"And they shall make an ark of shittim-wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof." Ex. xxv, 10. The Ark was a small chest, a little more than four feet, six inches long, two feet, eight inches wide and high. It was made purposely to contain the tables of the covenant. See Ex. xxv, 16.40Deut. x, 5; Kings viii, 9. Its place in the Tabernacle and in the Temple was the Most Holy, within the second vail. There, in the holiest place on earth, so sacred that no man entered it excepting the high priest, and he but once a year, God placed his covenant, his law, his testimony, even the ten commandments. God has placed great honor upon his law. The Ark containing it was the strength and glory of Israel. When the tribes of Israel were about to pass over the river Jordan, "the officers went through the host, and commanded the people saying, When ye see the Ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it." See Joshua iii, 3. The priests took up the Ark of the Lord and passed on, and the people followed after. And when the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the Ark rested in the brim of the water, Jordan parted before the Ark of the Lord of all the earth, and the waters that came down the river rolled up and stood upon an heap.—The priests passed down into the bed of the river, where their feet stood firm on dry ground. There they stood with the Ark of God until all Israel passed over on dry ground. Twelve men were then selected to take from the midst of Jordan, where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones for a sign or memorial. And when their children should ask their fathers, "What mean ye by these stones?" they were to answer, "The waters of Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the covenant of the Lord." And when the priests that bore the Ark came up out of Jordan, and stood upon the bank of the river, down came the waters of Jordan and rolled on as before. See Joshua iii—v. The walls of Jericho fell down before the Ark of the covenant. Seven priests went before it blowing their simple trumpets of rams' horns. For six successive days the Ark of God, and the host of Israel went round the city, compassing it once each day; but on the seventh day, seven times. And when the seventh time was completed, the priests made a long blast with their trumpets of rams' horns, and Joshua said to the people, Shout, and down came the walls of Jericho flat to the ground before the Ark of the covenant. See Joshua vi. When Israel obeyed the ten commandments they were victorious in battle; but when any of them violated any portion of that covenant they were smitten, and compelled to flee before their enemies. Hophni and Phinehas the sons of Eli, violated the seventh commandment, and caused the Lord's people to transgress; therefore, when Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, they were smitten before them, and there fell of them about four thousand men. The elders of Israel said, "Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to-day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the Ark of the covenant out of Shiloh unto us." And when the Ark came into the camp, all Israel shouted, so that the earth rang again. When the Philistines learned that the Ark of the Lord had come into the camp of Israel they were terrified and said, "God has come into the camp." "Wo unto us!" But the Ark was not the strength of Israel at that time, for one of the ten immutable precepts which it contained had been violated. The Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and thirty thousand footmen fell. Hophni and Phinehas were slain, and the Ark of God was taken. When the sad tidings was borne to Eli, that the Ark of God was taken, he fell from his seat backwards, "and his neck brake, and he died." Eli was not so much affected in hearing of the slaughter of thirty thousand men, and of the death of his two sons: but when the messenger "MADE MENTION OF THE ARK OF GOD, he fell from his seat; for he knew that the GLORY HAD DEPARTED from Israel." See Samuel iv. The Philistines put the Ark into the house of Dagon, their God, and in the morning, "behold Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord." They set him in his place again, and the next morning they found Dagon on his face again, with his head and the palms of his hands cut off: "only the stump of Dagon was left to him." See Samuel v. 1—6. The Ark was in the country of the Philistines seven months, and during that time "the hand of the Lord was against them with a very great destruction," and they were exceedingly anxious to get rid of it, and have it go back, to Israel where it belonged. They finally made a new cart and laid the Ark upon it, and took two milch-kine, that had never been yoked, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. The Philistines then decided that if the cows went up to Beth-shemesh that they should know that the plagues that had come upon them, while the Ark had been with them, were from the Lord, but if they did not, then they should know that "a chance had happened" to them. "And the kine took the straight way to the way of Beth-shemesh, and went along the highway, LOWING AS THEY WENT, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left." The cart came into the field of Joshua, and the Levites set the Ark upon the great stone Abel. "And they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt-offering unto the Lord." The men of Beth-shemesh were curious to see what was in this wonderful chest, so they looked into the Ark, and God slew fifty thousand and seventy