"There is that scattereth and yet increaseth." "Cast thy bread upon the waters," is the command, "for thou shalt find it after many days," is the promise. The Saviour commended the poor widow more than all the others who cast of their abundance into the treasury, not because of the amount of her contribution, but because she showed by that contribution how high was her standard of duty and firm her conviction that the Lord would provide. "She of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living."

It is not wise to economize first in our contributions to benevolent purposes, or to pay such debts only after all others have been paid. God will not be wronged without at the proper time showing his displeasure. Severe penalties were to be inflicted in Old Testament times on those who dared to attempt to defraud him. He has his own way of inflicting penalties on those guilty of such conduct, even where there are inflicted no such penalties as in Moses' law. "There is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed me." The financial troubles in this land may be in part, nay, no doubt are, to an extent, the result of neglect to honor God with our substance. He ofttimes reminds us of our sin in our punishment. Withholding from him his own, whether by miserly hoarding or extravagant self-indulgence, is frequently the road to ruin. "Ye looked for much and lo! it came to little, and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit." The expenditure for intoxicating drinks in the United States is six hundred millions of dollars a year, in comparison with which the contributions to benevolent objects of all kinds are merely a trifle. Is it any wonder that this land has suffered and is still suffering so much from financial difficulties?

Many plans have been proposed for removing the present depression that exists in all business circles. There is one to which we have seen no reference made, and yet which perhaps it would be well for those who take the Bible for their rule to try. True sorrow for sin will evidence itself in an earnest effort to repair, so far as possible, the evil consequences of the sin. God's people have not given as they should have done of their means at his call. They are suffering with others as the result. Let them seriously examine and see where has been neglect, and then at once by increased contributions evince the sincerity of their professions of sorrow for past remissness. Of the result there can be no doubt. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in

the field, saith the Lord of hosts." An elder, whose memory is still fragrant in the church, read the above passage many years ago at a congregational meeting, where an effort was being made to raise some money, and prepared the way for the accomplishment of the object by prefacing his own subscription with the remark, "For my part I am satisfied with the security." How many professing Christians are there that evince by their contributions they are satisfied with such security?" Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? Yea, as yet the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive tree hath not brought forth; from this day will I bless you." Could there be a clearer direction as to present duty, or a fuller promise to those who sincerely set themselves about at once to perform it? Let each of our readers ask himself, now when the church is so much pressed for means to carry on her work, what is his duty, and then at once perform it.

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT.

BY REV. JAMES KENNEDY.

To judge of what man has been in any past period of human history, the antiquarian does not require a mummy, nor even a skeleton or fossil remain, but is able to form his conclusions from data drawn from human works, that remain silent witnesses of what he must have been who contrived and executed them. Equally by the pyramids of Egypt, and the pottery from ancient Troy, can we have an idea of what man must have been when he left these footprints of his presence impressed upon the world. They are his shadow, as he passed over the stage, photographed so indelibly and permanently that following generations, in beholding, can not only be sure that he was there, but be able to judge of the character he had attained. And for this purpose an arrow head or axe of stone, a kiln-burnt brick or piece of pottery is just as avail able as Cleopatra's needle or the gigantic Sphinx.

And so it is in those things in which are imaged forth-according to those principles of typology we have formerly explained*-the character and glory of our Lord and Saviour. As Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon have flitted across and about the stage, we have seen that the light of the glory of Christ rested on them, making them, not only to those of a former dispensation, but to us still, figures to reveal much of the character and work of Him, who, in the morning of divine revelation, streaked many objects with his beams, as the sun tips the Eastern mountain tops when he rises on our world. But God was in no wise limited to human types to give an idea of Christ's character and work. A gentle lamb or playful kid, a spike of incense or a loaf of bread, or anything upon which a divine appointment put the glory of Christ, was sufficient.

From a series of lectures on typical persons and things.

Now, first among the impersonal types, appointed by God to shadow forth the glory of Christ, was the Ark of the Covenant. That it was intended to be a typical reflection of Christ in the former economy is, we think, obvious. First, it is spoken of personally, as if it were God himself. Thus in one of the psalms, when an entrance for it is demanded into the holy place, it is spoken of as the "King of Glory.' Again, when it was carried into its place in the temple, the scene is described in language used by the apostle Paul as descriptive of the ascension of Christ. "He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men," words, we think, sufficiently plain to establish the fact of the relation of substance and shadow between the mediatorial character and the work of Christ and this piece of tabernacle and temple furniture.

The Ark of the Covenant, according to the directions given for its construction, was an oblong rectangular box or chest, a little over four feet in length-allowing twenty inches to the cubit-and two feet and one-half wide, and as much deep. It was made of the finest acacia wood, which is supposed to have grown, at the time, in great abundance around the base of Sinai, and to have been the "Shittim" of which the woodwork of the tabernacle was constructed. The whole woodwork of the ark, moreover, within and without, was overlaid with solid plates of purest gold. Around the upper part of the plates that covered the sides and ends was a wrought ornamental raised border, rim, or cornice, in the form of a crown, and inside this border, and of the exact dimensions of the top of the chest, was placed a separately constructed part, which seems to have served the purpose of a lid or covering, of solid gold, and having on each end a cherubic figure, beaten out of the same solid piece as the lid, and one with it. This lid, forming to the eye the top of the ark, surrounded by the raised border, and having at the ends the two figures, with one wing of each coming round and meeting behind, presented very much the appearance of a raised dais or throne, on which a person could conveniently sit. From this throne-like appearance it is called, in our Bibles, "the mercy seat," but the name given it by God (KAPORETH) literally signifies the atonement covering or propitiary. The term for it in Greek, both in the Septuagint, and by Paul, (aaripov) has exactly the same meaning. At each corner, but on the sides, and probably only a little below the cornice or border, were fixed four golden rings, into which handstaves or poles, also covered with gold, could be slipped for the purpose of carrying the ark in their journeyings. These being of considerable length, and extending considerably beyond the ends of the ark, when once put in were never to be removed, so that in all their changes no hand need ever touch the ark itself. It would seem, however, that when the ark was deposited in the temple erected by Solomon, these bearing poles were removed, either in whole or in part, (1 Kings 8: 8,) perhaps to indicate that it had now reached its rest, and was never to be moved about any more. Some, moreover, suppose that the meaning of the word rendered "corners," where the rings were placed, is really feet, and that the ark was supported by four feet of acacia wood, height unknown,

