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SINAI.

ITHERTO the people of Israel, though under the immediate government of God, had no regular system of laws or ordinances, as far as we know. It now pleased their divine Leader to commit to them an express code, though a short one, of moral rules or observances. The wilderness of Sinai, to which the people had now approached, was appointed for that memorable and awful display of His majesty, enthroned in the clouds of heaven, which should impress the minds of the people with reverence and godly fear. 'And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.' In the twentieth chapter of Exodus, we have the record, 'And God spake all these words,' followed by the ten commandments,-whose precepts are summed up in two,

1

THE TABERNACLE.

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by Christ, in the New Testament; or comprised at once in the love of God and man.-Ex. xx.

T

HE Tabernacle, which was a spacious and splendid tent, constructed under the immediate direction of God for His worship, contained as its principal furniture the ark, the mercy-seat, the table, and candlestick. And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the Tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it. And they shall make an ark [or chest] of shittim-wood: and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.' Besides this, there was to be a kind of throne of pure gold, called the mercy-seat. This was

overshadowed by the golden and winged figures, called cherubims, one at each end. Before this stood a table of very splendid fabric, and highly ornamented, and of shittim-wood and gold, like the ark, and having rings and sliding poles; while the candlestick was equally magnificent. See Ex. xxv.

THE

made of pillars and boards set in sockets of silver,

and fine linen curtains embroidered with cherubs, and fastened with loops or hooks of gold, so arranged that the whole might be taken to pieces, and carried with the children of Israel in their journeys. It was covered with four vails or curtains: one of fine linen; one of goats' hair; the third was made of the skins of rams, and dyed red; the fourth, or outermost, of badger skins, to endure the weather. The Tabernacle was divided into

ALTAR OF BURNT-OFFERING.

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two principal apartments: the holy place, where the priests entered to minister daily; and the most holy place, where none but the high priest entered, and that but once a year. The partition was formed by a curtain of fine linen of various colours, embroidered with cherubs, and hung on four pillars, overlaid with gold. This splendid fabric stood within a large space of ground, called the Court of the Tabernacle: it was enclosed by rows of pillars, with curtains reaching from pillar to pillar. All the tribes of Israel pitched their tents round about the Tabernacle, which thus stood in the centre of the host.Ex. xxvi.

THE ALTAR OF BURNT-OFFERING.

HIS was made of wood, and overlaid with brass, and furnished with shovels, fire-pans, basons, and other vessels and implements. All the burnt-offerings and sacrifices were offered upon it. It was visited by a

miraculous exhibition of fire from heaven, which consumed the first sacrifice that was offered upon it. After this, fire was always kept there burning for holy uses. The books of Exodus and Leviticus are very much occupied with minute descriptions and directions relating to the ceremonial religion of the Jews. The chief uses of these seem to have been three: first, to distinguish the Jews from all other people, as a holy community, and God's peculiar visible church; secondly, to employ that people, who were often tempted to idolatry, in many varieties of the outward forms and rites of religion, and thus to keep out the thoughts of superstitions, such as the nations. around them practised; but the third and chief use of the whole Jewish ceremonial, was to represent the sacrifice and offices of Christ, and the distant, yet certain and most glorious blessings of His gospel. This appears from many places of the New Testament.-Ex. xxvii.