of them. "And the men of Beth-shemesh said, 'Who is able to stand before this Holy Lord God!'" The Ark of the Lord was removed to the house of Abinadab, and Eleazer his son was sanctified to keep it. There it remained a long time until David with thirty thousand chosen men of Israel, went to remove it into the city of David. Uzzah and Ahio drove the new cart on which they placed the Ark, while King David and all the house of Israel followed, playing on psalteries, timbrels, cornets and cymbals. And when they came to Nachon's threshing-floor, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah put forth his hand to steady the Ark, and God smote him for his error, and he died by the Ark of God. This terrified the King, and he said, "How shall the Ark of the Lord come to me?" So he would not remove it to the city of David, but carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom, the Gittite. But when the King heard that Obed-edom and all his house were blessed because of the Ark of God, which had continued with him three months, he went and brought it into the city of David with gladness. And when they that bore the Ark went six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings, "And David danced before the Lord with all his might." See ii Samuel vi. We have given this brief sketch of the history of the Ark of the covenant, thus far, to show that it was the strength and glory of Israel, and also to show how the Great Law-giver has regarded and honored his holy law. Those who presumptuously speak of the law of God with contempt, and call it "the old law," "the old Jewish ritual," "a yoke of bondage," "an old thunder and lightning law, which always was a curse to man," and a "miserable rickety old law," are to be pitied. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."—Eccl. viii, 11. But their day is coming. Both Testaments make mention of the "ARK OF THE TESTIMONY"—a chest, or Ark, containing an important TESTIMONY delivered by Jehovah. See Ex. xxv, 22; Num. vii, 89; Josh. iv, 16; Rev. xi, 19; xv, 5. This testimony is nothing more nor less than the ten commandments. It is often spoken of as "the testimony," and the "tables of the testimony." Why was it necessary that Moses should sanctify the congregation, and set bounds around the Mount as recorded in Ex. xix? Because the Great God was about to speak and bear a TESTIMONY to man, and in awful grandeur proclaim the "Royal Law." Lightnings flashed and thunders rolled upon the Mount, while God descended upon it in fire, and "the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly." Israel, in dismay, tremblingly stood and listened, while Jehovah uttered the words of the ten commandments, "And he added no more." This testimony, contained in about sixty lines of our pocket Bibles, God has honored far more than any other portion of his Word. He would not trust it in the hands of man alone, as he has the other portions of the Scriptures; but with his voice proclaimed it, and with his finger wrote it in tables of stone, which, during the Jewish dispensation were placed within the second vail of the Sanctuary, the holiest place on earth. But where shall we look for this TESTIMONY in the present dispensation? Answer. In its proper place, in God's Sanctuary in heaven. It was also to be put into the mind, and written in the hearts of the people of God by the Holy Spirit. There is no Sanctuary recognized under the gospel as the Lord's, but the "True Tabernacle" in heaven, of which Christ is a Minister or Priest. See Heb. viii—x. The heavenly Sanctuary is perfect in all its parts. It is called "a greater and more perfect Tabernacle." See Heb. ix, 11. If we would be correctly instructed as to its apartments and furniture, we should study well the Scriptures which speak of67the earthly Sanctuary, for when Moses was about to make it, God shewed to him in holy vision, the heavenly Sanctuary, and said to him, "See that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount." This caution was repeated to Moses, even while receiving instruction how to make such small vessels of the Sanctuary as the golden lamps, tongs and snuffers. See Ex. xxv, 40. From these facts, and many more of the same nature that might be presented, we conclude that the Temple of God in heaven contains the Ark of the testimony, the ten commandments; and this conclusion is backed up by a plain thus saith the Lord. "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ARK of his testament. Rev. xi, 19. "And after that I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the TESTIMONY [Holiest of all, which contained the testimony,] in heaven was opened." Chap. xv, 5. The revelation of Jesus Christ to his servant John, while in the Isle Patmos, was A. D. 96. This was twenty-six years after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Therefore, the "Ark," and the "tabernacle of the testimony," of which St John speaks, must belong to the heavenly Sanctuary. THE TABERNACLE OF THE TESTIMONY can refer to nothing but to that apartment in the "True Tabernacle" containing the Ark of God's testimony, which is the "holiest of all." The ARK OF HIS TESTAMENT can refer to nothing but to the Ark now in that apartment which contains the TESTIMONY that Jehovah delivered when he descended upon Mount Sinai in fire.—Will those who differ with us on these points just give a more harmonious exposition of them. How cheering and glorious is the sublime thought, to all who love the holy law of God, that in the heaven of heavens, the High and Holy One has placed the ten commandments beside his own Holiness.