1 Chronicles 28:1-21

VI. THE SPIRIT GAVE THE TEMPLE MODEL, WHICH IN VERY DEED SPOKE PRINCIPLE IN EVERYTHING THAT MIGHT SOUND MOST LIKE DETAIL, BECAUSE THAT TEMPLE WAS ITSELF THE TYPE OF GOD'S CHURCH ON EARTH. No exclusive sanctity belonged to it. It and its lineal successors were to lie level with the ground. But its seed was to be as the stars of heaven, or as the sand upon the shore. "Neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem," meant no doom, no curse, no disparagement of the temple. Those words of Jesus spoke the charter of God's Church, as a growing, an ever-growing, and a prevailing reality in the world. Literally innumerable have been already the copies after that type. And they have yet to be manifold more. The building itself was emphatically not an ordinary building, nor a mere building. The thought of it in David's heart was not indigenous to that heart, nor was the execution of it to be liable to be dangerously ascribed either to his architecture, or his sons, or to that of the combined professional talent of the nation, or of all nations. No, it is unique. It has virtue in it. It, in the person of its successor, justifies Jesus' admiration, and a share of his tears. It breathes and moves ubiquitously, and has life in it. And it was because it was necessary that it should have these endowments, that though David thought and gave and prepared, and a nation now banded as one man consented and gave and wrought enthusiastically, yet the Architect was God the Spirit.

1 Chronicles 28:20, 1 Chronicles 28:21.-The courage of age, and its grand adorn rages as grounded in experience.

Once more, then, the voice of the aged king and the aged father is heard. Its subject the same, its tones still more and more earnest, persuasive, imploring. Age calms, mellows, subdues, in almost all directions, but not literally in all.

I. WE ARE ARRESTED BY OVERHEARING THE URGENT TONES OF OLD AGE. The voice is not weak, does not tremble, lisps not, nor hesitates. It is firm, full of vigour, and rings again more musical than even of old. There must be some significant reason for this.

II. WE ARE ARRESTED BY SEEMING TO HEAR AGE URGE IMPETUOUSNESS AND DARING ON YOUTH. Surely the five times repeated exhortation," Be strong,"" of good courage," "do it," "fear not," "nor be dismayed," must betoken some very risky, presumptuous, and even daring enterprise. And yet it is the old man who is pressing on the young mall, appealing to him as though he would rouse him to an all but forlorn hope, instead of to a wise, prudent, and good work.

III. WE ARE ARRESTED BY HEARING IN THE MIDST OF THESE URGENT AND IMPASSIONED TONES PROMISES OF THE HIGHEST INDUCEMENT, AND THAT BORROW THE NAME OF HEAVEN AND GOD. A father's experience, encouragement, and entreaty may well weigh much with a son; a father's savings, preparations, and enlistment through all the force of his influence, of much sure help from "princes and people," may well add inducement and confidence. But these are indefinitely exalted now by the challenge to believe that Heaven itself would work for and with Solomon. "The Lord God will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished."

IV. ONE LITTLE FAMILIAR WORD, AMID ALL THE REST, ARRESTS OUR EAR AND WARMS THE WHOLE APPEAL WITH THE TONE OF PERSONAL INTEREST. That little word is the one which counts so often for so much—the word "my." At the very crisis of invoking, in the great and terrible and reverend Name of "the Lord God," the very highest possible sanction, David does not forbear to link his own name with it: "The Lord God, my God, will be with thee?' This is the same David who in many a psalm could sing in the very lowliest strain and confession of the demerit of man and his poverty and his sinful nature and sinful practice. Yet the two things are not inconsistent, and David does not do wrong. The God of all, of nil worlds, the universal God, loves to be sought, to be clung to, to be appropriated by the individual. The poorer, the lowlier, the more solitary, so that his child's trust corresponds in thoroughness and tenacity with his condition of want, so much the more welcome is that child, and not a word shall be said to him that he presumes. Note, then, that in the happy expression of David to his son," My God," we have:

1. The creature's rightful and blessed appropriation of the Creator; the only all-sufficient, the inexhaustible and ever-communicating, the one strong support of everything within the compass of his dominions.

2. The consecrated diminutive of affection. The thing or the person I believe I chiefly love, that thing or that person I restlessly, ceaselessly long to call mine, my own. Nor is there a simpler, grander, juster use of this little word, the consecrate word of affection the world all over, than when a creature, sinner, penitent, poor, and dependent, breathes out from all that is within him "My God."

