xiv. 7 HE CEDARS AND CANDLESTICKS. 251 



effigies on the mercy-seat in the tabernacle were 

 sprinkled with the blood of atonement, in token that all 

 creation felt the blow of man's fall, and groaneth and 

 travaileth together in pain with him, waiting for its re- 

 demption. The burning lamp and the smoking furnace 

 appeared to Abraham in the horror of the great darkness 

 that had fallen upon him, and was a symbol of the 

 mingled suffering and triumph, darkness and light, 

 which were to characterize his own history and that of 

 his descendants. The burning bush on Horeb ap- 

 peared to Moses in his exile and daily toil, and spoke 

 of the sorrowful experiences of the Hebrews in Egypt, 

 with whose lot God had identified Himself. 



Every image, every symbol and type in sacred Scrip- 

 ture, speaks of the curse of the ground and the sorrow 

 of the soul which sin had brought into the world. This 

 great factor is taken into account in all remedial 

 schemes. The first promise to our race announces re- 

 demption through pain and toil and sorrow. The 

 bruising of the serpent's head is to be accomplished 

 only through the wounding of the victor's heel. God 

 talked with Abraham among the oak trees of Mamre, 

 as He talked with our first parents among the trees of 

 Eden. It was the commencement of the new dispen- 

 sation and covenant of grace, through which all the 

 families of the earth were to be blessed ; and therefore 

 God came to Abraham as He came to Adam before he 

 fell, and converted by His promise the oak grove of 

 Mamre in the wilderness into a beautiful reminiscence 

 of the lost Eden. But it was not altogether the 



