benediction. "He stood and blessed all the congregation," &c. (vers. M, 65). :But though he assumed for the time the priestly function, his utterance was not cast into the usual form of priestly benediction. It we.s rather an ascription of praise to the God who had fulfilled His promises and given rest to His people, and a.n exhortation to them tha.t they on their pa.rt should follow that path of life in which alone they could hope to realize the further fulfilment of those promises, a.nd enjoy the heritage of blessing that was theirs. Lessons are suggested here that a.re of force and value for a.11 time. I. THE RELATION BETWEEN TRUE PRAYER AND PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS. Solomon felt tha.t all the impassioned supplications that he had been pouring out before the Lord, and all the sympathetic enthusiasm of the people in these temple services, would be but a mockery unless he and they were prepared to walk with all fidelity in the way of God's commandments. They would soon be leaving the sacred shrine of worship. They could not always be amid the ecstatic and rapturous associations of the temple. They must go back to the matter-of-fact, prosaic world, to their poets of honour and responsibility, to the privacy of their homes, to their haunts of busy life, to their paths of commerce and of labour. Let them worship there. Let them dwell with God there. Let them embody there, in all the forms of practical virtue, the spirit of devotion that has inspired them amid these hallowed scenes. The " statutes and commandments " of the Lord had reference iu great part to the due observance of the ritual of temple worship, but they also claimed, as much then as now, to control the whole spirit and conduct of human life in all its aspects. The relation between prayer and conduct is of a twofold character. They act and react the one on the other. True prayer sheds a hallowing influence over the entire field of a man's daily activity. When his soul ha.a been face to face with God, absorbed in Divine communion, the inspiration of holy thought and feeling of which he has been conscious will inevitably betray itself in the way in which he acts when he mingles with the things and the beings of earth. The glory of heaven that has shone upon him cannot fail to be reflected in the beauty of his character and deed. A pra.yerful spirit is an earnest, pure, upright, loving spirit, and such a spirit will govern the whole form and method and aim of a m!l.n'e life. Pra.yer solves difficulties, clears one's vision of the path of duty, draws strength from Divine sow·ces for all toil 0,nd suffering, raises the tone nnd level of moral action, fortifies the spirit for any emergency, fills the henrtwith the peaceful joy of 0, better world. On the other hand, the conduct of life neces- sarily affects for good or ill the spirit nnd efficacy of pmyer. If it is needful to pray in order tha.t we may live a.e Christians, it is equa.lly needful thnt we should live ns Christinns in order rightly to pray. The importnnce of prnyer as one chief functiou of spiritual life doubles the iJ;nportance of all our actions, becnuse our prayers are so much as our doings are. According as we etuud tow11Ids the world, with all the social relationships and duties that belong to our place in it, so do we stand before the mercy-seat. Think, for instance, how the beneficinl effect of family prayer may bti nullified by the prevailing sph-it of family life. By the discord that may be allowed to reign in it, by its lo.ck of the graces of mutual respect a.nd loving self-sn,crifice, by the worldliness of its 11,rnociations, the mennness of its e.mbitions, the frivolity of its plea.sures, the vanity of its cherished societies-how completely may the EOul of domestic devotion be llestroyed. Let 11 man be morally reckleSB in the intercow·se and transactions of doily life, and all freedom, "boldness," gladness in prayer is at an end. Anything like loving, confiding converse with the "Father who seeth in secret" is impossible to him. If he cannot look without fear a.nd shame in the face of his fellow man, how shall he dare to look in the face of God'/ The " henvens become as brnss " nbove his head which no voice of prayer cun penetrate. When Sanl's heart is thoroughly set in him to do evil it is nun for him to inquire of the Lord. "The Lord answers him no more, neither by Urim, nor by prophet, nor by dream." Let there be u.Divine unity and hnrmony in our life. Let our conduct in all human relutionships show us to be what, in our hours of devotion, we seem to ourselves to be. Let it be ow· o.mbition every day " to live more nearly u we prny." 'l'Bli Fmsr BOOK OF KINGS. LOH, n:. 1-9.
ll. THE RELATION BETWEEN PRlOTIOAL VIRTUE AND THE STATE OF THE BEORE'f BEART. A man's heart must be "perfect with the Lord" before he can walk acceptably in the path of His commandments. The old legal economy was not after all so superficial as it seemed to be. God's commandment was "exceeding broad." Literal as the moral laws were, and formal as the ceremonial precepts, they touched at every point the life of the spirit within. " M:oses desoribeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man who doeth these things shall live by them" (Rom. x. 5), but the righteousness was not in the mere doing. David, the noblest representative of the spirit of the law, well knew that as it is from the fountain of the evil heart that all transgression proceeds, so from the purified heart springs all practical righteousness. " Create in me a clean heart, 0 God,'' &c. (Psa. li. 10). The glory of Christianity is that it not only recognizes this prin- ciple, but actually brings to bear on the heart the renewing, healing power. It cleanses the fountain of life within. The law could disclose the secret evil, convince of sin, rebuke, restrain, but it could not make men righteous. The gospel does. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness," &.,. (Rom. x. 4). "What the law could not do," &c. (Rom. viii S, 4). Keep your heart in habitual contact with the highest sources of spiritual inspiration-in familiar converse with Him who is the fountain of truth and purity and love. Watch over its most secret thoughts and impulses. Guard its sensibilities from the contaminations of the world and the hardening influences of life. Seek to preserve the freshness of its Divine affections and the integrity of its allegiance to Christ, if you would walk as He did, " in loveliness of perfect deeds." III. THE BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE OF A BAOBED MEMORY. "As it is this day." Solomon would have that day to dwell in their memories and hallow all their days. Times of special Divine manifestation and highest religious consciousness show us what we may be, what God would have us to be, what is the true level of our spirit's life.-W.