tithing of the spoils, the father of the nation had confessed subjection to this greater priest. For without all controversy the less is blessed of the greater.” Thus, although the sons of Levi were divinely commanded to tithe their brethren (verse 5), Mel chisedec, who belonged to a different THE OLD YEAR I heard the Old Year talking, and it seemed to say to me, "I am what men have made me, not what I hope to be. I did not bring the failures; my days were bright and new. I was the time allotted; the work was man's to do. I am what others made me. I had no will or choice; Through all the day of trial, I was not given a voice. If victory came, man earned it; his was the faith and power. If sorrow came, God sent it; I furnished but the hour. I came here empty-handed — a year that was to be, And what I am in passing is what men made of me. I am their petty failure, their glory, their success; I am the soul's advancement, their shame, or happiness. I was not born of evil, or governed by the stars; I brought to some" high honors, to others ugly scars. Only my days are numbered; I was the time for toil. And each has reaped the harvest, as he has tilled the soil. I am wh3t men have made me, not what I hope to be, And so shall be the New Year, which soon shall follow me. race, tithed Abraham their common father. Therefore “Levi embryonical- ly paid tithes in his great grandfather Abraham and Melchisedec collected them.” (2) The Levitical priests who received tithes were men who died; of Melchisedec it is witnessed that he lives (verse 8). This argument is 33
bowed himself in worship (Gen. 18) ; who is earth’s rightful King and Prince of Peace (Rev. 1; Isa. 9); whose goings forth have been from the days of eternity (Micah 5:2). The supreme thing to note, how ever, is that Melchisedec symbolizes One who is eternal. “Made like unto the Son of God.” “Wherein does the likeness consist?” asks Chrysostom. “In this, that we know of no begin ning and no end of either: in the one case because they have found no rec ord ; in the other because they have no existence.” “The previous history of Melchisedec is purposely closed against us by God, with the set inten tion that we may look at Melchisedec only as he stands spoken of in these verses of Genesis. He is so spoken of that he may be a perfect type of the Son of God; and hence his imperfec tions, which would have come out in regular biography of him, do not appear.” The priesthood of Melchisedec su perior to that of Aaron, verses 5-10 : Two proofs are given by the apostle: (1) “Leading their minds back to the very root and fountain of the nation, he shows them its founder, in whose name was all the nation’s boast, in the attitude of homage to the priest of the most High God. By the reception of the blessing as well as in the offered
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