and true of him as an individual. The priesthood | pression in a cultus, assumed shapes perceptible to was not at the head of the kingdom, which was not the senses. As Jehovah, in the old covenant, an hierarchy, but a theocracy; theirs was a separate chose a visible dwelling amongst his people, in tonstitution, which it was the duty of the king to ken of their election, so also He verified His presmaintain, as well as all other institutions of the ence in this dwelling in a way cognizant to the law (covenant). He would therefore have acted senses, that is, through the cloud, which is the mecontrary to Jehovah's law, and have sinned (comp. dium and sign of His manifestation, not only here, 2 Chron. xxvi. 16 sq.), had he taken on himself the but all through the Old Testament (Ex. xvi. 10; offices which belonged by law to the priests. Solo- xx. 21; xxiv. 15, 16; xxxiv. 5; xl. 34; Lev. xvi. mon therefore let the priests perform their services 2; Numb. xi. 25; xii. 5; Isai. vi. 3, 4; Ezek. i. 4, at the dedication, as the law prescribed, and he was 28; x. 3, 4; Ps. xviii. 10-12). But the cloud is not guilty of the shadow of usurpation of the not so well suited for this purpose, because it expriestly office. But the act of dedication of the ists far above, in heaven, which is Jehovah's pecu"house of Jehovah" built by him through divine liar dwelling (Prov. viii. 28; Ps. lxxxix. 7; Job commission, which act bore such high importance xxxv. 5), and is also, as it were, His chariot (Ps. to the realm and people, and began a new epoch in civ. 3); but rather because, as its name shows, its theocratic history, belonged rightly to his mission as nature is to conceal and veil, so that cloud and a theocratic king. No one else had the right, be- darkness are synonymous words. "y, cloud, cause no one else had the same theocratic position named from the covering of the heavens" (Geseand duties. And as the theocratic kingdom reached its culminating point with Solomon, the theocratic nius); y, "thick darkness," comes from y, kingdom also attained in him its full significance. It would be quite perverse to attempt to ground or drop down dew (Deut. xxxiii. 28), and means litto defend the modern imperial papalism (Casaro-erally cloud-night; y from y, to darken, somepapismus), or the so-called liturgical rights of the sovereign, by the precedent of Solomon's conduct. The Old Testament theocratic kingdom was essentially different from the monarchy of these of modern times. 3. The act of dedication began by carrying the ark of the covenant in solemn procession, with the king at the head, into the temple, and depositing it in its place," the holy of holies, while numerous sacrifices were offered. The ark of the covenant was the root and kernel of the whole sanctuary; it contained the moral law, at once the original document and pledge of the covenant, through which, and in consequence of which, Jehovah was willing to "dwell" in the midst of his chosen people; the Kaporeth upon which Jehovah was enthroned was therefore inseparably united with it (Ex. xxv. 22), so that the entire sanctuary only became through this throne what it was intended to be the dwelling-place of Jehovah. On this subject Witsius says (Miscell. sacr. p. 439) of the arca foederis: Quæ sanctissimum fuit totius tabernaculi KELμÍZLOV, quæque veluti cor totius religionis Israeliticæ primum omnium formata est Exod. xxv. 10, et cui ne deesset habitationis locus, ipsum tabernaculum dein et superbum illud templum conditum fuit. Exod. xxvi. 33 et xl. 21; 1 Chron. xxviii. 2. By the placing of the ark of the covenant in the temple, it first became the house of Jehovah, and hence its solemn introduction into it. While everything else within it was made new (chap. vii.), the same ark of the covenant was kept, and only changed its place. It could never grow old, for it was the witness of the past victorious divine guidance, as well as the pledge of Jehovah's faithfulness and might. With it, all the historical facts bound up with it became associated with the temple; it was the historical tie between the old and new sanctuary, between the two periods of the tent and the house (see Introd. 3), making the latter the immediate sequel to the former. times means thick darkness, sometimes cloud (Ex. xix. 9; Ps. xviii. 12; Job xxxvi. 29; xxxvii. 