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 Table of contents

Editorials
Coming in from the cold p127
Science in the Arctic cries out for better coordination — perhaps modelled on what happens in Antarctica.
Special provision p127
Some research centres are more equal than others.
Let the data flow p128
US legislation could fill a gap in drought research.

Research Highlights
Research highlights p130

News
Arab state pours oil profits into science p132
Qatar pumps fossil-fuel revenues towards research initiative.
Jim Giles
Arctic stations need human touch p133
Meteorologists say automated data collection is failing.
Quirin Schiermeier
Sidelines p134
Outspoken: Mike Griffin on the NASA budget p134
Space agency chief answers his critics.
Tony Reichhardt
Are rich nations up for drug reform? p135
The WHO is urged to act on neglected diseases.
Erika Check
Avian flu and the New World p137
The H5N1 avian influenza virus has not yet reached North and South America. What will happen when it does? Declan Butler
and Jacqueline Ruttimann investigate.
State's flu response raises concern p139
Official alerts play down possible H5 strain found in New Jersey.
Jacqueline Ruttimann
News in brief p140
Corrections p141

News Features
Epigenetics: Unfinished symphony p143
To correctly 'play' the DNA score in our genome, cells must read another notation that overlays it — the epigenetic code. A
global effort to decode it is now in the making, reports Jane Qiu.
Arctic ecology: On thin ice p146
The Arctic is the bellwether of climate change, which shows up there first and fastest. Quirin Schiermeier visits ecologists
struggling to keep up.

Business
Challengers in the field p149
Colin Macilwain
In brief p149

Correspondence
Medical council funds both clinical and basic research p150
Colin Blakemore
Exaggerating one's success is rife in Chinese academia p150
Zheng Huang
Allergy test might have avoided drug-trial disaster p150
John H. Weis
Keeping an eye on privacy issues with geospatial data p150
Andrew Curtis, Jacqueline W. Mills and Michael Leitner

Spring Books
Evolution of the selfish gene p151
The thirtieth anniversary of Richard Dawkins' landmark work provides an opportunity to take stock.
Dan Sperber reviews Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think edited by Alan Grafen and Mark Ridley
Renaissance magic and mysticism p152
Rina Knoeff reviews The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science by Philip Ball
The soldier's tale p153
Matt Ridley reviews Won for All: How the Drosophila Genome was Sequenced by Michael Ashburner
Human frailties p155
Ian Tattersall reviews The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors by Ann Gibbons
Science's secret service p156
Daniel S. Greenberg reviews The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite by Ann Finkbeiner
A journey to remember p157
Yadin Dudai reviews In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind by Eric R. Kandel
The ant trail p159
Laurent Keller reviews Nature Revealed: Selected Writings, 1949–2006 by Edward O. Wilson
A cross-cultural relationship p160
Rebecca Goldstein reviews The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative edited by Jonathan Gottschall
and David Sloan Wilson

News and Views

Vaccines: Engineering immune evasion p161
One obstacle to realizing the promise of viral vectors for vaccine delivery is pre-existing immunity to such vectors. An
adroit application of structure-based design points to a way around that problem.
John R. Mascola
Solar system: Interplanetary kidnap p162
Triton, Neptune's largest moon, was probably part of a two-body object similar to the Pluto–Charon system. This tandem
might have been ripped apart when it strayed too close to the planet that Triton is now orbiting.
Alessandro Morbidelli
Cell biology: Cracking the calcium entry code p163
A sharp increase in the concentration of calcium ions in a cell is a key biological signal. Now a vital component of a major
route by which calcium ions flow into cells has been identified.
Anant B. Parekh
Chemistry: A catalytic knight's move p165
The reactivity of inert hydrocarbons can be transformed by a catalytic double act. With the ability to manipulate the lengths
of the resulting carbon chains, this development opens up fresh vistas.
Robert H. Crabtree
Immunology: What does it mean to be just 17? p166
For a long time it was thought that there are only two types of T helper cell. But it is becoming clear that there may be other
lineages that influence inflammatory responses in certain circumstances.
Cristina M. Tato and John J. O'Shea
50 & 100 years ago p167
Thermodynamics: When a phase is born p168
Phase changes in matter generally occur by building up from small nuclei of the new phase. Scattering experiments and
computer simulations reveal the characteristic size of the smallest of these nuclei.
Pablo G. Debenedetti
Analytical chemistry: Cause for a llama p169
Richard Webb
Geochemistry: The noble art of recycling p169
Xenon trapped beneath Earth's crust provides clues to how our planet evolved, but quantifying atmospheric contamination
has been impossible. The latest analysis surmounts a barrier to our understanding.
Takuya Matsumoto

Brief Communications
Diving insects boost their buoyancy bubbles p171
Underwater backswimmers use their haemoglobin to help them stay stationary while waiting for prey.
Philip G. D. Matthews and Roger S. Seymour
Brief Communications Arising
Corrigendum: Sporting contests: Seeing red? Putting sportswear into context pE3
Articles
Systems biology approaches identify ATF3 as a negative regulator of Toll-like receptor 4 p173
Mark Gilchrist
A mutation in Orai1 causes immune deficiency by abrogating CRAC channel function p179
Stefan Feske
Seawater subduction controls the heavy noble gas composition of the mantle p186
Greg Holland and Chris J. Ballentine

Letters
Neptune's capture of its moon Triton in a binary–planet gravitational encounter p192
Craig B. Agnor and Douglas P. Hamilton
Local switching of two-dimensional superconductivity using the ferroelectric field effect p195
K. S. Takahashi
Strained silicon as a new electro-optic material p199
Rune S. Jacobsen
Discovery of a 25-cm asteroid clast in the giant Morokweng impact crater, South Africa p203
W. D. Maier
New carbon dates link climatic change with human colonization and Pleistocene extinctions p207
R. Dale Guthrie
Sympatric speciation in palms on an oceanic island p210
Vincent Savolainen
Future fitness and helping in social queues p214
Jeremy Field, Adam Cronin and Catherine Bridge
Specification of the neural crest occurs during gastrulation and requires Pax7 p218
Martín L. Basch, Marianne Bronner-Fraser and Martín I. García-Castro
Neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex encode economic value p223
Camillo Padoa-Schioppa and John A. Assad
A trehalose metabolic enzyme controls inflorescence architecture in maize p227
Namiko Satoh-Nagasawa
Transforming growth factor- induces development of the TH17 lineage p231
Paul R. Mangan
Reciprocal developmental pathways for the generation of pathogenic effector TH17 and regulatory T cells p235
Estelle Bettelli
Hexon-chimaeric adenovirus serotype 5 vectors circumvent pre-existing anti-vector immunity p239
Diane M. Roberts
A mechanical explanation of RNA pseudoknot function in programmed ribosomal frameshifting p244
Olivier Namy, Stephen J. Moran, David I. Stuart, Robert J. C. Gilbert and Ian Brierley
Corrigendum: Lipid–protein interactions in double-layered two-dimensional AQP0 crystals p248
Tamir Gonen
Corrigendum: Conservation of Y-linked genes during human evolution revealed by comparative sequencing in
chimpanzee p248
Jennifer F. Hughes
Corrigendum: An acidic protein aligns magnetosomes along a filamentous structure in magnetotactic bacteria
p248
André Scheffel

Naturejobs
Prospect
Good in parts p249
Postdoc organization grades institutions
Paul Smaglik
Special Report
Talk about toxic p250
They arrive from other disciplines; they spread into distant fields. Toxicology is a voyage of discovery for scientists with
diverse skills, including those of communication. Ricki Lewis gets them to open up about it.
Ricki Lewis
Career Views
Stephen Forrest, vice-president for research and William Gould Dow professor in electrical engineering, University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor p252
Engineer bounces between academia and industry
Virginia Gewin
What makes a good PhD student? p252
Some tips for PhD students.
Georgia Chenevix-Trench
Valuable diversions p252
Hobby horses for courses.
Katja Bargum

Futures
The aching of Dion Harper p254
A case of phantom body syndrome.
Arthur Chrenkoff
www.nature.com/nature Vol 441 | Issue no. 7090 | 11 May 2006

Coming in from the cold

Science in the Arctic cries out for better coordination — perhaps modelled on what happens in Antarctica.

t is abundantly clear that the Arctic ice-cap, land and ocean play Finland, Norway and Sweden — remain too passive in their approach

I an important role in the climate dynamics of our entire planet.

The region has long been one of intense interest to ecologists,
atmospheric researchers, climate scientists and meteorologists.
to coordinating polar research. Their benign neglect has led to the
gradual deterioration of parts of the network of meteorological
stations in the Arctic (see page 133). Better baseline support for such
And it is now accepted that the Arctic — vaguely defined as the lands monitoring would cost little, but would make a huge difference to
and oceans inside the Arctic Circle — is particularly vulnerable to Arctic researchers of all disciplines.
global change. As part of its contribution to International Polar Year, Canada has
Two forthcoming events — the G8 summit in St Petersburg, allocated about Can$90 million (US$80 million) for this and related
Russia, in July and next year’s celebration of International Polar Year projects. Other countries, including the United States and Russia,
— provide vital opportunities for scientists to make the case for a have promised to improve Arctic and Antarctic monitoring. Scien-
more concerted, international effort to study this desolate yet fasci- tists should check that these pledges are properly implemented.
nating region. By and large, scientists working in the Arctic are well connected
Sea-ice and glacier retreat, permafrost melting, carbon fluxes, with each other. But in contrast with Antarctica, where a 1959 inter-
vegetation changes, biodiversity and species adaptation to climate national treaty obliges its signatories to collaborate in scientific
change are just some of the phenomena that make the region so research, there is no political
interesting, and scientists are only just beginning to understand the framework for collaboration “In contrast with
relationships between them. Their efforts to do so can surely benefit on Arctic research. The govern- Antarctica, there is no
the Sami, the Inuit and other indigenous people living in the region, ments involved discuss regional political framework
whose delicate environments are under siege from pollution, ozone issues through the Arctic Coun- for collaboration on
depletion and various human health problems. They can also help cil, but this has no formal provi-
the rest of us, most obviously by contributing to our understanding sion for cooperation in research.
Arctic research.”
of climate change. Contacts between Russia and the other nations with territory there
The region’s importance with regard to this issue was reiterated in improved after the end of the cold war. But many parts of Russia,
the 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a literature review that which has by far the largest Arctic territory, are still not easily accessi-
captured the frantic pace of Arctic warming over the past century ble to scientists, and there aren’t enough truly international projects
and its effects on plants, animals and people. It also charted how in the region.
changes there could ripple across the entire the planet (see page 146). Climate change will be on the agenda at the G8 summit, and the
The assessment report, which drew considerable public attention, meeting provides an opportunity to improve the links between the
was the culmination of various research activities that were ignited large Arctic research communities of Russia, the United States and
half a century ago by the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year, Canada. Leaders at the summit should commit to closer and more
which focused on polar research issues. The forthcoming Inter- open collaboration on the model that has been tried and tested in
national Polar Year, in 2007–08, will give polar researchers a chance the Antarctic.
to showcase their work and plan new approaches to further enhance Russia, which chairs the Arctic Council until the end of this year,
our understanding of the Arctic. should use its leadership to set up a council working group on
Despite the stark findings of the 2004 climate assessment, the eight pan-Arctic research that could address such issues as the availabil-
nations with territory north of the Arctic Circle — Russia, Canada, ity of research permits and the maintenance of infrastructure for
the United States, Denmark (on behalf of Greenland), Iceland, monitoring conditions in the region. ■

internationally respected work on the options that exist for respond-

Special provision ing to climate change. The gathering marked the award of another
three years of support for the centre.
Some research centres are more equal than others. But behind the scenes, things aren’t quite as rosy as they appear.
One of Britain’s more successful interdisciplinary research centres,
rom a distance, it sounds like an event worth celebrating. At the Tyndall centre is in fact facing a cut of some 15% in the real value

