ABSTRACT
The Tabernacle in the Wilderness, Israel’s earliest place of worship, was a thing of wonder. A fragrant atmosphere, scenting the camp and lending sweetness to the desert air. The whole experience of the Israelites in the wilderness was wonderful, romantic, with God ever moving among them, with miracles repeating themselves day after day, with a Divine government the like of which mankind has never seen. The oil, fragrant with the myrrh, and the cinnamon, and the cassia, clinging to the vessels and furniture of the Holy place, sent forth its sweet breath and perfumed the entire camp. There is a legend which declares that the holy anointing oil which Moses made in the Wilderness lasted until the fall of the Temple, sufficing for the needs of many centuries without suffering the smallest diminution. The perfume clings to the fragments of the shattered vase; the cherished dead speak to us as of old; their memory abides with us, a never-failing benediction.
