The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 126

restored by redemptive love to holiness, shall share Paradise regained." The means of realizing this became more clear ae the ages rolled by. The hope that ideal bumanit;Y would inherit bliss did not die out, but the method of its fa.lfilment was unfolded in the Mosaic institutions. Not only did the cherubim in the oracle witness, as the cherubim in Eden bad done, but once a year the high priest, as the representative of the people, went in, and stood with the cherubim in the presence of Jehovah. He entered not "without blood," but after atonement had been made for the sine of the people. Apply this to the truth revealed in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Show how Christ, who bas a.toned for the world's sin, has entered as our High Priest into the holiest of all, and how He has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. No wonder that in the Revelation "the Lamb that was slain" is depicted ae being the object of heaven's praise; the link between man's guilt and God's mercy. [For justification of this use of the cherubim, see Fairbe.irn's " Typology of Bcripture."]-A. R. Ver. 2.-The temple is described as" the house which King Solomon built for the Lord." Thie idea of consecration ran through the whole plan of the building. Without having recourse to a minute and fanciful symbolism, we see clearly that everything is so disposed as to convey the idea of the holiness of God. IN THE CENTRE 1s THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE. The holy of holies, hidden from gaze by its impenetrable veil, strikes with awe the man of unclean bee.rt and lips, who bears the seraphim cry from beneath their shadowing wings, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty I" (Isa. vi. 3.) The temple of holiness is not the temple of nature of colossal proportions, as in the Ee.et, nor ie it the temple of resthetic beauty, as in Greece. It ie the dwelling place of Him who is invisible, and of purer eyes than to behold evil (Hab. i. 13.) Hence its peculiar character. It answers thus to the true condition of religious art, which never sacrifices the idea and sense of the Divine to mere form, but makes the form instinct with the Divine idea. Let us freely recognize the claims of religious art. The extreme Puritanism which thinks it honours God by a contemptuous disregard of the resthetic, is scarcely Iese mistaken than the idolatrous materialism which makes beauty of form the primary consideration. It was not for nothing that God made the earth so fair, the sky so glorious; and it was under Divine inspiration that the temple of Jerusalem was reared in such magnificence and majesty as to strike all beholders. Only let us never forget to seek the Divine idea. beneath the beauty of the form. When we admire merely the beautiful, whether in a temple, as did the disciples, or in the great world of nature, the warning words of Christ foll upon upon our ear: "As for these things which ye behold, the do.ys will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another" (Luke xxi. 6). "Tous les cieuz et leur splendeur ne valent pas le soupir d'un seul creur." Love is tho crowning beauty. It is like the precious vo.se of ointment which Mo.ry of Bethany broke over the feet of Christ. Beauty is the fit associate of worship, so long as it is kept subordinate, and does not distract our minds from the higher spiritun,l realities of which it is but symbolic. Let us seek in the temple of nature the high and holy God, of whom it is said, that "the invisible tllings of Him o.re clearly seen from tile creation of the world, being understood by the things that are 1;Dade" (Rom. i. 19). Let ue recognize His presence beneath the arches of the medirev!l-1 cathedral, among the memorials of a worship which we ourselves ho.ve left bebmd. Let us seek Him in the great monuments of Christian art, whether !eared by poet, musician, painter, or sculptor. Let it be our o.im to glorify Him m the forms of our worship, while we sedulously guard ago.inst tile worship of the form, whioh is sheer idolatry. Such a.re the principles of Christian rostbetics, which are one branch of Christian morale. "The beautiful is the glory of the true," says Plato. When one corner of the . veil which hides heaven from us is lifted, the Divine life shines foi·th in all its radiance of purity and beauty.-E. de P.