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T be Tabernacle peatedly in the Epistle to the Hebrews we read the Holy Spirit's clear interpretation of its typical significance. Here are a few of the passages that are unmistakable: "We . .. have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor ~f the soul, ~ot~ sure and stedfast, and which entereth 10to that w1thm the veil· whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jes~, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 6:18-20). "We have such an high priest ... a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb. 8: 1, 2) . "The first tabernacle was . . . a figure for the time then present.... But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Heb. 9:8-12). "It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens (the most Holy Place was a 'pat- tern' of heaven itself) should be purified with these ( i. e., with the blood sacrifices) ; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ~or Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the ages (R. V.) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb. 9:23- 26).
The Tabernacle shall consider in our study today; but even before we begin to read the Scripture in the lesson before us, let us realize that we are entering, by faith, into the Holy of Holies, even heaven itself, there to behold our risen and glorified Lord. And as we enter there, we recall God's words to Moses at the burning bush, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Exod. 3: 5) . The Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies 1. The Holy of Holies-A Room Foursq1,are. In an earlier lesson we found that the Holy Place was twice as long as it was wide; and that the Holy of Holies was a perfect cube, as wide as it was long as it was high. It was a foursquare room; and in it was only the one article-the ark of the covenant with its mercy seat of gold. As Aaron entered this, God's dwelling place among His people, he beheld a scene of awe-inspiring beauty. He saw the She- kinah Glory between the cherubim of gold that formed a part of the mercy seat. He saw upon the mercy seat the sprinkled blood. He looked around him, and saw the walls of gold; for the boards which made the walls were covered over with gold. He looked above him and at the beautiful veil, and beheld the figures of cherubim embroidered in blue, purple, and scarlet upon the :fine twined linen. All was glory and beauty. And there, on the great Day of Atonement, he communed with God. In his hand he held the golden censer, while above the mercy seat the fragrant incense went up before Jehovah in a cloud of smoke. It is not mere fancy or speculation that prompts us to say that this foursquare room, called the Holy of Holies, was a type of heaven itself, that "city foursquare." Re-
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