God commanded His chosen people purity in everything: purity of food, unmixed woven clothes, washing from uncleanness, and purity in the metals they employed, as symbolical of purity of heart. The refining of metals is frequently mentioned and applied spiritually, while other nations, such as the Phoenicians and Midianites, employed alloys. The smelting of these when obtained from pagan nations is always enforced; for alloys, like whatsoever mixture, symbolized sin. Pagan nations employed the precious metals, principally on account of their superior value, for their idols; not for the sake of purity, for they likewise had idols of less value of brass, iron, stone and wood. On their leaving Egypt, the Jews were commanded: "Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold." (Ex. xx, 23.) See also Ps. cxv, 4; Is. ii, 20; xl, 19; Zech. xiii, 9. The weights of the metals offered to Moses for the making of the tabernacle were: gold 1,750 shekels; silver 100 talents 1,775 shekels; brass (copper) 70 talents 2,400 shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, double the ordinary one. Mention is made of gold in 383 verses of the Old Testament; of silver, in 263 verses; of iron in 82; of lead in 7; of tin in 4. The thanks of the meeting having been passed to the author, the Chairman invited discussion. DISCUSSION. The SECRETARY (Professor HULL, F.R.S.) said he would have great pleasure in conveying the thanks of the meeting to the distinguished author of the paper. He had himself, at the request of Mr. Spottiswoode, some years ago, tried to determine the representatives at the present day of the precious stones of Aaron's breastplate; but without much success. Of one stone, "the diamond," he felt confident that the translation ought to have been rock crystal or quartz, as the diamond (adamant) being the hardest of all stones, it must have been used for engraving the names of the tribes on the other stones. Then again it was remarkable that the turquoise was not mentioned, although the turquoise mines were worked at Sarabit-el-Khadim in the Sinaitic peninsula by the Pharaohs before the Exodus. These mines are in the "Nubian Sandstone" formation, and have been investigated and described by the officers of the Ordnance Survey of Sinai, in their magnificent volumes, and more recently by Professor Flinders Petrie. The turquoise being a blue stone, it was probably the same as that designated as the "sapphire." The author had bestowed great labour on this paper-and probably there is nothing more to be said on the subject. REMARKS BY LIEUT.-COLONEL MACKINLAY. With reference to the words "a land whose stones are iron " (Deut. viii, 9), it has been remarked that no iron ore is to be found. in Palestine; but the promised land extends from the Nile, the Mediterranean Sea and Lebanon to the Euphrates (Gen. xv, 18, Deut. i, 7, xi, 24), and in that larger district it is most probable that iron ore exists. The metals lead and tin are only alluded to nine and five times respectively in the Scriptures; but gold, silver, brass (or copper) and iron are often mentioned, gold about 400 times, silver some 260 times, brass (or copper) and iron a little more and a little less than 100 times each respectively. This order of value is observed in the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, also apparently in Is. lx, 17, and in the tabernacle in the wilderness the first three metals come in the same order. Gold and silver have long been known as the noble metals, because they do not oxidize, etc. Gold is the emblem of glory: thus we find the boards of the tabernacle covered with gold and the vessels within also of gold; the heathen made gods of silver and gold (Is. ii, 20, Ps. cxv, 4), and a crown of pure gold is set on the King's head (Ps. xxi, 3). Silver has pre-eminently been used for money (the French word argent being synonymous with money): Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver, the Lord Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Each Hebrew was redeemed with half a silver shekel (Ex. xxx, 13-15); thus silver stands typically for redemption or atonement, and we find that much of the silver of the atonement money was used for the sockets on which the gold-covered boards of the tabernacle rested (Ex. xxxviii, 25–27), thus indicating that Jehovah's glory, revealed to man, is founded in atonement. Brass (or copper) and iron indicate judgment, hard affliction, severity and strength; thus the serpent made by Moses and raised up on a pole was of brass: and the brazen sockets of the outer court of the tabernacle, Ex. xxvi, 37, xxvii, 10, speak of judgment. "Your heaven as iron and your earth as brass " (Lev. xxvi, 19), denotes severe afflictions; breaking and ruling "with a rod of iron," (Ps. ii, 9, Rev. ii, 27) indicates severity; "bones like bars of iron (Job xl, 18), and "gates of brass and bars of iron" (Ps. cvii, 16) denote strength. STATEMENT BY THE AUTHOR, JULY 14TH, 1905. Dr. Pumpell, in excavating the abundant ruins of Anan, near Askabad in Turkestan, found beads of lapis lazuli, carnelian and turquoise. This dates back to the remotest antiquity, but I do not know of sapphires in any remains of Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek or Roman cities. Askabad is not far from the Caspian Sea. It is not far from Central Asia, where I believe many once great cities lie buried under blown sands of what was, in the earliest ages, the great inland sea of Central Asia. Surely, as at Nineveh and Babylon we shall shortly learn an immense deal about their building materials, as well as their economic mineralogy. Possibly these cities may be even partly antediluvian. President. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF HALSBURY, LORD CHANCELLOR, D.C.L., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents. SIR T. FOWELL BUXTON, BART., K.C.M.G. W. H. HUDLESTON, ESQ., F.R.S., Past Pres. of Geological Society. DAVID HOWARD, ESQ., D.L., F.C.S., F.I.C., f.c. (Trustee). Honorary Correspondents. THE RIGHT HON. LORD KELVIN, PAST P.R.S. PROF. A. AGASSIZ, D.C.L., F.R.S. | PROF. A. H. SAYCE, D.D., LL.D. PROF. E. NAVILLE (Geneva). PROF. MASPERO (Paris). PROF. FRIDTJOF NANSEN, D.Sc. Secretary and Editor of the Journal. Council. (In Order of Election.) REV. PRINCIPAL JAMES H. RIGG, D.D. REV. DR. F. W. TREMLETT, D.D., D.C.L., PH.D. VERY REV. H. WACE, D.D., Dean of Canterbury (Trustee). REV. CHANCELLOR J. J. LIAS, M.A. GENERAL G. S. HALLOWES, f.c. CAPTAIN E. W. CREAK, C.B., R.N., F.R.S. REV. CANON R. B. GIRDLESTONE, M.A. THEO. G. PINCHES, ESQ., LL.D., M.R.A.S. VEN. ARCHDEACON W. M. SINCLAIR, M.A., D.D. REV. CANON TRISTRAM, M.A., D.D., LL.D., F.R.S. EDWARD STANLEY M. PEROWNE, ESQ. REV. R. ASHINGTON BULLEN, B.A., F.G.S. REV. JOHN TUCKWELL, M.R.A.S. MAJOR KINGSLEY O. FOSTER, J.P., F.R.A.S. COLONEL T. HOLBEIN HENDLEY, C.I.E. |