Feast of Tabernacles

“ For in the new and indissoluble creation, whoever shall not be found decorated with the boughs of chastity, shall neither obtain rest, because he has not fulfilled the command of God according to the law, nor shall he enter into the land of promise, because he has not previously celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. For they only who have celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles come to the Holy Land, setting out from those dwellings which are called tabernacles, until they come to enter into the temple and city of God, advancing to a greater and more glorious joy, as the Jewish types indicate. ”

“ The festivals of the pitiful and miserable Jews are soon to march upon us one after the other and in quick succession: the feast of Trumpets, the feast of Tabernacles, the fasts. ”

“ It was introduced to point to this real tabernacle of ours, which, after it was fallen down to corruption through the transgression of the law, and broken up by sin, God promised to put together again, and to raise up in incorruptibility, in order that we may truly celebrate in His honour the great and renowned Feast of Tabernacles at the resurrection; when our tabernacles are put together in the perfect order of immortality and harmony, and raised up from the dust in incorruption ”

“ Finally, the Deuteronomic law of the one sanctuary and the course of events which made that law the practical rule of the remnant of Israel put an end to all local religious feasts, but at the same time obscured the old significance of the festal cycle, and made room for the historical interpretation of the celebrations, now concentrated at the temple, which prevailed among the later Jews (comp. Passover and Pentecost) . In their later form all the yearly feasts have exact times and rules. ”

“ Then, when the appointed times shall have been accomplished, and God shall have ceased to form this creation, in the seventh month, the great resurrection-day, it is commanded that the Feast of our Tabernacles shall be celebrated to the Lord, of which the things said in Leviticus are symbols and figures, which things, carefully investigating, we should consider the naked truth itself, for He saith, “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning ”

“ In Christian archæology, the tabernacle is a small shrine placed on the altar for the consecrated wafer. It succeeded the pyx, which was anciently deposited in one of two chambers arranged on each side of the altar. Originally of goldsmith’s work, in the 15th and 16th centuries they became stone shrines decorated with sculpture, approached by steps, rising into lanterns and pinnacles to the roof of the church. A cast of a beautiful tabernacle of late 15th century, marble with a gilt metal door, is in the South Kensington Museum. Tabernacles of ivory were common in the 16th century. ”

“ The “Sacred Host” is always in the tabernacle; but on these days, when the altar is decorated out so finely, the Host is put into a Monstrance, and enthroned amidst lighted tapers, flowers, jewels, and clouds of incense, and at the sound of sweet music and singing (in Latin) bottles of Eau de Cologne are poured over the altar, to be, as he frequently said, “wasted on Jesus,” like Mary’s alabaster box of ointment. The tabernacle is of exquisite beauty and workmanship, with crimson velvet curtains, looped up with massive gold chains, over which is a real diamond cross. ”

“ A feast and gifts of warm socks or mittens knitted for each child by the lady’s own hands, are not to form the only, or perhaps the chief attractions of the treat; the little scholars have been promised a sight of the model Tabernacle, which its young makers are to bring from their country home, about [217] ten miles away. Christmas Eve has been fixed upon by Miss Clare as the time for her Ragged School Fête, because it is the birthday of her twin nieces, the younger of whom is her namesake. ”

“ The people followed her in and lined the aisles through which they knew she would walk on leaving the cathedral. She knelt for a moment before the high carved tabernacle, with a lovely miniature spire, quite in a separate corner from the altar—you have seen those tabernacles of ours in old Catholic churches in other parts of Germany, mein Herr?—and then she turned slowly back. There was no hurry, no anxiety nor expectancy, in her manner; still Engelbrecht had not been seen. ”

“ The music at the Tabernacle is far-famed in the west, and gives constant delight to all the people. The singing is followed by a long prayer by some one of the dignitaries in or about the pulpits, during which the time is utilized to prepare the bread and water; and as soon as the prayer has ceased a large number of brethren begin to pass the sacred food and drink. Everybody, old and young, partakes, and it is an hour and a half before the communion is completed. ”

