entrusted to the superintendance of two skilful workmen, Bezaleel and Aholiab. The area, or open space in which the tabernacle stood, was an oblong square, 150 feet long by 75 wide. The enclosure was made by twenty brazen pillars on the north and south sides, ten to the west, and six to the east, where the gate of entrance stood. The capitals of these pillars were of silver; the hooks and the rods, from which the curtains hung, of silver. The curtains were of fine linen or cotton, woven in a kind of net-work; the curtain before the entrance was of richer materials and more brilliant colours, blue, purple, and scarlet, supported by four pillars, which do not seem to have been different from the other six that formed the eastern line of the court. Within the court before the tabernacle stood a great laver of brass, for the purpose of ablution, and the altar of burnt-offerings, measuring seven feet and a half each way, four feet and a half high. The altar was overlaid with brass, and had a grate of brass in the centre. It stood immediately before the gate of the tabernacle.

The tabernacle itself was forty-five feet long, fifteen wide, and fifteen high. It was made with planks of shittim wood, skilfully fitted and held together by poles, which ran the whole length through golden rings. The planks were overlaid with gold. To defend it from the weather it was hung without with curtains of a kind of canvass, made of goat's hair, and over the whole was thrown an awning of skins.

The interior of the tabernacle was hung with curtains of the finest linen and the richest colours, embroidered with the mysterious figures called cherubim. The tabernacle was divided into two unequal parts: the first, or holy place, thirty feet long; in this stood the golden candlestick, the golden altar of incense, the table of show bread. The second, or Holy of Holies, fifteen feet in length, was parted off by a veil of the same costly materials and splendid colours with the rest of the hangings, and suspended by hooks of gold from four wooden pillars likewise overlaid with gold.

A solemn gloom, unless when the veil was partially lifted, prevailed in the Holy of Holies; in the holy place the altar was constantly fed with costly incense, and the splendid chandelier with seven branches, wrought with knosps and flowers, illuminated the chamber, into which the daylight never entered.

Within this sacred precinct, which was only entered by the High Priest, stood nothing but the Ark or coffer of wood, plated all over with gold, and surmounted by two of those emblematic figures, the cherubim, usually represented as angels under human forms, but more probably, like the Egyptian sphinx, animals purely imaginary and symbolic, combining different parts, and representing the noblest qualities of the man, the lion, the eagle, and the ox. They stood face to face at each extremity of the ark, and spread their golden wings so as to form a sort of canopy or throne. In the ark were deposited the two tablets of stone, on which the law was written.

The priests, who were to minister in this sumptuous pavilion-temple, were likewise to have holy garments for glory and for beauty. Aaron and his sons were designated for this office. The high priest wore, first a tunic of fine linen, which fitted close, and without a fold, to his person, with loose trowsers of linen; over this a robe of blue, woven in one piece, without sleeves, with a hole through which the head passed, likewise fitted close round the neck with a rich border, and reached to the feet, where the lower rim was hung with pomegranates and little bells of gold, which sounded as he moved. Over this again was the ephod, made of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, twisted with threads of gold. It consisted of two pieces, onė hanging behind, the other before, perhaps like a herald's tabard. From the hinder one, which hung much lower, came a rich girdle, passing under the arms and fastened over the breast. It had two shoulder-pieces, in which were two large beryl stones, set in gold, on which the names of the twelve tribes were engraved. From these shoulder-pieces came two gold chains, which fastened the pectoral or breast-plate; a piece of cloth of gold a span square, in which twelve precious stones were set in four rows, each engraved with the name of one of the tribes. Two other chains from the lower corners fastened the breast-plate to the lower part of the ephod.

In the breast-plate was placed the mysterious Urim and Thummim, the nature of which was so well known to the Jews as to require no explanation-to us remains mere matter of conjecture. The most probable opinion seems, that the two