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       The 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 this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle was yet standing" (Heb. 9:8). 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 "whilethe 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. 10:1; 8:5; Rom. 2:20; Col. 2:17); 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 correspondence 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 is 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 a one were immortal. Such a 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 which he suffered" (Heb. 5:8), 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: "Themouth 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. 37:30). Christ affirmed of himself that it was his meat and his drink to do the will of Him that sent him.

       "Aaron's rod that budded" was the next object contained in the ark. This represented a similar but not an identical principle to the one symbolized 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.

       The only other thing inside the ark was the pot containing a sample of the manna with which God fed Israel during their sojourn in the wilderness. The significance of this in its application to Christ becomes perfectly plain when we consider the facts of the type and the hints of interpretation that fell from his lips. The two main facts in the type were that the manna came from heaven, and that the children of Israel were so situated that if they had not received it, they must have perished. Almost of their own force, they speak of eternal life through Christ. This meaning becomes absolutely certain in the presence of Christ's promise "to him that overcometh" of permission to "eat of the hidden manna" (Rev. 2:17), and of his declaration during a conversation on the Mosaic manna that he is the living bread that came down from heaven, whereof if a man eat, he shall not die (John 6:51).

       The material of which the ark was formed carries on the harmony in other directions: wood covered with gold; two substances differing much from one another; the wood of a valuable sort, but still wood, and very inferior to the imperishable and beautiful metal with which it was clothed. We have not to look far to find the analogy to this combination. Paul said, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared", The ark was the symbol of this manifestation--represented by the glory between the cherubic figures resting on the mercy-seat, surmounting an interior occupied by the tables, the budded rod, and the pot of manna. The object of the whole manifestation was the salvation of man for the glory of God. The symbol combines the two features prominently--"glory to God in the highest" in the cherubim on top; "goodwill to man" in the law-holding cavity below, on which the whole rests. Obedient man is represented by this cavity--therefore wood covered with gold; an inferior clothed with a higher nature--first morally, then physically. Gold stands for both phases. We know how constantly it is used as a figure for tried faith: it also stands for the recompense of that faith in the golden city and the golden reed by which it was measured by the angel in John's presence (Rev. 21:19). It was therefore a perfect symbol for the sons of God in both stages: the present, when the inferiority of the natural mind is covered over by the golden armour of a Spirit-provided faith, and the future, when the earthly house of this tabernacle is clothed upon with the golden house which is from heaven, in being changed by the Spirit from the mortal to the immortal.

       The cover-lid or mercy seat was all of gold. This is an intimation that the Mediator (who is the anti-typical propitiatory or mercy-seat) should be without fault, and would exercise his function as intercessor in the immortal state. The over-arching cherubic glory-bearers were also all of gold and of one piece with the mercy-seat. This takes us forward to the kingdom when the perfect mediator will also be the perfect ruler of all the earth; for the cherubic figures relate to the day of power. Yet since the glory to be revealed springs out of the sufferings of Christ, therefore the cherubic figures stand upon and form part of the blood-sprinkled cover-lid or mercy-seat. The glory shining out between the outspread cherubic wings and resting on the mercy-seat represents the active participation of the Eternal Father, without whom the whole apparatus would be meaningless, and its whole prophecy impossible of fulfilment. The ark and its appurtenances were the allegorical form of God's purposed manifestation among men for their salvation and the honour of His name; but without God Himself, it would have had no power or truth. The kernel lay there. Therefore, the apparatus was incomplete as a symbol until the glory of God had take possession. It is God we see at every stage. God in creation, God in the promises, God in the Egyptian deliverance: God in the prophets, and when Christ appeared--Emmanuel--God in a more direct and especial form--the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ--whose return and enthronement upon the earth will be the pitching of the tabernacle of God with men--One Eternal Father in glorious manifestation of kindness, wisdom, justice and power.

       The crown (or ornamental border) all round the top of the ark, is an intimation of the royal character of the whole organization. It is a kingly institution that is contemplated in the finished work of God on the earth. Christ and his brethren, manifesting the glory of God, will be a community of kings and priests, exercising power, receiving honour, and conferring blessedness--on the basis of God exalted in sacrificial vindication, and honoured by a tried faith (gold) in previous times of evil (wood).

       The rings on the four corners of the ark, to receive the gold-covered wood staves by which the ark might be carried, speak to us of the pilgrim stage of mortal life--during which the ark is carried from place to place as a matter of faith. The rings are gold, because they are part of the complete symbol of the perfect future carried by the poles. The poles are wood, covered with gold, because they represent mortal minds qualified by the knowledge and belief of the truth--a qualification that constitutes them priests, by whom only was the ark to be carried during its wanderings.

