The Pulpit Commentary
Vers. 7 — 9. — Moral uncleanness or defilement passes to the husband and father from an immoral wife or daughter, and therefore the priest is to be specially careful in the selection of his wife ; and his daughter, if she leads a licentious life, is to be stoned to dc ath, and then burnt with fire, because she profaneth her father (cf. 1 Sam. \L 17). In a similar spirit, St. Paul gives directions as to the families of those to whom the ministry of the Spirit is assigned (1 Tim. UL 11; Titus i. 6). Keil would unite T*r. 4 in sense with

vers. 7 — 9, and argues that he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself, refers to the kind of marriage which the priest is to make, but the interposition of vers. 5 and 6 forbid this explanation of Ter. 4.

Vers. 7 — 9. — The marriage of the clergy, acconlin.: to the discipline of the reformed Churches, ia one of tlie points on which tiie latter bear a marked suiicriurity U) tlio Latin Church, which forbids its bishops and priests to marry ; and to the Greek Church, which expects its priests to be married before ordination, forbids them to marry a ■econd time, and requires celibacy in its bishops. L It 18 MOUE SCRIPTURAL. In the Old Testament, the priests had the liberty of marriage; in the New Testament, the bishops or presbyters had the liberty of marriage, and '1 imothy and Titus are instructed by St. Paul to select married men for the clerical •flBce (1 Tim, iii. 2, 4; Titus i. 6). II. It 18 MOKE PRIMITIVE. The misinterpretation of St. Paul's words, " the husband. of one wife" (which, rif,'htly interpreted, mean "a man faithful to one woman"), led in early time to the Greek discipline ; but the Latin practice, condemned by the Greeks in the Council in TruUo, was not enforced upon the whole of the Western Church until the eleventh century, nor is it universal in it now. III. It is more human. The attempt to crush instead of regulate God-given initincts, whether by philosophical sects or religious bodies, has always led to unspeakable erils. In the present case it has led to (1) immorality, as testified by the history of every country in which the practice has existed; (li) inhumanity, as exiiibited in the Inquisition and at the stake, such as a celibate priesthood could alone have been guilty of; (3) disloyalty, which is naturally felt by those who, having their natural ties to their country severed, become the spiritual police of a foreign power. IV. Duties connected with it. 1. For each individual clergyman — to determine whether marriage will or will not " serve better to godliness " (Art. XXXII.). 2. To select a wife who will be "a help meet for him" (Gen. ii, 20). 3. To be "a man of one woman" (1 Tim. iii. 2; Titus i. 6), that is, faithful to his wife. 4. To "rule well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity" (1 Tim. iii. 4); "having faithtul children not accused of riot or unruly" (Titus i. 6). 5. "To be diligent to form and fashion himself and his family according to the doctrine of Christ, and to make both himself and it, as much as in him lieth, wholesome examples and patterns to the flock of Christ " ((Ordering of Priests). 6. For the wife and family — to follow his godly monitions, and to abstain from amusements of doubtful character or tenilency. V. MiNOB advantages attached to it. It gives occasion for the growth in the clergy of those graces of character which come from the cultivation and exercise of the affections — love, cheerfulness, self-restraint for the sake of others, hopes and fears for others — all of which are a pi evention of selfishness. It gives a willing and unpaid body of assistants in ministerial work which, though not purely spiritual, has yet to be done by the clergy. It forms a natural link between the clergyman and his parishioners. It ensures the education of a considerable class throughout the country in the principles of religion. It spreads the practices of a religious household to households beyond the clergyman's home, by the natural effects of intermarriage and friendly intercourse. It gives a safe home to many girls seeking domestic service. It dissipates the lalse idea that the state of celibacy is a purer and more chaste condition than that of matrimony. It gives an opportunity of learning by experience the working of young people's minds and hearts, and women's feelings, which is not, as a rule, to be otherwise safely attained by the clergy.

The Pulpit Commentary
Vers. 10 — 15. — The high priest, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, symbolizing in his person the Holy One in a more special manner than the otlier priests, has to aim so much the more at symbolical holiness. He may not, therefore, incur legal uncleanness by taking part in the funeral rites, even of his father or mother, not being permitted to absent himself from the sanctuary, which he would have to do if he had thus ceremonially defiled himself. Nor is it enough that he should abstain from taking an immoral or a divorced wife ; he may only wed a virgin and of his own people, whereas the other priests might marry widows and the daughters of strangers dwelling among the Israelites. In the ordinances for priests given in Ezek. xliv., the ordinary priests, as well as the high priest, are forbidden to marry widows, nnless they be the widows of priests (Ezek. xliv. 22).

The Pulpit Commentary
Vers. 16 — 24. — Perfection of the body being typical of perfection of the mind and of tlie whole man, and symbolical perfection being required of the priest of God, none may be admitted to the priesthood with bodily defects, or excrescences, or grievous blemishes. The translation dwarf, in ver. 20, is better than the marginal rendering " too slender," or withered. Being the descendants of Aaron, these priests, blemished as they were, were to be supported as the other priests were supported. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy ; that is, the priests' portions of the meat offerings (chs. ii. 3, 10 ; vi. 17), of the sin ofi'ei ings (ch. vi. 29), of the trespass ofilerings (ch. vii. 1), of the shewbread (ch. xxiv. 9), which were most holy, and of the heave offerings, wave ofierings, tirstfruit olferings, firstlings, and things devoted (Numb. xi. 11 — 19), which were holy. They were also apparently employed in the less formal and conspicuous duties of the priests, such as examining lepers, and any other functinus which did not bring them nigh unto the altar. But they were not to profane God's sanctuaries, by which is meant the holy of holies, the holy place, and the court in which the altar stood. To none of these is the blemished priest to be admitted for the purpose of officiating, though he might enter the court and probably the holy place tor other purposes, and miglit eat the offering! of the priests in the accustomed place. OH. XXL 1— L'4.] THE BOOK OF LEVlTICUa «23 HOMILETICa