1. K. 8 : 1** THEN Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ houses of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. And they brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; even these did the priests and the Levites bring up. And king Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled unto him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor numbered for multitude. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the staves thereof above. And the staves were so long that the ends of the staves were seen from the holy place before the oracle; but they were not seen without: and there they are, unto this day. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

2. Chron. 5 : 11** And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place (for all the priests that were present had sanctified themselves, and did not keep their courses; also the Levites which were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brethren, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with

13 trumpets) : it came even to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD ; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good ; for his mercy endureth for ever : that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud : for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

2. Chron. 6 : 1 Then spake Solomon, The LORD hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. But I have built thee an house of habitation, and a place for thee to dwell in forever. And the king turned his face, and blessed all the congregation of Israel : and all the congregation of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hands fulfilled it, saying, Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there ; neither chose I any man to be prince over my people Israel : but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there ; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. But the LORD said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart : nevertheless thou shalt not build the house ; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake ; for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. And there have I set the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Eleven months after its completion, the formal dedication of the Temple took place. The delay gave time for thought and impression concerning its purpose, and so aided the fitting preparation for an occasion so intensely solemn, instructive, and joyful. According to Usher, this was the ninth Jubilee, or period of fifty years, opening the fourth thousand of the years since man’s creation, or A.M. 3001. The festival of Dedication continued seven days, and occurred in late October, just before the feast of tabernacles. The elders, heads of tribes, and chiefs of families, were specially summoned by Solomon to take part with him, as representatives of the people. And an immense multitude of the congregation of Israel also joined in the service. The transaction is preceded and closed by the offering of sacrifices.

This transaction (as recorded in the eighth chapter of 1 Kings) falls into three acts. The solemn removal of the ark and the other furniture of the old sanctuary into the newly-built temple forms the first act (verses 1-21). The noble prayer of Solomon, that the Lord would connect with the temple the fulfilment of all the promises made to his people, and thereby make it the true place of the revelation of his covenant grace and truth, forms the second (verses 22-61). The act of offering makes the third, which is described in verses 62-66. The first of these three acts [included in the present section] contains two elements : the transfer of the ark into the holy of holies, and of the old sanctuary and its furniture into the new temple ; and the words in which Solomon celebrated the entrance of the Lord into the new temple. Keil.

A profound religious interest gathers about the scenes of the dedication of this temple. Both our authors (i.e., of Kings and of Chronicles) give the details of this service, and with little variation and in very considerable fulness, narrating the sacrifices that preceded and that followed ; the introductory address of Solomon to the assembled people (1 K. 8 : 12-21), and then the consecrating prayer (verses 22-53), and the closing benediction upon the people (verses 54-61). The service must have been in the highest degree impressive and sublime. Every word seems to be perfect in adaptation to the great purpose and the grand occasion. H. C.

The temple and its courts being completed, the solemn dedication took place, with the greatest magnificence which the king and the nation could display. All the chieftains of the different tribes, and all of every order who could be brought together, assembled. David had already organized the priesthood and the Levites ; assigned to the 38,000 of the latter tribe, each his particular office. Twenty-four thousand were appointed for the common duties, 6000 as officers, 4000 as guards and porters, 4000 as singers and musicians. On this great occasion, the dedication of the temple, all the tribe of Levi, without regard to their courses, the whole priestly order of every class, attended. Around the great brazen altar, which rose in the court of the priests before the door of the temple, stood-in front the sacrificers, all around the whole choir, arrayed in white linen. One hundred and twenty of these were trumpeters, the rest had cymbals, harps, and psalteries. Solomon himself took his place on an elevated scaffold, or raised throne of brass. The whole assembled nation crowded the spacious courts beyond. The ceremony began with the preparation of burnt-offerings, so numerous that they could not be counted. At an appointed signal commenced the more important part of the scene, the removal of the ark, the installation of the God of Israel in his new and appropriate dwelling, to the sound of all the voices and all the instruments, chanting some of those splendid odes, the 47th, 97th, 98th, and 107th Psalms. The ark advanced, borne by the Levites, to the open portals of the temple. It can scarcely be doubted that the 24th Psalm, even if composed before, was adopted and used on this occasion. Milman.

The temple courts could not have contained a tithe of the crowds who claimed admittance. Then, as in previous ages, representatives of the people stood for the whole nation. But the higher slopes of Olivet, only five or eight hundred yards off, furnished room for many myriads to see and almost to hear the grand proceedings as distinctly as the spectators in the courts. The whole congregation, crowning the hill-top in dense masses, looked down on king, priests, nobles, and Levites. Moriah thus became a stage, and Olivet a most magnificent amphitheatre for one of the grandest displays known in the history of mankind. Sime.

The dedication of Solomon’s Temple was the grandest ceremony ever performed under the Mosaic dispensation; for the giving of the law from Sinai was too solemn to be called a ceremony. Solomon appeared in that priestly character, which we have seen borne by his father, to perform this great act on behalf of the people, leaving to the priests and Levites the care of the ark and the details of the service, especially the psalmody. The time chosen was the most joyous festival of the Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles, in the seventh month (Tisri or Ethanim = September and October) of the sacred year. Having done the labors of the field, and gathered in the vintage, the people assembled at Jerusalem from all parts of Solomon’s wide territories. The full body of the priests attended, the usual courses being suspended, and they brought the ark in a grand and joyous procession from the city of David to the rest prepared for it in the Holy of Holies. There they placed it beneath the spreading wings of the cherubim, and drew out the ends of the staves, that they might be seen as in the Tabernacle, behind the veil. Amid all the new splendors of its dwelling, the ark of the covenant was the same as of old; it contained nothing but the two tables of the law, which Moses had placed in it at Sinai. As the priests retired from within the veil, the Levites and their sons, arranged in their three courses of psalmody, with all instruments of music, and clad in white linen robes, burst forth with the sacred chorus praising Jehovah, “For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever.” It was at this very moment, “just as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Jehovah,” that He gave the sign of His coming to take possession of His house: “The house was filled with a cloud, even the house of Jehovah, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah.” As that sacred cloud spread through the open doors over the sanctuary, the voice of Solomon was heard recognizing the presence of the God who had said that he would dwell in the thick darkness, and for whom he had now built a habitation forever. Then turning to the people from the great platform of brass, which he had erected in the midst of the court, in front of the brazen altar, the king blessed Jehovah the God of Israel, who had chosen Jerusalem as the place sacred to His name, and had performed His promises to David and fulfilled his desire to build him a house. P. S.

I K. 8: 1-9. The transfer of the ark into its place in the Holy of Holies. They brought the ark from David’s tent on Mount Zion. It is also added, that the priests and Levites brought up the old Tabernacle, with its holy vessels, from Gibeon. Before removing the ark, an immense sacrifice was offered before it in behalf of king and people. Then in solemn and glad procession, led by the king and followed by princes and people, the sacred symbol was reverently borne by the priests to the Temple. Entering the sacred courts, the king took his position upon an elevated brazen scaffold in the midst of the throng, while the priests bore the ark into the most holy place, and deposited it beneath the inner wings of the cherubim, in “the place of its rest.” Then, as a sign that it was no more to go out, they drew forth the staves or handles on which they had borne it to and fro; leaving the ends protruding through the veil, in token that its long wanderings was over. The sacred furniture of the Holy Place, including the incense-altar, the tables, the candlesticks, and censers, were also set in their appointed position. B.

The temple, though richly beautified, while without the ark was like a body without a soul, or a candlestick without a candle, or (to speak more properly) a house without an inhabitant. All the cost and pains bestowed on this stately structure are lost, if God do not accept them; and unless he please to own it as the place where he will record his name, it is, after all, but a ruinous heap; when therefore all the work is ended, the one thing needful is yet behind, and that is, the bringing in of the ark. This is the end which must crown the work, and which here we have an account of the doing of with great solemnity. Solomon presides in this service, as David did in the bringing up of the ark to Jerusalem. H.

All the meaning and impressiveness of the dedication centred in the removal of the ark. “The elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, assembled unto King Solomon in Jerusalem,” not to gaze upon and admire or even worship in the superb structure that he had reared, but “that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.” Before this ark on its sacred passage to its new abode “King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be told nor numbered for multitude” (verse 5). This ark, the symbol and pledge of the Divine presence, contained “the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt” (verse 9). And when this ark had been set in its proper place, “the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord” (verses 10, 11), as it had previously filled the tabernacle of Moses on its erection.

No new ark was made to take the place of the old. This was impossible. Another chest might have been made of the same pattern and dimensions, and it could have been similarly overlaid with gold. Like figures of golden cherubim could have been set above it. It might have been exactly reproduced in material and form; but this newly-framed model would not have been the ark. It not only would have lacked the antiquity, the Mosaic origin, the venerated associations, but it would have been ababsolutely divested of that which gave the Ark its real significance and value, the identical tables of the law engraved by God’s own finger, and the ineffable presence of God himself which ever attended it. Hence, while Solomon built his temple after an enlarged pattern of the tabernacle, reproducing its sacred apartments and furniture on a grander scale, with new altars and lavers and candlesticks and table of shewbread and figures of cherubim, the Ark remained the same. There was but this one ark, absolutely unique, throughout the whole of Israel’s history from the time of their encampment at Sinai until its final destruction in the overthrow of Jerusalem and the temple by Nebuchadnezzar. Without this Ark, there could, in the strict Mosaic sense of the term, be no sanctuary, no house of God, where he actually dwelt in the midst of his people, and met with them. The unity of the Ark necessarily carried with it the unity of the sanctuary. It was with this one hallowed article alone that the presence of Jehovah was indissolubly bound. All the allegations that there were numerous sanctuaries in Israel which were held to be equally legitimate until the reign of King Josiah, under whom the law of a single central sanctuary was for the first time enacted and enforced, are proved to be futile by this one undeniable fact. There was but the one material symbol with which Jehovah’s presence was believed to be constantly associated by his own appointment. This was the Ark. No spot and no building but that which contained the Ark was reckoned the dwelling-place of God. He might on extraordinary occasions manifest himself elsewhere. In the absence of a legitimate sanctuary, he might be invoked and worshipped elsewhere. But the existence of one, and only one, house of God, is a necessary corollary from the existence of but one ark of God; and if the Ark was Mosaic, which cannot be intelligently disputed, so must the law of the unity of the sanctuary be. This law may have been temporarily in abeyance, and it may have been sinfully disregarded, but the antiquity of the law and its Mosaic origin is by this single fact triumphantly established. W. H. G.

I K. 8: 4. The tabernacle of Moses, for a long time at Gibeon, was now taken down, that the temple might be made from henceforth the centre of worship, as “the place” that God had chosen. B.—The Tabernacle of the wilderness hereafter disappears from history; the new Temple became the centre of the religious life of the nation. Jehovah by oracles declared that this was His rest, and that the seed of David would be established on the throne, though the promise was conditioned on their obedience. Thus upward of four hundred years after his death the prediction of Moses was fulfilled. It was the consequence of the essential work that had been accomplished, the establishment of the nation in Canaan. It was an expression of the union of Israel, of its worship of Jehovah. Robson.

9. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone.** Nothing else was ever in the ark, the articles mentioned (Heb. 9 : 4) being not in, but by it, being laid in the most holy place before the testimony (Ex. 16 : 33 ; Nu. 17 : 10). Jamieson. —These venerable fragments of the rock of Sinai, seen then, were seen, as far as we know, for the last time. They must have perished, or at least disappeared, when the Ark itself perished or disappeared in the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. But their contents have survived the wreck, not only of the Ark and Temple, but of the whole system of worship, of which they were the basis. The Ten Commandments delivered on Mount Sinai have become embedded in the heart of the religion which has succeeded. Stanley.

If anything whatever is certainly known of the Mosaic age, it is indubitably established that the Mosaic Ark contained tables of stone on which were engraved the Ten Commandments. These were treasured in the most sacred apartment of the Sanctuary. They formed the basis of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel. They were the fundamental law of the commonwealth of Israel, by which all further enactments were regulated, and to which they were supplementary. They were believed to have emanated directly and even verbally from Jehovah Himself, and to have been by Him recorded in stone to indicate their perpetual, binding force. This sacred Ark, with its precious contents, was safely guarded until the time of Solomon, when it was transferred to the Temple. It is still spoken of in the time of Jeremiah (3 : 16), and the covenant on stone, which it contained, was only to be superseded by the law written on the heart (31 : 32, 33). Under these circumstances it is impossible that these commandments should not have been carefully and accurately preserved and transmitted. W. H. G.

