In the Most Holy Place of the Temple of Solomon there were two cherubic figures, which stood opposite to each other, with wings outstretched over the Ark of the Covenant. Each of these had four faces, which were so ordered that four different faces of the eight should look down upon the caphporeth, coverlid, mercyseat, or propitiatory. By this arrangement, the face of the lion, of the ox, of the man, and of the eagle, all looked upon the coverlid on which was sprinkled the sacrificial blood of the great day. Though the number of the cherubim varies, the faces are always four. In the temple there was one body to four faces. Ezekiel saw four bodies with four faces each, and John saw four bodies, each body having one face. But though the number of the bodies differed, they were only the subdivisions of a general whole.

The faces are the faces of the Spirit. The show-bread placed on the golden table in the holy place is styled "the bread of the Faces taken from before the Faces of Yahweh," when it was given by the priest to David (1 Sam. xxi. 6). The faces of Yahweh were the cherubim faces over against the table embroidered on the curtain of the tabernacle. They symbolized the Spirit in flesh-manifestation and were therefore the faces of the Spirit.

Now collectively the saints are an encampment, and are so represented in Apoc. xx. 9; where it is stated, that the rebel nations at the close of the Millennium go up against their "camp." As the saints are "the Israel of the Deity;" and though by the accident of birth multitudes of them were once Gentiles, yet by adoption through Jesus were grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel; they necessarily partake of its national organization. The camp of the saints, then, has its ensigns in conformity with those of the four camps into which the twelve tribes were distributed, whose captains or princes they become. From Numb. ii we learn that the whole host of Israel was marshalled about four standards: the first, that of Judah; the second, of Reuben; the third, of Ephraim; and the fourth, of Dan; and in the midst of these four grand divisions was the camp of the priests and saints, and in their midst the tabernacle, in which was the throne of Yahweh over the Mercy Seat and between the Cherubim. Now, of these several camps of fighting men the following were their ensigns: first, the Lion, which symbolized the camp of Judah; second, the Man that of Reuben; third, the Ox that of Ephraim; and fourth, the Eagle for the camp of Dan. Hence it is that the Lamb in Apoc. v. 5, is styled "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah." Being descended from that tribe, and the King of the nation too, the royalty of which belongs to Judah, he is symbolized by the ensign; and as the king is thus designated, so all his brethren, the saints, are apocalyptically divided into camps about the throne; each camp being represented by a living one; and the ensigns of the camps borrowed from the nation they are to rule. And that the reader may not erroneously suppose that the four living ones represent the fleshly descendants of Abraham, their standards are enumerated after a different order; it being first, the lion; second, the ox; third, the man; and fourth, a flying eagle.

Apocalyptically, then, we have the whole multitude of resurrected and accepted saints marshalled into four camps in the midst of, and circling about the throne; and according to the law, "every man of the children of Israel pitching by his own standard with the ensign of his father’s house." There will be the east camp composed of three gates, or tribes; on the north three; on the south three; and on the west three (xxi. 12,13); all ready to go forth following the Head to the place it may indicate (Ezek. x. 11) on the mission of the chariots and horses, of which we have treated already in Vol. I, chap. I, sec. i, 5d. In the new song they sing they say, "We shall reign on the earth;" not "we do reign." They go forth energized by the spirit to establish their dominion, and to fill the earth with glory; so that when their victory is complete they may as royal priests of the Deity, cast the coronal wreaths they have acquired before the throne; that he who sits upon it, whom in their wars they will have followed whithersoever he led them, may receive the glory and honor and power; for the reason that he has "created all things, and for his pleasure they are and were created."