The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 119

II. The OFFICEBB of the Jewish Church correspond with the officers of the Christian Church. 11 It is an apostolical tradition that what Aaron and his sons and t.he Levites were in the temple, that our bishops, priests, and deacons claim to be in the Church" (Jerome). No society can exist without at least (1) laws, and (2) officers. The Jewish Church had as its officers, high priest, priests, and Levites, The Christian Church has a great High Priest in the heavens (Heb. iv. 14), and its earthly officers are bishops, priests, and deacons. The analogy ill not imperfect, for just as the high priest was of the order of the priests, so are bishops but superintending presbyters. The bishop is primu8 presbyter; the high priest was aummus sacerdos. The Jewish Church had also its prophets (see Introduction, Sect. III., note), corresponding with the preachers of the Christian economy, A prophet need not be a priest; a preacher need not be a presbyter. Of course, the nature and functions of these officers of the two dispensations differ, as do the dispensations themselves, but the same outlines are preserved. III. The SERVICES of the Christian Church a.re derived from the service of the Jewish synagogue. 11 Widely divergent as the two words and the things they represented afterwards became, the Ecclesia had its starting point in the Syna- gogue" (Plumptre). The earliest assemblies of Christians were composed of men who had worshipped in the synagogue (Acts xiii. 14 ; xiv. 1 ; xviii. 4, 26; x.xii. 19. Cf. Luke iv. 16; John xviii. 20, &c.), and who, in default of directions to the contrary, naturally preserved under the new dispensation the form of worship to which they had been accustomed under the old. St. James, indeed (eh. ii. 1). speaks of the Christian assembly as a "synagogue." The use of fixed forms of prayer, the reading of the two lessons (Luke iv. 18; Acts xiii 15, 27; xv. 21), and the cycle of lessons; the sermon or exposition (Acts xiii. 15; Luke iv. 21); the chanting of the Psalms of David; the very prayers for the departed which "have found a place in every early liturgy in the world" ( Ellicott), all these have come to us from the synagogues of the Jews. The Catholic Church has not disregarded the principle of continuity. She has not thought fit to devise e. liturgy of her own heart, or to disregard liturgical forms altogether. She has simply per- petuated, or adapted to its new and more blessed conditions, the form of service delivered unto her by the Jew. IV. The PRINCIPLES of Christian worship a.re the principles of Jewish worship. It has been so.id that the true idea of worship as e. Divine service, as the self. forgetting adoration of the ever-blessed God, was obscured, if not altogether lost, in the Church of England at least, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Men went to church-too often they go still-not for the service, but for the sermon; not for the glory of God, but for their own edification and instruction, It must not be supposed that it is here intended to depreoie.te edification. If men were perfect, the sermon might indeed be dispensed with. But so long as they a.re what they o.re, then those who have " any word of exhortation for the people " must "say on." But all the same, edification is not the primary reason for our assembling. The first Christiane " came together to break bread," (Acts xx. 7), to "show the Lord's death" upon the Lord's day (Rev. i. 10). And God surely should ever come before man, Praise must take precedence either of prayer or preaching. The true idea of worship is the glory of God, not the profit of men. And if this idea was lost, or was obscured, it wo.s because men ignored or despised the lessons and principles of Judaism. The worship of the temple, its psalms and sacrifices, its holocausts and hecatombs, all were designed for the glory and honour and worship of Jehovah-all were primarily to exalt and magnify the Incommuni- cable Name. And such should be the aim of all Christian worship. Our holy religion was never meant to dethrone the Deity, nor can Christiane owe Him lees, or less profound, adoration, than did Jews. w·as their service solemn and stately? eo should be ours. Did they never come before Him empty? neither should we, Was the altar, not the pulpit, the centre of their worship? the altar, not the pulpit, should be the centre of ours. The principles of Divine service know of no break, They are governed by the same law of continuity. V. The BAOIW4ENT9 of Christianity a.re founded upoa the rites of Jude.ism. 1 a:INGS, l  THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [CB. VI. 1-88,