1 Chronicles 15:1-29

EXPOSITION

1 Chronicles 15:1

The contents of this verse and the following verses up to the twenty-fifth have no parallel in the Book of Samuel, and excite suggestion respecting the different objects with which the compiler of Chronicles wrote, as compared with those of the author of the former work. They also direct fresh attention to the sources upon which they drew. The history of the preparations made for the reception of the ark, and for its safe and religious escort into the city, is now proceeded with. These preparations occupied the three months, or part of the three months, spoken of in 1 Chronicles 13:14. The houses may have been both his own (1 Chronicles 14:1) and the buildings referred to in 1 Chronicles 11:8 and 2 Samuel 5:9. The old tent, or tabernacle, is repeatedly alluded to, as in 1 Chronicles 16:39; 2 Chronicles 1:3. It will be remembered that the tabernacle established by Joshua at Shiloh remained there till the time of Eli, and the ark within it (1 Samuel 3:3). Afterwards we find it removed to Nob, for there David ate the shewbread (1 Samuel 21:6). From thence, very possibly after the savage slaughter of the priests by the order of Saul, it was removed, and we find it at Gibeon, according to the above references. Here at Gibeon was an altar and "high place," which, in the earlier time of Solomon, formed the chief religious centre. The wanderings of the ark already given from Shiloh, through Philistia to Beth-she-mesh, Kirjath-jearim, Perez-uzzah, now land it in this tent in Jerusalem. It is no more sheltered in the tabernacle. But the tabernacle, as well as the ark, was ultimately brought to the new-built temple of Solomon (1 Kings 8:4; 1 Chronicles 9:19; 2 Chronicles 1:4).

1 Chronicles 15:2

This verse together with 1 Chronicles 15:12-15 show that the severe lesson of the destruction of Uzzah had been laid to heart, and had made David supremely anxious to take better counsel of the Law. Uzzah, though possibly the son of a Levite, more probably of a Hivite (Joshua 9:7, Joshua 9:17), was not a priest, nor is there any sufficient evidence that he was a Levite; and most distinct was the order of the Law, that "when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death." So the sons of Kohath are to come to bear the sanctuary with all its sacred vessels, "but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die." Many things were allowed to be carried on waggons under the charge of the Gershonites and Merarites, but the strict contents of the sanctuary were to be borne in a specified manner by the Kohathites.

1 Chronicles 15:3

All Israel; i.e. as before, representatives of all Israel. So 1 Chronicles 15:25 decides: "The elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord."

1 Chronicles 15:4-11

This classification of the children of Aaron, as the special priests, and of the Levites, is constantly observed (1 Chronicles 12:26, 1 Chronicles 12:27; 1 Chronicles 27:17). The mention of the six representative Levitical families follows. That of Kohath (1 Chronicles 15:5) takes the lead, because, though second in order of birth (Genesis 46:11; Exodus 6:16-19; 1 Chronicles 6:1-30), its priestly importance gave it always first rank. To the same head belonged also three of the remaining five families, viz. Hebron (1 Chronicles 15:9) and Uzziel (1 Chronicles 15:10), who were brothers, as being beth sons of Kohath (Exodus 6:18); and Elizaphan, who, though son of Uzziel (Exodus 6:22), had come to represent a distinct family (Numbers 3:30). The other two required to complete the six are Asaiah (1 Chronicles 15:6) of the house of Merari, and Joel (verse 7) of the house of Gershom. The representatives, then, of these six families, with the company of the brethren belonging to each of them, and the two priests Zadok and Abiathar (verse 11), are now summoned into the presence of David, to receive a short but special charge.

1 Chronicles 15:12

Sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren. Nothing of the appointed observances of the Law are to be omitted this time, as in the haste and want of premeditation of the former occasion (Exodus 19:22; Exodus 28:41; Exodus 40:13; Le Exodus 8:12; Exodus 20:7; Exodus 21:8; 2 Chronicles 5:11; 2 Chronicles 29:15). These "sanctifyings" consisted of different observances, according to the person and the occasion, but largely of ablutions of the body, washing of the clothes, and keeping separate from all natural and ceremonial causes of uncleanness in ordinary cases of Levitical service. That ye may bring up the ark. The word here employed for "bring" is not the same with the "carry" of 1 Chronicles 15:1 and 1 Chronicles 15:2. But the following verses (13-15) seem to intimate that, whatever the exact reason for which Uzzah had been peremptorily cut off, the Levites had also been to blame in not sanctifying themselves to carry the ark by its staves in the way originally appointed.

