ing foe. Guard your innocence as you would guard your life. If you advance one step over the verge of virtue, unless the grace of heaven interpose, down you sink to the bottomless abyss. Come not then near the territories of danger. Stand back. One sin indulged, gathers strength and abounds; it increases, it multiplies, it familiarizes itself with our frame, and introduces its whole brood of infernal inmates, worse than pestilence, famine, or LECTURE II. ON THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE. ly shall perish. The miseries which the I shall conclude with one reflection. You see, my brethren, from what has been said, that a life of wickedness is gradual and progressive. One criminal indulgence lays the foundation for another, till, by degrees, the whole superstructure of iniquity is complete. When the sinner has once put forth his hand to the forbidden fruit, and thinks that he can taste and live, he returns with greater and greater avidity to repeat his crimes, till the poison spreads through all his veins, and all the balm of Gilead be ineffectual for his cure. Fly therefore, I call upon you in the name of Heaven, fly, from the approach PSALM XXIV. 1–7. 1 The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. 2 For he hath founded it upon the scas, and established it upon the floods. shall stand in his holy place? 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath cousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. 7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye As THIS Psalm was composed when David The occasion of this psalm is one of the grandest and most illustrious that any where occurs in history. Solomon, by the divine direction, had now finished the temple, that superb monument of oriental magnificence and glory, which drew the princes of neighboring nations to come VERSE 1. and 2. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.--For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. David ascertains the sovereignty of God over the world, and its subjection to him, from his having created it at first; from his having estab lished it upon the seas, and founded it upon the floods. By this he opposes the skeptics and infidels of those times, who withdrew nature from the Divinity, and denied the interposition of Providence in human affairs; by this he distinguishes the God whom he adored, from the idols of the Gentiles around him, who were confined to one part or province of nature: by this he endeavors to inspire the Jews with gratitude and love to their God and King, who chose them from among all the nations whom he governs by his providence, to be his favorite people, the object of his particular providence, and peculiar loving-kindness. The Psalmist next determines where that God whose perfections he had been describing was to be worshipped, and which of his worshippers were to be the objects of his favor and approbation. and contemplate. The feast of taber- ting forth their entire subjection to his nacles, the most solemn and most frequent-power and providence. ed of the Jewish festivals, was now at hand. All the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, were now assembled at Jerusalem to the feast. It was then that Solomon proceeded to dedicate the temple, and to fix the ark in its appointed place. The procession to the temple was grand and triumphant. Solomon, arrayed in all his glory, attended with the elders of Israel, and the heads of the tribes went before; after him marched the priests in their sacerdotal robes, bearing the ark; to them succeeded the four thousand sacred musicians, clothed in white robes, and divided into classes, some of them singing with the voice, others playing upon harps and trumpets, and psalteries and cymbals, and other instruments of music; behind them followed the whole congregation, with palms in their hands, rejoicing and wondering. Solomon had, on this occasion, made an oblation of twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and twen ty thousand sheep, of which the Almighty tęstified his approbation and acceptance, by causing the sacred fire to come down anew from heaven, and consume the sacrifice. The Priests and Levites, as they went along, sprinkled the ground with the blood of the victims, and perfumed the VERSE 3. Who shall ascend into the air with frankincense and sweet odors. hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in This, with the fumes of incense which rose his holy place? It was usual among the in clouds from the altars, had diffused Jews to add the name of God to any thing such a potent perfume through the air, that was great, that was wonderful, and that people at a distance reflected on the of which they would give us a high idea. breath they drew as a celestial influence, Lofty cedars in Scripture, are called the and regarded the strains of harmony which trees of the Lord: high hills are called the they heard, as something more than mor- mountains of God: wine, on account of tal; actually imagining that the God of its generous, joyous, and exhilarating the Hebrews had descended from his heaven qualities, is said to cheer the heart of God to take possession of the temple which they and man. In this place, the phrase is not had dedicated to his service. Nor were to be taken in its usual sense. By the they mistaken. For after the priests had hill of God, is here meant the hill of carried the ark into the holy of holies, had Zion, which the Almighty had chosen to be placed it between the cherubims, and had the place of his worship, and where he had reverently withdrawn, the cloud of divine commanded his temple to be built. glory descended and rested upon the the same tract of ground there were three house. The Shechinah or divine presence hills. Zion, where the city and castle of took up its abode in the most holy place. David stood; Moriah, where the temple Animated by this sublime occasion, the was built, and Calvary, where our Saviour Psalmist begins his ode with celebrating was crucified; but these, for the most the dominion of the Deity over this vast part, went under the general name of universe, and all its inhabitants, and set- Zion. By the phrases of ascending into Near the hill of God, and standing in his holy place, the Psalmist would point out the persons who are to be admitted to worship God in his temple here, and in consequence of that, to be received into the temple of his glory above, and to dwell for ever with the Lord. We have the character and qualities of these persons expressed in the following verse. VERSE 4. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. It is very observable, that in ascertaining the qualifications of the citizens of the spiritual Jerusalem, the Psalmist does not so much as mention the external observances, the costly and laborious rites of the ceremonial law, in which the Israelites generally prided themselves, but dwells alone on the great and essential duties of morality, which are of universal and eternal obligation. The fond affection and attachment of the Jews to the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law, so as to neglect other duties, is the more remarkable, as God, by the mouth of his Prophets, frequently declared that he had no pleasure in them, calling them precepts which were not good, and statutes by which a man could not live. In the fiftieth Psalm, we have an express declaration to this purpose; "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or for thy burnt-offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." The qualifications here required are those of the heart and the life," Clean hands and a pure heart." It is not enough that we wash our hands in innocence before men, we must be pure in heart before the eyes of infinite perfection. True religion is the religion of the heart; it is a principle dwelling in the mind, that extends its influence through the whole man, and regulates the life. Unless our religion enter into the heart, we have no religion at all. The form of godliness is insufficient and unavailing without the power thereof. We can never attain to the true beauties of holiness, unless, like the king's daughter, we be all glorious within. On the other hand, when clean hands and a pure heart are united in the same person; when a conversation without blame, and a conscience void of offence, coincide, they are in the sight of God of great price. A life sacred to devotion and virtue, sacred to the practice of truth and undefiled religion, joined to a heart, pure, pious, and benevolent, constitute an offering more acceptable at the altars of the Most High God, than whole hecatombs of burnt-offerings, and a thousand hills of frankincense in a flame. By lifting up the soul unto vanity, the Psalmist means making riches and honor, those vanities of the world, the object of our affection and pursuit; saying to the gold, thou art our trust, or to the most fine gold, thou art our confidence. Or it may mean the worshipping of idols, which, in Scripture, go under the denomination of vanity, as in Jeremiah, "Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain?" Swearing deceitfully, includes all manner of perjury. This vice is always represented in Scripture in the most dreadful colors. He that sweareth falsely, and he that feareth an oath, is an equivalent term for the wicked and the righteous. As an oath is the greatest pledge of veracity, and the end of all strife, general and customary violations of it must have the most pernicious effect upon society. Such a practice would entirely banish religious principles from the world; it would dissolve the bands of society, it would shake the fundamental pillars of mutual trust and confidence among men, and destroy the security arising from the laws themselves. For human laws and human sanctions cannot extend to numberless cases in which the safety of mankind is essentially concerned. They would prove but feeble and ineffectual means of preserving the order and peace of society, | tion, who, in obedience to the commandif there were no checks upon men, from ments of God, and in the methods of his the sense of divine legislation; if no be- appointment, seek his face, that is, his falief of divine rewards and punishments vor and friendship, and to whom he never came in aid of what human rewards and said, "Seek ye my face in vain." punishments so imperfectly provide for. We have in the next verse, the rewards promised to the persons possessed of these qualifications. VERSE 5. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, even righteousness from the God of his salvation. This alludes to the appointed custom of the Jewish priests, who, on solemn and stated occasions, were wont to bless the people. Their form of blessing we have prescribed in Numbers vi. 22. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons saying, On this wise shall ye bless the people of Israel, the Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. But as the priest was a fallible creature, his blessing might be indiscriminately bestowed, and fail of its effect. But the person who hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, shall receive the blessing from God himself, whose favor is better than life, and whose blessing maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow. These blessings are summed up in the eighty-fourth Psalm, "The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." Righteousness from the God of our salvation, may either mean the reward of righteousness, as the word in Scripture is frequently put for the reward; or it may mean kindness, mercy, and the benefits from righteousness, as in 1 Sam. "Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord, of all the righteousnesses of the Lord, which he did to you and your fathers: " where it is evident, from what follows, that by righteousnesses of the Lord, he means the deliverance that God had wrought for them. xii. 7. Animated by his subject, the Psalmist proceeds to higher strains, and, in the sublime spirit of eastern poetry, calls upon the gates of the temple to open and admit the triumphal procession. VERSE 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. To illustrate this part of the Psalm, we must take a short view of the Hebrew psalmody. The Psalms of David are of various kinds. Some of them are dramatic, having speakers introduced making a kind of musical dialogue. Of this the ninety-first psalm is a remarkable instance. In the first verse, the high priest, rising up, declares the happiness of him who putteth his trust in the Almighty. In the second verse, David himself, or one of the singers, representing the faithful among the Jews, declares his faith and confidence in God. From the third to the fourteenth, the ode was performed by the sacred sing. ers, both with the voice and instruments of music. The three last verses were spoken by the high-priest alone in the character of God Almighty. Many of the Psalms are intended to be sung by two divisions of the sacred singers, the chorus and the semichorus. Such is the Psalm before us. Every verse is divided into two members, exactly of the same length, and generally representing the same thought, expressed in a different manner. "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein." When we come to the seventh, the verse is evidently altered. The verses are not divided into two members as before, and for a very good reason. The semichorus asked the question, and the chorus made the reply. Apostrophes,. or addresses to inanimate nature, are among the boldest figures in poetry, and when properly introduced, as in this place, are in the highest manner productive of VERSE 6. This is the generation of beauty. The simple thought, when stripthem that seek him, that seek thy face, Oped of its poetical ornaments, is no more Jacob, or, O God of Jacob, as it might than this: "When the priests had carried. better be rendered. This is the genera- the ark to the temple, Solomon ordered. 12 the gates to be thrown open to admit the | tions. Both physical and moral causes ark. How much this thought is improved, contributed to introduce and to support when embellished by the fine imagination this custom. The people of the east have of the singer of Israel, and clothed in all always been more under the government the graces of poetry, let persons of the of the imagination and fancy, than the nasmallest critical discernment judge. In tions of the north. They use the liveliest short, the passage is too well known, and and the boldest figures of speech in their too beautiful, to need or admit of any il- ordinary conversation; and their writings lustration. Like the meridian sun, it shines are all in the manner as well as in the in its own light, and to endeavor to adorn spirit of poetry. What the influence of it, were wasteful and ridiculous excess. the climate made natural, the form of As we are assured by an authority that their government rendered necessary. As cannot err, that the ceremonies of the Jew- the form of their government has always ish law were a figure of good things to come, been despotic and tyrannical, they were and as the ark has been considered as afraid to speak out their sentiments with a type of our Saviour, it is highly probable, openness and with freedom. Truth durst that its introduction into the temple pre not approach the throne, nor appear in figured to the faithful among the Jews, public. that solemn and triumphant period when our Saviour ascended into the heaven of heavens, to take possession of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house: 23 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. THE method of instruction by parables, was much in use among the eastern na It Such was the origin of parables. This method of instruction possesses many advantages. It is obvious to all capacities, and has a charm for every hearer. It is well adapted to strike the fancy; it interests the passions, and thus makes a deeper and more lasting impression than mere moral instruction could convey. likewise possesses one advantage peculiar to itself. It makes a man his own instructor. When the parable is told, we ourselves draw the moral, and make the application. Observations and reflections that we make ourselves, are of more avail to us in the conduct of life, than any in struction we can learn from others. We The parable now before us contains many useful and important lessons. have here represented two characters not uncommon in the world; a rich man, who enjoyed the pleasures and the luxuries of life, and a poor beggar, who lived and who died in poverty and in distress. This man was a signal object of pity. He was a beggar, and he was full of sores. Notwithstanding this double call to sympathy and compassion, the heart of the rich man was hardened against him. All the advantage he reaped from lying at the great man's gate, was, that his dogs, who had more feeling than their master, came and licked his sores. Nevertheless this rich man was not a miser. He was not a niggard of the gifts of Providence. He enjoyed life. He was arrayed in purple, which, in those days, was the vestment of kings. Hospitality presided in his hall, and luxury |