The first altar mentioned in the Word was the one built by Noah after he came out of the ark, after being saved from the great flood. On that altar, he sacrificed clean animals to the Lord.

Mountains represent the Lord because of their height; we need to raise our thoughts above worldly things when "talking" with the Lord. An altar is a small artificial mountain. When it's used in worship, it can call to mind this raising of thought. The fire and smoke that rise from an altar are symbolically being sent to the Lord.

Most altars were made from unhewn stones. Stones represent truths. Unhewn stones - ones that have not been shaped by men - represent truths from the Word, truths that have not been adulterated.

The clean beasts to be sacrificed represent good things, charitable acts done because they are right. The clean birds represent thoughts about doctrine and actions, and about what is right. Presenting these things is an acknowledgment that we have them from the Lord, and a giving thanks to Him for them.

In the Israelitish Tabernacle, the altar of burnt offering represented the acknowledgment of good and the altar of incense that of truth. For this reason this larger altar, which was outside by the door, was made of brass which signifies natural good, while the altar of incense was made of gold, which signifies love to the Lord from whom comes truth.

108. Whenever the most ancient people compared man to a garden they would also compare wisdom and everything connected with it to rivers. Yet they did not merely compare but actually called them such since it was characteristic of their speech to do so. At a later time the Prophets in a similar way sometimes compared them, and sometimes actually called them, by these names, as in Isaiah,

Your light will rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness will be as the daylight; and you will be like a watered garden and like a spring of waters whose waters fail not. Isaiah 58:10-11.

This refers to people who receive love and faith. Also,

Like valleys that are planted, like gardens beside a river, like aloes ¹ Jehovah has planted, like cedars beside the waters. Numbers 24:6.

This refers to people who are regenerate. In Jeremiah,

Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah. He will be like a tree planted beside the waters, which will send out its roots above the stream. Jeremiah 17:7-8.

An instance of regenerate people not being compared to, but actually being called, a garden and a tree beside the rivers occurs in Ezekiel,

The waters caused it to grow, the depth of the waters made it grow tall, the river leading around the place of its planting, and he sent out his lines of water to all the trees of the field. It became beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, for its root was towards many waters. The cedars did not overshadow it in the garden of God, the fir trees were not equal to its branches, and the plane trees were not like its boughs. No tree in the garden of God was equal to it in its beauty. I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden which are in the garden of God envied it. Ezekiel 31:4, 7-9.

From these quotations it is clear that when the most ancient people likened man, or what is the same, the things that are in man, to a garden, they also added the waters and rivers by which it was watered, and that by 'waters and rivers' they understood the things which would cause growth.

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