1 Chronicles 15:13

This verse purports to say that the Levites had been deficient in their duty in the double sense of not having themselves exclusively undertaken the removal of the ark, and not having executed that removal after the due order.

1 Chronicles 15:15

(So see Exodus 25:13-15; Numbers 4:15; Numbers 7:9.) It is plain that from the first stress was laid upon the rings and the staves through them by which the ark was to be carried, as also the "table of shittim wood" (Exodus 25:26-28) and the "altar" (Exodus 27:4-7) and the "altar of incense" (Exodus 30:4, Exodus 30:5). However, these rings and staves were not found in the permanent furniture of the temple, except only for the ark.

1 Chronicles 15:16, 1 Chronicles 15:17

To appoint their brethren to be the singers. This was the first step towards what we have already read in 1 Chronicles 6:31-39, 1 Chronicles 6:44; 1 Chronicles 9:33, 1 Chronicles 9:34 (where see notes).

1 Chronicles 15:18

Ben. This word is either altogether an accidental interpolation, or a remnant of some statement of the patronymic character regarding Zechariah. Another indication of the state of the text in this verse is to be found in the probable omission of the name Azazgah of verse 21, after Jeiel. It will be observed that no trace of this word Ben is found in the repeated list of verse 20.

1 Chronicles 15:19-21

The psalteries on Alamoth (1 Chronicles 15:20), and harps on the Sheminith to excel (1 Chronicles 15:21), are descriptions the exact significance of which is not yet satisfactorily ascertained. Yet their connection in a series of four divisions of musical duty does throw some light upon them. These four verses manifestly purport to describe a special part to be performed by those of whom they respectively speak. Gesenius explains psalteries on Alamoth to mean such instruments as savoured of virgin tone or pitch, i.e. high as compared with the lower pitch of men's voices. This lower pitch he considers intimated by the word "Sheminith," literally, the eighth, or octave. The added expression, "to excel," need scarcely be, with him, understood to mean "to take the lead musically," but may be read generally to mark their supassing quality.

1 Chronicles 15:22

For song. There is considerable diversity of opinion as to the meaning of this word. Some think its meaning to be "in the carrying ( בַּמַּשָׂא)" i.e. of the ark. Its exact position here seems not unfavourable to such interpretation. On the other hand, its position in 1 Chronicles 15:27 seems conclusively to point to the translation of the Septuagint and of our Authorized Version in this place as the correct one. Dr. Murphy, however, to escape this, thinks "with the singers" in 1 Chronicles 15:27 to be a "copyist's inadvertent repetition."

1 Chronicles 15:23

Berechiah and Elkanah. It appears from the following verse that there was also another couple of doorkeepers (i.e. persons to protect the openings of the ark, that it should not be opened), viz. Obed-edom and Jehiah.

1 Chronicles 15:24

Between these couples probably went the seven priests blowing the trumpets (Numbers 10:1-9). These trumpets were of solid silver, of one piece, were straight and narrow, and had an expanded mouth. They are found on the arch of Titus, and are described by Josephus. On the other hand, the trumpet, more correctly rendered "cornet'' ( שׁוֹפָר, as distinguished from our חְצוֹעְרָה, which was used for proclaiming the jubilee, for announcing the new year for sentinel and other special signals, and for war, was shaped like a ram's horn, and probably made of the same. The particular appropriateness of the use of the former on this occasion is manifest, in addition to the fact that they were the appointed trumpets for the journeying of the camp and a fortiori of the ark itself at a time so essentially religious as the present. Yet, as we learn from verse 28, the latter were used as well, and cymbals, psalteries, and harps. The original number of the silver trumpets was two only, and they were to be sounded strictly by the anointed priests, sons of Aaron, at all events when their employment was within the sanctuary. Their employment, however, grew far more general, and we find (2 Chronicles 5:12) that their number had risen to a hundred and twenty (so too 2 Chronicles 13:12; Nehemiah 12:35). For Obed-edom, the doorkeeper, see 1 Chronicles 16:38; and therewith note on 1 Chronicles 13:14.

