A system of worship which included altars and sacrifices, and much more, one which had the ark of the covenant and the visible manifestation of Jehovah’s presence, demanded an _edifice_ for its center and home. It was essential to the proper reverence that this edifice should provide a place of seclusion as well as of safe-keeping for its most sacred things.――――Moreover, so long as the people were unsettled――subject to removal any day――this structure must be movable, like the tents of all nomadic people. Hence the first structure was the _Tabernacle_ or _Sacred Tent_.――――A general idea of it may be presented to the reader thus:――Conceive of an inclosed court, one hundred cubits long by fifty wide [the cubit being eighteen inches]; this inclosure being made by hanging curtains of linen five cubits high, suspended from horizontal rods which were supported by posts. The entrance to this inclosure was always at its eastern end, and the eastern section, forming the outer or first court, was twenty cubits in depth, cut off from the rest of the inclosed area by curtains.――――In the center of the rear portion stood the sacred tent proper, thirty cubits in length from east to west, and ten cubits in width. This also was in two principal apartments, the eastern being twenty cubits by ten, known as “the holy place”; the western, “the most holy place,” or the “Holy of holies,” being ten cubits square. The perpendicular walls of this sacred tent were of boards set on end, ten cubits high, so supported as to be readily set up, taken down, and transported. The covering was four-fold, of cloth and skins, and was manifestly arranged like the roof of a house, the covering passing over a ridge-pole in the center. Such briefly was this sacred structure. Of its furniture, the important articles were as follows: (a.) In the open court in front of the tabernacle proper, were the great altar of burnt-offering and a laver――an immense reservoir or tank for water. (b.) In the holy place――the first section of the sacred tent――stood the altar of incense; the table of shew-bread; and the golden candlestick.――――(c.) In the most holy place, enshrouded in the thick darkness, stood the ark of the covenant, containing originally the two tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written, the pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded. Upon the lid of this ark, known as “the mercy-seat,” there reposed the refulgence of the Divine Presence――a visible brightness and glory, called by the later Jews “the shechinah”――itself overshadowed by the wings of cherubic figures which rested upon either end of the ark. The whole structure might be readily taken down and transported from place to place with all its furniture; parties being designated for this service.