[The notes which form this chapter are taken, with additions and explanations, from a little book in which Dr. Bonar had jotted down a brief account of the origin of his model of the Tabernacle. It was one of the methods of preaching the Gospel which he made use of during the course of his ministry - a method which he loved, and which, as these notes tell, was greatly blessed in many places throughout Scotland.]
The value of a 'thought' may be very great. Everybody knows this. It may
be the seed of a great harvest. But it is not the thought merely in itself, but
the thought carried out and used.
It is like what in the mechanical
department has been found to be the value of a small piece of metal, if turned
to use by a little skill and application. A late writer shows that 'a
farthing's worth of iron may be converted into an ounce of steel, by labour
worth 4,5d. That, again, might be converted by labour into 2250 yards of spring
wire, worth £13,4s.od. By putting it through yet another process, that
wire might be made into 7650 spring balances, worth 2/6d each, which, in the
aggregate, could give £960 odds.'
Starting with this illustration
from mechanics, let me now show how in practical spiritual work a simple
thought became the means of a great amount of blessing to souls. It is now
thirty-three years at least since I first used this model.
About the year
1845, while in Collace, having read all I could find on the Tabernacle, and
examined all the pictures and drawings that generally illustrate such books, I
went one day to the workshop of a plain good man (an Old Light elder in the
village of Sachar) and told him my idea of the possibility of making out of
common wood a model of the Tabernacle. He was a turner and joiner. The good man
was interested, and, at my suggestion, a board about 3 feet long and 1,5 broad
was got ready - the oblong shape of the Tabernacle. Then he prepared sixty
wooden pillars, and set them in their place to form the enclosure. Next, boring
the pillars at the top, a cord was drawn through, and a rude contrivance was
thus formed for suspending linen curtains.
The first altar was boards of
wood shaped into a square, and the boards covered with brass-filings. So also
the laver. And then the forty boards of the Holy and Most Holy Place were got
ready and covered with gold-leaf.
At this juncture, a kind friend in Perth,
hearing of my attempt, sent me a large ram's skin dyed red, to form one of the
four coverings. Next, a 'wise-hearted' lady gave me a shawl of the Angola
goat's hair to form the goat's-hair covering. The other two I supplied after a
time with linen, on which were stripes of purple, blue, and scarlet, and a
piece of badger-skin formed the outer covering.
It was not, however, till I
had been in London, and had there seen a much more substantial model, that I
found means of providing the furniture of the Sanctuary : Candlestick,
Shew-bread, Incense-altar, and the Ark of the Covenant.
In about a year
thereafter my wooden pillars were exchanged for metal, etc. In short, I got in
London a model so far ready-made, but I was led to alter some of the articles.
That model cost above £3, nothing very attractive or beautiful in the
appearance.
I remember the first evening when I exhibited the model in our church in
Kinrossie to about one hundred people. The sun was near his setting, and his
light was pouring in at one window. I lifted up the red ram's-skin covering,
and asked, 'What does this remind you of?' A solemn silence first, and then a
whisper : 'Blood, blood !'
Gradually, I got familiar with the whole
subject, and in my own mind had special doctrines connected with all the
different parts, e.g. the Door, with its royal colours, blue, purple,
scarlet, was the Gospel call by divine authority (our God and King), 'Come
freely' - no bar, no bolt. The Altar, justification ; the Laver, sanctification
; the Fine Linen, righteousness.
I soon discovered that I could vary the
lecture, and sometimes abridge - sometimes enlarge - according to the audience.
Young and old alike, I discovered, were drawn by it. On bidding a young person
tell her mother to come, the little girl replied, 'May I come myself?' 'How
often have you seen it already?' 'Only five times!'
I discovered that I
myself never felt it stale. There was endless variety in that setting forth of
Salvation, alike, too, in occasional drawing-room gatherings or in
cottages.
When I came to Glasgow I got the case made for carrying the
Courts, and the box for the Holy and Most Holy Places.
I had visits from
some well-known people who wanted to see the model, among others, Mr. Soltau,
who wrote a book on the Tabernacle. Canon Savage came on purpose to spend an
hour going over the model.
It has been shown in about one hundred places,
and about two hundred times.
