xiv. THE CEDARS AND CANDLESTICKS. 247 



of the life of the Church, being the first to awaken out 

 of the wreck of human sin, exhibiting its beauties of 

 holiness, and fruits of righteousness, while all around the 

 world is wrapt in the winter sleep of spiritual torpor. 



The golden candlestick was meant to be a remini- 

 scence of that Eden where out of the ground the Lord 

 God made to grow every tree that was pleasant to the 

 sight and good for food ; the tree of life also, in the 

 midst of the garden. It was the symbol of the natural 

 revelation of God, the primitive religion of unfallen man, 

 when everything in nature spoke to him of God, and 

 showed forth the Divine glory. The candlestick in the 

 sanctuary was what the tree of life was in the garden; it 

 revealed in a typical form the deep spiritual things of 

 God. The truths shadowed forth by the candlestick 

 were indicated by the objects of the garden ; and the 

 one revelation was but the unfolding of the other. We 

 find, indeed, in the history of God's scheme of grace, 

 several connecting links between the different dispensa- 

 tions which show their continuity, and mark successive 

 stages in the evolution of Divine truth. The burning 

 lamp and the smoking furnace that passed between the 

 divided pieces of Abraham's sacrifice, the burning bush 

 that appeared to Moses, the pillar of cloud by day and of 

 fire by night that guided the Israelites through the wil- 

 derness, Aaron's rod that budded in the holy place, the 

 seven branched golden candlestick of the tabernacle and 

 temple, the fiery furnace of Babylon, the vision of the 

 olive trees and the candlestick of the prophet Zechariah, 

 and the parable and miracle of the barren fig-tree of our 