11, 16). The cloud is, on account of its darkness, the mode of manifestation of Jehovah and of His glory, and the throne on which His presence was concentrated within the dwelling stood in the back part, which was perfectly dark. Even the highpriest, when he entered once a year into this dark place, covered the throne besides with a cloud of incense, "that he died not" (Lev. xvi. 2, 13). When Moses prayed, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory! he received the answer: Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live; but Jehovah then came down in the cloud to manifest himself to him (Ex. xxxiii. 18, 20; xxxiv. 5 sq.). Nebula, says an old commentator, deus se et repræsentabat et velabat. The cloud is then, on one hand, the heaven-descended sign of the presence of the self-manifesting God; on the other hand, it declares that God in His being, spiritually and ethically, is so far above, and different from all other beings, that man, in his sinful and mortal nature, cannot comprehend Him nor endure the sight of Him. Görres rightly says (Mythengeschichte II. s. 507): "It is the distinguishing characteristic of the genius of the Mosaic fundamental view, that it veils the Deity far off from the temerity of the exploring reason, just as it chastely and abstemiously forbids polluting Him with the sensuous dreams of the imagination." The God of the Old Testament manifests Himself to man through word and deed, yet ever remains at infinite distance above him, so that when he strives to overstep the creature-limits of his nature he must perish. Quemadmodum, says Abarbanel (in Buxtorf, hist. arc fœd., cap. 11), lucem solis propter summum ejus splendorem et claritatem oculus humanus non potest videre, quamvis causa sit, ut res videantur ; et si homo proprius et fixe eum intueri velit, oculis ejus percutiuntur et hebetantur, ut nec illud amplius videre queat, quod alias videre potuit: sic non potest intel4. The filling of the house with Jehovah's glory, lectus humanus apprehendere deum secundum verimade manifest to the senses by the cloud, is in har- tatem suum, et si terminum suum egrediatur, apmony with the spirit of the Old Testament econ-prehensio ejus confunditur aut moritur (cf. 1 Timothy omy, inasmuch as it bore, compared with the New Testament economy, a bodily form, and in it the entire human-divine relation, as it comes to its ex vi. 16). 5. The dedication prayer, which belongs to the finest pieces of the Old Testament, received a high significance through the fact that the person who offered it, did so in his highest official character and rank, as king and head of the theocracy, and in view of the whole people, on an occasion (see above on chap. vi. 1) which formed an epoch in the theocracy. This, then, is not the prayer of a private person, upon a private matter, but one offered in the name of the whole nation, and about a subject which formed the central point of its worship, and therefore touched its highest interests. It did not spring from individual religious views, but from the religious consciousness of the whole community, and may therefore be regarded as a public and solemn confession of faith, inasmuch as it brings to light the chief and fundamental truths of the Old Testament religion which peculiarly distinguished it from all others. There is not a prayer to be compared with this in all pre-Christian antiquity. Had we nothing belonging to Jewish antiquity but this prayer, it would alone suffice to attest the depth, the purity, and the truth of the Israelitish knowledge of God and of salvation. over against the religious ideas of all other peoples. them, even you above all people" (Deut. x. 14 sq.). "For Him nothing is too great and nothing too small, nothing is too high and nothing too low, that He cannot set His name there" (vers. 16, 29; chap. xi. 36; xiv. 11), i. e., manifest Himself at and through it, without ceasing to fill heaven and earth. To confess and pray to Him as such a God means to "confess His name "(vers. 35, 41, 43). His covenant relation to Israel, and the consequent dwelling in the midst of that people, are not at all inconsistent with his infinitude and unsearchableness, but rather were the means by which He could be known as the one, true, and living God. The expression touching the infinite grandeur of God's being is followed by this: "who keepest covenant and mercy with Thy servants that," &c. The God, with whom nothing in heaven or earth could be compared, has manifested and revealed Himself to Israel as a moral being; the covenant which He has made with them is of a purely ethical nature, for it is the law (Ex. xxxiv. 28; Deut. iv. 13), the revealed will of God, and rests on the grace of election; it is a covenant of grace. He who gave the law, and will have it kept, is also merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth (Ex. xxxiv. 