3. The grateful outcome of tried experience. Age gives the opportunity of valuable experience in many a direction, but in none so much as in those relations which subsist direct between man and his God. There is nowhere such room for experience to have its way, to grow and to attain results of surpassing value. After the experience that David had accumulated of God, and of what a God, God had been to him, he rightly desires to make a point of this to his Son. It was not simply the sentiment of the father's God, one to be held to by the son; it was no mere dictate of family pride, or of hereditary attachment to some lares et penates. No; the hard but telling facts of experience enable David to pledge and guarantee "his" God, as the good God and the wonderful God, and the safe God for his son. So Paul said to the Philippians, "My God shall supply all your need," in that he, above any living Christian of that time, had suffered peril, need, persecution (2 Corinthians 11:23-31), and had found God, the "very present Help and Refuge in time of trouble," whom the psalmist a thousand years before had tested. All distances of time, differences of dispensation, contrasts of character and of career, sometimes seem to meet in one place, one confession, and one adoration. Each utters, "My God," and all are found to have contributed the proof of a God unchangeable—"the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Meantime the experience and testimony of each helps to influence and instruct and strengthen the faith and love of some nearest by nature or by friendship. And to many a son Solomon has come, with equal truth and effect, the aged father's confession of what, through a long, a hard, a tried life, he has found his God to be. "The Lord God, my God, will be with thee." Happy the fathers who have such experience, and happy the children who hear their counsel in time. And happy for the long-favoured people of Israel, "blest beyond compare" already, if their new young king hear, and for ever heed, the advice of his aged and richly experienced father, and adopt his God for his own "even unto death."

1 Chronicles 28:9.-Early piety.

A father's solicitude for his son is too often confined to his temporal prosperity. It was not so with David. The aged monarch was indeed anxious for Solomon's stability on the throne, for his fitness to discharge all regal duties, for the magnificence of his public works, and for the splendour of his reign. But he was well enough acquainted with human nature to know that character is the key to life. His supreme desire was that his son should be right at heart, that his principles should be sound, that he should honour, trust, and serve his God. Hence the beautiful language of the text.

I. THE NATURE OF EARLY PIETY. It does not consist merely in outward associations or in outward observances.

1. The basis of such piety is knowledge. "Know thou the God of thy. father." Hence the importance of early instruction in religious truth.

2. The substance of such piety is a cheerful service of God. The practical energies of youth need to be employed in doing the Lord's will. Willingness and cheerfulness should characterize all work done for God. It is well that the young should be trained to find their delight in the practical service of their God and Saviour.

II. THE MOTIVES TO EARLY PIETY.

1. The obligation of duty. It is right to "remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

2. The assurance of the Lord's perfect knowledge: "For the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts."

3. The encouragement of promise: "If thou seek him, he will be found of thee." There are many similar assurances in Scripture fitted to encourage the young to seek the God of salvation.

4. The fearful alternative: "If thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever."—T.

1 Chronicles 28:12.-The pattern of the Spirit.

We sometimes make a great mistake in neglecting to remark the presence and operation of God in the ordinary and secular affairs of life. The Hebrews were in this respect in advance of us; they justly attributed all wise and good works to that Spirit from whom all wisdom and goodness proceed. Thus the workers in the construction of the tabernacle are expressly said to have received from the Spirit of God the knowledge and skill they needed to fulfil their undertaking, and in the passage before us David is represented as having received by inspiration from Heaven the plans upon which his son was to erect the temple of Jehovah.

I. THE PLAN OF EVERY GREAT AND GOOD WORK IS FROM GOD. That is, so far as it is good and great. There is human ignorance and human folly discernible in many noble enterprises; but the impulse of piety or benevolence to which they owe their being is from above. This is so either, as probably in the case before us, from a direct inspiration, or, as is usually the case, in a more ordinary manner. The inspiration of the Almighty giveth man understanding; and every high and holy purpose, every inspiriting truth and influence, should be traced up to the Giver of every good gift and every perfect gift.

II. SUCH PLANS SHOULD THEN BE FORMED WITH REVERENCE AND WITH PRAYER. If we would have the Spirit's guidance, we must ourselves be "filled with the Spirit;" we must seek his teaching in humility and docility of heart.

III. SUCH PLANS SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT WITH EARNESTNESS, AND WITH A LOWLY DEPENDENCE UPON THE GRACE AND AID OF GOD. In these respects the kings of Israel, who were concerned in the erection of the temple, stand before us as a bright example. It is only as all our works are "begun, continued, and ended" in God, that we can justly hope for blessing and prosperity.—T.

1 Chronicles 28:20. - Be strong.

Worship and work together make up the expression, the manifestation, of religion. Where the heart has true, living faith in Christ, both these will be. Worship is the soul, and work the body, of the religious life. And the Lord Jesus is the Mediator of worship, and the Inspiration of work. David's closing admonitions to his son and successor naturally had respect to the high station he was about to occupy, and the great service he was about to render. Thus he set before Solomon a grand conception of the purpose of his future life, and glorious encouragement and assurances to induce him to go forward with courage and with zeal. In these words we have —

I. A VIEW OF LIFE AS PRACTICAL AND STRENUOUS SERVICE. There is work for all true and loyal hearts, for all willing, active hands. We are all, as Christians, builders in the house, the temple, of the most high God. The edifice of our life and happiness, our influence and usefulness, is not to rise by chance or magic; it is to be reared by our own labour and diligence, our own perseverance and prayers. What dignity, beauty, and interest are lent to our life by the conviction that we are building in the Lord's house I Whether our life be public or private, whether our sphere of influence be home, or profession, or business; whether our relations to others be official or social,—we may all be builders under God.

III. ADMONITION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO FULFIL LIFE'S WORK. As David spoke to his son in terms of fatherly sympathy and good cheer, so let the elder encourage the younger in the service of their God and Saviour.

1. Observe the disposition which is to be avoided. "Fear not, nor be dismayed." Some minds are naturally timorous. A nervous temperament, a diffident habit of mind, depressing circumstances, may account for this. Some are ever in dread of adversaries; others are more apprehensive of their own weakness and insufficiency. Accordingly, Scripture contains many dissuasives from timidity and faint-heartedness. "Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God?"

2. Observe the disposition to be fostered. "Be strong and of good courage." To many of his servants, placed in critical positions, has the supreme Lord addressed such admonitions. "Be strong and of a good courage," Jehovah had said to Joshua and to Israel, in the prospect of their entering upon Canaan as their inheritance. A courageous heart can do wonders; it can ever bear up a feeble body, contend with adverse circumstances, defy malignant opposition. We are not taught to place confidence in ourselves, but we are taught not to shrink from duty because of our felt inadequacy. Strength comes with a brave heart, a fixed resolution, a calm confidence in Divine grace and aid.

3. Observe the admonition to action. "Do it." David had prepared for the building of the temple; it was for his son to carry out the plans which had been made. It is for us all, as followers of Christ, not to dream or to purpose, but to act. We are gifted with active powers, and are called to an active life. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."

III. PROMISE TO ANIMATE THE TRUE-HEARTED WORKER. Mere admonition and advice from fellow-men is insufficient. The question of practical moment for us, in our endeavours to serve, is this—Is there help from above? We have the answer in the text.

1. Divine presence and aid are assured. "The Lord God will be with thee." How far better than the presence and counsel even of a faithful earthly friend, a judicious earthly father I "Vain is the help of man." But "if God be for us, who can be against us?'

2. The same God who has been the dwelling-place of his people in all generations, is our God. It is very significant that David says, "Even my God." The memory of former interpositions, of the great works which God did in the days of our fathers, should hearten and cheer and comfort us. He is neither an unknown nor an untried God.

3. He will not fail or forsake his people until their work is finished. Other helpers may fail us, may be summoned from earth, or may prove unfaithful. We may fear lest God himself should depart from us. But he is faithful to all his promises. "The mountains may depart," etc. Solomon enjoyed the countenance, protection, and guidance of Cod until the temple was completed. God only knows what our life-work is to be; but we may all be assured that, if he has entrusted to us any service, he will not withdraw from us, he will not abandon our undertaking, until his purpose is fulfilled, until our work is done.

PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. Let every hearer of the gospel obey the call, and enter without delay upon the Lord's work.

2. Let God's servants who are dismayed by difficulties and a sense of insufficiency betake themselves to the Word of God and to prayer.—T.

1 Chronicles 28:1-8.-Lessons from the end.

As the slain warrior in battle, finding his strength fast ebbing away, gathers up his remaining powers and deals one last mighty blow against some prominent enemy, so David, the soldier of the Lord, perceiving that his end was near, summoned all the force that was left to him to strike one more good stroke in the cause of the God he had served and of the people whom he loved. From this scene at the end we learn many lessons.

