Moreover, how adapted is our subject to _cheer_ God's people and prompt them to quiet, patient resignation under dark and afflictive providences. What if sometimes we can see nothing but the furnace smoking; we know that behind it somewhere is the lamp of fire. How too are we impressed with the truth that there is something left for us to learn _in heaven_, something yet unrevealed which we do not see, but which we hope for, which makes us reconciled to the thought of leaving this dim, misty realm of time, and to wait in anxious expectation till the day break and the shadows flee away. Oh be content, Christian, a little longer to walk by faith, for by and by the smoking furnace will have passed away for ever, and heaven will welcome you to its cloudless revelations. Learn to walk humbly before that God who surrounds your path. See him in the clearest form in which he has revealed himself, even in the incarnate Son our Saviour. Through him alone can we approach the Father. Through him alone can we hope to see his face, and obtain salvation and deliverance from his wrath. X. The Altar of Incense. AND THOU SHALT MAKE AN ALTAR TO BURN INCENSE UPON. 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. 30:1, 6. The saying of Augustine, that in the Old Testament the New is hidden, and in the New Testament the Old is opened up, agrees with the teachings of Paul in the epistle to the Hebrews, which declare that the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic institute serve unto the example and shadows of heavenly things. This being so, the institutions of the ancient church of God are not obsolete and meaningless to us. Although their literal observance has ceased, still the profound and important truths of which they were the symbols survive--truths which shine forth unveiled in the clearer revelation of the gospel. These ancient symbols claim our careful study still; for they are helps to faith now, and serve to illustrate and enforce those didactic truths of the New Testament which, through the feebleness of our spiritual perceptions, often fail to impress us as they should. Our attention is directed by the text to the altar of incense placed in the tabernacle which Moses constructed under the immediate direction of God. The tabernacle was designed to be the local habitation of God, to bring him near to his covenant people, and to keep up a direct intercourse between him and them.