6). The knowledge of this gives the key-tone to the whole prayer; all trust and hope of an answer is rooted in it. But heathenism, which in its deepest grounds is nature-religion, knows nothing of this; the God of Israel is the only absolute holy one, and therefore the alone true. 6. Prominent beyond all else in this prayer are the expressions respecting the being of God, especially in His relations to the temple. At the beginning (ver. 23) God is addressed as He with whom nothing can be compared, whether in heaven or on earth; as the Being who is above and beyond the world, and therefore the only God; and it is emphatically confessed (ver. 27) that no house built by man can contain Him in His infinitude and omnipresence. 7. The general substance of the prayer is that JeThis was the most decisive refutation of all an- hovah might hear all those who should call on Him thropomorphistic representations of God, such as here for help or deliverance from any need. But heathenism made in its temples (see above), and the answer is not expected by any mere outward which it might seek to associate with Jehovah's coming or turning to the place of His presence, dwelling, now no longer a movable tent, but an but by the knowledge, that all distress is caused by abiding house. At the same time, this infinite, the turning away from Jehovah and His laws, that is, only God is most explicitly praised as Israel's God, by sin. Answer, with regard to deliverance, must i. e., as the God who had chosen Israel out of all rest therefore upon forgiveness of sins, which has peoples to be His inheritance, had shown Himself again as its prerequisite repentance and return, to them in word and deed, and entered into a co- i. e., conversion to Jehovah. This is why the pevenant with them, as a pledge of which He took tition: forgive the sin! (vers. 30, 34, 36, 39, 50) is up His dwelling in their midst. This confession repeated in the several prayers for deliverance from of a personal, living God presents the strongest a state of suffering. Universal sinfulness is not only contrast to every pantheistic representation of the expressly asserted (ver. 46), but the living conbeing of God, such as the higher wisdom of hea-sciousness of it is interwoven with the whole prayer. thendom, identifying God and the world, imagined, and of which, most unjustly, the effort has been made to discover a soupçon in Solomon's words in The Israelitish idea of God krows nothing of a contradiction between the supernal, infinite, and absolute being of God, and His entering into creaturely, finite, and limited being. Just because He is infinite and unsearchable, He can communicate with the finite; and because He is everywhere, He can be peculiarly present in one place, centring His presence, and displaying His glory (absolute sublimity). Heaven is His throne, and earth His footstool, therefore no house built by man can be His permanent place of rest (Isai. Ixvi. 1); but as He dwells in heaven, so He can dwell on earth; "for thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him [also] that is of a contrite and humble spirit" (Isai. Ivii. 15). "Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the Lord had a delight of thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after ver. 27. This is the more characteristic, as it was not a penitential ceremony at which the prayer was offered, but a joyful thanksgiving-festival, and it was offered by a king who was the wisest of his time, and had reached the summit of power and prosperity (chap. v. 1, 11). From this we see how firmly that consciousness was rooted in the people Israel, and how inseparably it was united with all their religious views. Such a thing is found in no other nation of the ancient world, because none of them knew the God whose name is Holy (Isai. lvii. 15), i. e., who had revealed Himself to His people as the Holy one, and whose covenant with them bore this inscription: Ye shall be holy for I am holy (Levit. xi. 44). When God is known as the absolutely Holy, and the sanctifier, man appears in contrast as a sinner, and the more living the knowledge, the more living is the consciousness of sinfulness. No man can confess the name of God, which is the name of holiness, who does not know himself to be a sinner: acknowledging his sin he gives God, the Holy One, glory. Hence in (ver. 33) means just as much, to con 46 fess his sin to Jehovah, as to give him praise (Ps. | of their mission-the spreading of the knowledge xxxii. 