it has been affected by sin. This relation between God and man
is a personal one. No other construction can legitimately be put
upon the passages setting forth this relationship. "_Thou_ has
searched _me_, and known _me_." "_I_ am continually
with _Thee_." It is, moreover, an ethical relationship, and
that which is ethical is at the same time personal and universal,
that is to say, that God's dealings with mankind are expressed
in a moral constitution of universal and eternal validity. These
relationships are disordered by sin. No matter how sin came to be
here we are morally conscious, by the testimony of a bad conscience,
that we are guilty, and that our sin is not merely a matter of
personal guilt but a violation of a universal moral law.

1. THE HOLINESS OF GOD.

We should carefully note the emphasis laid upon the doctrine of
God's holiness in the Old Testament (see under Attributes of God,
p. 37). The Levitical law, the laws of clean and unclean, the
tabernacle and the temple with its outer court, its holy and most
holy place, the priestly order and the high priest, the bounds
set around Mt. Sinai, things and persons that might not be touched
without causing defilement, sacred times and seasons, these, and
much more, speak in unmistakable terms of the holiness of God.
We are thus taught that if sinful man is to approach unto God, it
must be through the blood of atonement. The holiness of God demands
that before the sinner can approach unto and have communion with
Him, some means of propitiation must be provided. This means of
approach is set forth in the shed blood.

2. THE SIN OF MAN.