       The staves were to be left in the rings and never withdrawn (Exod. 25:15), which was an intimation both that the hand of faith would never be taken by faithful men from the divine work as contained in the gospel (for the ark was the gospel in symbol), and that they were to be ready to follow that work in all its movements. The priests never knew where next the ark would have to be carried. The staves left in the rings were a hint to be ready at a moment's notice for the next movement, wherever it might be. The meaning of the parable in our own times can only be that faithful men are expected to follow the fortunes of the truth wherever they may lead.

       The only other object in the "Holiest of all" was the golden censer (Heb. 9:4), which Aaron used on the day of atonement in the manner prescribed as follows: "He shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not" (Lev. 16:12). Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's two sons, diverged so far from these directions, as to get the "burning coals of fire" somewhere else than from the altar of burnt-offering: and they were struck dead on the spot--a sharp lesson of obedience that was not soon forgotten. The spiritual significance of the incense we ascertain from Rev. 8, where John records having seen an angel with a golden censer, who took the censer, and filled it with fire from the altar: "And there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand" Prayer, then, is indicated by the presence of the golden censer in the Holiest of all. It is on this basis that mercy is dispensed: "the cloud of the incense" was to "cover the mercy-seat"--"that he (Aaron) die not". For a prayerless man there is no mercy.

       And the right incense had to be "beaten small"--not offered in lumps. Some people neglect God in daily habit, and seem to think they can make up for lost time by being specially religious at certain times. This must be as odious to God as intermittent friendship would be unsatisfactory to man. The will of God is that we "pray always" (Luke 18); "in everything give thanks" (1 Thess. 5:18), be exercised in His fear all the day long (Prov. 23:17).

       The incense had to be vaporized by fire taken off the altar. The use of other fire brought death, as we have seen. There is a deep import in this. The altar is Christ (Heb. 13:10)--the fire, his sufferings. The prayer of a sinner offered in his own name, or in the name of Mahomet, or in neglect or slight of the Christ-name, is a prayer that will not be as the sweet-smelling incense, but as the pungent and offensive smoke in the nostrils, with which God compares certain people (Isa. 65:5).

       The employment of incense to symbolize prayer is a proof that prayer is a source of pleasure to God--provided the conditions are right. That the prayer of the wicked should be abomination (Prov. 28:9) seems easy to understand; but that "the great and the terrible God who made heaven and earth" should find pleasure in the feeble recognitions of mortal man, however sincere, is a revelation which we require. It is a revelation which we have received, "The prayer of the upright is his delight" (Prov. 15:8). We could not have imagined it possible that so small a circumstance in the universe could have yielded satisfaction to the stupendous Being upholding all by the word of His power. Jesus took pains to put us on our guard against making too little of the small because of the largeness of the great. A sparrow falls not without Him. Ye are of more value than the sparrows; the hairs of your head are numbered. He that seeth in secret shall openly reward the man who prays in secret. Such are some of his sayings. It remains that the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much by reason of the pleasure it affords the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth.

       The presence of the censer in the Holiest of all, as one of its permanent furnishings, is a proof that prayer is not confined to the present dark and evil state, but has a place in the immortal state. We assume in our first impressions of these subjects that "when that which is perfect is come" the necessity for prayer will have passed away. This idea is based on the erroneous supposition that prayer consists exclusively of request to be delivered from evil. The largest part of prayer is thanksgiving and praise; and it is manifest that there can never come a time when these will be out of place. Indeed, we may say that the true time for them does not arrive till we are clothed with that immortal strength that will enable us to indulge in them with true effectiveness, both as regards our own enjoyment of them and God's pleasure in them. "Burdened", is the apostolic and true description of our present state. "The spirit of heaviness", is the prophetic counterpart of this description. When the change to the immortal comes, we are said to receive "the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isa. 61:3). Praise, therefore, is the natural adjunct of the emancipated state, and always appears in this light in the apocalyptic exhibitions of the saints in glory, e.g.,"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and honour and power (be ascribed) unto the Lord our God, for true and righteous are his judgments". If the prayers of feeble mortals, whose words often die on their lips from very weakness, are a source of pleasure to Almighty God, it stands to reason that He must find great delight in the praises of a host of strong and glad and fully enlightened immortals. The presence of the golden censer in the Holiest of all tells us as much.

       One other point remains to be noticed before leaving the Holiest of all. It is evident that as a whole, it stands for the perfect state in which "the tabernacle of God shall be with men", the way unto which Paul says had not been made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing. The bloodstains on the pure gold coverlid of the ark find their antitype in the memory of the shed blood of Christ in the immortal hearts and minds of those who shall have attained to the golden state through "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." If the angels veil their faces in the presence of Eternal Glory, how much more an assembly of men and women, who, though their equals, have to remember with a sense of humiliation that they were originally sinners under condemnation, and that they owe it entirely to the appointment of God's mercy in Christ that they stand there in the strength and honour and gladness of immortal life.