1 Chronicles 15:26

This verse with the following four are paralleled by 2 Samuel 6:12-16 The contents of this verse in particular reveal the intense anxiety and the trembling fear and awe with which the sacred burden was now again lifted. A world of meaning and of feeling for all those present at least underlay the expression, When God helped the Levites that bare the ark. The offering of seven bullocks and seven rams is thought by some to he additional to David's offering, when he had gone "six paces" (2 Samuel 6:13). Much more probably, however, the "six paces" meant, not six footsteps, but six lengths that would make some distance.

1 Chronicles 15:27

Several things in this verse indicate a somewhat uncertain and unsteady selection of particulars by the compiler from his original sources. The natural reading of the verse would seem to say that David and all those Levites who bore the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah, all wore the robe of byssus, while David had, in addition, the ephod of linen. Yet it is unlikely that all did wear the robe. Again, the Hebrew text exhibits no preposition before the singers, on the second occasion of the occurrence of the expression in this verse. Yet little sense can be found without a preposition. The robe was not distinctively a priest's garment (1 Samuel 18:4; 1 Samuel 24:5, 1 Samuel 24:12; 2 Samuel 13:8; Job 1:20; Job 2:12), though priests did wear it. The robe of byssus is spoken of only here; 2 Chronicles 5:12; and Esther 8:15. Byssus, however, is spoken of as material for other purposes in 1 Chronicles 4:21; 2 Chronicles 2:14; 2 Chronicles 3:14; Esther 1:6; Ezekiel 27:16. The ephod, on the other hand, was no doubt distinctively a high priest's garment (Exodus 28:4-12), though we read of Samuel wearing one (1 Samuel 2:18, 1 Samuel 2:28), and of David doing the same, as on this occasion. The fine linen ( בּוץ), in the first clause of this verse, is not the same with that ( בָּךְ) in the last clause. The first clause of this verse (which makes the last clause somewhat redundant) bears some resemblance in letters to the fourteenth verse of 2 Chronicles 6:1-42. first clause, which means, "and David danced with all his might," and the two clauses exactly answer to one another in position—another suggestion of an uncertain text here.

1 Chronicles 15:28

Making a noise. This description qualifies the cymbals alone, and should rather appear in our translation as "noise-making cymbals."

1 Chronicles 15:29

Thus briefly is given by our compiler what occupies five verses (2 Samuel 6:19, 2 Samuel 6:20-23) in the Book of Samuel. Neither of the words here rendered dancing and playing (but which would be better rendered "leaping and dancing") is the same with those employed in 2 Samuel 6:14, 2 Samuel 6:16, where our Authorized Version rendering is "dancing" and "leaping and dancing" respectively. The word in both of those verses that represents the dancing, does correctly so represent, bet is a somewhat generic form, as it carries the idea of dancing in a circle. The reason of Michal "despising David in her heart" can only be found in the unreason and the irreligion of that heart itself. She was a type of not a few, who despise devotion, enthusiasm, and above all practical liberality and generosity, on the part of any individual of their own family, when these are shown to Christ and his Church, and when they think they may be a trifle the poorer for it, or when they feel that the liberality and devotion of another exposes their own "poverty" in both these respects.

HOMILETICS

1 Chronicles 15:1-29.-A chapter of practical repentance.

There are few happier, and perhaps no better, chapters in any one's life than the chapter of practical repentance. To have to sorrow over the past and to undo it is, no doubt, the incident of a fallen nature and of a frail, imperfect life. When once, however, the necessity has arisen, then to sorrow no barren sorrow, but to add to it reparation, alteration, amendment, is at one and the same time to fling a just, manly defiance at the merciless spirit of remorse and to pay the merited homage to goodness and to God. The life of many a good man owns to many a sin, many a folly, and, when he goes not so far as these, to many a great and to-be-regretted mistake. But the most marked differences between the good man and the bad are then to be seen. This goes from bad to worse, and the tangled victim ere very long becomes the mournful and miserable sacrifice. That goes from bad with tear, with striving, with prayer, toward the lost or awhile eclipsed good. The very mark of the man made divinely wise is discerned in the repentance wherewith he repents, the promptness of the sorrow and the fear inspired, the deliberateness and the thoroughness of the amendment made or attempted. This chapter gives the history of such a repentance and of its happy consequences. Notice —

