Gospel (Col. ii. 17; Heb. viii. 5); and the most eminent in spiritual light and privileges before, were inferior to the comparatively little, and less distinguished, members of Christ's kingdom. (Mat. xi. 11.) The Messiah Himself is the beginning and the end, the heart and centre, of the whole scheme of God for the salvation of man; the glorious object for whose coming every true child of God waited and longed-to whose person, work, and kingdom all the prophets gave witness-and on the ground of whose prevailing mediation, foreseen and calculated on, all forgiveness of sin and gifts of grace had from the first proceeded. In Christ, therefore, and the things of His salvation, every principle and purpose of the Divine mind respecting the people of God terminates and is made perfect: these may be said to be the highest, and indeed the only, good for sinful men, because on them, from first to last, everything is made to depend; and as all that concerns a fallen world dates from the fatal transgression of Adam, so all that concerns a restored world has at once its rise and consummation in the perfect work of Christ, the second Adam.' *

It can scarcely need to be observed that the ceremonies, which were as symbols faintly representing Gospel truth, or as types foreshadowing the coming of Christ, were designed to cease, when that Gospel was fully proclaimed testifying of Christ already come. "Before Messiah's coming the ceremonies were as the swaddling bands in which He was wrapped; but after it they resembled the linen clothes which He left in the grave. Christ was in the one, not in the other.' †

ELEMENTARY AND GENERAL QUESTIONS.

278. The Mosaic ceremonies were symbols, or representations—of what? 279. They are also to be regarded as types, i.e. prophetic symbols, signs foreshadowing things future. As such, to whom and to what do they point ? 280. Who is it that, in His person and work, forms the great substance and centre of Divine Revelation?

281. Repeat Col. ii. 17; Heb. viii. 5; Mat. xi. 11.

282. Repeat also 1 John ii. 8; Rom. xvi. 25, 26; Col. i. 27; 1 Cor. ii. 7-10.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS.

283. What peculiar relation did it please God to establish between Himself and the Israelites as a nation?

284. What was the foundation, or basis, of this Covenant?

285. What was its design?

286. In this Covenant, what place must we assign to the Decalogue or Ten Commandments?

* On this whole subject, see Fairbairn's Typology of Scripture (to which this chapter and some of the following are largely indebted); and Litton's Bampton Lectures, on the Mosaic Dispensation considered as Introductory to Christianity. + Bell on the Covenants, quoted by Fairbairn.

287. What ends were proposed by the Mosaic Ritual, or body of rites and

ceremonies ?

288. Describe the relations of that Ritual to the Moral Law.

289. Compare the condition of enlightened and pious believers under the Mosaic economy with that of faithful Christians.

290. State the essential difference between the Mosaic ceremonies and those heathen rites which most nearly resemble them.

291. Describe the Mosaic ceremonies as to their inward character or significance. 292. What do you mean when you say that these rites were symbolical?

293. How, and to whom, are they typical?

294. When we speak of them as typical, do we ascribe to them, strictly speaking, a double sense?

295. How did the state of the Jews under the law resemble a state of childhood? 296. How far is it likely that what we may now call particular types were capable of being understood as such by the ancient Jews.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MOSAIC RITUAL.-THE TABERNACLE.

ONE place was set apart as exclusively sacred for the legitimate celebration of the Mosaic ceremonial worship. This was THE TABERNACLE (i. e. dwelling, habitation house, Deut. xxiii. 18 ; Josh. ix. 23; Judges xviii. 31)—the Tabernacle of Testimony or of Witness (i. e. of the two Tables of the Law, which bore testimony to the will and holiness of God, and therefore also to the sinfulness of the people)-the Tabernacle of Meeting (i. e. of communion between God and the people). This Tabernacle stood in the midst of the people; it contained no image, or representation of the Deity, but only a spot peculiarly sacred to the manifestation of His presence and the declaration of His will; in which Most Holy place stood the ark, containing the Tables of the Law, and covered with the Mercy Seat, the throne of the merciful Jehovah. This Tabernacle was afterwards succeeded by the Temple; which was constructed on the same divinely appointed plan, and bore the same relation to the houses of the Jews in Canaan as that which the Tabernacle bore to their tents in the wilderness.

As a symbol, the Tabernacle (or Temple) may be regarded as representing the presence of the One, invisible, holy God, and that communion between Him and His people which, in its prescribed use, it was adapted really to be a means of maintaining. As a visible sacred structure, standing in the midst of the Israelites, it was, doubtless, a great aid to their weak and imperfect apprehension of the spiritual existence and presence of the Most High; while the Tables of the Law, enshrined in

its innermost recess, may have assisted in promoting a right moral disposition and feeling on the part of the worshippers, and, at the same time, the Mercy Seat may have encouraged the penitent with the hope of pardon.* As a type, it is doubtless to be considered as foreshadowing Christ-incarnate Deity, 'God manifest in the flesh,' reconciling man to Himself; Christ, in whom 'dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,' when He came and 'dwelt (i. e. tabernacled) among us.' Tim. iii. 16; Col. ii. 9; John i. 14; see also John ii. 19.) Hence it becomes also a type of the Church, or body of true believers, who are the Temple of the living God. (See 1 Tim. iii. 15; Eph. ii. 21, 22; 1 Cor. iii. 9; vi. 19; Eph. iii. 17; 1 Peter ii. 5, 6.) This typical significance of the Tabernacle is heightened when we remember that it was consecrated with the anointing oil (Exod. xxx. 26; xl. 9; Lev. viii. 10; Num. vii. 1), emblematic of the Holy Spirit. (See Acts x. 38; 2 Cor. i. 21; 1 John ii. 20.)

The following are the details of the sacred structure, according to the pattern shown to Moses in the Mount.

The Tabernacle was surrounded by an oblong open space, lying from east to west, 100 cubits long by 50 broad. This space, THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE, was enclosed by curtains suspended from silver rods, which rested on silver hooks attached to the capitals of pillars or posts of acacia wood.† These pillars were five cubits high; they were furnished at the bottom with brazen sockets, and had their capitals overlaid with silver. They were sixty in number; namely, ten at each end(eastern and western) and twenty at each side (northern and southern). The entrance, twenty cubits broad, was at the eastern end, between the five middle pillars, from which was suspended a rich curtain of fine twined linen, embroidered with figures in blue, purple, and scarlet, which, when drawn up, left four spaces for ingress and egress (Exod. xxvii. 9-18; xxxviii. 9-19). To this court all Israelites had access.

About the centre of the court, opposite the entrance, stood an altar, commonly called THE BRAZEN ALTAR, or ALTAR OF

*The Jewish view of the symbolical meaning of the Tabernacle, as given by Dr. Kalisch, is as follows:- The Tabernacle was an external but holy symbol of the presence of God among the Israelites, and the place from whence God promised to meet, and to grant His future revelations to, Moses and the people, and where the Decalogue, as the witness of the Divine covenant, was preserved.

The utensils of the Holy of Holies typify [he means, symbolise] the descending of God to man; those of the sanctuary and the court the rising up of man to God; and thus the whole structure admirably represents the mutual love of God and Israel.'-Introductory Note to Exodus xxv.

[Perhaps, rather, of brass, according to the most obvious interpretation of Exod. xxvii. 10. Some, however, think that brass' in that passage only refers to 'sockets,' a view which is perhaps somewhat supported by Exod. xxxviii. 10.]

H

*

BURNT OFFERINGS. This was a hollow vessel, made of acacia wood overlaid with brass, five cubits long, five broad, and three high. In this was placed a brazen grate, on which the fire was kindled.† The corners of the altar terminated at the upper part, in four square projections, called the horns of the altar. At these corners were four rings of brass, through which were passed two poles or staves of acacia wood, overlaid with brass, which were employed for transport. Some suppose that there was an ascent to the altar, consisting of an inclined plane on the south side, made of earth; but others think that the officiating priests stood on the ground. (Exod. xxvii. 1–8; xxxviii. 1-7; xl. 6.) For the service of the altar were provided pots or urns for removing the ashes, fire-shovels, basins, and three-pronged flesh-hooks, all of brass. (Exod. xxvii. 3; Xxxviii. 3.) This altar, being appropriated to the offering of victims slain in sacrifice, was symbolical of the first friendly meeting of the merciful God with sinful, penitent man. And accordingly, in its highest meaning, it was typical of reconciliation as effected by the blood of Christ.