F Westminster on 4 May, British government officials and

scientists gathered to toast the Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research. In its first five years, the Norwich-based centre
of its income. Its research programmes will be reduced in scale and
its PhD studentship programme abandoned. It also faces an uncer-
tain future when current funding expires in 2009.
has brought together social and natural scientists and produced The Tyndall centre is a victim of two sets of circumstances that

127
©2006 Nature Publishing Group
EDITORIALS NATURE|Vol 441|11 May 2006

are squeezing permanent research centres of its type. Until last year, capacity. After eight years, it might make sense to fund further work
the Treasury made special provision to protect the Tyndall centre’s through competitive grants; in Britain, these can be administered
income. When that funding expired, the three research councils that by more than one research council to support genuinely interdisci-
oversee the centre, led by the Natural Environment Research Coun- plinary projects. The NERC would also argue that its funding deci-
cil (NERC), brought in outside experts to help decide what should sions have been reached after review of the Tyndall centre’s work by
happen next. But staff at the Tyndall feel that they lost out in this independent experts.
review because their work cuts across the expertise of the councils However, the government badly needs the kind of research in
and the reviewers. which the Tyndall centre excels to help it make decisions about cli-
Additionally, all UK research agencies are under pressure to divert mate change. The centre’s long-
funding from permanent centres (such as the Tyndall) to the more term survival would guarantee “The government badly
flexible and efficient mechanism of individual investigator grants. that this work keeps getting needs the kind of research
In the past year, in various different circumstances, the National done. As well as maintaining the in which the Tyndall
Institute for Medical Research (run by the Medical Research Council), flow of useful reports, it would centre excels to help it
the NERC’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Tyndall centre also provide a home for young
and the John Innes Centre, a plant-science institute also based in researchers who wish to spe-
make decisions about
Norwich, have all come under pressure from this general preference. cialize in such interdisciplinary climate change.”
The emphasis on individual grants is generally a good thing. work but might struggle to find a career path in an atmospheric-
But it can be taken too far: unlike, say, France or the United States, physics or economics department.
Britain has already shut down its more inefficient government Similar arguments apply at the UK Energy Research Centre, based
laboratories. It needs to retain some permanent research centres in in London, another cross-council project, which will see its own pot
order to support important government functions, such as manag- of dedicated funding expire in 2009. Its fate will largely rest on inde-
ing public health and the environment. pendent peer review. If it scores as highly as the Tyndall centre, the
The NERC would argue that the Tyndall centre has already done government should make special provision for both to guarantee
a large part of its job by helping to build interdisciplinary research their respective futures. ■

Department of Agriculture contributes snow-pack measurements,

Let the data flow reservoir data come from the US Army Corps of Engineers and the
Bureau of Reclamation, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) col-
US legislation could fill a gap in drought research. lects groundwater and stream-flow information. NIDIS could pull
together, standardize and interpret the data they produce. Drought
ompared with other types of natural disaster, drought rarely preparation would benefit from the same kind of focus that the

C gets the public attention it merits. In east Africa, it is currently

devastating entire nations — again. Even in wealthy nations
it has a huge human and economic impact. Legislation currently
National Hurricane Center in Florida currently provides.
NIDIS would also work to patch holes in the existing data net-
work. Scientists involved in drought prediction could use better
before the US Congress acknowledges the potential role of science maps of soil moisture, for example. And experimental products such
in drought preparation and mitigation. as the Vegetation Drought Response Index — designed by the USGS
The legislation would create a National Integrated Drought Infor- and other agencies to map the
mation System (NIDIS) within the National Oceanic and Atmos- effects of drought at high reso- “Drought preparation
pheric Administration. The system would collect drought data, make lution — could be developed would benefit from the
forecasts and communicate information to the public. According to more fully. same kind of focus that
a bill introduced by Representative Ralph Hall (Republican, Texas), Funding for drought research the National Hurricane
funding would start at $12 million next year (a 50% increase over may face some resistance from
current federal drought funding), rising to $18 million in 2012. those suspicious that it is a ploy
Center in Florida
Senator Ben Nelson (Democrat, Nebraska) has introduced a similar by western states to get some of currently provides.”
bill in the Senate. the money that now goes to places hit by tornadoes and hurricanes.
NIDIS has enthusiastic support from western states, which bore And all the research in the world won’t help political leaders prepare
the brunt of a US drought that ran from 1999 to 2004 and was among for drought unless they come to grips with the contentious problem
the worst for a century. As global warming kicks in, such events are of water use in the West.
likely to become more frequent and more severe. But it would be irresponsible not to learn more about the threat.
Drought forecasting has made real advances in the past decade. The Globally, there is no question that drought receives less attention
National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska- than its dreadful consequences merit. Drought is slow, sometimes
Lincoln has taken the lead in producing an online US Drought hard to define, and doesn’t look spectacular on television. Senator
Monitor, which tracks the scale and extent of drought nationwide. Nelson has resorted to naming the recent drought in his state
Yet much more could be done. Today the relevant data come ‘Drought David’ in an attempt to raise awareness. Establishing
from a patchwork of federal, state, regional and local agencies. The NIDIS would be an even better idea. ■

128
©2006 Nature Publishing Group
 Vol 441|11 May 2006

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

NATL ACAD. SCI. USA

Cut-price genes
Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA
10.1073/pnas.0602476103 (2006)
It currently costs about US$10 million to
sequence 3 billion base pairs — roughly
the size of the human genome —
according to the US National Institutes
of Health. New devices will help to
cut the price. Richard Mathies of the
University of California, Berkeley, and
his co-workers present one option.
They have developed a ‘lab on a chip’
device that performs all three steps in
an established DNA-sequencing
technique, known as the Sanger
method. The device should reduce costs
by minimizing the amount of reagents
needed and simplifying the process.
The researchers used the technique
to sequence up to 556 continuous bases
from a remarkably small sample of
DNA — just 1 femtomole. The results
(pictured) were 99% accurate.

ARCHAEOLOGY receptor in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. the rim of hot material thrown upwards.
If confirmed, this suggests that fungal and It was previously thought that most plumes
All that glitters animal lineages evolved nuclear receptors welled up from deep in Earth’s mantle. Splash
Archaeometry 48, 229–236 (2006) before their divergence in the distant past. plumes may explain recent seismic images,
Ceramicists have delighted in making which suggest that some plumes start in the
lustrous, metallic glazes for far longer than EARTH SCIENCE middle of the mantle instead.
we thought, according to findings from the
Near East. Going up with a splash CIRCADIAN RHYTHM
Metallic glazes are familiar in medieval Geology 34, 349–352 (2006)
pottery, but now Joris Dik of the Delft Researchers have discovered a new type of CLOCK’s surprising HAT
University of Technology in the Netherlands mantle plume in computer simulations of Cell 125, 497–508 (2006)
and his co-workers have found such material convection in Earth’s molten layers. The body’s master pacemaker — the circadian
on fragments of a Levantine vessel at Deir ‘Alla Huw Davies of Cardiff University, UK, protein CLOCK — operates in the same way
in Jordan, dating from the Late Bronze Age and Hans-Peter Bunge of the Ludwig as enzymes known as HATs, says a study.
(1550–1200 BC). The vessel is decorated with Maximilians University in Munich, How CLOCK controls daily oscillations in
designs in a greyish, sparkly glaze containing Germany, observed ‘splash plumes’ forming the activity of a host of other circadian genes
natural chromite. The metallic lustre comes when a stream of downward-flowing cold has been unclear. Paolo Sassone-Corsi at the
from crystals of a calcium–magnesium–iron matter, which could come from a sinking the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and
silicate called augite, the formation of which is plate, met a sheet of hot mantle. The structure Cellular Biology in Strasbourg, France,
induced by chromite. created looked like the splash of a water noticed that portions of CLOCK look similar
droplet — with splash plumes rising from to enyzmes known as histone
CELL BIOLOGY acetyltransferases, or HATs. These enzymes
tag an acetyl group on to histone proteins,
Nuclear history around which the DNA in chromosomes is
Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 103, 7077–7081 (2006) coiled. The researchers confirmed that
Nuclear receptors — transcription factors CLOCK has HAT activity, and showed that
that regulate genes in response to hormonal cells in which the CLOCK protein lacked its
or metabolic signals — may have a much HAT function lost their daily rhythms.
older heritage than previously thought.
Comparison of the sequences of different COSMOLOGY
genomes has so far definitively identified
nuclear receptors only in animals and sponges. Recycling space
But Didier Picard of the University of Geneva, Science doi:10.1126/science.1126231 (2006)
Switzerland, and his colleagues have compared How did the cosmological constant (
) — a
the predicted shapes of animal and fungus measure of the acceleration of the Universe’s
proteins to identify what may be a nuclear expansion — come to be close to zero, when
130
©2006 Nature Publishing Group
 NATURE|Vol 441|11 May 2006 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

theory predicts that it should be enormous?

