2 Chronicles 2
Butler1. K. 5: 1** AND Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house for the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet. But now the LORD my God hath given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary, nor evil or current. And, behold, I purpose to build an house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build the house for my name. Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy ser-
2. Chron. 2: 1** Now Solomon purposed to build an house for the name of the LORD, and an house for his kingdom. And Solomon sent to Hiram the king of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him an house to dwell therein, even so deal with me. Behold, I build an house for the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him incense of sweet spices, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel. And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, vants; and I will give thee hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt say: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Zidonians. And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the LORD this day, which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people. And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have heard the message which thou hast sent unto me: I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will make them into rafts to go by sea unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household. So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according to all his desire. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year. And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together. And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home: and Adoniram was over the levy. And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand that were hewers in the mountains; besides Solomon’s chief officers that were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work. And the king commanded, and they hewed out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with wrought stone. And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites did fashion them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.
7 save only to burn incense before him? Now therefore send me a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave all manner of gravings, to be with the cunning men that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide. Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of Lebanon: for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and, behold, my servants shall be with thy servants, even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great. And, behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil. Then Hiram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the LORD loveth his people, he hath made thee king over them. Hiram said moreover, Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a wise son, endued with discretion and understanding, that should build an house for the LORD, and an house for his kingdom. And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Hiram my father’s, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to devise any device: that there may be a place appointed unto him with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father. Now therefore the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, which my lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his servants: and we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need: and we will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem. And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred. And he set threescore and ten thousand of them to bear burdens, and fourscore thousand that were hewers in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work.
The correspondence between Solomon and Hiram of Tyre (given in 1 K. 5; but more fully 2 Chron. 2) sets forth, with delightful recognition of the true God, the plans of Solomon and his propositions to the king of Tyre; the occasion for a temple; the uses it should subserve; and his reasons for making it supremely magnificent. “The house which I build is great, for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? Who am I that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?” Hiram’s answer has some remarkable words for an idol-worshipping king. This is said to have been sent in writing: “Because the Lord [Jehovah] hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who hath given unto David the king a wise son, endued with prudence and understanding, who might build an house for the Lord and an house for his kingdom.” H. C.
The friendship of this monarch was of the highest value in contributing to the great royal and national work, the building of the temple. The cedar timber could only be obtained from the forests of Lebanon: the Sidonian artisans, celebrated in the Homeric poems, were the most skilful workmen in every kind of manufacture, particularly in the precious metals. Solomon entered into a regular treaty, by which he bound himself to supply the Tyrians with large quantities of corn; receiving in return their timber, which was floated down to Joppa, and a large body of artificers. The timber was cut by his own subjects, of whom he raised a body of 30,000; 10,000 employed at a time, and relieving each other every month; so that to one month of labor they had two of rest. He raised two other corps, one of 70,000 porters of burdens; the other of 80,000 hewers of stone, who were employed in the quarries among the mountains. All these labors were thrown, not on the Israelites, but on the strangers, who, chiefly of Canaanitish descent, had been permitted to inhabit the country. Milman.
The various works in brass executed for the Temple (1 K. 7: 13-45) imply a considerable advancement in art; and we also gather that the men of Tyre were skilled as wood-carvers and stone-masons, and were bold adventurous seamen. The wood for the Temple was floated down in great rafts to Jaffa (Joppa), and thence carried up to Jerusalem; this, of course, necessitated constant and close intercourse between the Tyrians and the Jews, and the relations at this period between Hiram and Solomon, and their respective peoples, appear to have been very intimate. Between four and five miles from Tyre there is a remarkable monument shown as the tomb of Hiram, which consists of a huge sarcophagus twelve feet long, eight feet wide, and six feet high, hewn out of a single block of limestone, with a lid of the same material five feet thick, the whole resting on a massive platform, ten feet high, built up of three courses of large stones. There is one point of contact between the Jews and Phœnicians which should not remain unnoticed—the similarity, perhaps identity, of the language used by the two peoples, and also by the surrounding tribes: this is perhaps indicated by the absence of any mention in the Bible of the employment of interpreters by the Jews in their intercourse with the original inhabitants, and by the special mention of Egypt in Ps. 81: 5 as being a country “where I heard a language that I understood not.” The similarity between Hebrew and Phœnician was noticed by Jerome and Augustine, when the latter language was still spoken; and there are, besides, many Phœnician and Carthaginian names which are devoid of meaning except in Hebrew. The discovery of the celebrated Moabite stone proves the use of the Phœnician language in Moab in the time of King Mesha, and a small inscription found by Monsieur Ganneau, near Jerusalem, seems to point to its use in that city during the period of the kings. Wilson.
