Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel. 1 Kings 8:1-9 A royal priest J. Parker, D. D. It is remarkable in connection with the dedication of the temple how the leading part was taken throughout by King Solomon. One would have thought that in the dedication of a sanctuary the leading men would have been the priests, Levites, scribes, and other persons distinctively identified with religious functions and responsibilities. We find, however, that exactly the contrary is the case. The priest occupied a second and tributary position, but it is the king who consecrates the sanctuary, and it is the king who offers the great prayer at its dedication. The question arises, Was not Solomon in reality more than king? Or, being a king, was he not, according to the Divine ideal of Israel, a priest unto God Did he not indeed occupy a kind of typical position as being in anticipation none other than the great high priest Jesus Christ Himself? The kingship and the priesthood are combined in the Christian character of the later dispensation: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." This is precisely what Solomon was, namely, a "royal priest"! ( J. Parker, D. D. ) A king dedicates a church A missionary in the Hawaiian Islands gives an account of the dedication of a place of worship by the king. He says: "Quite 4000 persons were present, including most of the great personages of the nation. An elegant sofa, covered with satin damask of a deep crimson colour, had been placed for them in the front of the pulpit. The king, in his gorgeous uniform, sat at one end, and his sister, in a superb dress, at the other. Before the religious services commenced, the king arose from his seat, and, addressing himself to the chiefs, teachers, and people generally, said that this house, which he had built, he new publicly gave to God, to be appropriated to His worship. The religious exercises were appropriate; and when these were closed, the king again stood up, and saying, 'Let us pray,' addressed the throne of grace, commending the building and the people to God." And it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. 1 Kings 8:17-19 Unaccomplished aims W. L. Watkinson. We are often conscious of inability to carry into effect cherished designs of the soul. As David vainly wished to build the temple, so do all noble souls project service which the limitations of this poor life forbid. Our plans are many and grand, our performances few and small at best. It is a perilous voyage from desire to realisation, and many a gracious speculation is shipwrecked ere it reaches port. Therefore are we often fretted, and regard these unrealised aspirations as a disheartening phase of experience. Why was David prevented from carrying this gracious thought into effect? His purpose seemed in harmony with the Divine commandment: "When He giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there." Further, David's purpose seemed altogether pure and generous. David was forbidden to build the house. God saw an unfitness in him for this particular service which had escaped other eyes. There was an impropriety in the red hands of War building the temple of Peace and Mercy, so God excluded His servant from this ministry. Thus we may believe that God often sees deep and cogent reasons for putting aside His servants, even when they contemplate desirable and magnanimous service. The reasons may not be apparent; may never in this life be discovered, and yet such reasons may exist. "Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick" ( 2 Timothy 4:20 ). Another grand source of practical failure is here touched. How many broken-down servants of God are there to-day, who have proved their sincerity, but whose thin hand can do little or nothing in raising the stones of the shrine they so passionately desire to build. As in the busiest thoroughfares of great cities we behold wistful faces looking down from hospital windows, longing to share in the strong life of the streets; so are there frail, broken watchers of the work of God who long to share the toil and sacrifice of God's workmen. "And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue" ( Exodus 4:10 ). Physical and educational defects are often real limitations of practical service. Gifted, warm, aggressive souls, without the orator's tongue or scholar's pen, do what they can and sorrowfully wish it more. "Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves" ( 2 Corinthians 8:1-3 ). Here is another example of restricted power. Out of much poverty the Macedonians revealed a rich generosity, and would have gone still further, but their power fell behind their will. "My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart" ( Job 17:11 ). Job views his life as at an end ,and in consequence of the premature ending, his cherished designs frustrated. "My heart-purposes are broken off; my profoundest hopes disappointed." This limitation is felt by all genuine vehement natures — the longest]ire not being long enough to realise all the great, gracious ideas which spring up in the soul under the brooding of God's Spirit. And here we may distinguish between those who have a real interest in the consolatory teaching of the text and those who have none. Folks of a certain order are very ready to infer how differently they would have acted if their fortune had been different, whilst they give no proof of sincerity by doing what is possible to them; in fancy they are ministering cups of wine, whilst in fact they deny the cup of cold water. There are several sources of consolation which ought not to be overlooked by sorrowing souls denied the service on which they have set their affection. Life is not so cruel as it seems, and with all these high aims and great failures, these epic purposes and fragmentary results, it is well to remember several compensations. 1. God knows and accepts the generous purpose of the heart. "God is a Spirit," and all within the realm of mind is most real to Him. He knows as a fact whatever is felt in the heart, sanctioned by the judgment, determined by the will, anticipated by the imagination. In the count of God, thoughts are things, desires deeds, purposes performances. As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he"; and God knows not only the tangible world, but that ampler, richer world which is veiled to the senses. The artist knows that his glowing picture tracing the line of beauty with purple of Tyre and gold of Ophir is but a soiled, blurred reproduction of his dream. So is it with all life. We feel a thousand times, and some baffled ones feel with special grief, how the practical life has come short of the large purpose. The contrast is depressing indeed. But the grand truth in all this is the ideal, is the real; the intentional, the actual; and all these non-suits of life stand accepted and rewarded before Him. 2. Again, the sense of unrealised desire is an index of character we may regard with some satisfaction. We live in the presence of a world of infinite need; the infinite love of Christ expands our heart; and we feel the hope and inspiration of immortality. What wonder that purposes should be born of such sentiments transcending the possibilities of this encumbered life and inelastic world! The power of an endless life works in us, and it is not strange that our desires and designs should outrun these narrow means, rude instruments and fading years. 3. Another manifest consolation in the midst of unfinished work is, what we are not allowed to do will yet be done. David was not to build the temple, but God had a builder in reserve. 4. Finally, wounded by disappointment may we not be comforted in this: that our apparently abortive desires really facilitate the work we have at heart? David proposed and Solomon executed; and this is frequently the order still. One man schemes and another operates; one generation invents and another executes; and if one had not dreamed the other had not executed. It has been said that Lord Falkland's life was sacrificed in "an indecisive action"; so thousands of the noblest servants of the race have fallen in indecisive actions, but if they had not fought bravely and fallen thus, we had never celebrated the decisive battles, the magnificent victories! ( W. L. Watkinson. ) Unwrought purposes F. W. Brown. I. THAT MEN OFTEN LEAVE OUR WORLD WITH THE GREAT PURPOSES OF THEIR HEART UNWROUGHT. David was sincere in his purpose, and God approved of it; but it was nevertheless unaccomplished. With many, the brightest ideals of life are unfulfilled. Life with most is only a broken column — e.g. , man of business, student, minister, philanthropist, patriot, politician, etc. By this we are taught the mystery of Providence and the incompleteness of human life. Among the things which contribute to such disappointments are: (1) want of means, (2) ill-health, (3) lack of opportunity.The Master's life is the only exception. He could say, "It is finished." II. THAT GOD IS PLEASED TO ACCEPT THE SINCERE, THOUGH UNWROUGHT, PURPOSES OF THE HEART. David did not withhold or withdraw. In his heart and mind he saw in intention a beautiful temple erected to the honour and glory of God, and God accepted the will for the deed, because nothing more than purpose was within his power. Many poor, devoted, godly men and women have resolved to do great things, if only, etc.; weak ones, if only they had strength given; enthusiastic workers, if only doors should open, etc. But the purposes have remained unaccomplished, and God has said to each and all, "Thou didst well that it was in thine heart." III. THAT THE GOOD PURPOSES UNWROUGHT BY ONE MAN MAY BE TAKEN UP AND COMPLETED BY ANOTHER. Solomon did what David could not. He completed what David began. No man is indispensable. Workers die, but God's work goes on. We enter into other men's labours, are heirs of the affluence of the ages. Responsibility is commensurate with privilege and opportunity. Let us, above all, seek to have our hearts right with God, filled with love for His works, ways, and word. ( F. W. Brown. ) Success in failure B. J. Snell, M. A. All of us have failed, especially those who have been really in earnest. We started full of hope and of high purpose; but "the heroic proved too hard," and now in poignant regret it is our portion to contrast what has been with what might have been. We lament that the prizes of life are so few and the blanks so many; but is it not best that it should be so? While it is true that some who have attained success are great men, it is also true that the great majority of those who succeeded are by no means great men. Be it said with all needful reservation, success does not usually develop the best qualities of a man. It frequently vulgarises, and generally hardens, Failed! But, why did they fail? There are ignoble failures: yes, but they are not so numerous as the ignoble successes. 1. The finest things in this world's history have been the world's great failures. Nor should you be surprised to hear that spoken in church, where we worship a crucified Man. There are some failures more beautiful and useful to mankind than a thousand triumphs. It is impossible to weigh the value or to judge the legitimacy of a hopeless but heroic sacrifice. Those who die in a forlorn hope are remembered long years after their attempts have failed. 