My cousin, an Irvingite, insisted that silver
was the type of love. 'How do you find that?' 'It was so common in Solomon's
days, nothing accounted of!'
Many confused Solomon's Temple with the
Tabernacle. They are quite distinct. The Tabernacle showed God's way of grace ;
the Temple showed the kingdom of glory.
Many good hints I have got from
others. J.M. said about brass : 'Brass will crack and not stand great
heat.' 'But the Hebrew is properly copper.' 'Ah, that will do ; that
stands any heat.' Another said : 'Copper, not brass, is the right word for the
material for the altar.' 'Why?' 'Brass is a mixed metal, and there was to be no
mixture in the things of God ; no linen and woollen.'
A minister of the
Free Church, now gone, was first awakened to interest in spiritual things by
seeing the model exhibited in Cathcart Free Church.
About the year 1862 I
had shown the model in the hall of Free St.Enoch's. At the close, Mr. Nichol,
colleague to Dr. Henderson, rose and said he would like to tell a story
connected with the model. When he was a student at home in Dundee, he heard I
was to show it one day (a holiday of some kind) in the schoolhouse of Tealing,
where Mr. Mellis was minister. Among those who flocked in was a boy - a
schoolboy. he had recently played the truant for a week. He had got a shilling
from his father to buy a new book, had spent it, and kept away from school, but
came home every day at the regular time, pretending all was right. He was
miserable under this system of deceit. In this state he came into the
schoolroom, and when hearing of the Altar and its blood, and the Laver
purifying, saw how he could be forgiven, found rest, went home, and confessed
all.
At Bishopbriggs an elder said, 'It was the Blood that was the
best of it.' A little girl, telling all about the model, dwelt on the
Blood, - 'And the Blood was shown every day, every day !'
In
Moray Free Church, Edinburgh, a young man reminded me that I had shown the
model in a meeting in Carrick Street, and said, 'That was the night J.F. was
brought in.'
Dr. Robert Burns of Toronto saw it in 1850, and said at the
close, 'It is true, "faith cometh by hearing," but, friends, may we not say
also to-night, faith cometh by seeing, for we have seen the
Gospel ?'
Dr. Bannerman remarked, 'I noticed you sometimes said, "This
suggests such a truth." That's the right way to put it, for, while we have
authority for some things as meant to be types, there are others we cannot say
more than that "they suggest this."'
Mr. Pinkerton of Kilwinning remarked,
after seeing the model, 'I never heard a better sermon.'
A lady met me, and
said, 'Thanks for the sermon last Tuesday, the sermon you did not preach.'
'What was it?' 'I came into the church, and the sight of the furniture
of the Tabernacle was a great sermon to me - the best sermon I ever heard - a
flood of light.'
Mr. John Smith, our missionary, was conscious to himself
of a new hold of truth from the day he saw the model, and always took delight
afterwards in seeing it again and again.
M. W. got more sure rest to his
soul the night he first saw the Tabernacle.
The wife of a minister in the
country, and her niece, had been awakened, and came to call. She sat for an
hour asking questions about the truth suggested by the model which
providentially was on my study-table. I had been showing it to a student.
The account of the High Priest's dress on the Day of Atonement, - all white
linen, - while he carried in the charger of blood, was blessed to a young
woman, who never till then entertained the thought of every day looking at the
blood again, and going to God.
Mr. L., at Alloa, asked me what I thought
about this : 'If the Most Holy Place was shut all the year till the Day of
Atonement, the dust would be thick, and the air anything but fresh. Would the
Glory hinder the dust falling? and would it not give a constant
freshness to the room?'
A minister's wife said it was on occasion of a
lecture at Dundee on the Tabernacle, that she first felt the holiness of God,
and a strong wish to speak to some one about her soul.
Mrs. S. (Balbeggie,
near Collace) never so felt the holiness of God's presence as in looking in
when the light was put into the Holy of Holies, and we were asked to think of
going alone into God's presence there.
The Gate - no bar, and so
easily opened. Many spoke of that. Young people saw at once how young Samuel
could 'open the gate of the house of the Lord.'