The agreement between the character of the Phœnicians as drawn in Kings and Chronicles, and that which we know from other sources to have attached to them, is worthy of remark. The wealth, the enterprise, the maritime skill, and the eminence in the arts, which were the leading characteristics of the Phœnicians in Homer’s time, are abundantly noted by the writers of Kings and Chronicles; who contrast the comparative ignorance and rudeness of their own nation with the science and “cunning” of their neighbors. It has been well remarked that “we discover the greatness of Tyre in this age, not so much from its own annals as from those of the Israelites, its neighbors.” The scanty fragments of the Phœnician history which alone remain to us are filled out and illustrated by the more copious records of the Jews, with a simplicity and truthfulness that we rarely meet with in profane writers. G. R.
2. Chron. 2: 3-12.** The correspondence between Hiram and Solomon is given in the Chronicles with added points we are thankful to have preserved. The correspondence is very important and interesting. One point must not pass unnoticed. It is said that “Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,"—thus implying that the message was orally conveyed; but of Hiram’s reply, it is remarked—doubtless with designed emphasis—that he “answered in writing"—being certainly the first recorded instance of this application of writing, in which it would seem the Phoenicians were beforehand with the Hebrews. Solomon’s message was in every way creditable to him. He bore testimony to the truth he knew, apprehending that it became him to uphold the Lord’s honor under all circumstances,—not wishing to displease Hiram, who was an idolater, but determined to pay no timid deference to heathen prejudices. He boldly asserted the very positions which a heathen was least of all likely to receive—the infinity of Jehovah, and his supreme dominion. “The house which I build is great; for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to build Him a house, seeing the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?” The effect of this conscientious boldness in bearing testimony to the truth was such as invariably follows the same line of conduct. Hiram was not displeased, but spoke reverently of this high God, and expressed his earnest desire to co-operate in so good a work. Indeed, his language is stronger than that of Solomon himself, and may suggest that this declaration had made a serious impression upon his mind, or at least had strengthened some convictions made during his former intercourse with David, in whose mind the glory of God was so active a principle of thought, speech, and action, that it seems impossible for one to have been a “lover of David,” without being also, in some measure, a lover of David’s God. In Hiram’s answer there remarkable words occur—“Because Jehovah hath loved his people, He hath made thee king over them.” And again: “Blessed be Jehovah, God of Israel, that made heaven and earth.” Here is a clear acknowledgment of Jehovah as the creator of the universe, of his government of the world, of his providence, and that by Him kings reign. As in the case of David, what Solomon requires is assistance in art, and certain kinds of wood for building from the mountains of Lebanon. The payment was also, in like manner, to be in agricultural produce,—corn, wine, and oil. Solomon does not want, as David did, carpenters and masons; so that there can be little doubt that David had retained in his employment, on various works, the men who had previously come to him from Tyre, and these had doubtless taught others. Indeed, there was probably great activity in building, particularly at Jerusalem, throughout the reign of David. In that city, the rapid increase of population, from its being made the metropolis of the kingdom, must have created a constant demand for new buildings.
