elements of their subsistence had respect to Christ, and shadowed out the support which good men derive from him, we see that their spiritual food and ours is one and the same thing, and that every true believer, who is nourished by his word and sacraments, enjoys, in common with the Hebrews, a participation of the same common Lord and Saviour, and holds a blessed intercourse with him, by the same mystical elements.

II. The next thing to be noticed is the Tabernacle in which the Shechinah or visible glory was wont to dwell.

The Tabernacle was first set up during the encampments of the Israelites in the wilderness, and served them for "a worldly Sanctuary," or temporary place of worship. It was a large tent, pitched in the centre of their camp, and was divided into two parts, in the first of which the people at large were allowed to present themselves and their offerings, and into the second, called the most holy place, the High Priest alone went once every year with the blood of the annual sacrifice, to make atonement for the sins of the whole nation. It was in this second part, which was separated from the other by a vail, that the Shechinah or visible glory of the divine presence appeared, seated between two Cherubims, and resting upon the mercy-seat, where it remained a standing evidence to the Jews, that the Lord their God was among them, and that they were indeed His people. Other nations had their

tutelar divinities, their molten and their graven images, their pictures and their fancy works; but the Jews had a supernatural and visible light which none else could boast of, or pretend to imitate, and which assured them, that whilst the great Author of it filled all space, and even the heaven of heavens could not contain him, he had, nevertheless, condescended to have his dwelling on the earth, and to make them spectators of it.

This glorious body of light, the constant symbol of the divine presence, was not unknown to the ancient world. We read of Cherubims and a flaming sword, or perhaps, more properly, a sword-like flame, which stood at the east of the garden of Eden, to keep the way of the Tree of Life. But the first striking manifestation of it to the new world recorded in Scripture, is that which was vouchsafed to Moses at the burning bush, when an Angel spake to him from out of the fire and said, "I am the God of thy father." The flame which enveloped the bush was the radiant light of the divine glory, "for the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed." This however was a private appearance. A public and striking one was made to the whole nation of Israel, when, having just escaped from the yoke of Pharaoh, and trembling with anxiety as they marched along, "the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire." In this pillar the Angel of God was; for it is expressly said, that "when the Angel of God which went before the camp of Israel,

removed and went behind them, the pillar of cloud also went from before their face and stood behind them." And wherever this cloud appeared in after times, there this Angel of the presence was, for he was the guide of the Israelites in all their journeys; and the moving of the cloud was the signal for their marches. When the Tabernacle, that temporary house of prayer, the sign of their unsettled life, was superseded by the Temple, a more durable structure as emblematic of their more fixed abode, He appeared with his accustomed symbol of glory over the propitiatory of that sacred building, and there He remained, the guardian Deity of the chosen race, till they were carried away captive to Babylon, and their Sanctuary and their City were destroyed.

Now that the Tabernacle and the Temple were types of Christ's human body within which the Godhead dwelt, and where, as in a sanctuary, the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth, there can be no manner of doubt. The Word, a title of the Son of God, St. John says, was made flesh and dwelt, or more properly tabernacled, among us, and we beheld his glory;-beheld it, morally, in signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and most extraordinary demonstrations of grace and power, all manifesting the divine presence;-and, naturally, at his transfiguration on the holy mount, when his face shone as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. If God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, the body of Jesus must have been the mercy-seat of this wonderful dispensation.

The irradiation of it on Mount Tabor, was a visible sign of its inward sanctity, "for where the true tabernacle is, there must be also the glory of it. Here then we have the manifestation of Christ in the flesh, signified by the dwelling of God's presence in the Tabernacle. As the glory of the Lord was once present in the Tabernacle, it was now present in the body of Christ; and as that glory was said on one occasion to have filled the Tabernacle, so it is said with reference to the same, that in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' Well, therefore, might he say of this body, Destroy this temple, and in three days will I raise it up;' for it was both a tabernacle and a temple in a stricter sense than had ever been before. The Godhead had occasionally dwelt in the buildings made with hands, but with him it abode continually."

But there are several other particulars to be noticed. As the most holy place was hidden by a vail which hung before it, so it, so the Divinity was shrouded from the gaze of men in the human nature of Christ. As the rending of the vail in the Sanctuary laid open the interior to the eyes of all beholders, so the rending of Christ's body on the cross "opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.” As the mercy-seat could not be approached except by the High Priest alone, and by him only with the price of blood; so the throne of God is not accessible to us except by the High Priest of our profession, and on the merits of his own passion. Hence St. Paul speaks of our entrance "into the

holiest by the blood of Jesus, as a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh," clearly showing the analogy between the Jewish Tabernacle and the body of Christ. If, therefore, the Jews worshipped within the vail in the person of their High Priest, so we approach the living God in the person of our great Redeemer. He is the Temple in which the Divine Spirit dwells. There is no other mercy-seat where to lay our offerings upon,-no other shrine to kneel before. "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name."

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The Tabernacle also, as the place of congregation, or general assembly where the Israelites met to worship God, figures out the mystical body of Jesus Christ, that Church of God gathered out of all nations. Hence the prophet Amos describes the calling of the Gentiles into the Christian Church under the representation of a renewing of the Tabernacle. After this, to quote St. James's use of the words, "I will return, and will build again the Tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord." Of this Church all believers are parts, being united with Christ by a mystical incorporation, whereby they become "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," and are one with him and he with them. Their

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