2. Then, be it remembered, failures have made success possible. One success comes after many failures, one victory after many defeats. The work of every great discoverer and inventor, every legislator and reformer, rests on the unrecognised work of unknown predecessors. Our national liberties were won for us, less by the men whose names are blazoned on our historic rolls than by the men who dared too much and were beaten, who died and made no sign. 3. Again I say that the men who "succeed" are not the men who deserved most, or contributed most. We speak of "Solomon's Temple," and but few remember that it was David who gathered the materials. Solomon's was but the executant hand. the son administered the father's will. David's ideal became the accomplished work of his successor. And we call it "Solomon's Temple," but its foundations were laid in David's heart. The way of the world is to render tribute to the man who lays the coping-stone. Men lightly say of the idealists and would-be reformers, "Their efforts went for nothing; things got no better for all their trying." Not so. No true work perishes; the good of it remains. Every noble life (as Ruskin so finely says) leaves the fibre of it interwoven for ever in the work of the world. Oh, there is a fine rebuke to despondency, if you will but take a long view of the past. 4. Finally, failure will put iron into your blood, and make a man of you. I suppose that David was all the better man because he had cherished an ideal that was never to be realised by himself. I suppose that it helped to purge the blood of battle from his robes, and to mellow his old age. I am sure that it lifted and purified his thoughts. "He did well that it was in his heart," The best thing in your life is your finest failure. That is the Trinity-high-water-mark of your life: not the greatest thing done, but the greater thing that you tried to do and could not do. Thank God, this world's judgment is not the final court of appeal. Wordsworth did not feel himself a failure because the British public would not read his poetry: he bated not one jot of heart or hope, but pressed right onward. ( B. J. Snell, M. A. ) The will for the deed T. Spurgeon. I. OUR MASTER IS MOST GENEROUS WITH HIS APPRECIATION. He does not seem to be afraid of spoiling us. He is too good and wise a Father to pamper us, but He is not niggardly with His commendations, as if there were fear of puffing us up, or making us presumptuous. He has other ways of preventing those excesses, but wherever He sees an opportunity to praise, the praise is ungrudgingly given. 1. God did not blame David for any error of judgment. A harder master would have found fault with his servant for his ignorance. Nor does He charge him with presumption. There is no sort of blame. God regarded the motive; since that was pure He approved, so far, the purpose. David thought that it seemed incongruous that while he dwelt in a house of cedar, God should abide within mere curtains. He was jealous for the Lord his God. 2. Moreover, it is evident from this that God never despises the day of small things. So far, it was only in the heart, and, as we know, it was to get very little further. Only in the heart, and yet God could approve, though He Himself knew that the purpose was now to be restrained. You have in your heart many a holy desire, many a blessed aspiration, many a noble ambition. God says to you that He does not despise the day of small things. This is just a seed-corn in the heart, and it may seem to die, to spring up to glorious harvest, or it may actually die. It matters little which if God is in it. 3. Notice next that God actually commends what He eventually forbids. II. GOD ALWAYS US SOME PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS REASON FOR DISAPPOINTING HIS PEOPLE. It must he admitted that David's plan appeared not only honourable and reasonable, but most commendable. Nathan, "who was a prophet of the living God, a specially far-seeing and faithful prophet, approved the plan. This he did, not because it was the king s plan, for when occasion demanded he could rebuke King David to his face. Said he, "Do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee." Yet for all that, God steps in and says, "No." Can you understand this? Of one thing we are certain; God does not break off our threads just out of caprice. It is something other than whim that causes God to step in and blast our gourds. He is not arbitrary. You know that in David's case there were reasons. The time had not fully come, for one thing. The throne was not sufficiently established yet; peace was not by this time perfectly secured. But there was also a personal unfitness. God said to David, "Thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood." That was God's reason, and a sufficient one. In any ease you like to quote there is a reason, though it may not be apparent. There is a reason, a right good reason in every case, why the Lord says, "No, I prefer that this purpose of yours shall be nipped in the bud. You would like to see it grow, but I like to have some buds on My table sometimes." There is a charm about a half-grown flower, is there not? I wonder who of all this congregation needs just such a word as this. You hoped for a nobler service. You did well that it was in your heart, but the Lord is right, you are better in the humbler position; be content to serve Him there. III. THE LORD NEVER LEAVES HIS DISAPPOINTED ONES WITHOUT COMPENSATION. He never takes away a blessing without giving another in return. If He empties one hand, He fills the other; if He does not allow the plan to come to maturity, He gives some blessing that more than makes up for the denial. None like He can interweave mercy with judgment. What did David get? We have seen what he missed and might have mourned. 1. He gave him credit for originating and cherishing this holy des" . "Thou didst well that it was in thine heart." God's "Well done" is the best compensation that even heaven can give. 2. Then David had the pleasure of preparing for the erection of the temple, the special joy of collecting the material and, as I suppose of designing the building and certain of the vessels. 3. God gives a corresponding blessing to that which He removes. David said, "Lord, I want to build Thee a house," and God replied, "'Tis good, David, that is a kind thought. It cannot be, however, but I tell you what — I will build you a house instead." God said, "I will build thee a house," not a structure of stone and wood and gold and silver, but a living house, a posterity that should ever sit upon His throne. God pays us in our coin sometimes, and if He seems to rob us with one hand He pays us with the other, and pays us in a corresponding fashion. 4. Then the greatest compensation of all was this, the assurance that the work that David could not do should nevertheless be done. "Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house, but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto My name." That sufficed; there could be no murmuring after that. ( T. Spurgeon. ) David's purpose to build the house of God J. B. Sumner, D. D. I. IT WAS WELL THAT DAVID IN HIS PROSPERITY REMEMBERED GOD AS THE AUTHOR OF ALL PROSPERITY. This proved David's own piety. But others, besides himself, were concerned in what David did. He was a king, and had the interests of a people to promote. And it was well that such were his thoughts, because it proved that David knew the real foundation of happiness; that happiness of his subjects, which it was his duty to consider. The house of God is the main instrument of religion. Without it, religion can hardly exist, certainly can only be in a languid state, unless there is a place where the word of God be regularly proclaimed, to teach the ignorant, to satisfy the inquirer, to warn the careless, to edify the devout and godly. And without religion, what is human life? We might compare it to a dream, except for the awful difference, that a dream leaves no consequence behind. David, therefore, judged well, rightly understood the welfare of his subjects, when he resolved to build an house to God's name, and so provided, as far as in him lay, that the rich among his people should walk in the fear of God, and live to his glory. II. IT WAS WELL, BECAUSE HE THUS GAVE PROOF, UNDERSTOOD HIS WEALTH AND HONOUR TO BE TALENTS FOR WHICH HE MUST GIVE ACCOUNT. It was well that he did not incur the reproof due to one who is "rich to himself, and is not rich towards God." And, further, it was well, it showed a right state of mind, a concern for the real welfare of the community under his charge, that he desired to raise a temple where "the rich and the poor might meet together," and worship the Maker of them all. III. THE DIVINE TESTIMONY TO A CHARACTER. Judge concerning yourselves by this analogy. All religion must be judged of by its fruits; by the conduct to which it leads. David was approved, because he set himself strenuously to promote God's glory; because, having been placed upon the throne of Israel his first thought was to honour the God that is above. ( J. B. Sumner, D. D. ) Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord. 1 Kings 8:22-61 The dedicatory prayer J. Parker, D. D. Now we approach the great prayer by which the temple was dedicated. The house itself was nothing. It was but a gilded sepulchre, an elaborate and costly vacancy. First of all, therefore, we stand convinced that however much we may do technically, it can only be regarded as in a preparatory or introductory capacity. We can build the house, but we cannot supply the tenant. 1. Solomon's conception of the personality and dignity of God stands out quite conspicuously in the pages of history for its unrivalled sublimity. He speaks as one who was well instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom. In this prayer of Solomon's there is what some persons often mistakenly call preaching even in the language of devotion. Prayer is not request only, it is fellowship, communion, identification with God; it is the soul pouring itself out just as it will in all the tender compulsion of love, asking God for blessings, praising God for mercies, committing itself to God in view of all the mystery and peril of the future. Solomon having thus addressed the God of Israel, turns to Providence as revealed in the history of the chosen people, goes back even so far as the bringing-forth of Israel out of Egypt, and indicates point after point, at least suggestively, until David was elected to reign over the people Israel, and purposed as king to build an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. Solomon does not take the whole credit to himself for the origination of this idea of the temple. He connects his action with the purpose that was in the heart of David his father. The temple, so beautiful and so costly, is not to be associated with anything that is merely religiously mystic. This is not a tent of superstition, not a habitation created for the purpose of indulging spiritual romances which can never have any bearing upon actual human life. Throughout his prayer we discover on the part of Solomon how thoroughly he identifies the house of God with all human interests. 2. How natural it is that human imagination should be confounded by the impossibility of the infinite God locating Himself within finite space. We do not consider that it is because God is infinite that He can, so to say, thus become finite. The finite never can become infinite, but it would seem to belong to infinite perfection to adapt itself to human limitation and necessity. God Himself has addressed the ages in a tone precisely coincident with the language of Solomon: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest?" Solomon was therefore strictly within the line of revelation when he propounded the solemn inquiry. Everything depends upon our point of view in considering this great Question of God's condescension. 