and even d~ring en_terprise. And yet it is the ol':1, man who is pressing on the youn~ man, appealing to him as though he would rouse him to an all but forlorn hope, instead of to a wise, prudent, and good work. Ill. WE ARE ARRESTED BY HEAnING IN THE MIDST OF THESE URGEST AND IMPASSIONED TONES PROMISES OF THE HIGHEST INDUCEMENT, AND THAT BORR<>W THE NAME OF HEAVEN AND Goo. A father's experience, encouragement, and entreaty may well weigh much with a son; a father's savings, preparations, and enlistment through nil the force of his influence, of much sure help from "princes and people," may well add inducement and confidence. But these are indefinitely exalted now by the challenge to believe that Heaven itself would work for and with Solomon. "The Lord God will be with thee ; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished." IV. ONE LITTLE FAMILIAR WORD, AHID ALL THE REST, ARRESTS OUII EAR AND WARlIS THE WHOLE Al'PEAL WITH THE TONE OF PERSONAL INTEREST. That little word is the one which counts so often for so much-the word" my." At the very crisis of invoking, in the great and terrible and reverend Name of "the Lord God," the very highest possible sanction, David does not forbear to link his own name with it: "The Lord God, my God, will be with thee." 'l'bis is the same David who in many a psalm could sin?; in the very lowliest strain and confession of the demerit of man and his poverty and his sinful nature and sinful practice. Yet the two things are not inconsistent, and David does not do wron~. The God or all, of ail worlds, the universal God, loves to be sought, to be clung to, to be appropriated by the individual. The poorer, the lowlier, the more solitary, so that his child's trust corresponds in thoroughness and tenacity with his condition of want, so ruuch the more welcome is that child, and not a word shall be said to him that he premmes. Note, then, that in the happy expression of David to his son," My God," we have: 1. The creature's righiful and blessed appropria- tion of the Crea/01·; the only all-sufficient, the inexhaustible and ever-c0rumunkating, the one strong support of everything within the compass of his dominions. 2. Tile consecrated diminutive of affection. The thing or the person I believe I chiefly love, that thing or that person I restlessly, ceaselessly long to call mine, my own. Nor is there a simpler, grander, juster use of this little word, the consecrnte word of affection the world all over, than when a creature, sinner, penitent, poor, and dependent, breathes out from all that is within him " My God." 3. The grateful outcome of tried e:qierience. AgP, gives the opportunity of valuable experience in many a direction, but in none so much as in those relations which subsist direct between man and hi~ God. There is nowhere such room for experience to have its way, to grow nod to attain results of surpassing value. After the experience that David had nccumulnted of God, and of what a God, God had been to him, he rightly desires to make a point of this to his son. It was not simply the sentiment of the father's God, one to be held to by the son; it was no mere dictate of family pride, or of hereditary attachment to some lares et penates. No; the hard but telling facts of experience enable David to pledge aud 1?,Uarantee " his" God, as the good God and the wonderful God, and the safe God for his son. So Paul said to the Philippians, "My God shall Rupply all your need," in that he, above any living Christian of that time, had suffered peril, need, persecution (:.l Cor. xi. 23-31), and hadfound God, the" very present Help and Refuge in time of trouble," whom the psalmist a thousand years before bad tested. All distances of time, di!Terences of dispensation, contrasts of character and of career, sometimes seem to meet in one place, one confession, and one adoration. Each utters, "My God," and all are found to have contributed the proof of a God unchangeable-" the same yesterday, to-day, 11nd for ever." Meantime the experience and testimony of each helps to influence and instruct and strengthen the faith and love of some nearest by nature or by friendship. And to many a son Solomon has come, with equal truth and effect, the aged father's confession of what, through a long, a hard, a tried life, he has found his God to be, "The Lord God, my God, will be with thee." Happy the fathers who have such experience e.nd happy the children who hear their counsel in time. And happy for tile lon"'-favou~ed people of Israel," blest beyond compare" already, if their new young kin~ hear, 'and,for ever heed, the advice or his aged and richly experienced father, and adopt his God for his own " even unto death." 42i TRE FIRST BOOK OF 'l'ltE CllllONICtES. tc1t. Uvttt.
HOMILIES BY VA.RIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 9.-Early piety. A father's solicitude for his son is too often confined to his temporal prosperity. It was not so with David. The aged monarch was ind~ed anxious for Solomon's stability on the throne, for his fitness to discharge all regal duties, for the magnificence of his public works, and for the splendour of his reign. But he was well enough acquainted with human nature to know that character is the key to life. His supreme desire was that his son should be right at heart, that his principles should be sound, that he should honour, trust, and serve his God. Hence the beautiful languaae 0 of the text. I. THE NATURE OF EARLY PIETY. It does not consist merely in outwnrd associations or in outward observances. I. The basis of such piety is knowledge. "Know thou the God of thy father." Hence the importance of early instruction in religious truth. 2. The substance of such piety is a,cheerful service of God. The practical energies of youth need to be employed in doinir the Lord's will. Willingness and cheerfulness should characterize all work done for God. It is well that the young should be trained to find their delight in the practical service of their God and Saviour. II. THE MOTIVES TO EARLY PIETY. 1. -The obligation of duty. It is right to "remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." 2. The assurance of the Lord's perfect knowledge: " For the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts." 3. The encouragement of promise: "If thou seek him, he will be found of thee." There are many similar assurances in Scripture fitted to encour- age the young to seek the God of salvation, 4. The fearful alternative: "If thou for- sake him, he will cast thee off for ever."-T.