In the Court the
pillars had a 'fillet' each, as well as a 'hook', made of Ransom-money. Dr.
Lorimer stopped me when showing it at the Shelter in Glasgow, and asked the
girls to notice, 'Even the ornaments of God's people must be in connection with
ransom,' - not to please ourselves.
The Altar with its daily
lamb. One came to me and said, 'I've been thinking if it took fifteen hundred
years to set out a picture of the Lamb of God, O what is He Himself !' The
Altar was carried by the staves. God taught the priests to be very
reverent. The four horns are the emblem of power. The blood on the horns
was to show the power there was in the blood. A worthy elder in Perth used to
speak of his conversion as 'the day when I first knew the power of the
blood.'
The Laver, filled with pure water to the brim. Water
represents the Spirit. The Spirit will stay wherever the blood is. First the
Altar, then the Laver. The Altar says, 'the blood of Jesus
delivers from the guilt of sin.' The Laver says, 'the Spirit of Jesus
delivers from the power of sin.'
A friend asked, 'Where did they get the
water for the Laver the first time? From the stream that flowed from the
Smitten Rock !' The Holy spirit from a Smitten Christ !
The
Badger-skin and the Goat-hair coverings. In the R.V.
'badger-skin' is 'seal-skin,' and in the margin, 'porpoise-skin.' One said
about these, 'I used to be content with the Badger-skin (mere shelter), but now
I'm under the Goat's-hair - delighting in the beauty put upon the justified by
the righteousness of Christ imputed.' Mr. T.B., from Holland, was particularly
interested in the four coverings. 'That's my spiritual history. I first
learned Christ as a covert from the storm, then His blood as a Substitute - the
Ram-skin ; then His righteousness on me - the Goat's-hair ; and
then the royal dress - blue, purple, and scarlet ; our being made kings
to God.'
The Candlestick with its shaft of gold and branches :
Christ and His people. The branches of equal length, proved by the Arch of
Titus. God's people all alike before Him.
The Shew-bread. Few know
why it is called 'shew-bread.' It is 'presence-bread,' - bread handed out to us
from God's own table. Curious to find most vague ideas, and those who have them
very unwilling to let them be known. Thus about the Shew-bread, just as
about the size and shape of the Ark. A Jew pointed out to me that I
should have had the staves of the Ark in another position, protruding
through the curtain a little, to show that the Ark was always there. We
spoke of the twelve loaves, should they be piled one on the other, or laid
along like tents pitched? He held the former way. 'But the Hebrews do not
require that.' 'No.' 'Why then?' 'Our Rabbis say so.' 'But there is an
objection to that, very strong. I was showing this model in a cottage, and put
the question to a row of shrewd old women, whether the loaves should be piled
up, or put the other way? At once one of them said, 'Not piled one on another.'
'Why?' 'They would mould before the end of the week.' 'What do you say to the
old woman's difficulty?' 'Oh,' replied the Jew, 'she is a wise woman. She is so
far right, but our Rabbis get over that by telling us that silver forks were
put between each loaf, so that there was a current of air !' 'Then you are as
bad as the Papists, you add to the written Word?' He had no reply but 'Our
Rabbis think they have authority for it.'
The Incense-Altar. A type,
not of prayer, but of what makes prayer acceptable (Rev. 8). Christ is the
Angel-messenger. His fragrant incense, the merit of His blood, on the four
horns. Put on this altar your praises, your prayers, all your cups of cold
water.
The Veil, a door, a curtain-door. God's way out to us, and
our way in to God. Christ, the Door, after being rent. When He died, the
Veil was rent 'from top to bottom,' - God's work, not man's.
The
Cherubim, a whole history in itself. The word, 'carved form'=symbolic
form. A type of the redeemed. (1) They stand on the Ark, and their feet
on the blood. They cannot be angels. No angel needs the blood. (2) They are
united to the Mercy-seat. No angel is so. Their eye is partly on the
blood, and partly on each other.
The copy of the Two Tables in the
Ark. The Cherubim stand on righteousness, for the blood
vindicates the broken law. The Two Tables=Christ's obedience. The
Cherubim at the gate of Eden say, 'You, Adam and Eve, may get in again.'
Grace at the very moment of their expulsion.
