· THE CHURCH.

** Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself

being the chief corner-stone."

JUNE, 1869.

LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF DAVID.

SECOND SERIES.

BY THE REV. CHARLES VINCE. No. II.-DIVINE CORRECTION OF A PROPHET'S MISTAKE, AND DIVINE DENIAL

OF A King's DESIRE (continued).

2 Samuel vii. In our former study* of this history, we saw that in the days of his eace and prosperity, David was not satisfied with “ the service of png" alone. He wished to express his gratitude to God in some reat work which should not be altogether unworthy of the mercies it as meant to celebrate. The ark of the covenant was still kept in le tabernacle—a structure which had been first intended for the orship of the people in the days of their pilgrimage only. The king It that while it might have been pardonable to retain this temporary puse of prayer during the time the people were in an unsettled slitical and social condition, it would not be seemly to continue it ow when their own dwellings were of a more costly and durable chaacter, and their full and peaceful establishment in the promised land as through the goodness of their God accomplished. “He therefore rmed the purpose of building an enduring temple in the place of the ail tent, and in that vast undertaking he would suitably embody his lankfulness and make the provision for the people's religious services be more in accordance with their temporal prosperity. David knew experience that acceptable worship could be rendered apart from I costly or consecrated structures. He liad himself sung God's faises and secured His blessing in wilderness places, and in dens and ives of the earth. What was afterwards said of his Son and Lord ight have been said of him also—

“ Cold mountains and the midnight air

• Witnessed the fervour of His prayer.” At the same time he had a conscientious conviction that the externals

* See The Church for May, pp. 112-117.

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of a people's worship ought to be in keeping with their tempo circumstances and the externals of their secular life. It shocked sense of consistency when he realised the fact that he dwelt in house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelt in curtains. The princi which David recognised was one which in after-days the proph enforced upon the people by Divine command—“Is it time for you, ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste Spirituality of worship is the great essential, and God can be serv acceptably in the meanest structure ; but it would not look well i people to live in palaces and worship in “ barns." There would be least an appearance of evil, if nothing but poor and shabby sanctuari could be found in the streets wherein the bank and the exchange ar even the warehouses are massive and costly buildings. A strang would suppose that he had come amongst a people who well-ni starved their religion while they pampered everything else belongi to them.

The desire of David's heart was not granted to him, but the Divis denial betokened neither disdain of his gratitude, nor condemn tion of his idea that the now prospered nation ought to have a bett house for holy service. The Lord in His great kindness was caref so to convey the denial that it could not possibly impair David's fai in the Divine love, or excite his hostility to the Divine plan. T Psalmist testified that God's gentleness had made him great. that gentleness he seldom had richer experience than on this occasio The Lord might have set forth His sovereignty, and have said: “It my will that you should not do this work. To my decision you mu submit without any explanations on my part, and without an questioning on yours. Have I not a right to do as I please withou trying to justify my ways to any of my servants ?” Ñot as a king with his servants, but as a father with his children, the God of Dario acted. Never did a compassionate father display a deeper anxiety to retain his child's confidence, and comfort his child's heart, while for wise reasons he was compelled to thwart his child's purpose. Th faith of His children in His wisdom and love, and their cheerful sub mission to His will, are pleasant things in the sight of the Lord; an therefore He does not simply command and forbid, but He reason with us and explains to us, and is far more anxious to prove Hi kindness than to assert His authority. Lord, what is man's con fidence in Thee that Thou shouldst take such pains to secure it Thou hast magnified him, and set Thine heart npon him!

The first words in the Divine message were calculated to pacif David's conscience, which had been troubled about the poverty of the place in which God was worshipped. He was reminded that the matter which had distressed him had called forth no complaint from the Lord. “Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but hat walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places wherein 1 hae walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with any of the

ibes of Israel-saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar?” For ur hundred years the people had been in Canaan, and during those nturies the tabernacle had been the only house of God in the land. ut He had never once chided any of the rulers of the nation for this. Tas that long silence a sign of His indifference as to the way in hich the people worshipped Him? There are facts which forbid us

put this interpretation upon it. Was it not rather a sign of His rbearance and of His consideration of the people's circumstances ? e knew their troubled state, the peril they were in because of their placable enemies, and the hard work they had to hold the land and aintain their own freedom. It was true that their sins had been the eat source of their difficulties, but still the Lord did not forget those ificulties ; and when His people were struggling with them, He was either rigorous in His demands, nor severe in His judgments. He pitied here He might have chided, and maintained a charitable silence when le might have uttered righteous and indignant complaints. Some le may ask, “ What had this past forbearance toward those who had t built a better sanctuary, to do with the present denial of one who ished to raise a fitting house for the Lord ?” It showed that in lation to this matter of tabernacle and temple, the course pursued God for many generations had been one of gentleness and grace. ould not that help David to believe that God's present and future purse, in relation to the same matter, would surely be marked by he same characteristics ? Whatever testified to the Lord's kindness puld promote David's hearty acquiescence in His dealings. Single fents in the providence of God must not be isolated and then judged. bey must be looked at in the light of what (without irreverence) we ay call the established character of Him who worketh all things cording to the counsel of His will. Having referred to the forbearance which others had met with, the vine message proceeds to speak of what had been done for David. Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the ord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be Her over my people, over Israel : And I was with thee whithersoever thou ontest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made be a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the rth." The Lord spake as if He feared that by thwarting David's trpose He might expose His love to unjust suspicion, and therefore e was careful to show that He had already done so much for His Ivant that, whatever course He might see it best to pursue, His Te ought not to be suspected for a moment. Surely He had aced that beyond the shadow of a doubt! “I am about to say thee ly," He said, “but let not my refusal provoke thy mistrust. When lou art thinking of what I deny thee, think also of what I have given lee. I found thee in obscurity, and I have lifted thee to fame. I und thee in the sheepfold, and I have lifted thee to the throne. I rund thee in peril and in poverty and in shame, and I have placed Jee in safety, I have surrounded thee with wealth, I have enshrined