I. THE EXCEEDING PEAR AND INTENSE GRIEF OF FIRST MOMENTS OF FAILURE AND PUNISHMENT HAD NOT BEEN SUFFERED TO OVERWHELM AND TO PROSTRATE MIND AND ENERGY. Given a little time to recover nature's tone—some three months had by this time passed—and something better than nature did also return. A willing thoughtfulness supervened; deep searchings of the heart, of the written Word, and of what had been actually done had their way; and convictions just and right and wholesome were formed. There is always one great model exhibited in Scripture of repentance. To Saul's exceeding fear and intense and sudden visitation there needed some interval for recovery, and such interval was granted. Even where it may be possible, it is not advisable to act, when under the influence of the extremes of feeling, when the storm of mental emotion is at its height. But it is infinitely hazardous to neglect the right time of action; and, so soon as the first intensity of feeling is passed, how many have waited prostrate till all disposition to rouse to altered and improved action has also passed!

II. FRANK, OPEN, AND EVEN PUBLIC CONFESSION OF THE ERROR THAT HAD BEEN. David now lays down the Law (1 Chronicles 15:2, 1 Chronicles 15:13) in the very act of confession of that Law broken. He lays clown the Law, but not out of his own lip—by distinct and emphatic quotation of itself. He now saw and read the Law exact, and he saw how far distant the conduct for which he was in an eminent degree responsible, and of which he had literally been part, had strayed from the letter and spirit of that exact Law. This is in fact what still in deepest sense, and in the deepest hidings of our spiritual nature, produces conviction of the most spiritual kind—conviction of sin. When the eye of the conscience can be gained for a moment to see this sight, and to notice the wide difference between a holy perfect Law and the actual life, which should lie under its governance but does not so, the Spirit of God has gained this end—our conviction.

III. A CONFESSION THAT DOES NOT SHELVE THE BLAME UPON OTHERS, BUT ACCEPTS ITS OWN FULL SHARE. David quotes the Law that concerns the occasion (1 Chronicles 15:2). He exhorts "the chief of the fathers of the Levites" to sanctify themselves and prepare in all respects according to the Law for the great and holy work now before them (1 Chronicles 15:12). He also does not shrink from addressing these pointedly, as those who were officially and in their own persons to blame. But he does not finish his remonstrating and warning sentence without distinctly including himself among those in fault, and superseding "ye" by "we" (1 Chronicles 15:13). There was never any bare verbal confession of sin more open than that of Adam, but there was never any confession more worthless, for he wished to lay all the essence of the sin on Eve. The same may be said of Eve, as regards her tempter, the serpent. That kind of confession of sin is nothing worth. It has no semblance of meritoriousness in it. No sacred virtue inheres in it. A double depth of the heart's hardness, a double sluggishness of conscience, sleep, a double self-deception is there. Short of this, however, there are not a few, whose it is to exhort and warn others, who will largely forget in spirit, even when not in letter, to include themselves in needful reproof and in united confession. Yet how often is the leader of the flock doubly answerable, in reality doubly blamable, and in deep truth tenfold called upon to make humblest and most penitent confession!

IV. A REMARKABLE AND SINCERE READINESS ON THE PART OF ALL TO REPAIR WHAT HAD BEEN AMISS. If we often think too well of ourselves individually, and sometimes speak too forgetfully of the inherent disease of human nature, yet we are frequently disposed to underrate the effect of the word that is spoken in the Name of the Lord, of the faithful appeal that is pointed plainly but lovingly to the consciences of those who have been in error, and of the influence of our own repenting and confessing example. Put three such incentives as these together, and they will rarely fail to find their converts of some amongst a number. Moreover, great as is the contagion of evil, as seen when the multitude will flock together to do evil, yet, on the other hand, correspondingly great is the attraction of goodness. The multitude of those who worship, the multitude of those who keep the holy day, the multitude of those who join to work in and for the Lord's temple, literal or spiritual,—all these are facts as patent, bearing witness to the affection that will subsist to the highest ends, within a multitude bent on good, as other facts bear patent witness to the contagion that works in a multitude to do evil. The happier aspect of the multitude is here before us. The shepherd-king is shepherding rightly, with truth to the Law, with careful warning for all as regards the past, with a faithful rebuke of others, and loving confession of his own—and the whole people concerned are as one man. They are of one heart, of one mind, and they proceed to be of one deed.

V. A SIMILAR READINESS ALSO ON THE PART OF ALL TO ACCEPT THE EXACT PLACE AND DUTY FOR WHICH THEY WERE RESPECTIVELY MOST FITTED. This feature of the occasion is shadowed forth in all the careful and nice order of the proceedings from beginning to end. But it is more than shadowed forth in the distinct emphasis of allusions, such as those of 1 Chronicles 15:16, 1 Chronicles 15:17, 1 Chronicles 15:22, 1 Chronicles 15:24, which point to the hierarchy, so to say, of office, of gift, of grace. The Church of God as it is in perpetual quest of the brotherhood of humanity, so is it, pari passu, perpetually contributing to reproduce the order, the very cosmos of the world. One of the grandest evidences of the presence of the living Spirit of God in any portion of the Church is the visible presence of order. St. Paul loved to lay stress upon this: "Let all things be done decently and in order;" "Peace... as in all Churches of the saints." That Church of living, modern times, that may first and best find all its members awake, all ready for work, each falling into his assigned place without pride or without envy, without murmur or without assumption, will first and best prove the Divine presence and glory, and challenge a usefulness and "praise in the earth" for Zion, hitherto unknown except by scantiest earnest. There are those who are born teachers and leaders in the Church of Christ, and that Church provides the scene of very various" skill." It is, perhaps, because, some or other forms of" skill" are wrongly disbelieved, sceptically distrusted, or even disclaimed in some quarters in modern days, that our presentations of the Church often seem to lack loveliness, to fail in finding sphere for the gift of all and each, and what should be the most attractive possible form of human society is shorn of any native grace. The light and fulness and the grace and joy of God's Spirit can never be adequately entertained in any human organization, but, on that very account, much less may we circumscribe them within any artificial lines of our own, making for commandments of the wealthy and beauty-loving God the traditions of hard and poverty-stricken men.

VI. Most GRATEFUL OMENS OF THE DIVINE SATISFACTION, APPROVAL, BLESSING. It is certain that God has never been slow to acknowledge the service that has been humbly and faithfully done to him. And it is most noticeable that, after his severest and largest chastisements, swift he will come again to receive and to welcome those who have learnt to set their face again to him. How glad was Noah, when he came forth from the ark to set foot upon a deluged desolate world, to find how the smoke of his sacrifice ascended, acceptable to God, and so accepted by him, that the "Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said in his heart," as we are told, but evidently said elsewhere as well, the words of a reassuring gracious promise, on which the world's life has ever since and safely hung! Of God it may well be said, "He smites to heal." And so now, when all is done reverently and in order, and the whole scene is sacred with obedience and with practical repentance, God's "help" was given, and it was felt such a comfort, such an encouragement, such a present performed blessing, that anon the whole procession halts to offer "sacrifices of joy," and to "sing, yea, sing praises to the Lord." It is observable that we are not told how the Lord "helped the Levites that bare the ark," or in what signs and indications they recognized his helping presence. It may have been that as they feared to lift, lest another fatal stroke of the invisible mighty hand should descend, no such stroke fell, and the departing of fear was equivalent to a very inrushing of joy and confidence. Their hands were stronger, their feet walked more steadily, their shoulders rejoiced in their hallowed burden. They didn't stumble. The inner peace and confidence that God's true and faithful children and servants know, even early after they have needed the severest chastening, pervade a quickened and sensitive state of mind, so as to produce convictions, experience, language, unintelligible to the world, surpassing all its power to give, outliving all its power to take away.

VII. THE OUTCOME OF TRUEST REPENTANCE, THE PUREST SERVICE OF GOD, THE DAY OF HOLIEST DELIGHT AND WORSHIP, WILL OFTEN ENOUGH FIND SOME FORM OF THE WORLD READY TO FLOUT IT. The well-known form on this occasion needs not to be dwelt upon. But two things under it are well worthy of note and remembrance.

1. That in the experience of that mortifying irritation or keen grief, as the case may be, an honest retrospect will often show that we are wounded by the thorn we once put to our own side. Moreover, the thorn to our spirit often originates with the flesh and the lust of the flesh—what we once hailed as gratification to sense, and never thought of pursuing its probable or its possible working any deeper or further!

