Chapter XVI: The High Priest

"THERE is one thing which we can't do, it is too hard for even Dora," observed Elsie one morning at breakfast, when, as was often the case, the Children's Tabernacle had formed a topic of conversation. "We can't make models of the Ark, or the Altar or the Table of Shewbread; our pretty curtains won't cover anything, the Tabernacle will be quite empty!"

"I really could not undertake to do more than I am doing, even if my fingers could manage to make such tiny models," said Lucius, who, as we have seen, already found that he had engaged in a difficult task.

Agnes, Dora, and Amy were silent; they all felt that there would certainly be a great want in their Tabernacle, but they did not see how that want could possibly be supplied.

The young Temples little guessed that while their mother was in her own room, engaged, as they supposed, in reading or writing, or making up her household accounts, she was preparing for them a pleasant surprise. Mrs. Temple was not less with her family than usual; she did not neglect her house affairs, she never forgot either to order the dinner or to pay the butcher and baker, but she stole time for her novel employment from her sleep, and from her favourite amusement of reading library books.

On the day when the model was completed, when the last silver socket had been fastened and the last little curtain hemmed, the children had the pleasure of setting up the Tabernacle in the study, to see how it looked. There was great satisfaction in surveying the finished work; every one felt glad that the long labour was over, and that he had had a share in the work.

"How pleased auntie will be!" cried Elsie.

"And the ragged children, too," joined in Amy.

"And now go out for your walk, my dear ones," said their mother; "the morning is so frosty and bright that you may make your walk a long one; I should not be surprised should you wander as far as Burnley woods. I shall not expect you back for a couple of hours."

"Mother, you will go with us," said Lucius.

"I am particularly engaged this morning," replied Mrs. Temple, as she shook her head with a smile.

Elsie remarked afterwards that it had been "a knowing kind of smile," as if there had been some very particular reason indeed for her mamma's stopping at home.

The reason was clear enough to all the party when they returned from their walk, and with their cheeks rosy from the fresh air and exercise re-entered the study. The children found their mother standing beside the model. Elsie, who was the first to run up to it, gave almost a scream of delight.

"Oh! See—see what mamma has been making! Clever mamma!" she cried, clapping her hands, and jumping for joy.

"What lovely little models!" exclaimed Lucius. "Mother, it is you who have cut us all out."

"You have done what none of us could have done," said Agnes.

"And so quietly too," observed Dora.

"There is nothing wanting now!" cried Amy, putting her arm fondly around the mother who had so kindly entered into the little pleasures of her children.

"I thought that one thing more was wanting," said Mrs. Temple.

The lady seated herself beside the table, and took off the cover of a little pasteboard box which she held in her hand. The children looked on with mingled curiosity and pleasure, as their mother carefully drew out from it a beautiful little figure, about two inches long, exquisitely dressed in miniature garments, representing those which were worn by the high priest of Israel. To imitate these garments in a size so small had taxed the utmost skill of the ingenious and neat-fingered lady.

I need not set down all the exclamations of wonder and pleasure which were uttered by the younger Temples. If their mother's great object had been to gratify her children, that object was certainly attained.

"The dress which I have tried to imitate," said the lady, "is that in which the high priest appeared on solemn occasions. The Day of Atonement was, however, an exception; on that most solemn day in the year, when the high priest ventured into the Holy of holies, he did so in simple garments of pure white linen."

Their mother then showed and explained to her children the different articles of dress on her curious model. The under-tunic, or shirt, of linen, and above it the mantle of sky-blue colour, having at the bottom an ornamental border or fringe.

"This fringe, which, as you see, I have cut out in the form of tiny pomegranates, ought to be interspersed with bells of gold," said Mrs. Temple; "but my fingers could not succeed in making anything so very minute."

"And unless we had looked through a microscope, we could not have distinguished bells no bigger than needles' eyes," observed Lucius.

