had been profaned by David's entrance into the sanctuary and use of the shew-bread, as an example of those necessities which override the letter of the law, and he seems to leave the justification of the act to the reverence of the Jews for David. In the same spirit he appeals to the case of the priests, who profaned the strict letter of the Sabbatic law by performing the necessary work of the sacrifices. Both are used as illustrations of the great principle: "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. "30

Besides the shew-bread, there was a drink-offering of wine placed in the covered bowls upon the table. Some of it was used for libations, and what remained at the end of the week was poured out before Jehovah.

These types are too expressive for their general meaning to be misunderstood. They represented under the old covenant the same truths which are set forth by the sacrament of the Lord's Supper under the new. In both cases we have a table, not an altar; for in the Tabernacle the altar was distinct, and in the Christian Church it is superseded, as the one sacrifice of Christ has been offered once for all. In the Tabernacle, moreover, as in the Church, it was the Lord's Table; for the whole sanctuary was the house of Jehovah, and in its ante-chamber was the table of Jehovah, ever furnished with food for the use of those to whom He granted entrance into it; and so is the table of the Lord Jesus spread in his Church on earth. Both tables are supplied with the same simple elements of necessary food, bread and wine, with the same reference to the body and blood of Christ, though this was still a mystery under the old covenant. Nor does the parallel fail in the point that the shew-bread might only be eaten by the priests; for now the people of Christ are all priests to Him.

was

(7) The Golden Candlestick, or rather Candelabrum (lamp-stand),31 placed on the left or south side of the altar of incense. It was made of pure beaten gold, and weighed, with its instruments, a talent: its value has been estimated at £5076, besides workmanship. Its form, as described in the Book of Exodus, agrees with the figure of the candlestick of the second temple, as represented, together with the table of shew-bread and other Jewish trophies, on the arch of Titus. 32 It had an upright stem, from which branched out three pairs of arms, each pair forming a semicircle, and their tops coming to the same level as the top of the stem, so as to form with it supports for seven lamps. It was relieved by ornamental knobs and flowers along the branches and at their junction with the stem. There were oil-vessels and lamp-tongs, or snuffers, for trimming the seven lamps, and dishes for carrying away the snuff; an office performed by the priest when he went into the sanctuary every morning to offer incense. All these utensils were of pure gold. The lamps were lighted at the time of the evening oblation. They are directed to be kept burning perpetually; but from their being lighted in the evening, this seems to mean only during the night. The Rabbis say that the central lamp only was alight in the day-time.34

31

30 Matt. xii. 1-8; Mark ii. 23-28; Luke vi. were seventy of these ornaments, seems to 1-5; comp. Hos. vi. 6; Mic. vi. 6, 7. have originated in the reverence for that 31 Throughout our version the words can-number, and can hardly be reconciled with dle and candlestick are used for the lamp and the description. lamp-stand of the original.

2 See the drawing on p. 218.

34 Ex. xxv. 31-40, xxvii. 20, 21, xxxvii. 1724, xxx. 8; Lev. xxiv. 1-4; Num. iv. 9-10;

"The statement of the Rabbis, that there comp. 1 Sam. iii. 2; 2 Chron. xiii. 11.

so in

As in a house light is as necessary as food, and the lamp-stand, with its lighted lamp, was a piece of furniture as needful as the bread-vessel, the house of Jehovah, the candlestick symbolized the spiritual light of life, which he gives to His servants with the words by which they live. In the vision of the heavenly temple in the Apocalypse, the seven lights of the sanctuary before the Holiest of all are identified with "the seven spirits that are before the throne of God," the one perfect Spirit, whence come light, life, truth, and holiness; and the seven branches of the candlestick are made to symbolize the seven churches, the representatives of the whole Church on earth. The figure is the full development of the words of Christ, "Ye are the light of the world;""So let your light shine before men;"37 and of St. Paul's exhortation, "Shine ye, as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life."38

