human nature, could adoration and supplication be fully called out. Nay, the idea of

supplication would only be properly realised after the outpouring of the Spirit of

adoption, whereby the people of God also became the children of God. Hence it is not

correct to designate sacrifices as 'prayers without words.' The sacrifices were in no

sense prayers, but rather the preparation for prayer. The Tabernacle was, as its Hebrew

designation shows, the place 'of meeting' between God and Israel; the sacrificial service,

that which made such meeting possible; and the priest (as the root of the word implies),

he who brought Israel near to God. Hence prayer could only follow after the sacrifice;

and its appropriate symbol and time was the burning of incense. This view is expressed

in the words: 'Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense' (Psa 141:2), and

authoritatively confirmed in Revelation 5:8, where we read of the 'golden vials full of

incense, which are the prayers of saints.'

It is this burning of incense which in the Gospel is alluded to in connection with the

birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:9). Zacharias had come up from the hill country of

Judea, from the neighbourhood of priestly Hebron, to minister in the Temple. His

course--that of Abia --was on duty for the week, and the 'house of his fathers' for that

special day. More than that, the lot had fallen on Zacharias for the most honourable

service in the daily ministry --that of burning the incense on the golden altar within the

Holy Place. For the first time in his life, and for the last, would this service devolve on

him. As the pious old priest ministered within the Holy Place, he saw with such

distinctness that he could afterwards describe the very spot, Gabriel standing, as if he

had just come out from the Most Holy Place, between the altar and the table of

shewbread, 'on the right side of the altar.' So far as we know, this was the first and only

angelic appearance in the Temple. For we cannot attach serious importance to the

tradition that, during the forty years of his pontificate, an angel always accompanied

Simeon the Just, when on the Day of Atonement he entered and left the Most Holy

Place, except the last year, when the angel left him in the Sanctuary, to show that this

was to be the end of his ministry . What passed between Gabriel and Zacharias is beside

our present purpose. Suffice it to notice several details incidentally mentioned in this

narrative, such as that a special lot was cast for this ministry; that the priest was alone in

the Holy Place while burning the incense; and that 'the whole multitude of the people

were praying without at the time of incense.'

The lot for burning the incense was, as we have seen, the third by which the order of the

ministry for the day was determined. The first lot, which in reality had been cast before

the actual break of day, was that to designate the various priests who were to cleanse

the altar and to prepare its fires. The first of the priests on whom this lot had fallen

immediately went out. His brethren reminded him where the silver chafing-dish was

deposited, and not to touch any sacred vessel till he had washed his hands and feet. He

took no light with him; the fire of the altar was sufficient for his office. Hands and feet

were washed by laying the right hand on the right foot, and the left hand on the left. 85

The sound of the machinery, as it filled the laver with water, admonished the others to

be in readiness. This machinery had been made by Ben Catin, who also altered the laver

so that twelve priests could at the same time perform their ablutions. Otherwise the laver

resembled that in the Temple of Solomon. It was of brass. All the vessels in the

Sanctuary were of metal, the only exception being the altar of burnt-offering, which was

solid, and wholly of stones taken from virgin soil, that had not been defiled by any tool

of iron. The stones were fastened together by mortar, pitch, and molten lead. The

measurement of the altar is differently given by Josephus and the Rabbis. It seems to