very midst of the chosen families of Levi, whose tents were pitched in the very centre of the whole congregation-an immense encampment of over two millions of people. God, the centre of Israel's national life -the pivot upon which all their operations, public and private, turned. What does this tell us but that God should be the centre and root of our lives. Without God, life is barbarous and ephemeral. We see it in nations and individuals around us. They are moved and controlled by their wants, their fancies, their desires-"God is not in all their thoughts." They live without nobleness, and they die without hope. God proclaims to us by the Mosaic parable that He should be first in our knowledge, in our love, in our service, in prayer and hope and continual confidence.

Then the glory rested on a structure manufactured to divine pattern and sanctified by blood. God would only be approached with offered blood. Why? "I will be sanctified in them that approach unto Me." In what way does the offering of shed blood honour God and humble man? The blood is the life. As sinners we are under the condemnation of death. The offering of blood is the acknowledg ment of our position, and the vindication of God's righteousness in our humiliation. This demand for sacrifice is one of the most emphatic assertions of God's holiness and supremacy in connection with the Mosaic ritual, and one of the most graphic and telling humiliations of man that it would be possible to devise.

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This is one of the secrets of the distaste which most people feel towards the whole system; and at the same time one of the most powerful sweetnesses it has for those who believe. Those who believe see in it the beauty of mercy on the foundation of God s exaltation, in both of which they find pure pleasure. The other class see in it only fault-finding and gloominess. Christ is the fulfilment of the whole significance.

But there are more specific and detailed significances which must be reserved for the next chapter.

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CHAPTER XIII.-THE ARK AND ITS CONTENTS.

HE general significance of the tabernacle and its ordinances, of which the ark was the kernel, was a negative one, as is declared: "The Holy Spirit signifying this, that the way into the holiest of all was NOT YET MADE MANIFEST, while the first tabernacle was yet standing" (Heb. ix. 8). Such an enunciation was necessary. God had taken the seed of Abraham according to the flesh to Himself as a nation; and it was natural for them to assume that He had taken them into complete communion. Any assumption to this effect was constantly barred by the tabernacle and its ordinances, whose effect was to hold the nation at a distance and make them feel that their union with God was far from perfect. A way of reconciliation, peace, and union was in purpose, but it was "not yet made manifest" while the tabernacle was in use.

But the tabernacle was more than a proclamation of this fact. It was a prophecy of the way that should be manifest in due time, as is evident from its various apostolic descriptions as a shadow of good things to come," "the shadow of heavenly things," "the form of knowledge and of the truth," "the shadow of things to come," "having their substance in Christ" (Heb. x. 1; viii. 5; Rom. ii. 20; Col. ii. 17); and also from the statement of Christ that he had come to fulfil the law as "the way." We know what is testified of Christ in simplicity and fulness and truth. We need not to grope for the light in the midst of shadows. Nevertheless, the shadow being the rude prophecy of the substance, it is interesting to trace the correspondence between the one and the other—not for information but for edification. Knowing the exact shape of the body casting the shadow backward from the future light of eternal glory, we need not to study the shadow to ascertain the shape of the substance. We rather go back to the shadow with our knowledge of the substance to note the form of the outline which the substance has thrown. In doing this we must not limit the substance to the individual Christ. Though applicable to him in the first instance, it comprehends every accepted constituent of the multitudinous Christ. We must remember that the individual Christ is but the head of a body, and that the body and the head are one; and that the full purpose and manifestation of Christ is not realised till this whole community with head and

body- Bridegroom and Bride-are in the immortal occupation of the earth to the glory of God the Father.

With this broad view, we can profitably consider the ark, which has been described literally already. Its first and most characteristic feature is its capacity as a container. It was constructed to receive the tables of the law, inscribed by the finger of God: and afterwards were placed in it, Aaron's rod that budded, and a golden pot containing a sample of the manna with which God fed Israel in the wilderness for forty years. On the basis of which things concealed in the ark, rested the blood-sprinkled cover-lid or mercy-seat, overshadowed by the cherubic figures bearing the glory of God.

Taking these items separately, we shall see the most perfect corre spondence between shadow and substance. The Christ-body in the largest sense is a container' and not a mere utensil of beauty. It is not a mere society of beautiful men and women ignorant of God and interested only in themselves. It is a society with internal contents to make it precious to God and advantageous to man.