C. POTTON

Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University,

JOURNAL CLUB
New Jersey, and Neil Turok at Cambridge Neill Alexander
University, UK, say the solution might be that University of Leeds, UK
our Universe is cyclic. Such a universe would
A biomechanist wants to predict
have expanded and contracted repeatedly on
the energy cost of funny walks.
a trillion-year timescale, instead of having
burst into existence only 13.7 billion years My main field of research is the
ago. This would have given
time to decay, mechanics of human and animal
avoiding the problem that cosmic expansion movement. I am not content to
dilutes the Universe in the meantime — for know how people and animals
matter is re-concentrated on each cycle. move: I also want to know why
they move as they do.
EVOLUTION Why do animals use particular,
highly predictable stride
Tropical mix frequencies, and exert particular
Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA patterns of force on the ground,
doi:10.1073/pnas.0510383103 (2006) EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY when they walk or run at particular
Is species richness in the tropics (pictured) speeds? Why do people often lift
fuelled by a faster rate of molecular evolution? Live fast, die young things along curving trajectories,
Shane Wright of the University of Proc. R. Soc. B doi:10.1098/rspb.2006.3544 (2006) instead of directly vertically?
Auckland, New Zealand, and his colleagues It has been observed that birds or mammals Questions such as these imply
compared 45 pairs of closely related plants that develop very quickly as embryos tend to the further question, what would
from tropical and temperate climates. They have short lives, and vice versa. happen if the movement were
found that the tropical species had more than Robert Ricklefs of the University of done differently? But that is hard
double the average DNA mutation rate of Missouri in St Louis has used simple to discover experimentally. It is
their temperate cousins. They argue that mathematical models to explore why. He difficult enough to train people
increased mutation rate is the cause rather suggests that the risks to an embryo of to perform funny walks, let alone
than effect of faster speciation, showing that spending a long time in the egg or womb and animals. Therefore computer
tropical mutation rates were elevated even in the related cost of extended parenting are modelling often looks like the
a subset of genera whose temperate weighed against the advantages of having a best way forward.
components were the more diverse. long life in which to reproduce. In many cases, the most
The elevated metabolism associated with a For example, sea birds, which have few promising hypothesis for why
warmer climate may be responsible for predators, invest in a long development people and animals move as they
inducing mutations. However, the researchers because their eggs are at a low risk and they do says that the chosen pattern of
could not completely rule out the possibility can make the most of a long life. By contrast, movement minimizes metabolic
that genetic drift is simply more rapid in the animals that are likely to be picked off young energy costs. To test this idea by
smaller populations of the tropics. come into the world in a hurry, and, because modelling, we need to be able to
their chances of survival are low, are not predict the energy demands of
CELL BIOLOGY built to last. muscles for possible patterns of
movement that are not used.
In three dimensions CANCER BIOLOGY I have tried to do this in studies
Nature Meth. 3, 369–375 (2006) of gait, with Alberto Minetti, now
Traditional two-dimensional cell cultures, Off target at the University of Milan, Italy, but
grown in the Petri dish, poorly mimic the Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 103, 7444–7449 (2006) have been concerned about the
natural organization of cells. But three- Resistance to the archetypal ‘targeted’ applicability of available data on
dimensional cultures have been difficult to anticancer drug imatinib (Gleevec) can occur muscle metabolism.
control, prompting researchers in the United when its target gene BCR-ABL mutates. But Now there is a paper that shows
States to develop a fresh approach. mutations in the tumour-suppressor gene how muscular energy costs can
Sangeeta Bhatia of the Massachusetts p53 can also reduce responsiveness to this be predicted with better accuracy
Institute of Technology and her colleagues drug, according to research. (G. A. Lichtwark and A. M. Wilson
used an electric field to organize cells Gleevec works by blocking the enzyme J. Exp. Biol. 208, 2831–2843; 2005).
growing in liquid hydrogel into clusters of BCR-ABL kinase, which is encoded by its The paper tests the improved
specific size and shape. The cells were fixed in target gene. Scott Lowe, of Cold Spring model against experimental
place when the hydrogel solidified, forming Harbor Laboratory in New York State and his data from muscles oscillating
sheets that could be stacked to build three- colleagues show that one effect of blocking smoothly between contracting
dimensional structures. this enzyme is to activate p53. They further and stretching.
They used the system to show that the show in a mouse model of leukaemia that For the research that I want to
three-dimensional organization of inactivation of p53 through mutation can see done, the approach will need
chondrocytes, cells found in cartilage, reduce the anticancer effectiveness of to be validated for less-regular
influences the rate of synthesis of molecules Gleevec, even when its inhibition of BCR- movements, but this paper takes a
important for cartilage function. ABL kinase is unaffected. valuable step in the right direction.
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 Vol 441|11 May 2006 2006

NEWS

Arab state pours oil profits into science

How would you spend the profits from an oil
well? That question was on the mind of about
200 Arab scientists who gathered in Doha,
Qatar, late last month.
The country’s head of state, Emir Hammad
bin Khalifa Al-Thani, has devoted a chunk of
Qatar’s fossil-fuel profits to research, and the
region’s expatriate scientists were brought
together to advise how best to invest it. Get it
right, said attendees, and the money could
help create an internationally respected sci-
ence base for the Arab world.
“If it succeeds, it will change the whole
region,” says Hilal Lashuel, a Yemeni neuro–
scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Tech-
nology (ETH) in Lausanne. “Arabs will com-
pete for the first time.”
Qatar is already gaining scientists’ attention
in part because the country has recently trans-
formed its university system. The tiny Gulf
state, which has a population of less than
900,000, supports Western standards of living
thanks to its substantial oil and gas fields. But
those reserves are limited.
Hence Qatar’s decision to jump on the
knowledge-economy bandwagon and create
Education City. The 2,500-acre campus on the
outskirts of Doha hosts undergraduate teach-
ing branches of several well-known US uni-
versities, such as Texas A&M. By replicating
Western academic culture in the Gulf, the
country’s leaders hope to eventually attract
2,000 students annually to what could become
the region’s premier teaching facility. Several

M. MARION/WCMC-Q
hundred students are already enrolled. Qatar’s recently launched teaching centre, Education City, is helping to attract researchers from overseas.
Education City has been bankrolled by the
Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and facilities and liberal intellectual-property agree- and their parents, to be genotyped in order to
Community Development. This is funded by ments. All the labs have to do is provide the staff. build up a database that could be probed for
an endowment from Al-Thani that officials It is a deal that has attracted interest from diabetes studies.
say runs to billions of dollars. With this educa- research institutions such as Imperial College Qatar is importing Western practices as well
tion centre up and running, the foundation is London and Tokyo University. as personnel. The country’s research fund, for
now turning its attention to applied research example, will be administered by independent
and the income-generating technologies that Tempting talent peer-review panels. These will be composed of
flow from it. Tidu Maini, Imperial’s pro-rector, says his researchers from home and abroad, and mod-
The emir has set aside profits from one of university is working with the foundation on elled on processes followed by organizations
the country’s oil wells for the purpose. Com- plans for a diabetes genome centre. The Gulf such as the US National Institutes of Health.
bined with a contribution from the founda- region has one of the highest rates of diabetes Fathy Saoud, a parasitologist who sits on the
tion’s endowment, Qatar will have a dedicated in the world, making it the ideal place to Qatar foundation’s board of directors, says that
research fund worth hundreds probe the genetics of the dis- grant applications for biomedical, environ-
of millions of dollars a year. “Arabs will compete ease. Although plans are at an mental and computing projects will be consid-
That may be small change in for the first time.” early stage, Maini says research ered in about a year’s time.
international terms, but Arab groups could be set up this At last month’s conference, held from 24 to
scientists say that the other components of year at Imperial and the Hamad General Hos- 26 April, expatriate Arab researchers talked
Qatar’s research vision show that the country pital in Qatar. The researchers would eventu- about how the Qatar project could boost sci-
means business. Foreign labs are being enticed ally move to the new genome centre, which ence investment across the region. Researchers
to a science park on the Education City site, for Maini says could open in about three years. say that if the initiative takes off, it could force
example, by offers of state-of-the-art research He would like every newborn child in Qatar, neighbouring countries to launch similar
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©2006 Nature Publishing Group
NATURE|Vol 441|11 May 2006 NEWS

POPULAR PHYSICS MYTH

IS ALL AT SEA
Does the ghostly Casimir
effect really cause ships to
attract each other?
www.nature.com/news

Arctic stations need human touch

Arctic climate research is Organization (WMO), a UN Africa have recently closed
suffering as manned weather agency based in Geneva, three manned stations there,
stations are being closed in Switzerland. But the WMO which they plan to replace with
Canada, Russia and the United cannot stop governments from automatic stations. Around 20
States, some meteorologists closing stations. manned stations remain on the
complain. In Canada’s far north, a continent, along with 25
Since 1990, around a quarter switch to automated automatic ones.
of the 500-odd manned measurements and the closure Getting real-time data is a
meteorological stations in North of several manned stations has problem for the WMO’s entire
America and Siberia have been reduced by 50% the number of Global Climate Observing
shut in order to save money. stations with records suitable System (GCOS), says Phil
Some have been replaced with for monitoring snow cover. Jones, a climate researcher at
automated monitoring stations, But Thomas Nichols, the University of East Anglia,
but other closures have director-general of weather UK. The GCOS collects data
completely halted data flow and environmental monitoring from about 1,000 terrestrial
from those sites. at the government agency stations worldwide, 10% of
Among other variables, Environment Canada, argues which are in polar regions.
these stations measure winter that the country is still But each month, 30% of the
precipitation and snow depth collecting plenty of data. stations don’t send data, or
— key factors for assessing Canada has installed 45 send them late. “Data flow is
climatic and hydrological automated Arctic stations alarmingly bad,” says Jones. “It
changes in the Arctic, where over the past four years; some wouldn’t take much effort to
warming is more pronounced improve it, but some countries
than at lower latitudes (see “It’s just a terrible just don’t seem to be concerned
page 146). mess if there is no about data quality.”
“Each station less means we The lack of good data also
have one important grid point human around who troubles the Greenland
less for validating our models,” can go out and check research community. In
says Konrad Steffen, an ice the equipment.” northern Greenland, where
specialist at the University of glacier movement may be
Colorado in Boulder. of these have been built at speeding up substantially, the
The reasons for the closures new locations, and others scarcity of data is limiting
vary, but essentially come have replaced manned scientists’ ability to accurately
down to cost. A manned stations or ageing model the phenomenon, says
weather station can cost more automated stations. Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at
projects and ultimately reverse the current than US$100,000 a year to But hydrologists say data NASA’s Jet Propulsion
exodus of bright students from the region operate. Automated stations, from the automated stations Laboratory at the California
to Europe and the United States. around 3,000 of which are can be suspect. “It is difficult to Institute of Technology in
“It’s an idea whose time has come,” says scattered across the Arctic, believe what you are seeing,” Pasadena. “There are too many
Abdelwahab El-Affendi, a political scientist cost approximately $30,000 a says Cherry, who has just unobserved variables, such as
at the University of Westminster in London year, but can fall short in terms completed a hydrologic study glacier thickness close to the
who attended the Doha meeting. “There of data quality and reliability, in Siberia based on the 60-year coast and meltwater
are large numbers of Arab expatriate schol- many scientists say. record of seven Russian movement,” he says.
ars, who are good in their own areas, but “It’s just a terrible mess if weather stations (see Scientists hope that the
their talents are not being used to advance there is no human around who doi:10.1038/news060403-9). governments of Arctic
research in the Arab world.” can go out and check the “Given the number of possible countries will set up new
One potentially divisive issue concerns equipment,” says Jessie biases out there, we just don’t manned monitoring facilities as
the involvement of the region’s research Cherry, a hydrologist at the trust the raw gauge data.” a contribution to the
powerhouse: Israel. Delegates at the meet- University of Alaska in Decreasing monitoring International Polar Year, in
ing said that they were keen to collaborate Fairbanks. “The main problems ability on the ground is also 2007–2008.
with Israeli colleagues, but that they did not are mechanical failures, frozen limiting the value of satellite- The United States, Canada,
know whether that could happen before gauges and under-catch based snow and ice Sweden and Russia have
peace was reached with the Palestinians. “I of snowfall.” observations, which need to be promised to support a number
don’t think that Israelis can be involved at National weather services calibrated against ground of projects aimed at improving
this juncture,” says El-Affendi. “We have to are required to report all measurements. Arctic monitoring (see
wait for a genuine peace process.” ■ weather observations to the The situation is similar in page 127). ■
Jim Giles World Meteorological Antarctica. Russia and South Quirin Schiermeier
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©2006 Nature Publishing Group
 NEWS NATURE|Vol 441|11 Ma 2006

ON THE RECORD
Please post my seeds
“
in a plain, unmarked
envelope with no

GETTY
indication of contents
to ensure smooth
arrival.
”
Horticulturalist Susan Davies gives
instructions for delivering illegal
rhododendron seeds to her New
Zealand home. She was fined
US$3,200 for violating the nation’s
biosecurity act.
“ They better
Actually, King Tut has
“been damn well like it ”
flattered by the
embalmers’ work.
”
Mummy expert Eduard Egarter Vigl
reports on the state of the king’s
mummified penis, which was recently
found in the sand around his body.