36

§ 7. (iii.) In the Holy of Holies, within the veil and shrouded in darkness, there was but one object, the most sacred of the whole. The Ark of the Covenant, or the Testimony, was a sacred chest, containing the two tables of stone, inscribed with the Ten Commandments. It was two cubits and a half in length, by a cubit and a half both in width and height." It was of shittim-wood, overlaid with pure gold, and had a golden mitre round the top. Through two pairs of golden rings on its sides passed two staves of shittim-wood, overlaid with gold, which were drawn forward so as to press against the veil, and thus to remind the priests in the holy place of the presence of the unseen ark. The cover of the ark was a plate of pure gold, overshadowed by two cherubim, with their faces bent down and their wings meeting. This was the very throne of Jehovah, who was therefore said to "dwell between the cherubim." It was also called the mercy-seat or propitiatory, because Jehovah there revealed himself, especially on the great Day of Atonement, as "God pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin." Nor was it without the profoundest allusion to the coming dispensation of the Gospel, that God's throne of mercy covered and hid the tables of the law. The attitude of the cherubim was significant of the desire of angels to learn the Gospel mysteries that were hidden in the law. 40

iv.

35 Matt. v. 15, and the parallel passages, 40 1 Pet. i. 12, εἰς ἃ ἐπιθυμοῦσιν ἄγγελοι where the meaning is obscured by the omis- Taрakia, where the last word evidently resion of the article the bushel," the lamp- fers to the bending down of the cherubim stand." The sense is "when a man lights over the ark. his lamp in his house, he doesn't put it un- Though the exact form of the cherubim is der the flour-vessel, but on the lamp-stand." uncertain, they probably bore a general re36 Rev. i. 4, 12, 20; comp. xi. 4, and Zech. semblance to the composite religious figures 37 Matt. v. 14-16. 38 Philip. ii. 15, 16. found upon the monuments of Egypt, Assyria. 39 It was also probably a reliquary for the Babylonia, and Persia. Compare the depot of manna and the rod of Aaron. We scription in Fz. i. 5, seq., who speaks of read in 1 K. viii. 9, that there was nothing them as living creatures with animal forms: in the ark save the two tables of stone which that they are cherubim is clear from Iz k. Moses put there at Horeb." Yet St. Paul as-x. 20. The symbolism of the visions of Ezeserts that, beside the two tables of stone, the kiel is more complex than that of the earlier •、 pot of manna" and "Aaron's rod that Scriptures, and he certainly means that each budded" (Heb. ix. 4, were inside the ark; composite creature-form had four faces so as and probably since there is no mention of any to look four ways at once, was four-sided and other receptacle for them, and some would four-winged, so as to move with instant ra have been necessary, the statement of 1 K. pidity in every direction without turning viii. 9, implies that by Solomon's time these whereas the Mosaic idea was probably sin relics had disappeared. gle-faced, and with but one pair of wings.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

HISTORY OF THE TABERNA- of God was taken, and the sanctuary

CLE.

lost its glory; and the Tabernacle, though it did not perish, never again As long as Canaan remained un- recovered it (1 Sam. iv. 22). Samuel conquered, and the people were still treats it as an abandoned shrine, and therefore an army, the Tabernacle sacrifices elsewhere, at Mizpeh (1was probably moved from place to Sam. vii. 9), at Ramah (ix. 12, x. 3), place, wherever the host of Israel was at Gilgal (x. 8, xi. 15). It probably for the time encamped. It rested became once again a movable sancfinally in “the place which the Lord tuary. For a time it seems, under had chosen," at SHILOH (Josh. ix. Saul, to have been settled at NOB 27, xviii. 1). The reasons of the (1 Sam. xxi. 1-6). The massacre of choice are not given. Partly, per- the priests and the flight of Abiathar haps, its central position, partly its must, however, have robbed it yet belonging to the powerful tribe of further of its glory. It had before Ephraim, the tribe of the great cap- lost the Ark; it now lost the presence tain of the host, may have determined of the high-priest (1 Sam. xxii. 20, the preference. There it continued xxiii. 6). What change of fortune during the whole period of the Judges then followed we do not know. In (Josh. xix. 51, xxii. 12; Judg. xxi. some way or other, it found its way 12). It was far, however, from be- to Gibeon (1 Chron. xvi. 39). The ing what it was intended to be, the anomalous separation of the two one national sanctuary, the witness things which, in the original order, against a localized and divided wor- had been joined, brought about yet ship. The old religion of the high greater anomalies; and while the Ark places kept its ground. Altars were remained at Kirjath-jearim, the Taberected, at first with reserve, as being ernacle at Gibeon connected itself not for sacrifice (Josh. xxii. 26), aft- with the worship of the high places erward freely, and without scruple (1 K. iii. 4). The capture of Jeru(Judg. vi. 24, xiii. 19). Of the names salem and the erection there of a new by which the one special sanctuary Tabernacle, with the Ark, of which was known at this period, those of the the old had been deprived (2 Sam. "House," or the " Temple," of Je- vi. 17; 1 Chron. xv. 1), left it little hovah (1 Sam. i. 9, 24, iii. 3, 15) are more than a traditional, historical most prominent. sanctity. It retained only the old A state of things which was rapid- altar of burnt-offerings (1 Chron. xxi. ly assimilating the worship of Jeho- 9). Such as it was, however, neither vah to that of Ashtaroth, or Mylitta, king nor people could bring themneeded to be broken up. The Ark selves to sweep it away. The double

