to treasure up "the testimony which I shall give thee," the
two tables of the law (xxv. 16). In it were also the pot of manna and
Aaron's rod which budded (Heb. ix. 4), and beside it was laid the whole
book of the law, for a testimony, alas! against them (Deut. xxxi. 26).

Thus the ark was to treasure up the expression of the will of God, and
the relics which told by what mercies and deliverances He claimed
obedience. It was a precious thing, but not the most precious, as we
shall presently learn; and therefore it was not made of pure gold, but
overlaid with it. That it might be reverently carried, four rings were
cast and fastened to it at the lower corners, and in these four staves,
also overlaid with gold, were permanently inserted.

The next article mentioned is the most important of all.

It would be a great mistake to suppose that the mercy-seat was a mere
lid, an ordinary portion of the ark itself. It was made of a different
and more costly material, of pure gold, with which the ark was only
overlaid. There is separate mention that Bezaleel "made the ark, ... and
he made the mercy-seat" (xxxvii. 1, 6), and the special presence of God
in the Most Holy Place is connected much more intimately with the
mercy-seat than with the remainder of the structure. Thus He promises to
"appear in the cloud above the mercy-seat" (Lev. xvi. 2). And when it is
written that "Moses heard the Voice speaking unto him from above the
mercy-seat which is upon the ark of the testimony" (Num. vii. 89), it
would have been more natural to say directly "from above the ark" unless
some stress were to be laid upon the interposing slab of gold. In
reality no distinction could be sharper than between the ark and its
cover, from whence to hear the voice of God. And so thoroughly did all
the symbolism of the Most Holy Place gather around this supreme object,
that in one place it is actually called "the house of the mercy-seat" (1
Chron. xxviii. 11).

Let us, then, put ourselves into the place of an ancient worshipper.
Excluded though he is from the Holy Place, and conscious that even the
priests are shut out from the inner shrine, yet the high priest who
enters is his brother: he goes on his behalf: the barrier is a curtain,
not a wall.

But while the Israelite mused upon what was beyond, the ark, as we have
seen, suggests the depth of his obligation; for there is the rod of his
deliverance and the bread from heaven which fed him; and there also