3. One might well think that the millennium had set in with the solemn dedication of the temple, and that all things would begin anew, and certainly that the time of tragedy, rebellion, and suffering had for ever passed away. We find, however, that Solomon orders his prayer in such a manner and tone as to recognise distinctly the fact that all things which had ever occurred which could try the faith, the patience, and the virtue of men would occur again and again to the end of the chapter. No; on the contrary: though the temple stands as a monument of human piety and as a fulfilment of a divine promise, human life will go on in all the variety of a divine promise, human life go on in all the variety of its experience much as it had gone on from the beginning. What then, is there nothing in the point of history thus established by the building of this holy house? Henceforth it is to be understood that whatever happens admits of religious treatment, and is to be taken to the temple itself for consideration and adjustment. Solomon recognises God as the ruler of providence and the controller of all nature. He is not afraid to trace the absence of rain to an ordinance of the Most High. A perusal of the history of his own people would make it clear that from early times God had been recognised as ruling over the elements of nature. Thus is the dominion of God enlarged by the religious imagination of Solomon; and thus, from the other point of view, is the revelation of God confirmed by the testimony of those who have most profoundly studied his ways and purposes in the earth. 4. Solomon, having ended his prayer, "stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice," and in that blessing he made one declaration which cannot but be quoted from age to age with increasing emphasis and joy — "There hath not failed one word of all his good promise." This is the continual testimony of the Church. Thus with hardly any variation of language is the continuance of the Divine goodness reaffirmed. This is matter of personal experience. Every man can examine his own life, and see wherein he has been faithful, and wherein he has been faithless, and say distinctly whether faithfulness has not been followed by benediction, and faithlessness by disapprobation. Many promises remain yet to be fulfilled. Specially there remains the promise to be fulfilled that God will be with His people in the valley of the shadow of death. There is no discharge in that war! These triumphant conditions can only be realised by continual and growing faith in Him who is the resurrection and the life. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) The Temple dedicated Monday Club Sermons. I. THE CHURCH IS THE HOUSE OF GOD. Every home in Israel had its family worship and secret prayer; but the cloud of glory came only upon the Temple. So now God is present in His house with a blessing which we can get nowhere else. II. THE CHURCH BRINGS BLESSINGS TO THE NATION. All other institutions, our good schools and happy homes, depend upon it. Just to see in a town a building consecrated to God makes men think of Him; it is His sign, inviting people to come for heavenly riches and heavenly healing. III. THE CHURCH HAS A SPECIAL PROMISE FOR CHILDREN. God's covenant with David brought to Solomon much of his glory and honour. The covenant with Abraham included his descendants. The Heavenly Father knows how dearly earthly parents love their children, and promises that if they will bring them up rightly, He Himself will take especial care of them. The special lessons we can learn to-day are very plain. 1. Reverence the House of God. 2. Love the Church. 3. Attend Church regularly. 4. Consecrate yourself to God. ( Monday Club Sermons. ) The Temple dedicated S. J. Macpherson, D. D. The undivided kingdom of Israel reached the zenith of its course in the reign of Solomon. Like Julius Caesar, David was the military hero and champion of his nation. He extended its territory from Egypt to the Euphrates, and centralised its government on the conquered heights of Jerusalem. But Solomon, the Augustus of Hebrew history, was an organiser and administrator. Jehovah, instead of teaching his hands to war, gave him rather "a wise and an understanding heart," and "both riches and honour," so that he was the greatest king of his day ( 1 Kings 3 ., 12:13, 4:24). These gifts and opportunities naturally made him also the Pericles of his race. His reign was distinguished for its magnificent architecture. This dedicated temple of Solomon is a pregnant type. 1. It Is a type of Jesus Christ. The architectural magnificence of Solomon's temple but feebly prefigures the perfection of Christ's wonderful person. Solomon's temple was to Israel a symbol of permanence, but Jesus, looking at its second successor, declared that not one stone should be left upon another; and there, thinking of his own mastery even over death itself, declared, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But he spake of the temple of his body" ( John 2:19, 20 ). The temple was the dwelling-place of God; Jesus Christ is God incarnate. The temple was the meeting-place for God and man; Jesus is the divine-human Mediator, and whatsoever we ask in his name we receive ( John 16:23 ). The temple was the place for intercession and atonement; Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us, and he is the sacrificial Lamb whose blood cleanseth us from all sin. The temple contained the ark of the covenant; Jesus has fulfilled all law, and in love he binds all filial souls to the divine Father. 2. Solomon's temple is a type of heaven. It is Jehovah's permanent dwelling-place ( 1 Kings 8:30, 32 , etc.). 3. Solomon's temple is a type of every Christian. For the Christian is the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in him, demanding a pure home ( 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17 ). Thus the glory of Solomon was the temple which bears his name; the glory of that temple was its typifying of Christ, of His Church and His heaven; and the glory of Christ, of the Church, even of heaven, is a human life fully consecrated to God in Christ. ( S. J. Macpherson, D. D. ) The dedication of the Temple C. S. Robinson, D. D. I. SOLOMON BEGINS WITH THE EXPRESSION OF HIS SOBER SENSE OF THE DIVINE GREATNESS. He exclaims, "Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath." Now it will be of no use whatsoever for any human being, who is intelligently proposing to consecrate himself fully to God's service, to attempt to covenant with the Almighty without realising that he has entered upon the most awfully serious moment of his life: for he is dealing with the one supreme Head of the universe. II. THEN COMES AN AFFECTING REMEMBRANCE OF THE DIVINE GRACE. Solomon openly admits that he is now in the immediate presence of that God who was accustomed to keep covenant and mercy with his servants that walk before him with all their heart. III. SOLOMON MAKES A HUMBLE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE DIVINE CONDESCENSION. He has prepared for God this palace. But now in this moment of his highest satisfaction he appears surprised by a fresh revelation of the glory of God. No sentence in all this extraordinary address is more pathetic in its disclosure of experience than that we find here: "But will God indeed dwell on the earth behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded!" It is the grand simplicity of such an exclamation that fixes an unusual character upon it. The candour of the confession shows a heart penetrated with the consciousness that its very best gift must be sanctified by the altar of God it lies upon before the infinite holiness of Jehovah can accept it. IV. SOLOMON TRUSTFULLY ACCEPTS THE FULNESS OF THE DIVINE INVITATION to continue to hold communication with him in the building he was offering. Attention was long ago caned to the fact that the disciples going to Emmaus were not enlightened so as to recognise Jesus all along the way where they conversed with Him; not until they fulfilled His commands in the exercise of hospitality did they suddenly discover how their hearts had burned with the thoughts He had given them. "Not by hearing His precepts," says Gregory in one of his homilies, "but by doing them, did they receive illumination." The souls that only freely receive, it is not at all certain will be those who will under. stand. It is when souls freely give, they begin to grow intelligent. Mystery then ceases, mysticism ends, and reality begins. One of the loftiest steps of Christian consecration is reached when a man is beginning to realise fully that God has invited him to pray for all he needs, in that very moment in which he has given away all he has in this world.

Benson Commentary 1 Kings 8:1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. 1 Kings 8:1 . Solomon assembled the elders of Israel — The senators, and judges, and rulers. And all the heads of the tribes — For each tribe had a peculiar head or governor. The chief of the fathers — The principal person of every great Family in each tribe. Unto King Solomon, in Jerusalem — Where the temple was built, and now finished. That they might bring up the ark — With solemn pomp to the top of Moriah, (upon which mountain the temple stood,) in order that by this their attendance they might make a public profession of the respect, obedience, and service which they owed unto that God, who had been graciously and gloriously present with the ark. Out of the city of David, which is Zion — That is, called Zion. Thither David had brought the ark from the house of Obed-Edom, and had made a tabernacle for it, ( 2 Samuel 6:12 ; 2 Samuel 6:17 ,) until a fixed house should be prepared. 1 Kings 8:2 And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. 1 Kings 8:2 . All the men of Israel assembled — Not only the chief men, who were particularly invited, but a vast number of the common people, as being desirous to see and join in this great and glorious solemnity. At the feast — This feast of the dedication to which Solomon had invited them. In the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month — This time he chose for the people’s greater convenience, because now they had gathered in all their fruits, and were going up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. But it may be objected, “According to 1 Kings 6:38 , the temple was not finished till the eighth month, how then could he invite them to the dedication of it in the seventh month?” To this it must be answered, It was the seventh month of the next year. For although the house in all its parts was finished the year before, yet, it seems, the utensils of it were not then fully finished; and many preparations were to be made for this great and extraordinary occasion. Add to this, that Solomon chose to defer this solemnity till the next year, that he might celebrate it with the greater magnificence, that being the year of jubilee, their ninth, according to Archbishop Usher, which opened the fourth millenary of the world; and at the solemnity of the jubilee, there used to be always a vast concourse of people from all parts of the kingdom. “This ceremony” then of the dedication “began on the eighth day of the seventh month of the sacred year, which was the first of the civil year, answering to the latter end of our October, and lasted seven days, at the end of which began the feast of tabernacles.” 