condition of all true art), but by a vision
before us of the divine life, the Ideal, the pattern shown to all, and
equally to be imitated (strange though it may seem) by peasant and
prince, by woman and sage and child.

FOOTNOTES:

[39] This investigation offers a fine example of the folly of that kind
of interpretation which looks about for some sort of external and
arbitrary resemblance, and fastens upon that as the true meaning.
Nothing is more common among these expounders than to declare that the
wood and gold of the ark are types of the human and Divine natures of
our Lord. If either ark or mercy-seat should be compared to Him, it is
obviously the latter, which speaks of mercy. But this was of pure gold.

CHAPTER XXVI.

_THE TABERNACLE._

xxvi.

We now come to examine the structure of the tabernacle for which the
most essential furniture has been prepared.

Some confusion of thought exists, even among educated laymen, with
regard to the arrangements of the temple; and this has led to similar
confusion (to a less extent) concerning the corresponding parts of the
tabernacle. "The temple" in which the Child Jesus was found, and into
which Peter and John went up to pray, ought not to be confounded with
that inner shrine, "the temple," in which it was the lot of the priest
Zacharias to burn incense, and into which Judas, forgetful of all its
sacredness in his anguish, hurled his money to the priests (Luke ii. 46;
Acts iii. 3; Luke i. 9; Matt. xxvii. 5). Now, the former of these
corresponded to "the court of the tabernacle," an enclosure open to the
skies, and containing two important articles, the altar of burnt
sacrifices and the laver. This was accessible to the nation, so that the
sinner could lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and the priests
could purify themselves before entering their own sacred place, the
tabernacle proper, the shrine. But when we come to the structure itself,
some attention is still necessary, in order to derive any clear notion
from the description; nor can this easily be done by an English reader
without substituting the Revised Version for the Authorised. He will
then discover that we have a description, first of the "curtains of the
tabernacle" (vers. 1-6), and then of other curtains which are not
considered to belong to the tabernacle proper, but to "the tent over the
tabernacle" (7-13), being no part of the rich ornamental interior, but
only a protection spre