Precious Things.
“I DO not think that the Tabernacle was a grand building, after all,”
observed Lucius, “though there is so much written about it in the
Bible. Why, it was only about forty-five feet by fifteen—not so large
as the chapel at the end of the town, and not for one moment to be
compared to the grand cathedral which we all went to see last summer.”
“There is one thing which you perhaps overlook,” said his mother; “when
the Tabernacle was raised, the Israelites were a nation of wanderers,
and had no fixed habitation. Their Tabernacle was a large, magnificent
tent, made to be carried about from place to place by the Levites.
Every portion of it was so contrived as to be readily taken to pieces,
and then put together again. This could not have been done with a
building of very great size.”
“Nobody could carry about the great cathedral, or even the little
chapel!” cried Elsie; “but they were never meant to be moved, they are
fixed quite firm in the ground.”
“The size of the Tabernacle was indeed not great,” continued Mrs.
Temple; “but, besides its being filled with a glory which is never
beheld now in any building raised by man, the treasures lavished on
it must have given to it a very splendid appearance. It has been
calculated that the gold and silver used in making the Tabernacle must
alone have amounted in value to the enormous sum of 185,000 pounds!”
Exclamations of surprise were uttered, and Dora remarked—“Why, that
would be enough to pay for the building of forty large churches as
handsome as the new one which we all admire so much.”
“And the new church holds ten times as many people as the Tabernacle
could,” observed Agnes. “I cannot think how a large nation like the
Israelites could find space to meet in such a small place, only about
twice the size of this room!”
“The Tabernacle was never intended to be to the Israelites what a
church is to us,” remarked Mrs. Temple. “In the warm climate of Arabia
the people worshipped in the open air, under the blue canopy of the
sky; no building to shelter them was required, such as is needful in
England. The men of Israel brought their sacrifices to the court of the
Tabernacle, where, as you already know, the Altar of burnt-offering and
the Laver were placed.”
[Illustration: THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK.