the entire charge of the whole business. They were qualified, with more than ordinary or merely natural ability, to perform themselves the most difficult and curious sorts of work, such as belonged to arts entirely different, and also to teach others, who might be employed, under their direction, to help forward in various ways the general labour. (Ex. xxxi. 1-6. xxv. 30-35.)

It was not left, however, to these workmen, or even to Moses, to contrive the form or manner of the sacred building in any respect. No pattern of earth was to be regarded-no device of man was to be followed, in its whole construction and arrangement. It was to be the dwelling-place of God, symbolical, in all its visible and material order, of realities infinitely more grand and glorious; God himself therefore devised its entire plan, and unfolded it with most particular direction, in all its parts, to his servant on Mount Sinai. Careful and minute instruction was given relative to the materials to be used, the manner of workmanship to be employed, the form and size of the building, and every article of sacred furniture that was to belong to it. And more than this, there was presented to the eyes of Moses a pattern, or model, of the whole, as the Lord intended it to be made and arranged, with a solemn injunc tion to have all finished exactly according to it. cording to all that I show thee," was the charge of the Almighty," the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it:" and again, "Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount." (Ex. xxv. 9–40. Heb. viii. 5.) There was no wisdom wanted in the workmen, therefore, to contrive any part of the work to be done, but merely to execute it according to the divine plan which Moses was appointed to explain.

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The very great care which God showed about the manner in which this holy tabernacle was to be made, teaches us that it was designed to have a meaning in all its parts vastly more important than any mere visible and outward use. Something far more exalted than what struck the eye of sense, was intended in its construction. Under its earthly and material show, there was designed to be a re

presentation of things heavenly and spiritual, such as should be full of instruction to the church till the end of time. In this consideration we have unfolded a satisfac tory reason for that extraordinary care with which the original plan was divinely determined, and also for the care of the Holy Spirit, in causing so full and particular an account of it to be preserved in the Scriptures for the use of piety in all ages. And should not this reflection excite us to seek an intimate and familiar acquaintance with the ancient sanctuary? Surely it becomes us to consider all the parts of its plan with serious and careful attention, remembering at every step the heavenly origin of all, and humbly endeavouring to penetrate through the shadow of its earthly service into the sublime and glorious realities, which, according to the wisdom of the Spirit, it proposes for our solemn contemplation.

To have a right conception of the sacred dwelling-place which the Most High caused to be made for Himself among the Israelites in the wilderness, we must consider the Tabernacle itself, its furniture, and its Court. Let us attend first to the Court.

THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE was a lot of inclosed ground which surrounded the Tabernacle, and all that was connected with it, comprehending room enough for the accommodation of all that were to be at any time directly concerned with its religious services. It was required to be a hundred cubits long from east to west, and fifty broad from north to south. It was inclosed to the height of five cubits on every side, with curtains of fine twined linen. These were hung from brazen pillars, ranged at equal distances one from another in a row on each side, either by being fastened to them merely by hooks of silver, or else by means of silver rods reaching all along from one to another. The pillars had sockets of brass to stand upon. There were twenty of them on the north, and on the south side, and ten in each of the end ranges, east and west. The entrance into this court was on the east end, and exactly in the middle of it. It was twenty cubits wide. It was closed by a hanging different from the other cur tains, "of blue, and purple, and scarlet and fine twined

linen, wrought with needlework." This was hung from four pillars, and could be drawn up by means of cords, so as to leave the entrance open when there was occasion to go in or out. (Ex. xxvii. 9-18.)

The TABERNACLE stood well toward the west end of the Court just described, and in the middle of its breadth from north to south, so as to face exactly the entrance upon the east side. It was made of boards of shittim wood overlaid with gold, and four coverings of different materials, thrown over its whole frame, to shield it from the weather, and to shut out completely the light of day. When set up it was thirty cubits long, ten broad, and ten high. Like what has been noticed of the Court, it was required always to be placed with its length from east to west, and its entrance was at its east end. This end accordingly was not boarded. The boards were all ten cubits long, and a cubit and a half broad, and had each two tenons fashioned on one end. In the building, they stood upright, joined edge to edge, and every one resting by its two tenons on two silver sockets. Thus on each of the sides, north and south, were twenty boards, which standing in the way now mentioned made a wall just thirty cubits long. The west end had six boards, and there was one besides at each of the corners of that end, which, while they serve to connect it with the sides, seem also to have added somewhat to its extent, so as to make the breadth of the tabernacle ten cubits, that would with only the six boards have made no more than nine. Altogether then there were forty-eight boards standing upon ninety-six sockets of silver. Every socket weighed a talent. The boards, however, needed something to hold them together Bars, therefore, or poles, of shittim wood overlaid with gold, were made to pass across them through rings fixed on each one for the purpose, by which means all the boards of each side, or of the end, were firmly bound one to another. Five bars were employed in this way on each side, and also on the end: the middle one reached from end to end, across all the boards; the other four were, according to one opinion, each only half as long, two of them together making a whole length across at the top, and the other two a whole length across in like manner at the bottom. Another opinion is, that all the bars were of

