preserved in the Italian verb caricare, and the substantive carico, which we have in the form cargo. A charger, therefore, is anything fitted to bear a heavy load, whether, as here, a dish, or, as in military language, a war-horse.

The worn-out

Clout (subst.), Clouted (part.). clothes let down to Jeremiah to put under the ropes that they might not cut his skin, when he was drawn up out of the pit, are described as old cast clouts and rotten rags" (Jer. xxxviii. 11, 12), where Wiclif has simply olde clothis." "Clout" is a word which, according to Mr. Earle, has "a fair Keltic reputation," and is found in A.S. as clút, for "a patch." The primary sense seems to have been a blow, as when we speak now of "a clout on the head." It was then applied to a bit of material clapped on, or hastily applied to mend a breach, "a patch." Thus we find in Wiclif, "No man putteth a clout of buystous clothe into an elde clothing" (Matt. ix. 16); and in the A. V. the patched shoes of the Gibeonite ambassadors are described as "old and clouted" (Josh. ix. 5), just as

"If I were mad I should forget my son,
Or madly think a babe of clouts was he."

(K. John iii. 4). And Richardson gives the following quotation from Strype:

"Item,' he said, 'we have a lyvyng Christ, and not a Christ of clouts.' This I said, say, and will say: My Lord Jesu Christ is risen from the dead, and lyveth, and reigneth, Lord and King in the glory of His Father, world without end. (R. Wisdome, Vindication, No. 115.)

:

ROM the Golden Candlestick and the Table with its Shewbread in the Holy Place, we have now to turn to the Altar of Incense, standing between the two, at the extremity of the apartment most distant from the entrance, and immediately in front of the vail which separated this portion of the Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies. The directions for its construction are given in the following terms: "And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare shall it be and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold round about. And two golden rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it, by the two corners thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal. And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee" (Exod. xxx. 1-6). From this description it appears that the Altar of Incense-a correct idea of which may be gathered from the illustration in page 229-was one cubit in length, one in breadth, and two cubits high, being thus half a cubit higher than bread Table, and, in all probability, than the

Golden Candlestick; that, like the altar of burnt-offering in the court, it was square and furnished with horns; but that, in these respects differing from it, it was surrounded by a wreath instead of a simple border, that it had a top not of earth but of materials similar to those used for all its other parts, and that it was constructed not of brass or bronze, but of acacia wood overlaid with gold. The object of the altar was to burn incense on, and its use for any other purpose, such as burnt sacrifice, or meat-offering, or drink-offering, was expressly prohibited (Exod. xxx. 9). The incense, placed in all probability in a pot or vial for the purpose, was replenished every morning and evening, so that it might consume away with a gentle and slow, but continuous burning. filling always the apartment with its fragrant odour; and the moments chosen for replenishing it were those when the lamps of the golden candlestick had their wicks dressed and their flame renewed: "And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron causeth the lamps to ascend at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations (Exod. xxx. 7, 8). The fire with which the incense was kindled was the to be taken from that kept constantly burning upon brazen altar in the court (Lev. xvi. 12), and any other was "strange fire," the use of which, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu, was punished with death (Lev. x. 1, 2).

The nature of the incense to be used is carefully pre

:

scribed. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: and thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, salted together, pure and holy and thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy" (Exod. xxx. 3436). It is of no moment to our present purpose whether we can identify the spices thus named or not; for, whatever they were, we cannot doubt that they were selected as the richest and most valuable of their kind. It is of more consequence to observe that not only might no other incense than that now mentioned be employed at the altar of which we speak, but that every imitation of it for private purposes was forbidden, under the penalty of being cut off from among the people (Exod. xxx. 38). In connection with the structure of the Altar of Incense, it is only further necessary to bear in mind that it stood in a much closer relation to the Holy of Holies than either the Golden Candlestick or the Table with the Shewbread. It not only occupied a position immediately in front of the second vail, which they did not, but its connection with the inner sanctuary is described in language altogether peculiar to itself. It is to be put "before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony" (Exod. xxx. 6; comp. xl. 5, 26; Lev. iv. 7, 18), language not used in regard to any other part of the furniture of the Holy Place; while in 1 Kings vi. 22, the corresponding altar raised by Solomon is spoken of as 'the altar that was by the oracle ;" and, both in the visions of Isaiah in the Old Testament and of St. John in the New, an altar which can hardly be any other than the Altar of Incense-which in St. John indeed certainly is so— -has its place assigned to it in heaven, "before the throne," and "before God" (Isa. vi. 6; Rev. viii. 3; ix. 13). Although, therefore, the Altar of Incense stood outside the second vail, it is in thought at least fully as much within it as without it. We turn to its import for Israel, and to its fulfilment for ourselves.

