Vers. 18-27, eh. xxii. 1.-0rnan's threshing-floor. It was in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite that the angel of the Lord sheathed his sword and where the voice of the Lord was heard, "It is enough, stay now thine hand." There, by Divine command, the altar was to be reared. The Lord's altar in a barn l Well, what matters it? The altar hallows the barn. Christ is the true sacrificial Altar, and whatever or whoever be touches becomes the "temple of the Holy Ghost." Ornan was probably the Hebrew or Jewish name of the owner of this threshing-floor; Araunah his Jebusite or Canaanitish name. We see in the twenty-third verse the noble generosity of this man in offering to present David with the threshing-floor, oxen, instruments, and wheat, free of cost. It is true that in some cases (see Gen. xxiii.) this apparent generosity, accompanied with so much Eastern courtesy and politeness, is only a thin guise to cover larger expectations from those to whom it is made. This Abraham well knew when he so resolutely declined the offer of the sons of Heth. This was not the case with Oman. His was the offspring from the noble and generous heart of one who loved and served God. The inspired penman gives us the true interpretation of Ornan's offer when he says (2 Sam. xxiv. 23), "All these things did Araun11h, as a king, give unto the king." But however kingly Araunah's conduct was here, David felt be could not accept it. God must not be put off with that which costs us nothing. "Thou hast offered me no sweet cane with money," was God's charge of old against Israel. "Ye offer the blind and the lame for sacrifice. Is it not evil?" said Malachi. It is the law of life. That which costs us nothing is not worth having; how much less when offered to God! The widow's two mites are of more value than all the gifts of gold in the temple chest. So David would only have the threshing-floor for the Lord's temple at the" full price." And mark the typical character of this threshing-floor. It was there the sword of vengeance was sheathed. It was there God's voice was heard, "Stay now thine band, it is enough." It wo.s there the hallowed fire descended in token of God's acceptance of the victim on the altar; and there consequeutly the future temple was to be erected which exceeded in glory all tho.t Israel had ever seen. So, centuries after, the cross of Christ was the substance of which all this was only the shadow. In that cross we see the sword of God's wrath against sin for ever sheathed. We bear God's voice saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh awo.y the sin of the world ! " In the midnight darkness, the earthquake, the rent rocks, the opened graves, and tho rent veil, we bear God's voice again from heaven, testifying to the majesty of that Sacrifice, and drawing from the lips of even heathen bystanders, "Surely this wns the Son of God." And on that Sacrifice, that one Offering once offered, we see built the greo.t spiritual temple of Christ's body, the Church. "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Christ Jesus." May we take up David's languago and say, " This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt olforiug for lsrael,"-W.
Ver. L-Satanic temptations. The passage similar to this in 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 should be coc..pared with it. 'l'he word Satan would have been more correctly translated an adversary; and the sentence in Samuel would be correctly rendered, "One movcu David ago.inst theru." The historical fact appears to be that one of the courtiers pressed this evil advice on the king, and the Bible writers properly see in such a man a tempter, an adversary, a Satan; and they recognize in all the consequences that follow the outworking of Divine judgments. The question of the Bible presentation of a chief evil spirit need not be discussed in connection with this passage. It is to one aspect only of the infiuenco of such a being that our attention is directed. The Miltonic figure of Satan should ho carefully distinguished from the Biblical; and in the insto.nco before us the" adversary" is treated as a Divine agency used for the testing of God's people by temptation to sin. If we fully accept the idea of the Di vinP. education aud trnming of men, it will be no THE FIUST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [on. XXL 1-30.