Now all had been done that king and priests could do. Complete and beautiful stood the Temple. Complete and beautiful in its place within the veil rested the ark with the two stone tables of the Law within, and the outspread wings of the cherubim above. But while the

Temple and oracle awaited its Inhabitant, king and priest and people lifted up their voice, in unison with many instruments of music, and joined in praising and thanking the Lord. Then in sight of all occurred

2. Chron. 5 : 11-14.** The solemn consecration or taking possession of His House by Jehovah. Even as they sung : For He is good ; for His mercy endureth forever ! “Then the house was filled with a cloud,” “for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.” The whole congregation saw the cloud descend and enter the Temple. And the ministering priests within saw it rest above the mercy-seat covering the ark and ascend between the cherubim. There it brightened into a shining light of such concentrated glow and lustre that they were constrained to retire from the holy place. This was the symbol of God’s manifest personal presence. By this presence the Temple now, as the Tabernacle before, was consecrated.

Not only from the time of Israel’s wanderings, when the same symbol appeared above as well as within the Tabernacle, and was extended over the journeying and camping host as a pillar of cloud and fire, but throughout the Old Testament this lighted cloud appears as the visible token of the Divine presence. And John tells us (12 : 41) that Isaiah (6) directly associates this symbol as seen in the Temple with Christ, thus distinctly affirming that He is the Jehovah of Adam, of Abraham, of Moses, and of Israel. In harmony with this are the transcendent spectacles of the Transfiguration and the Ascension, in which this ancient symbol reappears. And in further confirmation of the whole this is the symbol, with the same beholding adoring cherubim or living creatures, wherewith the apocalyptic vision discloses the “Son of Man,” the “Lamb that was slain,” as the centre and source of all glory, dominion, and blessedness in heaven.

This, then, is the meaning of the cloud-en-folding glory which rested between the cherubim in the first Temple. It was God, Jehovah Jesus, enthroned in light upon the mercy-seat beneath which was the Law, together testifying of grace and of judgment, God dwelling among His people ! Other purposes were here fulfilled : to put fresh honor upon the long-forsaken and oft-exposed ark, to reincarnate just reverence for the law it enshrined, and awaken new trust and joy in its inviting mercy-seat ; and to signify His acceptance of their work and House. But the chief purpose, let it be emphasized, was to intimate His fixed abiding presence thenceforth —His ever-active protection, guidance, and care over His people; that so the nation and its individual members might be effectually recalled and re-bound to Himself and His service. B.

13. When the singers and musicians praised God, then the house was filled with a cloud. This is very observable; it was not when they offered sacrifices, but when they sang the praises of God, that God gave them this token of favor. It was when they were, in their praises, celebrating the everlasting mercy and goodness of God. As there is no one saying oftener repeated in Scripture than this, His mercy endureth forever (twenty-six times in one psalm, Ps. 136, and oftener elsewhere), so there is none more signally owned from heaven; for it was when the priests were singing this plain song, He is good, and his mercy endureth forever. This should endear those words to us. God’s goodness is his glory, and he is pleased when we give him the glory of it. H.—The praise of God is the choicest sacrifice and worship under a dispensation of redeeming grace: it is the prime and eternal part of worship under the Gospel. Charnock.

It is not poetry simply, it is the plain sober truth, that a whole assembly praising God is “like a little heaven below.” A congregation of human hearts, agreeing together to sing forth their living human affections to the One object of their love, is always “the house of God and the gate of heaven.” Such a congregation powerfully attracts heaven to itself, as like to like. With a Diviner love, and greater unity in the Church, it might easily occur again that the joy would be too great, the glory too great, and the God of glory too fully present, for the ordinary service. Even as a flood carries away all signposts and barriers before it, and sweeps over all distinction of path and hedge, so would an unusual descent of the joy of God into His Church set at naught and suspend the mechanical order of the service, and bear away priest and people on the tide of one resistless impulse to praise and glorify God. Or the Presence might be too overwhelming, utterance might be choked, and priest and people might have to wait in awe and silence for the passing over, or the withdrawnment of the tide of glory. So it happened in the Hebrew Temple. “It came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with their trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying—For He is good, for His mercy endureth forever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.” Make the Church full of praise, and it will also be full of God. God and His praise cannot be apart. “O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel!” Pulsford.

Then the house was filled with a cloud. The Lord’s acceptance of Solomon’s temple, and of the dedication which he was now about to make of it, was shown, first, by “the glory of the Lord” filling the house, or inner temple, as here related; and, second, by the fire of the Lord coming down from heaven, as soon as Solomon had ended his prayer of dedication, and consuming the sacrifices. Hales.—Solomon, and the elders of Israel, had done what they could to grace the solemnity of the introduction of the ark; but God, by testifying his acceptance of what they did, put the greatest honor upon it. The cloud of glory that filled the house beautified it more than all the gold with which it was overlaid, or the precious stones with which it was garnished; and yet that was no glory, in comparison with the glory of the Gospel dispensation (2 Cor. 3: 8-10). H.

The solemnities of the service, the procession of the sacred ark from the city of David into its resting-place, the robed priests, the rapturous multitude, the unnumbered sacrifices, the music and the songs, must have formed altogether a marvellous spectacle. But of all the incidents of the day none could be compared with that of the sudden appearance of the Shekinah—the glory-cloud. This introduced a new supernatural element. The rest was human—man’s handiwork, man’s worship, man’s glory; this was Divine—the miraculous sign of the present and approving God. The appearance of the cloud set the seal of Divine acceptance on the temple and its service, linking it with all the glorious associations of the past—the climax and crown of a long series of miraculous Divine manifestations. Waite.

14. The priests could not stand to minister, by reason of the cloud, which, as it was an evidence that the law made men priests that had infirmity, so as (Bishop Patrick observes) it was a plain intimation that the Levitical priesthood should cease, and stand no longer to minister, when the Messiah should come, in whom the fulness of the Godhead should dwell bodily. In him the glory of God dwelt among us, but covered with a cloud. The Word was made flesh; and when he comes to his temple, like a refiner’s fire, who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? (Mal. 3: 1, 2). H.

2. Chron. 6: 1.** Solomon’s brief words of

Dedication. The real consecration of the Temple has taken place. And now the king, turning toward the Most Holy Place, filled with the Sacred Presence, spake these words of dedication, brief as became the solemnity: “Jehovah hath said: to dwell in darkness—Building, I have built an house of habitation to Thee, and a settling-place for Thy dwelling ever!” In this reference to what Jehovah had said, it would not be any single utterance which presented itself to Solomon’s mind. Rather would he think of them in their connection and totality—as it were, a golden chain of precious promises welded one to the other, of which the last link seemed riveted to the solemnity then enacting. Such sayings as Ex. 19: 9; 20: 21; Lev. 16: 2; De. 4: 11; 5: 22 would crowd upon his memory, and seem fully realized as he beheld the Cloudy Presence in the Holy House. A. E.

God only can consecrate, but man may dedicate to God. One with the vast congregation, Solomon had worshipped and waited. And now he first recognizes God’s entrance in the thick darkness of the cloud, and gratefully surrenders to Him the House he had prepared. Then turning his face to the people crowding the Great Outer Court, as a royal prophet, he blessed the host, and recited various occasions of special thankfulness to God which had grown out of the history of this building. The particulars of this address were designed to put the living and acting generation in fresh remembrance of events and truths connected with this juncture of the nation’s history, when the Divine mercies, already culminated in number and richness, were crowned and hallowed by the return and abiding with them of God Himself. B.—If Solomon had built this temple in the pride of his heart, as Ahasuerus made his feast, only to show the riches of his kingdom, and the honor of his majesty, it would not have turned at all to his account. But he here declares upon what inducements he undertook it, and they are such as not only justify, but magnify, the undertaking. He did it for the glory and honor of God; this was his highest and ultimate end in it. It was for the name of the Lord God of Israel, to be a house of habitation for him. He has indeed, as to us, made darkness his pavilion, but let this house be the residence of that darkness; for it is in the upper world that he dwells in light, such as no eye can approach. And he did it in compliance with the choice God had been pleased to make of Jerusalem, to be the city in which he would record his name (verse 6); I have chosen Jerusalem. H.

2. Chron. 6:** 12 AND he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: (for Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;) and he said, O LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in the heaven, or in the earth; who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants, that walk before thee with all their heart: who hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou didst promise him: yea, thou spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; if only thy children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as thou hast walked before me. Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David. But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee: that thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there ; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place : yea, hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven ; and when thou hearest, forgive. If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and he come and swear before thine altar in this house : then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head ; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. And if thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee ; and shall turn again and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house : then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers. When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee ; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them : then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk ; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar ; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities ; whatsoever plague or whatsoever sickness there be ; what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and his own sorrow, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house : then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest ; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of the children of men ;) that they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. Moreover concerning the stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, when he shall come from a far country for thy great name’s sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm ; when they shall come and pray toward this house : then hear thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for ; that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. If thy people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatsoever way thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name : then hear thou from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive unto a land far off or near ; yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly ;

1. K. 8 : 48** If they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, which carried them captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name : then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause ; and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee ; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them : for they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron : that thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them whensoever they cry unto thee. For thou didst separate them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.

2. Chron. 6 : 40** Now, O my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent, unto the prayer that is made in this place. Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength : let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed : remember the mercies of David thy servant.

God would have a permanent House for various reasons. He would show that He was abiding in the midst of His people. He would give them an always visible reminder of what He had been to them, and a palpable pledge of what He had promised them. And he would impress the duty of worship while tangibly instructing them, through symbols and ceremonials, in the methods and meaning of worship. So, to assure them that the newly-constructed Temple was His Home, and to excite their fitting reverence, He had consecrated it by the visible descent of His glory, symbolized in a cloud-enfolding flame. All these considerations are expressed or implied in Solomon’s prayer of Dedication. B.

The prayer was of unexampled sublimity: while it implored the perpetual presence of the Almighty, as the tutelar deity and sovereign of the Israelites, it recognized his spiritual and illimitable nature. “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built.” It then recapitulated the principles of the Hebrew theocracy, the dependence of the natural prosperity and happiness on the national conformity to the civil and religious law. Milman.

The text to this prayer is the law, especially the blessing and curse pronounced upon the people by Moses (Lev. 26 and De. 28.) Setting out from the blessing here promised, Solomon praises the Lord for its past fulfilment, after which follows the prayer for the averting of the curses alluded to. By the bestowment of the promised blessing the Lord had hitherto proved himself the only and true God in heaven and on earth, who keeps covenant and mercy with his servants who walk before him with all the heart. With this acknowledgment of God begins the prayer, for from this arises the right confidence for the petition, which is certain of being heard. Keil.

At no other point of Solomon’s recorded career save this, and in no other connection than this prayer, have we any clear manifestation of a genuine piety. While everywhere we trace indications of superior intellect, only here do we see evidence of heart. The prayer, as a whole, evinces greatness of conception and depth of feeling. A matchless, merciful, covenant-keeping God, who has fulfilled and will fulfil every promise; a God of infinite universal supremacy, who yet condescends to dwell manifestly among men; and one who is willing to meet every need in response to the call of a people or of every suppliant; these ideas, which comprise the spirit and substance of this prayer, show an equal grandeur of conception and justness of feeling respecting the revealed character of God and His relations to the nation and the race. Further, this prayer, in its form and particulars, is emphatically a nation’s prayer. It recognizes God as the sovereign arbiter of a nation’s experiences; the source alike of its prosperity and adversity. It traces the great forms of national loss and trouble—war, pestilence, famine (and, we may add, financial reverses)—to His interposition for good. And not only the prayer, but God’s answering words (2 Chron. 7:14), clearly intimate the remedy for all national calamities.

2. Chron. 12:14. The attitude of Solomon and the invocation of his prayer. Upon a prepared brazen scaffold Solomon had stood while addressing the people. Now he “kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven.” As a royal prophet, he had directed the offering of sacrifice, and probably himself officiated in the offering. Now, exercising the same office, and so far personating the greater Son of David, he intercedes for his people, only including his needs with theirs. The invocation of the prayer is peculiarly instructive and impressive. It is confined to two points, but these are all-comprehensive. Thou art the only God; and that which chiefly distinguishes thee as God, that which constitutes thy greatest glory, is this, that thou keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart. This is the one supreme truth of the whole Revelation, Old Testament and New. It is the one fact of every age and dispensation, upon which hangs the hope of man. God infinite, perfect, supreme, in wisdom, might, in holiness, truth, and grace; and God devising and executing a plan of mercy, whereby He might offer and carry out a covenant of eternal redemption in behalf of every one whose accepting, trusting, penitent heart responds with obedience. This is the reach and meaning of this grandly simple invocation. Had Solomon only acted upon it in his later life, as David did, his history had been without sadness and his end had been bright. B.

