ii. THE ONENESS OF THE TABERNACLE. 2 i 



nacle together, and make of them one covering for 

 one structure, so the smaller golden vessels attached to 

 the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, and the 

 shewbread table the tongs, snuff-dishes, spoons, and 

 censer link together the different vessels of the sanc- 

 tuary into one ministration, forming in this way one 

 golden chain of service simultaneously carried on in the 

 presence of God in behalf of Israel. 



2. The words of the Lord to Moses have a wider 

 reference than to the immediate object which called 

 them forth. They may be applied to nature. It may 

 be said that the tabernacle pointed back to the creation. 

 It was a symbol of the great world of nature, as at once 

 manifesting and concealing God. It was, indeed, as a 

 Rosetta stone, to explain to man the spiritual hiero- 

 glyphics in the typology of nature, which had become 

 dark and insignificant to him when he sinned and fell, 

 that God devised the clearer typology of the taber- 

 nacle, and set the cherubim, which were the symbols of 

 creation in connection with the redemption of man, 

 above the mercy-seat in its holiest place, and em- 

 broidered them on the veil that divided the outer from 

 the inner sanctuary. There was no typical object or 

 service in the tabernacle which might not have been 

 seen in nature if man had not lost the key of interpreta- 

 tion. The very rainbow, which was the illuminated 

 initial letter of God's covenant of grace, painted on the 

 first cloud after the deluge, might have been recog- 

 nized in the varied colours of the veil, and of the 

 wrappings that covered the sacred places when not in 