2. Chron., verse 7.** What Solomon wanted most was a master of the works, able to carry out the plans left by David; and it was for such a man that Solomon applied to Hiram. The account of the attainments required is curious, as showing the very diverse qualifications sought in one man, in an age wherein labor and skill was much less subdivided than it afterward became. The qualifications, however, had respect to the furniture of the temple, and not to the construction of it, which leaves open the question whether Solomon had otherwise provided for this part of the undertaking—say by obtaining an architect from Egypt—or that the qualifications required for this purpose are to be regarded as included among those of the skilful person sought from the king of Tyre. The latter seems probable, as the qualifications enumerated are nearly the same found in Bezaleel, who, however, not only excelled in the matters specified, but superintended the whole construction of the tabernacle. The selection of Hiram fell in this instance on a person who bore the same name with himself, and who had the advantage of being the son of a Hebrew woman of the tribe of Naphtali, though his father was a man of Tyre. What Solomon demanded was, “a man cunning (skilful) to work in gold, in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave,” etc. Josephus understood that Hiram was skilful in “all kinds of works,” but in these particularly. And this is probable; for in the case of Bezaleel, after the enumeration of the like qualifications, it is added, that he was skilled “in all manner of workmanship.” To skill in dyes, in colors, in textile fabrics, in brassfounding, in smithery, in gold and silver work, Hiram added the knowledge of “carving,” probably wood-carving and modelling. Kit.
In profane history, Phoenician civilization is represented as consisting especially in the possession of nautical skill, of extensive commerce, and of excellence in mechanical and ornamental arts and employments. None “can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians” (1 K. 5 : 6). They are “cunning to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and in blue, and in crimson;” they “can skill to grave gravings.” Hiram of Tyre casts for Solomon all his vessels for the Temple service, and especially the two huge pillars, Jachin and Boaz, which stood in front of the porch, and the great laver called “the molten sea.” Closely in accordance with this is the character of Phoenician civilization, which we derive from the Greeks. Their early nautical skill and extensive trade are mentioned by Homer and Herodotus, the former of whom speaks especially of their beautifully embroidered robes and their bowls of silver. Their “skill to hew timber,” even at this remote time, was attested by their own historians, as also was their practice of making large metal pillars. G. R.
2. Chron., verse 8. Timber of various kinds was what Solomon chiefly required of King Hiram. That it was needful to procure timber from so distant a quarter, and that through the intervention of foreigners, shows that, although trees of various kinds, and especially such as bear fruit, may have been abundant in Palestine, such as afforded wood suited for building purposes were not much more common in the country than they are at present. The cedar of Lebanon is a widespread tree, generally from fifty to eighty feet high, and where standing singly, often covering, with its branches, a space the diameter of which is much greater than its height. The horizontal branches, when the tree is exposed on all sides, are very large in proportion to the trunk, being often equal in bulk to the stem of the fir or the chestnut—a circumstance alluded to by the prophet Ezekiel, in his magnificent description of this noble tree (31 : 3-6). The cedar grove, which is regarded as the remnant of the forest which supplied the cedar-wood to Solomon, or rather as the principal existing site of these trees, lies far up among the higher mountains, at a spot which it takes above a day to reach from the coast at Tripoli. The grove is here found at the foot of a lofty mountain, in what may be regarded as the arena of a vast amphitheatre, shut in on all sides by high mountains, which form part of the upper ridge of Lebanon. Although it is imagined that this is the very grove from which the king obtained his cedars, there can be no question that the supply was drawn from parts of the mountain more accessible to the coast, and from which all traces of the cedar have long since disappeared.
2. Chron., verses 16-18. Since Solomon’s people were not skilful to cut timber, “like the Zidonians,” it was arranged that Hiram was to supply a certain number of workmen to direct the proceedings, and perform the more difficult parts of the work; for it is to be remembered, that all the timber was to be fully prepared and fitted for its final use on the spot, not only to facilitate the work at Jerusalem, but that no labor might be wasted in the transport of the superfluous parts. So small and busy a state as that of Tyre could not, however, supply the numerous hands required for the ruder labor, such as trimming the wood and dragging it down through the defiles of the mountains to the coast. For this Solomon undertook to find laborers among the remnants of the Canaanitish tribes whom David had spared on the condition of their being liable to be called out for service on any public works that might need their aid. They were now therefore numbered, and the adult males were found to amount to 153,600. Of these 70,000 were made hewers of wood, 80,000 bearers of burdens, and 3600 overseers of the others. A levy of 30,000 Israelites was also made for this service, and there were 550 Israelites as overseers of the whole work. They were not all employed at once, but in relays of one third at a time, so that every man spent four months at home and two in the mountains. This, and the great numbers employed, must have rendered the obligation less onerous than has been represented. These arrangements were continued for several years on a well-organized plan. The wood prepared by these multitudes was taken down to the sea, there made up into large rafts, and floated down along the shore to Joppa, whereby the land-carriage was reduced to about twenty-five miles to Jerusalem. To support these laborers, and to remunerate Hiram for the aid of his people, Solomon agreed to supply the king, year by year, with 20,000 measures of wheat, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of oil (verse 10).