14. None like Him in heaven or in earth. All the creatures have their fellow-creatures, but the Creator has not his peer. He is infinitely above all, and over all, God blessed forever. He is and will be true to every word that he has spoken; and all that serve him in sincerity shall certainly find him both faithful and kind. Those that set God always before them and walk before him with all their hearts, shall find him as good as his word, and better; he will both keep covenant with them, and show mercy to them. H.

15-17. His acknowledgment of God’s fulfilled promise to David, and prayer for its further fulfilment to himself. That which should go before request—viz., thankful acknowledgment for previous mercies, here precedes, and so is made the basis of the prayer. Precisely this is the New Testament rule, found in that golden “command with promise” (Philippians 4 : 6, 7). Here, then, we gather from the method of Solomon’s request for himself another instructive and impressive truth. A further practical point worthy of note is the condition connected with God’s promise, as cited by Solomon (verse 16). Assuredly Solomon knew that his “taking heed to his way” and walking with a true obedient heart before God, was essential to the continued favor of God. And these his words, elsewhere repeated, teach us plainly the same changeless truth respecting ourselves; while his subsequent disobediences and idolatries strongly emphasize the truth, and warn us of our weakness and peril, and need of the grace of Jehovah Jesus. B.

The great burden of Solomon’s impressive prayer is the faithfulness of God, as verified by the fulfilment of His promises to David his father, and on which he pleads for a like fulfilment of the promises made to himself, or rather made to David—but respecting himself. The promise does not supersede, but rather supplies ground for prayer on which the suppliant might rest, and which he might plead with God—and which if he do in faith, he will never miss the object because of any want of faithfulness in God. T. C.

17. O God of Israel, let thy word be verified. God’s promises (as we have often observed) must be both the guide of our desires and the ground of our hopes and expectations in prayer. David had prayed (2 S. 7 : 25), Lord, do as thou hast said. The experiences we have of God’s performing his promises should encourage us to depend upon them and plead them with God; and those who expect further mercies must be thankful for former mercies. H.

18-21. His prayer for the nation in its various needs. Thus far the prayer has been personal, and its suggested truths have applied to individuals. In the remaining verses he pleads in behalf of the nation. This general entreaty is prefaced with one of the sublimest human utterances of the Bible (verse 18). It is a conception of contrast between the illimitable universe overfilled with the presence of God and this limited fragmentary sphere which is too narrow and inconsiderable to be worthy of His personal manifestation upon it, and yet to himself and to us, this expression conveys no definite thought save this: God’s infinite condescension in His personal manifestation to men. The immediate reference of Solomon’s question was to the symbol, merely, of God’s presence; but the reach of his thought, and the truth it brings home to us, is the blessed reality of that Divine presence in the person of Jesus Christ, “the man who is Jehovah’s fellow,” himself the Jehovah of the cloudy, shining symbol. Although in form a question, this is an expression of Solomon’s faith that God will come, and will abide in this prepared sanctuary. For immediately follows the prayer which necessarily implies this faith, that God would hearken to him and to the supplication of Israel, when they should pray toward this place. He then proceeds to state the specific needs and calamities of the future, asking that those who should pray in the Temple or toward it (as expressive of dependence on its appointed ministries), might be supplied and relieved. Fifty and significantly pardon for the past was represented by the sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood. Fifty and beautifully grace for the future was exhibited in the incense-altar, the candlesticks and the tables of shewbread; intimating the threefold functions of the mediating Redeemer, who is the way, as the all-prevalent Intercessor, the truth, and the life. So understand we the spirit of this prayer, as the meaning of the Temple ministries is disclosed to us by Christ and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. B.

18. The first public recognition of Prayer as distinct from sacrifice—of the spiritual as distinct from the ceremonial mode of approaching God—is the Prayer of Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple. And further, in this moment of the extremest triumph of ritual and material worship, was uttered one of the most spiritual truths that the Old Testament contains. “Behold the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded.” Stanley.—We have here a striking description of the immensity and omnipresence of God. We have frequent expressions in Scripture of God being “in heaven;” the meaning of which is, not that he who is in all places can be confined to any, or that any proper habitation can be ascribed to him, whom, as Solomon declares, the “heaven of heavens cannot contain;” but they are intended to represent his amazing height and dignity, not in place, but in power. Another reason of the expression of God’s being “in heaven,” is to signify that, though of his real, actual presence there is no confinement, yet of his glory and majesty there is in the heavens a particular manifestation. There it is that his glory is declared, and there the righteous shall see his face, and be blessed with the peculiar manifestation of his power and majesty. In like manner here upon earth; in those places where he has been pleased more particularly to manifest his glory, to place his name, and to receive the homage of his servants, there God, in Scripture phrase, is said to be. Thus in the temple at Jerusalem, he, whom the “heaven of heavens cannot contain,” did at this time deign to dwell, having appointed there to receive his tribute of worship. Dr. S. Clarke.

In the whole history of revelation we have answers to this question, “Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?” The Incarnation of Christ, His coming to be with men, was the greatest answer. He came to dwell upon our earth, to be a man among men. He should be called Emmanuel, it was said, which is, being interpreted, “God with us,” God about us, God around us. And how beautifully was God revealed in Christ! He came with all the attributes of Divinity, came with all the powers of the Godhead, and yet identified Himself so with man as to be beside the lowliest, to throw no awe over the poorest! He came to identify himself with humanity in all its forms of weakness and sorrow, that He might take humanity and raise it up with Him to the very throne of God. He came to be with us, to be of us. He passed through all forms of suffering,—reproach, agony, torture, death,—that He might show us that He had sympathy with man in all his conditions. It is with us as individuals He comes, God with us, God with you, with me, in our homes, in our families, by morning, noon, and night. God in very deed comes and dwells with men on earth, just as Christ dwelt, and Christ loved, and Christ sympathized. He reveals to us the Father. The heart of God is seen in the heart of Christ; the affection of the great Father is manifested in the love of Christ. But, again, an answer was given, not only on the manifestation of Christ, but on that great day of Pentecost, in the gift of the Holy Spirit. By Him God comes to dwell with men forever, and His dwelling place is your heart and mine. M. Simpson.

22,23. Here the special or particular supplications begin. Like those of the Lord’s prayer, they are seven in number. And the first of the seven concerns oaths. The king implores the covenant-keeping God to watch over the covenants of words made in the now consecrated sanctuary, and to protect their sanctity by punishing the false swearer. There were cases in which the Mosaic law provided that an oath should be administered to suspected persons (Ex. 22:11; Lev. 5:1, 4). And there were other cases in which men of their own accord, for “an end of all strife,” would make oath. God is here entreated to take cognizance of the oaths sworn before His altar (verse 31), and to be a swift witness against the false swearers (Mal. 3:5).

24,25. The second special petition contemplates the case, which was morally certain to occur, of Hebrews taken captive in war and carried to a foreign land. To be separated from the commonwealth, the rites and the blessings of Israel, was one of the greatest calamities which could befall a Jew (De. 4:27, 28; Lev. 26:33; Ps. 137), and as such Solomon gives it a prominent place in his prayer.

26,27. The third petition concerns the plague of drought. Just as rain, in the thirsty and sunburnt East, has ever been accounted one of the best gifts of God, so was drought denounced as one of His severest scourges (Lev. 26:19; De. 11:17). This petition finds an illustration in the public supplications which are still offered in the East, and by men of all creeds, for rain.

Reference is made to the withholding of rain; in verse 28 to “famine, pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, and caterpillar.” Such troubles were sent in vain to bring the Egyptians to repentance. In the long run the violation of God’s laws do bring disasters of the very kind specified here. If the law of industry be violated, the harvests fail; if the law of mutual dependence be ignored by nations, commerce is crippled, and impoverishment comes; if the laws against self-indulgence, pride, ambition, be defied the spendthrift has the result in poverty, the proud nation in the miseries of war. Even the disasters which are accounted “natural phenomena,” then, should lead the wise-hearted to prayer, the sinful to penitence; and God will hear in heaven His dwelling-place, and answer and forgive.

28-31. The fourth petition refers to the various plagues mentioned in the law (Lev. 26; De. 28), as the punishment of apostasy or infidelity. Hammond.

29. There is here the recognition of something out of one’s self as the ground of hope in circumstances of need. This essential element in true prayer is suggested by the words, “And shall stretch forth his hands toward this place.” The temple was intended to be a witness to the unseen, a help to faith, an incentive to all holy thought and feeling. It stood through all the changes of time, the shifting lights and shadows of the world around it, as an impressive symbol of the “everlasting covenant.” It enshrined the “sure mercies of David.” Within its hallowed enclosure were gathered the sacred historic records and relics, and the types and shadows of “better things to come.” It told both of what God had done and what He had promised—the monument of the glorious past, the prophecy of the brighter future. There was deep meaning, then, in the suppliant “stretching forth his hands toward that house,” as expressive of the attitude of his soul toward that which it symbolized. When some lonely worshipper in a distant corner of the land, some patient sufferer, some soldier in his agony on the field of battle, some captive, like Daniel, in a strange country, directed his eyes toward the holy place, it was a sort of pathetic appeal to God’s own faithfulness, a silent but eloquent plea that He would not forget His covenant, would fulfil the hopes that He Himself had awakened, and not for their sakes alone, but for His own truth and mercy’s sake, would hear and save. In all this the temple was a type of something nobler, Diviner than itself. The cross of Christ, in which all the promises are confirmed and sealed; the cross, which is both the altar of the Redeemer’s sacrifice and the throne of His sovereignty, is the shrine of “truth and grace” to men. It stands, the connecting link between heaven and earth, the meeting-place of God and man, the key to all human history, the basis of our immortal hope. Here, then, on this central object alike of Divine and human interest, must the eye of the suppliant be fixed. It is that pledge of Divine love and faithfulness, external to ourselves, embodied in the cross of Christ, that we must plead if we would find acceptance in our prayer. When God has thoroughly taught us what the “plague of our own heart” means, and has unveiled to us the blessed mystery of His mode of curing it, it will be the sustained habit of our life to stand as suppliants before Him “in the name of Jesus.” Thus alone can we so link ourselves with the sanctities of a higher world as to make our common life Divine. Waite.

30. He, and he only, knows the hearts of the children of men. All men’s thoughts, aims, and affections, are naked and open before him; and, however the imaginations and intents of our hearts may be concealed from men, angels, and devils, they cannot be hid from God, who knows not only what is in the heart, but the heart itself, and all the beatings of it. H.

32,33. The fifth petition contemplates the prayers which foreigners, attracted by the fame of Jerusalem, of its religion and sanctuary could offer toward the house. “It is quite in the spirit of the Mosaic law regarding strangers that Solomon, having first prayed God on behalf of his fellow-countrymen, should next go on to intercede for the strangers.” The intercourse of the Hebrews at this period with foreign nations, and the influence they exercised on the Jewish thought and manners are also to be remembered. Hammond.—This prayer breathes a spirit of catholicity to foreigners which pure and original Judaism gets too little credit for. It seeks for an open door of privilege to all men, who are invited to look toward the temple, that all the people of the earth may recognize it as the house of God, and that they may know His name and fear Him. Besides prayer after defeat, there is also particularized here the case of prayer before battle. And, finally, there is the case of prayer on the event of captivity. Solomon entreats of God that He would have respect unto all such prayers, and pleads in argument the previous deliverances which had been wrought for Israel in virtue of their relationship to God. T. C.

34,35. So far the royal suppliant has spoken of prayers offered in or at the temple. He now mentions two cases where supplications will be offered by penitents far distant from the holy city or even from the Holy Land. And first, he speaks of the armies of Israel on a campaign.

36-39. The last petition—the second of those which speak of prayers addressed toward the temple, or the Holy Presence which dwelt there, from a foreign land—contemplates as possible the captivity of the Hebrew nation. It has hence been too readily inferred that this portion of the prayer, at least, if not the preceding petition also, has been interpolated by a post-captivity writer. But there is really no solid reason for doubting its genuineness. Not only is it inwoven in the body of the prayer, but the captivity of Israel had been denounced as the punishment of persistent disobedience long before by Moses, and in the chapters to which such constant reference is made (Lev. 26 : 33, 44 ; De. 28 : 25, 36, 64 ; cf. 4 : 27), a fact which is in itself an indirect proof of genuineness, as showing that this petition is of a piece with the rest of the prayer. And when to this we add that the carrying of a conquered and refractory race into captivity was an established custom of the East, we shall be inclined to agree with Bähr, that “it would have been more remarkable if Solomon had not mentioned it.” Hammond.

