ments both unnecessary and wrong? 3. The liberality of the people was abundant in its measure. One of the chief objections urged against Voluntaryism is its insufficiency. Were the Church to be left solely to the free-will offerings of God's people, the Gospel ministry would starve, and Church Extension would be at an end. It was not so with the Hebrew Church. "The people" brought "much more than enough for the service of the work," and required to be restrained. And if, in the New Testament Church, the same superabundant liberality has not been manifested, it is not because it has not been requiredMatt. xxviii. 19, 20, will consume all the free-will offerings that Christ's people can bring; nor because it has not been commanded (2 Cor. ix. 6). May it not be because the New Testament Church has too often sought to lean on State support? All experience proves that State support and voluntary offerings are antagonistic, and tend to mutually destroy one another. State support represses Christian liberality. Christian liberality, when allowed free scope, will not long be satisfied to lean upon the crutch of State support. 4. The liberality of the people was widely diffused in its extent. Possibly it was universal, although that is not exactly affirmed. The probability is, there were those who offered nothing, whose hearts did not make them willing. At the same time, the impression is that the people generally contributed. So in the Christian Church liberality should be generally diffused, should in fact be universal. Were it always of the character of that displayed by these Hebrews, as general, as liberal, as cheerful, it would never be objected to as insufficient.

III. The disinterested conduct of Moses.

The workmen having reported that the people had brought more than enough for the service of the work, Moses caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp that no more offerings were to be received. So the people were restrained from bringing, ver. 6. Had Moses or the workmen ever been inclined to enrich themselves, they had ample opportunity. "But they were men of integrity, that scorned to do so mean a thing as to sponge upon the people, and enrich themselves with what was offered unto the Lord. Those are the greatest cheats that cheat the public. If to murder many is worse thar to murder one, by the same rule to defraud communities, and to rob the Church or State, is a much greater crime than to pick the pocket of a single person. But these workmen were not only ready to account for all they received, but were not willing to receive more than they had occasion for, lest they should come either into the temptation or under the suspicion of taking it to themselves. These were men that knew when they had enough."-Henry. "Had Moses been intent upon gain, and had he not been perfectly disinterested, he would have encouraged them to continue their contributions, as thereby he might have multiplied unto himself gold, silver, and precious stones. But he was doing the Lord's work, under the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, and therefore he sought no secular gain."-A. Clarke. In this Moses served as a pattern to all public men, to ministers of State, to magistrates and rulers, but especially to Christian ministers, not to use their offices for self-enrichment. The minister who can say like Paul, "I seek not yours, but you," wields a mighty power for good over the members of his flock in comparison with him who seeks into the priest's office, like Micah's Levite, for a piece of bread, and preaches the Gospel" for filthy lucre's sake."

THE PREPARATION OF THE Dwelling.

"And every wise-hearted man among them that wrought the work of the Tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue and purple and scarlet with cherubims of cunning work made he them," &c., vers. 8–38.

"The dwelling (1) was an oblong of thirty yards in length, and ten yards in breadth and height, built on the southern, northern, and western sides of upright planks of acacia wood, overlaid with gold. Over the whole, there were placed four coverings. The inner one, consisting of costly woven materials (byssus woven in different colours, with figures of cherubim upon it), was so arranged as to form the drapery of the interior of the dwelling, whilst the other three were placed outside. In front of the building, towards the east, there were five gilded pillars of acacia-wood; and on these a curtain was suspended, which closed the entrance to the dwelling, and bore the name of "“The interior of the dwelling was divided into two parts by a second curtain, sustained by four pillars, and made of the same costly fabric and texture as the innermost covering. Of these two parts, the further (or westerly) was called the Most Holy D, and was a perfect cube of ten cubits in length and breadth and height; so that the other part, or the Holy, p, was of the same height and breadth, but twice as long. This inner curtain was called Parocheth." Kurtz-"Sacrificial Worship."

In the present section these various parts are again described :-A. The coverings: (1.) The inner covering, consisting of ten curtains, of blue and purple and scarlet, ornamented with cherubim, and joined together, curtain to curtain, by means of fifty loops and fifty golden taches, vers. 8-13. (2.) The second covering, of eleven curtains of goats' hair, "for the tent over the Tabernacle, vers. 14-18. (3.) The third covering, of rams' skins dyed red, ver. 19. (4.) The fourth covering, of badgers' skins, ver. 19. B. The framework, vers. 20-34. C. The veils (1.) The inner vail, vers. 35, 36. (2.) The outer vail, vers. 37, 38. See chap. xxvi. 1, in which all these articles are described.