The determination of the first of these two points depends greatly on the meaning we attach to the incense of the Old Testament worship, for the chief object of the altar that we are now considering was to sustain the pot of incense there kept continually burning. In its first and simplest meaning, then, incense appears in the Old Testament as the symbol of prayer. "Let my prayer," says the Psalmist, "be set before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Ps. cxli. 2); and, again, we read in the prophecies of Isaiah, "They shall bring gold and incense, and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord" (lx. 6), where, though the word in the original denotes frankincense-one of the leading constituents of incense -rather than the compounded incense itself, it is hardly possible to separate the thought of the latter from that

1 See BIBLE EDUCATOR, Vol. II., p. 151.

of the former. We meet with the same idea in the New Testament. Of the four living creatures and of the four-and-twenty elders it is said that "they fell down before the Lord, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints" (Rev. v. 8); and, again, in the same book we are told of the angel whose appearance immediately preceded the sounding of the first of the seven trumpets, that " another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand" (viii. 3, 4). These passages are sufficient to show how closely as well as easily the thought of prayer and praise associated itself with the spectacle of the smoke of incense as it went up into the air. In conformity with this, too, we cannot forget that when Zacharias went into the Temple of the Lord to burn incense" the whole multitude of the people were praying without" (Luke i. 9, 10), giving answer by their action to what they knew to be passing within the Sanctuary: Yet it can hardly be allowed that prayer alone, in the sense in which the word is commonly understood, is the antitype of which incense is the type. In the first place, it is not unworthy of notice that in the first of the passages just quoted from the Apocalypse (v. 8), it is not the materials for the incense that are directly said to be "the prayers of saints," but, as appears in the original, the vials in which these were kept, so that the words would rather lead us to think of prayer as that by which the real materials of incense were guarded and preserved. Still further, to regard incense as the symbol of prayer alone is to give undue prominence to that ascent of the smoke which is entirely subordinate in the symbol. It is the diffusion of sweet odours, not the ascent of smoke

of which there would probably be little from a slowly consuming fire-that is characteristic of incense; and when it was burned upon the Golden Altar the object was not to send up its smoke towards the roof, but to fill the whole apartment with its fragrance. Above all, Bähr has shown, by an examination of the words used to signify a savour, that they all connect themselves with the idea of breath or spirit, and that among Oriental nations the leading conception of a sweet smell is the breathing forth of the inmost soul or life of that by which it is produced. He has thus, indeed, been led to regard incense as a symbol of the Spirit of God, or rather of that name of God in which His Spirit finds expression, and the act of burning the incense as symbolical of spreading abroad His name. We need not follow him thus far; but, proceeding on the hint which he has given, we shall be guided to a larger, and what seems a juster, view of the symbolism of incense than that which limits it to prayer. It is not prayer alone that is expressed by it. Prayer is only one of those manifestations of a devout life which are required by

2 Symbolik, i., p. 458.

the Almighty of His creatures, which are pleasing in His sight, and which have been already symbolically exhibited in the shewbread loaves. What we have now before us is something more: it is the breathing forth of the life of the true Israelite, taken as a whole-that breathing forth of it which diffuses fragrance on every side, which passes even towards the vail and the immediate presence of God, and which is grateful to Him of whose enlightening and quickening Spirit it is the fruit. That this thought of fragrance was connected in the mind of Israel with the thought of the life yielded up to God is shown by different passages of the Old Testament to which Bähr has himself referred, where the impression made by the whole personality of those spoken of is described under the figure of their savour. Thus, when the officers of the children of Israel during the captivity in Egypt complained to Moses and Aaron of the additional hardships they had been the means of bringing on them, they said, "The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh" (Exod. v. 21); and when Jonathan smote a garrison of the Philistines, and roused that people to the thought of war, we are told that "all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel did stink with the Philistines" (1 Sam. xiii. 4). In like manner, when the prophet Malachi describes the extension of the Church among the Gentiles, the Lord exclaims by him, "From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pare offering" (i. 11); while the exhortation of the son of Sirach to his people is couched in the words, “Hearken unto me, ye holy children, and bud forth as a rose budding by the rivers of water; and give ye a sweet savour as frankincense, and flourish as a lily; send forth a smell, and sing a song of praise; bless the Lord in all His works" (Ecclus. xxxix. 13, 14). Passages such as these are amply sufficient to establish the point now before us. A good or evil savour was to Israel the symbol of a good or a godless life; and when, therefore, the sanctuary of God was kept continually filled with fragrance, they beheld in this the sweet savour not of prayer alone, but of that life to which as a priestly nation they were called.

