withal: of pure gold shalt thou make them. And thou shalt set upon the table shew-bread before me alway." The annexed cut is supposed to be an approximation at least to the true form of this table, surmounted by the twelve loaves which were to stand constantly upon

The table itself was constructed of the same material with the frame work of the Tabernacle, the Ark, &c., viz. shittim-wood, overlaid with gold. It was also furnished with rings or staples, through which were passed the staves by which it was carried, in the same way as the Ark. These staves, however, did not remain in the rings when at rest, like those of the Ark, but were, as Josephus informs us, removed, that they might not be in the way of the priests in their weekly ministrations at the table. The table was inferior to the Ark in breadth by half a cubit; but it was of the same height, and stood lengthwise, east and west, at the south side of the Holy Place. From the obscurity of the ancient terms there is some difficulty in determining with precision the details of its form; but what we seem to learn from the text is, that the platform or surface of the table had its edges faced with a perpendicular border, or enclosure, somewhat resembling a window-frame before it is inserted into the wall of a building or the sashes put in. This border was to be of a hand's breadth and ornamented on its upper and lower edge with a beautiful golden cornice or moulding, which is here also as in the case of the Ark, called a "crown." The upper rim rose of course somewhat above the superficial level of the table, and was well adapted to prevent what was deposited thereon from falling off. The Table, as seen in the Arch of Titus at Rome, on which the spoils of the Temple are represented, shows but very little of the ornamental work described in the text; but this, it is supposed, was not the Table of the Tab

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ernacle. It is generally agreed that this was among the spoils carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, and that when the Jews were restored to their own land, they made a new Table. Twelve cakes or loaves of this bread answering to the twelve tribes, were set upon the table in two separate rows of six each, which were renewed every sabbath; when the old were taken away and eaten by the priests. This is not particularly mentioned in the present text, supplementary to which is the information more expressly given, Lev. xxiv. 5-9, " And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof; two tenth-deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place; for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute."

The denomination given in the Hebrew to this sacred bread is lehem pânim, bread of faces, or, bread of presence (presence bread). This title is usually supposed to be derived from its being continually set before the face or presence of God, as manifested in his visible symbol in the sanctuary, and that too although they were deposited in the Holy, and not in the Most Holy place. The Gr. of the Sept. renders it by aprous VTIOUS, fore-placed loaves, and that of Sym. aprovs τns pubcrews, αρτους ενωπιους, loaves of proposition, which is the constant reading of Jerome in the Latin Vulgate. The true import of the phrase "bread of faces" cannot well be determined apart from what we are to gather respecting the spiritual meaning designed to be conveyed by this symbol. In the attempt to compass this it will be important to advert to the usage in regard to the term "faces" which will be seen to be somewhat peculiar. In the first place, it is very obvious that the expression in the original lehem pânim, bread of faces or presence, is strikingly analogous with malak pânim, angel of the faces, or angel of the presence, Is. Ixiii. 9, "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence (malak panim, angel of his faces) saved them," &c. So also, Ex. xxxiii. 14, 15," And he said, My presence (panai, my faces) shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, if thy presence (paneka, thy faces) go not with with me, carry us not up hence." Compare with this Deut. iv. 37," And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight (bepanuav, with, by, or through his presence; i. e. the angel of his presence), with his mighty power out of Egypt." But this angel of the presence or of the faces was the Lord or Jehovah himself as to the Divine Human, for it is in this relation only that he ever was or could be seen, and the term faces, has reference to manifestation or revelation, particularly of interior qualities. It is said in Ex. xxiii. 20, 21, "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him (mippanauv, of his faces), and obey his voice, provoke him not, for

he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in him." i. e. my nature is in him. Jehovah when he appeared to men, before the Lord's coming into the world, appeared in the form of an angel, for in passing through heaven he clothed himself with that form, which is the human form; for the universal heaven, by reason of the Divine principle which prevades and constitutes it, is as one man, i. e. the Grand Man, which is the aggregate of heaven. Hence then is the Divine Human of the Lord, which first manifested itself in an angel whom Jehovah infilled with his presence and made a medium of communication, and afterwards in a human body on earth as the son of the virgin. It is therefore the Lord as the Divine Human who was anciently seen in the angelic form, and thus to him pertains the appellation of face or faces of Jehovah. Now the face, our author informs us, is the external representative of the interiors, for the face is so formed that the interiors may appear in it, as in a representative mirror, and another may thence know what the person's mind is towards him, so that when he speaks he manifests his mind's meaning as well by the face as by the speech. As face then is a common expression in the original tongue to denote the affections peculiar to man, and which are seen mirrored in the countenance, such as mercy, favor, benevolence, aid, kindness, and also their opposites, unmercifulness, anger, revenge, &c., it may be easily inferred that by the face or faces of Jehovah, or of the angel, is denoted the divine mercy, commiseration, complacency, peace and beneficence manifested towards any one, as is evident from the following passages: "The Lord make his face (Heb. faces) to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his countenance (Heb. faces) upon thee, and give thee peace," Num. vi. 25, 26. "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face (Heb. faces) to shine upon us." So in the opposite sense by the face of Jehovah or the Lord is signified anger, revenge, punishment, evil, which form appearance, but in reality pertain to him, as, "Beware of him (Heb. of his face), provoke him not," &c. Ex. xxiii. 21. "Whosoever shall eat any blood, I will even set my face against that soul," Lev. xvii. 10. "I have set my face against the city for evil," Jer. xxi. 10. "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth," Ps. xxxiv. 16.