Between the Altar and the Tabernacle (perhaps not quite in a straight line, but a little on the south) stood a BRAZEN LAVER, or large (probably round) basin, at which the priests washed their hands and their feet when they were about to officiate. It rested on a brazen base. This Laver was constructed of the metal contained in brazen mirrors, presented for this purpose by the women who assembled at the door of the Tabernacle. (Exod. xxx. 18-21; xxxviii. 8.) It can hardly be doubted that the ancient Israelites regarded the act of washing in this basin as symbolical of moral purity or holiness; and we may certainly contemplate it as typical of the purifying or sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. (Exod. xxx. 20; Ps. xxvi. 6; Heb. x. 22; Eph. v. 26; Titus iii. 5.)

The position of the Tabernacle was, perhaps, at the extreme west end of the court; but Josephus says that it was in the

*The cubit, of six palms or hand-breadths 1 foot 9.888 inches, i. e. nearly 22 inches so that 5 cubits about 9 feet; 3 cubits = about 5 feet. [Others reckon the cubit at a little more than 18 inches.]

† [Respecting the position, however, and use of this grating there is great diversity of opinion. Many regard it as placed outside the altar (the inside of which they suppose to have been filled with earth, Exod. xx. 24), some thinking that it was in a horizontal, others in a perpendicular position. The latter view is taken in Smith's Dict. i. 53, the former is adopted by Dr. Kalisch, whose description is as follows:]- This altar had a border, and under it a grate of network of brass-according to some, to serve as a kind of bench or step for the officiating priests-according to others, more probably in order to receive whatever might fall from the altar, and, as the network might have been very close, coals or wood were caught by it, and ashes only fell through.'-KALISCH, on Exod. XXV.

middle; while Philo describes it as at an equal distance of twenty cubits from the north, south, and west sides, leaving a space of fifty cubits between the eastern side of the court and the entrance of the sacred structure (50+30 +20=100). The Tabernacle was a tent, of oblong shape, corresponding to that of the court, and placed in the same direction, namely, from east to west. It was thirty cubits long (east to west), ten cubits broad (north to south), and ten cubits high. Each of the northern and southern sides consisted of twenty planks or boards of acacia wood, and the western side or end of six, besides the two angle boards or posts; each board was ten cubits long, and (with the exception of the two angle boards *) one cubit and a half broad, plated with gold, and furnished at the bottom part with two silver tenons for insertion into two corresponding sockets or mortises in square silver blocks, which served as bases or pedestals. At the eastern side or end was the entrance, covered with a curtain of fine twined linen (byssus), on which figures were embroidered in blue, purple, and scarlet (wool). This curtain was supported by five pillars, to which it was fastened by golden hooks. The boards which formed the sides were held together by five bars of wood overlaid with gold running along each side, through golden rings attached to each board. Of these bars the middle one alone extended the whole length of the side, the two upper and two lower being shorter.† (Exod. xxvi. 15–37; xxxvi. 20-38.)

This sacred tent was lined and protected by four coverings. Of these coverings the innermost (hanging within the boards, and forming the lining, or interior drapery of the tent ) consisted of ten carpets or curtains of fine twined white linen (byssus), embroidered with figures of cherubim in blue, purple, and scarlet (wool), hanging down on the north and south sides to a distance of about two feet from the ground, and on the western side or end to a distance of only about four or five inches. The next covering, or the first on the outside of the boards, consisted of cloth of (probably Angora) goats' hair, a material such as usually forms the external covering of Arabian tents; this covering hung down almost close to the ground on each of the two sides, and at the west end it had a little of its length resting on the ground. The third covering was made

* [These (see Patrick's note and Josephus's description) seem to have been each half a cubit broad-so that the whole width of the tabernacle was ten cubits, as stated by Josephus and in the text.]

t[For a completely different view of these bars, and also of the arrangement of the coverings of the tabernacle, see Smith's Dict. iii. 1453, 1454.] [This is merely conjectural. See Smith's Dict. iii. 1453.]