1. K. 5 : 17, 18. Although the operations for the procurement of timber are chiefly described, great hewn stones for the foundation of the temple were also to be procured. It is stated that “The king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house. And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders did hew them, and the stone-squarters; so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.” As to the descriptive epithets, we may combine them into “great costly hewn stones.” The previous squaring of the stones in the quarry not only facilitated their removal to the place of building, but produced the remarkable result that the house being “built of stone made ready before it was brought thither, there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building” (1 K. 7 : 7). The terms employed by the sacred historian will scarcely strike us in all their force, unless we bear in mind that stones of enormous size are known to have been employed in the ancient buildings of Syria. Thus, in the sub-basement of the great temple of Baalbek, which is probably much more ancient than the now ruined Roman structure which rests upon it, there is one stone sixty-six feet in length by twelve in breadth and thickness, with others of not greatly inferior size; while in a neighboring quarry, which tradition declares to be that from which Solomon obtained his “great stones,” are stones of equal and greater dimensions, cut and ready for use, one of them being no less than seventy feet in length by fourteen feet five inches in thickness. This stone, therefore, contains 14,128 cubic feet, and would, if of Portland stone, weigh no less than 1135 tons.
At Jerusalem, the immense size and obvious antiquity of much of the stone-work around the area which contains the mosque of Omar, and formerly contained the temple of the Lord, have led many to ascribe it to the age of Jewish magnificence,—some carrying it back to the time of Solomon, and others being content to refer it to the time of Herod the Great. This is found in the lower courses of masonry, and at the angles, the superstructure of the enclosing wall being of smaller and inferior masonry, comparatively modern, and doubtless of Saracenic workmanship. To these remains we incline to assign the higher antiquity, and to regard them as remains—the only remains—of the original work of Solomon. Along nearly the whole of the eastern side, upon the brow of the steep valley of Jehoshaphat, courses of ancient masonry may be traced in almost a continuous line. In some places the courses scarcely appear above the soil, while in others they rise nearly to the height of the modern walls, especially at the angles and projecting towers, which were built to a greater height with great stones, and of such firm masonry as could not easily be destroyed. The inequality may be in part accounted for by the irregularities of the ground, and the unequal accumulation of débris. At the northeast angle, for instance, several courses of ancient masonry form a corner tower, projecting slightly from the general face of the wall, along a length of eighty-one feet. Many of the stones here measure from seventeen to nineteen feet in length, while a few exceed twenty-four feet. They vary from three to four feet in depth, and from five to eight in width. But the southeast angle of the enclosing wall is perhaps the most imposing object in or near Jerusalem, consisting of enormous blocks of stone rising at the corner to the height of seventy feet. In the upper portions, however, the stones are so irregularly interlocated as to show that they belong to the restorations from old materials, upon the basis of the more ancient lower courses. At this place, and in the wall upon each face of this corner, in the three lower courses, stones are found measuring nearly thirty feet long, and of proportionate thickness and depth; and wherever such stones occur, at this and other spots, there is always observable more regularity than is found higher up—more of uniform intention—more indication of adequate means and leisurely construction. At the western wall, about thirty-nine feet from the southwest corner, several huge stones jut out,—as if, one is apt to think at the first sight, from the bursting of the wall by an earthquake. On closer inspection, it is seen that the three courses of these immense stones retain their original places. Their external surface is hewn to a regular curve; and being fitted one upon another, form the commencement or foot of an enormous arch, which once sprung from the western wall in a direction toward Mount Zion, across the valley which separated that mount from Mount Moriah. About a hundred yards northward of the arch we come to what is called the Jews’ Wailing Place, where occur some of the finest and best-preserved masonry in this wall of enclosure. It derives its name from the fact that the Jews have purchased permission to assemble here every Friday, in the precincts of these ancients stones, to recite a set form of prayers, and to bewail the ruin of “the holy and beautiful house in which their fathers worshipped.” At this spot we find five courses of bevelled stones, and over them three courses of smooth-faced stones, little, if at all, inferior in size. The lower courses of the masonry are beautifully fresh and polished in surface,—others, either by time, or more probably by external injury, are much decayed. Kit.
