fitted up with a degree of richness, such as would become the most substantial building. Now this was no more than suitable to its immediate purpose, a house for God, where his presence was to be manifested, where He would receive the sacrifices, and prayers, and praises, of his people. And surely it must be the duty of Christians also, in the construction of their places of worship, to use the best of materials, skill, and workmanship, unto which their means can reach. Ours indeed are neither tents nor temples. We have no heavenly pattern from which to work; no spiritual objects to be represented in what we build. But being bound not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, see Heb. 10. 25, and meeting in order to pray, and praise, and to hear the word of God and the preaching of his ministers, we need buildings suitable for these purposes. And we are thankful that it has pleased God to put it into the hearts of his servants, to raise many such buildings throughout our land. Very many more are however greatly needed. And we may be apt to think that it would be well to have had some less costly than they are, in order to have had a larger number than we have. Rather let us learn to wish, that we had as many as are wanted, and all as costly as they ought to be. When we contemplate the immense wealth of our country, when we call to mind the splendour which pervades the countless mansions of the rich, and think also of the comforts which are so generally spread around us in the cottages of the poor, we must be almost ashamed to think, how mean, and cheerless, are many amongst the houses of God in the land. The Israelites whilst yet encamped in the wilderness were able to raise, at the command of God, the splendid tabernacle here described. Christians who dwell in a land that overflows with riches, who have carried to the utmost height all mechanical and ornamental arts, and who are better fed, better clothed, and better housed, than any nation now known in all the world, are yet apt to grudge expense, and forced to practise the most rigid economy, in the construction of their churches; and after all have not near church room enough. What is the reason of this difference? Want of faith, want of love for God, want of a lively concern for his honour, want of a hearty affection for the thousands and millions of the poor, for whom there is found no place in the house of prayer. Let us not then affect to be too spiritual to care for ornament in our churches, whilst we are so far from indifferent to luxury in our dwellings. Let us more largely deny ourselves, and we can then better afford to help our neighbours, and we shall then more truly rejoice in every opportunity we can meet with to spend our substance in honouring God.

May the Holy Spirit engage the hearts of many, to enlarge, and multiply, and adorn, the houses of God, in the land!

The boards, sockets, bars, vail, and door of the tent. 15 And thou shalt make boards of the one side of the tabernacle, for the tabernacle of shittim wood 27 And five bars for the boards standing up. of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the two sides westward.

and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.

37 And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim

wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.

LECTURE 155.

That we may have boldness to enter into the holiest.

St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy speaks of "the church of the living God," as "the pillar and ground of the truth." 1 Tim. 3. 15. The boards here mentioned were to serve for pillars. And the sockets were to be foundations for the boards. And the bars were to hold the boards together; so as to form a kind of framework, to which the curtains were to be hung. The curtains were to be separate for convenience of removal, but when looped together, and fastened to the boards by taches or hooks, they would form one complete tent. See ver. 1-14. Certainly, we have here a lively image of that close connection, whereby all the members of the Christian community are formed into one body. And oh, how firm would that body be, how well able to resist the worst of storm and tempest, which can arise from the malice of Satan, if we were in reality all one, framed together by the bars of truth, and coupled together by the loops of charity!

But though the tabernacle was to be one, there was to be a vail stretched across it, to divide "between the holy place and the most holy." Now this vail is interpreted, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, of the flesh of Christ, through which we have "boldness to enter into the holiest." Heb. 10. 19. Under the Old Testament, the vail concealed the ark of the testimony. Under the New Testament, there is nothing which may not be known by one man as well as by another, at one time as well as at another. The door of the tent is now always open. And the vail is rent asunder in the midst. Come, every one that desires to see the glory of the Lord, come, every one that longs to know the mystery which for ages was hidden, but now is published abroad in the Gospel. God manifest in the flesh. Christ crucified for all men. A covenant of grace; of pardon for the past, and help from heaven for the future. Justification by faith. Faith working by love. Perfect love, casting out fear, and affording boldness even in the day of judgment. These are among the chief treasures laid up in our ark. It is in order to share in these, that we invite all men to enter into our tabernacle. God confines not now his call to few. "Ho, every one that thirsteth." Is. 55. 1. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden." Matt. 11. 28. Come into a tabernacle "not made with hands." 2 Cor. 5. 1. Come through a vail prepared by God Himself, and rent by Him on purpose that you might enter. Come, for it is God who is willing to receive you. Come, for it is into heaven that He is ready to admit you.

The court.

is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the

LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

LECTURE 156.

The building of a holy life, and heavenly church.

The altar, as well as all other things appertaining to the tabernacle, was to be made by Moses according to the pattern that was shewed him "in the mount." Ch. 25. 40. This remarkable expression, which is here repeated, can mean no less, than that Moses saw, whilst there, an exact model of all the things, which he was to make when he came down. God could cause them to exist, and cause Moses to see them, in a moment, and in any spot He pleased. And in like manner, He could have set them up amongst the Israelites for use, quite as easily as merely shew them to Moses. For what can be difficult to Him, who made the worlds? But no, He had made something far more marvellous than a tabernacle; He had made a creature who could make one. He had made man, capable of works of art. And He would have man use all his faculties, and all the beautiful materials within his reach on earth, in framing a faithful copy, as far as the case admitted, of heavenly things. See Heb. 8. 5.

And is it not thus that God deals with us, as to the spiritual building, as to the sacrifice, which is to be offered up from our hearts, as to the light of pure devotion, which is there to burn continually, and as to the spacious court, which we must thus help in forming, the congregation of faithful men in all quarters of the world? Is it not by our own exertions, and out of materials which He has created within ourselves, that He would have us raise the goodly fabric of a holy life, and a heavenly church; He graciously shewing us the pattern, and also giving the help of his Spirit to the workmen? See ch. 35. 31. Let us then give thanks unto God, for we are "fearfully and wonderfully made;" Ps. 139. 13; capable, through his grace, of "perfecting holiness;" 2 Cor. 7. 1; able, under his direction, to do his will on earth, even "as it is in heaven." Matt. 6. 10. And let it be our constant endeavour, to help in filling the courts of the Most High; to extend amongst our brethren the knowledge and the love of God; that even as He has desired, his house may be full. See Luke 14. 23.

O God, who hast shewed us, by thy prophets and apostles, and much more by thy blessed Son, a pattern of what we ought to do, help us to do all things according to thy commandment. And grant that by our conformity to thy will on earth, we may become meet to worship before thy throne in heaven; through Christ our Lord.