First of all, the law of God, as represented by the tables of stone, is enshrined in every heart. It is this that distinguishes them from the ordinary run of human beings. The ordinary run of human beings are fitly described in the words of Paul: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him." Also, "The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." What a dreadful picture. It is ugly and true. A man that is not subject to the law of God is an abortion even now: how much more if such an one were immortal. Such an one cannot become immortal. The ark with its tables of stone inside is a prophecy that excludes it. It is obedience to divine law that makes a man beautiful to man and well-pleasing to God, and fit for divine use in the age to come. The purpose is to give the earth into the hands

of an order of men who have learnt obedience as the first law. Paul testifies that even Christ "learnt obedience by the things that he suffered " (Heb. v. 8), and Peter describes the accepted members of his body as "obedient children, not fashioning themselves according to the former lusts in their ignorance." The Psalms are full of the enunciation of this principle: indeed we may say it shines everywhere in the Scriptures: "The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart : none of his steps shall slide" (Psa. xxxvii. 30). Christ affirmed of himself that it was his meat and his drink to do the will of Him that sent him.

How happy will the earth be when it is in the hands of men like Joseph who "fear God," and whose controlling feeling towards all forbidden things is, "How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" How different will such an order of men be from the arrogant and merciless possessors of power in the present evil world. When Joseph's brethren rule the world, God, in them, will be seated on the anti-typical throne of His holiness, resting on the anti-typical table-furnished ark, consisting of His manifested sons, on whose hearts the law is written. This will be the blessedness promised from the beginning for all families of the earth." The blessing of Moses, the man of God, pronounced upon Israel, will then be applicable to universal man: 66 Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, who is the sword of thy excellency?" Then may it truly be proclaimed to the ends of the earth: The Lord reigneth: let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubim: let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion and he is high above all the people. Make a joyful

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noise unto the Lord, all the earth make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. Let the sea roar and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands and the hills be joyful together."

"Aaron's rod that budded ' was the next article contained in the ark. This represented a similar but not an identical principle to the one symbolised by the tables of the law. It was similar in so far as it stood for the ascendancy of the will of God, but dissimilar as to the direction of its application. The tables of the law represented the will of God as the rule of life in everything. The budded rod stood for the principle of divine choice and appointment as the basis of acceptable service. We see this when we consider the history of the rod. It originated in the rebellion of Korah and his company against Moses and Aaron (Num. xvi. 1). These were envious against Moses and Aaron, and accused them of taking too prominent a place and making themselves over-important in the congregation. Turning their thoughts on themselves, they argued that they were equally entitled to the authority of the priesthood, seeing they had equally been the subjects of deliverance from Egypt, and of sanctification by divine choice. "Ye take too much upon you," said they to Moses and Aaron. Moses answered that Moses and Aaron were nothing in the case: that Korah and his company were setting themselves against the Lord's appointBut Korah and his company were inaccessible to reason, as envious men usually are, and the dispute had to be brought to a divine settlement-which was very effectual. Korah and his company were

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swallowed up in an earth fissure which opened under their feet, and closed upon them again. But this settlement, though effectual so far as they were concerned, did not stop the murmurs of their sympathisers in the congregation, who were numerous. These attributed the overthrow to the power of Moses: "Ye have slain the people of the Lord." It was here that the rod came in: "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, twelve rods: write thou every man's name upon his rod. And thou shalt write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi. And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony where I will meet with you. And it shall come to pass that the man's rod whom I shall choose shall blossom. And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. And it came to pass that on the morrow, Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel: that they looked and took every man his rod. And the Lord said unto Moses: Bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels, and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me that they die not" (Num. xvii.).

Thus the budded rod (secreted in the ark of the testimony) stood for the principle of divine appointment as against the voice of the people in the matter of divine service. It was fitting that this principle should receive expression in the allegorical ark: for it not only lay at the bottom of the whole Mosaic institution as a system in literal use in Israel, but is at the root of the anti-typical Christ institution, and is, we might say, the natural basis of that institution and of all corporate arrangements among men capable of yielding them blessedness. As divine appointment preceded and caused creation physical, it is the natural precursor and foundation of heaven and earth, political, religious, and social. Divorced from this foundation, both government and religion must work confusion, as we see in the present unhappy state of the world. Let God give rulers, and He will give peace. This is His purpose, and He will work it out. The rod in the ark is the allegorical pledge of this.

There is something in the budding of the rod peculiarly appropriate to the anti-typical bearings of the case. The budding was the resuscitation of life in a dead rod by divine power as proof of a divine selection. Who can fail to see in this the foreshadowing of the kind of "assurance unto all men," which Paul declared at Athens God had