has reared a place of meeting for poor sinners and the Majesty of heaven, and it is upon this glorious temple that God's "eye" and God's "heart are perpetually, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year" (2 Chron. vii. ; Deut. xi. 12). And it is to this blessed point that the seeking soul is bidden to look: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved" (Isa. xliv. 27). And the saint is exhorted to keep this temple in view: "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus" (Heb. xii. 2). And not only did the building of the temple, and the temple itself, with all its ornaments, utensils, and ordinances, preach Jesus, but Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple sets forth the intercession of Jesus, who once, as our great High Priest, made atonement by sacrifice at the altar of burnt offering, and now makes intercession at the altar of incense. And, while Solomon's prayer was on earth, and for an earthly people, and chiefly for earthly blessing, Jesus' prayer is in heaven, and for a heavenly people, and for heavenly blessing-that is, for a people whose names are written in heaven, whose religion comes down from heaven, and whose "inheritance is reserved in heaven," and consists of "heavenly things." We may add, as Solomon's intercession exhibits the intercession of Jesus, so the people interested in it set forth the people interested in the prayer of Jesus before the throne.

In looking through this prayer, how much one is reminded of the prayer of Jesus, in the seventeenth of John, which is left us as a pattern of His intercession in heaven! Solomon prays for Israel brought out of Egypt, and brought into the land of promise; and Jesus prays also for believers gathered out of the Egypt of this world, and brought into the Canaan of Gospel rest: "I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me: pray for them" (John xvii. 6, 9). But Solomon does not forget to pray for the poor "stranger to the covenants of promise," and "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel" (Eph. ii. 19), who, hearing of Israel's God and Israel's blessing, should be brought to say to Israel, as Ruth, the Moabitess, "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." So Jesus does not forget those who spiritually shall "take hold, out of the languages of the nations, of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you" (Zech. ix. 23). "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word" (John xvii. 20).

Now, the words of our text are a prayer of Solomon for the strangers-those who were not of the Lord's people Israel-and, in my

* "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But He spake of the temple of His body" (John ii. 19, 21).

mind, they set forth the intercession of Jesus for those spiritual strangers who, though objects of the Father's love, and the purchase of Immanuel's blood, are still "afar off," and in the "far country" of nature's darkness and death. Such are, in the Lord's time, quickened to feel their position, and brought to come out of this "far country" for the Lord's new covenant "name's sake,” having "heard of His great name, and of His strong hand, and of His stretched out arm," and to come and pray toward Jesus, the House of the Lord. For the typical strangers Solomon prayed in the temple, and for the anti-typical strangers Jesus intercedes in heaven: "Hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for."

Now, regarding this text as setting forth the ever-availing intercession of Jesus, and the character here described as setting forth one interested in the intercession of Jesus, I will try and expound it by

I. Taking notice of the character prayed for-" a stranger, which is not of Thy people Israel."

II. Taking notice of the important things said of this strangerthat he "cometh out of a far country for the Lord's name's sake," &c.

III. Enquiring what are the things that the stranger" calleth to the Lord for;" and,

IV. Observing the success attending his request, or the blessings which are sure to be given him, in answer to the Saviour's prayer, "Hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for."

I. The character prayed for is a stranger. When man was created he was no stranger to God. No sinful distance, no guilty shyness, had then intervened betwixt him and his Maker; no cloud of darkness then overshadowed the human understanding; man was then no stranger to his Creator. But, alas ! sin has enstranged him from God, and now in his natural state he is a total stranger to the true character of his Maker-a stranger to the real misery of his condition—a stranger to himself as he is-a stranger to real peace and happiness--in a word, he is a total stranger to everything that is worth the intimacy of an immortal soul, though he may have much acquaintance, yet blind to their deformity, with those things that are in truth, the best of them, vain and fading, and the worst of them worse than madness, poison, and death. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. ii. 14). But many among the human family who are still thus strangers, and not manifestly of the Lord's people Israel, have an interest in the prayer of Jesus before the throne; and, when the Lord's time has

come to make manifest the individual stranger for whom Jesus is spreading out His interceding hands before the Father, he is quickened to feel, and enlightened to see, his alienation and strangership. And truly it is a solemn sight for a sinner to see that, up to the present moment, however wise he may have been concerning evil, he is a stranger to all that is good-a stranger to true peace, and to a right foundation for eternity-and it is a painful thing for a soul to feel, who knows that he is fast hastening into an eternal world, that, although God has a people Israel," who will be saved and happy through eternity, he knows nothing of being put among those children; and, dying without what he feels destitute of, this is stamped upon his conscience, "Not of Thy people Israel." We will now proceed to take notice―

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II. Of the important things said of the stranger prayed for. We must remember that Solomon did not pray for every Gentile stranger, but only for such as the text describes; nor is it for every stranger that Jesus intercedes, but only for such who bear those marks which this text puts upon the individual prayed for.