Sources: Manawatu Standard, The Times

SCORECARD
Taxis
Outspoken: Mike Griffin
on the NASA budget
The Pentagon launches
a competition to build an
autonomous vehicle that can
navigate city streets.
NASA head Mike Griffin was blunter than usual last week, as he defended his scaling back of the
Jellyfish agency’s science programme. Space scientists have responded angrily to the cutbacks (see Nature
German scientists show 439, 768–769; 2006), but Griffin insisted to two key advisory groups — the Space Studies Board
that jellyfish perform one and the science subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council — that the science programme is
of the fastest cellular processes still healthy. He made it clear, however, that the White House’s plan to send astronauts to the Moon
in nature: they eject their stinging and Mars takes priority over increased science funding. And although he is willing to rethink some
cells in just 700 nanoseconds.
specifics, he reminded scientists “to be respectful of the political and budgetary constraints we face”.
Contraceptives
The Vatican is Griffin’s stance on... Deep cuts to NASA astrobiology
reconsidering its rules on Whether budget cuts might be reversed I did think astrobiology was less important
condom use — but any lifting of We’re willing to reconsider, but than traditional space science. It had less
the ban would apply only to reconsideration should be based on intrinsic subject matter to it, and was less
married couples with HIV. community input, not the loudest voice, the advanced. If the community rises up and says
longest e-mail or who can use the most capitals. it should be funded, we’ll rethink it.

OVERHYPED The outcry over cutting research grants Opportunities for science on the Moon
Coma drama The community doesn’t care if we fly I have to draw the line when people say “I’m
Hollywood scriptwriters love missions; they want money for universities. not interested in the Moon. I would rather
putting characters into comas, I find that, to be honest with you, appalling. put the money into studying the physics of
but irate neurologists say they the tropopause.”
are fudging the facts. The most A law requiring NASA to try to rescue the OK, great. Glad you have an opinion;
common error in 30 movies Hubble telescope — even though such a everybody gets one. But the people who run
SIDELINES

studied was the suggestion that mission would take hundreds of millions the country have decided that we are in fact
coma patients keep their toned of dollars from other science projects going to the Moon. It’s a question of what
bodies and perfect tans over a I hope the astronomy community likes the scientists would like to do with that.
period of years. The cinema also decision they lobbied for. They better damn
glosses over details of comatose well like it, because they got it. The importance of finishing the
life such as incontinence, feeding International Space Station
tubes and respirators. Most Cutbacks to life-sciences research aboard As administrator, I inherit a situation not of
significantly, the authors point the International Space Station my liking. But other nations have spent a very
out, there is no evidence that What is the point of funding life-sciences significant part of their own discretionary
patients waking from a coma research when I can’t put people into space? I space funding supporting our agenda. They
immediately seek revenge.
need the budget I have to recreate abilities that built their hardware, and they want to see it
Source: Wijdicks, E. F. M. & Wijdicks, we once had to fly [beyond Earth orbit], that we flown. I want us to honour this commitment.
C. A. Neurology 66, 1300–1303 (2006). don’t have any more. It’s a sequencing problem. Tony Reichhardt
134
©2006 Nature Publishing Group
 NATURE|Vol 441|11 May 2006 NEWS

Are rich nations up for drug reform?

The global debate over the high by Kenya and Brazil, and calls that spending on research and
cost of drugs reaches Geneva on the agency to consider development is going up, but the
this month, when the governing measures that would boost the number of new drugs coming to
body of the World Health development of new drugs. The market is going down.”
Organization (WHO) will reform movement stems from a The proposal has been
consider two proposals aimed growing concern about the lack endorsed by a long list of
at reshaping the forces that of treatments, vaccines and consumer groups, activists and
drive medical research and diagnostic products for diseases scientists, including Hubbard.
development. that affect developing countries. It doesn’t endorse specific
The proposals direct For instance, one study found reforms, although advocates
the WHO to act on two that only 1% of drugs brought to have suggested many options,
controversial issues: the lack market between 1975 and 1999 from an international fund for
of affordable, effective targeted tuberculosis and research into neglected
medicines for people in poor tropical diseases such as malaria diseases, to a cash prize for
countries, and the international developers of innovative drugs.
intellectual-property system “An increasing The important thing, they
that governs the distribution percentage of new say, is that the WHO commits to
of medical treatments. tackling the issue. “It’s been an
Developed countries —
drugs are slight uphill struggle to get the WHO
especially the United States — variations of already- interested in this question, and if
have in the past strongly approved medications.” you look at the enormous health
opposed such interventions, needs out there you think, how
perceiving them as a threat (P. Trouiller et al. Lancet 359, the hell can this be the case?”
to the drug industry. But this 2188–2194; 2002). The other says Ellen ‘t Hoen of Geneva-
is the first time the issues have 99% targeted disorders more based Médecins Sans Frontières.
been addressed by the WHO, relevant to the developed world, The second proposal asks the
and advocates for reform are such as cancer and heart disease. WHO to act on the issue of
optimistic. Many believe that But the lack of new whether patent laws restrict
recent trends — such as the treatments is now affecting access to essential medicines. It
massive and growing cost of richer countries too. Other follows a report commissioned
health care in the United States, studies have found, for by the WHO, released on 3 April,
the scarcity of treatments for example, that an increasing which concluded that the patent
avian influenza, and the lack of percentage of new drugs are system is not working to drive
biodefence countermeasures slight variations of already- innovation in drugs needed by
against diseases such as approved medications. “There’s poor countries. It makes 50
anthrax — are persuading the possibly a recognition that recommendations for action.
Western world that the current something’s going to have to The proposals will be heard
system does not meet all change,” says Tim Hubbard, when the assembly meets on
public-health needs. a genome biologist at the 22–27 May. Advocates are
The first proposal to come Wellcome Trust Sanger encouraged that rich nations
before the World Health Institute in Cambridge, UK, who have not yet taken up a strong
Assembly, the WHO’s has become heavily involved in position against them. ■
governing body, is raised the issue. “Everyone can see Erika Check
GETTY IMAGES

There is growing
concern about the
lack of treatments
and vaccines for
diseases that affect
developing countries.

