(2) The second thing requisite in the Temple ministry to any one who sought the fellowship of the secret place was the spirit of sacrifice. No man was permitted to come empty-handed in his movements towards the secret place. " Bring an offering, and come into his courts." And in that Temple-ministry the Psalmist would recognize another of the essential requisites if he would dwell in the secret place. That offering meant that a man must surrender all that he possesses, of gifts and goods, to his quest of the central things of life. For there is this strange thing about the strait gate which opens into the secret place : it is too strait for the man who brings nothing; it is abundantly wide for the man who brings his all. No man deserves the hallowed intimacies of life, the holy tabernacle of the Most High, who does not bring upon the errand all that he is, and all that he has. Life's crown demands life's all.
(3) And other Temple-ministries in which the Psalmist would find principles of guidance would be the requirement of pray&r and praise. " Sing unto the Lord a new song." Such was to be one of the exercises of those who sought the grace and favour of the holy place. They were to come wearing the garment of praise. And therefore the Psalmist knew that praise was to be one of the means by which he was to possess the intimacies of the secret place. And praise is still one of the ministries by which we reach the central heart of things, the hallowed abode where we come to share " the secret of the Lord." And praise is not fawning upon God, flattering Him, piling up words of empty eulogy; it is the hallowed contemplation of the greatness of God, and the grateful appreciation of the goodness of God. And with praise there goes prayer — the recognition of our dependence upon
'248 GOD'S INNER CIRCLE
the Highest, the fellowship of desire, the humble speech which co- operates in the reception and distribution of grace.
^ " I passed my time in great peace, content to spend the remainder of my life there, if such should be the will of God. I employed part of my time in writing religious songs. I, and my maid La Gauti^re, who was with me in prison, committed them to heart as fast as I made them. Together we sang praises to Thee, 0 our God ! It sometimes seemed to me as if I were a little bird whom the Lord had placed in a cage, and that I had nothing to do now but to sing. The joy of my heart gave a brightness to the objects around me. Tlie stones of my prison looked in my eyes like rubies. I esteemed them more than all the gaudy brilliancies of a vain world. My heart was full of that joy which Thou gives t to them who love Thee in the midst of their greatest cro?-ses." ^
Let praise devote thy work and skill employ Thy whole mind, and thy heart be lost in joy. Well-doing bringeth pride, this constant thought Humility, that thy best done is naught. Man doetli nothing well, be it great or small, Save to praise God ; but that hath saved all : For God requires no more than thou hast done, And takes thy work to bless it for His owu.^
*[| The wise man will act like the bee, and he will fly out in order to settle with care, intelligence, and prudence on all the gifts and on all the sweetness which he has experienced, and on all the good which God has done to him ; and through the rays of the sun and his own inward observation he will experience a multitude of consolations and blessings. And he will not rest on any flower of all these gifts, but, laden with gratitude and praise, he will fly back again toward the home in which he longs to dwell and rest for evermore with God.^
II.
Under His Shadow.
The man who commits himself to God, and dwells in Him, has this promise, that ho will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. There are two names of God used in the text, " The
1 Madame Guyon, in Life, by T. C. Upliam. * R. Bridges.
' M. Maeteiliuck, Jiuysbrocck and llu Mystics, 130.
PSALM xci. I 249
Most His^h " and " The^ Almighty " ; and when we remember the deep religious significance which the different names of God had for the Hebrew, and the careful way in which they are used throughout the whole of the Old Testament, so that in general it is true that that name of God is used which alone serves to indicate tlie particular aspect of God's character or government uponjy.hich thejwriter wished to lay stJ^es_s; when we remember this, we are justified in looking for a meaning in the distinction between the two names of God used here. The man to whom the promise is made seeks to dwell in the secret place of " the Most High." He seeks to be near^God as the " Most High " God, the God of surpassing excellence. He desires the company of Him who is " Most High " because He is most holy. The character which he contemplates in God is not so much His power as His holiness. He desires to be near God, not because of what God can do for him, but because of what God is; it is in the thought of God's goodness that he rests secure. It is the holiness of Jehovah that attracts him ; it is the beauty of the Lord his God that he would behold continually. To the man who thus disin- terestedly seeks after Him God will reveal Himself in the character of the Almighty. The power of the Almighty shall be round about him. " Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I de- liver him ; I will set him on high, because he hath known my name." This man is to " abide under the shadow of the Almighty."