5; liv. 8). of the one true God among all nations. Не founds the hope that Jehovah will assist him, on the fulfilment of all the promises, already experienced, made to the people, of which the building of the Temple as a firm dwelling of Jehovah had given practical witness; he therefore begins the benediction with praise of the divine faithfulness; but he limits the attainment of their mission to the condition that they should persevere in keeping God's laws. Thenius remarks forcibly on this subject: "How seemly and truly edifying it is that God's help is specially implored for the purposes of ordinary life (ver. 58), and that the wish that men may find an answer to prayers for temporal aid (ver. 59), has for its end increased knowledge of the one true God (ver. 60)." 8. Much as it is insisted on through the whole prayer, and its acceptance grounded in the fact, that Jehovah is the God of Israel, and has chosen that people from all nations of the earth (ver. 51-53), yet the purpose of this election, namely that all people of the earth may know Jehovah's name," and "fear Him as do His people Israel" (ver. 43), is also very clearly set forth. The prayer that Jehovah may ever hear the strangers also, who come from distant lands and do not belong to His people, when they call upon Him here; this prayer, we say, receives peculiar importance when Solomon, in his blessing at the end of the whole festivity, alludes once more to the grand end designed: "that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else" (ver. 60). It is therefore hoped of the Temple, the central sanctuary of the one true God, that the knowledge and worship of this God should spread forth from it among all nations of the earth; and it is very remarkable, that what the prophets declared no less distinctly afterwards, was pronounced here so explicitly, at the dedication of the Temple (cf. Isai. ii. 3; lvi. 7; lx. 2 sq.; Jer. iii. 17; Mic. iv. 2 sq.; Zech. viii. 20 sq.). Thus the prophetical element, that element which formed so essential and important a part of Old-Testament religion, is not absent from the prayer. The common talk of vulgar rationalism, about Jehovah being only a God of the Jews and of their land, appears in all its emptiness and folly when contrasted with the official (to a certain degree) acknowledgment of Israel's world-wide mission, and which acknowledgment was made on a most solemn occasion. 9. In its form and breadth, the prayer of Solomon is a genuine public or common prayer; it wears a completely objective character; the views, wishes, and wants of individuals, as expressed, for instance, in the prayer of chap. iii. 6-9, are here left quite in the back-ground, while the common wants of the whole people occupy the foreground. Solomon, as the head and representative of the whole nation, does not pray from his own faith and consciousness, but from those of the collected nation. First, praise and thanksgiving; then follow the various petitions and intercessory prayers; lastly, an appeal to the grace hitherto vouchsafed, for a pledge of acceptance and the promised succor. Both the language and modes of expression have the genuine ring of prayer. God is not preached to nor addressed nor taught, but prayed to. A firm trusting faith, a holy moral earnestness, unfeigned humility, and great simplicity breathe through the whole, while with these there is united a fervor which shows the deepest emotion; in short we feel that this prayer was not composed among the soft cushions of the palace, but on the knees. In this respect it may be regarded, at the present day, as a model of a general church-prayer. This seems to have been more or less the case in earlier times; as for example, the so-called Litany, with its intercessions and responses,-Hear us, O Lord God! has the ring of our dedication prayer (vers. 32, 34, 36, 39, 43, 45, 49). 10. In the concluding speech following the prayer Solomon desires for the people the help of God, that they may accomplish the world-wide design 11. The great seven days' feast of the sacrifices connected with the dedication of the Temple is not to be looked on as a mere thanksgiving feast. The which were brought in such unusual numbers, and formed the principal sacrifices, were by no means only thank and praise offerings, but also vow-offerings. The peculiar and characteristic mark of this kind of sacrifice, which distinguished it from the others, and in which their ritual culminated, was the sacrificial meals, in which the whole family of the sacrificers, even man-servants and maid-servants-the whole house, took part (Lev. vii. 15 sq.; Deut. xii. 17 sq.); it was a common meal. As eating at one table is a sign of communion and united feeling (Matt. viii. 11; Gal. ii. 12; Gen. xliii. 