their captivity bethink themselves,"-acknowledge their wickedness—and," returning to Him with all their heart and soul, pray towards the city which He had chosen, and towards the house built for His name, that then He would hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, maintain their cause, and forgive them." Accordingly, we find Daniel constantly availing himself of this merciful reservation, and, "his windows being open towards Jerusalem, thrice in every day”+ directing thitherward his prayer and his supplication; and when the set time of mercy was brought about by his brethren's "thinking upon her stones, and pitying the seeing her in the dust;" then making intercession for the desolate sanctuary, that the face of God might shine upon it again; and receiving promise, remarkably delivered at the precise hour of the temple worship, that the commandment should go forth for its restoration."§ Conformably to this promise, God's shepherd Cyrus issues his decree for rearing again the habitation of God's holiness upon its ancient foundations, and for gathering His reclaimed people to serve Him there from all their various dispersions;|| and though, when this house was dedicated, He did not place His name there with that grandeur and majesty which was so awfully + Dan. vi. 10. 2 Chron. vi. 36-39. Ps. cii. 14. Ezra i. 1-4. impressive on the two preceding occasions, yet He made it known by His prophet that the inaugural solemnity was only delayed as preparatory to its more august celebration, for that "the glory of the latter house should exceed the glory of the former."* In fulfilment of this sacred pledge," the Lord, whom His people sought," as predicted by another prophet, "came suddenly to His temple," and " they beheld His glory," before insupportable by mortal eye, not symbolically displayed before them, but " the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." But they "rejected" against themselves this last and most benignant counsel of God, and SO "wrath came upon them to the uttermost."§ "The abomination of desolation" again desecrated the "most holy place," and "one stone of the sacred edifice was not left upon another, because they knew not the time of their visitation."|| Thus does it appear, that throughout the whole of the covenanted intercourse between God and His ancient people, His jealousy for the sanctity of His great name most punctiliously limited the invocation of it to places of His own special selection, where, conformably to the announcement made to Moses, it was recorded by Himself, and that, moreover, with such circumstances of awful solemnity and reservation, as most impressively * Haggai ii. 7, 9. + Malachi iii. 1. John i. 14. || Luke xix. 44. proclaimed Him "very greatly to be feared in the assembly of His saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him."* But though to make " His name thus great in Israel" was the first purpose of the Almighty, His ultimate purpose was of a much more comprehensive character, which He did not omit to publish at the very commencement, and to repeat continually throughout the whole course of His marvellous dealing with His chosen people: this being the exclusive cause assigned by Him for that stupendous display of power which effected their deliverance from Egypt, and subsequently conducted them in triumph to the highest pinnacle of earthly prosperity, that " He wrought for His great name sake,"‡ that "it might be declared and sanctified throughout all the earth." And the effect corresponded accurately with the divine intentions; for, at the distance of 350 years, when the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and were suffering severely for their profanation in detaining it in a land polluted by idolatry, the tremendous overthrow of Pharaoh," for hardening his heart" against the Lord, under inflictions of divine vengeance similar to theirs, is appealed to by their priests, and prevails with them to return the sacred symbol Ps. lxxxix. 7. + Ibid. lxxvi. 1. § Exod. ix. 16; Ezek. xx. 41. "with a trespass-offering in acknowledgment of their offence," and thus to “ give glory to the God of Israel." And this reverential sentiment continues diffusing its influence, and deepening its impression, as God's mighty hand and outstretched arm makes His power more and more to be known; till, through the deliverance of Shadrach and his companions from the fiery furnace, and of Daniel from the den of lions, the monarchs, who then swayed the sceptre of the earth, proclaim their conviction, that "there is no God who can deliver after this sort;"+ and the last of them, Darius, issues a decree, that," in every dominion of his kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for He is the living God, and steadfast for ever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." All this was preparatory to a closer intercourse with God" within His house and within His walls," and whilst the Gentiles were yet a great way off, their heavenly Father, in the tenderness of His compassion, went out, as it were, to meet them, and invite them to His paternal embraces, by introducing into the pattern of the Temple, which he traced out by inspiration upon David's mind, a court specially appropriated to their reception, as worshippers before Him; and by putting it into the mind 1 Sam. iv. 11; vi. 2, 3, 5, 6. ↑ Dan. vi. 26. + Dan. iii. 29. § Isai. lvi. 3-7. and heart of Solomon, to engage the co-operation of a heathen nation in its erection,* and to encourage the " strangers from a far country" to come and pray in the house which he was then dedicating to the God of all the earth, in holy communion with his own people, by publicly interceding for them with God, that He would "do according to all that the stranger called to Him for, that all people of the earth might know His name, and fear Him as did His people Israel, and might know, moreover, that the house built by the royal supplicant was called by His name."+ This knowledge, and its blessed result, the drawing worshippers from among the nations to the only place in all the earth where they could perform acceptable service, continued progressive during the period of the first Temple, though without exciting much special observation. But 2 Chron. ii. 3-14. The statement made in ver. 14, is not without its significance; viz. that the chief artificer sent by Hiram was of mixed parentage, his mother being an Israelite, and his father a Tyrian. † 2 Chron. vi. 32, 33. David speaks prophetically of this result in Psalm Ixviii. 29, where he says, "Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee." The visit of the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings x. 1, &c.) commenced the fulfilment of this prediction; for her visit to Solomon is expressly attributed to his "fame concerning the name of the Lord," of which she "heard" in her own country: and so rapidly did this fame spread, that in the same chapter (ver. 24, 25) it is stated, that "all the earth sought to Solomon," and brought him " "presents" annually in vast abundance. C |