1 Kings 8:3 And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. 1 Kings 8:3 . The priests took up the ark — The ark had been carried by the priests three times before this; when they went over Jordan; when they encompassed the walls of Jericho; and when David sent it back by Zadok and Abiathar, at the time when he fled from Absalom. It was, however, the office of the Levites to carry the ark, which they did, except upon special occasions, of which this was one. The priests were now appointed to carry it for the greater honour of the solemnity; and because the Levites might not enter into the holy place, much less into the holy of holies, where it was to be placed, into which the priests themselves might not have entered, if the high-priest alone could have done this work without them. 1 Kings 8:4 And they brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up. 1 Kings 8:4 . And the tabernacle of the congregation — That made by Moses, which doubtless before this time had been removed from Gibeon to Zion. And all the holy vessels — Namely, the altar of incense, the table of show- bread, the candlestick, and every thing belonging to them; all these were now carried into the temple, and laid up there, to prevent all idolatrous and superstitious use of them, and to oblige the people to come up to Jerusalem, as the only place where sacrifices were now to be offered, and the various ceremonies of public worship performed. 1 Kings 8:5 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. 1 Kings 8:5 . King Solomon, and all the congregation with him before the ark — This ceremony of removing the ark from the tabernacle which David had erected for it, to the temple, and depositing it in the most holy place, was opened with a pompous procession. The king himself, accompanied by all his chief officers and the elders of Israel, marched before the ark; these were followed by a great number of priests and Levites, who sung some canticles proper to the occasion, and played upon various instruments. Next to the ark followed another number of singers and players, with other priests bearing the tabernacle and the sacred utensils of the sanctuary, which had been brought from Gibeon. While the priests were placing the ark in the most holy place, the air rung with the sound of a hundred and twenty trumpets, and with the voices of the Levites, who sang the praises of God, repeating these words at proper intervals; Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; and his mercy endureth for ever. It was then that God seemed to come down in a visible manner, to take possession, as it were, of his new temple, by filling it with a glorious cloud, as he had formerly done the tabernacle; insomuch that the priests could not stand to offer up the sacrifices which they had prepared upon that occasion. See Universal Hist. Sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be numbered — When the ark was seated in its place; for although they might in the way offer some sacrifices, as David did, yet that was not a proper season to offer so many sacrifices as could not be numbered. This is more particularly related below, ( 1 Kings 8:62-64 ,) and is here only mentioned by way of anticipation. 1 Kings 8:6 And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims. 1 Kings 8:6-8 . Under the wings of the cherubim — Which Solomon had made. For the cherubim made by Moses were fixed to the mercy-seat and the ark, and were inseparable from it, and therefore, together with the ark, were placed under the wings of these cherubim. And they drew out the staves — Not wholly, which was expressly forbidden, ( Exodus 25:15 ; Numbers 4:6 ,) but in part. That the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place — That is, the most holy, often called the holy place by way of eminence. And the next clause before the oracle, may be as well rendered, within the oracle. These staves were left in this posture, that the high-priest might thereby be certainly guided to that very place where he was, one day in a year, to sprinkle blood, and to offer incense before the ark, which otherwise he might have mistaken in that dark place, where the ark was wholly covered with the wings of the great cherubim, which stood between him and the ark when he entered in. They were not seen without — In the sanctuary. There they are unto this day — In that posture, namely, when this book was written. 1 Kings 8:7 For the cherubims spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and the staves thereof above. 1 Kings 8:8 And they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place before the oracle, and they were not seen without: and there they are unto this day. 1 Kings 8:9 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. 1 Kings 8:9 . There was nothing in the ark, &c. — Strictly and properly speaking. But in a looser sense, the pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod were also in or by it, ( Hebrews 9:4 ,) being placed by Moses, as God commanded, ( Numbers 17:10 ,) before the ark of the testimony, in the most holy place. 1 Kings 8:10 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place , that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, 1 Kings 8:10-11 . When the priests were come out of the holy place — That is, the most holy, where they had set down the ark. The cloud — The usual token of God’s glorious presence, Exodus 16:10 ; Exodus 24:15-16 ; Numbers 9:15 ; filled the house of the Lord — In testimony of his gracious acceptance of this work and their service; and to beget an awe and reverence in them and in all others when they approached to God. So that the priests could not stand to minister — By this it appears that the cloud filled the whole house, as well as the most holy place: for it was at the altar of incense in the sanctuary that the priests ministered. And it was either so bright that it dazzled their eyes; or rather, as the next verse seems to imply, so dark that it struck them with horror and amazement. Probably it was first excessively dark, and afterward broke out in overpowering light and splendour. 1 Kings 8:11 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. 1 Kings 8:12 Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. 1 Kings 8:12 . Then spake Solomon — Perceiving both priests and people to be struck with consternation and horror at this supernatural and sudden darkness, he uttered the words which follow, to compose their minds and comfort them. The Lord said he would dwell in the thick darkness — This dark cloud, therefore, is not a sign of his displeasure, as some may imagine, but rather a token of his special presence with us, and approbation of us, and that he owns this for his house, and will dwell in it, according to his declaration respecting the tabernacle, that he would appear in a cloud upon the mercy-seat, Leviticus 16:2 . See also Deuteronomy 4:11 ; Deuteronomy 5:22 ; Psalm 97:2 ; Exodus 40:35 . 1 Kings 8:13 I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever. 1 Kings 8:13 . I have surely built thee a house to dwell in — He turns his speech from them to God, as entering into the house, and expresses his desire and hope that he would continue to manifest, by such visible tokens, that he was present in it, and would, as it were, make it the place of his special and stated abode. A settled place for thee — Not a tabernacle, made to be carried about from place to place, but a durable and perpetual habitation. 1 Kings 8:14 And the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel: (and all the congregation of Israel stood;) 1 Kings 8:14 . The king turned his face about — From the court of the priests and the sanctuary, to the body of the congregation who were in the court designed for the people. And blessed all the congregation — Probably in that form of words which God himself had prescribed, Numbers 6:23-25 . All the congregation stood — In token of reverence to God, and respect to the king, and of their readiness to receive his blessing, and the blessing of God through his instrumentality. 1 Kings 8:15 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it , saying, 1 Kings 8:15-16 . Which spake with his mouth unto David, &c. — He acknowledges the grace and goodness of God in making the promise, and his truth and faithfulness in fulfilling it. I chose no city — Until David’s time; for then he did choose Jerusalem. That my name might be therein — Not only, which should be called by my name, namely, the house of Jehovah: but that my presence, and grace, and worship, and glory, might be there. But I chose David — And in and with him the tribe of Judah, to which he belonged, and Jerusalem, where he dwelt. 1 Kings 8:16 Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel. 1 Kings 8:17 And it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 1 Kings 8:17-20 . It was in the heart of David my father — In his desire and purpose, as this and the like phrase is often used. Thou didst well that it was in thine heart — Thy intention and affection were well pleasing to me, although I did not permit thee, for wise reasons, to put thy pious designs into execution. The Lord hath performed his word — He concludes, as he began, with a thankful acknowledgment of God’s goodness in fulfilling his promise. 1 Kings 8:18 And the LORD said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart. 1 Kings 8:19 Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name. 1 Kings 8:20 And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake, and 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 an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 1 Kings 8:21 And I have set there a place for 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. 1 Kings 8:21 . I have set there a place for the ark — The token of God’s presence with us; wherein is the covenant of the Lord — That is, the tables of the covenant, in which are written the conditions of God’s covenant with our fathers. When he brought them out of the land of Egypt — And declared to them that by the tenure of this covenant they were to hold the land of Canaan. 1 Kings 8:22 And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven: 1 Kings 8:22 . Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord — He had erected a brazen scaffold, of five cubits long, five cubits broad, and three cubits high, ( 2 Chronicles 6:13 ,) and on this he stood, raised above the people, who were in the court and in the galleries round about, observing him, and disposed to hearken, with profound attention, to what he should further say. And, having spoken the foregoing words with his face toward them, and blessed them, he now turned about again with his face toward the altar, that he might address a solemn prayer to God, and so dedicate the sacred building to his worship and service. And spread forth his hands toward heaven — A solemn posture in which prayer was wont to be made, not only among the Jews, but other nations. It appears from 1 Kings 8:54 of this chapter, that when he had stood awhile with his face toward the altar, he fell down upon his knees, and uttered the greatest part of the following prayer in the posture of kneeling. 1 Kings 8:23 And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart: 1 Kings 8:23-24 . Lord God of Israel, there is none like thee — He here acknowledges the transcendent excellences of Jehovah; and again particularly extols his faithfulness to those who serve him sincerely. Who hast kept with thy servant David that thou promisedst — That branch of thy promise concerning the building of this house by his son. 1 Kings 8:24 Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. 