32), so the sacrificial meal was the sign of religious unity of those who eat, among each other as well as with the Deity, to whom the sacrifice belonged, and at whose table it was eaten in common (cf. 1 Cor. x. 18 sq., and in general Symbolik des Mos. Kultus, xi. s. 373 sq.). When therefore the king, and with him the whole people, held sacrificial meals during seven days, at the Temple-dedication, they celebrated and sealed, in doing so, both their union with Jehovah and with each other; thus the dedication of the Temple, the central point of all religious life in Israel, became also a covenantfestival. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. The dedication of the Temple. (a) The bringing in the Ark of the Covenant to the Holy of Holies, vers. 1-13. (b) The speech, prayer, and benediction of the King, vers. 14-61. (c) Great sacrificial solemnity of the entire people, vers. 62-66. Vers. 1-9. The solemn procession to the new Temple. (a) Its aim and signification (it was the Ark of the Covenant, because in it was the Lawi. e., the covenant, the very Soul of the Sanctuary, vide Historical and Critical, 3). We have in the new covenant not only the Law but the Gospel, which is everlasting, 1 Pet. i. 25. Where His Word is, there the Lord dwells and is enthroned; it is the soul of every house of God, and indeed gives it its consecration; without it, every church is dead and empty, whatsoever may be the prayers and praises offered therein; hence at the consecration of a church it is customary to bring it in in solemn procession. (b) The members of the procession (the King at its head, the heads of tribes, the princes, the priests and Levites, the entire people; all gathered round the ark, in which was the Law, i. e., the covenant, and by this march, solemnly and significantly recognizes the word of the Lord; no one, be his position high or low, is ashamed of this public acknowledgment. Nothing can be nobler than to see a whole nation, from the highest to the lowest, gathered in unity round its holiest possession).-What, from an evangelical standpoint, must we think of public processions, with a religious object (Prozessionen)?-WÜRT. BIB. The consecration of a church is a praiseworthy custom. But it should not be done with holy water, but with the word of God, with prayer, and with thanksgiving.-PFAFF. BIB.: All men, especially those of highest rank, ought to show themselves zealous in God's service, and enlighten others by their example.-The priests bear the ark, and bring it to its place. To be bearers of the Divine word, and to set up the mercy-seat in the House of God, as Paul points out, Rom. iii. 24 sq., is truly the office and the glory of God's servants, Mal. ii. 7.-CRAMER: Christ, the true Ark of the Covenant, is the end and fulfilling of the Law. My God! may I, as in an ark, preserve and guard thy law! Ps. xl. 9.-Ver. 6 sq. The word of the Lord is under divine protection, the angels are its guardians and watchers; it can neither be destroyed by human power, nor is it aided or protected by men. Vers. 10-13. The glory of the Lord filled the House. (a) What this means; (b) in what manner it befell (v. Historical and Critical, 4).-It is impossible that mortal, sinful man should see or comprehend the Holy and Infinite One (1 Tim. vi. 16). We see through a glass, darkly (1 Cor. xiii. 12). I can experience his merciful Presence; but presumption and folly it is to wish to sound the depths of His Being, Job. xxxviii; Ex. ii. 33, 20.-STARKE: O soul, who finding thyself tempted, and as if in darkness and gloom, mournest that God is far from thee: ah! mark this for thy comfort, God abides with thee in darkness, and is thy light, Ps. xxiii. 4; xxvii. 1; Is. lvii. 15.-The eye of faith beholds in the darkness the glory of the Lord, in the night of the Cross the Light of the World, through the dim veil of the flesh the Only begotten Son of God, full of mercy and grace. Vers. 14-21. The Speech of Solomon to the assembled people. He solemnly announces, (a) that the building of the temple was of the gracious will and counsel of God, vers. 15, 16 (with it the leading of Israel out of Egypt is come to its end, reached its final aim; the House in place of the tent is the crowning act of God to Israel, a clear spoken testimony to his might and truth; therefore Solomon begins his speech: Blessed be, &c.); (b) that God had called him to the performance of his decrees, vers. 17-21. (He announces the mercy of God, in that he allows him to undertake the work whose completion was denied to his father. He who understands a great, holy work must be assured of this-that he is not actuated by ambition, by passion for glory, or by vanity, but that he is called thereto by God, and that it is his sacred duty.) Ver. 14. After every completed work permitted thee by the Lord, be it great or small, let it be thy first care to give Him the honor, and to declare His praise.