Ver. 5.-Right ideas concerning God's eartlily sanctuaries. David's language in this verse is striking and suggestive, and it expresses a right feeling in relation to God's worship, and the places in which his worship is offered. He says, "The house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory through- out all countries." David did not desire a merely grand building, but rather one whose magnificence should be of such a character that it would draw universal attention to Jehovah and magnify his Name. "The temple was to have, as it were, a missionary character and office in proclaiming the Name of the Lord to all nations." The principles illustrated in this sentiment of David's may be thus dealt with, L THE DUTY OF CONSERVING SPIBITUAL CONCEPTIONS OF GoD. "God is a Spirit: and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." The unity and spirituality of God are foundation and essential truths of religion. How jealously they were regarded is indicated by the strong expressions of the two first commandments. We must as anxiously guard them from doctrines or sentiments that imperil them, as Israel must guard them from idolatrous customs. No earthly thing adequately repre- sents God. No earthly figure or image properly fits him. And no earthly dwelling may be thought of as contaiuing him. The omnipresence of Jehovah is beyond our power of apprehension; yet we may conceive of him as coming under no kind of human limitations. Material figures and forms of thought greatly help us, but none can know the Almighty to perfection. In our day of pronounced atheism, it is the more incumbent on us to witness fully concerning the immaterial and spiritual nature of God. Men may resist our representations and descriptions of God, and find these stumbling-blocks in the way of their conceiving God himself; and therefore we should ever cherish high, mystical, and spiritual thoughts of the great Source of all being. II. THOUGH WE MAY NOT REPREBEN"l' GOD HIMSELF, WE MAY REPRESENT THE SPHERE AROUND mM. Moses and the elders did not represent the being or person of God him- self; only the glory of the "sapphire" round about him. Isaiah did not see him who sat on the throne; only the splendour of the throne, and the attitudes of the attendant courtiers. Heaven is so fully described in the New 'l'estament as the sphere where God dwells, in order to relieve us of distress on account of the impossibility of picturing to us God himself. We see the cloud that shrouds him, and the firo that iii an emblem of him; and we are taught to see in the vast blue dome of the sky the abode where be dwells. And being thus fittingly impressed, we are encouraged to arguo out the question-What must he be, whose" robe is the light, whose canopy spaco"? III. Qua REPRESENTATIONS SHOULD WORTHILY EXPRESS OUR CONOEPTIONB OF TIii': DIVINE SURROUNDINGS. 'l'bis is the ground on which we consecrate architectural geniu~ and artistic skill to the building and the decoration of our sanctuaries. If we may represent the surroundings of God, we must try to represent them worthily. Tbo palace of the great King of kings ought to be "exceeding magnifical." God's own represen- tation of bis surroundings is sublime creation: the blue, star-studded dome of sky ; the many-sounding, vast sea; the everlasting mountains ; the harvest-laden plains ; the million-flowered earth. Our representation-in our tomples and churches-should bo tbe ideal beauty of each age; classic, Gothic, or otherwise, as fits the sentiment of each age. Illustrate wb&.t proper moral impressions are produced by our cathedrals, abboys, and churches towering above the houses of our cities, and made our architectural models. It is a right and truo feeling which leads us to build magnificent temples and churches, and to arrange beautiftU and artistic services, Yet we m11st jealously l, CIIR0NIC!.Ell, 2 II 3i0 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [cH. xxn. 1-19.
keep the feeling that these are, at best, but sug'.(estions of the "surroundinc,s" of God and they leave the infinite mystery of God himself wholly unrevealed.-R."'T. '