The blood of the paschal lamb was to be shed to furnish a shelter from death for the people of God "in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation." (Phil. 2:15.)But the shed blood collected in a basin could do no good while there. It must be applied elsewhere. The blood shed was for the people. But to be of any avail they must sprinkle it with hyssop on the lintel and door-posts of their houses. (5:22.) So the simple shedding of Christ's blood avails naught for those who only hear of it and pass it by as nothing to them. Its application also is necessary, for each to be sheltered by it.

But what is the precise significance of the sprinkling with hyssop? Let us compare other Scriptures:"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." (Ps. 51:7.) " And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel :and a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water and sprinkle it upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave :and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and upon the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even."(Num. 19:17-19.) "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God." " When Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people. . . . Moreover, he sprinkled likewise with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood ; and without shedding of blood is no remission." (Heb. 9:13, 14, 19, 21, 22.)

Hence, we gather the significance of blood-sprinkling with hyssop to be cleansing from sin. From i Cor. 5:7, we know that the passover lamb of Egypt typified Jesus as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. (Jno. 1:29.)

Israel's start for the land God had reserved for His people had to be made from the spot where the terrible judgment of death passed over them as cleansed from all sin. And Jno. 1:7, says, " The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin."

The hyssop was that with "which the blood was applied as cleansing them. The blood in the basin did no purifying while there. " Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood."

So we see that the hyssop bush points forward to faith, laying hold of Christ's blood for our sins. That is, if we have faith, or believe, that He has shed His precious blood for our sins, as He has, then we have applied the blood, and are sheltered by it. Oh, how blessed !

And now we see the mistake of those who think that because His blood was shed for all, therefore all will be saved. The Lamb in Egypt might have been slain might -might have shed just as much blood without its doing the people any good, if the blood had been left in the basin. Only when struck on to the door-posts aud lintel with the bunch of hyssop, did it prevent death entering. So we are saved only through faith. E. C. W.