wouldest put Thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which Thy servant prayeth toward this place. . . . Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into Thy resting place, Thou and the ark of Thy strength let Thy priests, O Lord, be clothed with salvation, and let Thy saints rejoice in goodness!"

The special sanctity which belonged to the Tabernacle and Temple of old belongs also to Christian churches they are not merely convenient places of assembly for Christians, but in some true sense dwelling-places of God, "the shrines of His intensified presence among men, where He records His name, whither He comes, as elsewhere He does not ordinarily, to bestow blessing and receive homage." The restriction, indeed, which God put upon His worship in the case of the Tabernacle and Temple is now withdrawn. That worship is no longer confined to the Temple at Jerusalem. Wherever, in all lands, Christians offer worship to Him in spirit and in truth, they are accepted. His covenant with man is no longer national. All men, everywhere, may erect churches to His glory, and in all our churches there is a special presence of God. His throne is in a manner set up there, that we may fall down before Him.

As soon as the persecution which assailed the

early Christians ceased, grand and noble churches arose everywhere, and were consecrated to be Houses of God, and the worship offered in them was believed to have a special efficacy on account of the peculiar presence of God in them. We may say to ourselves, therefore, in regard to our churches, "The Lord is in this place;" and the more we realise this truth, the more shall we attain to that mingled reverence and joy which David felt in the sanctuary of God, and which is also the very temper of the angels, as they pour themselves out in unceasing praise in heaven.

SECOND EVENING LESSON.-1 Chronicles xxviii. to ver. 21.

THERE are three recorded utterances of David, which may claim to be considered as his last words. First of all, there is the short song, given in the 23rd chapter of 1 Samuel, which is expressly called his "last words," in which he describes-no doubt for the guidance of his sonthe reign of a righteous king: how he who is just to men and reverent toward God is like the brightness of the early morning, while the grass, fresh

ened by recent rain, glistens in the sunbeams; but, at the same time, he expresses his fear that his perfect ideal will not be realised in his own house.

Then we have, in 1 Kings ii., what seem to have been actually his last words, when from his deathbed, conscious that he was going the way of all the earth, he charged Solomon to be careful to walk in the ways of the Lord, and bequeathed to him the execution of the well-merited vengeance which he himself had, for special reasons, declined to take on Joab and on Shimei.

And, lastly, we have in this Lesson and the following chapter his farewell address to the nobles and chief men of the kingdom, in which he presented to them his son Solomon, as the successor whom God had chosen; and solemnly offered to God and entrusted to Solomon the materials which he had prepared for the great Temple, the erection of which was to be the first and chiefest work of Solomon's reign.

This address would seem to have been delivered after the attempt of Adonijah to seize the kingdom had failed; and, therefore, after David had directed Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet to conduct Solomon to Gihon, and there anoint him

king. At that time David was on his death-bed (1 Kings i. 47), and the expression used in this chapter, that the king "stood up on his feet," would seem to intimate that he made a special effort to rise from his bed, in order to deliver this last charge to the great men of his kingdom. It was an important gathering. There were present all the great military and civil rulers,-the heads of each of the tribes, the twelve captains who commanded the several divisions of the army, consisting each of twenty-four thousand men, who were called out on duty for a month in succession, as well as the inferior officers, captains of thousands and captains of hundreds; the heads of the different departments also, as we should call them, those who had the charge of the royal treasure and the royal farms, the flocks and herds, the vineyards and cellars, together with all the officers (probably, privy councillors) and mighty men.

Having specially gathered them together for the last time, David explained to them, with a loving and thankful heart, his views and hopes respecting the reign of his successor. He began in a most affectionate way, "Hear me," he said, " my brethren and my people;" and he concluded, as we find from the next chapter, with a solemn

prayer and thanksgiving to God. As God had chosen the tribe of Judah to wield the sceptre out of all the tribes of Israel, and as He had chosen David himself out of all the sons of Jesse, so had He in the same way made choice of Solomon above his other many sons. David's own reign had been disturbed and stained with blood; but the Lord had given him a different vision of the reign of his

successor.

66 He was to be a man of rest," in token of which God gave him the name of Solomon, "the peaceful one," promising that there should be peace and quietness to Israel in his days (1 Chron. xxii. 9); but this vision of peace would only be fulfilled, if both the king and the people were steadfast in their allegiance to Jehovah. David, therefore, solemnly exhorts the princes around him "to keep and to seek for all the commandments of the Lord their God;" that is, not only to obey God's will, so far as they knew it, but to inquire after it, and endeavour to ascertain it fully, in order that they might leave the land which God had given them for an inheritance for their children after them for ever. then turns to Solomon his son and bids him know, that is, believe and love and trust in, the God of his fathers, and serve Him with a perfect heart and

He