135
©2006 Nature Publishing Group
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
Reader, pause here, and say, do you know that allyour sins are
forgiven, according to the perfection of Christ's sacrifice? If you
simply believe on His name, they are so,—they are all gone, and
gone forever. Say not, as so many anxious souls do, "I fear I do not
realize." There is no such word as "realize" in the entire gospel. We
are not saved by realization, but by Christ; and the way to get Christ
in all His fullness and preciousness is to believe—"only believe!" And
what will be the result? "The worshipers once purged should have
no more conscience of sins." Observe this,—"No more conscience of
sins." This must be the result, inasmuch as Christ's sacrifice is
perfect—so perfect, that God is glorified therein. Now, it must be
obvious to you that Christ's work does not need your realization to
be added to it to make it perfect. This could not be. We might as
well say that the work of creation was not complete until Adam
realized it in the garden of Eden. True, he did realize; but what did
he realize? A perfect work. Thus let it be with your precious soul this
moment, if it has never been so before. May you now and evermore
repose, in artless simplicity, upon the One who has, by one offering,
perfected forever them that are sanctified. And how are they
sanctified? Is it by realization? By no means. How then? By the
perfect work of Christ.
Having sought (alas! most feebly) to unfold the doctrine of this
marvelous chapter, so far as God has given me light upon it, there is
just one point further to which I shall merely call my reader's
attention ere I close this section. It is contained in the following
quotation: "And this shall be a statute forever unto you, that in the
seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your
souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country
or a stranger that sojourneth among you. For 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, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute forever." (Ver. 29-
31.)
This shall have its full accomplishment in the saved remnant of Israel
by and by, as foretold by the prophet Zechariah,—"And I will pour
upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the
spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon Me
whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one
mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one
that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there be a
great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in
the valley of Megiddon.... In that day there shall be a fountain
opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
for sin and for uncleanness.... And it shall come to pass in that day
that the light shall not be clear [in one place] and dark [in another];
but it shall be one day, [the true and long-expected Sabbath,] which
shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night; but it shall come to
pass that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day
that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward
the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer
and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth:
in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.... In that day
shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE
LORD.... And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the
house of the Lord of hosts." (Zech. xii.-xiv.)
What a day that will be! No marvel that it should be so frequently
and so emphatically introduced in the above glowing passage. It will
be a bright and blessed "Sabbath of rest" when the mourning
remnant shall gather, in the spirit of true penitence, around the open
fountain, and enter into the full and final results of the great day of
atonement. They shall "afflict their souls," no doubt; for how could
they do otherwise, while fixing their repentant gaze "upon Him
whom they have pierced"? But, oh, what a Sabbath they will have!
Jerusalem will have a brimming cup of salvation, after her long and
dreary night of sorrow. Her former desolations shall be forgotten,
and her children, restored to their long-lost dwellings, shall take
down their harps from the willows, and sing once more the sweet
songs of Zion, beneath the peaceful shade of the vine and fig-tree.
Blessed be God, the time is at hand. Every setting sun brings us
nearer to that blissful Sabbath. The word is, "Surely, I come quickly;"
and all around seems to tell us that "the days are at hand, and the
effect of every vision." May we be "sober, and watch unto prayer."
May we keep ourselves unspotted from the world; and thus, in the
spirit of our minds, the affections of our hearts, and the experience
of our souls, be ready to meet the heavenly Bridegroom. Our place
for the present is outside the camp. Thank God that it is so! It would
be an unspeakable loss to be inside. The same cross which has
brought us inside the vail has cast us outside the camp. Christ was
cast out thither, and we are with Him there; but He has been
received up into heaven, and we are with Him there. Is it not a
mercy to be outside of all that which has rejected our blessed Lord
and Master? Truly so; and the more we know of Jesus, and the more
we know of this present evil world, the more thankful we shall be to
find our place outside of it all with Him.
 CHAPTER XVII.
In this chapter the reader will find two special points, namely, first,
that life belongs to Jehovah; and secondly, that the power of
atonement is in the blood. The Lord attached peculiar importance to
both these things. He would have them impressed upon every
member of the congregation.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto Aaron, and
unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them,
This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, saying, What man
soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or
goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth it
not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an
offering unto the Lord, before the tabernacle of the Lord; blood shall
be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall
be cut off from among his people." This was a most solemn matter;
and we may ask what was involved in offering a sacrifice otherwise
than in the manner here prescribed. It was nothing less than robbing
Jehovah of His rights, and presenting to Satan that which was due to
God. A man might say, Can I not offer a sacrifice in one place as well
as another? The answer is, Life belongs to God, and His claim
thereto must be recognized in the place which He has appointed—
before the tabernacle of the Lord. That was the only meeting-place
between God and man. To offer elsewhere proved that the heart did
not want God.
The moral of this is plain. There is one place where God has
appointed to meet the sinner, and that is the cross—the antitype of
the brazen altar. There and there alone has God's claims upon the
life been duly recognized. To reject this meeting-place is to bring
down judgment upon one's self—it is to trample under foot the just
claims of God, and to arrogate to one's self a right to life which all
have forfeited. It is important to see this.
"And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord, at
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and burn the fat for
a sweet savor unto the Lord." The blood and the fat belonged to
God. The blessed Jesus fully recognized this. He surrendered His life
to God, and all His hidden energies were devoted to Him likewise.
He voluntarily walked to the altar and there gave up His precious
life; and the fragrant odor of His intrinsic excellency ascended to the
throne of God. Blessed Jesus! it is sweet, at every step of our way,
to be reminded of Thee.
The second point above referred to is clearly stated in verse 11.
—"For 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." The connection between
the two points is deeply interesting. When man duly takes his place
as one possessing no title whatsoever to life—when he fully
recognizes God's claims upon him, then the divine record is, "I have
given you the life to make an atonement for your soul." Yes;
atonement is God's gift to man; and be it carefully noted that this
atonement is in the blood, and only in the blood. "It is the blood that
maketh an atonement for the soul." It is not the blood and
something else. The word is most explicit. It attributes atonement
exclusively to the blood. "Without shedding of blood is no
remission." (Heb. ix. 22.) It was the death of Christ that rent the
vail. It is "by the blood of Jesus" we have "boldness to enter into the
holiest." "We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins." (Eph. i. 7; Col. i. 14.) "Having made peace by the blood of His
cross." "Ye who were afar off are made nigh by the blood of His
cross." "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."
(1 John i. 7.) "They washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb." (Rev. vii.) "They overcame him by the blood of
the Lamb." (Rev. xii.)
I would desire to call my reader's earnest attention to the precious
and vital doctrine of the blood. I am anxious that he should see its
true place. The blood of Christ is the foundation of every thing. It is
the ground of God's righteousness in justifying an ungodly sinner
that believes on the name of the Son of God; and it is the ground of
the sinner's confidence in drawing nigh to a holy God, who is of
purer eyes than to behold evil. God would be just in the
condemnation of the sinner; but through the death of Christ, He can
be just and the justifier of him that believeth—a just God and a
Saviour. The righteousness of God is His consistency with Himself—
His acting in harmony with His revealed character. Hence, were it not
for the cross, His consistency with Himself would, of necessity,
demand the death and judgment of the sinner; but in the cross, that
death and judgment were borne by the sinner's Surety, so that the
same divine consistency is perfectly maintained, while a holy God
justifies an ungodly sinner through faith. It is all through the blood
of Jesus—nothing less, nothing more, nothing different. "It is the
blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." This is conclusive.
This is God's simple plan of justification. Man's plan is much more
cumbrous, much more roundabout. And not only is it cumbrous and
roundabout, but it attributes righteousness to something quite
different from what I find in the Word. If I look from the third
chapter of Genesis down to the close of Revelation, I find the blood
of Christ put forward as the alone ground of righteousness. We get
pardon, peace, life, righteousness—all by the blood, and nothing but
the blood. The entire book of Leviticus, and particularly the chapter
upon which we have just been meditating, is a commentary upon
the doctrine of the blood. It seems strange to have to insist upon a
fact so obvious to every dispassionate, teachable student of holy
Scripture; yet so it is. Our minds are prone to slip away from the
plain testimony of the Word. We are ready to adopt opinions without
ever calmly investigating them in the light of the divine testimonies.
In this way we get into confusion, darkness, and error.
May we all learn to give the blood of Christ its due place. It is so
precious in God's sight that He will not suffer aught else to be added
to or mingled with it. "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."
 CHAPTERS XVIII.-XX.
This section sets before us, in a very remarkable manner, the
personal sanctity and moral propriety which Jehovah looked for on
the part of those whom He had graciously introduced into
relationship with Himself; and, at the same time, it presents a most
humiliating picture of the enormities of which human nature is
capable.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God.'" Here we have
the foundation of the entire superstructure of moral conduct which
these chapters present. Israel's actings were to take their character
from the fact that Jehovah was their God. They were called to
comport themselves in a manner worthy of so high and holy a
position. It was God's prerogative to set forth the special character
and line of conduct becoming a people with whom He was pleased
to associate His name. Hence the frequency of the expressions, "I
am the Lord," "I am the Lord your God," "I the Lord your God am
holy." Jehovah was their God, and He was holy; hence, therefore,
they were called to be holy likewise. His name was involved in their
character and acting.
This is the true principle of holiness for the people of God in all ages.
They are to be governed and characterized by the revelation which
He has made of Himself. Their conduct is to be founded upon what
He is, not upon what they are in themselves. This entirely sets aside
the principle expressed in the words, "Stand by thyself, I am holier
than thou;" a principle so justly repudiated by every sensitive mind.
It is not a comparison of one man with another, but a simple
statement of the line of conduct which God looks for in those who
belong to Him. "After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye
dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan,
whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their
ordinances." The Egyptians and the Canaanites were all wrong. How
was Israel to know this? Who told them? How came they to be right
and all besides wrong? These are interesting inquiries; and the
answer is as simple as the questions are interesting. Jehovah's Word
was the standard by which all questions of right and wrong were to
be definitely settled in the judgment of every member of the Israel
of God. It was not, by any means, the judgment of an Israelite in
opposition to the judgment of an Egyptian or of a Canaanite; but it
was the judgment of God above all. Egypt might have her practices
and her opinions, and so might Canaan; but Israel were to have the
opinions and practices laid down in the Word of God. "Ye shall do My
judgments, and keep Mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the
Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep My statutes and My
judgments; which, if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord."
It will be well for my reader to get a clear, deep, full, practical sense
of this truth. The Word of God must settle every question and
govern every conscience: there must be no appeal from its solemn
and weighty decision. When God speaks, every heart must bow. Men
may form and hold their opinions; they may adopt and defend their
practices; but one of the finest traits in the character of "the Israel
of God" is, profound reverence for, and implicit subjection to, "every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord." The exhibition
of this valuable feature may perhaps lay them open to the charge of
dogmatism, superciliousness, and self-sufficiency, on the part of
those who have never duly weighed the matter; but, in truth,
nothing can be more unlike dogmatism than simple subjection to the
plain truth of God; nothing more unlike superciliousness than
reverence for the statements of inspiration; nothing more unlike self-
sufficiency than subjection to the divine authority of holy Scripture.
True, there will ever be the need of carefulness as to the tone and
manner in which we set forth the authority for our convictions and
our conduct. It must be made manifest, so far as it may be, that we
are wholly governed, not by our own opinions, but by the Word of
God. There is great danger of attaching an importance to an opinion
merely because we have adopted it. This must be carefully guarded
against. Self may creep in and display its deformity in the defense of
our opinions as much as in any thing else; but we must disallow it in
every shape and form, and be governed in all things by "Thus saith
the Lord."
But then we are not to expect that every one will be ready to admit
the full force of the divine statutes and judgments. It is as persons
walk in the integrity and energy of the divine nature that the Word
of God will be owned, appreciated, and reverenced. An Egyptian or a
Canaanite would have been wholly unable to enter into the meaning
or estimate the value of these statutes and judgments, which were
to govern the conduct of the circumcised people of God; but that did
not in any wise affect the question of Israel's obedience. They were