36. It is the “plague of the heart,” the burden of want or sadness in the secret soul, coupled with some kind of faith in Divine power, that moves men to pray. But this expression, “the plague of his own heart,” has a deeper meaning. It opens to us all the dark, sad mystery of personal sinfulness, the moral disease that lurks within. There are times when the most careless, reckless spirit has glimpses of the unwelcome truth that this, after all, is the deepest cause of its disquietude. Waite.—Both Christ and His forerunner, when they began to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world, uttered one sharp, piercing call: “Repent!” They did not go into minute specifications of every shade of sin, for they knew that they had for a witness a conscience in every breast, each heart knowing its own plague. They knew that there is always one comprehensive iniquity lodged farther in and spreading wider than any particular offence,—the sin of separation from God. F. D. H.

1. K. 8 : 51-53. In the three following verses we have a sort of general conclusion to the dedication prayer. It is hardly correct to say that these last words apply to all the preceding petitions—the plea “they are thy people” manifestly cannot apply in the case of verses 41-43. On the other hand, as little are they to be limited to the persons last mentioned in verses 46-50, though it is highly probable they were suggested by the thought of the captives. They are manifestly in close connection with the preceding verses. Hammond.

2. Chron. 6 : 40-42. In a fervent and beautiful conclusion Solomon invokes the entrance of Jehovah with the ark of his strength; entreats that the priests may faithfully minister, and the people gratefully receive the salvation of God; and closes with the touching appeal, Turn not away the face of thine anointed, thy Messiah! Remember the mercies of David, thy covenant mercies promised in behalf of thy covenanting people! B.—We may plead, as Solomon does here, with an eye to Christ. We deserve that God should turn away his face, that he should reject us and our prayers; but we come in the name of the Lord Jesus, thine anointed, thy Messiah, so the word is; thy Christ, so the LXX. Him thou hearest always, and wilt never turn away his face. We have no righteousness of our own to plead, but, Lord, remember the mercies of David thy servant. Christ is God’s Servant (Is. 42 : 1), and is called David (Hos 3 : 5). Lord, remember his mercies, and accept of us on account of them. Remember his tender concern for his Father’s honor and man’s salvation, and what he did and suffered from that principle. Remember the promises of the everlasting covenant which free grace has made to us in Christ, and which are called the sure mercies of David (Is. 55 : 3, and Acts 13 : 34). This must be all our desire, and all our hope, all our prayer, and all our plea, for it is all our salvation. H.

From this prayer of Solomon we learn, that all events proceed from God; that war, pestilence, famine, and other judgments, are inflicted by his hand, when men provoke him by their sins; that to have recourse to God by prayer, confession of sins, and true repentance, is the way to remedy these evils; and that he is always ready to hear and to deliver those who call upon him in their necessities, and with all their hearts turn unto him. Ostervald.

This outpouring of Solomon’s heart embraces all the elements of true prayer. Adoration. God is recognized as the supreme God of the universe, who keeps covenant and shows mercy. Confession. The acknowledgment of unworthiness. Supplication and intercession. For himself, for those around him, for his people, for the stranger, Solomon pleads. He implores the blessings of preservation, of justice, of forgiveness, of the fruitful rain, of fertile fields, of health, of personal good, of victory in war, and restoration from captivity. Then he rises to the glorious heights of thanksgiving. God is merciful. He is good. His tender mercies are over all His works. He does hear prayer. He does bless. He does forgive. He does help. S. Fellows.

Additional Leading Truths and Lessons.

1. The character of the dedication indicates the main purpose of the temple, as also of the Christian Church, which has succeeded to its place and office. Not for its external richness or costliness, but for its internal use, this is the chief point of a true interest respecting it. Emphatically the church or house of God, it is essentially a house of prayer, of personal communion with God, of worship by praise, by confession, by supplication and intercession. The unfolding and impression by the Holy Ghost, of the covenanting word (to us in the Old and New Covenant) is God’s part in the communion. This is His response of counsel and of promise to our worship, for counsel and promise include the substance of the read or spoken word of God.

2. In harmony with this, from first to last all true religion is a religion of promise. God’s covenantal relation with us lies at the basis of all others. Before everything else we need to know, to believe and to realize, that He has made and offers to us a covenant of pardon and peace on the simple condition of our penitent confession and grateful, childlike trust. On His part only it is a covenant of meritorious work, of inestimable cost and sacrifice!

3. Further, if covenant and promise be the vital element in our religion, then the great and precious promises of God should be the theme of habitual, grateful thought, they should prompt to continuous prayer, and should be the guide of desire and the basis of our hope in prayer. And further still, the truth is taught that fulfilled promises, especially if they are answered prayers, should elicit special thanks for the fulfilment, and so quicken faith and enlarge our expectation in future pleading with God. “In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make known your requests unto God!”

4. “Hear thou, and forgive!” occurs as a plaintive refrain in all the general and special petitions of this prayer. It shows how distinct was the knowledge of sin among God’s ancient people, and brings its impressive teaching through the centuries to us in these latter and brighter days. Both altars of the temple, the outer one of sacrifice and the inner one of incense or intercession, indicate the fact and the one only way of forgiveness; through the double efficacy of Christ’s offered blood and His prevaprevalent advocacy. And in reliance upon this only method we, too, in all our worship, must continue this refrain, Hear thou and forgive!

5. Lastly, taking this prayer in its comprehensive application, it suggests a timely consideration to us (as Americans) in this centennial epoch of our history as a nation. For it is a nation’s prayer! As such it recognizes God as the source of national prosperity; especially God’s hand as bringing about the various events of war, pestilence, famine, and other reverses, by which all national history is marked, through which every nation is disciplined by Him for good. Both the prayer and God’s answering words clearly intimate that the remedy for all these evils is that the people “humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways.” If this be done, He declares, “then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Most timely is this lesson to us at this culminating period of a history as marked by evidences of God’s special election as Israel ever had. Truly can we take up the burden of Isaiah’s grateful ascription, “Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation. Thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou hast wrought all our works in us!” And as we enter upon a second great period of national history, well may we, as members of this grand Commonwealth of States, ponder deeply these sublime facts of God’s rule over us. And well may we unite our hearts in the frequent fervent utterance of this prayer of Solomon in its spirit. So shall we help to bring down the continued blessing of Him who alone can prosper and thus perpetuate our nation! B.

FIRE CONSUMES THE SACRIFICES. ISRAEL WORSHIPS AND THE LEVITE CHOIRS PRAISE. SOLOMON’S PRAYER OF BLESSING. HIS DEDICATION OF THE SACRED COURTS BY SACRIFICES. SEVEN DAYS OF FESTAL GLADNESS FOLLOWING SEVEN DAYS OF DEDICATION. PEOPLE DISMISSED TO THEIR HOMES.

2. Chron. 7 : 1** Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. And all the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD was upon the house; and they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and gave thanks unto the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth forever. And the priests stood, according to their offices; the Levites also with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to give thanks unto the LORD, for his mercy endureth forever, when David praised by their ministry: and the priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood.

1. K. 8:** 54 And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth toward heaven. And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant. The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not have us, nor forsake us: that he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the LORD, be nigh unto the LORD our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, as every day shall require: that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD, he is God; there is none else. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day. And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD. And Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace-offerings which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.

2. Chron. 7:** 7 Moreover the same day Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD; for there he offered the burnt-offerings, and the fat of the peace-offerings: because the brazen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt-offering, and the meal-offering, and the fat of the peace-offering.

1. K. 8:** 65 So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt, before the LORD our God, and they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days, even fourteen days.

2. Chron. 7:** 10 And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went away unto their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

Principal events that followed, completing the service of Dedication. First, the visible answer to this prayer in the sight of all the people, and the further confirmation of God’s acceptance of the Temple as His dwelling-place. Upon the first prepared burnt-offerings, which had been laid upon the new great altar of sacrifice, “when Solomon had made an end of praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifices.” From “the glory of the Lord,” or the cloud with its enfolded light and flame, as again it descended from heaven, shot forth the consuming fire upon the sacrifices. So conclusive and satisfactory was the answer, that “when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth forever!”

Next occurs the closing benediction upon “all the congregation of Israel” by the King (1 K.

8: 56-61). These words recall the simple, heartfelt utterances of David and Moses. Again, the thought recurs with emphasis, as we read these words of assurance, of earnest prayer, and of solemn injunction, that the sin and fall of Solomon had no excuse but the greater aggravation in his clear knowledge of God and His covenant, of good and evil. Then, with final sacrifices, extending over many days, and including in the festival the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, was the dedication of the House of the Lord completed, and the glad, grateful people dismissed to their homes.

One other incident (Sec. 291) completes the sacred narrative of the matter. It is a second appearance of God to Solomon by night, soon after the dedication, directly and affirmatively answering his prayer, and repeating the encouraging and warning word which He had uttered at Gibeon. Not for want of warning surely, and certainly not for lack of the highest and noblest incitements to fidelity, did Solomon afterward stray from faith and duty, and finally cast disrespect upon God’s house and worship! The whole of this Divine answer has instruction, warning, and prophecy for every generation of nations and individuals. To Solomon and to Israel its warning became a fulfilled prophecy! B.

1. The fire came down from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice (verse 1). In this way, God testified his acceptance of Moses (Lev. 9 : 24), of Gideon (Jn. 6 : 21), of David (1 Chron. 21 : 26), of Elijah (1 K. 18 : 38); and in general, to accept the burnt sacrifice is, in the Hebrew phrase, to turn it to ashes (Ps. 20 : 3). The fire came down here, not upon the killing of the sacrifices, but the praying of the prayer. H.

2. Fire came from heaven and consumed the sacrifices upon the altar, and the glory, which had previously filled and consecrated the holy place, rested visibly to the thronging people upon the now complete and dedicated structure. They “bowed themselves to the pavement, and worshipped, and gave thanks unto Jehovah, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.” B.—Which was the greater, the external magnificence, or the moral sublimity of this scene? Was it the temple, situated on its commanding eminence, with all its courts, the dazzling splendor of its materials, the innumerable multitudes, the priesthood in their gorgeous attire, the king, with all the insignia of royalty, on his throne of burnished brass, the music, the radiant cloud filling the temple, the sudden fire flashing upon the altar, the whole nation upon their knees? Was it not, rather, the religious grandeur of the hymns and of the prayer: the exalted and rational views of the Divine Nature, the union of a whole people in the adoration of the one Great, Incomprehensible, Almighty, Everlasting Creator? Milman.

The Dedication Concluded (as it commenced) with a Blessing.

Rising from his knees the king turned once more to the people, and expressed the feelings of all in terms of mingled praise and prayer, basing them on such Scriptural passages as De. 12 : 9, 10; Josh. 21 : 44; 23 : 14, and, in the second part of his address, on Lev. 26 : 3-13; De. 28 : 1-14. But it deserves special notice, that throughout the tone is of the loftiest spirituality. For, if the king asks for continued help and blessing from the Lord, it is for the express purpose “that He may incline our hearts to Him,” “to keep His commandments;” and, if he looks for answers to prayer, it is “that all the people of the earth may know that Jehovah is God, and that there is none else.” A. E.

He blessed as one having authority; never were words more fully spoken, or more pertinently; never was congregation dismissed with that which was more likely to affect them and abide with them. He begins with blessing God. He gives God the glory of the great and kind things he had done for Israel (verse 56). He blesses God who has given, not wealth, or power, or victory to Israel, but rest. He compares the blessings God had bestowed upon them, with the promises he had given them, that God might have the honor of his faithfulness, and the truth of that word of his, which he has magnified above all his name. He refers to the promises given by the hand of Moses, as he did to those which were made to David. Of these he says, There has not failed one word of all his good promises; this discharge he gives in the name of all Israel, to the everlasting honor of the Divine faithfulness, and the everlasting encouragement of all those that build upon the Divine promises.

