CHAPTER V.

THE TABERNACLE: ITS TEACHINGS.

"The first tabernacle . . . was a figure for the time then present." -HEB. ix. 8, 9.

THE tabernacle in the wilderness was the greatest object-lesson in the Old Testament, and it was always before the eyes of the people. It was a wonderful collection of material pictures of spiritual things. It was a tent for the worship of God, every part of which was arranged with wonderful care, according to the pattern given by God to Moses. It had two apartments—the holy place, and the most holy place; and also a large enclosure of curtains held up by pillars. It was the heart of the camp in the wilderness, for all the tribes lay around it. It was their one rallying point. That fact itself was a parable, which taught that religion was the bond of union, that which binds into one sacred family those who, but for it, would be separated.

Every part of the tabernacle had a teaching power. It was a visible gospel, an illustrated creed, which taught doctrines by diagrams. When the Israelites settled in the Holy Land, the tabernacle found a stately home in the temple at Jerusalem; but all its

parts and teachings remained the same as in the wilderness. The temple was plundered by the Babylonians and Romans, who carried off its utensils and treasures. Let us carry off its spiritual treasures, and make its furniture all our own. God help us to study wisely this Gospel according to Moses, which makes all the great spiritual truths very plain to the eye. The tabernacle offers us hundreds of interesting things and niceties, but I will now bring before you only its greatest lessons. From the objects of the tabernacle three voices come to him who has an ear to hear them.

I. Thou hast sinned.

II. Thou mayest be saved. III. Thou shouldest serve.

I. Thou hast sinned.

Place yourself in imagination alongside of an earnest Jewish worshipper, and try to enter into his feelings as he approaches the tabernacle. From every part of the tabernacle and its services a solemn voice says to him, “Thou art a sinner, and thy sin is an awful thing, and it makes thee unfit to worship God." That voice speaks the strongest conviction of his soul. mood of a penitent sinner. He dares not go to God alone in his own name, and relying upon his own merits. He puts his case into the hands of the appointed priest, who approaches God in his stead. The priest comes to the enclosure around the tabernacle.

He has the

It is not a fence, but a covering of tent-cloth. It is very easy to enter, and so he gently puts aside the loosely hanging curtain and passes within. There he stands face to face with the altar of burnt-offering. It stands right in front of the door, and is the largest piece of furniture belonging to the tabernacle: it is twice as large as the ark. It is the first article seen on entering, and the last on leaving. Without it all the other furniture were worthless. The priest who acts for the sinful worshipper must there offer up the sin-offering. That takes much time, so that its teachings sink deeply into the worshipper's heart. He is there taught that all have sinned. The priest, even the high priest, is a sinful man, and must be pardoned and purified before he can do the work of a priest. Among all the Israelites not one is found who does not need the atonement for sin. There are as many sinners as there are Israelites. And sin is a deadly and vile thing. Look at that victim on the altar. You hear its groans, you see its struggles, its streaming blood, its dying agony, the all-consuming flame upon the altar, and the dark cloud above it. It terrifies you: you shudder at the strange sight. But all that is an object-lesson upon the death due as the wages of sin. In other places and companies the Jew might think lightly of sin, and not trouble himself much about it; but every light feeling forsakes him when he stands near the altar. That solemn remembrancer of sin subdues his soul.

And his sin must be confessed, else there can be no