table of shittim-wood, overlaid with pure gold, with its dishes, its spoons, its covers, and its shewbread, as well as the candlestick and its branches, all symbolised God's dwelling with His people. The Tabernacle was furnished as a dwelling-place, and there, beside the sacrifices offered on the altar, was the continual shewbread-the table being always as if in readiness for immediate use, and symbolically representing God's fellowship with His people, reconciled to Him by sacrifice. The candlestick had a similar signification. As light is needful for a dwelling, so this candlestick had a place in God's house, with its six branches, its bowls, its knops, and its flowers, its toys, and its snuff dishes. It is not necessary to inquire into the symbolical meaning of the parts of the candlestick, or of the articles which accompanied it. That they were of importance, however, and had their significancy, whatever may be our difficulty now in determining it, may be inferred from the commandment in Ex. xxv. 40: "And thou shalt make them after the pattern which was showed thee in the mount," although this may be partially explained on the ground of its tending to invest with a peculiar sacredness everything connected with the house and service of God. We may form some notion of the signification of these things from the vision of the prophet Zechariah, who beheld "a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof, and two olive-trees by it, one upon the right side. of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof" (Zech. iv. 2, 3). Seven was the number which signified plenty or fulness, and the seven lamps symbolically represented abundance of light. The prophet's vision was so far explained to him, that he was told that "the olive-trees are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth" (Zech. iv. 14). The "two witnesses" are said in the Book of Revelation, to be "the two olive-trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth" (Rev. xi. 4). There can be no doubt that they

represent the Church of God, two witnesses being the number sufficient for the completeness of a testimony which has always been borne to the true religion, even in the worst times, both under the Jewish dispensation and the Christian; and the seven lamps in another way signifying completeness. The whole furniture of the temple, however the table, the shewbread, and the candlestick-symbolised, in the first place, God's dwelllng there, in the midst of His people. The house was furnished as for His abode, and the people of Israel were thus continually reminded of His relation to them as their God.

uses.

CHAPTER XI.

JEWISH SYMBOLS. THE SABBATH.

THE Sabbath of the Jews was eminently a symbolical institution. However, it was not merely symbolical. Like many other symbols it had immediate purposes and But besides all these, it was symbolical of the rest of God's people in heaven, and so also of that fellowship with Him to which it contributed by its holy peace upon earth. It is unnecessary here to inquire into the origin of the law of the Sabbath. Many confidently refer it to the creation of the world, and regard it as commemorative of God's rest from His work of creation on the seventh day; but its great objects are acknowledged to be its present benefit to mankind as an ever-recurring seventh day of rest, bringing with it a call to special exercises of Divine worship, and affording opportunity for that serious thought and religious meditation which are apt to be interrupted by the cares of everyday life, and its significance as a promise of future and blessed rest. The continual weekly recurrence of the Sabbath was, and still is, a memorial of the past, and is now especially a memorial of the Saviour's resurrection from the dead, and so of the completion of the work of redemption, as well as of the Creator's work in the making of the world, but it also always was, and still is, a promise and a symbol of that future which awaits all the true people of God,-a perpetual encouragement of faith and hope. In this view of the nature of the Sabbath, we see at once the proof of its great importance, and are called to admire the wisdom and the goodness of God displayed in its institution. We see in it a beneficent provision for the wants of man, who needs one day in seven as a day of rest for the recruiting of his physical frame, which

would soon become exhausted by continuous toil, and for
the recruiting of his mental powers by the withdrawing of
attention from the ordinary pursuits of business, with its
manifold cares and anxieties. But we see in it more than
this. It is an institution eminently adapted to the wants
of man as a moral and responsible creature, capable of the
worship of God, and of fellowship with God, destined to
an eternal existence, and therefore called so to live on
earth as to prepare for and make sure of a happy eternity.
Every consoling thought which can arise in the mind to
cheer the way-worn pilgrim amidst the many trials and
sorrows of earthly life, is connected with the Sabbath, and
is readily recalled by its return. It leads us to look up
from earth to heaven, and to contemplate that happy future
in which there shall be no care nor sorrow,
that blessed
abode of the people of God,

"When death-divided friends at last
Shall meet to part no more."

It revives in the heart the hope that is full of glory.

CHAPTER XII.

JEWISH SYMBOLS. THE LAVER.

AMONG the articles of the furniture of the tabernacle and of the temple, one which must be specially noticed was the laver. It was made of brass,," of the looking-glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation" (Ex. xxxviii. 8). The laver was for the priests to wash in, before they entered upon their sacred duties. The symbolic meaning is obvious. The outward cleansing represented the cleansing of the heart, and the necessity of holiness in approaching the holy God; as we read in the book of the prophet Isaiah: "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well" (Isa. i. 16, 17). The temple of Solomon had a molten sea, "ten cubits from the one brim to the other" (1 Kings vii. 23)-and ten lavers of brass (1 Kings vii. 38). The priests were required to cleanse themselves before proceeding to the performance of their functions, and by this symbol the people were always reminded of the necessity of holiness, and taught to connect the idea of it with that of the worship of God. Many, it is too probable, looked to the mere outward form, without considering its symbolic meaning, but the symbol was nevertheless one of the plainest and most expressive which was ever appointed in the ritual of God's worship. Some have attempted to explain the whole ceremonial of the Jewish law, with all its rites, institutions, and symbols, as mainly intended to familiarise the people with the idea of holiness, and to educate them on this great subject. This, however, is to overlook the primary importance of