brought into a certain relationship with Jehovah, and that
relationship had its distinctive privileges and responsibilities. "I am
the Lord your God." This was to be the ground of their conduct.
They were to act in a way worthy of the One who had become their
God, and made them His people. It was not that they were a whit
better than other people. By no means. The Egyptians or Canaanites
might have considered that the Israelites were setting themselves up
as something superior in refusing to adopt the habits of either
nation. But no; the foundation of their peculiar line of conduct and
tone of morality was laid in these words: "I am the Lord your God."
In this great and practically important fact, Jehovah set before His
people a ground of conduct which was immovable, and a standard of
morality which was as elevated and as enduring as the eternal
throne itself. The moment He entered into a relationship with a
people, their ethics were to assume a character and tone worthy of
Him. It was no longer a question as to what they were, either in
themselves or in comparison with others; but of what God was in
comparison with all. This makes a material difference. To make self
the ground of action or the standard of ethics is not only
presumptuous folly, but it is sure to set one upon a descending scale
of action. If self be my object, I must, of necessity, sink lower and
lower every day; but if, on the other hand, I set the Lord before me,
I shall rise higher and higher as, by the power of the Holy Ghost, I
grow in conformity to that perfect model which is unfolded to the
gaze of faith in the sacred pages of inspiration. I shall undoubtedly
have to prostrate myself in the dust, under a sense of how infinitely
short I come of the mark set before me; but then I can never
consent to the setting up of a lower standard, nor can I ever be
satisfied until I am conformed in all things to Him who was my
substitute on the cross, and is my model in the glory.
Having said thus much on the main principle of the section before us
—a principle of unspeakable importance to Christians, in a practical
point of view, I feel it needless to enter into any thing like a detailed
exposition of statutes which speak for themselves in most obvious
terms. I would merely remark that those statutes range themselves
under two distinct heads, namely, first, those which set forth the
shameful enormities which the human heart is capable of devising;
and secondly, those which exhibit the exquisite tenderness and
considerate care of the God of Israel.
As to the first, it is manifest that the Spirit of God could never enact
laws for the purpose of preventing evils that have no existence. He
does not construct a dam where there is no flood to be resisted: He
does not deal with abstract ideas, but with positive realities. Man is,
in very deed, capable of perpetrating each and every one of the
shameful crimes referred to in this most faithful section of the book
of Leviticus. If he were not, why should he be told not to do so.
Such a code would be wholly unsuitable for angels, inasmuch as
they are incapable of committing the sins referred to; but it suits
man, because he has gotten the seeds of those sins in his nature.
This is deeply humbling. It is a fresh declaration of the truth that
man is a total wreck. From the crown of his head to the sole of his
foot, there is not so much as a single speck of moral soundness, as
looked at in the light of the divine presence. The being for whom
Jehovah thought it needful to write Leviticus xviii.-xx. must be a vile
sinner; but that being is man—the writer and reader of these lines.
How plain it is, therefore, that "they that are in the flesh cannot
please God." (Rom. viii.) Thank God, the believer is "not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit." He has been taken completely out of his old-
creation standing, and introduced into the new creation, in which the
moral evils aimed at in this our section can have no existence. True,
he has gotten the old nature; but it is his happy privilege to "reckon"
it as a dead thing, and to walk in the abiding power of the new
creation, wherein "all things are of God." This is Christian liberty,
even liberty to walk up and down in that fair creation where no trace
of evil can ever be found,—hallowed liberty to walk in holiness and
purity before God and man,—liberty to tread those lofty walks of
personal sanctity whereon the beams of the divine countenance ever
pour themselves in living lustre. Reader, this is Christian liberty. It is
liberty, not to commit sin, but to taste the celestial sweets of a life of
true holiness and moral elevation. May we prize more highly than we
have ever done this precious boon of heaven—Christian liberty.
And now, one word as to the second class of statutes contained in
our section, namely, those which so touchingly bring out divine
tenderness and care. Take the following: "And when ye reap the
harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy
field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And
thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every
grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and
stranger: I am the Lord your God." (Chap. xix. 9, 10.) This ordinance
will meet us again in chapter xxiii. but there we shall see it in its
dispensational bearing. Here, we contemplate it morally, as unfolding
the precious grace of Israel's God. He would think of "the poor and
stranger," and He would have His people think of them likewise.
When the golden sheaves were being reaped, and the mellow
clusters gathered, "the poor and stranger" were to be remembered
by the Israel of God, because Jehovah was the God of Israel. The
reaper and the grape-gatherer were not to be governed by a spirit of
grasping covetousness, which would bare the corners of the field
and strip the branches of the vine, but rather by a spirit of large-
hearted, genuine benevolence, which would leave a sheaf and a
cluster "for the poor and stranger," that they too might rejoice in the
unbounded goodness of Him whose paths drop fatness, and on
whose open hand all the sons of want may confidently wait.
The book of Ruth furnishes a fine example of one who fully acted
out this most benevolent statute. "And Boaz said unto her, [Ruth,]
'At meal-time, come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy
morsel in the vinegar.' And she sat beside the reapers: and he
reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and
left. And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his
young men, saying, 'Let her glean even among the sheaves, and
reproach her not; and let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose
for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her
not.'" (Ruth ii. 14-16.) Most touching and beautiful grace! Truly, it is
good for our poor selfish hearts to be brought in contact with such
principles and such practices. Nothing can surpass the exquisite
refinement of the words, "let fall also some of the handfuls of
purpose for her." It was evidently the desire of this noble Israelite
that "the stranger" might have abundance, and have it, too, rather
as the fruit of her own gleaning than of his benevolence. This was
the very essence of refinement. It was putting her in immediate
connection with, and dependence upon, the God of Israel, who had
fully recognized and provided for "the gleaner." Boaz was merely
acting out that gracious ordinance of which Ruth was reaping the
benefit. The same grace that had given him the field gave her the
gleanings. They were both debtors to grace. She was the happy
recipient of Jehovah's goodness: he was the honored exponent of
Jehovah's most gracious institution. All was in most lovely moral
order. The creature was blessed and God was glorified. Who would
not own that it is good for us to be allowed to breathe such an
atmosphere?
Let us now turn to another statute of our section. "Thou shalt not
defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired
shall not abide with thee all night until the morning." (Chap. xix. 13.)
What tender care is here! The High and Mighty One that inhabiteth
eternity can take knowledge of the thoughts and feelings that spring
up in the heart of a poor laborer. He knows and takes into account
the expectations of such an one in reference to the fruit of his day's
toil. The wages will naturally be looked for. The laborer's heart
counts upon them: the family meal depends upon them. Oh! let
them not be held back: send not the laborer home with a heavy
heart, to make the heart of his wife and family heavy likewise. By all
means, give him that for which he has wrought, to which he has a
right, and on which his heart is set. He is a husband, he is a father,
and he has borne the burden and heat of the day that his wife and
children may not go hungry to bed. Disappoint him not: give him his
due. Thus does our God take notice of the very throbbings of the
laborer's heart, and make provision for his rising expectations.
Precious grace! Most tender, thoughtful, touching, condescending
love! The bare contemplation of such statutes is sufficient to throw
one into a flood of tenderness. Could any one read such passages
and not be melted? Could any one read them and thoughtlessly
dismiss a poor laborer, not knowing whether he and his family have
wherewithal to meet the cravings of hunger?
Nothing can be more painful to a tender heart than the lack of kindly
consideration for the poor so often manifested by the rich. These
latter can sit down to their sumptuous repast after dismissing from
their door some poor industrious creature who had come seeking
the just reward of his honest labor. They think not of the aching
heart with which that man returns to his family, to tell them of the
disappointment to himself and to them. Oh, it is terrible! It is most
offensive to God and to all who have drunk, in any measure, into His
grace. If we would know what God thinks of such acting, we have
only to hearken to the following accents of holy indignation: "Behold,
the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is
of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them that have
reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." (James v.
4.) "The Lord of Sabaoth" hears the cry of the aggrieved and
disappointed laborer. His tender love tells itself forth in the
institutions of His moral government; and even though the heart
should not be melted by the grace of those institutions, the conduct
should, at least, be governed by the righteousness thereof. God will
not suffer the claims of the poor to be heartlessly tossed aside by
those who are so hardened by the influence of wealth as to be
insensible to the appeals of tenderness, and who are so far removed
beyond the region of personal need as to be incapable of feeling for
those whose lot it is to spend their days amid exhausting toil or
pinching poverty. The poor are the special objects of God's care.
Again and again He makes provision for them in the statutes of His
moral administration; and it is particularly declared of Him who shall
ere long assume, in manifested glory, the reins of government, that
"He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him
that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall
save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from deceit
and violence; and precious shall their blood be in His sight." (Ps.
lxxii. 12-14.)
May we profit by the review of those precious and deeply practical
truths. May our hearts be affected, and our conduct influenced by
them. We live in a heartless world; and there is a vast amount of
selfishness in our own hearts. We are not sufficiently affected by the
thought of the need of others. We are apt to forget the poor in the
midst of our abundance. We often forget that the very persons
whose labor ministers to our personal comfort are living, it may be,
in the deepest poverty. Let us think of these things. Let us beware of
"grinding the faces of the poor." If the Jews of old were taught, by
the statutes and ordinances of the Mosaic economy, to entertain
kindly feelings toward the poor, and to deal tenderly and graciously
with the sons of toil, how much more ought the higher and more
spiritual ethics of the gospel dispensation produce in the hearts and
lives of Christians a large-hearted benevolence toward every form of
human need.
True, there is urgent need of prudence and caution, lest we take a
man out of the honorable position in which he was designed and
fitted to move, namely, a position of dependence upon the fruits—
the precious and fragrant fruits—of honest industry. This would be a
grievous injury instead of a benefit. The example of Boaz should
instruct in this matter. He allowed Ruth to glean; but he took care to
make her gleaning profitable. This is a very safe and a very simple
principle. God intends that man should work at something or
another, and we run counter to Him when we draw our fellow out of
the place of dependence upon the results of patient industry, into
that of dependence upon the results of false benevolence. The
former is as honorable and elevating as the latter is contemptible
and demoralizing. There is no bread so sweet to the taste as that
which in nobly earned; but then those who earn their bread should
get enough. A man will feed and care for his horses; how much
more his fellow, who yields him the labor of his hands from Monday
morning till Saturday night.
But some will say, There are two sides to this question.
Unquestionably there are; and no doubt one meets with a great deal
amongst the poor which is calculated to dry up the springs of
benevolence and genuine sympathy. There is much which tends to
steel the heart and close the hand; but one thing is certain, it is
better to be deceived in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred than to
shut up the bowels of compassion against a single worthy object.
Our heavenly Father causes His sun to shine upon the evil and on
the good; and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust. The
same sunbeams that gladden the heart of some devoted servant of
Christ are poured upon the path of some ungodly sinner; and the
self-same shower that falls upon the tillage of a true believer,
enriches also the furrows of some blaspheming infidel. This is to be
our model. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect." (Matt. v. 48.) It is only as we set the Lord before
us, and walk in the power of His grace, that we shall be able to go
on from day to day, meeting, with a tender heart and an open hand,
every possible form of human misery. It is only as we ourselves are
drinking at the exhaustless fountain of divine love and tenderness,
that we shall be able to go on ministering to human need unchecked
by the oft-repeated manifestation of human depravity. Our tiny
springs would soon be dried up were they not maintained in
unbroken connection with that ever-gushing source.
The statute which next presents itself for our consideration,
exemplifies most touchingly the tender care of the God of Israel.
"Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the
blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord." (Ver. 14.) Here a
barrier is erected to stem the rising tide of irritability with which
uncontrolled nature would be almost sure to meet the personal
infirmity of deafness. How well we can understand this! Nature does
not like to be called upon to repeat its words again and again, in
order to meet the deaf man's infirmity. Jehovah thought of this, and
provided for it. And what is the provision? "Thou shalt fear thy God."
When tried by a deaf person, remember the Lord, and look to Him
for grace to enable you to govern your temper.
The second part of this statute reveals a most humiliating amount of
wickedness in human nature. The idea of laying a stumbling-block in
the way of the blind is about the most wanton cruelty imaginable;
and yet man is capable of it, else he would not be warned against it.
No doubt this, as well as many other statutes, admits of a spiritual
application; but that in no wise interferes with the plain literal
principle set forth in it. Man is capable of placing a stumbling-block
in the way of a fellow-creature afflicted with blindness. Such is man!
Truly, the Lord knew what was in man when He wrote the statutes
and judgments of the book of Leviticus.
I shall leave my reader to meditate alone upon the remainder of our
