'Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon
it ... HOLINESS TO THE LORD.'--EXODUS xxviii. 36.
'In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses,
HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.'--ZECH. xiv. 20.
'His name shall be in their foreheads.'--REV. xxii. 4.
You will have perceived my purpose in putting these three widely
separated texts together. They all speak of inscriptions, and they are
all obviously connected with each other. The first of them comes from
the ancient times of the institution of the ceremonial ritual, and
describes a part of the high priest's official dress. In his mitre was
a thin plate of gold on which was written, 'Holiness to the Lord.' The
second of them comes from almost the last portion recorded of the
history of Israel in the Old Testament, and is from the words of the
great Prophet of the Restoration--his ideal presentation of the
Messianic period, in which he recognises as one feature, that the
inscription on the mitre of the high priest shall be written on 'the
bells of the horses.' And the last of them is from the closing vision
of the celestial kingdom, the heavenly and perfected form of the
Christian Church. John, probably remembering the high priest and his
mitre, with its inscription upon the forehead, says: 'His servants
shall do Him priestly service'--for that is the meaning of the word
inadequately translated 'serve Him'--'and see His face, and His name
shall be in their foreheads.'
These three things, then--the high priest's mitre, the horses' bells,
the foreheads of the perfected saints--present three aspects of the
Christian thought of holiness. Take them one by one.