250 THE OLIVE LEAR CHAP, 



circumstances. The symbol of it was not the tree that 

 grew spontaneously by the laws of natural growth, but 

 the candlestick wrought by human hands, with the sweat 

 of the face. The gold of which it was composed was. 

 dug with toil and trouble from the mine, melted in the 

 furnace, purified from its ore, and not cast into a mould, 

 but beaten out of a solid piece with the hammer into 

 the form in which it appeared. The workman who 

 fashioned this most elaborate of all the vessels of the 

 sanctuary must have pondered minutely over and be- 

 stowed immense labour and skill upon every part ; and 

 yet the pattern and symmetry of the whole must have 

 been clearly in his mind while from one solid mass of 

 gold he beat out each shaft and floral ornamentation. 

 The oil for the light was also beaten from the olive 

 berries grown, gathered, and expressed by human toil and 

 skill ; and the wick in like manner was a human manu- 

 facture made of the fine twined linen which formed part 

 of the curtains of the tabernacle. The whole idea of the 

 candlestick implied toil and trouble. And this is the 

 great characteristic of the revelation of which it is the 

 symbol. Everything connected with it indicates salva- 

 tion from sin through toil and suffering. The first Adam 

 in the unfallen Eden had only the pleasant labour of 

 dressing and keeping the trees and flowers ; the second 

 Adam was a carpenter, converting the trees in the sweat 

 of His face into implements of toil. The cherubims at 

 Eden, the symbols of creation, were associated with the 

 flaming sword, the pains and sacrifices through which 

 alone the joys of life can now be obtained ; and their 



