The Tabernacle.
“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
gentle Amy, who sews so nicely, may make them. This work will require
only neatness and patience, and my little dove has both.”
“Ah, mamma! but the silver loops—how could I make them?” suggested Amy,
who had very little self-confidence.
“I have a reel of silver thread up-stairs 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 the lady. “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
of the Bible.”
[Illustration: THE ALTAR OF BURNT OFFERING.