The Ninth of March.

BLOOD MAKETH AN ATONEMENT --- Leviticus 16:30, 31; 17:11.

"On that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls by a statute for ever. The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Leviticus 16:30, 31; 17:11.

Our great day of atonement is that on which Christ shed his blood for us on the cross, and thereby made atonement for us. Now, if it was necessary for the Israelites to afflict their souls and chastise their bodies, on the great day of atonement, how much more ought we to pray for humility and repentance, as evidence of our interest in the propitiation made by Christ Jesus!

And as they abstained from all labour on that day, when th high priest alone was employed, so should we abstain from all our sinful works, and particulary from all self-sufficiency of righteousness, and seek our salvation only in the meritorious blood of the atonement shed by our High Priest; for the life of our souls is in the blood of Jesus.

O my Redeemer, may I with an afflicted soul, ever seek my atonement, life, and salvation, in thy blood and death; and may I lie down and rise up in a comfortable hope that I am pardoned through thy blood, thy Spirit bearing witness to my conscience.

Father, God, who see'st in me
Only sin and misery;
See thine own annointed one!
Look on thy beloved Son!
Turn from me thy glorious eyes
To that bloody sacrifice.

To that full atonement made,
To that utmost ransom paid,
Hear his blood's prevailing cry:
Let thy mercy then reply:
Then, through him, the sinner see:
Then, in Jesus, look on me.