mong them." Exod. 25:8. The material sanctuary, then, was God's visible
dwelling-place, where he manifested himself to his people, and received
their worship according to the rites of his own appointment; the whole
being, as we shall see, typical of higher realities pertaining to our
redemption through Christ. And as this earthly sanctuary was God's
chosen dwelling-place, it followed, as a necessary consequence, that
after its erection all the sacrifices must be brought to its altar, and
presented there to God through the priesthood of his appointment.

6. The _Mosaic tabernacle_ was a movable structure very simple in its
plan. Its frame-work on three sides consisted of upright boards, or
rather timbers (for, according to the unanimous representation of the
Jewish rabbins, they were a cubit in thickness), standing side by side,
and kept in position by transverse bars passing through golden rings.
Thus was formed an enclosure ten cubits in height, thirty cubits in
length from east to west, and ten cubits in width; the eastern end,
which constituted the front, having only a vail suspended from five
pillars of shittim-wood. Over this enclosure, and hanging down on either
side, was spread a rich covering formed by coupling together ten
curtains of "fine-twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with
cherubim of cunning work." Over this was another covering, formed from
the union of eleven curtains of goats' hair; and above two other
coverings, the one of rams' skins dyed red, and the other, or outermost,
of badgers' skins. Surrounding the tabernacle was a court one hundred
cubits long and fifty wide, enclosed by curtains of fine-twined linen
supported on pillars five cubits high. The tabernacle itself was divided
by a vail supported on four pillars into two parts; the _inner_
sanctuary, or "holy of holies," ten cubits every way, and the _outer_,
or "holy place," twenty cubits long by ten in breadth and height.

In a wider sense the whole movable structure within the court is
called the tabernacle. But in a stricter sense the rich inner
curtain is distinguished in the Mosaic description as the
_tabernacle_, while the curtain of goats' hair is called the
_tent_. Exod. 26:1, 7; 36:8, 14, 19. The true meaning of the
word rendered in our version _badgers_ is uncertain. Some think
that the seal is referred to.

7. We have seen that the tabernacle was God's visible dwelling-place.
But the palac