Numbers 8:5-26 - An Offering To God, Needing For Itself An Atonement

1 . All God's chosen servants, "a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." (Illustrate from 1 John 1:7-10 ; 1 John 2:1 , 1 John 2:2 , and from John 13:10 .)

2 . All God's selected ministers (pastors, missionaries, etc.). Illustrate from Tertullian's request to his brethren: "Ye have sought, and ye have found; ye have knocked, and it is opened to you. Thus much I ask, that when you seek again, you remember me, Tertullian, a sinner;" or from W. Carey the missionary's selected epitaph—

‘‘A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,

On thy kind arms I fall."

3. All the most sacred services of the most saintly men. Their prayers need to be prayed for; their tears to be washed from impurity; their gifts of gold to be refined from the dross of earthly motives. Though all Christians are priests unto God, their most solemn priestly acts need the blood of Christ to cleanse them from all sin.—P.