section. He will find that each statute teaches a double lesson,
namely, a lesson with respect to nature's evil tendencies, and also a
lesson as to Jehovah's tender care.[24]
 CHAPTERS XXI. & XXII.
These chapters unfold, with great minuteness of detail, the divine
requirements in reference to those who were privileged to draw near
as priests to "offer the bread of their God." In this, as in the
preceding section, we have conduct as the result, not the procuring
cause of the relationship. This should be carefully borne in mind.
The sons of Aaron were, in virtue of their birth, priests unto God.
They all stood in this relationship, one as well as another. It was not
a matter of attainment, a question of progress, something which one
had and another had not. All the sons of Aaron were priests; they
were born into a priestly place. Their capacity to understand and
enjoy their position and its attendant privileges was obviously a
different thing altogether. One might be a babe, and another might
have reached the point of mature and vigorous manhood. The
former would, of necessity, be unable to eat of the priestly food,
being a babe, for whom "milk," and not "strong meat," was adapted;
but he was as truly a member of the priestly house as the man who
could tread, with firm step, the courts of the Lord's house, and feed
upon "the wave breast" and "heave shoulder" of the sacrifice.
This distinction is easily understood in the case of the sons of Aaron,
and hence it will serve to illustrate, in a very simple manner, the
truth as to the members of the true priestly house, over which our
great High-Priest presides, and to which all true believers belong.
(Heb. iii. 6.) Every child of God is a priest. He is enrolled as a
member of Christ's priestly house. He may be very ignorant, but his
position as a priest is not founded upon knowledge, but upon life;
his experience may be very shallow, but his place as a priest does
not depend upon experience, but upon life; his capacity may be very
limited, but his relationship as a priest does not rest upon an
enlarged capacity, but upon life. He was born into the position and
relationship of a priest: he did not work himself thereinto. It was not
by any efforts of his own that he became a priest: he became a
priest by birth. The spiritual priesthood, together with all the spiritual
functions attaching thereunto, is the necessary appendage to
spiritual birth. The capacity to enjoy the privileges and to discharge
the functions of a position must not be confounded with the position
itself: they must ever be kept distinct. Relationship is one thing;
capacity is quite another.
Furthermore, in looking at the family of Aaron, we see that nothing
could break the relationship between him and his sons. There were
many things which would interfere with the full enjoyment of the
privileges attaching to the relationship. A son of Aaron might "defile
himself by the dead;" he might defile himself by forming an unholy
alliance; he might have some bodily "blemish;" he might be "blind or
lame;" he might be "a dwarf." Any of these things would have
interfered very materially with his enjoyment of the privileges and
his discharge of the functions pertaining to his relationship, as we
read, "No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest
shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he
hath a blemish: he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.
He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and the
holy; only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the
altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my
sanctuaries; for I the Lord do sanctify them." (Chap. xxi. 21-23.) But
none of these things could possibly touch the fact of a relationship
founded upon the established principles of human nature. Though a
son of Aaron were a dwarf, that dwarf was a son of Aaron. True, he
was, as a dwarf, shorn of many precious privileges and lofty dignities
pertaining to the priesthood, but he was a son of Aaron all the while.
He could neither enjoy the same measure or character of
communion, nor yet discharge the same elevated functions of
priestly service, as one who had reached to manhood's appointed
stature; but he was a member of the priestly house, and as such,
permitted to "eat the bread of his God." The relationship was
genuine, though the development was so defective.
The spiritual application of all this is as simple as it is practical. To be
a child of God is one thing; to be in the enjoyment of priestly
communion and priestly worship is quite another. The latter is, alas!
interfered with by many things. Circumstances and associations are
allowed to act upon us by their defiling influence. We are not to
suppose that all Christians enjoy the same elevation of walk, the
same intimacy of fellowship, the same felt nearness to Christ. Alas!
alas! they do not. Many of us have to mourn over our spiritual
defects. There is lameness of walk, defective vision, stunted growth;
or we allow ourselves to be defiled by contact with evil, and to be
weakened and hindered by unhallowed associations. In a word, as
the sons of Aaron, though being priests by birth, were nevertheless
deprived of many privileges through ceremonial defilement and
physical defects; so we, though being priests unto God by spiritual
birth, are deprived of many of the high and holy privileges of our
position by moral defilement and spiritual defects. We are shorn of
many of our dignities through defective spiritual development. We
lack singleness of eye, spiritual vigor, whole-hearted devotedness.
Saved we are, through the free grace of God, on the ground of
Christ's perfect sacrifice. "We are all the children of God, by faith in
Christ Jesus;" but then, salvation is one thing; communion is quite
another: sonship is one thing; obedience is quite another.
These things should be carefully distinguished. The section before us
illustrates the distinction with great force and clearness. If one of the
sons of Aaron happened to be "broken-footed or broken-handed,"
was he deprived of his sonship? Assuredly not. Was he deprived of
his priestly position? By no means. It was distinctly declared, "He
shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the
holy." What, then, did he lose by his physical blemish? He was
forbidden to tread some of the higher walks of priestly service and
worship.—"Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto
the altar." These were very serious privations; and though it may be
objected that a man could not help many of these physical defects,
that did not alter the matter. Jehovah could not have a blemished
priest at His altar, or a blemished sacrifice thereon. Both the priest
and the sacrifice should be perfect. "No man that hath a blemish of
the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of
the Lord made by fire." (Chap. xxi. 22.) "But whatsoever hath a
blemish, that shall ye not offer; for it shall not be acceptable for
you." (Chap. xxii. 20.)
Now, we have both the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice in the
Person of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He having "offered Himself
without spot to God," passed into the heavens as our great High-
Priest, where He ever liveth to make intercession for us. The epistle
to the Hebrews dwells elaborately upon these two points. It throws
into vivid contrast the sacrifice and priesthood of the Mosaic system
and the Sacrifice and Priesthood of Christ. In Him we have divine
perfectness, whether as the Victim or as the Priest. We have all that
God could require, and all that man could need. His precious blood
has put away all our sins, and His all-prevailing intercession ever
maintains us in all the perfectness of the place into which His blood
has introduced us. "We are complete in Him" (Col. ii.); and yet, so
feeble and so faltering are we in ourselves; so full of failure and
infirmity; so prone to err and stumble in our onward way, that we
could not stand for a moment were it not that "He ever liveth to
make intercession for us." These things have been dwelt upon in the
earlier chapters of this volume, and it is therefore needless to enter
further upon them here. Those who have any thing like correct
apprehensions of the grand foundation-truths of Christianity, and any
measure of experience in the Christian life, will be able to
understand how it is that though "complete in Him who is the head
of all principality and power," they nevertheless need, while down
here amid the infirmities, conflicts, and buffetings of earth, the
powerful advocacy of their adorable and divine High-Priest. The
believer is "washed, sanctified, and justified" (1 Cor. vi.); he is
"accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. i. 6.); he can never come into
judgment, as regards his person (See John v. 24, where the word is
κρισιν and not κατακρισιν.); death and judgment are behind him,
because he is united to Christ, who has passed through them both
on his behalf and in his stead. All these things are divinely true of
the very weakest, most unlettered, and inexperienced member of
the family of God; but yet, inasmuch as he carries about with him a
nature so incorrigibly bad and so irremediably ruined that no
discipline can correct it and no medicine cure it, inasmuch as he is
the tenant of a body of sin and death—as he is surrounded on all
sides by hostile influences—as he is called to cope perpetually with
the combined forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil, he could
never keep his ground, much less make progress, were he not
upheld by the all-prevailing intercession of his great High-Priest, who
bears the names of His people upon His breast and upon His
shoulder.
Some, I am aware, have found great difficulty in reconciling the idea
of the believer's perfect standing in Christ with the need of
priesthood. "If," it is argued, "he is perfect, what need has he of a
priest?" The two things are as distinctly taught in the Word as they
are compatible one with another, and understood in the experience
of every rightly instructed Christian. It is of the very last importance
to apprehend, with clearness and accuracy, the perfect harmony
between these two points. The believer is perfect in Christ; but in
himself, he is a poor feeble creature, ever liable to fall. Hence the
unspeakable blessedness of having One who can manage all his
affairs for him, at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens—One
who upholds him continually by the right hand of His righteousness
—One who will never let him go—One who is able to save to the
uttermost—One who is "the same yesterday, to-day, and forever"—
One who will bear him triumphantly through all the difficulties and
dangers which surround him, and finally "present him faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Blessed forever
be the grace that has made such ample provision for all our need in
the blood of a Spotless Victim and the intercession of a divine High-
Priest!
Dear Christian reader, let it be our care so to walk, so to "keep
ourselves unspotted from the world," so to stand apart from all
unhallowed associations, that we may enjoy the highest privileges
and discharge the most elevated functions of our position as
members of the priestly house of which Christ is the Head. We have
"boldness to enter into the holiest through the blood of Jesus:" "we
have a great High-Priest over the house of God." (Heb. x.) Nothing
can ever rob us of these privileges. But then our communion may be
marred, our worship may be hindered, our holy functions may
remain undischarged. Those ceremonial matters against which the
sons of Aaron were warned in the section before us, have their
antitypes in the Christian economy. Had they to be warned against
unholy contact? So have we. Had they to be warned against unholy
alliance? So have we. Had they to be warned against all manner of
ceremonial uncleanness? So have we to be warned against "all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit." (1 Cor. vii.) Were they shorn of
many of their loftiest priestly privileges by bodily blemish and
imperfect natural growth? So are we by moral blemish and imperfect
spiritual growth.
Will any one venture to call in question the practical importance of
such principles as these? Is it not obvious that the more highly we
estimate the blessings which attach to that priestly house of which
we have been constituted members, in virtue of our spiritual birth,
the more carefully shall we guard against every thing which might
tend in any wise to rob us of their enjoyment? Undoubtedly. And this
it is which renders the close study of our section so pre-eminently
practical. May we feel its power, through the application of God the
Holy Ghost. Then shall we enjoy our priestly place; then shall we
faithfully discharge our priestly functions. We shall be able "to
present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God"
(Rom. xii. 1); we shall be able to "offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name"
(Heb. xiii. 15.); we shall be able, as members of the "spiritual house"
and the "holy priesthood," to "offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. ii. 5.); we shall be able, in some small
degree, to anticipate that blissful time when, from a redeemed
creation, the halleluiahs of intelligent and fervent praise shall ascend
to the throne of God and the Lamb throughout the everlasting ages.
 CHAPTER XXIII.
One of the most profound and comprehensive chapters in the
inspired volume now lies before us, and claims our prayerful study. It
contains the record of the seven great feasts or periodical
solemnities into which Israel's year was divided. In other words, it
furnishes us with a perfect view of God's dealings with Israel during
the entire period of their most eventful history.
Looking at the feasts separately, we have the Sabbath, the Passover,
the feast of unleavened bread, the first-fruits, Pentecost, the feast of
trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles. This
would make eight, altogether; but it is very obvious that the Sabbath
occupies quite a unique and independent place. It is first presented,
and its proper characteristics and attendant circumstances fully set
forth; and then we read, "These are the feasts of the Lord, even
holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons." (Ver. 4.)
So that, strictly speaking, as the attentive reader will observe,
Israel's first great feast was the Passover, and their seventh was the
feast of tabernacles. That is to say, divesting them of their typical
dress, we have, first, redemption; and last of all, we have the
millennial glory. The paschal lamb typified the death of Christ (1 Cor.
v. 7.); and the feast of tabernacles typified "the times of the
restitution of all things, of which God hath spoken by the mouth of
all His holy prophets since the world began." (Acts iii. 21.)
Such was the opening and such the closing feast of the Jewish year.
Atonement is the foundation, glory the top-stone; while between
these two points we have the resurrection of Christ (ver. 10-14.), the
gathering of the Church (ver. 15-21.), the waking up of Israel to a
sense of their long-lost glory (ver. 24-25.), their repentance and
hearty reception of their Messiah (ver. 27-32.), and, that not one
feature might be lacking in this grand typical representation, we
have provision made for the Gentiles to come in at the close of the
harvest and glean in Israel's fields (ver. 22.). All this renders the
picture divinely perfect, and evokes from the heart of every lover of
Scripture the most intense admiration. What could be more
complete? The blood of the Lamb, and practical holiness founded
thereon; the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and His ascension
into heaven; the descent of the Holy Ghost, in pentecostal power, to
form the Church; the awakening of the remnant; their repentance
and restoration; the blessing of "the poor and the stranger;" the
manifestation of the glory; the rest and blessedness of the kingdom,
—such are the contents of this truly marvelous chapter, which we
shall now proceed to examine in detail. May God the Holy Ghost be
our Teacher.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which
ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts.
Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of
rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the
Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.'" The place which the