2. K., verse 18. Southward from Tripoli, along the sea-coast, is Batrun (Botrys), and Jebeil, the Gebal of the Bible, whose inhabitants were employed as stone-cutters in preparing the material for Solomon’s Temple (1 K. 5 : 18), and are mentioned by Ezekiel as the “calkers” of the Tyrian ships (27 : 9). Wilson.—Gebal, as its ancient and extensive ruins prove, was a place of much importance, and lying as it did on the coast, and near the cedar forests, would naturally have an important share in the cutting and shipping of the timber. Indeed, it is not improbable that it was at this port that the land transport ended, and the rafts were made. A road ran anciently from Gebal to Baalbek, so that the transport was not impracticable. But as the forests were probably of great extent, there may have been two or three depots at which the timber was floated. Hammond.
Relations of Tyre and Israel.
Twice in the history of Israel were its relations with the neighboring kingdom of Tyre close and intimate. Twice did the Phœnician race exercise an important influence on the Hebrew people. In the days of Solomon the subjects of Hiram furnished men and materials to build a house to the name of the Lord. The Phœnicians were not only idolaters, but they belonged to the accursed races of Canaan; yet we see them here assisting the holy people, and furthering the interests of the true religion. But in the days of Ahab these relations were reversed. Then the kingdom of Ethbaal furnished Israel with a princess who destroyed the prophets of the Lord and sought to exterminate the religion of which the temple was the shrine and centre. In the first case, that is to say, we see Israel influencing Tyre for good; we hear from the lips of the Tyrian king an acknowledgment of the goodness of the Hebrew God; we see the two races combining to bring glory to God and to diffuse the blessings of peace and civilization among men. In the second case, we see Tyre influencing Israel for evil. No longer do the skilled artificers of Sidon prepare timber and stones for the Lord’s house, but the prophets and votaries of Phœnician deities would fain break down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers. So far from rearing a sanctuary to Jehovah, they would root up His worship and enthrone a foul idol in the place of the Divine Presence. Such have been at different times the relations of Tyre and Sidon to the chosen race and the true religion. Hammond.
Confirmation by Profane Historians and by Monumental Inscriptions.
The fact of Solomon’s rule over the Jews at the time which Scripture assigns to him, and the friendly relations in which he stood toward the Tyrian monarch, Hiram, were attested by the Tyrian historians, on whose works Dius and Menander based their histories. The Tyrian histories witnessed, moreover, to the construction of the Temple by Solomon, an event which they placed in the one hundred and forty fourth year before the foundation of Carthage, or B.C. 1007. They stated that several letters which had passed between Hiram and Solomon were preserved in the Tyrian archives; and they further related, as we learn from Menander, that Solomon took to wife one of Hiram’s daughters. This last fact, though not distinctly mentioned in Scripture, is probably glanced at in the statement 1 K. 9 : 1.