“ No border round the curved edge. The orphrey is divided into tabernacles containing an archbishop, two bishops, and three kings and queens. Between the tabernacles are four angels, each accompanied by one of the evangelistic symbols. The body of the cope is cut into a most elaborate system of tabernacles, with a centre compartment of a different form for the group of the Crucifixion. The subjects are chiefly from the life of our Lord and the Blessed Virgin. ”

“ Therefore is it called a tabernacle, for tabernacles or tents belong to soldiers: and this saying, God is in his tabernacle, meaneth, God is among the faithful collected together in His name. The outer part of the tabernacle, where the people sacrificed, is the active life, wherein men give themselves up to the love of their neighbour: the interior, wherein the Levites ministered, is the contemplative life, where a band of religious men devote themselves to the love and contemplation of God. The tabernacle gave place to the temple: because after the warfare cometh the triumph. ”

“ Before it is a hollow space with stumps of piers, demonstrating the ancient presence of an arcade in front of the platform. The feretory is without internal decoration, but the exterior of the east wall is adorned with nine rich Decorated tabernacles, with the yet legible names of saints and king who once occupied the eighteen pedestals within them. ”

“ As the people of small places have not four altars to erect, there is a small, portable altar, a little four-legged table with a white cloth to cover it and a tabernacle with angels painted on a blue ground kneeling before the "Holy Name." ”

“ The tabernacles are spacious; and behind that which is on the north side is a door admitting to the Book Treasury, whence you go out behind the church, into a court that opens into the street. This is so contrived, in order that when the priests are suddenly visited by any natural want, they may satisfy it, without going cut in face of the people. On the arch of the south tabernacle are painted the figures of Abraham and Melchisedee. ”

“ Passing into the sacred tabernacle, a gorgeous vision strikes upon the senses—golden lamps, suspended from the ceiling, shed a mellow but subdued light upon an altar, where jewelled chalices, crucifixes, and candelabras are arrayed in glittering profusion, surmounted by an image, whence literally a blaze of diamonds is radiating. ”

“ They shall dwell in Thy Tabernacle and rest upon Thy holy hill. They shall be denizens of Thy courts with Thee, whose roots shine above gold and precious stones. Blessed are they who believe in the triune God, and will to know His ways. ”

“ No; they have no meeting houses but in ball rooms, gaming houses, brothels, gin palaces, parlors, bed rooms, and other places which they frequent in the bodies of those they lead captive; otherwise they are wandering to and fro in the earth, seeking to possess tabernacles that other spirits, not of their order, already occupy. ”

“ The beveled window openings through these thick walls are like embrasures of a fort; and the many small rooms in which it is to be divided, will cause the structure to seem more like a prison than a religious temple. In fact it is not designed as a house of worship,—the Tabernacle remains for that—but is intended as a sacred edifice within which various ordinances of the Church, closely allied to those of Masonry, now performed in the Endowment House, shall be celebrated. ”

“ The great dignitaries must not be put down on the tabula for the servers’ functions, but only the clergy of the second or third ‘form.’ The procession and all the proceedings in the cathedral must be orderly and creditable to the boys [1261] . [Pg 355] Minute directions follow as to the right of the ‘bishop’ to claim a supper on the eve from one of the canons, and as to the train he may take with him, as well as for the dinner and supper of the feast-day itself. After dinner a cavalcade is to start from the cathedral for the blessing of the people. ”

“ Churches which have the Blessed Sacrament should be open at least a few hours daily to the faithful. It is not lawful to reserve the Sacrament habitually on more than one altar of the church, and that altar should be the one that is most honorable or most suited for worship, and it should be suitably decorated. The tabernacle should be as precious as possible and be carefully guarded, and the Hosts should be reserved inside in a solid pyx or ciborium. ”