thee in glory. In a thousand ways I have proved to thee that I ha loved thee with an unfailing love. However much of supposed good may withhold from thee, however much of real disappointment I m lay upon thee, no misgiving as to my love should trouble thee and d honour me. After such an experience as thou hast had, thou oughtest be able to say in all things, 'It is the Lord! He cannot be unkind tom It is the same loving-kindness always, though sometimes it forbids 21 desire and rejects my supplication.'” The way in which David doubts were prevented is the way in which ours must be checked an cured. If God's nay to our requests should tempt us to distrust H love, we must meet the temptation with memories of the many tim and the manifold ways wherein He has heard our prayer and enrich us with His blessing. Discontented brooding over the few and t little things denied, must be supplanted by grateful meditation on tl many and great things bestowed. We must not be beguiled by the craft of the wicked one which seduced the mother of us all into diss, tisfaction and disobedience. If the tempter begin to talk to us abou the one tree whose fruit we must not gather, be it ours to speak in stantly about the thousand trees of whose fruit we may freely eat. the Lord were to speak to us of all that He has done for us and give to us, He might tell a more wondrous story of His love than that which the elevation and enthronement of David were described. I that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how ca He fail in kindness to us? If He were to reject our petitions an thwart our desires a thousand times, our faith sustained by experiene ought to rise above all denial and disappointment. After what have seen of His grace in the Gospel, it is reason as well as faith fo each one of us to say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."

There is great significance in the fact that in refusing David the coveted honour of building the temple, the Lord reminded him of the glory as well as the mercy already bestowed upon him : “ I have made thee a great name, like unto the names of the great ones that are in the earth.” Was it not telling David that the fame he had secured was enough for any one man's lawful ambition ? To him had beer given the honour of rising to regal dignity, of delivering the nation from the danger and degradation which had lasted for gene rations, of reducing a chaotic kingdom to order, and of producing prosperity unheard of before! Why should he want to add to that the glory of being the greatest temple-builder the world had seen He must not aspire to that crown too. God would reserve it for another; for it is not His pleasure that all the brilliancy of great achievements shall belong to only one name, and that all the joyd great successes shall flood only one heart. Excepting the kingdom of God's grace, there are to be no more world-wide monarchies. There must be sceptres for many hands and crowns for many heads, for the Lord will not favour the monopolising spirit. The old motto, “Live and let live " is unspeakably more in accordance with His will than the modern notion of one man grasping at well-nigh everything. Covetous may not put any limit to their desires, but God will put limits to powers. This is a great good; for if some men had opportunities aculties equal to their ambition, all the business of the city would bsorbed into two or three establishments, and all the ships in the s would belong to two or three firms, and all the great profits of berce would be swept into two or three coffers. Men righteously unced Napoleon for his desire to make a French empire of all pe. There is too often a Napoleonism in commerce which is not it more admirable. Instead of vigorously and contentedly pur-,

their own proper business, men have sought profitable pecuniary ection with ten or twenty other totally distinct enterprises. In many cases this vaulting ambition has overleaped itself! How 1 of present depression and difficulty has come from practical forIness of the obvious truth, that it is not God's will that a few should have everything, but that honours and profits and pleaI should be widely distributed! Men may determine “to have y irons in the fire,” but God will not give them hands enough to le them all skilfully; and therefore sooner or later fingers are to be burnt. In moralising upon this matter we have travelled her than we intended from things ecclesiastical into things secular; it is easy to return by simply remarking, that the spirit we have I to describe and deprecate sometimes creeps into the Church, re it is more unseemly and reprehensible than in the world. rom another part of the inspired history we learn that the characof David's preceding work was given as one reason why the present pose was to be laid aside : “ But God said, Thou shalt not build an le for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed d."* It should not be supposed that this implies censure of rid's warlike course. Had he not been qualified for it and called to y God ? Was it not a necessary work, and had he not Divine sucrin it? It was both lawful and expedient; and yet it had unfitted 1 for the new kind of work to which he wanted to put his hands. our present imperfect state ability for one thing may involve dislity for another thing. As no one man is intended to gain everyng, so no one man is endowed with all the talents. Happy is he o finds out what he is fit for, and devotes himself to it; and is her so wise or so busy that he does not attempt numerous other tievements. It is too often assumed that because a man is gifted " the work of the ministry” he is equally gifted for many other ngs. He is expected to be an “ Admirable Crichton," to whom a entific lecture, a literary essay, a political oration, a secretary's ities, and the labours of a counsellor to all classes on all subjects, are congenial as the preaching of a sermon, and none of them

more difficile Than for a blackbird 'tis to whistle.” i he fought battles as successfully as David, some people would be

* 1 Chron. xxviii. 3.