viii, 15; Dan. v, 7; Nah. ii, 3). Both these colours, along with blue, appeared upon the curtains of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi, 1) and upon the veil that separated the holy place from the most holy (Exod. xxvi, 31). A scarlet cloth covered the holy vessels which were placed upon the table of showbread, and a purple cloth the altar of burnt offerings (Num. iv, 8, 13).

White is, pre-eminently, the colour of purity and righteousness.

White.

The Hebrew word for fine linen, or byssus (v), of

which the covering and veil and curtains of the tabernacle were partly made (Exod. xxvi, 1, 31, 36) is from a root which signifies whiteness, or to be white. It was also largely used in the vestments of the high priest (Exod. xxviii, 5, 6, 8, 15, 39). Of kindred signification is the Hebrew word a, white linen, in which the Levitical singers were arrayed (2 Chron. v, 12). With these white garments of the priests and Levites (comp. Psa. cxxxii, 9) we naturally associate the raiment "white as the light" in which the transfigured Christ appeared (Matt. xvii, 2; Mark ix, 3), the apparel of the angels (Matt. xxviii, 3; John xx, 12; Acts i, 10), the white robes of the glorified (Rev. vii, 9), and the fine linen bright and pure, symbolic of "the righteous acts of the saints” (Rev. xix, 8), which is the ornamental vesture of the wife of the Lamb. Also, as characterizing the horses of victorious warriors (Zech. i, 8; vi, 3; Rev. vi, 2; xix, 11), and the throne of judgment (Rev. xx, 11), white may represent victorious royalty and power. Black, as being the opposite of white, would easily become associated with that which is evil, as mourning (Jer. xiv, 2), pestilence, and famine (Rev. vi, 5, 6). Red is naturally associated with war and bloodshed, as the armour of the armed warrior is suggestive of tumult and garments rolled in blood (Isa. ix, 5; Nah. ii, 3). But in any attempt to explain the symbolism of a particular colour the interpreter should guard against pressing the matter to an unwarranted extreme. The most prudent and learned exegetes have reasonably doubted whether the different colours of the horses seen in Zechariah's first vision (Zech. i, 8) should be construed as having each a definite symbolical significance. The several colours of the curtains of the tabernacle appear to have been somewhat promiscuously blended together (Exod. xxvi, 1, 31), and when thus used they served probably for beauty and adornment rather than for separate and specific symbolical import. Only as an interpreter is able to show from parallel usage, analogy and inherent propriety, that a given colour is used symbolically, will his exposition be entitled to command

Black and Red.

assent.

port of the pre

The same thing, substantially, may be said of the symbolical import of metals. No specific significance should be symbolical imsought in each separate metal or precious stone, for any attempt to point out such significancy is apt to run into and Jewels. various freaks of fancy.' But the pure gold with which the ark, mercyseat, cherubim, altar of incense, table, and candlestick, were either overlaid or entirely constructed (Exod. xxv), might very appropriately symbolize the light and splendour of God as he dwells in his holy temple. The altar of burntofferings was overlaid with brass or copper (Exod. xxvii, 2), an inferior metal. The pillars of the court were also made of this material (Exod. xxvii, 10). The sockets of the tabernacle boards, and the hooks and joinings of the pillars, were of silver (Exod. xxvi, 19; xxvii, 10). Outside of any attempt to trace a mystic meaning in each of these metals, it may be enough to say, in general, that gold, as being the more costly, would appropriately be used in constructing the holiest things of the inner sanctuary. Brass would, accordingly, be more appropriate for the things of the outer court, and silver, intermediate between the two, would naturally serve, to some extent, in both. The great image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream combined gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay (Dan. ii, 32, 33). The power, strength, and glory of the Babylonian monarchy, as represented in the regal splendour of the king, Nebuchadnezzar, was represented by the golden head (verses 37 and 38). The silver denoted an inferior kingdom. The iron denoted, especially, the strength of the fourth kingdom, "inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and crushes every thing" (ver. 40). So the different metals used in the construction of the tabernacle were expressive of the relative sanctity of its different parts. The twelve precious stones in the high priest's breastplate, bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel (Exod. xxviii, 15–21), and the twelve foundations of Jerusalem the golden (Rev. xxi, 14), may symbolize God's own elect as his precious jewels; but an effort to tell which tribe, or which apostle, was designated by each particular jewel, would lead the interpreter into unauthorized speculations, more likely to bewilder and confuse than to furnish any valuable lesson.