Sabbath here gets is full of interest. The Lord is about to furnish a
type of all His dealings in grace with His people; and ere He does so,
He sets forth the Sabbath as the significant expression of that rest
which remaineth for the people of God. It was an actual solemnity to
be observed by Israel, but it was also a type of what is yet to be
when all that great and glorious work which this chapter
foreshadows shall have been accomplished. It is God's rest, into
which all who believe can enter now in spirit; but which, as to its full
and actual accomplishment, yet remains. (Heb. iv.) We work now:
we shall rest by and by. In one sense, the believer enters into rest;
in another sense, he labors to enter into it. He has found his rest in
Christ; he labors to enter into his rest in glory. He has found his full
mental repose in what Christ has wrought for him, and his eye rests
on that everlasting Sabbath upon which he shall enter when all his
desert toils and conflicts are over. He cannot rest in the midst of a
scene of sin and wretchedness; "he rests in Christ, the Son of God,
who took the servant's form;" and while thus resting, he is called to
labor as a worker together with God, in the full assurance that when
all his toil is over, he shall enjoy unbroken, eternal repose in those
mansions of unfading light and unalloyed blessedness where labor
and sorrow can never enter. Blessed prospect! May it brighten more
and more each hour in the vision of faith. May we labor all the more
earnestly and faithfully, as being sure of this most precious rest at
the end. True, there are foretastes of the eternal Sabbath; but these
foretastes only cause us to long more ardently for the blessed reality
—that Sabbath which shall never be broken—that "holy convocation"
which shall never be dissolved.
We have already remarked that the Sabbath occupies quite a unique
and independent place in this chapter. This is evident from the
wording of the fourth verse, where the Lord seems to begin afresh
with the expression, "These are the feasts of the Lord," as if to leave
the Sabbath quite distinct from the seven feasts which follow,
though it be, in reality, the type of that rest to which those feasts so
blessedly introduce the soul.
"These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye
shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first
month at even is the Lord's passover." (Ver. 4, 5.) Here, then, we
have the first of the seven periodical solemnities—the offering of
that paschal lamb whose blood it was that screened the Israel of
God from the sword of the destroying angel on that terrible night
when Egypt's first-born were laid low. This is the acknowledged type
of the death of Christ, and hence its place in this chapter is divinely
appropriate. It forms the foundation of all. We can know nothing of
rest, nothing of holiness, nothing of fellowship, save on the ground
of the death of Christ. It is peculiarly striking, significant, and
beautiful to observe that, directly God's rest is spoken of, the next
thing introduced is the blood of the paschal lamb. As much as to say,
There is the rest, but here is your title. No doubt labor will
capacitate us, but it is the blood that entitles us, to enjoy the rest.
"And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of
unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat
unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation:
ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering
made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is a holy
convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein." (Ver. 6-8.) The
people are here assembled around Jehovah in that practical holiness
which is founded upon accomplished redemption; and while thus
assembled, the fragrant odor of the sacrifice ascends from the altar
of Israel to the throne of Israel's God. This gives us a fine view of
that holiness which God looks for in the life of His redeemed. It is
based upon the sacrifice, and it ascends in immediate connection
with the acceptable fragrance of the Person of Christ. "Ye shall do no
servile work therein; but ye shall offer an offering made by fire."
What a contrast!—the servile work of man's hands, and the sweet
savor of Christ's sacrifice! The practical holiness of God's people is
not servile labor; it is the living unfolding of Christ through them, by
the power of the Holy Ghost. "To me to live is Christ." This is the
true idea. Christ is our life; and every exhibition of that life is, in the
divine judgment, redolent with all the fragrance of Christ. It may be
a very trifling matter in man's judgment, but, in so far as it is the
outflow of Christ our life, it is unspeakably precious to God. It
ascends to Him and can never be forgotten. "The fruits of
righteousness which are by Jesus Christ" are produced in the life of
the believer, and no power of earth or hell can prevent their
fragrance ascending to the throne of God.
It is needful to ponder deeply the contrast between "servile work"
and the outflow of the life of Christ. The type is very vivid. There
was a total cessation of manual labor throughout the whole
assembly; but the sweet savor of the burnt-offering ascended to
God. These were to be the two grand characteristics of the feast of
unleavened bread. Man's labor ceased, and the odor of the sacrifice
ascended; and this was the type of a believer's life of practical
holiness. What a triumphant answer is here to the legalist on the
one side, and the antinomian on the other! The former is silenced by
the words, "no servile work;" and the latter is confounded by the
words, "Ye shall offer an offering made by fire." The most elaborate
works of man's hands are "servile;" but the smallest cluster of "the
fruits of righteousness" is to the glory and praise of God. Throughout
the entire period of the believer's life there must be no servile work
—nothing of the hateful and degrading element of legality. There
should be only the continual presentation of the life of Christ,
wrought out and exhibited by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Throughout the "seven days" of Israel's second great periodical
solemnity there was to be "no leaven;" but instead thereof, the
sweet savor of "an offering made by fire" was to be presented to the
Lord. May we fully enter into the practical teaching of this most
striking and instructive type.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I
give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring
a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest; and ye shall
wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the
morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer
that day when ye wave the sheaf, a he lamb without blemish of the
first year, for a burnt-offering unto the Lord. And the meat-offering
thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an
offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savor: and the drink-
offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. And ye
shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the
self-same day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it
shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your
dwellings." (Ver. 9-14.)
"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of
them that slept." (1 Cor. xv. 20.) The beautiful ordinance of the
presentation of the sheaf of first-fruits typified the resurrection of
Christ, who, "at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward
the first day of the week," rose triumphant from the tomb, having
accomplished the glorious work of redemption. His was a
"resurrection from among the dead;" and in it we have at once the
earnest and the type of the resurrection of His people. "Christ the
first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming." When
Christ comes, His people will be raised "from among the dead [εκ
νεκρων]," that is, those of them that sleep in Jesus; "but the rest of
the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished."
(Rev. xx. 5.) When, immediately after the transfiguration, our
blessed Lord spoke of His rising "from among the dead," the
disciples questioned among themselves what that could mean. (See
Mark ix.) Every orthodox Jew believed in the doctrine of the
"resurrection of the dead [αναστασις νεκρων]," but the idea of a
"resurrection from among the dead [αναστασις εκ νεκρων]" was
what the disciples were unable to grasp; and no doubt many
disciples since then have felt considerable difficulty with respect to a
mystery so profound.
However, if my reader will prayerfully study and compare 1 Cor. xv.
with 1 Thess. iv. 13-18, he will get much precious instruction upon
this most interesting and practical truth. He can also look at Romans
viii. 11 in connection.—"But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus
from the dead [εκ νεκρων] dwell in you, He that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that
dwelleth in you." From all these passages it will be seen that the
resurrection of the Church will be upon precisely the same principle
as the resurrection of Christ. Both the Head and the body are shown
to be raised "from among the dead." The first sheaf and all the
sheaves that follow after are morally connected.
It must be evident to any one who carefully ponders the subject in
the light of Scripture, that there is a very material difference
between the resurrection of the believer and the resurrection of the
unbeliever. Both shall be raised; but Revelation xx. 5 proves that
there will be a thousand years between the two, so that they differ
both as to the principle and as to the time. Some have found
difficulty in reference to this subject, from the fact that in John v. 28
our Lord speaks of "the hour in the which all that are in the graves
shall hear His voice." How, it may be asked, can there be a thousand
years between the two resurrections, when both are spoken of as
occurring in an "hour"? The answer is very simple. In verse 28, the
quickening of dead souls is spoken of as occurring in an "hour;" and
this work has been going on for over eighteen hundred years. Now,
if a period of nearly two thousand years can be represented by the
word "hour," what objection can there be to the idea of one
thousand years being represented in the same way? Surely, none
whatever, especially when it is expressly stated that "the rest of the
dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished."
But furthermore, when we find mention made of "a first
resurrection," is it not evident that all are not to be raised together?
Why speak of a "first" if there is but the one? It may be said that
"the first resurrection" refers to the soul; but where is the Scripture
warrant for such a statement? The solemn fact is this: when the
"shout of the archangel and the trump of God" shall be heard, the
redeemed who sleep in Jesus will be raised to meet Him in the glory;
the wicked dead, whoever they be, from the days of Cain down, will
remain in their graves during the thousand years of millennial
blessedness, and at the close of that bright and blissful period, they
shall come forth and stand before "the great white throne," there to
be "judged every man according to his works," and to pass from the
throne of judgment into the lake of fire. Appalling thought!
Oh, reader, how is it in reference to your precious soul? Have you
seen, by the eye of faith, the blood of the paschal Lamb shed to
screen you from this terrible hour? Have you seen the precious
Sheaf of first-fruits reaped and gathered into the heavenly garner, as
the earnest of your being gathered in due time? These are solemn
questions—deeply solemn. Do not put them aside. See that you are
now under the cover of the blood of Jesus. Remember, you cannot
glean so much as a single ear in the fields of redemption until you
have seen the true Sheaf waved before the Lord. "Ye shall eat
neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the self-same
day that ye have brought an offering unto your God." The harvest
could not be touched until the sheaf of first-fruits had been
presented, and, with the sheaf, a burnt-offering and a meat-offering.
"And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath,
from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering; seven
Sabbaths shall be complete: even unto the morrow after the seventh
Sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat-
offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two
wave-loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall
be baken with leaven; they are the first-fruits unto the Lord." (Ver.
15-17.) This is the feast of Pentecost—the type of God's people,
gathered by the Holy Ghost, and presented before Him, in
connection with all the preciousness of Christ. In the passover we
have the death of Christ, in the sheaf of first-fruits we have the
resurrection of Christ, and in the feast of Pentecost we have the
descent of the Holy Ghost to form the Church. All this is divinely
perfect. The death and resurrection of Christ had to be accomplished
ere the Church could be formed. The sheaf was offered and then the
loaves were baked.
And, observe, "they shall be baken with leaven." Why was this?
Because they were intended to foreshadow those who, though filled
with the Holy Ghost, and adorned with His gifts and graces, had,
nevertheless, evil dwelling in them. The assembly, on the day of
Pentecost, stood in the full value of the blood of Christ, was crowned
with the gifts of the Holy Ghost; but there was leaven there also. No
power of the Spirit could do away with the fact that there was evil
dwelling in the people of God. It might be suppressed and kept out
of view, but it was there. This fact is foreshadowed in the type by
the leaven in the two loaves, and it is set forth in the actual history
of the Church; for albeit God the Holy Ghost was present in the
assembly, the flesh was there likewise to lie unto Him. Flesh is flesh,
nor can it ever be made aught else than flesh. The Holy Ghost did
not come down on the day of Pentecost to improve nature or do
away with the fact of its incurable evil, but to baptize believers into
one body, and connect them with their living Head in heaven.
Allusion has already been made, in the chapter on the peace-
offering, to the fact that leaven was permitted in connection
therewith. It was the divine recognition of the evil in the worshiper.
Thus is it also in the ordinance of the "two wave-loaves;" they were
to be "baken with leaven," because of the evil in the antitype.
But, blessed be God, the evil which was divinely recognized was
divinely provided for. This gives great rest and comfort to the heart.
It is a comfort to be assured that God knows the worst of us; and,
moreover, that He has made provision according to His knowledge,
and not merely according to ours. "And ye shall offer with the bread
seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young
bullock, and two rams; they shall be for a burnt-offering unto the
Lord, with their meat-offering and their drink-offerings, even an
offering made by fire, of sweet savor unto the Lord." (Ver. 18.) Here,
then, we have, in immediate connection with the leavened loaves,
the presentation of an unblemished sacrifice, typifying the great and
all-important truth that it is Christ's perfectness, and not our
sinfulness, that is ever before the view of God. Observe particularly
the words, "ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without
blemish." Precious truth!—deeply precious, though clothed in typic
dress! May the reader be enabled to enter into it, to make his own
of it, to stay his conscience upon it, to feed and refresh his heart
with it, to delight his whole soul in it. Not I, but Christ.
It may, however, be objected that the fact of Christ's being a
spotless Lamb is not sufficient to roll the burden of guilt from a sin-
stained conscience—a sweet-savor offering would not, of itself, avail
for a guilty sinner. This objection might be urged, but our type fully
meets and entirely removes it. It is quite true that a burnt-offering
would not have been sufficient where "leaven" was in question; and
hence we read, "Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a
sin-offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace-
offerings." (Ver. 19.) The "sin-offering" was the answer to the
"leaven" in the loaves: "peace" was established, so that communion
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