service went on; Zadok, as high- should cease. The purpose of David, priest, officiated at Gibeon (1 Chron. fulfilled by Solomon, was that the xvi. 39); the more recent, more pro- claims of both should merge in the phetic service of psalms and hymns higher glory of the Temple. The and music, under Asaph, gathered Tabernacle at Gibeon might have round the Tabernacle at Jerusalem been reverenced by adherents to old (1 Chron. xvi. 4, 37). The divided forms, even above the new Temple, worship continued all the days of and have caused a fatal schism. So David. The sanctity of both places Solomon removed it, with all its holy was recognized by Solomon on his vessels, to Jerusalem (1 K. viii. 4), accession (1 K. iii. 15; 2 Chron. i. where it was doubtless laid up in the 3). But it was time that the anomaly Temple, and finally perished with it.

SECTION III.

THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES.

§ 1. Institution of the priesthood. § 2.-I. THE HIGH-PRIEST-His consecration. § 3. His peculiar dress. § 4. His peculiar functions. § 5. Appointment, age, and qualifications. 6. The sagan, or deputy high-priest. $7. Mystic meaning of the priesthood. § 8.—II. THE PRIESTS-Their cons cration and dress. § 9. Regulations respecting them. §10. Their functions. § 11. Maintenance. § 12. Classification. § 13.-III. THE LEVITESTheir duties in general. § 14. Division into the three families of the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Merarites. § 15. Their support and settlement in the promised land. § 16. Their subsequent duties and history.

991

§ 1. "Now when these things were thus ordered, the priests went always into the first Tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high-priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and the errors of the people: the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet laid open, while the first Tabernacle was yet standing.' Such is the apostolic summary of the offices of the priesthood. The whole of the people were holy, and, in a spiritual sense, they were a nation of priests; but from among them the tribe of Levi were chosen, as the reward of their devotion in the matter of the golden calf, to be the immediate attendants on Jehovah, that they might "minister in His courts." Out of that tribe again, the house of Amram was chosen (we know not whether according to primogeniture), to perform the functions of the priesthood, which devolved on Aaron, as the head of that house. He was appointed to the office of HIGH-PRIEST, at first simply THE PRIEST,' as representing the whole order, the intercessor between Jehovah and the people; his sons became the Priests, who alone could offer sacrifices; and the rest of the tribe formed the class of Levites, who assisted in the services of the Tabernacle. For this purpose the Levites are said to be "given to Aaron and his sons, and hence they were called Nethinim (i. e., given) ;3 but afterward they were relieved of some of their enormous labor by a separate class of servants, such as the Gibeonites, who were made "hewers of wood and drawers of water;" and in the later history of the Jews such servants formed a distinct body, under the same name of Nethinim.*

§2.-I. THE HIGH-PRIEST.-We find from the very first the following characteristic attributes of Aaron and the high-priests his successors, as distinguished from the other priests :

(i.) In the consecration to the office Aaron alone was anointed," whence one of the distinctive epithets of the high-priest was "the anointed