xiv. THE CEDARS AND CANDLESTICKS. 



257 



whose light labour was to dress and keep the garden. 

 The leaves faded and the fruits fell, and the plants and 

 animals died around him, but the fading and the death 

 appeared to him, who knew nothing of death in his 

 own soul, only as part of God's order in the world, 

 mere phenomena of growth and progress. The whole 

 system of things in the midst of which he lived was 

 constituted with a view to redemption, but man had not 

 the key to the mystery, which was hid from the founda- 

 tion of the world, because as yet he needed not redemp- 

 tion. When man fell therefore God instituted the 

 tabernacle and its services to explain to him the types 

 of nature that were suitable to his case as a sinful and 

 perishing mortal. The garden of Eden became the 

 tent in the wilderness ; and the trees in the midst of 

 the garden, the golden candlestick in the sanctuary. 

 The cherubim were engraved upon the veil and 

 appeared above the mercy-seat, in order to unfold the 

 true meaning of the cherubim of nature. The holiness 

 of God, the sin of man, his need of forgiveness and 

 that forgiveness through the sufferings of another in his 

 stead these things were taught the ancient Hebrews by 

 object-lessons. And the shadows of the law were clearly 

 explained when the Gospel realities, which cast them be- 

 fore, appeared when the veil that covered spiritual truths 

 w^as rent in twain, and inarticulate symbols had given 

 place to the Divine Word made manifest in the flesh. 

 The trees of Eden are Shechinah clouds, that conceal 

 while they reveal the light that gives substance, shape, 



and colour to them. But in the candlestick the light 

 R 