I. THAT A NOBLE LIFE IS CROWNED BY ONE SUPREME EFFORT AT THE LAST. Thus did Moses crown his illustrious career (Deuteronomy 31-33.). Thus did Joshua worthily close his honourable course (Joshua 23:1-16; Joshua 24:1-33.). So, indeed, we may speak of our Lord himself; for by his passion and his death he wrought for the human race a far greater work than even he had accomplished by all the words and works of his life-ministry. It may well be our ambition to act in this spirit, if we do not adopt this particular method. "So much the more as ye see the day approaching" (Hebrews 10:25).

II. THAT A TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS MAN WILL EARNESTLY CONCERN HIMSELF AS TO THAT WHICH COMES AFTER HIM. David was most solicitous to leave nothing undone that he could do to secure the happiness and well-being of Israel after his death; therefore he convened this great assembly and gave this solemn charge. In the same spirit he adjured them to do the one right thing, in order that, in their turn, they might "leave the good land for an inheritance for their children," etc. (verse 8). The spirit of indifference respecting the days that will succeed our own is one which the disciples of Jesus Christ should be ashamed to cherish. It is profoundly unchristian; it is as far as it can be from the spirit of him who died that, after and through his death, there might be righteousness, joy, life, upon the earth.

III. THAT AUTHORITY AND AFFECTION GO WELL TOGETHER. "Hear me, my brethren and my people" (verse 2). The king addresses his people as his brethren; it is in the fulness of his heart that he thus speaks. His soul is filled with an earnest and loving regard for them, and for the nation they represent; hence the affectionate term which he employs. It is well for all who are in authority to assure those whom they direct that they "have them in their heart" as well as in their hand; that they love them as "brethren" while they rule over them as their "people."

IV. THAT IT IS A GREAT THING TO BE WILLING TO SERVE THE LORD, "I had it in my heart to build an house of rest," etc. (verse 2). "And the Lord said unto David… thou didst well that it was in thine heart" (1 Kings 8:18). When a man purposes, with pure and complete integrity of soul, to do anything for the cause of Christ—to give largely, or to go far afield, or to work devotedly at home, or to spare some loved one, and when the providence of God interposes to prevent, is it not written in the record which is on high, "Thou didst well that it was in thine heart"?

V. THAT IT IS A GREAT THING TO DO WHAT WE CAN WHEN OUR STRONGEST WISHES ARE DENIED. Perhaps it spoke most for the genuine piety of David that, when God said to him, "Thou shalt not build an house for my Name," etc. (verse 3), he did not cease to "make ready for the building" (verse 2), but continued to the end to store up all manner of precious things, that his son might have his labour lightened and might do his work with more completeness. So far from sulkily retiring because he could not have the very thing which he desired, David did the thing that he was permitted to do—the laborious but comparatively unhonoured work of preparation—cheer-fully leaving the glory of building to one that should succeed him. How many are there who live in this later and brighter dispensation who might learn a lesson of cheerful continuance in well-doing from this Hebrew king!

VI. THAT MUCH IN HUMAN LIFE IS DECIDED BY THE ELECTING GRACE OF GOD. (Verses 4-7.) He who chose the tribe, the family, the individual man, for the sovereignty of Israel, now chooses individual souls to be kings among men. By the mental and spiritual endowments he is pleased to bestow, by the teaching and training he is pleased to grant, by the privileges and openings he is pleased to afford, he marks out one rather than another for office, influence, power. He still "chooses our inheritance for us" (Psalms 47:4). Let the fact that he does so condemn pride, ingratitude, and envy.

VII. THAT MUCH IN HUMAN LIFE IS LEFT TO OUR DECISION. "If he be constant,' etc. (Verse 7.) "Now therefore… keep and seek for all the commandments… that ye may possess," etc. (verse 8). God proposes and arranges, but not without regard to our response to his invitation, our obedience to his commandments. Nothing in his ordering interferes with the conditions he has imposed. We reap that which we sow.—C.

