'Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon.'
--EXODUS xxx. 1.
Ceremonies are embodied thoughts. Religious ceremonies are moulded by,
and seek to express, the worshipper's conception of his God, and his
own relation to Him; his aspirations and his need. Of late years
scholars have been busy studying the religions of the more backward
races, and explaining rude and repulsive rites by pointing to the often
profound and sometimes beautiful ideas underlying them. When that
process is applied to Australian and Fijian savages, it is honoured as
a new and important study; when we apply it to the Mosaic Ritual it is
pooh-poohed as 'foolish spiritualising.' Now, no doubt, there has been
a great deal of nonsense talked in regard to this matter, and a great
deal of ingenuity wasted in giving a Christian meaning--or, may I say,
a Christian twist?--to every pin of the Tabernacle, and every detail of
the ritual. Of course, to exaggerate a truth is the surest way to
discredit a truth, but the truth remains true all the same, and
underneath that elaborate legislation, which makes such wearisome and
profitless reading for the most of us, in the Pentateuch, there lie, if
we can only grasp them, great thoughts and lessons that we shall all be
the better for pondering.
To one item of these, this altar of incense, I call attention now,
because it is rich in suggestions, and leads us into very sacred
regions of the Christian life which are by no means so familiar to many
of us as they ought to be. Let me just for one moment state the facts
with which I wish to deal. The Jewish Tabernacle, and subsequently the
Temple, were arranged in three compartments: the outermost court, which
was accessible to all the people; the second, which was trodden by the
priests alone; and the third, where the Shechinah dwelt in solitude,
broken only once a year by the foot of the High Priest. That second
court we are concerned with now. There are three pieces of
ecclesiastical furniture in it: an altar in the centre, flanked on
either side by a great lampstand, and a table on which were piled
loaves. It is to that central piece of furniture that I ask your
attention now, and to the thoughts that underlie it, and the lessons
that it teaches.