Part 2 (1/2)
Gorgeous and magnificent must have been the spectacle presented by that ancient mult.i.tude of Israel, as they tabernacled in the wilderness of Sinai. These steril solitudes are now seldom trodden by the foot of man, and the adventurous traveller who toils up their rugged steeps can scarce picture to himself a host sojourning there, so wild, so barren is the place, so fearful are the precipices, so dismal the ravines. On the spot where ”Moses talked with G.o.d” the grey and mouldering remnants of a convent attest the religious veneration and zeal of some of whom these ruins are the only memorial; and near them is a small chapel dedicated to the Virgin, while religious hands have crowned even the summit of the steep ascent by ”a house of prayer;” and at the foot of the sister peak, h.o.r.eb, is an ancient Greek convent, founded by the Emperor Justinian 1400 years ago, which is occupied still by some harmless recluses, the monotony of whose lives is only broken by the few and far between visits of the adventurous traveller, or the more frequent and startling interruptions of the wild Arabs on their predatory expeditions.
But neither church nor temple of any sort, nor inquiring traveller, nor prowling Arab, varied the tremendous grandeur of the scene, when the Israelitish host encamped there. Weary and toilsome had been the pilgrimage from the base of the mountain where the desolation was unrelieved by a trace of vegetation, to the upper country or wilderness, called more particularly, ”the Desert of Sinai,” where narrow intersecting valleys, not dest.i.tute of verdure, cherished perhaps the lofty and refres.h.i.+ng palm. Here in the ravines, in the valleys, and amid the clefts of the rocks, cl.u.s.tered the hosts of Israel, while around them on every side arose lofty summits and towering precipices, where the eye that sought to scan their fearful heights was lost in the far-off dimness. Far, far around, spread this savage wilderness, so frowning, and dreary, and desolate, that any curious explorer beyond the precincts of the camp would quickly return to the _home_ which its vicinity afforded even there.
Cl.u.s.tered closely as bees in a hive were the tents of the wandering race, yet with an order and a uniformity which even the unpropitious nature of the locality was not permitted to break; for, separated into tribes, each one, though sufficiently connected for any object of kindness or brotherhood, for public wors.h.i.+p, or social intercourse, was inalienably distinct.
And in the midst, extending from east to west, a length of fifty-five feet, was reared the splendid Tabernacle. For G.o.d had said, ”Let them make me a Sanctuary, that I may dwell among them;” and behold, ”they came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold; and every man that offered, offered an offering of gold unto the Lord.
And every man with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and red skins of rams, and badgers'
skins, brought them. Every one that did offer an offering of silver and bra.s.s brought the Lord's offering: and every man with whom was found s.h.i.+ttim-wood for any work of the service brought it. And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose hearts stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair. And the rulers brought onyx-stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate; and spice, and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.”
And all these materials, which the ”willing-hearted” offered in such abundance that proclamation was obliged to be made through the camp to stop their influx, had been wrought under the superintendence of Bezaleel and Aholiab, who were divinely inspired for the task; and the Tabernacle was now completed, with the exception of some of the finest needlework, which had not yet received the finis.h.i.+ng touches.
But what was already done bore ample testimony to the skill, the taste, and the industry of the ”wise-hearted” daughters of Israel. The outer covering of the Tabernacle, or that which lay directly over the framework of boards of which it was constructed, and hung from the roof down the sides and west end, was formed of tabash skins; over this was another covering of ram-skins dyed red; a hanging made of goats' hair, such as is still used in the tents of the Bedouin Arabs, had been spun and woven by the matrons of the congregation, to hang over the skins; and these substantial draperies were beautifully concealed by a first or inner covering of fine linen. On this the more youthful women had embroidered figures of cherubim in scarlet, purple, and light blue, entwined with gold. They had made also sacerdotal vestments, the ”coats of fine linen” worn by all the priests, which, when old, were unravelled, and made into wicks burnt in the feast of tabernacles. They had made the ”girdles of needlework,” which were long, very long pieces of fine twined linen (carried several times round the body), and were embroidered with flowers in blue, and purple, and scarlet: the ”robe of the ephod” also for the high priest, of light blue, and elaborately wrought round the bottom in pomegranates; and the plain ephods for the priests.
But now the sun was declining in the western sky, and the busy artificers of all sorts were relaxing from the toil of the day.
In a retired spot, apart from the noise of the camp, paced one in solitary meditation. Stalwart he was in frame, majestic in bearing; he trod the earth like one of her princes; but the loftiness of his demeanour was forgotten when you looked on the surpa.s.sing benignity of his countenance. Each accidental pa.s.ser hushed his footstep and lowered his voice as he approached; more, as it should seem, from involuntary awe and reverence than from any understood prohibition.
But with some of these loiterers a child of some four or five summers, in earnest chase after a brilliant fly, whose golden wings glittered in the sunlight, heedlessly pursued it even to the very path of the Solitary, and to the interruption of his walk. Hastily, and somewhat peremptorily, the father calls him away. The stranger looks up, and casting a glance around, from an eye to whose brilliance that of the eagle would look dim, he for the first time sees the little intruder.
Gently placing a hand on the child's head, ”Bless thee,” he said, in a voice whose every tone was melody: ”Bless thee, little one; the blessing of the G.o.d of Israel be upon thee,” and calmly resumed his walk. The child, as if awed, mutely returned to his friends, who, after casting a glance of reverence and admiration, returned to the camp.
