in all respects like "the curtain of the
tabernacle," and similarly woven with cherubim. It was hung upon four
pillars; and the even number seems to prove that there was no higher one
in the centre, reaching to the roof--which seems to imply that there was
a triangular opening above the veil, between the Holy and the Most Holy
Place (31, 32).

But here a difficult question arises. There is no specific measurement
of the point at which this subdividing veil was to stretch across the
tent. The analogy of the Temple inclines us to believe that the Most
Holy Place was a perfect cube, and the Holy Place twice as long as it
was broad and high. There is evident allusion to this final shape of the
Most Holy Place in the description of the New Jerusalem, of which the
length and breadth and height were equal. And yet there is strong reason
to suspect that this arrangement was not the primitive one. For Moses
was ordered to stretch the veil underneath the golden clasps which bound
together the two great curtains of the tabernacle (ver. 33). But these
were certainly in the middle. How, then, could the veil make an unequal
division below? Possibly fifteen feet square would have been too mean a
space for the dimensions of the Most Holy Place, although the perfect
cube became desirable, when the size was doubled.

A screen of the same rich material, but apparently not embroidered with
cherubim, was to stretch across the door of the tent; but this was
supported on five pillars instead of four, clearly that the central one
might support the ridge-bar of the roof. And their sockets were of brass
(vers. 36, 37).

The tabernacle, like the Temple, had its entrance on the east (ver. 22);
and in the case of the Temple this was the more remarkable, because the
city lay at the other side, and the worshippers had to pass round the
shrine before they reached the front of it. The object was apparently to
catch the warmth of the sun. For a somewhat similar reason, every pagan
temple in the ancient world, with a few well-defined exceptions which
are easily explained, also faced the east; and the worshippers, with
their backs to the dawn, saw the first beams of the sun kindling their
idol's face. The orientation of Christian churches is due to the custom
which made the neophyte, standing at first in his familiar position
westward, renounce the devil and all his works, and then, turning his
back upon his idols, recite the creed with his face eastwar