But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!

Have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee:

That thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place.

Hearken therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive.

If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;

Then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness.

And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house;

Then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.

When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them;

Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance.

*

If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillars; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be :

Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house :

Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men :)

That they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched-out arm; if they come and pray in this house;

Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.

* Blight on the crops.

If thy people go out to war against their enemies by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name;

Then hear thou from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near;

Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly;

If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy

name:

Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee.

Now, my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.

Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness.

O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant.

COMMENT.-Solomon's prayer of consecration cannot be divided, and therefore must be read altogether, though far surpassing the usual length of our portions.

Imagine the King, in the full glory of early manhood, and richly arrayed in purple, gold, and white, kneeling on his brazen platform before all the multitudes, and gazing intently upon the noble edifice, where he knew, though he might not see it, that the intense Light which no man could endure was filling the golden chamber he had prepared; the eager people behind in the courts; the white-robed host of Levites, and the gorgeously clad brotherhood of priests before him, and the smoke of the sacrifices rising up from the altar. There, in that supreme moment of his life, he knelt, with outstretched hands, owning first God's perfect truth and complete fulfilment of His covenant. He does not regard this work as so much his own as God's fulfilment of the promise. May the promise as surely be renewed in the future to him and to his children.

But then, utterly overpowered at the thought of the grace done to

him, Solomon breaks out: "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built!" His soul seems to swell within him at the thought of the presence of the Incomprehensible God being in the house that himself had raised; perceiving how that Presence, like sunlight, can be in heaven, and yet all over the earth, and intensified here and there (as in a diamond). Yet, since His presence has thus been manifested, Solomon goes on to entreat, with an earnest reiteration, that whatever prayers should be made in faith, shown by looking towards the Mercy Seat in this house, should be heard and granted.

The first case he puts is that of the oath to end a strise, as in Exodus xxii. 11 it is directed that in case any damage happens to property committed to a neighbour's charge, the claim of the owner to redress should be decided by the oath of the guardian as to whether he could have prevented the mischief or not. Solomon, who in the case of the two women had seen that words and oaths cannot always be trusted, prayed that when people came to swear before God's Altar, His power would interpose to show the right (Levit. xxiv. 19). He goes on, taking up the very words of the threats of Moses, as to the evils that might come—defeat, invasion, drought, famine, pestilence, blight, locust, or any other calamity—entreating that still a faithful prayer towards the Temple might be heard, and bring healing. And above all, when each man feels what is so well called here "the plague of his own heart,” “the sin that doth so easily beset us," may God hear, and forgive. He who alone knows the hearts of men! Again and again should we watch such prayers, and trace the healing they brought! Nay, even for the stranger, Solomon entreated. Doubtless many a Tyrian mason, wood-cutter, or gold-worker, many a stout Cherethite and Pelethite, some Egyptians attendant on the Queen, with faithful Kenites, and even some Edomites and Moabites, would stand far back in the Gentiles' court, and hear the King out of the largeness of his heart pray that their devotions when offered to the one true JEHOVAH might be accepted and blessed. But Solomon looks on to a sadder page. If there be sin! (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and the heaviest judgment denounced by Moses be incurred, namely, captivity in a stranger's land, then still let the earnest prayer towards

this temple be heard, and let pardon be granted, and let a blessed return be vouchsafed! So prayed the King, with a chastening thought in the midst of his splendour and thankfulness-a thought of the ruin of that mighty city and that magnificent fabric! So prayed the captive prophet five hundred years later, when Jerusalem was a desert and the Temple a heap of stones, and ere long the people had returned and were again worshipping there. And the beautiful intercession closes with an entreaty to God to arise and dwell therein, and to turn not away the presence of His Anointed; a petition far more full of meaning than even that wisest of men knew, and which was repeated earnestly by the framers of the 132nd Psalm, as they builded that second Temple which was indeed to receive the presence of the Christ.

LESSON CXXXVII.

THE ANSWER TO SOLOMON.

B.C. 1005-992.-I KINGS vi. ; 2 CHRON. vii.

Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.

And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD's house.

And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep: so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endureth for ever, when David praised by their ministry; and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood.

Moreover Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD: for there he offered burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the brazen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings, and the meat offerings, and the fat.

Also at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering* in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.

And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.

And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.

He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon.

And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.

If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent + unto the prayer that is made in this place.

For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments;

Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.

But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all

nations.

And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house?

And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.

COMMENT. The answer to Solomon's prayer was granted in the sight of all the congregation, for fire came down from heaven and burnt the sacrifice upon the great altar. The glory within the