From all others, from the high-priest at all other times, the holy of holies was shrouded by the heavy vail, bright with many colors and strange forms, even as curtains of golden tissue were to be seen hanging before the adytum of an Egyptian temple, a strange contrast often to the bestial form beiiind them (Clem. Al. Peed. iii, 4). In one memorable instance, indeed, the vail was the witness of higher and deeper thoughts. On the shrine of Isis at Sais. there were to be read words which, though pointing to a pantheistic rather than an ethical religion, were yet wonderful in their loftiness, "I am all tliat has been {ttciv to ysyoi'iit), and is, and shall be, and my vail no mortal hath withdrawn" (oTTf/ca- Xi'-J/ci') (Plutarch, Be /.v. ct (Mir. p. 394). Like, and yet more unlike, the truth, we feel tliat no such words could have appeared on the vail of the tabernacle. In that identitication of the world and God all idolatry was la- tent, as, in the faith of Israel, in the / dm all idolatry was excluded. In that despair of any withdrawal of the vail, of any revelation of the Divine will, there were latent all the arts of an unbelieving priestcraft, substi-
tuting symbols, pomp, ritual, for such a revelation. But what, then, was the meaning of the vail which met the gaze of the priests as they did service in the sanctuary? Colors, in the art of Egy])t, were not less signilicant tliau innnber, and the four bnglit colors, probably, after the fashion of that art, in parallel bands — blue, syiubol of heaven, and purple of kingly glory, and crimson of life and joy, and white of light and purity (Biihr, Symbol. i, 305-330) — formed in their combination no remote similitude of the rainbow, which of old had been a symbol of the Divine covenant with tuan, the pledge of peace and hope, the sign of the Divine Presence (Ezek. i, 28; Ewald, .l//fr//(. p. 333). See Coi-ok. Within the vail, light and truth were seen in their unity. The vail itself represented the infinite variety, the ttoXj^ttoikiXoc mxpia of the divine order in creation (Eph. iii, 10). There, again, were seen copied u])on the vail the mysterious forms of the cherubim ; how many, or in what attitude, or of what size, or in what material, we are not told. The words "cunning work" in Exod. xxxvi, 35, applied elsewhere to comlunations of embroider^' and metal ( xxviii, 15; xxxi, 4), seem to justify the conjecture that here also they were of gold. In the absence of any other evidence, it would have been perhaps natural to think that tliey reproduced on a larger scale the number and the position of those that were over the mercy-seat. The visions of Ezekiel, however, repro- ducing, as they obviously do, the forms with which his priestly life had made him familiar, indicate not less than four (ch. i and x), and those not all alike, having severally the faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle — strange symbolic words, which elsewhere we shoidd have identified with idolatry, but which here were l)earing witness against it, emblems of the manifold va- riety of creation as at once manifesting and concealing God.
(2.) The outer sanctuary was one degree less awful in its holiness than the inner. Silver, the t3'pe of hu- man purity, took the place of gold, the type of the Di- vine glory (Biihr, Symbol, i, 284). It was to be trod- den daily by the priests as by men who lived in the perpetual consciousness of the nearness of God, of the mysterj^ behind the vail. Barefooted and in garments of white linen, like the priests of Isis [see Priest], they accomplished their ministrations. Here, too, there were other emblems of divine realities. It was special- ly illumined l)y the golden latnp with its seven lights, never all extinguished together, the perpetual symbol of all derived gifts of wisdoiu and holiness in man, reaching their mystical perfection when they -shine in God's sanctuary to his glory (Exod. xxv, 31 ; xxvii, 20 ; Zech. iv, 1-14). The shew-bread (the " bread of faces") of the Divine Presence, not unlike in outward form to the sacred cakes which the Egyptians placed before the shrines of their goils, served as a token that, though there was no form or likeness of the Godhead, he was yet there, acce])ting all offerings, recognising in partic- ular that special oft'ering winch represented the life of the nation at once in the distinctness of its tribes and in its unity as a people {Y.wald, Alterth. p. 120). The meaning of the altar of incense was not less obvious. The cloud of fragrant smoke was the natural, almost the universal, embleiu of the lieart's adoration (Psa. cxli, 2). The incense sprinkled on the shew-bread and the lamp taught men that all other offerings needed the intermingling of that adoration. L'poii that altar no "strange tire" was to be kindled. When fresh fire was needed it was to be taken from the altar of burnt-offer- ing in the outer court (Lev. ix, 24; x, 1). Very strik- ing, as compare<l with what is to follow, are the sublim- ity and the purity of these symbols. It is as if the priestly order, already leading a consecrated life, were capable of understanding a higher language which had to be translated into a lower for those that were still without (Saalschi'itz. A rchdol. vj 77).