash their robes” (R. V.). “Blessed are they that do His commandments” (A. V.). The reading of the “Received Text” is probably a gloss introduced by someone who understood the meaning of the figure, “washed their robes.” ftf3 See R. V. (margin ) of 1 Corinthians 6:11. As Alford writes: “The aor. mid. cannot by any possibility be passive in signification, as it is generally, for doctrinal reasons, here rendered.” Albeit both here and in Acts 22:16 (the only other place where apolouo occurs) Afford, more suo , refers it to baptism. The amazing theory that a sinner washes away his sins by going down into the water of baptism is borrowed from the cults of classic paganism. (See Dr. Hatch's Hibbert Lectures , 1888). But the inspired words of Ananias, recorded in Acts 22:16, had reference not to the Eleusinian mysteries, but to the typology of Holy Scripture, and they might be paraphrased thus — “Arise, and be baptized, and lead a new life, calling on the name of the Lord.”

Footnote: ftg1 This occurred shortly before I gave up Court practice at the Bar.

Several years afterwards I resumed the conversation with my friend by asking him if he still stood where he did when we used to meet in Court. His answer was “No, I am now a member of the Evangelical party of the Church of England.” ftg2 R. RV, revised ; for “bringing salvation” may be misread. The word is an adjective, not a verb. ftg3 Dean Alford in loco . ftg4 Verse 11 — The word here is reconciliation , not “atonement.” It includes not only this world of ours, but the whole universe of God ( Colossians 1:20). ftg5 1 Thessalonians 5:23 may seem an exception to this; but the word wholly” there refers not to the completion of a process, but to the completeness of a man as including “spirit, soul, and body.”

Footnote: fth1 Hatch’s Bampton Lectures , 1880.

Footnote: fti1 The fact that these words are a parenthesis immensely increases their force. The passage should read: “Now I make known unto you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved — I make known, I say, in what words I preached it unto you — if ye hold it fast, except ye believed in vain.” This last clause is explained by verse 14. fti2 One of the most startling and deplorable examples of this error that I have ever read will be found in Mr. W. T. Stead's pamphlet “The Revival in the West.” See especially page 7. fti3 The word for “corrupt,” is formed from a word which signifies “huckster.”

Footnote: ftj1 For verily not of angels doth He take hold, but He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham” (verse 16, R. V.). “We must not here understand mankind as some have done” (ALFORD). ftj2 “Augustine substituted an organized Church and a supernatural hierarchy for an ever-present Christ” (DEAN FARRAR). ftj3 “Expository Thoughts on the Gospels.” ftj4 The English reader can judge of the force of this preposition by its use in 1 Corinthians 4:21, where the Apostle asks, “Shall I come unto you to with a rod, or in love?” that is, “Is my coming to be characterized by severity or by love?” (“With” and “in” represent the same preposition in the Greek.) ftj5 Many letters have reached me on this subject. Some still insist that the birth by water is baptism — John's baptism, some say; and some even maintain that it is natural birth. But birth by water is a figment of Paganism. Scripture knows nothing of it. If such errors had not a terrible spiritual power behind them, Dr. Hatch's Hibbert Lectures would have killed this delusion. My own work, The Buddha of Christendom , gives a summary of his statements. ftj6 “He that is baptized after touching a dead body, if he touch it again, what avails his loutron ” (Ecclesiasticus 34:25). ftj7 The sin-offering of Numbers 19. ftj8 In verse 25 (as in Ephesians 5:26) the, word is rema , and in verse it is logos ; but this does not affect the, question here at issue. ftj9 Pneuma occurs some 370 times in the New Testament, and twentythree times in John, but nowhere else is it rendered “wind.”

Footnote: ftk1 The infidel avers that the Christian doctrine of atonement by blood is derived from ancient paganism. But the pagan conception is obviously a corruption of the primeval revelation. For apart from its spiritual significance, as foreshadowing the work of Christ, the practice, if viewed apart from its spiritual meaning, is so absurd that it could never have originated save in a lunatic asylum!