6. In truth we cannot be sure that the idea of the Temple remained single and definite through so many ages. It was probably a composite and varying emblem, of which the original significance had become mingled with many later elements. It is, however, certain that many numbers and details were symbolical, and there was a deep insight and magnificent completeness in the manner in which certain truths were shadowed forth by its construction and its central service. The book in which its symbolism is most thoroughly worked out is Bähr's _Symbolik_. He elaborates, in a simpler form, the opinion of Philo, that the Temple represented "the structure which God has erected, the house in which God lives." So far the fact cannot be disputed for, in Exod. xxix. 45 we are told that the Tabernacle is called the "House of God" because "I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and will be their God." But Bähr takes a great leap when he proceeds to explain the house of God as "the creation of heaven and earth." If his views were true _as a whole_, it would indeed be strange that they are not indicated in a single passage either of the Old or New Testaments. The Tabernacle was called "the Tabernacle of the Testimony" because its two tables of stone were a witness of the covenant between God and man. It was also called "the Tabernacle of Meeting," by which is not meant the place where Israel assembled, but the place where God met Moses and the children of Israel.[297] "For there will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat," says Jehovah to Moses;[298] and "at the entrance of the tent of meeting I will meet with you to speak there unto thee, and there I will meet with the children of Israel."[299] Thus, in its broadest idea, the Temple brought before the soul of every thoughtful Israelite the three great beliefs, (1) that God deigned to dwell in the midst of His people; (2) that, in His infinite mercy and condescension, He admitted a reciprocity between Himself and His human children; and (3) that the most absolute expression of His will was the moral law, obedience to which was the condition of heavenly favour and earthly happiness. "In the Porch," says Bishop Hall, "we may see the regenerate soul entering into the blessed society of the Church; in the Holy Place we may see a figure of the Communion of the true visible Church on earth; in the Holy of Holies the glories of Heaven opened to us by our true High Priest Christ Jesus, who entered once for all to make an Atonement betwixt God and man." FOOTNOTES: [290] The scepticism of modern critics, who doubt whether there ever was a Tabernacle in the wilderness at all, seems to be insufficiently grounded. [291] _Vit. Mos._, iii.; _Antt._, III. vi. 4, vii. 7; _B. J._, VII. v. 5. [292] _E.g._, Origen (_Hom._, ix.), Clement of Alexandria (_Strom._, v.), Theodoret (_Qu._, xl. _in Exod._), Jerome (_Ep._, lxiv.), and others. See Kalisch, _Exodus_, p. 495.