"He hath given rest unto his people Israel." The blessedness of pee.ea to e. country, exemplified by the contrast between Solomon's and David's reigns. The freedom from harassing anxieties experienced by many is from God. The rest of heart, which may be ours amidst the distresses of life, is from Him. "Peace I leave with you" (John xiv. 27). " Heart quiet from the fear of evil" (Prov. i. 88). See also 2 Cor. iv, 8. For all such blessings we should give God thanks. II, CoNFIDENOE IN THE PROMISES, (See ver. 29 as example.) Show how the patriarchs ever reminded God of His promises. Illustrate also from the pleadings of Moses and the prophets. Prove from Christ's own words that the promises are renewed and enlarged for us, and that only on them can our expectancy of blessing be founded. The utility of prayer cannot be demonstrated by reason, but by reve- lation. In the spiritual realm we know Divine laws by Divine declaration, the truth of which is confirmed by the experience of those who.fulfilling the required condi- tions, test them. " Ask and it shall be given you" (Matt. vii. 7) is a promise. But appended to it is the requirement of faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heh. xi. 6). "According to your faith, so be it unto you." See also James i. 6-7; Matt. x:xi. 22, &o. III. ENLARGEMENT OF HEART (ver. 41, "moreover concerning e. stranger," &c.) The prayer is remarkable on the part of a Jewish king. Give evidences of the narrowness and selnshness of the nation. We might expect this feeling in all its intensity on such an occasion as the consecration of this temple. But Solomon's sympathies overflowed national prejudices. The tendency of prayer is to enlarge the heart. Christians pray together who never work together. They who are nearest to God's throne are nearest to each other. As we pray, our yearnings go further afield, and we think kindly of the erring, pitifully of the lost, forgivingly of the wrong-doers. IV. Lo NG ING FOR THE GLORY OF Gon. Solomon's chief wish in regard to the temple is expressed in verse 60, " that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else." Our Lord's prayer is like Solomon's in this, that it ends in an ascription of " the kingdom, and the power, and the glory," to God. So with all true prayer. It ends in praise. See how De.vicl, in the Pso.lms, pre.yed himself out of sadness into joy ; out of confession into thank- fulness and praise. If we ask something for ourselves, or for others, it should be with the implied wish that it may be granted or withheld, as may be, for our wel- fare and God's glory. The yearning of each Christian should be that of the Lord Jesus," Father, glorify thy name."-A. R, Vere. 88, 89.-The Praying King. One of the most remarkable features of this scene of the dedication of the temple is the place occupied, the part performed, in it by Solomon himself. He is the central figure, the chief actor. Both priest and prophet give place to him. The dedicatory prayer is a spontaneous effusion of his own devout feeling, and it is he who pronounces afterwards the benediction on the people. He stands before us here as a true type of tho.t greater " Son of David," who is our Prophet, Priest, and King. There is a greo.t deal in the tone of this prayer tho.t betokens a soul fully alive to the solemn and momentous meaning of w ho.t was to.king place in J ernsalem that day. It is not, indeed, to the s11rvice of the ancient J ewieh temple tho.t we should look for the most perfoct models of devotion. New Testament revelations multiply and strengthen immeasurably our motives to pmyer, enlarge its scope, open to us new grounds of assurance in it. " One greater than ~olomon " bas .taught us how to pray, and revealed to us the path to accept- ance in the merit of His own mediation. But as the life of religion in the soul of man is essentially the same in all ages, so the principles invoh-ed in pmyer as the expression of it are the so.me. Two such rudimentary principles appear in this passage, viz., the sense of need prompting the suppliant to look heavenwards, and the recognition of something out of himself as the ground of hope for acceptance. I. THE BENSE OF NEED, &o. It is the "plague of the heart "-the burden rest- ing heavy there, the haunting sense of want or sadness in the secret soul, coupled with some kind of faith in Divine power-that Dloves Qlen to pray. All true 1 IUNGS, K 178 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [ OB. VDI. 1--66.
prayer is the utterance of these inward impressions. If much of our so-called pray- ing were subjected to this test, it is to be feared that it would be found very hollow and unreal, mere "words," a mere formr,l homage to custom-no deep, earnest, in-epressible longing of the soul inspiring it. Solomon begins to enumerate dif- ferent calamities that may impel the people to pray, and then, as if overpowered by the mere vague, distant imagination of these possibilities, he says, "Whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness," &c. How soon are we lost in the attempt to realize the manifold troubles of human life. We can understand and sympathize with individual griefs, but who can comprehend at all adequately the general sum of human woe, and take the weight of it sympathetically upon himself? Every man, however, knows where the universal evil specially touches himself. "Every heart knows its own bitterness." And with God there is both an infinite acquaintance with the whole and a special sympathy with each. There a.re some griefs that you lock up in your own bosom as secrets that none else must look upon. " Not e'en the dearest heart, o.nd next our own, Knows half the reasons why we smile or sigh."