1 See the third chapter of Bähr's Symbolik (vol. i, New ed.) on Das Baumaterial der Cultus-Stätte, pp. 283-330, in which not a little of valuable suggestion is presented along with much that is too fanciful to be safely accepted. See also Atwater, Sacred Tabernacle of the Hebrews, pp. 225-232.

CHAPTER XIII.

DREAMS AND PROPHETIC ECSTASY.

In an intelligent exposition of the prophetic portions of Holy ScripMethods of di- ture, the methods and forms by which God communivine revelation. cated supernatural revelations to men become questions of fundamental importance. Dreams, night visions, and states of spiritual ecstacy are mentioned as forms and conditions under which men received such revelations. In Num. xii, 6, it is written: “If there be a prophet among you, I, Jehovah, will make myself known to him in the vision; in the dream will I speak within him." The open and visible manner in which Jehovah revealed himself to Moses is then (verses 7, 8) contrasted with ordinary visions, showing that Moses was honoured above all prophets in the intimacy of his communion with God. The appearance (D, form, semblance, ver. 8) of Jehovah which Moses was permitted to behold was some thing far above what other holy seers beheld (comp. Deut. xxxiv, 12). This appearance was not the essential nature of God, his unveiled glory, for this no mortal man can see (Exod. xxxiii, 18), but a form which manifested the invisible God to the eye of man in a clearly discernible mode, and which was essentially different, not only from the visional sight of God in the form of a man (Ezek. i, 26; Dan. vii, 9, 13), but also from the appearances of God in the outward world of the senses in the person and form of the angel of Jehovah, and stood in the same relation to these two forms of revelation, so far as directness and clearness were concerned, as the sight of a person in a dream to that of the actual figure of the person himself. God talked with Moses without figure, in the clear distinctness of a spiritual communication, whereas to the prophets he only revealed himself through the medium of ecstacy or dream.""

The dream is noticeably prominent among the earlier forms of The Dreams of receiving divine revelations, but becomes less frequent Scripture. at a later period. The most remarkable instances of dreams recorded in the Scriptures are those of Abimelech (Gen. xx,

1ja, within him, not unto him, as the common version. "In him," says Keil,“ inasmuch as a revelation in a dream fell within the inner sphere of the soul life."Commentary on the Pentateuch, in loco. Compare Job xxxiii, 14-17.

? Keil's Commentary on Num. xii, 8.

Dreams evince

of the soul.

3-7), Jacob at Bethel (xxviii, 12), Laban in Mt. Gilead (xxxi, 24), Joseph respecting the sheaves and the luminaries (xxxvii, 5-10), the butler and the baker (xl, 5-19), Pharaoh (xli, 1-32), the Midianite (Judg. vii, 13–15), Solomon (1 Kings iii, 5; ix, 2), Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. ii and iv), Daniel (Dan. vii, 1), Joseph (Matt. i, 20; ii, 13, 19), and the Magi from the East (Matt. ii, 12). The "night vision" appears to have been of essentially the same nature as the dream (comp. Dan. ii, 19; vii, 1; Acts xvi, 9; xviii, 9; xxvii, 23). It is manifest that in man's interior nature there exist powers and latent possibilities which only extraordinary occasions or peculiar conditions serve to display. And these latent powers facts it becomes the interpreter to note. These latent powers are occasionally seen in cases of disordered mental action and insanity. The phenomena of somnambulism and clairvoyance also exhibit the same. And ordinary dreams, considered as abnormal operations of the perceptive faculties uncontrolled by the judgment and the will, are often of a striking and impressive character. The dreams of Joseph, of the butler and baker, and of the Midianite, are not represented as divine or supernatural revelations. Innumerable instances equally striking have occurred to other men. But at the same time, all such impressive dreams bring out into partial manifestation latent potencies of the human soul which may well have served in the communication of divine revelations to "The deep of man's internal nature," observes Delitzsch, "into which in sleep he sinks back, conceals far more than is manifest to himself. It has been a fundamental error of most psychologists hitherto to make the soul extend only so far as its consciousness extends; it embraces, as is now always acknowledged, a far greater abundance of powers and relations than can commonly appear in its consciousness. To this abundance pertains, moreover, the faculty of foreboding, that leads and warns a man without conscious motive, and anticipates the future-a faculty which, in the state of sleep, wherein the outer senses are fettered, is frequently unbound, and looms in the remoteness of the future." 1