-Ver. 15. I have spoken it and performed it, said the Lord (Ezek. xxxvii. 14). What man speaks and promises, now he cannot perform, again he will not perform. Hence Ps. cxviii. 8.-Ver. 16. The choice of God is no blind preference of one and prejudice against another, but aims at the salvation of both. As from amongst all nations he chose Israel for its salvation, so out of all the tribes of Israel he chose the City of David for the blessing of the whole kingdom.-Vers. 17, 18. How many individuals as well as whole congregations have the means and the power wherewith to build a church, to repair a ruinous one, or to enlarge one which has become too small; but nothing can be further from their mind.-He who purposes to do a good work, but is hindered therein, not by his own fault but by divine decree, he has yet "well done," God regards his intention as the deed itself.-V. 19. God sometimes, in His inscrutable but all-wise councils, denies to His own people the fulfilment of their dearest wishes, whose object may even be the glory of His name, in order to try their faith, and exercise their submission and self-denial.-V. 20. The fairest prerogative of him whom God has placed upon a throne is, that he has power to work for the glory of God's name, and to watch over the extension of the divine kingdom amongst his people. Every son who succeeds to the inheritance of his father should feel obliged, first of all, to take up the good work whose completion was denied to his father, and perfect it with love and zeal. Vers. 22-53. The dedicatory prayer of Solomon. (a) the exordium, vers. 23-26; (b) the prayer, vers. 27-50; (c) the conclusion, vers. 51-53. The prayer of Solomon a witness to his faith (he confesses the living, holy, and one God, before all the peopie), to his love (he bears His people upon His heart, and makes intercession for them); to his hope (he hopes that all nations will come to a knowledge of the true God). From Solomon we may learn how we ought to pray in true reverence and humiliation before God, with earnestness and zeal, with uadoubting confidence that we shall be heard.—What an elevating spectacle, a king upon his knees, praying aloud, in the presence of his whole people, and in their behalf! Although the highest of them all, he is not ashamed to declare himself a servant of God, and to fall down upon his knees; although the wisest of them all (chap. v. 11), he prays as a testimony that a wisdom which can no longer pray is folly; although the mightiest of all (chap. v. 1), he confesses that nothing is done by his power alone, but that the Lord is the King Eternal; therefore it is, that he does not merely rule over his subjects, but as an upright king supplicates and prays for them likewise.-Ver. 22 (cf. ver. 54). Solomon stands before the altar, bows the knee, stretches out his hands, the people stand around, the worshippers turn their faces towards the sanctuary (vers. 38, 44, 48). Outward forms, for the worship and service of God, are not to be rejected when they are the natural unbidden outflow of inward feeling. Lord himself and his apostles prayed upon their knees, Luke xxii. 41; Eph. iii. 14. No one is so exalted that he ought not to bow his knee and clasp his hands.) They (outward forms) are worthless when they are regarded as meritorious, and man puts his trust in them (Luke xviii. 11, sq.) They are sinful and blameworthy if they are performed merely for appearance's sake, or to deceive men (Matt. vi. 5, 16). The Lord knows the hearts of all men (ver. 39); one cannot serve the living God with dead works (Heb. ix. 14). (The Vers. 23-26. The introductory prayer. (a) The invocation, vers. 23, 24. (Solomon calls upon the Vers. 31-50. The seven petitions of the prayer teach us, (a) in all necessity of body and soul to turn to the Lord who alone can help, and call upon Him with earnestness and zeal (Ps. 1. 