such, since this relation is not destroyed; and the other, that of master and servant, resumes its place, and he is not punished, for he is his money. Surviving, he witnesses to the paternal relation; and afterwards dying, he witnesses to a deliverance from bondage. All this may do violence to our notions of political jurisprudence; however, the nature of God's covenant was set forth by outward things imposed according to the condition, character, and circumstances of this very singular people.

The relation of servitude having returned but for a day or two, the departure out of it witnessed to redemption. In the interval, moreover, the slave rested in the mercy of God, and the master was exonerated. Herein we learn that man must not destroy the paternal relation, and this he will not do if redemption be realised. Thus God makes the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he restrains; so all the relationships of life, as all nature, are subservient to the eternal purposes of the covenant.

His

To return on this occasion it is incidentally said that Moses, whilst on the mount, did neither eat nor drink. fasting was the putting off of the flesh, a witnessing to redemption, to which his former appearance in the mount had reference. Now, the presence of Jehovah shall go up with them; therefore he was to build the tabernacle according to the pattern shown him in the mount.

The true idea of the tabernacle is that of the temple: a habitation, a dwelling-place for Jehovah, whose presence alone constitutes it a temple. We are to possess Him, rest in Him, for He is our righteousness. Moses says: "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place from generation to generation" (Ps. xc. 1). Such was the tree of life to Adam, appropriated in a condition of holiness first realised. We must

first pass the flaming sword of the cherubim, to taste the tree of life and love for ever. It was revealed to Moses in the burning bush, and in the cloud and glory in the mount, when the Lord made darkness His secret place, His pavilion round about Him dark waters and thick clouds. This darkness was the symbol of the wrath of God against sin, while light was of His presence; the two illustrating the covenant, a terrible reality to the disobedient, but a blessed consolation to the believer. So truly did He dwell in the tabernacle, that by day, in the light, the cloud rested upon it. If it moved, it signified that Jehovah had departed, and they were to follow. Until it moved they were not to stir, and without it they knew not the presence of Jehovah. Then at night, in the midst of surrounding darkness, fire was upon the tabernacle. Solomon says: "The Lord hath said that He would dwell in the thick darkness; but I have built a house of habitation for thee, and a place of thy dwelling for ever" (2 Chron. vi. 1, 2). In the verses following he refers to the Lord's dwelling in the land of promise, and the deliverance out of Egypt.

It was said of the second temple: "Its glory shall be greater than that of the first." The Lord would be there. He, as the true temple, the true altar, the true mercy-seat, the true holy place, and holy of holies, gave meaning to all the shadows. All the offerings were the expression of the truth in Him. He put away darkness, and revealed the light. He tabernacled with us, says John, and we beheld His glory, -the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Through the veil of His flesh we enter into the presence of Jehovah. He was not only King, but Priest, for

in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

That the Divine presence, associated with the idea of sin having been put away, constitutes the temple, is evident

from the language of John, who had the vision of the true Jerusalem where he saw no temple, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. So the psalmist writes: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Ps. xxvii. 1-4). Again: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Ps. xci. 1). A security against all evil, because, "He has made Jehovah the Most High his habitation" (Ps. xci. 90).

The Elohim said to David: "Thou shalt not build a house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood." David slew all his enemies; herein he was a type of Christ. But it is the Son that builds the temple. The foundation is Christ the Son of the living God, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, which temple are we, as Paul says, "In whom we also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. ii. 22). Then, what the tabernacle and temple represented, such must we be. are builded upon the one foundation, we must possess the characteristics of that foundation. We must realise our redemption, be "holiness unto the Lord;" then Jehovah is our refuge, our dwelling-place for ever (1 Cor. iii. 16). Wherefore the Apostle emphatically asks, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which ye are." Again : "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost in you, which ye have of God? and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify

God in your body (in a death to sin), and your spirit (in a life to God), which are God's." Wherefore in our life are we as a spiritual house, a temple of God, according to the eternal purpose, the pattern in the mount, to witness to the everlasting principles of the covenant. As Peter says, "Ye also as living stones, even as the foundation a living stone, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. ii. 5).

The redemption out of Egypt and the tabernacle service enforced these principles. They formed part of a dispensation, which had its reλos, or fulfilment, in Christ, and, in its relation to that of the Gospel, was referred to by Paul as ministrations of death and of the Spirit, which two dispensations relatively set forth redemption and blessing.

As an example of the sad ignorance prevailing respecting the Old Testament, and the law, in particular, which is said to condemn men to death before God, a preacher stated, with great confidence, "that mercy and the law are opposed to each other." Whereas, as a ministry of condemnation, it is all mercy; for, though as an outward thing it attests the hardness of the heart of man, yet, as an inward reality and power, it attests a God, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, forgiving sin and transgression, and keeping mercy for thousands. Paul realised this mercy. He could truly say respecting the law, "I, through the law, am dead to the law" (the law led him to Christ, by whom he was dead to it as an outward thing)- -"that I might live unto God." He explains: "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Paul knew the law, that rightly

used, as fulfilled in Christ, having its reλos in Him, it was a ministration of redemption, while that of the Spirit was of life. The law was a ministration of glory, but it had no glory by reason of that which excelleth-even the in-dwelling Spirit of the Lord.

The Apostle draws a contrast between the Jews in the time of Moses and the Corinthians, to whom he had ministered the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God. He speaks of that ministration of death written and engraven on stones, which, as an outward thing, gave knowledge of sin, and so led men to Christ. Then if that was glorious, how much more so the ministration of the Spirit of life, a reality in the soul. The Corinthians, said the Apostle, were his epistles of Christ ministered, written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.

So far, then, from the Jews realising the spiritual, to which indeed the decalogue testified, they could not even look to it. They could not stedfastly look to the end of that which was to be abolished. They could not look to Christ; but their eyes were blinded, even by the God of this world, and the glory of the living God could not shine unto them. Unto this day, this applies equally to professing Christians; but, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there the veil is done away, there is redemption, there is liberty. Such is the purpose of the Father to all, even when he commanded Moses to do His will, to build the tabernacle according to the pattern shown him in the mount.