1 Kings 8:25 Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me. 1 Kings 8:25 . Therefore now keep, &c. — Make good the other branch of thy promise. He considered God’s fulfilling the foregoing part of his promise, as an earnest that he would accomplish the other part also, made at the same time, concerning David’s posterity, 2 Samuel 7:12-13 . So that thy children take heed to their way — Solomon here acknowledges that the accomplishment of the promise respecting the continuance of the kingdom in David’s family, depended on their continuance in the faith and worship of God: and that, if they became idolaters, they rendered themselves unworthy of this privilege, and forfeited all right to the inheritance of the kingdom, being no longer David’s genuine children. And therefore, according to Solomon’s own acknowledgment, after he and Rehoboam had departed from the worship of God, and began to follow idols, God might justly have taken away the kingdom from their posterity. And indeed when all Israel forsook the Lord, and worshipped the gods of the nations round about them, he did forsake their land, and would no longer dwell among them. 1 Kings 8:26 And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father. 1 Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? 1 Kings 8:27 . But will God indeed dwell on earth? — Is it possible that the great and high and holy God, the infinite, the eternal, should stoop so low as to take up his dwelling among men? Behold the heaven, &c. — All this vast space of the visible heaven; nay, the third and highest, therefore most extensive heaven, called, for its eminence and comprehensiveness, the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee — For thy essence reacheth far beyond them, being omnipresent. Much less this house — Which, therefore, was not built as if it were proportionable to thy greatness, or could contain thee, but only that therein we might serve and glorify thee. 1 Kings 8:28 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 to day: 1 Kings 8:28-29 . Yet have thou respect, &c. — Though thou art not comprehended within this place, yet show thyself to be graciously present here, by accepting and granting my present request here offered unto thee. That thine eyes may be open toward this house — To behold it with favourable regards, and have a gracious respect unto all that come to present their petitions here. Thou hast said, My name shall be there — My presence, glory, and grace. Hearken to the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place — This temple, to which Solomon now looked, and to which he directs the people to look in their prayers. Not as if he thought all the devout prayers, offered up to God by those who had no knowledge of this house, or regard to it, were therefore rejected; but he desired that the sensible tokens of the divine presence, with which this house was blessed, might always give sensible encouragement and comfort to believing petitioners. 1 Kings 8:29 That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. 1 Kings 8:30 And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive. 1 Kings 8:30 . When they shall pray toward this place — None but the priests might enter that place, but when the people worshipped in the courts of the temple, it was to be with an eye toward it, not with a superstitious regard or veneration, as though it were holy in itself, or in any respect the ground of their confidence in their worship, which would have been idolatry; but, as an instituted medium of their worship, helping the weakness of their faith, and typifying the mediation of Jesus Christ, who is the true temple, and to whom we must have an eye in all our approaches to, and intercourse with, God. Hence, the pious Jews that were at a distance looked toward Jerusalem for the sake of the temple, even when it lay in ruins, Daniel 6:10 . Hear thou in heaven — Which he adds to direct them, in their addresses to God in or looking toward this temple, to lift up their eyes above it, even to heaven, where God’s most true and most proper dwelling-place is. When thou hearest, forgive — The sins of thy people praying, and even of their prayers; which sins, if not pardoned, will certainly hinder the success of all their prayers, and the course of all thy blessings. 1 Kings 8:31 If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house: 1 Kings 8:31 . If any man , &c. — He now puts divers cases in which he supposed application would be made to God in prayer, in or toward this house of prayer; and first that of God’s being appealed to by an oath for the determining of any controverted right between man and man. If any man trespass against his neighbour — If a man be accused of a trespass. And an oath be laid upon him — Either by the judge, or by the party accusing him, or by the accused person himself, claiming the privilege of perjuring himself by an oath from the trespass laid to his charge, which was usual when there were no witnesses. Solomon seems here to refer chiefly to the case of those who were accused of denying that which was said to be deposited with them by their neighbour. And the oath come before thine altar — Where God, who was appealed to as a witness, was supposed to be especially present. Hence the heathen were wont to swear at their altars; calling on their gods to witness to the truth of what they said, and to punish them if they uttered any falsehood therein. 1 Kings 8:32 Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. 1 Kings 8:32 . Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge — Discover the truth, and judge between the contending parties. He prays that in difficult matters his throne of grace might be a throne of judgment, from which God would right the injured that believingly appealed to it; and punish the injurious that presumptuously appealed to it. To bring his way upon his head — The just recompense of his wicked action and course. And justifying the righteous, to give him, &c. — To vindicate him, and manifest his integrity. 1 Kings 8:33 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house: 1 Kings 8:33-34 . When thy people be smitten — This is the second case he puts. If the people of Israel were in general groaning under any national calamity, he desires that the prayers which they should make in or toward that house might be heard and answered. Shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name — Not only shall acknowledge thee to be God alone, renouncing all false gods; but shall give glory to thy name by acknowledging their sins and thy justice; by accepting the punishment of their iniquity; and by trusting to thy power and goodness alone for deliverance. And make supplication to thee in this house — Trusting in thee, and expecting help from thee alone. Then hear, and bring them again, &c. — Deliver them out of the captivity into which their enemies may have carried them, and restore them to their own country. 1 Kings 8:34 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. 1 Kings 8:35 When 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 afflictest them: 1 Kings 8:35 . When heaven is shut up — The lower or aerial heaven, in which the clouds are. This is compared to a great storehouse in God’s keeping, out of which nothing can be obtained so long as it is close shut up. And as he is said to bring the wind, ( Psalm 135:7 ,) so the rain, out of this treasury. 1 Kings 8:36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. 1 Kings 8:36 . That thou teach them the good way — The way of their duty, which is good in itself, and both delightful and profitable to those that walk in it. But this clause is better translated, 2 Chronicles 6:27 , (where the Hebrew words are the same with these here,) When thou hast taught them the good way wherein they should walk, namely, when their afflictions have had the desired effect to teach them better obedience. And give rain upon the land — The order of Solomon’s prayer is very observable; first and chiefly, he prays for their repentance and forgiveness, which is the chief blessing, and the only solid foundation of all other mercies; and then he prays for temporal mercies, thereby teaching us what to desire principally in our prayers; which also Christ hath taught us in his perfect prayer, wherein there is but one petition for outward, and all the rest are for spiritual blessings. 1 Kings 8:37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be ; 1 Kings 8:37 . If there be in the land famine — Which arose sometimes from other causes besides want of rain. If their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities — In their gates, whereby they should be so straitened, that none could go in or out. Whatsoever plague — The word ??? , negang, here rendered plague, properly signifies some extraordinary stroke by the hand of God. Whatsoever sickness there be — For Solomon believed whatever calamity befel other people, might light on Israel. 1 Kings 8:38 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 spread forth his hands toward this house: 1 Kings 8:38 . What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man — Distressed through national calamities, or private and personal troubles. He now comes to speak of the case of individual Israelites. If any man of Israel has an errand to thee, here let him find thee, here let him find favour with thee. He does not instance in particulars; so numerous, so various are the grievances of the children of men. Which shall know every man the plague of his own heart — His sinfulness, the corruption of his nature, which may be called the plague of his own heart, in opposition to the other plagues here mentioned: and so the sense is, Who by their afflictions are brought to a true and serious sense of the inward plague of their sins, which are most fitly called the plague of the heart, because the heart is both the principal seat of sin, and the fountain from whence all sinful thoughts, words, and actions flow. Now every true Israelite labours to know his heart, and the sinfulness and depravity of it, that he may resist and mortify the lusts, passions, and corrupt inclinations thereof, and may watch against the first risings of evil within him. Of these things he complains: these drive him to his knees and to the sanctuary, and, lamenting and seeking deliverance from these, he spreads forth his hands in prayer, as Hezekiah spread his letter before the Lord. Reader, is this thy practice? 1 Kings 8:39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;) 1 Kings 8:39-40 . Give to every man according to his ways — According to his repentance or impenitency. As if he had said, I pray with the greater hope and confidence, because I do not desire that thou wouldst deliver such as are insensible of their sins and of thy judgments, but only those that are truly brought to know the plague of their own hearts in the manner before explained. Whose heart thou knowest — Thou art acquainted not only with the plague of their hearts, their several wants and burdens, (these he knows, but he will know them from us,) but with the desire and intent of the heart, the sincerity or hypocrisy of it; thou knowest who are truly penitent, and who are not, and therefore the granting my request will be no dishonour to thy government, nor injury to thy holy nature. That they may fear thee all their days — That when thou hast first smitten them, and then so eminently delivered them, and that in answer to their prayers, they may hereby be taught to fear thee, to stand in awe of thy justice, and to adore thy goodness. 