He blesses himself and the congregation, expressing his earnest desire and hope of these four things. (1) The presence of God with them, that is all in all to the happiness of a church and nation, and of every particular person. Solomon dismisses them with this blessing, “The Lord be present with us, and that will be comfort enough, when we are absent from each other; the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers (verse 57), let him not leave us, let him be to us to-day and to ours forever, what he was to those that went before us.” (2) The power of his grace upon them; “Let him be with us and continue with us, not that he may enlarge our coasts and increase our wealth, but that he may incline our hearts to himself, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments” (verse 58). Spiritual blessings are the best blessings, which we should covet earnestly to be blessed with: our hearts are naturally averse to our duty and apt to decline from God; it is his grace that inclines them, grace that must be obtained by prayer. (3) An answer to the prayer he had now made, “Let these my words be high unto the Lord our God day and night (verse 59). Let a gracious return be made to every prayer that shall be made here, and that will be a continual answer to this prayer.” What Solomon here asks for his prayer, is still granted in the intercession of Christ, which his supplication was a type of; that powerful prevailing intercession is before the Lord our God day and night, for our great Advocate attends continually to this very thing, and we may depend upon him to maintain our cause (against the adversary that accuses us day and night, Rev. 12 : 10), and the common cause of his people Israel at all times, upon all occasions, as the matter shall require, so as to speak for us the word of the day in its day, as the original here reads it, from which we shall receive grace sufficient, suitable, and seasonable, in every time of need. (4) The glorifying of God in the enlargement of his kingdom among men. Let Israel be thus blessed, thus favored ; not that all people may become tributaries to us, but that all people may know that the Lord is God, and he only, and may come and worship him (verse 60). With this Solomon’s prayers, like the prayers of his father, David the son of Jesse, are ended (Ps. 72 : 19, 20), Let the whole earth be filled with his glory : we cannot close our prayers with a better summary than this, Father, glorify thy name.

He solemnly charges his people to continue and persevere in their duty to God ; having spoken to God for them, he here speaks from God to them, and those only would fare the better for his prayers that were made better by his preaching ; his admonition at parting is, “Let your heart be perfect with the Lord our God (verse 61) ; let your obedience be universal without dividing, upright without dissembling, and constant without declining ;” this is evangelical perfection. H.

Though Solomon assumed for the time the priestly function, his utterance was not cast into the usual form of priestly benediction. It was rather an ascription of praise to the God who had fulfilled His promises and given rest to His people, and an exhortation to them that they on their part should follow that path of life in which alone they could hope to realize the further fulfilment of those promises, and enjoy the heritage of blessing that was theirs. Solomon felt that all the impassioned supplications that he had been pouring out before the Lord, and all the sympathetic enthusiasm of the people in these temple services, would be but a mockery unless he and they were prepared to walk with all fidelity in the way of God’s commandments. They must go back to their posts of honor and responsibility, to the privacy of their homes, to their haunts of busy life, to their paths of commerce and of labor. Let them worship there. Let them dwell with God there. Let them embody there, in all the forms of practical virtue, the spirit of devotion that has inspired them amid these hallowed scenes. True prayer sheds a hallowing influence over the entire field of a man’s daily activity. When his soul has been face to face with God, absorbed in Divine communion, the inspiration of holy thought and feeling of which he has been conscious will inevitably betray itself in the way in which he acts when he mingles with the things and the beings of earth. The glory of heaven that has shone upon him cannot fail to be reflected in the beauty of his character and deed. A prayerful spirit is an earnest, pure, upright, loving spirit, and such a spirit will govern the whole form and method and aim of a man’s life. Prayer solves difficulties, clears one’s vision of the path of duty, draws strength from Divine sources for all toil and suffering, raises the tone and level of moral action, fortifies the spirit for any emergency, fills the heart with the peaceful joy of a better world. On the other hand, the conduct of life necessarily affects for good or ill the spirit and efficacy of prayer. If it is needful to pray in order that we may live as Christians, it is equally needful that we should live as Christians in order rightly to pray. The importance of prayer as one chief function of spiritual life doubles the importance of all our actions, because our prayers are so much as our doings are. According as we stand toward the world, with all the social relationships and duties that belong to our place in it, so do we stand before the mercy-seat. Let a man be morally reckless in the intercourse and transactions of daily life, and all freedom, “boldness,” gladness in prayer is at an end. Anything like loving, confiding converse with the “Father who seeth in secret” is impossible to him. Let there then be a Divine unity and harmony in our life. Let our conduct in all human relationships show us to be what, in our hours of devotion, we seem to ourselves to be. Let it be our ambition every day “to live more nearly as we pray.” Waite.

The consecrating prayer opened and closed with adoration. It spread before God all the wants of the people, and asked from Him deliverance in every time of need ; but the whole petition culminated in the ever-recurring pleading for forgiveness. This is the burden of the whole temple service, and this character is reproduced in Christian worship. There is no longer a sanctuary in the old exclusive sense, since the blood was shed which has redeemed the whole earth to God. Our houses of prayer are not now more holy in themselves than our homes. Let us consecrate them by consecrating ourselves to God, and rendering to Him the worship which is His due—the sacrifice of our whole being. Let our prayers, like that of Solomon, begin and end with adoration, and let the burden of them be the expression of our repentance for sin. Let them have, like the prayer of the theocratic king, a breadth of intercession for the whole people of God, and let them lay at the foot of the cross the burden of the woes of humanity and the needs of the Church. E. de P.

The Festal Sacrifices.

62,63. The ceremonial of dedication was followed, as would naturally be the case, by additional sacrifices on a scale of unusual grandeur. Apart from their religious use and significance, the sacrifices testified to the devotion of the giver, who on this of all days must not appear before the Lord empty, and they also afforded materials for the great and prolonged feast by which this auspicious event in the history of Israel must be commemorated. Hammond.

They had abundant joy and satisfaction, while they attended at God’s house, for there (1) Solomon offered a great sacrifice, enough to have drained the country of cattle, if it had not been a very fruitful land. The heathen thought themselves generous when they offered sacrifices by hundreds (hecatombs they called them), but Solomon offered them by thousands. All these sacrifices could not be offered in one day, but in the several days of the feast; thirty oxen a day served Solomon’s table, but thousands shall go to God’s altar. The flesh of the peace-offerings, which belonged to the offerer, Solomon treated the people with. The brazen altar was not large enough to receive all these sacrifices, so that, to serve the present occasion, they were forced to offer many of them in the middle of the court (verse 64). H.

In this prodigious number of sacrifices—in round numbers 3000 oxen and 18,000 sheep for every day of the festival—one feature is liable to be overlooked, namely, that all these sacrifices were “peace-offerings,” with the exception, of course, of the usual burnt-offerings. In all these—and king and princes and people alike brought their thousands—all was first given to God, but the bulk was given back by God to the sacrifices. With the exception of the fat, etc., burnt on the altar, and the blood (which was the life), poured out at its base, and the customary portion of the priests, all the rest was carried home by the offerer to provide a feast for him and his family. The peace-offering was thus a social festival. And the same remark applies to the still greater number—a quarter of a million—of paschal lambs offered year by year in later times. The blood was sprinkled as a memorial before God, but the lamb was roasted entire to provide a supper for the household. In all these sacrifices God graciously entertained those who offered them with their own oblations—which He had first given them—at His own table. And herein we have an illustration of God’s gracious way of dealing with our gifts and offerings. He accepts them at our hands, but gives them back for our use and enjoyment. We present our sacrifice, and He spreads a banquet for our souls. It is a curious circumstance, and one that shows how entirely this principle has been overlooked, that “sacrifice,” which properly means “something made sacred,” “consecrated,” has come to be a synonym for “loss,” “privation.” But this a true sacrifice can never be. There is no such thing as giving at a loss to the Lord of all. He insists on paying us back a hundredfold. All our offerings are in this sense peace-offerings. He sends us away laden with our own gifts, “joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness of the Lord.” Hammond.

65. The people joyful. From the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt**—i.e., from one extremity of the kingdom to the other. The people flocked from all quarters. Seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. The first seven were occupied with the dedication, and the other seven devoted to the Feast of Tabernacles. The particular form of expression indicates that the fourteen days were not continuous, and that some interval occurred in consequence of the great day of atonement falling on the tenth of the seven month (verse 2), and the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles was on the twenty-third, when the people returned to their homes with feelings of the greatest joy and gratitude “for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David His servant and for Israel His people.” Jamieson.

The Temple Superseded by the Synagogue.

Complicated as modern Judaism seems, it may be summed up in one brief sentence: The Synagogue has taken the place of the Temple. This one fact underlies all the rest. It is, of course, that ever since the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus, the services of the Temple have wholly ceased. Sacrifices, a ministering priesthood, and a mitred high-priest are impossible out of the one national Sanctuary on Mount Moriah, which has lain waste these eighteen centuries. The cessation of the Temple-services is the most significant fact in history. As at the commencement of the Old Testament the Jewish people and its history were, so to speak, summed up in one individual—Abraham, so at its close the royalty, the priesthood, nay, the nation itself in Jesus Christ. Thus when “the fulness of the time came,” and the purpose of all had been served, the same Hand which had opened the Temple-gates, closed them and forever. But long before that another order of things from the Temple-services had gradually been preparing in the institution of the Synagogue. A. E.

USES AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TEMPLE STRUCTURE, ITS COURTS, AND THEIR FURNITURE; WITH SUGGESTIONS TOUCHING THE PRIESTLY RITUAL AND SERVICE.

The people of Israel were in a state of complete spiritual ignorance when rescued by Moses from their captivity in Egypt. All the prescribed regulations for worship, for outward conduct, and social life, were necessary, and suited to introduce into their minds lost spiritual ideas—as of holiness, truth, and responsibility. So as also a part of the Divine plan, the appointment of the Tabernacle, with its apartments jealously secluded from view, was designed and fitted to suggest the idea of a personal God abiding with his people; and yet His studious self-concealment added the new idea of reverence as His claim and due. Although four hundred years had now elapsed since the conquest of Canaan, with all the prophetic teaching and Providential training of the people, they were at this time not far advanced in the knowledge of spiritual truth or worship. Therefore it was that the system of external rite and worship needed still to be continued. And so, when the tribes had been consolidated into a nation and the whole people had exchanged the tent for a permanent habitation, it was ordered that the movable Sanctuary should be succeeded by a House of the Lord. Beside its actual uses, too, there was this advantage in a fixed, abiding structure, that it would stand forth as a visible monument and palpable evidence of all that God had been to His people, and a token and pledge of all He had promised them. So it was that the Temple became the central object of interest, affection, and reverence. B.

The Purpose of the Temple. (1) To furnish a fitting place for the public worship of God. The services kept Jehovah prominently before the people, and perpetuated and promoted religion. (2) To symbolize the presence of God among his people. Hence the house, with its holy place, and holy of holies. Other nations had their idols. Israel had its house wherein no image stood. (3) To present in symbols the great truths of redemption. These were expressed by the altar and the sacrifices (Lev. 1: 1-5; 2 Chron. 7: 1-14; Heb. 9: 22). Much of the Epistle to the Hebrews is intended to show the relation between the services of the old covenant and the salvation under the new. (4) To strengthen the bond of union among the tribes. For this purpose there was but one Temple and one altar for all the Hebrew world, and all rival shrines were forbidden (De 12: 8-14; Josh. 22: 10-27). Three times in each year the people gathered from all Israel for worship (De. 16: 16). Notice the effect of this on the nation (1 K. 12: 26-28). J. L. Harlbut.

Principles Symbolized in the Temple and Its Service. (1) The revealing and sanctifying presence of God in the midst of the Church. In the holy of holies God’s manifested presence was seen, and from here He uttered His voice to the nation. (2) The meeting of God and His people’s continuous and reciprocal intercourse between them. The holiest represented more what God gave; the holy place what the people gave, though what they gave was but made up of what they had received. (3) Separation of the Church from the world necessary to intercourse with God, even its lowest forms. This was shown by the courts. (4) The progressiveness through various stages of this intercourse with God and nearness to Him, once begun by separation from without. (5) The foundation of all intercourse in atonement by blood; and that each new stage of progress must be won by atonement; and that all intercourse and service and life of men around God must, however true, and pure, and high, yet be atoned for as in many ways sinful. (6) The necessity of holiness in those drawing near to God (Ps. 24). This was shown by the repeated separations of those who approached from the larger body who were kept back; by the gradual diminution of the number approaching—as general nation, when worshippers in the court, then priests in holy place, then high-priest in the holiest; by the multiplication of ceremonies of purification, and the symbols of confession of sins, and the gradual elevation in character and sanctity and official place of those who approached in proportion to the closeness of their approach. A. B. Davidson.

God intended, by the symbolic imagery of the Jewish ritual, to prefigure and elucidate the great truths and facts connected with the person and work of Christ; to portray, as it were, by a series of sublime hieroglyphics, the spiritualities and glories of the Gospel dispensation. Almost everything under the law was typical. There was a typical sanctuary and a typical service; typical victims were slain, typical sacrifices were offered, and offered by priests who themselves were types of the Lord Jesus Christ, the High-Priest of our profession. This system of types the apostle describes by two very appropriate and expressive terms. He calls them “patterns” and “shadows;” “patterns”—that is, models, shapes, outlines, not yet filled up; and “shadows,” dim reflections—imperfect resemblances, which just represent the general form and contour of the objects, but not their distinct features or breathing lineaments. Bannister.

