THE CEDARS AND CANDLESTICKS. 



245 



rounded by the wide sea, indicated that they had no 

 more a merely limited Jewish, but a universal human 

 signification. The candlestick was carried in triumph to 

 Rome, when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed; 

 and the place of its captivity proved the scene of 

 its freedom and enlargement. The Roman sword had, 

 as it were, severed its seven branches from the main stem, 

 and made of them the seven separate Churches of Asia, 

 from which have come all the Churches of Christendom. 

 He who had kindled the great light in Jerusalem, to be 

 a witness of Himself and of His own presence with men, 

 was henceforth to be known as the Light of the World 

 the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh 

 into the world. 



And as the vision of Patmos was thus connected with 

 the tabernacle and temple, and with the vision of 

 Horeb, so we can trace them all back to the Adamic re- 

 velation, whose symbol was the tree of life in the midst 

 of the garden. The sacred fire that appeared to Moses 

 burnt in a bush of the desert ; the candlesticks of the 

 tabernacle and temple, and of the Apocalyptic vision, 

 resembled a tree with its branches. And what is a tree ? 

 It is in reality a pillar of fire, a burning lamp an em- 

 bodiment of the same sunlight that burns in the fire on 

 the hearth, or in the flame of the candlestick. It is the 

 sunlight that enables the tree to build up its cells and 

 fibres from the carbon of the atmosphere ; and the 

 burning of wood or coal in the household fire, or the 

 consuming of the wick and the oil in the lamp, is 

 just the liberation of the ancient sunlight that formed 