1 Kings 8:40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. 1 Kings 8:41 Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake; 1 Kings 8:41-42 . Moreover, concerning a stranger — The case of an alien, who is not an Israelite is next mentioned; a proselyte that might come to the temple to pray to the God of Israel, being convinced of the folly and wickedness of worshipping the gods of his country. He supposes there would be many such; that the fame of God’s great works which he had wrought for Israel; by which he had proved himself to be above all gods, nay, to be God alone, would reach distant countries. They shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand — And this will bring such as are thinking and considerate among them to pray toward this house, that they may obtain the favour of a God that is able to confer on them real blessings. 1 Kings 8:42 (For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house; 1 Kings 8:43 Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name. 1 Kings 8:43 . Do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for — That is, so far as is agreeable to thy word and will. It is observable, that his prayer for the stranger is more large and comprehensive than for the Israelites; that thereby he might both show his public spirit, and encourage strangers to the worship of the true God. Thus early were the indications of God’s favour toward the sinners of the Gentiles. As there was then one law for the native and for the stranger, so there was one gospel for both. That all the people of the earth may know thy name — Hereby we learn how sincerely and heartily the ancient and godly Jews desired the conversion of the Gentiles; whereas the latter and degenerate Jews, in the days of Christ and of the apostles, out of pride, envy, and malice, opposed and fretted at it. That they may know that this house is called by thy name — Is owned not only by us, but by thyself as thy house; the only place in the world to which thou wilt vouchsafe thy special presence and protection, and where thou wilt be publicly and solemnly worshipped. 1 Kings 8:44 If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name: 1 Kings 8:44-45 . If thy people go out to battle — In a just cause, and by thy warrant and commission. This is the next case recommended by Solomon to the divine favour. Whithersoever thou shalt send them — In this is implied, that it was unlawful for them to undertake any war merely for their own pleasure or profi

Expositor's Bible Commentary 1 Kings 8:1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. THE TEMPLE WORSHIP 1 Kings 8:1-11 "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these. Behold, ye trust m lying words, that cannot profit." - Jeremiah 7:4 ; Jeremiah 7:8 THE actual Temple building, apart from its spacious courts, was neither for worshippers nor for priests, neither for sacrifice nor for prayer. It existed only for symbolism and, at least: in later days, for expiation. No prayer was offered in the sanctuary. The propitiatory was the symbol of expiation, but even after the introduction of the Day of Atonement the atoning blood was only carried into it once a year. All the worship was in the outer court, and consisted mainly, (1) of praise and (2) of offerings. Both were prominent in the Dedication Festival. "It is written," said our Lord, "My house shall be called a House, of Prayer, but ye have made it a den of robbers." The quotation is from the later Isaiah, and represents a happy advance in spiritual religion. Among the details of the Levitic Tabernacle no mention is made of prayer, though it was symbolized both in the incense and in the sacrifices which have been called "unspoken prayers." "Let my prayer be set forth as incense," says the Psalmist, "and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." In the New Testament we read that "the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense." But during the whole history of the first Temple we only hear-and that very incidentally-of private prayer in the Temple. Solomon’s prayer was public, and combined prayer with praises and benedictions. But no fragments of Jewish liturgies have come down to us which we can with any probability refer to the days of the kings. The Psalms which most clearly belong to the Temple service are mainly services of praise. In the mind of the people the sacrifices were undoubtedly the main part of the Temple ritual. This fact was specially emphasized by the scene which marked the Festival of the Dedication. It is difficult to imagine a scene which to our unaccustomed senses would have been more revolting than the holocausts of a great Jewish Festival like that of Solomon’s Dedication. As a rule the daily sacrifices, exclusively of such as might be brought by private worshippers, were the lambs slain at morning and evening. Yet Maimonides gives us the very material and unpoetic suggestion that the incense used was to obviate the effluvium of animal sacrifice. The suggestion is unworthy of the great Rabbi’s ability, and is wholly incorrect; but it reminds us of the almost terrible fact that, often and often, the Temple must have been converted into one huge and abhorrent abattoir, swimming with the blood of slaughtered victims, and rendered intolerably repulsive by heaps of bloody skins and masses of offal. The smell of burning flesh, the swift putrescence caused by the tropic heat, the unlovely accompaniments of swarms of flies, and ministers with blood-drenched robes would have been inconceivably disagreeable to our Western training-for no one will believe the continuous miracle invented by the Rabbis, who declare that no fly was ever seen in the Temple, and no flesh ever grew corrupt. No doubt the brazen sea and the movable caldrons were in incessant requisition, and there were provisions for vast storages of water. These could have produced a very small mitigation of the accompanying pollutions during a festival which transformed the great court of the Temple into the reeking shambles and the charnel-house of sheep and oxen "which could not be told nor numbered for multitude." Had such spectacles been frequent, we should surely have had to say of the people of Jerusalem as Sir Monier Williams says of the ancient Hindus, "The land was saturated with blood, and people became wearied and disgusted with slaughtered sacrifices and sacrificing priests." What infinite, and what revolting labor, must have been involved in the right burning of "the two kidneys and the fat," and the due disposition of the "inwards" of all these holocausts! The groaning brazen altar, vast as it was, failed to meet the requirements of the service, and apparently a multitude of other altars were extemporized for the occasion. When the festival was over God appeared to Solomon in vision, as He had done at Gibeon. So far Solomon had not gravely or consciously deflected from the ideal of a theocratic king. Anything which had been worldly or mistaken in his policy-the oppression into which he had been led, the heathen alliances which he had formed, his crowded harem, his evident fondness for material splendor which carried with it the peril of selfish pride-were only signs of partial knowledge and human frailty. His heart was still, on the whole, right with God. He was once more assured in nightly vision that his prayer and supplication were accepted. The promise was renewed that if he would walk m integrity and uprightness his throne should be established for ever; but that if he or his children swerved into apostasy Israel should be driven into exile, and as a warning to all lands, "this house, which have hallowed for My name, will I cast out of My sight, and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people." Here, then we are brought face to face with problems which arise from the whole system of worship in the Old Dispensation. Whatever it was, to whatever extent it was really carried out and was not merely theoretical, at whatever date its separate elements originated, and however clear it is that it, has utterly passed away, there must have been certain ideas underlying it which are worthy of our study. 1. Of the element of praise supported by music, we need say but little. It is a natural mode of expressing the joy and gratitude which fill the heart of man in contemplating the manifold mercies of God. For this reason the pages of Scripture ring with religious music from the earliest to the latest age. We are told in the Chronicles that triumphant praise was largely introduced into the great festival services, and that the Temple possessed a great organization for vocal and orchestral music. David was not only a poet, but an inventor of musical instruments. {Amo 6:5, 1Ch 23:5} Fifteen musical instruments are mentioned in the Bible, and five of them in the Pentateuch. Most important among them are cymbals, flutes, silver trumpets, rams’ horns, the harp ( Kinnor ) and the ten-stringed lute ( Nevel ). The remark of Josephus that Solomon provided 40, 000 harps and lutes and 200, 000 silver trumpets is marked by that disease of exaggeration which seems to infect the mind of all later Jewish writers when they look back with yearning to the vanished glories of their past. There can, however, be no doubt that the orchestra was amply supplied, and that there was a very numerous and well-trained choir. We read in the Psalms and elsewhere of tunes which they were trained to sing. Such tunes were "The Well," and "The Bow," and "The Gazelle of the morning," and "All my fresh springs shall be in Thee," and "Die for the son" ( Muth-labben ). In the second Temple female singers were admitted; {Ezr 2:65 Neh 7:67 Psa 87:7} in Herod’s Temple Levite choir-boys took their place. The singing was often antiphonal. Some of the music still used in the synagogue must date from these times, and there is no reason to doubt that in the so-called Gregorian tones we have preserved to us a close approximation to the ancient hymnody of the Temple. This element of ancient worship calls for no remark. It is a religious instinct to use music in the service of God; and perhaps the imagination of St. John in the Revelation, when he describes the rapture of the heavenly host pouring forth the chant "Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth," was colored by reminiscences of gorgeous functions in which he had taken part on the "Mountain of the House." 