2. And that in the many instances in which this is not so, we are but again sharers with the apostle, and reminded of our need of an humiliating lesson of the flesh, lest we "be exalted above measure" by the blessed, the transporting "revelation of the Spirit."

1 Chronicles 15:1.-A place for the ark.

The ancient tabernacle remained at Gibeon, and was there at the accession of Solomon. But the ark was brought up to Jerusalem. It was natural and right that David, having made a capital for his kingdom, should wish the city his own right hand had won to be the metropolis of Israel, not only politically, but also religiously. Until the temple was built there were two centres of religion—the tabernacle at Gibeon and the ark in its tent in the city of David. The king was not satisfied to have a stately and luxurious abode for himself; he wished that the ark of God should be suitably housed. Hence he caused to be prepared for the reception of this sacred object an appropriate and magnificent tabernacle.

I. THIS WAS A SIGN OF CONCERN AND REVERENCE FOR RELIGION. The ark was associated with the memorable history of Israel, and especially with the giving of the Law. It was cherished and honoured by the nation generally. We know the religious beliefs of David too well to suspect him of superstition in his regard for the ark of the covenant. He was well aware of the insufficiency of all things external, and of the necessity of inward, spiritual religion. But he thought it right to treat everything especially connected with religion with a decent respect. It is easy to detect superstition in the manner in which many persons treat religious persons and things; but it is too possible and too frequent to commit a mistake of the opposite kind, and to treat them with studied neglect and contempt.

II. IT WAS A SIGN OF DEVOUT HONOUR FOR GOD HIMSELF, In honouring the ark, David was honouring the God by whose command the ark had been originally constructed, and whose Law it was intended by God to contain and preserve. Similarly, in honouring God's Word, God's day, God's Churches, God's ministers, we may be honouring God himself. "Them that honour me," saith he, "I will honour."

III. DAVID'S CONDUCT EVINCED A CONCERN FOR THE RELIGIOUS WELFARE OF HIS SUBJECTS. He had the ark brought to Jerusalem because Jerusalem was becoming the capital of the country, the centre of government, the meeting-place of multitudes, and the home of many of the influential and educated. And the presence of the ark was adapted to remind the population of the city of the presence of Jehovah, and of the claims of his Law upon their hearts. David showed by this act that he desired to recognize the supremacy of righteousness; that he designed his government to be in accordance with the revelations and dictates of the King of kings.

IV. DAVID'S CONDUCT IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE DUTY OF MAKING EFFORT AND SACRIFICE FOR THE CAUSE OF RELIGION. A careless and self-indulgent king would have said in his heart, "Let the ark stay where it is; any place is good enough to accommodate a religious symbol; and the less religion is brought before the people, the better for themselves and for me." Not so David. He was willing to take thought, to prepare plans, to expend money, to employ artificers, in order to do honour to the ark of the Most High-Let us not deem it a hardship, but an honour, to do anything for the advancement of religion and for the glory of God.—T.

1 Chronicles 15:12.-Sanctify yourselves.

Taught by experience, David now employed in the service of the sanctuary, to minister in connection with the ark, those whom the Lord himself had set apart for this office; he committed the business of brining up the ark to the chief of the fathers of the Levites. But it was not enough that the right persons should be employed; it was important that the right persons should do their work in a right way. The Levites were, accordingly, required to sanctify themselves. We know from the Law that ceremonial purity was incumbent upon those who were discharging sacred functions. We are reminded by this language that —

I. GOD IS A HOLY GOD. Not only did Jehovah reveal himself as being holy in words, but also in the laws he imposed and the regulations he prescribed. The Jewish economy was largely designed to impress upon the minds of the Israelites the holy, faultless, perfect character of God. And this lesson has been taught even more effectively to us in the character, life, and mediation of God's "holy child Jesus."

II. A HOLY GOD REQUIRES HOLY SERVANTS. The priests and Levites were enjoined to observe strict regulations as to their ceremonial purity, especially when about to engage in the public service of the God of Israel. Holy works demand clean hands, and clean hands need pure hearts. The ceremonial cleanness of the Levitical Law was the emblem of spiritual purity. How holy should they be who "bear the vessels of the Lord"!

