Christ is presented to us as the Son; the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His person; the Son of the Father; God, the Creator-the Sustainer of all things; and who will change all things. He is also presented to us as the Son of Man, partaker of flesh and blood in order to die; the first-born from the dead; all things put under Him; anointed above His fellows; not ashamed to call them brethren. On these great truths respecting Christ, depend all the other great verities connected with the value of His sacrifice; the glory and power of His priesthood; the eternal salvation, the eternal redemption, and the eternal inheritance, which are obtained for us by His own blood. The Apostle also in the Epistle to the Colossians, unfolds the majesty, fulness, and glorious pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus: because the believers to whom he wrote, were in danger from philosophical speculations, and Judaising teachers. The completeness of their salvation; the loftiness of their standing; and the unbounded treasures of wisdom and knowledge within their reach, all resulted from the dignity, power, and glory of Him who was their Head. We shall find that every false doctrine, which affects the faith or calling of the believer, may be traced to some misapprehension or error respecting the Lord Jesus Himself. If a bar, or board, or ring were wanting, the whole strength of the tabernacle would be weakened. It would cease to be a firm compact building, fitly framed together. There is one verse respecting the corner-boards, which is of difficult interpretation. It runs thus in our translation: "And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the tabernacle, in the two sides. And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both: they shall be for the two corners."Exod. xxvi. 23. And they were coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head thereof unto one ring. Thus he did to both of them, at both the corners."-Exod. xxxvi. 29. The latter part of this description may be translated thus: And they shall be doubled (or twinned) beneath, and together they shall be (finished or perfected) upon its head to the same ring. Thus shall it be for those two; for the two corners they shall be. Exod. xxvi. 24. Exod. xxxvi. 28, is precisely similar. The word doubled is the same word, whence twin is derived. The difficulty of this passage is, First, the meaning of the boards being doubled beneath. Secondly, the meaning of the words, upon its head. Thirdly, the same ring: or, to one ring. The general description of the boards, (Exod. xxvi. 15-17,) and the words "Thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle," and the fact, that the corner-boards are reckoned with the other western-boards in verse 25, "they shall be eight boards," would seem to imply, that these corner-boards were the same size and shape as the others. If this be so, they must have stood in the corners of the tabernacle, at the north and south sides, at the western end, and may have been grooved (or twinned) into the other boards from beneath to the top, where a ring or staple may have bound them to the sides and end of the tabernacle. However this may have been ; the object of these corner-boards was, to add strength to the whole structure, and knit the sides and end together. Our thoughts naturally turn to the two occasions on which the Lord is spoken of in Scripture, with reference to the corner : Isa. xxviii. 16.-" Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation.” 11 Psa. cxviii. 22.- "The stone, which the builders refused, is become the head-stone of the corner." Here we have presented to us, a corner-stone as foundation; and a corner-stone crowning the building: the beginning, and the end: the whole strength of the edifice depending on the firmness of the foundation corner-stone; and the whole compactness, and knittingtogether of the building as one, depending on the headstone of the corner. God laid the foundation in the death of His Son : He completed the building in His resurrection. The walls of living stone rest securely on this Rock of Ages, and are bound everlastingly together by the top-stone. The corner-boards of the tabernacle may have some reference to these blessed truths. THE ATONEMENT MONEY. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, when thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. "This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs :) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. “And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls."-Exod. xxx. II—16. We have another metal presented to us, in the construction of the tabernacle-Silver. The word in the Hebrew is frequently translated Money. It was indeed, the precious metal ordinarily in use, in all transactions of buying and selling and even at this day, in many countries, it is the current money the merchant. Francs, dollars, thalers, scudi, are all coins of silver and mercantile transactions are generally : of calculated in one or other of these coins, in most of the countries of Europe, and indeed of the world. We have two memorable instances in Scripture, where life was bartered for silver; Joseph for twenty, and the Son of God for thirty pieces. The idea therefore, of price or value, especially attaches to this metal. It ranks also with us, as one of the precious metals: and though not displaying the brilliant glory of the gold, it is yet especially beautiful, by reason of its soft purity and unsullied whiteness and like the gold, it corrodes not, and wastes not in the fining pot, though subjected to the intense heat of the furnace. : The silver, used in the construction of the tabernacle, was all derived from the Atonement money. The whole range of God's truth rests upon two great verities:-the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of Man-and His work of atonement on the cross. Throughout the history of God's ancient people, type after type, and shadow upon shadow, reiterated the absolute necessity of atonement. And while the Law prescribed commandments, to obey which, Israel fatally pledged themselves, it at the same time, contained abundant ritual observances, which testified to man's incapability and need, and prophesied of One, who while they were yet without strength, should, in due time, die for the ungodly. As a covenant of works, it was a ministration of death. But to one who was really a child of Abraham, it must have shone out, like the face of Moses, with a prophetic glory; and have pointed onwards to the Lamb of God; in whom all the shadows of good things to come passed into substance. This type before us, of the atonement-money, preached a very clear and blessed Gospel. It told out the great truth, that birth in the flesh availed nothing. An Israelite might trace up, in unbroken succession, his descent from Abraham, or from one of Jacob's sons. Still, that sufficed him not, if he desired to be entered on the roll as one of God's soldiers and servants. The Jews, in the time of the Lord, could say, "We be Abraham's seed:" and the Samaritan sinner claimed Jacob has her father. But they were captives of the devil, and of fleshly lusts; and their human pedigree had not raised them out of the dominion of sin. God had therefore enjoined, that, whenever Israel were numbered as His people, every man must give a ransom for his soul. The price was fixed by God Himself. Each man, whether poor or rich, must bring the same. One could not pay for another; but every one must tender his own ransommoney, of pure silver, and of perfect weight. "Half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, (a shekel is twenty gerahs,) a half-shekel shall be the offering of the Lord." (Exod. xxx. 13.) Other Gospel truths here shine out. When the question came to be one of ransom; the poor and the rich, the foolish and the wise, the ignorant and the learned, the immoral and the moral, stood on the same level. Each person was estimated by God at the same price. He proved Himself no respecter of person's. And so it is still. The third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans defines the state of every one in the whole world, and levels the way for the Gospel. John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord by his voice, calling all to repentance, declaring all to be in one condition, needing change of heart. And the Lord Jesus began to speak of the great salvation to hearts thus prepared. The chapter above referred, to makes the path straight for the proclamation of justification through faith in Christ, by pronouncing that all are under sin; that every mouth must be silent; that all the world is guilty before God; and that there is no difference between the religious Jew, and the irreligious Gentile: for, "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Another truth enunciated in this type is, that salvation must be an individual, personal matter; between the soul and God. Every man has to bring his own halfshekel. One of the devices of Satan, at the present day-and it is spread far and wide-is the way in which |