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From this exhibition of the usus loquendi in respect to the phrase "faces of the Lord," " angel of the faces," &c., we are furnished with a key to the appellation bestowed upon this portion of the sacred furniture-Table of the Bread of Faces. The expression, " Angel of the faces or presence," is but the Old Testament designation of the Lord the Saviour Christ, and therefore the phrase, "Bread of the faces or presence," is brought into immediate identity of import with bread of the Lord, who was the true presence indicated by the term. But what is the bread of the Lord or of Christ, but that divine good, that spiritual sustenance, which maintains the inner, higher, and eternal life of his believing followers? That bread in the supreme sense denotes the Lord and in the comparative sense the good of love which is from him, thus the Lord as to celestial good, is abundantly manifest

from his own words, John vi. 32, 33, 47-51. "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

This it is well known is the great evangelical truth which is "significantly shadowed forth in the sacramental bread of the Lord's Supper, the lively emblem of that spiritual aliment which he gives his faithful household. The mystery of the Table of Shew-bread is substantially the same with that of the Table spread with the emblems of the Lord's body and blood. Not that it is confined to this; for as the loaves were changed every Sabbath, it significantly points to the weekly renewal in the sanctuary of that spiritual provision, in the dispensation of the Word, by which the strength of the saints is to be sustained in this house of their pilgrimage till "every one of them shall appear before God in Zion." But as every thing pertaining to the Tabernacle had more or less of a heavenly bearing, so also doubtless had this, and we shall fail to apprehend duly its import unless we regard it as a sensible and lively, though still inadequate "shew" of the nourishment of that holy, hidden, spiritual life which is to be consummated in the coming world of glory, where the face of God will be revealed without a cloud, in joyful foresight of which the Psalmist exclaims, Ps. xvii. 15, "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness" --a plain allusion to the beatific vision in heaven. Then shall his servants" see his face," and because they shall" see him as he is,” therefore shall they " be like him." "In his presence is fulness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasure for evermore." This ravishing and transforming view of the glorious presence of the Lord shall be an eternal feast to the blessed beholders, and it is doubtless from the intimate ideal relation between this seeing and eating that the bread of the Tabernacle is called the bread of the face or presence. The whole points directly to Christ, and is fulfilled only in him when he shall come the second time without sin unto salvation, shedding the light of his countenance in one endless and soul-satisfying blaze upon his redeemed ones. Their vision shall be eternal fruition. Thus we have obtained a view of the subject which shows the intimate connexion of the ideas of "Bread" and "Face" or "Presence," and with how much propriety the adjunct pânim, faces, is applied to the Tabernacle-table, while it is withheld from every other article of the sacred furniture.

G. B.

MISCELLANY.

The following communication, received some months since, is from a gentleman of high political standing and was written under the pressure of severe domestic affliction. A number of New Church works were furnished him, but of the result of his reading we have not heard.

DEAR SIR,

I beg that you will send me from time to time such works of Swedenborg as you may think will profit me. Never was any one more anxious to be a christian than I am. I have read a very large number of books on the evidences and am satisfied to a great degree with the arguments drawn from the evidences. But then when I take up the Bible I find things to which my reason will not assent. I cannot help this, for by willing it I can no more control my reason than I could change the color of my hair. Great will be my happiness if Swedenborg shall furnish a theory to make the Scriptures intelligible, and therefore credible.

I beg leave to present to you the following statement of facts attending the last sickness of one infinitely and inexpressibly dear to me. She was a lady of exemplary piety. Humility, gentleness, cheerfulness, and benevolence in all its forms were the prominent points in her character, with a perfect sincerity which never dissembled in the smallest things. For some days before her death she thought she had visions of angels--that she was carried to a beautiful palace filled with delicious fruits, and angels ministering to her. Some hours before she expired she would say, "I feel very strangely, I feel as if I were two persons. Now that hand looks as if it were my hand (raising up her hand), but it is not; I feel as if I were two persons, or there were two me's." Shortly after this she breathed her last, saying with her last breath, “I am at rest." Now was it the spiritual body separating from the physical before death, and becoming conscious of that separation?

Have you ever read the account of Mr. Tennant, an English (American) clergyman, who fell into a trance, and was thought to be dead? If you can procure it for me I will thank you to do so.

With great respect,

Your obedient servant.

From a gentleman in the far West.

DEAR SIR,

I send inclosed one dollar for its value in the pamphlets you are now publishing of a Swedenborgian character. I have seen one occasionally and have just received from some friend and read the one containing your reasons for embracing your new faith. Perhaps it will be best to send me the sixteen numbers to be published as they come out. I wish very much that I were so situated as to be able to get hold of Swedenborg's works at large. What I have read, has, for the most part, heen intensely interesting. I am not yet able to credit his statements as actual knowledge; but I have no objections to their being true. His general views of heaven and the spiritual world are to me both rational and delightful. His theology is sublime and simple. Swedenborg is the most singular phenomenon of these latter days. Yours, for the truth.