The conclusion to which we have now come will be confirmed if we consider the names by which the Golden Altar and the presentation of the incense upon it were designated in Hebrew. The former was not merely an altar in the sense of being an elevated place; it was "a place for sacrifice," and that although no animal was permitted to be slain in the apartment in which it stood, or to be laid upon it to be burned. The latter again is distinctly spoken of as an offering" (Exod. xxx. 9). Hence, also, the former had its horns, those special symbols, as we have seen, of the power and majesty of God, which were to be smeared with the blood of the sin-offering; while the latter was to be marked by the characteristics of being "salted pure and holy" (Exod. xxx. 35). The two last-named qualities belonged to the

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offering," in the very nature of the case; the former was expressly enjoined in the Law (Lev. ii. 13). But if thus an "offering," it is hardly possible to limit the symbolism of the incense to the mere thought of prayer. It is not prayer that is our offering to God, it is our selves. That is the fundamental idea which found expression in the "offering;" and, if so, it must be the fragrance of a devout spirit, its pleasingness in itself and in the sight of God, when regulated according to the requirements of His law, that meets us in the burning of incense upon the golden altar. There is no doubt a sense in which all this may justly be spoken of as prayer; only it is not what we generally understand by the word. It is rather that constant sending up of prayer and praise alluded to by the Apostle when he says, "Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks" (1 Thess. v. 17, 18).

We are thus, however, brought to the fulfilment of the symbol in New Testament times. Like that of the Golden Candlestick and of the Table with the Shewbread, it is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His Church.

First, in the Lord Jesus Christ himself, on whom not only was the Spirit of God poured out without measure, by whom not only were fruits of the Spirit produced in all their perfection and completeness, but who exhibited these in such a manner as to be a constant object of delight to His Father in heaven, and to all who were taught to understand Him upon earth. Even in His early years it was said of Him, that the grace of God was upon Him" (Luke ii. 40)—that grace which is not merely power, but beauty; and when He passed into the years of boyhood and youth, he increased, not only in wisdom and stature, but "in favour with God and man" (Luke ii. 52). Again and again was it proclaimed of Him by the voice from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;" and He him. self said, referring to the Father, "I do always those things that please Him;" "I come to do thy will, O God" (John viii. 29; Heb. x. 9). It was not otherwise with man. The multitude exclaimed, "He hath done all things well;" and throughout all the ages of her history the Church has felt Him to be "fairer than the children of men," to be "altogether lovely." In short, it was not only holiness, but the "beauties of holiness,' that the Saviour constantly exhibited on earth. His whole life was a breathing forth of devotion to His Father and of love to man. His name was like "ointment poured forth," and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

But, secondly, the burning of incense upon the Golden Altar is to be fulfilled also in Christ's people; and it is so only when they walk with God and diffuse every where around them the pleasant savour of their walk. It was so at the first, when they not only "praised God," but had "favour with all the people " (Acts ii. 47); and it ought to be so still. Not in stern faithfulness alone do they fulfil their high commission, but in the manifestation of all that is sweet and lovable in character. When St. Paul, giving his final exhortation

to the Philippians, enumerates those things which they were to think of and to do, he speaks not only of "whatsoever things are true and honest, and just and pure," but also of whatsoever are "lovely and of good report," of all such as have in them not only any virtue," but "any praise" (Phil. iv. 8); and the Christian graces commended in the New Testament are not less beautiful in themselves than beneficial to men. "Thy people," the Psalmist had said, addressing the Messiah to come, "shall be willing in the day of Thy power; in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning" (Psalm cx. 3); and it is the constant lesson of the Scriptures that Christians are "to adorn" the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things. Grace is their distinguishing characteristic; and grace, if divine in its power, is not less so in its loveliness.

May we not say, before bringing these remarks on the Golden Altar to a close, that this fulfilment of it and of its incense, ought, as in the case of the Golden Candlestick, to be made by them even when they have no thought of the world at all? As it was enough for the candlestick to shine, so ought they to feel that, though there were none for whom to scent the air but God and themselves, they ought still to scent it. It may be well for them to think of leading others to glorify God by observing what they are; but the true spring of a fair Christian life lies deeper than

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Tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all, which had the golden censer," &c. (Heb. ix. 3, 4). Even if we accept the translation of the original by the word censer" here, the difficulty thus occasioned is by no means slight, for no mention is made of any such golden censer in the Law of Moses; and it is with the fulfilment of God's arrangements, as set forth in it, and not in either the traditions or later practices of the Jews, that the writer of the Epistle has to do. Besides this, the golden censer used in the later history of Israel was