1 Chronicles 28:9, 1 Chronicles 28:10.-A parental charge: a sermon to the young.

The scene is one of profound interest, for it is one of deep and strong emotion. A father who feels that his end is near is delivering an earnest charge to his son, who has, as he hopes, a brilliant course before him. There is everything to add solemnity and pathos to the scene. The aged king excited to one last painful effort, the assembled princes of Israel, the "young and tender" Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:5) kneeling before his father, the outpouring of royal and parental tenderness and solicitude,—everything combines to make the occasion one of greatest interest. And what can be more impressive than the last injunction given by a departing father to the son who is his destined heir: who will, if any one does, carry on his work when he himself is removed? David's supreme desire is that Solomon shall be a faithful servant of God, and do the special work which awaits his care. We are invited to consider —

I. IN WHAT TRUE PIETY CONSISTS. It embraces two things.

1. A practical knowledge of God. "Thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God," etc. And this knowledge of God includes

(2) A direct, practical acquaintance with him. Such acquaintance as is gained by coming to him in personal approach; by contact of our spirit with his Spirit; by the prayer, the pleading, the surrender, which is not formal but spiritual—not "after the flesh," but from the soul; for "the Lord searcheth all hearts," etc.

2. Continuous spiritual service. "Serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind." Having found his favour and entered into his kingdom, we must live continuously in his service. We must render this "with a gladsome mind," not constrainedly and as of necessity, not hypocritically, not servilely, but cheerfully and heartily—the obedience of love, of those who are satisfied if he is pleased. This our service is (1) to be lifelong; (2) to cover all the particulars of our life, extending to all our human relationships and all our various spheres of activity.

II. WHAT POWERFUL INDUCEMENTS WE HAVE TO DEVOTE OURSELVES AT ONCE TO GOD. These are four in number.

1. Strong filial considerations urge us to do so. David pleaded with Solomon to" know the God of his father." The young prince must have felt that if he gave his life to the service of God, he would be

(2) treading closely in his honoured parent's footsteps; in both ways acting worthily and "as became his father's son." The same or similar considerations should be potent and prevalent with ourselves.

2. By so doing we may hope to accomplish great things. Solomon had the prospect of "building a house for the sanctuary." We may not anticipate such an achievement, but we may hope to do good and even great things for our God and our race, if we devote our whole powers from the beginning to the service of Christ. We may

(1) influence, during a long course, many hundreds or even thousands of souls for good;

(3) render invaluable aid to some one useful cause or Church.

3. Honest and persevering effort to find his favour is certain to be rewarded with success. "If thou seek him, he will be found of thee" (see Matthew 7:7-11).

4. Neglected opportunity has a disastrous end. "If thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever." Those who in youth are conscious of the heavenly call, but who give not heed to the voice Divine and to parental earnestness, but yield to the lower and ignobler impulses, enter on a course of folly and sin, which too often runs on to an evil end, to a life without nobility and without achievement, to a death without hope, to a future without the joy of home.—C.

1 Chronicles 28:11-21.-The way to succeed in a great work.

David's heart was set on his son's successful discharge of the high mission to which God had called him. That nothing should be left undone, so far as he himself was concerned, he gave this inspiriting charge. It will suggest to us the constant condition of successful work in the kingdom of Christ.

I. CARRYING OUT DIVINE DIRECTIONS. David formally entrusted to his son "the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit "(1 Chronicles 28:12)—" all that the Lord made him understand°" etc. (1 Chronicles 28:19); particulars of the temple furniture, which was to be made after the mind and according to the will of him who was to be worshipped in its "most holy-place." When we enter upon any great enterprise for God, whether we "arise and build," or whether we go forth and preach, or whether we organize and establish, we must seek to act according to Divine instructions. But we must not now look for patterns, but for principles. In our New Testament we have the broad principles of all holy action, of all Christian association, of all missionary enterprise. These are not far from sight, and if we honestly and earnestly seek them, we shall find them and may apply them.

II. GAINING DIVINE HELP. "The Lord God will be with thee… he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee" (1 Chronicles 28:20). If we proceed in a devoted and prayerful spirit, we may claim these words as applicable to ourselves. We want, and can secure:

1. The inspiration which will prompt us to faithful work.

2. The effectuating power which will make our work succeed and endure.

3. The upholding grace which will carry us through all difficulties to the end.

III. SECURING HUMAN CO-OPERATION. Solomon would receive

(1) help in material from the rich stores of his father (1 Chronicles 28:13-18);

(2) the sympathy and assistance of

(a) priests and Levites,

(b) skilful workmen,

(c) the people generally, from the prince to the peasant (1 Chronicles 28:21).

We must not aspire to do God's work alone; it is in every way better that we should share the privilege and the responsibility with others. It is so for our own sake, for theirs, and also for the sake of the more perfect accomplishment of the work itself. We may ask and accept aid in material and in men; from those whose special function it is to render service in sacred things ("priests and Levites"), and those who are not thus professionally obligated; from those who are "skilful" as well as "willing" (1 Chronicles 28:20), and from those who are willing but have skill to acquire, who will gain something of skilfulness in Christian work by taking a humble part in the work in hand; from those who are "princes" in social station and religious reputation, and from those who only belong to the "common people;" from all who are willing, and who will act, and thus learn to act more perfectly.

