THE TABERNACLE
[Illustration] "I'M ready to undertake every bit of the woodwork,"
added Lucius, impatient to use his sharp knife on better work than that
of spoiling a desk.
"First hear what you will have to undertake," said his more cautious
and practical mother. "The mere outer court has sixty pillars."
"Sixty pillars!" re-echoed the five.
"Besides four more pillars for the Tabernacle itself," continued Mrs.
Temple, "and forty-eight boards of wood, to be covered all over with
gold."
"How large would each board have to be?" asked Lucius.
"Each five inches long, and three quarters of an inch broad," answered
his mother.
"And quite thin, I suppose," said the young carpenter, looking
thoughtfully at the blade of his knife which was to accomplish such a
long, difficult piece of work.
"We could get gold leaf for the gilding, mamma," suggested Dora
quickly, "and pasteboard instead of wood; pasteboard would look quite
as neat, and need not be cut up into boards."
"Oh, it's not the gilding, nor the cutting up the planks either,
whether they be made of pasteboard or wood, that puzzles me!" cried her
brother. "But think of sixty-four pillars! How on earth could I cut out
so many slender little rods with my knife!"
"Thick wire might be used for the pillars just as well as pasteboard
for the planks," said Agnes; "when covered with gold leaf, they would
look just the same as if—." The sentence was interrupted by another fit
of coughing; it was clear that poor Agnes was at present little fitted
to join in the conversation.
"There is a picture of the Tabernacle in your Bible, mamma, that will
help us in arranging what is to be done; and you will decide on which
of us should do each portion of the work," said Dora.
Mrs. Temple turned over the leaves till she came to the picture.
"Here you see a long open court," she observed, "enclosed by pillars
supporting curtains of fine linen, fastened to them by loops of silver.
I shall supply the linen for these curtains, and I think that my little
Amy, who sews so nicely, may make them. This work will require only
neatness and patience, and Amy has both."
"Ah, mamma! But the silver loops—how could I make them?" suggested Amy,
who had very little self-confidence.
[Illustration: THE TABERNACLE.]
"I have a reel of silver thread upstairs in my box," said her mother;
"you will make the tiny loops for the curtains of that."
"And I will manage the sixty-four pillars!" cried Lucius. "It was no
bad notion to make them of wire. But they must be fixed into something
hard, to keep them upright in their places."
"I was thinking of that," said his mother; "we shall need a wooden
frame, rather more than four feet by two, to support the model; and
into this frame, holes must be drilled to receive the sixty-four wires."
"I must borrow the carpenter's tools," observed Lucius; "I can't do all
that with my knife. I see that I have a long, difficult job before me."
"Do you give it up?" cried little Elsie, looking up archly into the
face of her brother.
"Not I!" said the schoolboy proudly. "The harder the work, the more
glorious is success!"
"What are those objects in the court of the Tabernacle?" asked Amy, who
had been thoughtfully examining the picture.
"That large square object, with grating on the top, from which smoke
is rising, is the Altar of burnt-offering," said her mother. "Through
the grating the ashes of animals that had been slain as sacrifices fell
into a cavity below. The projections which you see at the four corners
are called the horns of the altar, of which you read in various parts
or the Bible."
"Was it not an Altar of burnt-offering that Elijah made on Mount
Carmel," asked Dora, "when he cut the dead bullock in pieces and prayed
to the Lord till fire was sent down from heaven?"
"Yes," answered her mother, "but that altar was not like the one in the
picture. Elijah built his up quickly; it was merely formed of twelve
stones. The altar made by the Israelites in the desert was framed of
wood, and covered with brass. It was nearly eight feet square, and was
reached, not by steps, but by a sloping bank of earth."
"And what is that very large vase farther on in the picture?" asked Amy.
"That is meant for the Brazen Laver, to hold water for the priests
to wash at. This laver was made of brass which the women of Israel
offered. Do any of my girls remember what articles had been made before
of that brass?"
The party were silent for a few seconds, and then Amy said, with a
blush on her cheek, "The mirrors of the women, mamma."
She was rather inclined to be vain of her looks, and her mother, who
had noticed how much of her Amy's time was foolishly spent before a
glass, had drawn her attention, some days before that of which I write,
to a fact which has been thought worthy of mention in the Bible. The
women of Israel had the self-denial to give up the brazen mirrors—which
were to them what glass mirrors are to us—to form a laver for the use
of the priests when engaged in the service of God.
Mrs. Temple smiled pleasantly to see that the example of the women in
the desert had not been forgotten by her child.
"Is not that kind of large tent which is standing in the court, the
Tabernacle itself?" inquired Dora.
"Yes, it is the Tabernacle," said her mother.
"Why is all that smoke coming out of it?" asked Elsie.
"That smoke in the picture represents the pillar of cloud which guided
the Israelites in their wanderings," said Mrs. Temple. "For it is
written in the book of Exodus (xl. 38), 'The cloud of the Lord was upon
the Tabernacle by day, and fire was upon it by night, in the sight of
all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.'"
"What a very holy place that Tabernacle must have been!" said Amy, in a
low tone of voice.
"There was not only the pillar of cloud as a visible sign of God's
presence resting upon it," observed Mrs. Temple, "but when Moses had
finished making the Tabernacle, a miraculous light, called by the Jews
'Shekinah,' and, in the Bible, 'the glory of the Lord,' filled the most
holy place."
"I wish that it were so with holy places now!" exclaimed Agnes. "If a
cloud always rested on the roofs of our churches, and a glorious light
shone inside, people would not be so careless about religion as they
are now."
"I fear that no outward sign of God's presence would long prevent
carelessness and sin," replied Mrs. Temple.
"What, mamma, not even a shining glory in church!" cried Amy.
"Remember, my child, all the wonders and terrors of Mount Sinai—the
thunders and lightnings, the trembling of the earth, and the sound of
the trumpet exceeding loud! The Israelites quaked with fear. And yet,
in sight of that very Mount Sinai, in sight of the thick cloud resting
above it, those Israelites openly broke God's commandments, and fell
into grievous sin! The only thing to save us from sinning against God
is for our hearts to be the tabernacle in which He vouchsafes to dwell,
and to have His Holy Spirit shining as the bright light within! Can any
one of you repeat that most beautiful verse from Isaiah (lvii. 15),
which shows us that the Lord deigns to dwell with the lowly in heart?"
Of all Mrs. Temple's family, Agnes had the best memory, though she had
neither the quick intelligence of her twin sister Dora, nor so much of
the love of her Heavenly Master which made Amy, though younger than
herself, more advanced in religious knowledge. Dora had often admired
the verse mentioned by her mother, and to the humble-minded little
Amy it had brought a feeling of thankful joy: but it was Agnes who
remembered it best by heart, so as to be able now to repeat it without
making a single mistake.
"'Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity . . . I
dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive
the heart of the contrite ones.'"