2. When we proceed to speak of the Priesthood we are met by difficulties, to which we have already alluded, as to the date of the varying regulations respecting it. "It would be difficult," says Dr. Edersheim, "to conceive arrangements more thoroughly or consistently opposed to what are commonly called ‘priestly pretensions’ than those of the Old Testament." According to the true ideal, Israel was to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation"; {Exo 19:5-6} but the institution of ministering priests was of course a necessity, and the Jewish Priesthood, which is now utterly abrogated, was or gradually became, representative. Representatively they had to mediate between God and Israel, and typically to symbolize the "holiness," i.e. , the consecration of the Chosen People. Hence they were required to be free from every bodily blemish. It was regarded as a deadly offence for any one of them to officiate without scrupulous safeguard against every ceremonial defilement, and they were specially adorned and anointed for their office. They were an extremely numerous body, and from the days of David are said to have been divided into twenty-four courses. They were assisted by an army of attendant Levites, also divided into twenty-four courses, who acted as the cleansers and keepers of the Temple. But the distinction of priests and Levites does not seem to be older than "the Priestly Code," and criticism has all but demonstrated that the sections of the Pentateuch known by that name belong, in their present form, not to the age of Moses, but to the age of the successors of Ezekiel. The elaborate priestly and Levitic arrangements ascribed to the days of Aaron by the chronicler, who wrote six hundred years after David’s day, are unknown to the writers of the Book of Kings. In daily life they wore no distinctive dress. In the Temple service, all the year round, their vestments were of the simplest. They were of white byssus to typify innocence, {Rev 15:6} and four in number to indicate completeness. They consisted of a turban, breeches, and seamless coat of white linen, together with a girdle, symbolic of zeal and activity, which was assumed during actual ministrations. {Comp. Rev 1:13; Rev 15:6} The only magnificent vestments were those worn for a few hours by the high priest once a year on the Great Day of Atonement. These "golden vestments" were eight in number. To the ordinary robes were added the robe of the ephod ( Meil ) of dark blue, with seventy-two golden bells, and pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet; a jeweled pectoral containing the Urim and Thummim; the miter; and the golden frontlet ( Ziz ), with its inscription of "Holiness to the Lord." The ideal type was fulfilled, and the poor shadows abolished forever, by Him of whom it is said, "Such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." The priests were poor; they were very often entirely unlettered; they seem to have had for many centuries but little influence on the moral and spiritual life of the people. Hardly any good is recorded of them as a body throughout the four hundred and ten years during which the first Temple stood, as very little good had been recorded of them in the earlier ages, and not much in the ages which were to follow. We read of scarcely a single moral protest or spiritual awakenment which had its origin in the priestly body. Their temptation was to be absorbed in their elaborate ceremonials. As these differed but little from the ritual functions of surrounding heathendom they seem to have relapsed into apostasy with shameful readiness, and to have submitted without opposition to the idolatrous aberrations of king after king, even to the extent of admitting the most monstrous idols and the most abhorrent pollutions into the sacred precincts of the Temple, which it was their work to guard. When a prophet arose out of their own supine and torpid ranks he invariably counted his brethren amongst his deadliest antagonists. They ridiculed him as they ridiculed Isaiah; they smote him on the cheek as they smote Jeremiah. The only thing which roused them was the spirit of revolt against their vapid ceremonialism, and their abject obedience to kings. The Presbyterate could have no worse ideal, and could follow no more pernicious example, than that of the Jewish priesthood. The days of their most rigid ritualism were the days also of their most desperate moral blindness. The crimes of their order culminated when they combined, as one man: under their high priest Caiaphas and their sagan Annas to reject Christ for Barabbas, and to hand over to the Gentiles for crucifixion the Messiah of their nation, the Lord of Life. THE GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE LEVITIC RITUAL 1 Kings 8:1-66 "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." - 1 Samuel 15:22 BEFORE we enter on the subject of the Temple worship, it is necessary to emphasize a fact which will meet us again and again in many forms as we consider the history of the Chosen People: It is the amazing ignorance which seems to have prevailed among them for centuries as to the most central and decisive elements of nearly the whole of the Mosaic law as we now read it in the Pentateuch. 1. Take, for instance, the law of a central sanctuary. It is strongly laid down, and incessantly insisted on, throughout the Book of Deuteronony. Yet that law does not seem to have been so much as noticed by any of the earlier prophets or judges, or by Saul, or by David. The judges and early kings offer sacrifices at any place which they regard as sacred-Bochim, Ophrah, Mizpeh, Gilgal, Bethel, Bethlehem, etc. {Jdg 2:5, Jdg 6:24, Jdg 8:27, Jdg 20:1, Jdg 21:2; Jdg 2:4 1Sa 7:9, 1Sa 10:8; 1Sa 7:11; 1Sa 7:15, etc.} The rule of one place for sacrifice was not regarded for a moment by the kings of the Northern Kingdom. The transgression of it was not made a subject of complaint by Elijah, Elisha, or any of the earlier prophets. Not one of the kings, even of the most pious kings-Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham-rigidly enforced it until the reign of Josiah. The law seems to have remained an absolutely dead letter for hundreds of years. Now this would be amply accounted for if the Deuteronomic and Levitic Codes only belonged in reality to the days of Josiah and of the Exile: for in "the Book of the Covenant," {Exo 24:7} which is the most ancient part of these codes, and comprises Exodus 20:1-26 - Exodus 28:33 , and is briefly repeated in Exodus 34:10-28 , there is not only no insistence on a central shrine, but many of the regulations would {Exodus} have been rendered impossible had such a shrine existed (e.g., Exodus 21:6 , Exodus 22:7-8 , where "the judges" should be "God," as in the R.V). Indeed, so far from insistence on one Temple, we expressly read, {Exo 20:24} "An altar of earth shall thou make Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen, in all places where I record My name, and I will come unto thee and bless thee." 2. Again, the Book of Leviticus lays down a singularly developed code of ritual, "extending to the minutest details of worship and of life." Yet there is scarcely the shadow of a trace of the observance of even its most reiterated and important provisions during centuries of Israelitish history. It is emphatically a priestly book; yet from the days of David down to those of Josiah, the priests, with few exceptions, are almost ignored in the national records. They took the color of their opinions from the reigning kings, even in matters which were contrary to the whole extent and spirit of the Mosaic Code. Samuel, who was not a priest, nor even a Levite, performed every function of a priest, and of a high priest, all his life long. 3. Again, as we have seen, in spite of the positive distinctness of the Second Commandment, not only is the "calf-worship" established, with scarcely a protest, throughout the Northern Kingdom; but Solomon even ventures, without question or reproof, to place twelve oxen under his brazen sea, and to adorn the steps of his throne with golden lions. 4. Again, no ceremony was more awful, or more strikingly symbolical, in the later religion of Israel, than that of the Great Day of Atonement. It was the only appointed fast in the Jewish year, a day so sacred that it acquired the name of Yoma , "the Day." Yet the Day of Atonement, with its arresting ceremonies and intense significance, is not so much as once mentioned outside the Levitical Code by a single prophet, or priest, or king. It is not even mentioned-which is exceedingly strange-in the post-exilic Books of Chronicles. Between the Book of Leviticus (with its supposed date of 1491 B.C.), down to the days of Philo, Josephus, and the New Testament, there is not so much as a hint of the observance of this central ceremony of the whole Levitic law! What is more perplexing is that, in the ideal legislation of Ezekiel, where alone anything distantly resembling the Day of Atonement is alluded to, {Eze 45:18-20} the time manner, and circumstances are as absolutely different as if Ezekiel had never read the Levitic law at all. How would any prophet have dared to ignore or alter, without a word of reference or apology, a rite of Divine origin and immemorial sanctity, if he had been aware of its existence? 5. Nor is this only the case with the Day of Atonement. It seems certain that at Jerusalem there was not for centuries anything distantly resembling the due Levitic observance of the three great yearly feasts. Nehemiah, for instance, tells us in so many words that since the days of Joshua the son of Nun down to B.C. 445-perhaps for a thousand years-the Feast of Tabernacles had never been observed in the most characteristic of all its appointed rites-the dwelling in booths. {Neh 8:17} 6. Again, although there are slight allusions in some of the Prophets to "laws" and "statutes" and "commandments," their silence about, if not their absolute ignorance of; anything which resembles the Levitic legislation as a whole is a startling problem. Thus, even a late prophet like Jeremiah alludes, without a word of reprobation, to men cutting and making themselves bald for the dead ( Jeremiah 16:6 ; comp. Jeremiah 12:5 ) in a way which the Levitic law {Lev 19:28, Deu 14:10} strenuously forbids. 7. Again, as is well known, there is a fundamental difference between the three codes as to the relative position of the priests and Levites. -1 Exodus 19:6 all Israel is regarded as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," and in Exodus 24:5 the young men of the children of Israel "offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings." -2 Numbers 3:44-51 the Levites are set aside for the service of the Tabernacle in place of the firstborn. But neither in "the Book of the Covenant" nor in Deuteronomy is there any distinction between the services of the priests and the Levites. -3 Deuteronomy 10:8 every Levite may become a priest. All priestly functions are open to the Levites, and the arrangements for the Levites are wholly different from those of Numbers. (4) But in the Priestly Code only the sons of Aaron are to be priests. {Num 6:22-27, Num 18:1-7 Lev 1:5; Lev 1:8} The Levites are to minister to them in more or less menial functions, and are permitted a share in the tithes, but not (as in Deuteronomy 18:1 ) in the firstfruits. We have first identity of priests and Levites, then partial, then absolute separation. The earliest trace of this degradation of the Levites is propounded as something quite new in Ezekiel 44:10-16 , which distinctly implies (see Ezekiel 44:13 ) that up to that time the Levites had enjoyed full priestly rites. It must be admitted that these facts are not capable of easy explanation, nor is it strange that they have led the way to unexpected conclusions. We have to face the certainty that, for ages together, the Levitic law was not only a dead letter among the people for whom it was intended, hut that its very existence does not seem to have been known. "For long periods," says Professor Robertson, "the people of Israel seem to have been as ignorant of their own religion as the people of Europe were of theirs in the Dark Ages." But the problem, were we to pursue it into its details, is far more perplexing than can be accounted for by the very partial and misleading parallel which Professor Robertson adduces. The parallel would be nearer if, throughout the Dark Ages for a thousand years together, scarcely a single trace were to be found, even under the best popes and the most pious kings, and even in theologic and sacred literature, of so much as the existence of a New Testament, or of any observance of the most distinctive festivals and sacraments