15; xci. 14, 15); (b) in all our straits to recognize the wholesome discipline of an holy and just God, who will show us the good way in which we must walk (Ps. infinite God of heaven and of earth as the God of Israel, not because he was only the God of that nation, but because he had revealed himself to it, had spoken to it, and with it had made a covenant of mercy and grace, and had kept this covenant. In the new covenant we no longer call upon God as the God of Israel, but as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. i. 3), be-xciv. 12; Heb. xii. 5 sq.); (c) to confess our sins cause he has revealed himself to us through Christ, and through Christ alone do we find in Him the true God, the God of grace and mercy. Thus He wills that we should call upon Him.) (b) The supplication joined to this, vers. 25, 26. (Let thy promise be fulfilled. It is fulfilled, for God has sent that son of David whose kingdom shall have no end, Luke i. 32 sq.; Is. ix. 7. In the new covenant we pray that God will prove true the word which He has spoken to us, through this Son of David. Ver. 25. Covenant and mercy are no couch of repose for old men, but the working energy which keeps the path of God, and walks in His way.-Ver. 24. STARKE: Word and deed, promise and fulfilment, with God go hand in hand.) and to implore forgiveness, in order that we may be Vers. 27-30. What does Solomon declare concerning the destination of the house which he had built unto the Lord? (a) But will God indeed, &c., ver. 27. God dwells not, &c., Acts xvii. 24; Is. lxvi. 1. He is everywhere, in the heaven above as in the earth beneath, in lonely, secret chambers as in grandest temples, Ps. cxxxix. 7 sq.; Jer. xxiii. 23 sq. But he has said: (b) My name shall be, ver. 29. Where His people dwells there will He also dwell, and will declare Himself to them as the God who is holy, and will be sanctified; not for His own sake, but for that of His people, has He a temple in their midst, Ex. ii. 20, 24; xxvii. 43. Here is His word of revelation, here His mercy-seat. Therefore, (c) He wills that here prayer shall be made unto him, and here He will listen to those who pray. Ver. 30. | Every prayer offered to Him here is a confession of Him, of His name.-Ver. 27. Although the heaven of heavens cannot contain the Unmeasurable and Infinite One, and no building, how great and noble soever, can suffice for Him, yet, in His mercy, He will make his dwelling-place (John xiv. 23) in the heart of that man who loves him and keeps his word, and it will truly become a temple of God (1 | Cor. iii. 16); He will dwell with those who are of an humble spirit (Is. Ivii. 15; Ps. cxiii. 5, 6).—Ver. 29. The eye of God looks upon every house where His name is honored, where all with one mind raise heart and hand to Him, and call upon His name (Ps. cxxi. 4). To every church the saying is applicable: When God humbles us, He thus directs us to the My name shall be there: the object of every church good way (Ps. cxix. 67; Deut. v. 8, ii. 3).-Vers. 37is to be a dwelling-place of divine revelation, i. e., 40. Fourth Petition. Divine judgments and means if the revealed Word of God, in which, upon the of discipline are very various in their kind, their strength of that Word, worship, praise, and prayer degree, and their duration. God in his wisdom shall be offered to the name of the Lord.-Ver. 30. and justice metes out to a whole people, as to The houses of God, above all else, must be houses each individual man, such measure of suffering of prayer (Is. lvi. 7); they are desecrated if devo- as is needed for its salvation, for He knows the ted merely to worldly purposes of any kind what-hearts of all the children of men, and He tries no soever instead of being used for prayer and supplication. The hearing of prayer does not indeed depend upon the place where it is offered (John iv. 20 sq.), but prayer should have an appointed place, where we can present ourselves, even as God wills that together with one voice we humbly exalt His name (Rom. xv. 6; Ps. xxxiv. 4). Where two or three are gathered together in His name He is in their midst; how much more will He be where a whole congregation is assembled to call upon Him. man beyond his power of endurance; He hearkens to him who calls upon Him in distress (2 Sam. xxii. 7; Ps. xxxiv. 18; Is. xxvi. 16).-Distress teaches us how to pray, but often only so long as it is present with us. God looks upon our heart, and knows whether our prayer is a mere passing emotion, or whether we have truly turned to Him. How entirely different would our prayers often sound if we reflected that we are addressing Him who knows our heart, with its most secret and |