Its Material

A laver of brass, and his foot also of brass. Brass is the emblem of strength: and Christ, as our sanctification, is the strong one, mighty to sanctify as well as mighty to save. Precious and encouraging truth! How many are there who trust in Christ for their salvation, but have recourse to their own efforts, or to the law, for sanctification! Justification by the faith of Christ is the doctrine of the Reformation but sanctification by the faith of Christ, how little apprehended! How little have our souls entered into the depth and fullness of those words of Jesus to Paul, with the thorn rankling in his flesh, “My grace is sufficient for thee; my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
There is power in the example of his life; constraining power in his dying and redeeming love; power in looking unto Jesus glorified at God’s right hand above. And Stephen found it so. Power in the Spirit sent down from this ascended one. The secret of power in the Christian experience is having Christ “all” as our object, “and in all” as our life.
In Exodus 38:8, we read, “And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the looking-glasses (or rather brazen mirrors) of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tent of the congregation.”
This, doubtless, is significant, and intimates a connection between self-examination and sanctification. James writes, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” (James 1:22-25.)
Christ, in his life on earth, left us an example that we should follow in his steps. And it is well to compare our walk and life with his. The foot of the laver was made of burnished brass.
But sanctification to the believer now is especially and effectually connected with the contemplation of Christ, once crucified, but now risen and glorified, as exhibited in the mirror of the word, through the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Real and divine photography: “Now the Lord,” &c.