and that the rings being attached to the top of these feet, would raise the ark aloft and make it more conspicuous when carried, whilst they would, when the ark was at rest, raise it considerably above the floor of the sanctuary and give it more the appearance of a throne.

Within the coffer or chest were placed the tables of stone, on which the law had been written by the finger of God, and which were, probably, for size such as exactly to fit into the ark. Some suppose that they were placed edge-wise within the chest, but as the depth and breadth of the ark were the same, they could as conveniently have been laid on their side at the bottom, only in that case the one must have rested on the other. Some suppose from the words of Paul (Heb. 9: 4) that the pot with the manna and Aaron's rod were also placed inside the ark. This, however, we think not likely, from the statement (1 Kings 8:9,) "There was nothing in the ark save the tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb," and also from the form of expression in both cases, as to the pot of manna and rod, that they were laid up "before the testimony," probably in some little coffer placed in close proximity to, or contact with the ark (Exod. 16:34; Numb. 17:10).

The ark with its appendages was shut up from view in that part of the tabernacle which Paul styles "the holiest of all," and concealed behind what he calls the "second veil." Once every year only, on the great day of atonement, did the High Priest raise the veil, and entering first with a censer of burning incense, that a dense cloud of incense smoke might first fill the chamber and envelop the ark, he afterwards carried in the blood of a sin offering, first for himself, and then for the people, and sprinkled it before and on the mercy seat. As he withdrew he seems to have taken with him the censer used on the previous year, and left behind the one he had now brought, so that the holy of holies, in the words of Paul, "had the golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant." It only requires to be further noticed that different designations were given to this piece of tabernacle furniture, the chief of which were, "the Ark of the Lord," "the Ark of the Covenant," "the Ark of Testimony," "the Ark of His Strength," and, "the Ark of His Testament," all of which can only be fully understood as we know the true typical, gospel meaning of this mysterious symbol. It was a lively figure of Christ and his work.

1. As the unseen Saviour, through whom we are saved by faith in the invisible.

From the time that it was first constructed by Bezaleel, and set up by Moses, till its destruction by fire at the captivity, it is safe to say that, in no proper sense, was the ark ever seen. When it was to be borne in the wilderness, the priests first covered it with the veil which enclosed the most holy place. This they are supposed to have done by unhooking the veil at the top and bearing it before them so that, as they approached the ark to cover it, it was not seen by them. Over this was placed a covering of badgers' skins, and over the whole a cloth wholly of blue, and thus in its triple covering it was wholly invisible to the Levites who bore it, and who were not to see "lest they die." The men of Bethshemesh were smitten with a dreadful slaughter

because they pried under the covering of the ark, perhaps moved with curiosity to see the golden offerings, sent by the Philistines, and showing less reverence for the sacred symbol than their heathen neighbors. The ark, therefore, and all those mysterious rites performed annually before it were to the nation a matter purely of faith, things invisible, and all the benefits they secured came by the faith which is "the substance of things not seen."

Now, though there is in our day a fuller objective manifestation of Christ than of old, yet it is a feature of our experience still that "we walk by faith and not by sight." However few, therefore, saw the ark during the period of nine hundred years from Moses to the captivity, as few by the eyes of sense have seen the Lord of glory of whom it was a figure. The great bulk of the redeemed family have the greater blessedness of which our Lord spoke to Thomas, "Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed, blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed." With a few exceptions, therefore, the mass of believers in the new dispensation have to say, "Whom having not seen we love, and in whom though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Therefore though the earthly veil has been rent and the holy place made with hands has been laid open, of the true ark we are assured, "Whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things." And, perhaps, God sees it necessary, in every age, that we should live by faith in the unseen, that our fallen nature may be completely restored, and the carnal and sensuous be completely subjected to the divine and spiritual. Satan defaced our likeness to God and despoiled us of our glory, when he succeeded in making our carnal and sensuous nature to dominate over our moral and spiritual, and upset the just balance of the forces by which the power of the invisible was to keep the lower and grosser elements under control. And to readjust the balance, and restore the equilibrium, God may see it necessary to bend us far back in the other direction, and to keep us for years walking wholly by the power of the spiritual and invisible, that he may thus give to our higher nature that preponderance over the lower, that it was his purpose at first that it should possess. Therefore he hides away his ark still from the eyes of sense, that the spiritual alone may prevail; and makes us say, "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we him no more." And in the light of this truth we cannot believe that any visible, sensible appearing of Christ before the end of time, such as some dream of, would really serve any high practical end. It seems to be of more practical advantage for the present that Christ should remain away, removed from the sphere of sense, that our faith, love and obedience may be on a higher plane, and more thoroughly triumph over the power of the flesh. "I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away."

2. The ark was a striking emblem of Christ as the great propitiatory, through whom we have reconciliation, pardon and acceptance, not only conferred, but constantly maintained.