The material, not less than the forms, in the holy of holies was significant. The acacia or shittim-wood, least liable of woods then accessible to decay, might well represent the imperishableness of divine truth, of the laws of duty (Biihr, Sgiuhol. i, 286). Ark, mercy- seat, cherubim, the ver\' walls, were all overlaid with gold, the noblest of all metals, the symbol of light and purity — sunlight itself, as it were, fixed and embodied, the token of the incorruptible, of the glorj^ of a great king (ibid, i, 282). It was not without meaning that all this lavish expenditure of what was most costly was placed where none might gaze on it. The gold thus offered taught man that the noblest acts of beneficence and sacrifice are not those which are done that they may be seen of men, but those which are known onl}' to him who "seeth in secret" (Matt, vi, 4).
Dimensions also had their meaning. Difficult as it may be to feel sure that we have the key to the enigma, there can be but little doubt that the older religious systems of the world did attach a mysterious significance to each separate number; that the training of Moses, as afterwards the far less complete initiation of Pythagoras in the symbolism of Egypt, must have made that trans- parently clear to him, which to us is almost impenetra- bly dark. A full discussion of the subject is obviously impossible here, but it may be useful to exhibit briefly the chief thoughts which have been connected with the numbers that are most prominent in the language of symbolism. Arbitrary as some of them may seem, a sufficient induction to establish each will be foimd in Biihr's elaborate dissertation [Symbol, i, 128-255) and other works (comp. Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt, iv, 190-199; Leyrer, in Herzog's Reul-Eiicyklop. s. v. " Stiftshiitte").
One— Tlie Godhead, eternity, life, creative force, the snn, man.
Two— Matter, time, death, receptive capacity, the moon, woman.
TuREE (as a number or in the triaiiirle) — The universe in connection with God, the absolute in itself, the nn- conditiiined, God.
FouB (the number, or in the square or cube) — Conditioned existence, the world as created, diviue order, revela- tion.
Seven (as = 3 -1-4)— The union of the world and God, rest (ns in the Sabbath), peace, blessing, pnrilicalion.
Ten (asr=l-)-2-|-34- 4) — Completeness, moral and physi- cal : perfection.
Five — Perfection half attained, incompleteness.
TwKLVE — The siijns of tlie zodiac, the cj'cle of the seasons; in Israel the idea! number of the people, of the cov- enant of God with them.
TABERNACLE
140
TABERNACLE
To those who think over the words of two great teach- ers, one lieatlion (I'hitarch, Dc Is. et Os. p. 411) and one Cliristian (^Clem. Al. Strom, vi. 84-87), who had at least studied as far as they could the mysteries of the religion of Egypt, and had inherited part of the old sys- tera, the precision of the numbers in the plan of the tab- ernacle will no longer seem unaccountable. If, in a cos- mical system, a right-angled triangle, with the sides three, ft)ur, live, represented the triad of Osiris, Isis, Orus, creative force, receptive matter, the universe of creation (I'lutarch, loc. cit.), the perfect cube of the holy of holies, the constant recurrence of the numbers 4 and 10, may well be accepted as symbolizing order, stability, perfection (Biihr, Symbol, i, 225). The symbol reap- pears in the most startling form in the closing visions of the Apocalypse. There the heavenly Jerusalem is described, in words wdiich absolutely exclude the literal- ism that lias sometimes been blindly aiiplied to it, as a city four-square — 12,000 furlongs in length and breadth and height (liev. xxi, 16). See Nu.^iukr.
Into tlie inner sanctuary neither people nor the priests as a body ever entered. Strange as it may seem, that in which everything represented light and life was left in darkness and solituile. Once only in the year, on the day of atonement, might the high-priest enter. The strange contrast has, however, its parallel in the spirit- ual life. Death and life, light and darkness, are won- derfidly united. Only through death can we truly live. Only by passing into the " thick darkness" where God is (Exod. XX, 21 ; 1 Kings viii, 12) can we enter at all into the ''light inaccessible" in which he dwells ever- lastingly. The solemn annual entrance, like the with- drawal of symbolic forms from the gaze of the people, was itself part of a wise and divine order. Intercourse with Egypt had shown how easily the symbols of truth might become common and familiar things, yet without symbols the truths themselves might be forgotten. Both dangers were met. To enter once, and once only in the year, into the awful darkness — to stand before the law of duty, before the presence of the God who gave it, not in the stately robes that became the rep- resentative of God to man, but as representing man in liis humiliation in the garb of the lower priests, bare- footed and in the linen ephod — to confess his own sins and the sins of the people — this was wliat connected the atonement-day {kippur) with the mercy-seat {kophe- retli). To come there with blood, the syiubol of life, touching with that blood the mercy-seat — with incense, I he symbol of adoration (Lev. xvi, 12-14), what did that express but the truth ( 1 ) that man must draw near to the righteous God with no lower offering than the pure worsiiip of the heart, with the living sacrifice of body, sold, and spirit; (2) that could such a perfect sacrifice be found, it would have a mysterious power working beyond itself, in proportion to its perfection, to cover the multitude of sins V