The Jewish history of even this obscure time has been found to present points of direct agreement with the Egyptian records (scanty as they are for it), with the Phœnician annals, with the traditions of the Syrians of Damascus, and with those of the early inhabitants of Northern Africa. The Hebrew account of the time is in complete harmony with all that we otherwise know of Western Asia at the period in question, of its political condition, its civilization, its arts and sciences, its manners and customs, its inhabitants. Illustrations of these points have been furnished by the Assyrian inscriptions, the Assyrian and Persian palaces, the Phœnician coins and histories, and the earliest Greek poetry. Nor is it possible to produce from authentic history any contradiction of this or any other portion of the Hebrew records. When such a contradiction has seemed to be found, it has invariably happened that in the progress of historical inquiry, the author from whom it proceeds has lost credit, and finally come to be regarded as an utterly untrustworthy authority. Internally consistent, externally resting upon contemporary or nearly contemporary documents, and both directly and indirectly confirmed by the records of neighboring nations, the Hebrew account of this time is entitled to be received as a true and authentic history on almost every ground upon which such a claim can be rested. It was then justly and with sufficient reason that the Proto-martyr in his last speech, and the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in his first public preaching as an Apostle, assumed as certain the simple, literal, and historic truth of this portion of the sacred narrative. Through God’s good providence, there is no break in that historic chain which binds the present with the past, the new covenant with the old, Christ with Moses, the true Israel with Abraham. G. R.
To Israel was specially entrusted the guardianship of that spiritual truth, which in the course of ages would develop in all its proportions, till finally it became the common property of the whole Gentile world. On the other hand, it was the task assigned to that world, to develop knowledge and thought so as to prepare a fitting reception for the truth, that thus it might be presented in all its aspects, and carried from land to land in a form adapted to every nation, meeting every want and aspiration. This was symbolically indicated even in the building of Solomon’s Temple. For if that Temple had been exclusively the workmanship of Jewish hands, both the materials for it and their artistic preparation would have been sadly defective, as compared with what it actually became. But it was not so; and while in the co-operation of Gentiles with Israel in the rearing of the Temple we see a symbol of their higher union in the glorious architecture of that “spiritual house built up” of “lively stones,” we also recognize the gracious Providence of God, which rendered it possible to employ in that work the best materials and the best artificers of the ancient world. A. E.
The cedar is most useful when dead. There is no timber like it. Firm in the grain, and capable of the finest polish, the tooth of no insect will touch it, and Time himself can hardly destroy it. Diffusing a perpetual fragrance through the chamber which it coils, the worm will not corrode the book which it protects, nor the moth corrupt the garment which it guards. All but immortal itself it transfuses its amaranthine qualities to the objects around it; and however stately in the forest, or brave on the mountain’s brow, it is more serviceable in Solomon’s palace, and it receives an illustrious consecration when set up as pillars in the temple, and carved into doorposts and lintels for the house of the Lord. Every Christian is useful in his life, but the goodly cedars are most useful afterward. Joseph, while he lived, saved much people alive, and his own lofty goodness was an impressive and elevating pattern to his rerelenting and admiring brethren. But as an instance of special providence and an example of untarnished excellence amid terrible temptations, Joseph dead has spoken to more than Joseph living. The sweet singer of Israel, while he lived, taught many to handle the harp and infected not a few with his thankful adoring spirit. But David being dead yet singeth, and you can hardly name the psalm, or hymn, or spiritual song, of which the lesson was not learned from the son of Jesse. Paul, in his living day, preached many a sermon, and made many a convert to the faith of Jesus. But Paul being dead yet preacheth, and they were sermons from his sepulchre which converted Luther, and Zwingle, and most of our modern evangelists. And Luther is dead, but the Reformation lives. Calvin is dead, but his vindication of God’s free and sovereign grace will never die. Knox, Melville, and Henderson are dead, but Scotland still retains a Sabbath and a Christian peasantry, a Bible in every house, and a school in every parish. Bunyan is dead, but his bright spirit still walks the earth in its “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Baxter is dead, but souls are still quickened by the “Saints’ Rest” and the “Call to the Unconverted.” Cowper is dead, but the “golden apples” are still as fresh as when newly gathered in the “silver basket” of the Olney Hymns. Eliot is dead, but the missionary enterprise is young. Henry Martyn is dead, but who can count the apostolic spirits, who, phœnix-wise, have started from his funeral pile? Howard is dead, but modern philanthropy is only commencing its career. Raikes is dead, but the Sabbath-schools go on. Wilberforce is dead, but the negro will find for ages a protector in his memory. Hamilton.