At the very entrance to the court the three grand truths of the Gospel of Christ were forced upon the Israelites’ attention. The gate spoke of Christ: “I am the door: by me if any man shall enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” The brazen altar spoke of Christ: “Without shedding of blood is no remission of sins.” The laver spoke of Christ: “If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me;” “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Whitefield.—Jesus Christ puts an end to all the questions and ardent longings of the Old Testament. All that either the tabernacle or the temple of the old covenant promised, Christ has fulfilled. All that the sacrifices of the Old Testament promised, Christ has accomplished with the one sacrifice which He Himself was, and which He brought. All that the offices of prophet, priest, and king promised in the Old Testament, Christ has fulfilled. Caspars.

David often speaks with much affection, both of the house of the Lord, and of the courts of our God. Both without doors and within, there was that which typified the grace of the Gospel, and shadowed out good things to come, of which the substance is Christ. H.

The sanctuary is the meeting-place of God and the people; but this in the sense that here the people come to Jehovah in His dwelling-place, which He has established in the midst of His people. Accordingly, in the sanctuary is embodied the idea of God’s dwelling among the people of Israel. But at the same time, the people are to be made conscious, that although the Holy God condescends to dwell among His people, yet, on account of the people’s sinfulness, this communion cannot be accomplished directly, but only through the mediation of the people’s intercessor, who holds the office of reconciliation. The people are therefore limited to the court surrounding the sanctuary and the sanctuary itself is only allowed to be entered by the priests. But even these priests are not in a position to establish a full communion with God (comp. Heb. 9:8). For this reason Jehovah’s dwelling-place is divided into two apartments: the veiled, holiest of all, in which Jehovah, the revealed, and yet hidden and in a manner unapproachable, God, is enthroned in the darkness; and the holy place,—the place of the priests and their service, which on this account is the symbol of the mediation of the covenant. There is a relation between the sanctuary and heaven so far as this, that the shekinah in the latter corresponds to the shekinah in the former. There is, however, a contrast between the two Divine dwelling-places; for in heaven God dwells in His majesty as Ruler of the world,—in the earthly tabernacle He dwells in His condescending grace. O.

In the depths of the Holy of Holies, and for the high-priest as for all Israel, there was the revelation of a righteous Will requiring righteousness in man. And over the Ark was the MERCY-SEAT (Heb. kappôreth, cocer), which covered the Ark, and was the witness of a mercy covering sins. And over the mercy-seat were the CHERUBIM. Representing as they did created life in its highest form, their overshadowing wings, meeting as in token of perfect harmony, declared that nature as well as man found its highest glory in subjection to a Divine Law, that men might take refuge in that Order, as under the shadow of the wings of God. Ark, mercy-seat, cherubim, the very walls, were all overlaid with gold, the noblest of all metals, the symbol of light and purity, sunlight itself as it were, fixed and embodied, the token of the incorruptible, of the glory of a great king. Into the inner sanctuary neither people nor the priests as a body ever entered. Strange as it may seem, that in which everything represented light and life was left in profound solitude. Once only in the year, on the Day of Atonement, might the high-priest enter. From all others, from the high-priest at all other times, the Holy of Holies was shrouded by the double Veil, bright with many colors and strange forms. Within the veil light and truth were seen in their unity.

The outer sanctuary was one degree less awful in its holiness than the inner. It was to be trodden daily by the priests, as if by men perpetually conscious of the nearness of God, of the mystery behind the veil. Barefooted and in garments of white linen, they accomplished their ministrations. And here, too, were other emblems of Divine realities. With no opening to admit light from without, it was illumined only by the golden LAMP with its seven lights, never all extinguished together, the perpetual symbol of all derived gifts of wisdom and holiness in man, reaching their mystical perfection when they shine in God’s sanctuary to His glory. The SHEWREAD, the bread of the Divine Presence, served as a token that, though there was no form or likeness of the Godhead, He was yet there, accepting all offerings recognizing in particular that special offering which represented the life of the nation at once in the distinctness of its tribes and in its unity as a people. The meaning of the ALTAR OF INCENSE was not less obvious. The cloud of fragrant smoke was the emblem of the heart’s adoration (Ps. 141 : 2).

Outside the sanctuary, but within the consecrated precincts, was the COURT, fenced in by an enclosure, yet open to all the congregation, except the ceremonially unclean. No Gentile might pass beyond the curtains of the entrance, but every member of the priestly nation might thus far “draw near” to the presence of Jehovah. Here, therefore, stood the ALTAR OF BURNT OFFERING, at which SACRIFICES in all their varieties were offered by penitent or thankful worshippers, the brazen LAVER at which those worshippers purified themselves before they sacrificed, the priests before they entered into the sanctuary. Here the graduated scale of holiness ended. Dic. B.

The temple, with its service, was a visible representation of a spiritual fact for the then present; it was a parable of the inmost reality of communion between man and God; and it was, therefore, a prophecy both of the full realization of his presence among men, in the temple of Christ’s body, and of the yet future communion of heaven, which is set before us by the

“great voice, . . . saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.” The threefold division into court of the worshippers, holy place for the priests and holiest of all, was not peculiar to the tabernacle and temple. It signifies the separation which, after all nearness, must still exist. God is unrevealed after all revelation; afar off, however near; shrouded in the utter darkness of the inmost shrine, and only approached by the priestly intercessor with the blood of the sacrifice. Like all the other arrangements of the sanctuary, the division of its parts declares a permanent truth, which has impressed itself on the worship of all nations; and it reveals God’s way of meeting the need by outward rites for the then present, and by the mediation of the great High-priest in the time to come, whose death rent the veil, and whose life will, one day, make the holiest place in the heavens patent to our feet.

God’s special abode, the Holy of Holies, was a tiny chamber, closed in from light, the form, dimensions, and materials, and furniture of which were all significant. It measured ten cubits, or fifteen feet, every way, thereby expressing, in its cubical form, and in the predominance of the number ten, stability and completeness. It will be remembered that the same cubical form is given to the heavenly city, in the Apocalypse, for the same reason. There, in the thick darkness, unseen by mortals except for the one approach of the high-priest on the day of atonement, dwelt the “glory” which made light in the darkness, and flashed on the gold which covered all things in the small shrine.

The Ark of the testimony was a small chest of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, and containing the two tables of the law, which were called the testimony, as bearing witness to Israel of God’s will concerning their duty, and as therein bearing witness, too, of what he is. Nor must the other part of the witness-bearing of the law be left out of view, — that it testifies against the transgressors of itself. The ark was the centre point of the Divine revelation, the very throne of God; and it is profoundly significant that its sole contents should be the tables of stone. Egyptian arks contained symbols of their gods, degrading, bestial, and often impure; but the true revelation was a revelation to the moral sense, of a Being who loves righteousness. Other faiths had their mysteries, whispered in the inmost shrine, which shunned the light of the outer courts; but here the revelation within the veil was the same as that spoken on the house-tops. The “Mercy-seat,” covered the ark above, and spoke the need for, and the provision of a means whereby the witness of the law against the worshipper’s sins should be, as it were, hid from the face of the enthroned God.

We step from the mystery of the inner shrine out to the comparatively inferior sacredness of the holy place, daily trodden by the priests. There stand in it the table for the so-called shewbread, the great lamp-stands, and the golden altar of incense. These were intimately connected with each other, and represented various aspects of the spiritual character of true worshippers. The holy place was eminently the people’s, just as the most holy place was eminently God’s. True, only the priests entered it; but they did so on behalf of the nation. We may expect, therefore, to find special reference to the human side of worship in its equipments; and we do find it. The altar of incense was in idea, as in locality, the centre. The full details of its construction and use are found in Ex. 30. Twice a day sweet incense was burned on it, and no other kind of sacrifice was permitted; but once a year, it was sprinkled, by the high-priest, with expiatory blood. The meaning is obvious. The symbolism of incense as representing prayer is frequent in Scripture, and most natural. What could more beautifully express the upward aspirations of the soul, or the delight of God in these, than the incense sending up its wreaths of fragrant smoke? Incense gives no fragrance nor smoke till it is kindled; and the censer has to be constantly swung to keep up the glow, without which there will be no “odor of a sweet smell.” So, cold prayers are no prayers, but are scentless, and unapt to rise. The heart must be as a coal of fire, if the prayer is to come up before God with acceptance. Twice a day the incense was kindled; and all day long, no doubt, it smoldered, “a perpetual incense before the Lord.” So, in the life of true communion, there should be daily seasons of special devotion, and a continual glow. The position of the altar of incense was right in the line between the altar of burnt-offering, in the outer court, and the entrance to the holiest place; by which we are taught that acceptable prayer follows on reconciliation by sacrifice, and leads into the secret place of the Most High. The yearly atonement for the altar taught that evil imperfection cleaves to all our devotion, which needs and receives the sprinkling of the blood of the great sacrifice.

The candlestick is an emblem of the Church as recipient and communicative of light, in all the applications of that metaphor, to a dark world. As the sacred lamps streamed out their hospitable rays into the darkness all the night, so God’s servants are lights in the world. The lamps burned with derived light, which had to be fed as well as kindled. So we are lighted by the touch of the great Aaron, and his gentle hand tends the smoking wick and nourishes it to a flame. We need the oil of the Spirit to sustain the light. The lamp was a clustered light, representing in its metal oneness the formal and external unity of Israel. The New Testament unity is of a better kind. The seven candlesticks are made one because He walks in the midst, not because they are welded on to one stem.

Consistency of symbolism requires that the table of shewbread should, like the altar and the candlestick, express some phase of true worship. Its interpretation is less obvious than that of the other two. The name means literally “bread of the face;” that is, bread presented to and ever lying before God. The best explanation keeps up the congruity, by taking the material bread, which is the result of God’s blessing on man’s toil, as a symbol of the spiritual results of God’s blessing on man’s spiritual toil, or, in other words, of practical righteousness or good works, and conceives that these are offered to God, by a strong metaphor, as acceptable food. It is a bold representation, but we may quote “I will sup with him” as proof that it is not inadmissible; and it is not more bold than the declaration that our obedience is “an odor of a sweet smell.” So the three pieces of furniture in the holy place spoke of the true Israel, when cleansed by sacrifice and in communion with God, as instant in prayer, continually raying out the light derived from him, and zealous of good works, well pleasing to God. A. M.

The holy place was the sanctuary of forgiven hearts. It was the retreat of those whose sins had been forgiven through the expiation upon the bloody altar without. True, they entered it then only vicariously in the person of the priest, “the Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way was not yet made plain by the sacrifice of Christ.” But all in that sanctuary spoke of reconciliation and love. The altar was the altar of love. The flame upon it was the flame of love, and the costly offering of the fragrant spices was symbolic of the offering of the heart’s best treasures, its loftiest ambitions, its richest affections, its purest and most fragrant devotions.

Here, then, have we another lesson for all time. Oh, man, it is thy heart which the God of heaven demands as an oblation upon His altar; not thy hands, even though they be busy hands; not thy feet, even though they be swift feet; not thy brain, even though it be a tireless brain; not the homage of intellect to truth; not the stern bending of the will like the oak before the blast, but thy heart, oh, man—thy heart, with its capacities to love and hope, to fear and trust—thy heart, with its wealth of affection. It is that alone which can be fuel for the flame upon the altar of love. Nothing but love will satisfy love. Upon that altar of redemption where the love of God to thee is burning with so quiet, holy a flame, the heart, thy whole heart must be laid, that under fires which burn but consume not, its purified affections, set free from earthly dross, may rise like the white cloud of fragrant frank-incense to heaven, and be glorified in the light of the Sun of righteousness. Witherspoon.

We pass outward and stand in the court, which was always open to the people. There, before the door, is the altar of burnt-offering. Its distinctive character was that on it the blood of the slain sacrifices was offered. It was the place where sinful men could begin to meet with God, the foundation of all the communion of the inner sanctuary. We need not discuss mere details of form and the like. The great lesson taught by the altar and its place, is that reconciliation is needed, and is only possible by sacrifice. As a symbol, it taught every Israelite what his own conscience, once awakened, endorsed, that sin must be expiated before the sinner and God can walk in concord. As prophesy, it assured those whose hearts were touched with longing, that God would himself provide the lamb for the burnt-offering, in some way as yet unknown. For us, it is an intended prefiguration of the great work of Jesus Christ. “We have an altar.” We need that altar at the beginning of our fellowship with God, as much as Israel did. A Christianity which does not start from the altar of burnt-offering will never get far into the holy place, nor ever reach at all that innermost shrine where the soul lives and adores, silent before the manifest God between the cherubim. The lavers were intended for the priests’ use, in washing hands and feet before ministering at the altar or entering the tabernacle. They teach the necessity for purity, in order to priestly service. Thus these three divisions of the temple and its court set forth the stages in the approach of the soul to God, beginning with the reconciling sacrifice and cleansing water, advancing to closer communion by prayer, impartation of light received, and offering of good works to God, and so entering within the veil into secret sweetnesses of union with God, which attains its completeness only when we pass from the holy place on earth to the most holy in the heavens. A. M.