kept not in the Holy of

Holies, but along with the other sacred vessels in a chamber for the purpose. And, finally, it could not have been kept-if in existence while the Tabernacle stood-in its innermost and most sacred apartment, for the ritual of the great Day of Atonementthe only day of the year when the high priest might enter that apartment-required that he should do so, under the penalty of death if he did not, with the censer in his hand. The difficulties, therefore, that meet us upon this supposition are hardly less great than those which we have to contend with on the other, that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is speaking not of the golden censer, but of the golden altar, and that the verse before us should run, "After the second vail the Tabernacle which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden altar," &c. That this is the true meaning of what he says may appear from the following considerations :-(1.) The word employed by him is that commonly used in the later period of Israel's history to denote the golden altar, and to distinguish it from the brazen altar in the "court." (2.) It is in a high degree improbable that, in enumerating the articles of sacred furniture both in the outer and in the inner division of the Tabernacle, he should omit that one which was not only much more important in itself than either the Candlestick or the Table with the Shewbread, but whose importance in comparison with theirs was immeasurably increased on that great Day of Atonement, the services of which are the theme of the whole

the thought of man at all. It lies in the thought of God; and in yielding up the soul to Him, and breath ing out towards Him their inmost life, Christians send abroad their sweetest savour, not because they strive to do so, but because in the kingdom of God that is always sweetest which has least thought of self, and which both loses and finds itself in God alone.

Before passing from the Altar of Incense, it may be well for us to devote a few sentences to the consideration of the great difficulty connected with it arising out of the language of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he says, referring to the Tabernacle and its furniture, that there was "after the second vail, the

1 See Delitzsch on Heb. ix. 4.

chapter in which the words under consideration are found (comp. Lev. iv. 7, 18; xvi. 12, 18). (3.) This improbability is greatly increased when we notice that it seems a part of the author's aim to tell us of three sacred objects as connected with each of the two divisions of the Tabernacle. He might easily have had three at command for the outer division. There were three there the candlestick, the table with its contents, and the golden altar. Had these, however, been reckoned to it, there would have remained only two for the inner division-the ark and the cherubim. How, then, does he meet this difficulty? He divides, it would seem, the table with the shewbread, which was really one object, into two, and then the golden altar is free to be transferred to another connection, if not another place.

Accepting, then, the translation "golden altar," and not "golden censer," in Heb. ix. 3, are we to suppose that the author was mistaken as to the facts of the case? Let us remember the stress he lays upon the circumstance that the Holy of Holies was closed to every one but the high priest, and even to him on all days of the year but one (ix. 7); let us give due weight to the knowledge which he must have possessed that incense was offered by the ordinary priests every morning and evening upon the altar of incense; and, lastly, let us keep in view the intimacy of acquaintance with the rites of Judaism displayed by him throughout the whole of his Epistle; and, doing all this, we shall find it impossible to think that he has laid himself open to the charge either of ignorant or careless statement. What then is the explanation? We answer, that it is to be found in this, that he sees the Tabernacle with its inner vail withdrawn. It is on the great Day of Atonement that he sees it, with his mind full of the thoughts suggested by that day, and it is not the same then as on other days. We must ask our readers to present the events of that day to themselves in a form slightly different from that in which they are generally regarded. The common supposition is, that the high priest drew aside the vail only at the moment when he approached it with the censer and the incense in his hands; that having withdrawn it, and entered the Holy of Holies, the vail fell back into its usual position, and that this operation was repeated by him each time he returned

into the Most Holy Place in discharge of the special func tions of the time. Is this a probable supposition? How could the act thus attributed to the high priest be performed? His hands were full. In one he held the censer "full of burning coals of fire from off the altar of the Lord;" in the other as much "sweet incense beaten small" as it could contain (Lev. xvi. 12). He could not, therefore, have drawn aside the thick and heavy curtain forming the vail in the manner supposed. It is surely much more probable that he would withdraw the vail, without entering or even perhaps looking into the shrine, before he began what he had to do, and that it remained withdrawn until he had finished. That this would be the case is rendered likely not only by the general spirit of the symbolism of the day, which was to extinguish for the time any distinction between the Holy and the Most Holy Place, but by a circumstance to which, so far as we have observed, sufficient importance has not been attached, that it was an express injunction of the Law that no one should be in the Tabernacle of the congregation until all that the high priest had to perform within it was completed (Lev. xvi. 17). The best explanation of this fact is surely that, had any one been within, the whole of the sanctuary to its inmost recesses would have been open to his eye. We seem justified therefore, in concluding that on the great Day of Atonement, and for a time at least, the two apartments of the Tabernacle were really thrown into one. It is at this moment that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews sees them. The second vail is drawn aside; the one long apartment is before his view. He counts the arti cles of furniture it contains, and it seems to him that he can easily have three for each of its divisions, while at the same time, by so dividing, he will assign the golden altar to that division to which, both by its position and by the language of the Law, it obviously belongs. This, then, is what he does. Beginning with the outer one, he sees in it the candlestick, the table, and the shewbread; and there remain for the inner one the golden altar, the ark, and the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy. seat. Thus the golden altar has assigned to it the position which was, as we have seen, always in thought its true one, and which on the great Day of Atonement may be said to have even locally belonged to it.