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132 the cherubim. The cherubim, as known in ancient symbolism, were figures with human faces, outspread wings, and bodies either animal or human. They are nowhere specifically described in Scripture, so that their exact form is matter of speculation. But the figures exhibited for cherubim in the pictures of the old masters—infant faces with wings attached—find no warrant in the Bible. From what is there said, we know, at least, that they were perfect though mingled figures; and that so far from being ludicrous, as tradition would make them, they were sublime in conception and beautiful in form. The cherubim are frequently mentioned in holy Writ, never, however, as a race of supernatural beings, as has sometimes been imagined, but always as symbols.

To mention but a single instance. It was commanded that cherubim should be placed on the mercy seat over the ark, over the curtains of the tabernacle, over the vail and also in the temple, to signify that the Lord had them all in his keeping; that He watched over them continually; that in all the wanderings and wars of Israel, wherever they went and wherever they stayed, his unwearied charge over them never relaxed.

But all these things—the ark which contained the Ten Commandments, the mercy seat upon which the cherubim stood, the curtains, the vail, the tabernacle and temple themselves, mere forms