The Altar of Sacrifice.

The simplest place of worship is the altar, which is first mentioned in Gen. 8 : 20; a height rising toward heaven, signifying the ascent of the devotion embodied in sacrifice. The common name for the altar designates it as the place of sacrifice. The first condition for a place of worship is, that it has been chosen and sanctified by God, and has actually been witnessed to as the place of His revelation. As already in the time of the patriarchs altars were set up chiefly in places consecrated by theophanies (Gen. 12 : 7; 26 : 24 f.), so, according to Mosaic law, only that place is permitted to be a place of worship where God has established the memory of His name (Ex. 20 : 24); which He has chosen to cause His name to dwell there (De. 12 : 5, 11; comp. Sec. 56); which He fills with His glory (Ex. 40 : 34), and thereby sanctifies (29 : 43 f.), as He himself has said of the temple, that His eyes and His heart were there. God institutes an ordinance of atonement, which is principally carried out in acts of worship specifically expiatory, but which also runs through the whole of the rest of the worship; in all parts of which, but especially by the use which is made of the blood of the sacrifice at the burnt and thank-offerings, the idea is expressed that man may never approach God without previous atonement,—that this must be accomplished before he can expect that his gift will be favorably received by God. But it is not correct to call atonement the leading idea of Mosaic sacrifice in the sense that every offering is to be classed under this idea. It is rather the case that the gift or offering, in the strict sense,—that which really comes upon the altar,—follows on the completion of the atoning act. The right understanding of sacrifice depends essentially on the distinction between these two elements. O.

The SACRIFICIAL INSTITUTE is the very centre, and it is the Reason, and it is the Final Cause of the Mosaic Dispensation. It is this which connects the ancient Dispensation with the later Covenant, of which Christ himself was the centre. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says: “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission;” and thus, also, is it written: “Now once in the end of the world hath (Christ) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” The Sacrificial Ritual which Moses, as a faithful servant, instituted in the wilderness, and which was enacted there imperfectly during the forty years’ wanderings, was afterward enacted in the conquered Palestine, so far as might be practicable under the precarious conditions of that unsettled time. Much more fully did it come into act in a later time; and more fully, yet with necessary modifications, in the times of the Monarchy. But at length the sins of the people, and of their kings, brought this service to a pause. Nevertheless, at the very earliest moment of the return of the repentant people to their city, this shedding of the blood of victims was resumed; and so was it continued until the last day of doom, when, while the city and the temple were in flames, the priests, still faithful to their duty, fell slain beside the altar, while accomplishing the last bloody sacrifice that should ever send its fumes heavenward. But neither the Roman conqueror, with his super-imposed temple of Venus, nor the levellings of the Ælia Capitolina, nor the basilicas of Christian emperors, nor the abortive endeavors of Julian, nor the massive works of the Saracen, nor the reparations of the Crusaders, nor of the Turk, have gone deep enough to disturb those colossal memorials of the remote age of the Monarchy, when the requirements of the Sacrificial Ritual prevailed over all other requirements, in fitting the sacred site for the worship instituted by Moses. And it is now the antiquarian curiosity of travellers and residents that is bringing these long-buried memorials to light. I. T.

It is hardly needful or possible here to point out in what manifold ways the various sacrifices of the Law foreshadowed the oblation of Calvary. It must suffice to say that this, too, was a voluntary offering (Heb. 9 : 14), a whole offering (Heb. 10 : 10); that the life was given (Matt. 20 : 28), and blood poured (1 Pet. 1 : 2); that the blood was poured for the remission of sins (Matt. 26 : 28), and the life given for the life of the world (John 6 : 51). It is for us to lay our hands on the head of Christ the sacrifice, and the analogy is complete. Hammond.—In Him now is found the appointed medium of intercourse between the sinner and God; through Him, but through Him alone, can the sinner’s guilt be atoned, and his services of faith and love rise with acceptance to the Father; so that what purposes the altar served to the Old Testament worshipper, the same, and in a far higher manner, does Christ serve to the believer in the Gospel; and the oneness of the appointed medium of sacrificial worship in former times has now also its counterpart in the one name given under heaven whereby we can be saved. All this implies, no doubt, the union of the Divine and human in the person of Christ, His humiliation from the highest to the lowest condition, His vicarious intercession, and much besides; but pre-indications of such specific points in the Christian scheme are to be sought in other parts of the tabernacle worship, rather than in the altar itself, which forms the common portal of them all. P. F.

As the altar sanctifies the gift, so doth Christ spiritualize our services for God’s acceptance. All that we have from God streams through His blood; so all we give to God ascends by virtue of His merits. All our worship, therefore, must be bottomed on Christ. The creatures present their acknowledgments to God by man, and man can only present his to God by Christ. It was utterly unlawful, after the building of the Temple, to sacrifice anywhere else: the Temple being a type of Christ, it is utterly unlawful for us to present our services in any other name than His. Charnock.—Having such an High-Priest to present our case, let us put our case with godly simplicity and filial confidence into His hands. Consider Him who is our High-Priest, and so be encouraged to send many supplications in. Send in requests for yourself, that your sin may be blotted out, and your heart renewed; that your faith may be living, and your hope bright; that your life may be His epistle, and your death His praise. For your family, that those who are bound so closely to you may be more closely bound to Him; that you and yours may be heirs together of the grace of life, and dwell together with the Lord. For the city, that its Christians may be more like Christ, and its dead masses shaken and brought together, and clothed with skin, and raised to life, like the bones of Ezekiel’s valley. For the world, that its tumults may be hushed at last, as the stormy sea became calm at the command of Jesus; that all tongues and peoples may learn on earth the common hymn of heaven, “Worthy the Lamb that died.” Having such an High-Priest in the heavens, why should we, by restraining prayer, leave Him, so far as we are concerned, standing there all the day idle? Arnot.

The Altar of Incense.

The incense offered day by day, and century after century, prefigured the gracious intercession of Christ, that intercession through which alone our prayers are presented, which alone ensures their acceptance, and without which sinful man cannot draw near to God. When the high-priest entered the oracle, as the representative of the congregation, the cloud of incense must cover him lest he should die. We have but to notice how close is the correspondence between type and antitype to be convinced that this is its true meaning. His prayers are like the fragrant incense. In Him the Father is well pleased. And they are ordained of God. He is the “Anointed,” the “Advocate with the Father,” “the one Mediator.” He stands “before the throne,” “at the right hand of God,” “in heaven itself.” He “ever liveth to make intercession for us.” The incense never dies out of the heavenly courts. When we pray, morning and evening, our Intercessor prays also. When we offer our sacrifices, He offers the incense at the same time. And He is also our High-Priest. When He passed through the heavens with His own blood to make atonement, the incense, to make intercession, was not forgotten. Hammond.—Here we see Christ engaged in His work above, receiving the prayers of His people into His censer; taking their requests all into His own hand; making them His own; laying them on Himself as their golden altar; adding to them the savor of His own merits, so that they shall not go alone, unaccompanied or unwelcome, into His Father’s presence; but, rendered odorous by passing from and through Him, steeped as it were in His virtues, shall ascend up before God with a certainty of being heard and accepted there. They never fail to be heard; never miss their mark; the golden altar sanctifies their gifts; their prayers go up as a memorial before God; they never can be lost; they linger before the throne, and are at one time or other assuredly attended to by Him who sitteth above the mercy seat. Falloon.

So that both the altars of Judaism speak to us of Christ: the one of His death, the other of His “endless life;” the first of the “one offering,” the second of the ceaseless intercession. And between them they shadowed forth the fulness and completeness of our salvation. “We have an Advocate with the Father”—this is the Gospel of the incense. “We have a great High-Priest”—this is the evangel of incense and sacrifice alike. Hammond.

The Ark and Its Mercy-seat.

Pre-eminent, in its position, its glory, and its significance above all the other splendid symbols of truth and duty before and within the temple, stood the ark and the mercy-seat. Placed in the inner Sanctuary, the Holiest or Holy of Holies, radiating a brightness which no human eye could endure, it symbolized the immediate presence of Jehovah and His worshipping Hosts, while it bore express testimony to Him as the Covenant making and Covenantkeeping God of grace. Within the Ark was deposited the Law; and upon it was the golden mercy-seat, which disclosed in type the covenanted grace of the Gospel. Over the mercy-seat and between the cherubim, abode the columned light of the Shekinah, the living yet not consuming flame, earth’s most glorious token of the presence of the Infinite, Invisible Spirit. Upon the mercy-seat blood was sprinkled by the High-Priest once a year as a typical Atonement for the sins of the people, foreshadowing that great Atonement which Jesus the Son of God, the world’s appointed High-Priest, afterward offered once for all. Through the mercy-seat was indicated the fact of access, and through its baptism of blood the way, in which the sinful soul could approach the presence and enter into the fellowship of God. This was the object for which the mercy-seat was originally appointed, that He might thus extend His sceptre of promised blessing to all who came with fervent, humble, penitent spirit. “There will I meet thee and I will commune with thee,” are the gracious words of invitation to every such comer, at every coming. B.

All the time that the history of the Jews was going on, the mercy-seat and the cherubim that covered it were still witnessing to the children of Israel that God was in the midst of them. So the words, “There I will meet with thee,” stood from generation to generation. The lessons of the New Testament take up all the words and lessons of the Old Testament, all that is written about the cherubim and the mercy-seat. They say, “All this is now, not for Israelites, but for men, for men in the farthest ends of the earth.” If you turn to the last book of the Bible, you will find the Book of Genesis appearing again there, a nobler tree of life than that of the garden of Eden, which is not guarded by angels, but the fruit of which all are invited to taste. You will find the Book of Exodus again there. You will hear of the tabernacle of God being with men, and of His dwelling with them and being their God. You will find some of the latest words in the book those which have gone through the whole of it.—“Worship God.” Worship means that God is meeting us and drawing us to Himself, that He has sent His Spirit into the world and established His Church in the world for the very purpose of bringing all to Him. This is the message that the Bible has brought to men in past ages; this is the message that it brings to them now. Maurice.

The two tables of stone in the ark testified that God’s kingdom was founded on immutable justice and righteousness. They testified to the covenant of obligation. Oehlen calls them “the obligatory document of the covenant.” They testified against Israel’s sins and backslidings. Against all, but especially against rebellion and apostasy. This appears to be the special force of the expression “the testimony,” “tables of testimony.” The two tables of stone containing the Ten Commandments are called “the testimony” because God did testify (1) His sovereign authority over Israel as His people; (2) His selection of them as the guardians of His will and worship; (3) displeasure in the event of their transgressing His laws. While on the people’s part they testified, in accepting them, (1) their acknowledgment of God’s right to rule over them; (2) their submission to the authority of His law. Jamieson.—As a ground of justification they were to be forever out of sight—fulfilled in Him who is the sinner’s only justification and resting-place before God—Jesus Christ. But they were put into the ark to be preserved—only to be more binding than ever upon Israel as their rule of life. Whitefield.

The New Testament Epistles introduce two typical uses of the Temple itself, each of which is of vital interest.

1. The believer is a temple wherein the Holy Ghost dwells. No other conception is so lofty, so elevating, none so completely matches our utmost aspirations. Not only God with us, preparing, appointing, insuring all desirable good, but God in us abiding, to give light to our understanding that we may perceive truth and duty, to stir all pure, true impulses of the heart, and to actuate the will with the constraint of a Divine love; God in us to impart all needed grace for every actual contingency, so that all experiences within the soul may work together for good, in conjunction with all events without. In this lofty estimate of man’s possible aspirations, this figure transcends all human conception. For it embodies our life with the life of God. It actualizes all that we can desire or hope for, now and hereafter. It signifies light to the understanding for the apprehension of truth, and quickening to conscience for the commanding sense of duty. It means might to the will for the subjection of evil to good in actual living. And it intimates grace overflowing the heart, reproducing therein the deep, pure impulses and blessed outflow of Divine love. To be, then, thus rightly and blessedly self-elevated, to have humility deepened, and glad gratitude made more intense and constant, above all to live under the power of the strongest impulse to purity and truth, we may well ponder often and deeply this sublimest of all the realities of personal experience, “Ye are the temple of God!”