Here, scattered all around, are groups occupied in those varied kinds of busy idleness which will naturally engage the moments of an intelligent mult.i.tude at the close of an active day. Here a knot of men in the pride of manhood, whose flas.h.i.+ng eyes have lost none of their fire, whose raven locks are yet not varied by a single silver line, are talking politics--such politics as the warlike men of Israel would talk, when discoursing of the promised land and the hostile hosts through whose serried ranks they must cut their intrepid way thither, and whom, impatient of all delay, they burn to engage. Here were elder ones, ”whose natural force” was in some degree ”abated,”
and who were lamenting the decree, however justly incurred, which forbade them to lay their bones in the land of their lifelong hope; and here was a patriarch, bowed down with the weight of years, whose silver hairs lay on his shoulders, whose snow-white beard flowed upon his breast, who as he leaned upon his staff was recounting to his rapt auditors the dealing of Jehovah with his people in ancient days; how the Most High visited his father Abraham, and had sworn unto Jacob that his seed should be brought out of captivity, and revisit the promised land. ”And behold,” said the old man, ”it will now come to pa.s.s.”
But what is pa.s.sing in that detached portion of the camp? who sojourn in yonder tents which attract more general attention than all the others, and in which all ages and degrees seem interested? Now a group of females are there, eagerly conversing; anon a Hebrew mother leads her youthful and beautiful daughter, and seems to incite her to remain there; now a h.o.a.ry priest enters, and in a few moments returns pondering; and anon a trio of more youthful Levites with pleased and animated countenances return from the same spot.
On a sudden is every eye turned thitherward; for he who just now paced the solitary glade--none other than the chosen leader of G.o.d's host, the majestic lawgiver, the meekest and the mightiest of all created beings--he likewise wends his way to these attractive tents. With him enters Aaron, a venerable man, with h.o.a.ry beard and flowing white robes; and follow him a majestic-looking female who was wont to lead the solemn dance--Miriam the sister of Aaron; and a youth of heroic bearing, in the springtime of that life whose maturity was spent in leading the chosen race to conquest in the promised land.
With proud and pleased humility did the fair inmates of those tents, the most accomplished of Israel's daughters, display to their ill.u.s.trious visitors the ”fine needlework” to which their time and talents had been for a long season devoted, and which was now on the eve of completion. The ”holy garments” which G.o.d had commanded to be made ”for glory and for beauty;” the pomegranates on the hem of the high priest's robe, wrought in blue and purple and scarlet; the flowers on his ”girdle of needlework,” glowing as in life; the border on the ephod, in which every varied colour was shaded off into a rich and delicate tracery of gold; and above all, that exquisite work, the most beautiful of all their productions--the veil which separated the ”Holy of Holies,” the place where the Most High vouchsafed his especial presence, where none but the high priest might presume to enter, and he but once a year, from the remaining portions of the Tabernacle. This beautiful hanging was of fine white linen, but the original fabric was hardly discernible amid the gorgeous tracery with which it was inwrought. The whole surface was covered with a profusion of flowers, intermixed with fanciful devices of every sort, except such as might represent the forms of animals--these were rigidly excluded. Cherubims seemed to be hovering around and grasping its gorgeous folds; and if tradition and history be to be credited, this drapery merited, if ever the production of the needle did merit, the epithet which English talent has since rendered cla.s.sical, ”_Needlework Sublime_.”
Long, despite the advancing shades of evening, would the visitors have lingered untired to comment upon this beautiful production, but one said, ”Behold!” and immediately all, following the direction of his outstretched arm, looked towards the Tabernacle. There a thin spiral flame is seen to gleam palely through the pillar of smoke; but perceptibly it increases, and even while the eye is fixed it waxes stronger and brighter, and quickly though gradually the smoke has melted away, and a tall vivid flame of fire is in its place. Higher and taller it aspires: its spiral flame waxes broader and broader, ascends higher and higher, gleams brighter and brighter, till it mingles in the very vault of heaven, with the beams of the setting sun which bathe in crimson fire the summits of Sinai.
In the eastern sky the stars gleam brightly in the pure transparent atmosphere; and ere long the moon casts pale radiant beams adown the dark ravines, and utters her wondrous lore to the silent hills and the gloomy waste. The sounds of toil are hushed; the weary labourer seeks repose; the toil-worn wanderer is at rest: the murmuring sounds of domestic life sink lower and lower; the breath of prayer becomes fainter and fainter; the voice of praise, the evensong of Israel, comes stealing through the calm of evening, and now dies softly away.
Nought is heard but the pa.s.sword of the sentinels; the far-off shriek of the bat as it flaps its wings beneath the shadow of some fearful precipice; or the scream of the eagle, which, wheeling round the lofty summits of the mountain, closes in less and lesser circles, till, as the last faint gleam of evening is lost in the dark horizon, it drops into its eyrie.
The moon and the stars keep their eternal watch; the beacon-light of G.o.d's immediate presence flames unchanged by time or chance. It may be that the appointed earthly shepherd of that chosen flock pa.s.ses the still hours of night and solitude in communion with his G.o.d; but silence is over the wilderness, and the children of Israel are at rest.
CHAPTER IV.
NEEDLEWORK OF THE EGYPTIANS.
”How is thy glory, Egypt, pa.s.s'd away!
Weep, child of ruin, o'er thy humbled name!
The wreck alone that marks thy deep decay Now tells the story of thy former fame!”
There can be little doubt that the Jewish maidens were beholden to their residence in Egypt for that perfectness of finish in embroidery which was displayed so worthily in the service of the Tabernacle.
Egypt was at this time the seat of science, of art, and learning; for it was thought the highest summary which could be given of Moses'