of Christianity. And this, as Professor Robertson knows, is infinitely far from being the case. It is true that an argument ex silentio may easily be pushed too far; but we cannot ignore it when it is so striking as this, and when it is also strengthened by so many positive and corroborative facts. A solution of this phenomenon-which becomes most salient in the Book of Kings-is proposed by the criticism which has received the title of "The Higher Criticism," because it is historic and constructive, and rises above purely verbal elements. That solution is that the Pentateuch is not only a composite structure (which all would concede), but that it was written in very different ages, and that much of it is of very late origin. Critics of the latest school believe that it consists of three well-marked and entirely different codes of laws-namely, "the Book of the Covenant"; {Exo 20:23-23} the "Deuteronomic Code," first brought into prominence in the reign of Josiah, and written shortly before that reign: and the "Levitical" or "Priestly Code," which comprises most of Exodus, and nearly all Leviticus, and was not introduced till after the Exile. This would be indeed a radical conclusion, and cannot yet be regarded as having been conclusively established. But so remarkable has been the rapidity with which the opinion of religious critics has advanced on the subject, that now even the strongest opponents of this extreme view admit that the existence of the three separate codes has been demonstrated, although they still think that all three may belong to the Mosaic age. It is obvious, however, that this view leaves many of the difficulties entirely untouched. Criticism has not yet spoken her last word upon the subject, but we ought to take her views into account in considering the judgments pronounced by the historian of the Kings. They were judgments which, in their details, though not as regards broad moral principles, were based on the standpoint of a later age. The views of that later age must be discounted if we have to admit that some of the ritual innovations and legal transgressions of the kings were transgressions of laws of the very existence of which they were profoundly ignorant. That they were thus ignorant of them is not only implied throughout, but appears from the direct statements of the sacred historians. {See 2Ki 22:11; Ezr 9:1; Ezr 9:7; Neh 9:3} 1 Kings 8:6 And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims. 0 THE ARK AND THE CHERUBIM 1 Kings 6:23-30 ; 1 Kings 8:6-11 . "Jehovah, thundering out of Zion, throned Between the cherubim." - MILTON THE inculcation of truths so deep as the unity, the presence, and the mercy of God would alone have sufficed to give preciousness to the national sanctuary, and to justify the lavish expenditure with which it was carried to completion. But as in the Tabernacle, so in the Temple, which was only a more rich and permanent structure, the numbers, the colors, and many details had a real significance. The unity of the Temple shadowed forth the unity of the Godhead; while the concrete and perfect unity, resulting from the reconciliation of unity with difference and opposition (1 + 2), is "the signature of the Deity." Hence, as in our English cathedrals, three was the predominant number. There were three divisions, Porch, Holy Place, Oracle. Each main division contained three expiatory objects. Three times its width (which was 3 x 10) was the measure of its length. The number ten is also prominent in the measurements. It includes all the cardinal numbers, and, as the completion of multiplicity, is used to indicate a perfect whole. The seven pillars which supported the house, and the seven branches of the candlestick, recalled the sacredness of the seventh day hallowed by the Sabbath, by circumcision, and by the Passover. The number of the cakes of shewbread was twelve, "the signature of the people of Israel, a whole in the midst of which God resides, a body which moves after Divine laws." Of the colors predominant in the Temple, blue, the color of heaven, symbolizes revelation; white is the color of light and innocence; purple, of majesty and royal power; crimson, of life, being the color of fire and blood. Every gem on the high priest’s pectoral had its mystic significance, and the bells and pomegranates which fringed the edge of his ephod were emblems of devotion and good works. Two instances will suffice to indicate how deep and rich was the significance of the truths which Moses had endeavored to engraft in the minds of his people, and to which Solomon, whether with full consciousness or not, gave permanence in the Temple. 1. Consider, first, the Ark. Every step towards the Holiest was a step of deepening reverence. The Holy Land was sacred, but Jerusalem was more sacred than all the rest. The Temple was the most sacred part of the city; the Oracle was the most sacred part of the Temple; the Ark was the most sacred thing in the Oracle; yet the Ark was only sacred because of that which it contained. And what did it contain? What was it which enshrined in itself this quintessence of all sanctitude? When we pierce to the inmost recesses of a pyramid, we find there only the ashes of a dead man, or even of an animal. Within the adytum of an Egyptian temple we might have found "an ox wallowing on purple tapestry." The Egyptians, too, had their arks, as the Greeks had the cyst of Cybele, and the vannus of Iacchus. What did they contain? At the best phallic emblems, the emblems of prolific nature. But the Ark of Jehovah contained nothing but the stone tablets on which were carved the Ten Words of the Covenant, the briefest possible form of the moral law of God. In the inmost heart of the Temple was its most inestimable treasure, -a protest against all idolatry; a protest against all polytheism, or ditheism, or atheism; a protest, too against the formalism which the Temple itself and its services might tend to produce in its least spiritually minded worshippers. Thus the entire Temple was a glorification of the truth that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and that the one end to be produced by the fear of the Lord is obedience to His commandments. The Ark and its unseen treasure taught that no religion can be of the least value which does not result in conformity with the plain moral laws:-be obedient; be kind; be pure; be honest; be truthful; be contented; and that this obedience can only spring from faith in the one God whom all real worshippers must worship in spirit and truth. Obvious as this lesson might seem to be, it was entirely missed by the Jews in general. The Ark, too, was degraded into a fetish, and Jeremiah says {Jer 3:16} of the exiles, "They shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they miss it: neither shall it be made any more" (Hebrews). When a symbol has been perverted into a source of materialism and superstition, it becomes not only useless but positively dangerous. No religions have fallen so absolutely dead as those which have sunk into petty formalism. The Ark, for all its quintessential sacredness, had been suffered to fall into the hands of uncircumcised Philistines, and to be placed in their Dagon temple, to show that it was no mere idolatrous amulet. Ultimately it was carried away to Babylon, to adorn the palace of a heathen tyrant, and probably to perish by fire in his captured city. In the second Temple there was no ark. Nothing remained but the rock of Araunah’s threshing-floor, on which it once had stood. 2. Consider, next, the meaning of the Cherubim. (1) The infinite sanctity given to the conception of the moral law was enhanced by the introduction of these overshadowing figures. We are never told in the entire books of Scripture what was the form of these cherubim; nor is their function anywhere specially defined; nor, again, can we be at all certain of the derivation of the name. That the cherubim over the Ark were not identical with the fourfold-visage-four of Ezekiel’s cherub-chariot we know, because they certainly had but one face. But we now know that among the Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, and other nations nothing was more common than these cherubic emblems, which were introduced into their palaces and temples under the forms of winged lions, oxen, men, and eagle-headed human figures. We see also that in the Tabernacle, and to a still greater extent in the Temple, a tacit exception to the stringency of the Second Commandment seems to have been made in favor of the component parts of these cherubic figures. If Solomon was aware (as he surely must have been) of the existence of the law, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image," he must either have laid stress on the words "to thyself," and have excused the brazen oxen which supported his great laver on the ground that they could not be turned into objects of worship, or he must have held, as Ezekiel apparently did, that the ox was the predominant form in the cherubic emblem. From the Vision of Ezekiel we see that the cherubim-like the "Immortalities" of the Apocalypse, which had faces of the ox, the eagle, the lion, and the man-were conceived of as "living creatures" upholding the sapphire Throne of God. They had wings, and the similitude of hands under their wings. They flashed to and fro like lightning in the midst of a great cloud, and an enfolding fire, and a rolling mass of amber-colored flame. Of the form of this "changeable hieroglyphic" we need say no more. Perhaps originally suggested by the wreathing fires and rolling storm clouds, which were regarded as immediate signs of the Divine proximity, the cherubim came to be regarded as the genius of the created universe in its richest perfection and energy, at once revealing and shrouding the Presence of God. Their eyes represent His omniscience, for "the eyes of the Lord are in every place"; their wings and straight feet represent the speed and fiery gliding of His omnipresence; each element of their fourfold shape indicates His love, His patience, His power, His sublimity. Their wheels imply that "the dread magnificence of the unintelligent creation" is under His entire control; and, as a whole, they symbolize the dazzling beauty of the universe, alike conscious and material. They were the ideal anima animantium -the perfection of existence emanating from and subject to the Divine Creator whose tender mercy is over all His works. Their function, when they are first introduced in the Book of Genesis, is at once vengeful and protective; vengeful of the violated law, protective of the treasure of life. They are here the Erinnyes of the Dawn, revealing and avenging the works of darkness. Their "dreadful faces and fiery arms" at the gate of Eden typify guilty awakenment, realized retribution, conscious alienation from God, the universe siding with His awakened anger. (2) But when next they are mentioned, God says to Moses, "Thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold, and thou shalt make two cherubim of gold at the two ends of the mercy-seat." But for their presence on the mercy-seat how terrible would have been the symbolism of the Holy of Holies-God’s darkness, man’s crime, a broken law! It would have represented Him who hath clouds and darkness round about Him, and dwelleth in darkness which no man can approach unto; and the Ark would only have treasured up, as a witness against man’s apostasy, the shattered slabs of the words of Sinai. But over that Ark, and its saddening because dishallowed treasure, bent once more these mystic figures, these "cherubim