The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 161

o drudgery peculio.r to itself, but that it is dignified by being called to similar work with that of Christ. 'l'be power, the wisdom, the Jove, the very thought of that work must first come from heavenly source, and be sustained by streams from the heavenly source; but then these should often betray their heavenly origin, and the human worker flash out tokens of the indwelling of Divine principle, gift, grace. It had been quite possible to suppose a hard-and-fast line drawn between the humblest of the Divine work amid men and the very hi~hest of the human. But it is not so. It is far otherwise. And so soon as ever the clear pattern was shown on earth by Jesus him- self, of what was to be and to be done, not a very few and a very picked band, but every one of his wide Church, was called to do similar work-yes, to do it and to bear the burden of it, and that not with eye-service as to men, but "as the servants of Christ." 2. It is a very elevating and encouraging fact in the renewed life of humanity that with such solemn responsibility attaching to it in work to be done, no less than Godlike in character, no less than Christ-like in exeiution, it is work not severed from Divine co-operation. Let us call it vicarious. Let us the rather prize it as such, and "love to have it so." Yet is it not the cold vicariousness of so large a proportion of our earthly labour-unwarmed by the presence, by the help, by the smile, by the reward of at least acknowledgment at the hands of those for whom we both do and bear much. No, indeed. It is work of co-operation, where in those co-operating extremes meet-the weakness, the poverty, the ignorance, the finiteness of us men, with the omnipotence, the wealth, the knowledge, and the infiniteness of God the Father; of Christ, the Shepherd of the sheep; of the Spirit of all grace and light. None work for God but his Spirit is with them. None work for Jesus but "lo, he is present in the midst" of their smallest group. Therefore it is plain that God does not so honour us as simply to devolve his work in Christ upon us, but rather to involve us in his doing, and lift us up into his sphere of work. The co-operating of Christ by his Spirit with his servants, when their work and their suffering shall seem most vicarious, is therefore a grand and most noteworthy fact as compared with our labour-relations and our suffering-relations, as fellow-creatures, to one another. 3. Over and above all other eleva.ting and cheering thoughts suggested by this fact of God's calling us to work for him, and yet uniting himself with us therein, there rema.ins such a one as this. It is a token of a certain ha.rmony of plan and thought between human society and the perfection of that above. It is some " sha.dow of things to come." It is some foreshadowing of Divine goodness. The condescension and the grace are some indications of what shall be. They are not mere fictitious, tempting, beguiling persuasions of the way, for the "pilgrims of the night;" but they are rather snatches and earnests of the temper prevailing in the "city yet to come." It is a la.rge ond far from ignoble principle, the vicarious principle-cost what it may of smart, occasionally or systematically, among ourselves. But it is an indefinite exten- sion, an immense expansion, it is a very glorification of the principle, when Christ enters on a similar footing and makes the circle henceforth a sacred circle. After doing and suffering all which be bas done, "even unto death," for his people, he not simply hallows by bis own example the summons to us to work and to suffer for our fellow-creatures and for him, but also favours therein the thought, in its very highest development, of our being "one with him, even as he is one with" the eternal Father. In a word, to work or to suffer in the stead of Christ is some earnest of enter- ing in due time the society of which he is the Head. Vers. 3-10.-The throne of }ustice and security. These verses are morally and essentially connected with one another. They speak of one thing-the "ma.king of David king." And we may notice in them- I. THE FORM THAT REPRESENTED THIS. The most ancient Scriptures enrich us with the knowledge of the very earliest customs of men. Many of theso may be obsolete. But two things are remarkable respecting them, viz. (1) how some of them remai!l, and with but slightly altered dress; (2) bow those that do not remain often cmbouie,l some principle to which all growth of time has shown a growing importance to belong. These earliest customs of men, recorded in Scripture, seem, further, not only to have em bodied certain principles, but passed, as they often were, beneath the eye of God, we may feel that they diu something more-they enshrined with a real sacrcJ11css  152 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [CH. u. 1-47.