The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 118

more permanent form, of the tabernacle of witness (see p. 98), it was also the model and arohetype of the sacred buildings of the Christian faith. In appea.ranoe, no doubt, it was somewhat different-the purposes for which the two edifices were designed were different (p. 101), but the gronnd-plan and general a.rrangement were the same (p. 99). The porch, "temple of house," oraole, side chambers of the one, con-espond with the porch (or tower), nave, chancel, and side aisles of the other. Nor was this resemblance accidental. The architects of earlier times- times when men had not come to think that they most honoured Christianity by going as far as possible away from Judaism, times when the first dispensation '\,as regarded as full of significance and guidance for the children of the second- the architects of those days thought they would best serve the God of Jews and Christians by adhering as closely as possible to the Divine "pattern which was shewed in the mount," the pattern which had served for tabernaole and temple alike. Now this fact, that the place of Divine worship has been, in nearly eJl ages, built after one model, may suggest the thought that the principles of Divine worship, and indeed of religion, have been in all ages the same. And for the good reason that God and man, the worshipped and the worshipper, a.re in all ages the same. If the successive generations of men who "went up to the temple to pray" went up to an edifice something like ours, they also carried with them hearts, sine, sorrows, needs, infirmities, altogether like ours. The Gothic church, then, was modelled after the Jewish temple. Even so the Christian religion has been cast in the mould of Judaism. It is not a brand-new religion, utterly diverse from the dispen- sation which preceded it, but it is built on the old foundations. Its proportions are much statelier, its uses are much nobler, but still the Christian Church is the copy of the Jewish, and Christianity is the child of Judaism. There are some of our cathedrals-York Minster, e.g.-which occupy th.e site, and parts of which follow the outlines, of the old Saxon church of wood-another illustration of the relations of our holy religion to the religion which it be.a replaced. And that Christianity was never designed to be destructive of Judaism, but was meant to be a develop- ment, an outgrowth and expansion of it, our Lord's words (Matt. v. 17) and His apostle's (Rom. iii 31; Col. ii. 17) clearly show. The law, i.e., was the outline of which Christianity is the filling up and completion. But observe: the filling up, if it be true to its name, mllSt keep within the lines of the sketch. It is one of the tendencies of the age to throw over Judaism and its teaching (see, e.g., "Scribner's Magazine," vol xii. pp. 724 sqq., and the letters of Charles Dickens). Men say they want" Christianity without Judaism." They speak of the latter as a dead letter. But surely it is an unworthy conception of the Supreme Wisdom -the idea that a faith which was adapted to the men of one age has absolutely no lessons or no guiding principles for the men of a later age, but must be cast aside as wholly antiquated and effete. A principle of cont11111Wity can be distinctly traced operating in the kingdom of nature ; are we forbidden to believe that there is any such law in the kingdom of grace 'l Let us now consider, then, in what ways Christianity is built on the foundations of Judaism, and how the religion of the New Testament follows the lines laid down in the Old. I. The fundamental idea of Judaism was that of a VISIBLE CHURCH. It was the.t God had "taken a nation from the midst of another nation" (Deut. iv. 32-34) to be a peculiar people to Himself, a "kingdom of priests, a holy nation'' (Exod. xix. 5, 6). His purposes of grace, i.e., were to he manifested to the world through a society. Here, then, was a ,c).ija,, and an h:cX1]ala. Precisely eimilar is the root idea of our religion. The Son of God came to found a Churoh (Matt. xvi. 18 ; Ephes. ii. 20), to regenerate humanity through a brotherhood. Behold the prin- ciple of continuity in this "great Church truth of God's word." The very words t1Bed of the Jewish people are transferred to the Christian Churoh (1 Peter ii. 9; Rev. i 6; v. 10). The composition of the two societies was ~erent. (one nation, eJl nations), the rites of admission were different (circumois1on, baptism), but the principle-a visible Ohurch-wae the same. Every Jew was a priest Every Christian is the same. OB VI, 1--88.] TIIE FIRST BOOK OF XINGB. 111