made according to the order given in Exodus, contained twelve precious stones—four rows, with three in each. In the first were, the sardius, topaz, and carbuncle; in the second, the emerald, sapphire, and diamond; the third contained the ligure, agate, and amethyst; the fourth, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were all to be set in gold in their inclosings, with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, and the stones, thus placed in due order on the ephod, formed the breast-plate of Aaron, and was called the breast-plate of judgment. Thus Urim and Thummim, as being composed of precious stones, denote all the varieties of good and truth perceived by man in the literal sense of the Word of God, in one universal complex, translucent and brilliant from the Divine Love and Wisdom within.
There can be no loving worship of God our Father, but that which springs from the heart, for then it issues from the very seat of life; and there can be no true worship as to doctrine and faith, unless grounded in an enlightened understanding, in which the thoughts and perceptions of the mind are, as it were, lit up by the light and wisdom of heaven. O how sweet is such worship! how instructive! how delightful! Such worship opens heaven to the soul. It exhibits all the varied states of the will and intellect of the worshippers, and each receives the very desire of his heart. To teach us that his perpetual presence is in the worship that springs from love and truth in union, the Lord commanded the Urim and Thummim to be placed upon Aaron's heart when he went in before the Lord, and that he should "bear the judgment of the