“ All over the world the Holy Ghost is moving the hearts of the faithful, particularly in our day, to draw more and more near to the source of all the graces that give life to souls: Our Lord in the Tabernacle and in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Tabernacle Society in various places is taking a large part in this movement, in concert with the Priests' Eucharistic League, the Eucharistic Congresses, the Forty Hours' Adoration, and others. ”

“ Angels, again, on the frescoed wall, bear scrolls, whose silent voices chant a ceaseless Gloria to the Babe in the tabernacle—Laudamus te, Benedicimus te, Adoramus te, Glorificamus te—and the rest of the narrow chapel is dark and voiceless, save where a taper glimmers on the desk of the little, humble harmonium, round which stand reverentially the few singers, whose only guerdon is the smile of the unseen but not unfelt God. ”

“ For since it is the function of a tabernacle to overshadow him who is in it, and to shelter him, and the bright cloud overshadowed them, God made, as it were, a diviner tabernacle, inasmuch as it was bright, that it might be to them a pattern of the resurrection to come; for a bright cloud overshadows the just, who are at once protected and illuminated and shone upon by it. ”

“ 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 Showbread; our pretty curtains won’t cover anything, the Tabernacle will be quite empty!” ”

“ The heavenly fragrance and supernatural sweetness that linger around the Tabernacle calm our troubled souls, which no longer resemble a stormy sea, but rather a clear, placid lake, wherein God’s perfections are distinctly reflected. ”

“ It will be noticed that Dora did not join at all in the conversation which followed the reading.
“Mamma, that chapter comes nearly at the end of the Bible, and is about our Lord and his death,” observed Lucius; “and yet it tells us about the Tabernacle, and its ark, and the high priest going into the Holy of holies. Now, what could the [80] Tabernacle in the desert have do with our Lord and His dying,—that Tabernacle which was made nearly fifteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, and which was no longer of any use after Solomon’s temple was built?” ”

“ Free as the air we breathe, and the grass we tread upon, twice a week throughout the year, save only the winter months. Really, for semi-barbarians, this is doing very well. When we see this great Tabernacle filled on a Sabbath afternoon and hear the charm of five hundred voices added to that of the organ, and listen to the straightforward addresses of several unsalaried "Saints," our thoughts go back to the half empty churches of the East, and we feel that we have come upon at least one mystery. ”

“ What a relief it was to find no coro blocking up the nave! The eye could wander over the whole of this lofty interior—could follow the beautiful open work of the triforium and rest on the stained glass of the clerestory windows. The aisles are very shadowy, all the light being concentrated in the nave and the crossing, and the vision, with a great sense of good effect, is led up to the white tabernacle on the High Altar and the immense retablo beyond. ”

“ To all who were privileged to enter the hallowed inclosure, nothing was visible save "the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and fine twined linen," the varied yet combined exhibition of the virtues and excellencies of that divine Tabernacle in which God dwelt within the vail—that is, of Christ, through whose flesh, the antitype of all these, the beams of the divine nature shone so delicately that the sinner could behold without being overwhelmed by their dazzling brightness. ”

“ To him that values the divine joys he has more shall be given. One of the rabbin by the banqueting-house understands the tabernacle of the congregation, where the interpretation of the law was given; surely we may apply it to Christian assemblies, where the gospel is preached and gospel-ordinances are administered, particularly the Lord's supper, that banquet of wine, especially to the inside of those ordinances, communion with God in them. ”

“ THE HOLY PLACE AND THE MOST HOLY PLACE.
Children’s Tabernacle.
p. 56.
“Ah, my child, none of us would have dared to have lifted that Veil or to have placed a foot within the Holy of holies!” exclaimed Mrs. Temple. “No mortal was ever suffered to enter that place, most sacred of all, except the High Priest, and that but on one day of the year—the Day of Atonement. Aaron himself, the first High Priest, with trembling awe must have lifted the Veil, and approached the Mercy-seat over which the cherubims spread their wings of gold!” ”