men.

at Bethel.

The profound and far-reaching significance of some prophetic dreams may be seen in that of Jacob at Bethel (Gen. Jacob's dream xxviii, 10-22). This son of Isaac was guilty of grave wrongs, but in his quiet and thoughful soul there was a hiding of power, a susceptibility for divine things, a spiritual insight and longing that made him a fitter person than Esau to lead in the development of the chosen nation. He appears to have passed the 'Biblical Psychology, English translation (Edinb., 1879), p. 330. See his whole section on Sleeping, Waking, and Dreaming, from which the above extract is taken.

night in the open field near the ancient town of Luz (ver. 19). Before darkness covered him he, doubtless, like Abraham in that same place long before (Gen. xiii, 14), looked northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward, and saw afar the hills and mountains towering up like a stairway into heaven, and this view may have been, in part, a psychological preparation for his dream. For, falling asleep, he beheld a ladder or stairway (bp), perhaps a gigantic staircase composed of piles of mountains placed one upon another so as to look like a wondrous highway of passage to the skies. The main points of his dream fall under four BEHOLDS, three of vision-"behold, a ladder," "behold, angels of God," "behold, Jehovah" (verses 12, 13)-and one of promise-"behold, I am with thee" (ver. 15). These words imply an intense impressiveness in the whole revelation. It was a night vision by means of which the great future of Jacob and his seed was set forth in symbol and in promise. For Jacob at the bottom of the ladder, Jehovah at the top, and angels ascending and descending, form altogether a complex symbol full of profound suggestions. It indicated at least four things: (1) There is a way opened between earth and heaven by which spirits may ascend to God. (2) The ministry of angels. (3) The mystery of the incarnation: for the ladder was a symbol of the Son of man, the way (ʼn ódóc, John xiv, 4, 6; Heb. ix, 8) into the holiest heaven, the Mediator upon whom, as the sole ground and basis of all possibility of grace, the angels of God ascend and descend to minister to the heirs of salvation (John i, 52). In that mystery of grace Jehovah himself reaches down as from the top of the ladder, and lays hold upon this son of Abraham and all his spiritual seed, and lifts them up to heaven. (4) The promise, in connexion with the vision (verses 13-15), emphasized the wonderful providence of God, who stood (ver. 13) gazing down upon this lonely, helpless man, and making gracious provision for him and his posterity.

We need not assume that Jacob understood the far-reaching import of that dream, but it led him to make a holy vow, and, doubtless, it was often afterward the subject of his quiet meditations. It could not fail to impress him with the conviction that he was a special object of Jehovah's care, and of the ministry of angels.

It is noticeable that the record of the prophetic dreams of the Interpretation heathen, as, for example, those of Pharaoh and his butof dreams. ler and baker, of the Midianite, and of Nebuchadnezzar, are accompanied by an ample explanation. We observe also that the dreams of Joseph and of Pharaoh were double, or repeated under different forms. Joseph's first dream was a vision of sheaves in