III. HOLY SERVICE IS PROMPTED BY THE GRACIOUS INFLUENCES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Regeneration and sanctification are the especial work of the Holy Ghost. "His cleansing influences are symbolized by the waters of baptism. God's servants all need the "washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." There is appropriateness in the direction, "Sanctify yourselves;" for the means of grace are within the reach of Christians, who may obtain the gift of the Spirit by asking that gift from a merciful and liberal Father in heaven.—T.

1 Chronicles 15:13.-Due order.

David explained the failure of the former attempt to bring the ark to Jerusalem, by a reference to the neglect by himself and his people of the regulations divinely prescribed and applicable to such a case. In directing the Levites to prepare for their proper service, he acknowledged that, when he had before purposed to bring up the ark to its resting-place, he had acted thoughtlessly and profanely, and had suffered in consequence. This lesson is inculcated by the text—God's order is the due order.

I. RELIGION DOES NOT CONSIST IN FORM. Even under the elder dispensation, in which forms and ceremonies were prescribed in abundance, true religion did not consist in such things. The psalmists and the prophets rose altogether above a merely sacrificial and ceremonial religion. And under the new covenant, the letter, the form, sink into insignificance, compared with the spiritual reality they are designed to express and to promote. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." We, as Christians, serve him, not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit.

II. YET THE MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE AND SERVICE ARE NOT LAWLESS AND DISORDERLY. It would be a bad thing to substitute the form for the reality; but it does not follow that it is a good thing to have no form at all. It is the direction of an inspired apostle: "Let all things be done decently and in order." Our worship should be seemly and reverent; our work should be organized and systematic; our liberality should be upon principle.

III. PRESCRIPTIONS AS TO ORDER SHOULD BE CAREFULLY OBSERVED AND OBEYED. If, for instance, it is found that the New Testament lays down certain principles of Church government, prescribes certain ordinances or ministries, spiritual Christianity expects that these will be reverently considered and observed. Obedience is required as homage to the authority of the Lawgiver and Lord. We have no right to set our fancies and preferences above Divine laws.

IV. OBSERVANCE OF ORDER BECOMES CONGENIAL AND EASY WHEN INSPIRED BY GRATEFUL LOVE. To a child of God, a friend of Christ, there is nothing harsh or repugnant in compliance with Divine regulations in attention to" due order."—T.

1 Chronicles 15:1.-How little and how much we may do for God.

There is something in this verse which, at first reading, painfully suggests the smallness of the effort made by David in the cause of God as compared with those which he made for his own convenience; he "made him houses "—solid buildings more than one, for himself; he prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent—one frail tabernacle for Jehovah. Doubtless, under examination, all damaging reflection on the royal conduct will disappear. David was probably justified in doing as much for himself; he was certainly justified in doing no more, at that time, for the manifested presence of God. But the fact of his building houses for himself and one tent for the Lord may well suggest to us

I. HOW LITTLE, COMPARATIVELY, WE DO FOR GOD. There are those who complain, freely and sadly enough, that there are "so many claims" on their liberality. But it would do us all good to estimate how small and trifling a proportion of all we have to spend we devote directly to God and to his cause. It may seem large, sometimes, when we look at it by itself; but when compared with all we have to give—all at our command—it seems small and poor indeed. Let us reckon up and put down the proportion we give to Christ, consciously and directly, of

and we shall, in most cases, find that it is the bulk we reserve for ourselves, and only the "small dust of the balance" that we dedicate to God. We build ourselves houses and pitch a tent for the Lord. On the other hand, we may consider —

II. HOW MUCH, IN FACT AND TRUTH, WE MAY DO FOR HIM. For that which we give directly to Christ should be but a very small part of all that we present to him. We should lay at his feet everything we have and are.

1. We dedicate ourselves and lives to him when, by a sacred and living faith, we accept him for our Saviour.

2. We endeavour to live, at every conscious moment, under his observant eye; regulating all our thoughts, controlling all our feelings, ordering all our words, choosing all our courses, executing all our work, according to his will, and in the hope of giving him pleasure.

3. We hold ourselves ready to lay down our life and surrender all our dearest treasures at his Divine bidding.—C.

1 Chronicles 15:2-15.-Three valuable virtues: rectification, admonition, obedience.

We have —