full length, and that what is said about the middle one, means only that it was fixed in its place in a different way from the others, being either sunk into the boards in a sort of groove, all the way along, or else thrust through them, by means of a bar passing clear across from one to another. (Ex. xxvi. 15-30.)

Such was the frame of the tabernacle, presenting, when erected, on each of its sides and its western end, a heavy wall of shittim planks gorgeously covered over with gold, and supported beneath on ninety-six massy sockets of silver. It left the top, as well as the end toward the east, entirely open. But to make the sacred Tent complete, over this frame were to be spread four great coverings, one above another. The first was very beautiful and costly. It was composed of ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and "scarlet, made with cherubim of cunning work;" that is, of fine twined linen into which pictures of cherubim were curiously wrought with various colours, blue, purple, and scarlet. Each of these curtains was twenty-eight cubits long, and four broad. Five of them were coupled together, side to side, so as to make one large piece, twenty-eight cubits long and twenty broad, and so in like manner were the other five united into another piece. Along the edge of the outermost curtain on one side of each of these great pieces, or couplings, were made fifty loops of blue, so placed, that those which belonged to one piece answered exactly to those which were on the other. Then fifty hooks or clasps of gold were provided, by which these loops might be all along linked one to another, and the two pieces thus knit together into one rich and magnificent covering. They were thrown across the frame of the tabernacle from north to south, and hung down on each side within a cubit of the bottom; for, since the frame was ten cubits high and ten wide, the measure over it from the base of the wall on one side to its base on the other, was just thirty cubits, that is, two cubits more than the length of the curtains.

One of the pieces seems to have been laid across, so as to reach from the front of the tabernacle, covering the top and sides, as far as twenty cubits back: then the other, linked upon it by the loops and clasps, was spread over the hinder

part, covering the top and sides in like manner from where the first stopped, and falling down in loose folds over the western end. Over this fine inner covering was spread another more substantial. It was composed of eleven curtains of goats' hair, each thirty cubits long and four broad. These also were united into two large pieces, one being made up of five, and the other of six; and provison was made, as in the case of the inner covering, for linking the pieces together by loops and clasps. The clasps used in this case, however, were made of brass, and not, as they were in the other, of gold.

These pieces, being thrown across the tabernacle like the others, reached down on each side to the row of silver sockets on which the boards stood; because they were thirty cubits long, which, as we have just seen, was equal to the distance from one base over to the other. The piece that was composed of six single curtains, lay toward the fore-part of the tabernacle, and the sixth curtain was doubled in the fore-front of it, so as to hang somewhat perhaps over the entrance. It is not easy, however, to determine precisely how this covering was disposed, in front and on the western end behind, so as to have its cloth which it had more than the other, completely occupied. But in whatever way arranged, it spread entirely over the top, and sides, and back part of the frame, so as to hide the inner covering altogether out of sight, and shield it on every part from injury. But still more effectually to shut out harm, there was added a third covering of rams' skins dyed red, and over that again a fourth one, made of the skins of some sea-animal. Thus the whole was most perfectly defended from the weather. (Ex. xxvi. 1—14.)

Across the east end, or entrance, of the tabernacle, were ranged five pillars of shittim wood, overlaid with gold, standing upon sockets of brass; and from these was suspended a curtain or hanging of blue and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework, large enough to cover the whole front. This was the door of the tent. There was probably another curtain of coarser materials hung over this fine one on the outside, to keep it from being spoiled; at least we may suppose it was so when the weather was bad. (Ex. xxvi. 36, 37.)