We would not live by bread alone, Be known to us in breaking bread, Then sup with us, in love divine That living bread, that heav'nly wine, CHAPTER IV. The Golden Candlestick : EMBLEMATICAL: 1. OF THE HOLY GHOST: 2. OF CHRIST : AND 3. OF THE CHURCH. THREE DEDUCTIONS THEREFROM, FOLLOWED BY THREE PERSONAL INQUIRIES. EXODUS XXv. 31. And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold; of beaten work shall the candlestick be made; his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. It is no less philosophically than morally true, that God is the Father of lights. Jam. i. 17. When darkness was upon the face of the deep, God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Gen. i. 2, 3. The illuminated orbs of immensity, do but scatter in their courses the effulgence of his majesty. God also is the Author and Generator of all intelligence, and the very highest intellectual attainments are but the scintillations of a wisdom that is infinite. To this great Father of lights, therefore, should our hearts be perpetually uplifted for guidance and information in the knowledge of both his works and word. See Ps. cxi. 2, with Jam. i. 5. Merely to suggest that there were no windows in the tabernacle whereby the light of nature could gain admis sion into the secret recesses of the holy place, and that consequently the golden candlestick became necessary in order to its illumination; will imply to you at once the subject of our present discourse. The appropriation of the subject to moral and religious uses, will be easy. The world in which we sojourn is become, in a certain sense, a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light. is as darkness. Job x. 22. Men know not, neither will they understand: they walk on still in darkness. Ps. lxxxii. 5. Even the church which God has planted among men, although resembling in intrinsic excellence a candlestick of gold, and decorated it may be like the candlestick of the tabernacle, with many beautiful and costly adornments, yet has it no inherent light, and it can only shine as a light in the world, by imparted and borrowed lustre. John viii. 12. The individual believer also, although confessedly a child of light and of the day, may nevertheless, through unwatchfulness, restrained or omitted prayer, and a general spiritual declension, walk in darkness, and sometimes perhaps a darkness so total, so prevalent, so distressing, that not a solitary beam of celestial comfort shall illuminate his path, or cheer his drooping hope. Isa. 1. 10. How necessary, then; how beneficent; how inestimable must be that Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and whereby alone any children of Adam can either discern or reflect the beauty of holiness, the glory of God! John i. 9. The life that was in Jesus is the light of men, and whoso believeth in Him shall not abide in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Through the mediation of the bleeding Lamb, the church will finally emerge out of all its troubles, like the sun from its vesture of cloud, and nothing will then remain to our perception and enjoyment but the meridian brightness of an immortal day. That the golden candlestick of the worldly sanctuary was emblematical of better things, will be quite apparent in the further prosecution of our subject. Allusion is made to it by St. John in Rev. iv. 5. In the august session of the supreme tribunal, the beloved apostle sees seven lamps of fire before the throne, after the manner of the seven-branched candlestick before the mercy-seat; which seven lamps of fire or of lambent flame, are interpreted to signify the seven spirits of God; that is, the Holy Ghost in the plenitude of his wisdom and grace. For, it must be observed, that 'seven' in the Holy Scriptures is a mystical number, indicative of fulness or completion; and usually implies the perfection of the object wherewith it stands connected. Now, if the seven burning lamps seen before the everlasting throne, were anti-typical to the seven lights of the golden candlestick in the holy place, it follows that the golden candlestick, in the entireness of its refulgent splendour, was representative of the Holy Ghost in the fulness of his Divinity, and the glory of his communicable excellence. Again In another vision of the apocalyptic book, St. John discerns a lamb, as it had been slain; and this slaughtered lamb is described as having seven horns and seven eyes, which attributes of horns and eyes, are again explained to be the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Rev. v. 6. Horns in Holy Scripture are significant of power; seven horns, therefore, would be descriptive of omnipotence, uncontrollable almighty power: eyes are emblematical of knowledge; the possession of seven eyes, therefore, would imply omniscience, infinite and perfect knowledge in their possessor. Hence, omnipotence, almighty power; and omniscience, perfect and illimitable knowledge, are combined in the person of Jesus Christ; and by these in wonderful conjunction, does our Lord administer the affairs of that church, which, through his own voluntary sufferings and death, as an atoning lamb, he reconciles unto the supreme and eternal God. Two portions of the holy Word corroborate this view of the great Mediator, namely, first, the Lord's solemn asseveration previous to his ascension, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, Matt. xxviii. 18; and again, secondly, the testimony which he bare in his public ministry, He whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. John iii. 34. Thus, it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell: and consequently, through the Father's pleasure, in him does dwell all the fulness of the godhead bodily, or after a bodily manner. Col. i. 19, and ii. 9. The golden candlestick, therefore, was farther indicative of Jesus Christ in the plenitude of the Divine majesty, power, and sovereignty. But there is still another mention of candlesticks which we must not fail to notice. The churches of Jesus Christ are compared to candlesticks; and that again, singular to observe, in connexion with the number seven. I turned, says St. John, to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. Afterwards, one like unto the Son of man, retaining in the grasp of his right hand seven stars, explains at once the mystery of the seven stars which John saw in his right hand, and the mystery of the seven golden candlesticks; saying, The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven |