“I must borrow the carpenter’s tools,” observed Lucius; “I can’t do all that with my knife. I see that I have a long, difficult job before me.”
“Do you give it up?” cried little Elsie, looking up archly into the face of her brother.
“Not I!” said the schoolboy proudly. “The harder the work, the more glorious is success!”
“What are those objects in the court of the Tabernacle?” asked Amy, who had been thoughtfully examining the picture.
“That large square object with grating on the top, from which smoke is rising, is the Altar of burnt-offering,” said the lady. “Through the grating the ashes of animals that had been slain as sacrifices fell into a cavity below. The projections which you see at the four corners are called the horns of the altar, of which you read in various parts of the Bible.”
[Illustration: THE ALTAR OF BURNT OFFERING.
“Was it not an Altar of burnt-offering that Elijah made on Mount Carmel,” asked Dora, “when he cut the dead bullock in pieces and prayed to the Lord till fire was sent down from heaven?”
“Yes,” answered her mother, “but that altar was not like the one in the picture. Elijah built his up quickly; it was merely formed of twelve stones. The altar made by the Israelites in the desert was framed of wood, and covered with brass. It was nearly eight feet square, and was reached, not by steps, but by a sloping bank of earth.”
“And what is that very large vase farther on in the picture?” asked Amy.
“That is meant for the Brazen Laver, to hold water for the priests to wash in. This laver was made of brass which the women of Israel offered. Do any of my girls remember what articles had been made before of that brass?”
The party were silent for a few seconds, and then Amy said, with a blush on her cheek, “The mirrors of the women, mamma.” The little girl was inclined to be vain of her looks, and her mother, who had noticed how much of her Amy’s time was foolishly spent before a glass, had drawn her attention, some days before that of which I write, to a fact which has been thought worthy of mention in the Bible. The women of Israel had the self-denial to give up the brazen mirrors—which were to them what glass mirrors, are to us—to form a laver for the use of the priests when engaged in the service of God.