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1. The stranger in the text is said to "hear of God's great name." A sinner must not only be convinced of his distance from God, and of his awful state, to drive him to seek mercy, but he needs to hear of something in the name of God that appears amiable and attractive to draw him to seek mercy. The poor woman with the issue of blood is an illustration of my meaning. She had been diseased for many years. This drove her to seek a cure from many quarters, but all were vain. All proved in her case physicians of no value;" but " when she heard of Jesus," she had faith given her to believe that, if she could but come in contact with Him, all would be well. One touch of Him she believed would be healing. This was a strong attracting cord upon her heart, and drew her to press, notwithstanding all her weakness, through the crowd that surrounded Jesus, and kept her from resting until she obtained the healing touch (Mark v. 25-34). So the stranger whom God makes no longer a stranger to guilt, but sensible of his entire strangership to pardon, is prone to "spend money for that which is not bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not" (Isa. lv. 2). But the Lord has His eye upon him, and, by whatever means He pleases, gives him to "hear of His great name," His new covenant name in Jesus. "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin" (Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7). Hearing this, and being no longer a stranger to the utter inefficacy of all other means for his soul's cure, he is glad to hear that there is "balm in Gilead,"

that there is a "Good Physician there" (Jer. viii. 22); that "there is bread enough" in Jesus, the "Father's House," and "to spare " (Luke xv. 17); that, filthy as he is, and deep as are his stains

"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins ;

And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.”

This brings him to resolve, with the prodigal, though he be in a "far country," and though exceedingly unworthy of the Father's regard, to "arise, and go," and lay himself, a vile and guilty beggar, at Jesus' gate, waiting for mercy's falling crumbs.

2. But the stranger not only "hears of His great name," but also of His strong hand, and of His stretched out arm. He hears that Jesus, the Arm of the Lord, has been the power of God to the salvation of many poor lost souls, and this encourages him to apply for that Arm to be stretched out in his case. He has heard that the King of Israel is a merciful King. This emboldens him to come, though thoroughly sensible of his unworthiness of the least favour, or of anything but death. He comes with a rope upon his head." How often has the report of the Lord's saving arm, revealed to a Saul, or Magdalen, or a thief upon the cross, been made sweetly encouraging to poor sensibly "far off' sinners to "fly for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them" (Heb. vi. 18).

3. Hearing thus of the Lord's great name, and of His strong hand, and of His stretched out arm, the stranger "cometh out of a far country "-comes in sighs, desires, and wishes after Jesus towards Him, the true Temple; flees from sin and wrath to the pardoning blood of Jesus; flees from Sinai's thundering mount towards Calvary's peaceful cross; escapes for his life from the Sodom of this world to the mountain where the Lord commands the blessing, even life for evermore;" flies from his own righteousness, and longs for the righteousness of Jesus; and thus "cometh out of a far country for the Lord's name's sake," that he may know in power the Lord's Zion name, "merciful and gracious," &c. He knows His Sinai name, a jealous God, who will by no means clear the guilty." This has wounded him, and drank up his spirit. Now he is coming for acquaintance with His Zion name to heal his wounds; and, having heard of the Lord's mighty hand, and of His stretched out arm, in conscious neediness he stretches out his hand toward, and pleads alone the finished work of Jesus, the true Temple; and toward this House, all his expectation being from thence, and all his plea being Jesus, he makes known his many wants.

(To be continued.)

TO AN ENQUIRER.

WE are very glad to hear that the Lord has separated you in spirit and in walk from such nominal professors as you describe in your note. They cannot know the truth of Christ, nor the Spirit's work in the heart, or they would not speak as they do. It is true we have no positive declaration in the Scriptures of Solomon's repentance, but we believe, as the persons you name acknowledge, that he was a partaker of divine grace, and the gift of divine grace is the gift of eternal life. "By grace are ye saved" (Eph. ii. 5); and the Lord Jesus says of those to whom He gives eternal life, "they shall never perish" (John x. 28). Numbers of Scriptures might be adduced to show that this view is according to the analogy of divine truth. Nevertheless, God has positively declared that, though He will not cast away His people who backslide and commit iniquity, yet He will chasten them, and bring them to repentance (see 1 Cor. xi. 32; Heb. xii. 5-11; Rev. iii. 19; also Isa. lvii. 16-18; Jer. xxxi. 18-20).

Now, all this agrees with what the Lord said of Solomon (2 Sam. vii. 14, 15). Can it, therefore, be believed that he whom God owned as a son, whose prayer He heard at the dedication of the temple (1 Kings viii.), and of whom it is said (Neh. xiii. 26) that he was beloved of his God," and who was inspired by Him to write parts of the holy Scriptures-can it be thought that he was left to die without repentance for the sins he committed, and without pardon manifested to him by the God of truth and grace? This would be contrary to the whole tenor of divine truth, as we have briefly shown.

Then, again, it is generally understood that the Book of Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon after the Lord had restored him from his fall and the experience of sin and folly, with the counsels and warnings, there given, go to show that Solomon had been brought to repentance, after having proved the vanity of all carnal pursuits (see from twelfth verse in first chapter to eleventh verse in second chapter) and the bitterness of sin (xi. 9); and that he then felt, too, the mercy of being joined to the living (ix. 4).

We are compelled to be brief in stating our view of the case, but we hope you may be able to trace the line of thought suggested, and find something helpful therein against the cavillings of those who have no better a foundation for their hope than conditions to be fulfilled by the creature. We may give something more on the subject in a future number. EDITOR.

WE should pray in the Church, with the Church, and for the Church. Three things preserve the Church-faithful teaching, diligent prayer, and patient suffering.-Luther.