more general sense as meaning " all eyes," that is, the eyes of God, and of the holy angels, and of men, all directed toward Him thus symbolised by the Foundation Stone, as the object of love and of admiration, of yearning desire and hope.
But it seems to me that the view adopted by most of the modern scholars, namely, that there were actually seven eyes carved, or engraven, on this stone of vision, is most probably the correct one, in which case the thing signified by the symbol would be the manifold intelligence or omniscience of this " Living Stone " the seven reminding us of the sevenfold plenitude of the One Spirit of Jehovah, " the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Jehovah," which should rest upon Him, and which was so wonderfully fulfilled in Him whom the New Testa ment seer beheld as the Lamb which had been slain " having seven horns (all power) and seven eyes (omnis cience), which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth " (Rev. v. 6).
" For this stone to have seven eyes," says one of the Fathers, " is to retain in operation the whole virtue of the Spirit of sevenfold grace. For, according to the distribution of the Holy Spirit, one receives prophecy, another know ledge, another miracles, another kinds of tongues, another interpretation of words; but no one attaineth to have all the gifts of that same Spirit. But our Creator taketh on Him our infirmities, because through the power of His Divinity He showed that He had at once in Him all the virtues of the Holy Spirit, uniting beyond doubt the bright gleams of the sevenfold constellation."[1]
The next sentence in this verse, hineni mepJiateach pituchah "Behold I will grave the graving thereof" is probably not unconnected with the words which we have just considered, and denotes, as it seems to me, that what the prophet had seen on the stone of vision, God Himself would accomplish in the day of fulfilment.
- ↑ St. Gregory, quoted by Pusey.
