THE MECHANICAL ARTS FROM GOD. 167 CHAPTER VI. THE SERVICE OF THE TABERNACLE. The THE record of the first ages of the world, contained in the Bible, ascribes the various arts of common life altogether to the Divine teaching. Though this is not formally stated, the expressions employed evidently assume it. The Lord God himself made the coats of skins with which our first parents were clothed on their expulsion from Paradise (Gen. iii. 21). account of their sons and descendants also, which follows, speaks at once of their occupations, "Abel was a feeder of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground" (Gen. iv. 2), at a period too early to have allowed the slow processes of invention and application time to have originated these pursuits. It is also said of certain of the descendants of the latter, that Jabal was "the father of the dwellers in tents, having herds of great cattle," p; that Jubal, his brother, was "the father of all such as handle the pipe and organ;" and that Tubal-cain was "the instructor of all artificers in brass and iron" (Gen. iv. 19, 22). The mode of expression employed here, excludes the idea of invention. Jabal and Jubal and Tubal-cain were the fathers of their respective crafts, in the sense in which Abraham was afterwards called "the father of all them that believe." The epithet does not imply that Abraham was the originator of faith, but that a 168 THE MECHANICAL ARTS FROM GOD. large measure of that gift of God had been imparted to him (Rom. iv. 11, 12). It is, moreover, the express teaching of the Bible, that even excellence in these mechanical arts is a divine gift (see Exod. xxx. 1—5); and if their mere use and application be from God, it will follow by necessary consequence, a fortiori, that God must be the author of them. This our view is still further confirmed by its perfect accordance with one of the fundamental canons of scripture truth; for the whole revelation rests upon the doctrine, "that every good gift and every perfect gift," whether relating to this world or that which is to come, whether bearing upon time or eternity, "is from above" (James i. 17). The passages we have considered seem to imply that the mechanical arts were taught to mankind as soon as they were wanted; which would be immediately on the expulsion of our first parents from Paradise. Such an arrangement, which might also be inferred from the general benevolence of the dealings of God with man, appears still more evidently in the subsequent portions of the concise history of the first representatives of the human race, contained in the Bible. For example, the application of these arts to the building of the ark (Gen. vi. 14-16) is stated in terms which necessarily assume the universality of the knowledge of them. A remarkable collateral proof of the early diffusion of this knowledge is furnished by the remains of ancient Egypt. Some of the primary elements of the hieroglyphic system of writing are pictures of tools employed in mechanical processes, and of objects ware vase THE STATE OF THE ARTS IN EGYPT. * 169 manufactured by them. This is the case, especially, with the characters representing the grammatical forms and inflections, which are so essential to the sense that it is impossible to conceive of the existence of a written system without them. Thus, the pronoun of the first person "I" is written with an earthenand a bronze bason or ewer with a ring to it - the feminine pronoun of the second person (thou, addressed to a woman) is a pair of tongs St The sign of the genitive case is the hook or creeper T, which was used in drawing objects out of the water. Many other instances might also be given. These characters must have been among the first introduced into the system; and, therefore, the mechanical arts which required the objects of which they are the pictures must have existed among mankind at the time of its invention. In the inspired account of the Exodus, the state of the mechanical arts in Egypt at that period is frequently referred to. The tombs of Egypt, still in existence, are many of them cotemporaneous with that event; and the operations of these arts are the subjects of many of the paintings with which their walls are covered. They will therefore afford us a perfectly authentic illustration of this portion of Scripture. Immediately upon the redemption of the Israelites from the house of their bondage they were required to dedicate to their Almighty Deliverer some portion of the wealth of which they had spoiled their oppressors, and of the mechanical skill which had K, k. Coptic, AHOK I. §u, m. * It represents the letter n, H. ‡ T. 170 MATERIALS FOR THE TABERNACLE. been taught them in the course of their hard servitude. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood, oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them" (Exod. xxv. 1-8). In this passage, the various substances required for the service of the tabernacle are arranged in the following order:-1. metals; 2. wool, hair, and flax; 3. leather; 4. wood; 5. oils and spices; 6. precious stones. This arrangement is perfectly lucid and commodious; we therefore at once adopt it. There are many tombs in Egypt coeval with or earlier than the Exodus, having paintings on their walls representing the arts of working these substances. The Israelites had been 430 years in Egypt at the time of their departure; having passed more than one half of this period in the condition of household slaves, by whom, exclusively, all the operations of the mechanical arts were performed in Egypt. They would, therefore, be compelled to acquire skill in them, for the benefit of their masters, in the manner in which they practised them: so that, most probably, the pictures in these tombs illustrate, with entire fidelity, the mode in which the arts were applied by the builders of the tabernacle in the wilderness. CONSTRUCTION OF THE TABERNACLE. 171 § 1. METALS. The metals required for the service of the sanctuary were gold, silver, and brass ; all of which were well known to the ancient Egyptians. Objects made of them are not unfrequently found in tombs and among the ruins of temples. The representations of such objects are also common in paintings and reliefs; and the hieroglyphic groups which express their names their names are satisfactorily ascertained. Gold is represented by the group The upper NOTB. character is the cloth through which the water of certain rivers was filtered for the purpose of obtaining gold dust. The word for gold in the Coptic books is Silver, the Coptic name for which is zar, is denoted in the hieroglyphic texts by the group, which signifies, literally, "white gold." The word for brass, in the Coptic Bible, is 2ounт. The hieroglyphic for this metal is a transcription, letter for letter, of the consonants of the same word,.. The uses to which the metals were to be put in the service of the sanctuary would have taxed the skill of smiths of any age; so that the existence of great proficiency in the arts of metallurgy among the Israelites is implied in the inspired account of its construction. The ark, which was made of wood, was to be overlaid (D) with gold, and to have a crown, or raised and richly-wrought border (), round about it (Exod. xxv. 10-14). The table for the shewbread (ver. 23— 28) and the altar of incense (xxx. 1-6) were to be made after the same fashion. The staves, also, by which all these vessels were carried, were to be covered with plates of gold, and attached to them by |