Page:The House of the Lord.djvu/21

Rh of beaten gold. From this seat did the Lord manifest His presence, even as promised before either Ark or Tabernacle had been made : "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."

No detailed description of the Tabernacle, its appurtenances or furniture, will be attempted at this place; it is sufficient for our present purpose to know that the camp of Israel had such a sanctuary; that it was constructed according to revealed plan ; that it was the embodiment of the best the people could give both as to material and workmanship: that it was the offering of the people to their God. and was duly accepted by Him. As shall yet be shown, the Tabernacle was a prototype of the more stable and magnificent Temple by which in course of time it was superseded.

After Israel had become established in the land of promise, when, after four decades of wandering in the wilderness, the covenant people possessed at last a Canaan of their own. the Tabernacle with its sacred contents was given a resting place in Shiloh : and thither came the tribes to learn the will and word of God. Afterward it was removed to Gibeon and yet later to the City of David, or Zion.