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boards terminated at the bases in two tenons or "hands" that fitted into silver sockets
placed in the earth to receive them. When we read in John 1: 14, "The Word was made
flesh, and tabernacled among us", we can readily see in the gold and the wood a type of
the true deity and the sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, while the sockets of
silver are explained in the book of Exodus himself. In chapter 30: 11-16 we find that
every man of Israel gave for the ransom of his soul a half shekel of silver. This
atonement money was appointed for the service of the tabernacle. Exod. 38: 25-28
tells us how this silver was used. One hundred sockets of silver weighing one talent each
were made of this atonement money, and constituted the great foundation upon which the
whole typical fabric rested. No words of ours are necessary to illuminate the lesson here.
Fine linen and silver, righteousness and atonement, the warp, woof and foundation of the
great plan of the ages!
The new and living way.
The record of Exod. 26: is not completed until a description is given of the vail and
the door hanging. Both vail and hanging are made of the same material, the vail alone
having the cherubim. Beautiful as this vail must have been, its presence spoke of man's
failure. Before the typical prophecy of the tabernacle could be fulfilled, that vail must be
rent, that golden mercy-seat spattered with blood, such is the nature of sin and of
holiness:--
"Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us THROUGH THE VAIL, that
is to say, His flesh" (Heb. 10: 19, 20).
"And behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom"
(Matt. 27: 51).
In the writings of the apostle Paul there is scarcely a reference to the earthly life of the
Lord, but we find constant reference to His death:--
"In the body of His flesh through death" (Col. 1: 22).
"The children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of
the same; that through death He might destroy . . . . . and deliver" (Heb. 2: 14, 15).
Such is the continual testimony of Scripture. There is no gospel in the spotless life of
the Son of God taken by itself, that only aggravates our sinfulness the more, and, like the
vail, bars our access to God.
Through the rent vail, through that spotless life laid down in death is found a way into
the holiest. Just as the tabernacle rested upon the silver sockets of atonement, and was
covered by the rams' skins dyed red, so no part of the mighty purpose of the ages shall be
accomplished apart from the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a
fundamental of all truth, yea a very chief corner stone.
We earnestly ask our younger readers, for whom this series is particularly written, to
test all the modern "gospels" and schemes by this great exhibition of the mind and will of
God. No one can believe its message and trifle with the vitals of the faith, which are