The Shittim-wood boards
fixed in the ransom-money by two tenons. A firm hold (q.d.), both
hands.
The Corner-boards, like the Corner-stone, on which one may
stumble, but meant for far other ends. Perhaps not overlapping, but one of them
projecting.
The Rings ; (Exod.26:24) a difficulty. 'They shall be
doubled beneath (coupled together), and doubled at the head of it (coupled
together above) into the one ring. It shall be alike for both of them. They
shall be thus for the two corners ;' or rather, I think, 'they shall be twins
below. Its top shall be twins fitting in to the one ring,' 'Its top' is the
board in two leaves.
The forty-eight Boards. If forty-nine, that
would have been seven times seven, a complete number. But the Church is not
complete without its Head ; He makes it forty-nine, seven times seven.
The
Pillar-Cloud over all, day and night. At any hour might the Priest or
Levite have light enough to go to any part of the courts, and the
Pillar-Cloud would seem to point down to yon Altar!
Such are some of the results of a 'thought', but
it was carried out, not left unused. Besides, to take one subject like this and
master all the details is (1) Good discipline to the mind. (2) It gives
one's-self confidence in teaching and applying. (3) It makes others trust you
and receive your teaching more readily.
And once more, - if the 'thought'
has been for the glory of God, and not merely a pleasant exercise of mind, then
it comes under the blessing : 'Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an
house for my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart' (2 Chron.
6:8).
Click on image
for larger photo with
explanation.
* * * * * * *
'Christ, the True Tabernacle' (Heb.8:2)
(Suggested as a Programme for the Perth Conference)
(1) Christ, the Door of access to all we need in going
to God.
Christ, the Door (Veil) into the Holy Place.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Christ, the Door (Veil) into the
Holiest of all. xxxxxxxxxxx
(2) The
Altar. - The forgiveness we need found here.xxxxxxxxxx
In Atonement (Lev.17) and
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reconciliation (Eph.
2).xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Proclaimed (Acts 13) and
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Experienced (1 John 2).
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(3) The Laver. - The
purifying of the heart (Acts 15:9). xxxxxxx
Daily washing (John 13). xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
By the
Spirit and the Word (Eph. 5:26). x
'Clean
Hands.' 'Holy Hands.' xxxxxxxxxx
(1) The Shew-bread. - Life in Christ (John 6:35).
Bread of God.
The Lord's Supper (1 Cor.11:24).
xxxxxxxxx
Partakers of the Lord's Supper (John 6). xxx
(2) The Candlestick. - Light in Christ.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Christ and we spoken of
as 'light' xxxxxxxxxx
(John 8:12 ;Matt.
5:14).
Given in the Gospel (2 Cor.4:4-6). xxxxxxxx
Our walk in it (1 John 1:7).
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(3) The Golden Altar. -
Worship in Christ. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Christ the Intercessor (Heb. 7). xxxxxxxxxxx
Prayer sent through Him (Rev. 8). xxxxxxxxx
Praise and thanks through Him (Heb. 13:15).
Holiness and Glory within the Veil
(1) The Ark. - Christ in His Person (Col.2:3).
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In His doing the Father's will.
'The Law within
His heart.' The Two Tables (Ps.40).
In His
propitiatory suffering unto death. xxxxx
The
blood sprinkled there (Rom. 3:25). xxxxx
(2)
The Cherubim on the Ark, and united to it. xxxxxxxxxx
Union to Christ as well as rest in His
Person, x
obedience, and blood.
(3) The
Cherubim with their faces toward each other. xxx
Brotherly love and fellowship (1 John 1:7).
xx
(4) The Cloud of Glory between the
Cherubim. xxxxxxxxx
God in full communion
with His redeemed xx
and they with Him, and
God dwelling with xx
them (Rev. 21:3).
xxxxxxxxxxxx
(5) Paradise thus more than
restored ; the flaming sword x
sheathed ;
the Cherubim in Eden ; the Tree of Life
reached. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(6) Pot of
Manna and Aaron's Rod. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reminiscences of ancient days -
of God's xx
ways with us in the past - xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
'Days of Earth in Heaven
!'
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Article added 29 May 2001