WHICH APPEARS TO TAKE NOW SUCH A HOLD ON DAVID. Very true it is that the indi- cations are many, and scarcely mistakable, of sense pressing heavy on patriarch and priest, king and prophet, of Old Testament history. Some striking exceptions, however, there are to the contrary. And perhaps, in almost all cases, there a.re to be found traces of exception in a. direction least to have been reckoned upon d priori, viz. in the matter of the admirable distribution of attention and love, which marked their reo-a.rd for both body and soul after <leath. For the pious Israelite great was the fasci~ation of the future--that future that began where sense ended. His reverent provision for the body then meant something altogether different from the ostentation of funeral obsequies. It was thought and imaginings upborne on strong pinions of faith, and impelled by the temperate and obedient force of a. far-enduring patience. Pride of pedigree and of the traceable genealogies of a dozen centuries forepa.st, how this dwarfs before the excursions of a taught faith, a. trained imagination, an inspired hope, that peer into that "great while to come" called the eternal future! It is evident that this lies a.t the root of David's deep satisfaction and adoring gratitude now. He had been reared of nothing, and was but of yesterday, but the revealed word that is spoken to him gives him to 'scry a far future. And for him to feel joy in this, two elements must have been present. 1. A very vital faith took hold of the idea. that was contained in assurance ancl promise for his son and his people. 2. And the idea. becomes at once welcome fact ; the earnest is possession. His heart transports him into the future, and converts that future into so much good bon/i.fide present. These a.re among the greatest triumphs of a taught, a receptive, a willing spiritual nature. It is the diametrical opposite of the disposition of those who must have all now, and to whom the future is less than shadow, nothing more than utter fiction, There are not a few who want to have things irreconcilable. They want to have the pleasures of sin, which a.re essentially "for a. season," and not forfeit those advantages which as essentially come of present abstinence and a patient waiting. The faith that really apprehends the unseen, the patient waiting that willingly defers fruition, are the two guarantees, so far as human quality and human conditions are involved, that qualify the human to transmute itself into the Divine, and the mortal to merge into immortality. And David testifies to these imperial possessions now. He acquiesces in one moment in everything that is evidenced derogatory to claim, merit, ~17llity, in his own past, in order to seize with passionate eagerness, with grateful acknow- ledgment, on that which is spoken concerning him and his, for the" great while to come." In these essential facts, then, David is a religious model for even Christian times, for all times. To be able to lose sight in favour of gaining faith, to part with sense to apprehend spirit, to quit the present in order to dwell in the future and occupy it with tha objects of affection beforehand,-these are the distinguishing characteristics of the spiritual and the newborn. And the best part of these David had, when he pleaded guilty to any and all disparagement of the past; didn't stop to look a second time at the personal dis- appointment of the present, but did "embrace" eagerly and with all his heart the 1->roffered possession of the "great while to come."
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1, 2.-Generous purposes. Some time had elapsed since David had brought up t1e ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem. Although the king had lodged the sacred chest in a handtiome tabernacle, he was not satisfied; for he did not consider that he had rendered to the symbol of the Divine presence and authority the honour that was clue. Himself dwelling in a palace of cedar-wood, he desired to see a house of stately magnificence built for the service of his God. I. A KING'S PROPOSAL. It was in David's heart to adorn and sanctify his metropolis l1y a temple which should serve as the emblem of the nation's consecration to Jehovah. 1. We observe in this desire of the king how respect for God and tho ordinances of his wornhip may lead to purposes of Jabour and self-sacrifice. It is possible that vanity and ostentation may lead to some enterprises of magnitude which may pass for evidences of rdigious fervour. Yet often times au alTectionate ancl grateful heart has found expression iu c.:otilly and at the same time useful undertakings. 2. We observe also that generosity OH. xvn. 1-27.] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES.