indi~~olubly the welfare of a people's outer life and the Divine favour. They illustrate forcibly the dependence of the former on the latter. They remind us how this was at one time the chief way, probably at all time a necessary and leading way (as bodily pain is for the individual), to teach the fear of God and not lees the fulJeet love of him. The '8ven petitions may be enumerated, as : 1. That relatin~ to what may be designated as the ordeal-altar-oath. 2. That relating to the condition of those who at any time might be taken Mptive in wa.r-an event only supposable on the a.ssumption of the people." having sinned against " G_od. 3. That rel~ting to the visitation of drought, as_ p_umshment ID the same way of SID. 4. That _relat1Dg to dearth, pestilence, blasting, milctew, locusts or caterp11le.rs, smge, sore or s1okness of what sort soever, as in the same way punishment of sin. 5. 'l'hat relating to the stranger-a petition surely charged with significance and sweet compa.ssion, and most prophetic in its character. 6. That relating to absence from their home and their land, and the holy city of their solemnities, through the enterprise of just and divinely sanctioned war, where no case of capture by the enemy is contemplated. 7. And lutly, that by fearful omen relating to the poasibility of the sin of the people having reached such a pitch, that their punishment should consist in a general captivity, and exportation to a foreian land "far off or near." And it is the supplication of Solomon, and the vast Chur;h there assembled before the temple, with its most holy place and ark, with its brazen sea, lavors, and altar, that, when under any of these cases "confessim" has been made, •• repenta.nre " has been approved, and prayer for "forgiveness" has been importuned, while the worshipper turns bis thought, his faith, his hope, towards the temple, and its adorable indwelling Majesty, that confession may be heard, that repentance may be accepted, and tba.t prayer be answered to by healing and restoring mercy. The one collective result left on our mind is that the structure of civil and national society, so infinitely complex, dependent on so many individuals, the likely victim of such an unlimited variety of influences and motives, good, bad, and most vague and incon- clusive, needs nothing short of the wisdom and compassion, the justice and the tenderness, of the inftnite God. IV. THE FINAL INVOCATION-ALL GATHERED INTO ONE-THAT THE LORD GOD WOULD, ACCEPTING THE DEDICATION, PERFOBJll THE VERY CONBEORA"l'ION ITSELF. Amid the seven distinct appeals of entreaty (contained in our vers. 40-42), instinct with highly elevated energy, and six of which may be said to be rather of the nature of material helps of faith and imagination of spiritual realities, how clear we may count it that the absolute grasp of spiritual tra.th, and apprehension of the spiritual Being, were not strange to Solomon and the true Israelite of the elder dispensation ! What a real exertion of such power, gift, grace, is told by the central invocation, to which all thereat are but the setting, viz." Now therefore arise, 0 Lord God, into thy reeting- place, thou" I The open eyes, the attent ears, the uttered sound of prayer, the sight of the place, the ark, the priests, the saints, the face of the anointed, the memory of the mercies of .Diivid,-these, these all are but the surroundings and aids to the griind, ejforl, the effort of Solomon and his people, to which they address themselves, and, we may believe, successfully rose, at the one commanding climax of the whole pomp, ceremony, and most really religious service-this, that effo~t-to have, to know, to believe in, the Lord God, the Thou (as Solomon, addressing hun, says), as the Indwell- ing, effective PreJJence, and Glory of the place.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 1.-God, the incomprehensibk One. What is the historical reference? Is it to the luminous cloud that shone between the cherubim? or is it not, rather, to the Di vino manifestation on Mount Sinai, of which God had said," I will come unto thee in a thick cloud" (Exod. x:ix. 9) ? God "dwells in the light which no man can approach unto n (1 Tim. vi. 16), and this is the same thing; for the dazzling light is to us as the dark- ness. As our eye is coru;tituted. to receive no more than a certain degree of light, so our mind is created to receive no more than a measure of truth. And this is markedly and manifestly true of our knowledge of God. He is the incomprehensible One, whom we •cannot find out," whose" way11 are unsearchable." This is true of- L Tw: Drvwi: :NATURE. Of his eternity, of his infinity, of his sovereignty, and ol oH, vt.1-42.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 67