IV. MAINTAINING OUR SPIRITUAL STRENGTH. "Be strong and of good courage" (1 Chronicles 28:20). We want the strength which accompanies courage. Timidity is weak; fearlessness is strong. And courage is not merely a matter of strong nerves; when of the noblest order, it is the outcome of spiritual excellency; it is the fruit of faith in God. "Be strong and of good courage" means this: maintain your integrity before God; abide in Jesus Christ, that his Spirit may abide in you (John 15:4); nourish the sustaining assurance that God is with you, to befriend and inspire you; go forth and hold on in the strength of the Strong and in the wisdom of the Wise, and you will not fail nor be discouraged. "They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength," etc. (Isaiah 40:31).—C.

1 Chronicles 28:1-8.-David's address to the princes of his kingdom.

In the last two chapters we have David's final words to the princes of the people and to his son Solomon. In order to pass the kingdom over to his son and to secure the succession, he summoned the princes, and solemnly, in the presence of them all, appointed Solomon his successor. These princes included the princes of the tribes enumerated in 1 Chronicles 27:16-22; the princes of the divisions which served the king (1 Chronicles 27:1-15); the princes of thousands and hundreds; the chiefs and captains of the twelve army corps (1 Chronicles 27:1); the princes of the domains and possessions of the king (1 Chronicles 27:25-31). The king "stood up upon his feet" to address this assembly. Previously, on account of age and feebleness, he had sat in bed. The first part of David's address we have had previously (1 Chronicles 22:7-13). In the fourth verse he states how his election to be king was of God who had chosen Judah to be ruler, and that in the same way God had chosen Solomon from among his sons to be heir to the kingdom, and had committed to him the building of the temple, and concludes it by exhorting the whole assembly to continue faithful to God. Observe, the blessings of the throne and kingdom are linked to an inseparable condition (1 Chronicles 27:7)—that Solomon be "constant to do my commandments and my judgments." Thus temporal prosperity is inseparably connected with faithfulness to God's truth. Without this neither king nor kingdom, man nor his work, can prosper in the true sense of the word. In this consists real "establishment." What the foundation is to a house God's truth is to a king's throne, and to a man's soul and all his ways. David goes into particulars as to how this is to be done. "Keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God." The soul must hold fast to the truth, must treasure it up within the inmost recesses of its being. This is to keep the truth. And it must "seek for" it—looking out for it in everything as for special treasure, setting the heart on it and gathering it up for use. The degree and earnestness with which we seek for it will depend upon the way in which we "keep" what we have gathered. "To him that hath shall more be given," is God's universal law in nature and in grace. Keeping is digestion, by which the appetite is stimulated to "seek." Mark, also, it is not seeking some truths or some favourite truths; it is "all the commandments." It is whole-heartedness to the whole truth. Pet doctrines and pet passages make us half-Christians—narrow, one-sided, harsh, and sectarian. It is the heart's preparedness for every message from God that makes a whole Christian—such a one as God would have us all to be. Mark the two results. "That ye may possess this good land." It was one thing for an Israelite to be in the land; it was quite another to possess it. It is one thing to be in Christ; it is quite another to possess so as to make our very own all the treasures of grace and truth that are in Christ. Some Christians, like some Israelites, are all their lives in the land without possessing a foot. Have you life in Christ? "Lay hold on eternal life." Are you one of God's elect? "Make your calling and election sure." Have you that Divine faith that will carry you into the kingdom? "Add to your faith," so that you may have an "abundant entrance into the kingdom.' This is to "possess the land." It was Joshua's continued exhortation to Israel; it has need to be ours too. Look at the second result: "And leave it for an inheritance for your children after you for ever." Mark, it. is only those who possess the good land who shall "leave it for an inheritance." It is your half-Christians, your narrow-souled, crooked, unwise Christians, who leave no spiritual influences behind. Their children get soured by the caricature of religion they see in their parents. When parental restraint is over, there are no deep spiritual principles laid in the soul in early life, and they cast off what they feel has been a yoke. As a rule, most parents have to blame themselves for what they mourn over in their children.—W.

1 Chronicles 28:9, 1 Chronicles 28:10, 1 Chronicles 28:20, 1 Chronicles 28:21.-David's charge to Solomon.