I. HATRED IS INGENIOUS IN ACCOMPLISHING ITS NEFARIOUS ENDS. Hatred has an insatiable appetite. It drives a man in whom it dwells, as with a slave-master's whip, to do its base behests. It robs him of his sleep at night, that he may lie in ambush for some innocent victim. All day long he is driven to most odious tasks by this spirit of mischief. Without interruption, hatred holds its busy conclave in the dark caverns of the soul, and presses into service every faculty of the man, until it has clutched its prey.

II. THE MURDEROUS MAN FLATTERS HIMSELF THAT HE SHALL BE SAFE. He is conscious that vengeance is in store for him. No sooner is the deed done than cowardly fear seizes him. The righteousness of God has fleet-footed detectives in its service. Nevertheless, cunning falsehood comes to him as the devil's comforter. Though his hands be stained through and through with blood, he will wear gloves of innocence, a mask of pretence. It were a [nobler thing to brave the matter out, and defy all opposition. But this the sinner cannot do. He quails before the omniscient eye; and, however insecure the hiding-place, he cheats himself with the hope of escape. Guilty as his conscience affirms him to be, he seeks a place among the innocent. For the sinner no refuge can be found. The earth shall cast him out.

III. THE POWER OF DEATH IS A SOVEREIGN FUNCTION OF THE STATE. "The elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence." Human life is too precious to be placed at the disposal of private revenge; therefore the chief province of the state politic is to protect life against violence. Unbiased natures are the only proper judges of right and wrong. Justice will speak only in the calm atmosphere of sincerity and truth. The representative power of the whole community is the only power which fully suffices to vindicate the claims of righteousness. This is God's vicegerent upon the earth. Hence magistrates are described as "gods."

IV. RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOBLER THAN PITY. There are circumstances in which Pity must not speak - a time for her to be silent. "Thine eye shall not pity." There are some situations in which her presence would be out of place, her action injurious. But Righteousness must never be absent. The very atmosphere in God's kingdom is penetrated with her vital breath. Her scepter is the scepter of God, and exerts a potent influence over every department of human life. Righteousness is the soul's proper robe, and without it she can nowhere fitly appear. All true prosperity is the fruit of righteousness. It cannot go well with any nation, nor with any man, until guilt is put away. Even compassion for others must be a righteous compassion. - D.

1. And, first, since a preacher must address his own conscience, as well as those of the hearers, I cannot forget the fearful applicability which this charge of blood guiltiness may have to Christian ministers. If ministers neglect to warn the wicked, if they keep back from the people any part of the counsel of God, either doctrinal or practical, and do not declare it; if they omit in their teaching either "repentance towards God," which is the beginning of the Gospel, or "faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," which is the body and substance of it — blood lieth at their door, the angel of Divine vengeance is abroad in pursuit of them: blood for blood, life for life, this is His legal requirement; His eye shall not pity, neither shall it spare; the manslayer's life — not the life of his body, but the life of the soul — is justly forfeit, unless, indeed, there be, under the economy of grace, some spiritual city of refuge appointed for him, into which he may flee and be safe.

2. Consider, then, I pray you, that subtle, undefinable thing, conveyed in a single remark, or in a single glance, or even sometimes in a single gesture, called influence. Consider how it propagates itself, and runs along like beacon fires — how alarmingly contagious and infectious its nature is.

3. But the influence which all people professing religion exercise on society at large, and claim to exercise, is too important to go without some remark.

II. THE SINNER'S SPIRITUAL REFUGE, I NEED NOT TELL YOU, IS JESUS CHRIST, who represents also the merciful elders and the anointed high priest; and the road by which we flee to Christ spiritually is the road of faith.

1. First, he must fly to Christ, as if for his life, as a man flies from a falling house or a beleaguered town — as righteous Lot was directed to flee from the cities of the plain.

2. As impediments were removed out of the manslayer's way, and the road was made as easy and obvious to him as possible, so it is a very simple thing to believe in Christ, and thus to flee to our spiritual City of Refuge — so much so, that its extreme simplicity sometimes puzzles us, and makes us look with distrust upon faith, as if so very obvious a thing could not be the appointed way of coming to God.

3. When the merciful Elder, Jesus Christ, comes to the gate of the city of refuge, what have we to plead with Him? We have nothing to plead but our own sin and misery, and the Divine covenant which was ratified by His blood — the Divine assurance that He is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him. We must insist upon our right to receive a "strong consolation" for our troubled conscience, even because we have in God's appointed way "Cried for a refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us" in Him. And surely the merciful Elder will receive and comfort us, and give us a place that we may dwell with Him.

4. Again, the manslayer was to abide in the city of his refuge — and so must we abide in ours, if we would be safe. The justice of God may arrest us the moment we are out of Christ.

III. Such, then, are some of the points of analogy between the Jewish city of refuge and its New Testament Antitype. THERE ARE TWO POINTS OF GLORIOUS CONTRAST.

1. The city of refuge was permanently available only to such manslayers as had acted without any evil intent. Not so our City of Refuge! Christ is able to save to the uttermost.

2. The manslayer was to remain in the city until the high priest died. But our High Priest never dies. "He ever liveth to make intercession for us."

IV. DO WE WISH TO KNOW WHETHER WE ARE ABIDING IN THIS CITY OF REFUGE, UNDER THE WING OF THE MERCIFUL ELDER, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE GREAT HIGH PRIEST? There is only one safe test of this, and it is very easily applied. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked"; and again, "Whosoever abideth in Him, sinneth not"; and again, "He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him." As the evidence of our being in Christ at all is our bearing fruit, so the evidence of our abiding in Him is our bearing much fruit; "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." And the fruit is this: "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against which there is no law."

(Dean Goulburn.)