"And what is this fine uppermost garment, reaching to the knees?" inquired Dora, looking admiringly on the delicate embroidery in gold and colours similar to that which she had herself worked for the Veil, only a great deal finer.

"This is the Ephod," replied Mrs. Temple. "On the front of it I have, as you see, worked in very small beads of various colours an imitation of the high priest's breastplate, which was formed of twelve precious stones."

The minute breastplate excited more attention than any other part of the high priest's dress, and had, perhaps, given the skilful worker more trouble than all the rest. Every one of the little beads was of a different tint. They were closely set together in rows, so as to form a square ornament, and were fastened to the shoulder parts of the Ephod by little threads of gold.

"How very splendid the real breastplate must have been!" exclaimed Dora.

"Had it also some typical meaning?" asked Lucius. "I suppose so," he added, "as everything about the Tabernacle and the high priest seems to have been a type of something greater."

"On each of the precious stones in the splendid breastplate was inscribed the names of one of the twelve tribes of Israel," replied Mrs. Temple. "I believe that the breastplate was worn by the high priest—who was to pray in the Tabernacle for the people, and then to come forward and bless them—as a token that he bore their names on his heart."

"Oh, that is a beautiful meaning!" cried Amy. "Especially when we think," she continued more softly, "that the high priest was a type of our blessed Saviour Himself."

"Who bears all His people's names on His heart," observed Mrs. Temple, "both when He pleads for them in heaven, and when He blesses them upon earth."

"The high priest must have looked very noble and grand in his rich garments," observed Lucius; "and yet it seems too much honour for any mere man to be called a type of the Son of God."

"Ah, my boy! Poor and mean indeed must any earthly type appear when compared to the heavenly Antitype!" exclaimed Mrs. Temple. "That thought came strongly to my mind as I was sewing together these little worthless glass beads to form the model of the glorious breastplate. 'Can these poor little atoms of coloured glass,' I said to myself, 'give any idea of magnificent jewels, sparkling in light, set in gold, and each engraved with a name?' But even so mean, and small, and insignificant was Aaron, in all his splendour, compared to the sacred Being who deigns to call Himself our High Priest, and to make intercession for us above!"

All the party were silent for several moments, looking down at the little model, and thinking over the words of their mother.

Elsie then pointed to the curious headdress which appeared on the figure. It was not exactly a turban, though it was formed of tight rolls of linen. It had the representation of a plate of gold in front, fastened on to it by a blue thread.

"That headdress is called the high priest's bonnet or mitre," observed Mrs. Temple. "There are rather different opinions regarding its exact shape. It cost me a good deal of thought to contrive it, and here again I felt how impossible it is to give anything like a just idea of the real object in a model so small as this. You see that I have not neglected to put a little gold plate on the front of the mitre; but I had no power to form letters so minute as to represent on it what was engraved on that which the high priest wore. This was 'HOLINESS TO THE LORD.'"

"Then the high priest had the Lord's Name written over his brow," observed Agnes. "It makes one think of the promise in the Bible, that saints in heaven shall have His Name written on their foreheads."

"All will be 'Holiness to the Lord' in that happy place!" observed Amy.

It was pleasanter to Dora to examine the little model before her, and to admire and praise her mother's skill, than to think of what was inscribed on the mitre worn by Aaron and his successors. It is the sad, sad effect of sin concealed in the heart, that it keeps those who indulge it from daring even to "wish" to be holy.

The Tabernacle was now carefully taken down, piece by piece, to be packed in a box, ready to be carried with the rest of their luggage when the family should quit their home for awhile. Every curtain was neatly folded, and all the pillars carefully wrapped up in paper. The figure representing the high priest was gently put back into its own little box, and all the other little objects were packed in cotton, so as to bear without injury a little jolting on the journey before them. With additional pleasure the young Temples now looked forward to the coming Christmas season, and the long expected visit which they were to pay to their Aunt Theodora.