2. Further, in the New Testament this truth is expanded into a second and broader typical use. All believers are included as living stones (in each of which God lives) in a glorious spiritual edifice, “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth into an holy temple in the Lord.” Concerning this spiritual temple, yet in process of erection, when at length it shall be completed, “a great voice out of heaven” will be heard saying, “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” No other temple than this, of redeemed, blood-washed souls, all of whom are kings and priests unto God, is found in the new Jerusalem; and of these we read that the Lamb is the light and the joy everlastingly!

3. And the practical point of this now visioned and promised reality is this: In the upbuilding of this yet incomplete spiritual temple, this Church which is “for a habitation of God through the Spirit,” each of us has the high, priceless privilege of contributing service of heart, of word and deed. It may be in measure larger or smaller according to ability and opportunity, but with the encouraging knowledge that if singly, heartily done, the small becomes great, even the greatest. In this service many have wrought and toiled, and now rest from their labors. Upon us, as yet living workers with God, is the privilege and duty fallen. And to all of us the fact is unutterably significant and solemn that we are building for eternity, either that which shall endure for our endless gratitude and joy, or that which includes ourselves in its everlasting destruction. For every man’s work shall be made manifest. And it is the “glory of the Lord” that shall make manifest. This it is that at the last shall forever shine as the light within the heavenly city; while it shall burn as a flame amid the darkness without, for “our God is a consuming fire!” B.

O God, thou hast built a temple unto thyself in us. We are not only, through thy grace, living stones in thy temple, but living temples in thy Sion. Do thou ever dwell in this thy house; and in this thy house, let us ever serve thee. Wherefore else hast thou a temple, but for thy presence with us, and for our worshipping of thee? Let the altars of our clean hearts send up ever to thee the sweetest perfumed smokes of our holy meditations and faithful prayers and cheerful thanksgivings. Let the pure lights of our faith and godly conversation shine ever before thee and men, and never be put out. Let the bread of life stand ever ready upon the pure and precious tables of our hearts. Lock up thy law and thy manna within us; and speak comfortably to us from thy mercy-seat. Suffer nothing to enter in hither that is unclean. Sanctify us unto thyself, and be thou sanctified in us. Bp. II.

The preparation, the construction, and the consecration of the Christian Temple, are all of Christ. He gathers the lively stones, and by the Spirit builds up His Church as a habitation of God through the Spirit, a sublime Temple, against which no inroad of enemies, or gates of Hades, shall prevail. D. F.—No base thing goes to the making up of God’s house. If Satan may have a dwelling, he cares not though he patch it up of the rubbish of stone, or rotten sticks, or dross of metals; God will admit of nothing that is not pure and exquisite; his Church consists of none but the faithful; his habitation is in no heart but the gracious. . . . What is the temple of this body of ours to the temple of Christ’s body, which is his Church? And what is the temple of God’s Church on earth to that which triumpheth gloriously in heaven? How easily do we see all these in this one visible temple! which as it had three distinctions of rooms—the Porch, the Holy Place, the Holy of Holies—so is each of them answered spiritually: in the Porch, we find the regenerate soul entering into the blessed society of the Church; in the Holy Place the Communion of the true, visible Church on earth, selected from the world; in the Holy of Holies, whereinto the high-priest entered once a year, the glorious Heaven into which our true high-priest, Christ Jesus, entered once for all, to make an atonement betwixt God and man. Bp. II.

Here the living stones are cut and wounded, and made fit by sufferings for a temple unto God in the New Jerusalem. But as in the building of Solomon’s temple, the noise of a hammer was not heard, for all the parts were framed before with that exact design and correspondence, that they firmly combined together; they were hewn in another place, and nothing remained but the putting them one upon another, and then as sacred they became inviolable; so God, the wise architect, having prepared the saints here by many cutting afflictions, places them in the eternal building, where no voice of sorrow is heard. Of the innumerable assembly above, is there any eye that weeps, any breast that sighs, any tongue that complains, or any appearance of grief? The heavenly state is called life, as only worthy of that title. There is no infirmity of body, no poverty, no disgrace, no treachery of friends, no persecution of enemies. “There is no more death, nor sorrow; nor shall there be any more pain; for former things are passed away. God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his people.” Bates.

The temple was designed to be the habitation of God, the seat of his presence, and a monument to his name. And the heavenly temple is erected for the same purpose; not so much for the sake of the living and shining stones that compose it, as for the honor of its great Builder; not so much for the salvation of the poor outcasts of the earth, as for the glory of the power, wisdom, and grace, of the great God of heaven. “Not for your sakes do I this,” said the Lord God to Israel, even of the temporal deliverances he vouchsafed them, “but for mine holy name’s sake.” “This people,” he says of his redeemed, “have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.” “He hath chosen us,” says Paul, “that we should be holy and without blame before him in love”—for what end? “to the praise of the glory of his grace.” And this truth is full of unspeakable comfort to the Christian heart. It would be sweet to live in heaven as the angels live there, happy in the sight of God, and rejoicing in his love; but when I enter heaven, I shall stand there as a monument to my Redeemer’s honor. To be a pardoned sinner on earth is a mercy so great that it sometimes overpowers me; but to be a pardoned sinner in heaven, to afford a fresh revenue of glory to its great King in his own house—this is a mercy which passes all my thought! Bradley.

The temple and the tabernacle were the same in their purpose and in their typical significance, and both were only transitory, even as and because they were typical. But as compared the one with the other, the temple may well become to us an illustration of the enduring nature of that building of God, the house not made with hands, which shall be His people’s eternal habitation; while the tabernacle, built on purpose so that it might quickly be taken down, reminds us of that earthly house—that frail body in which now we dwell—the pilgrim tent pitched in the wilderness, and in which the immortal soul is but as a stranger and a sojourner. So the Apostle Peter speaks of his mortal frame, and his language teaches us how truly he regarded it but as the temporary abode of himself, the spiritual inhabitant. “I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.” So, too, the Apostle Paul discourses of the tabernacle of the body: “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Downton.

Significance of the Entire Ritual System to the Thoughtful Israelite.

The numerous and diversified offerings of the ancient Jews, with the striking pomp which preceded and attended them, were fitted not only to excite and express the most reverential, humble, and grateful devotion, but also to give the best direction to the whole temper and conduct. The many washings and purifications enjoined previous to the oblation of sacrifice directly tended to impress a simple people with a scrupulous regard to inward and moral purity, especially in all their approaches to the Deity. Above all, the frequent sacrifices of the Jewish law were intended to prefigure and gradually to prepare men for the great atoning sacrifice of the coming Messiah. Accordingly, our Saviour, in allusion to those ancient oblations, is called by way of eminence a sin-offering, a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. In a word, the religion of the Jews and that of Christians form one great and harmonious plan. The Jews saw gospel truth in its early and gradual dawn, we behold it in its meridian splendor. When Christ appeared, the candid and pious Jews embraced Him, because they saw in Him a glorious counterpart, a perfect accomplishment, of their ancient rites and predictions. The Gentiles, on the other hand, were led to venerate and believe in the Hebrew law, because they beheld in it an exact though imperfect figure and prophecy of the gospel. What beauty and glory do these observations reflect both on the Jewish and Christian dispensations! What admirable depths of wisdom do they discover in both! Bannister.

The pious Israelite would be able to see that by obedience to the several prescriptions of the law, it was possible to some extent to offer acceptable sacrifices to God. The Sanctuary, the priesthood, and the sacrificial rubric would be understood to be Divine replies to the spiritual cravings of his soul. In the Sanctuary he would recognize the place where the Most High would meet his people under prescribed conditions and with assured results. In the priesthood he would behold the chosen ministers of God, at once the flower of the religious life of his nation and the pledge of his personal religious destiny. In the wide range of purification and sacrifices he would acknowledge a diversified series of religious services adapted to arouse and satisfy all the necessities of his spirit. In the several festivals he would see that Jehovah had provided for many a pause in his secular life, when in blended humiliation and rejoicing he might call upon the name of the Lord, and mingle his voice with the national abasement or exaltation. All these rites and ceremonies had been revealed to him as a detailed series of sacraments, which, weak as they were through materialism, yet brought heaven to earth, and transported man to the dwelling-place of God. Nor could he miss the significance of these injunctions; for that significance was directly revealed in the Law itself, and rendered peculiarly impressive by an elaborate and eloquent symbolism. Cave.

It is untrue to speak of the Mosaic law as a failure, because it never realized its high expectations. Then as now it was a high privilege for God’s people to have a noble idea of faith and duty set before them, and in all the worthier members of the nation there was a continual striving to reach the high standard proposed. R. P. S.—Undoubtedly the realization was but rarely attained, and that not in the entire nation, but in the sanctified heart of some solitary worshipper like David or Ezekiel. Nevertheless, these Divine object-lessons were not without their value. They were at once an exercise and an embodiment of an indispensable form of educational religion. They were admirably qualified for a paternal education of a religious childhood, if they fell short of a personal culture of a religious manhood. Add the further truth, so clearly taught in the old covenant, of the preparatory character of Judaism, and this divinely given cultus by presentation and atonement was blessed and stimulating indeed, “a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” Cave.

The Jew found himself from his birth a member of a very peculiar institution. In this institution the Church and the State were one, and every Jew was by birthright a member of the former no less than of the latter. Jehovah, the God of the whole earth, was the political head of the Jewish State, enacted laws for its government, and enforced the observance of them by temporal sanctions. While thus brought into peculiarly close and privileged intimacy with the Most High, the Jew was never permitted to forget the immense distance which separated him from God, nor the fact of his continual unworthiness and uncleanness in the sight of Him who is Holy. Though Israel was a priestly nation, no individual could approach unto God save through the medium of an official priesthood, appointed by God, and solemnly consecrated to his service. Continual purifications were required even in cases where no moral impurity was necessarily contracted, and when offences of an open kind were committed, it was only by offering sacrifice that they could be remitted. Sacrifice had also to be presented to clear away the guilt of offences not detected or inadvertently committed; and to cover all and to protect the nation from the Divine displeasure, a great annual act of expiation had to be performed, so as to free the community from its sins. There was thus a continual remembrance of sins made, so as to keep before the minds of the people an abiding consciousness, at once of their own proneness to transgression, and of God’s hatred of sin and jealousy of his own glory. Only by sins being continually purged away could Israel retain God’s presence in their sanctuary, and avert his wrath from them and their land. Brit. Quar.

As the Jew regarded the sacred structure of the Temple, the eye whispered to the soul that God Most High dwelt in the midst of His nation, and might be approached in worship. As his attention was engrossed by the gorgeous vestments and busy ministrations of priests and Levites, he would recognize a divinely appointed organization, by whose mediation and intercession Divine worship might be beneficially conducted. The divinely arranged series of animal and bloodless gifts would deliver the messages with which they were divinely laden, the welcome and inspiring messages of the forgiveness of sins and a possibility of fellowship with

God. In short, the Mosaic injunctions, in their essential significance, brought into satisfactory prominence the consolatory and instructive truths of the Divine nearness and approachableness, of human sin in its stupendous effects upon the physical nature and the conscience, together with the possibility of atonement, forgiveness, and restoration to the Divine favor. The Jew who could devoutly say, “I believe in Jehovah, Maker of heaven and earth,” could add to his creed, “I believe in the Shekinah, the Tabernacle and priesthood, the communion of saints, and the forgiveness of sins”—no inconsiderable spiritual equipment! Cave.

The simplicity of worship in the Christian Church is a sign of spiritual advancement, inasmuch as it arises, in some measure, from the fact, that the gospel rites are commemorative, while those of the former dispensation were anticipative. To the Hebrew in ancient times Christ was a Being of whose person and character and work he had but the most vague and undefined conceptions; to the Christian worshipper He is no shadowy dream of the future, no vague and visionary personage of a distant age, but the dearest, most intimate, best beloved of friends, whose beautiful life stands forth before the mind with all the distinctness of history—whose glorious person and mission is the treasured and familiar contemplation of his secret thoughts. The former, accordingly, needed all the elaborate formality of type and ceremony, of temple and altar and sacrifice—of symbolic persons and objects and actions, to help out his idea of the Messiah and of His mighty mission. But to enable the latter to recall his Lord, no more is required than a few drops of water, a bit of broken bread, or a cup of wine. Around these simplest outward memorials, a host of thoughts, reflections, remembrances, are ready to gather. Caird.