That the Tabernacle was symbolic of the better things of the Christian dispensation, as well as of the spiritual condition of the covenanted nation, we have the authority of the writer of the Hebrews for asserting. For the explanation of its symbolic import, see chap. xl. 17-33. To suppose that every pin, and bolt, and pillar, and curtain, had a special spiritual significance, is only the imbecility of exegesis. "The Irvingites, e.g., believe that their ecclesiastical council" was shown at the time of its formation, by the word of prophecy, to have been shadowed in the construction of the Mosaic Tabernacle. The fortyeight boards of that structure, it was said, typified the six elders from each of the seven churches in London, together with six of the apostles; the five bars, which upheld all the boards, represented a ministry committed to other five of the apostles, whose duty it is to instruct the council in the principles upon which counsel is to be given: the two tenons, with their sockets of silver for each board, had reference to the deaconal ministry, through which the eldership is rooted in the love of the people. Two elders, appointed to act as scribes of the council, have their shadow in the two corner boards of the Tabernacle. The heads of the fourfold ministry-apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-correspond to the four pillars between the Most Holy and the Holy Place: five evangelists to the five pillars at the entrance: the seven angels of the Churches to the lights of the candlestick; and sixty evangelists are the antitypes of the sixty pillars of the court, four of whom form the outer door of entrance. This council is declared to be the model according to which God's purpose is to be effected in every land."-Eadie's "Ecclesiastical Cyclopædia," art. "Irvingites." Scarcely less fanciful is the explanation which Josephus, following Philo, gives: "When Moses distinguished the Tabernacle into three parts, and allowed two of them to the priests, as a place accessible and common, he denoted the land and the sea, these being of general access to all; but he set apart the third division for God, because heaven is inaccessible to men. And when he ordered twelve loaves to be set on the table, he denoted the year as distinguished into so

many months. By branching out the candlestick into seventy parts, he secretly intimated the Decani, or seventy divisions of the planets; and as to the seven lamps upon the candlesticks, they referred to the course of the planets, of which that is the number. The vails, too, which were composed of four things, they declared the four elements; for the fine linen was proper to signify the earth. because the flax grows out of the earth; the purple signified the sea, because that colour is dyed by the blood of a sea shell-fish; the blue is fit to signify the air, and the scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire. Now, the vestment of the high priest, being made of linen, signified the earth; the blue denoted the sky, being like lightning in its pomegranates, and in the noise of the bells resembling thunder." For continuation, see "Josephus," Ant. iii. 7, 9.

Though not symbolic in the senses described, the structure of the Tabernacle may be suggestive of true and profitable thoughts; as, e.g.-I. The character and condition of the Church of God on earth: 1. Its mean and insignificant appearance, like a tent. 2. The excellence and variety of its materials, "gold and silver and precious stones, &c. (1 Cor. iii. 12; 1 Pet. ii. 4). 3. The unity and compactness of its parts, suggested by the joined curtains and fastened framework, "in whom all the building fitly framed together," &c. (Eph. ii. 21). 4. The protection and security of the whole, pictured in the threefold covering (Isa. xxxii. 2; Zech. xii. 8), &c. II. The fidelity and diligence of Christian Ministers, who, like Bezaleel and his fellow-craftsman, should be-(1.) Obedient to the Divine orders, "the wise-hearted men," who wrought the raw material, were honoured to be fellow-workers with God, but not fellow-designers. They were not invited to plan the Tabernacle either in whole or in part, but only to construct what God had previously designed and commanded: which is precisely what the Christian minister, as a wise master builder, has to do, not originate a church according to his own conceptions, but fashion all things, the doctrines and ordinances of the Church, according to the pattern supplied to him by Christ. (2.) Diligent and minute in their execution, doing everything with good will as to the Lord and not to men, counting no trouble too great if so be they can fulfil their ministry in connection with Christ's temple, and being equally solicitous about all their duties to have them well done, not bestowing more care upon the larger offices and less upon the smaller, but transacting everything with due attention to the approbation of the Master.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER XXXVI.

BY

REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON

Symbolism! Vers. 1-38. Atwater notices that symbolic language was in common use at the time of Moses. True, the art of alphabetic writing was used to some extent at this period; but it is equally certain that symbolic writing must have been more common. May it not, therefore, have been the more effective medium of communication of moral and religious truth? Egypt furnishes an emphatic affirmative. Much use was made by them, not only of symbolic writing, but of what may properly be styled symbolic institutions. The construction of their temples-the rites performed in them-the garments worn by the priests, were all designed to represent, in a visible form, the doctrines of their religion. It is, consequently, a natural supposition that Israel would require a form of language by

which they might be most readily and effectively taught the Divine mysteries. Possibly they understood symbolic language quite as well as the Greek understood writing, &c.

"The ancient Hebrew clad with mysteries; The learned Greek rich in fit epithets, Blessed in the lovely marriage of pure words." -Brewer.

Human Help! Ver. 1, &c. (1.) Human agency! As God sent down the manna from heaven, so could He have planted the tabernacle upon the sands of the desert in all its unique completeness of design and ornament. But He wisely employed human agency in its design and construction. The glorious temple