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brought to the very brink of ruin, a lucky idea has seized us,— we have said, "Fetch the ark!" When the ark was brought, it was nothing but a wooden box: fetched by unworthy hands, its inspiration and glory ceased from it. "If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness." Men have lived lives of practical atheism year after year; and when there has been a panic in the market, they have bethought themselves of old memories, early vows, first Christian oaths; and they have turned pious because there was a panic barking at them like a mad wolf, they have begun to pray, and Heaven sent back their voice unanswered, unblessed! We must not play with our religion. We might guarantee that every place of worship would be filled at five o'clock in the morning and at twelve o'clock at night under given circumstances. Let there be a plague in the citylet men's hearts fail them for fear-let them feel that all that is material is insecure-that nothing is real but the invisible and the spiritual-and they will instantly flock to churches and chapels by the thousand, and be very humble in the presence of God. That will not do! God is not to be moved by incantations, by decent formalities, and external reverence. He will answer the continuous cry of the life. The man who prays without ceasing may ever count upon the interposition of God.

We learn that the Philistines took the ark of the covenant. But though they had captured the ark, that sacred shrine made itself terribly felt. The Philistines took the ark to Ashdod, and put it into the house of their god Dagon. You see there was a good deal of religiousness in these men. They took away the box out of the battlefield; they unlocked the door where they kept their pagan god, and put the box in beside him. They set the Right beside the Wrong. What a night's work there was! "When they of Ashdod rose on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord!" That might have been an accident. Perhaps in going into the house and moving the ark carelessly, they might have injured Dagon's position, and so he might have come down, as it were, by haphazard. So they set Dagon up again, made his position secure and respectable, and left him in his solitude. Next morning they came, and Dagon was fallen upon his face to

the ground before the ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon, and both the palms of his hands, were cut off upon the threshold. A terrible night's work there was in this case! What communion hath light with darkness? What fellowship hath Christ with Belial? When Right and Wrong come face to face, there must always be a sharp collision. When the Right goes down, as it does occasionally, it will be only as the ark of the Lord went down in the case before us, to plague its very captors and throw down the idol of their hearts. Would to God we could learn this doctrine,—that in some cases success is defeat! We need to learn this lesson,—that in some cases victory is loss, and that gain stings the winner night and day.

Here let us ask young readers to consider this part of the story diligently. We know of nothing equal to it in modern writing for excitement, for that singular romantic element which always spell-binds young readers. Read the history of the ark again. The Philistines took the ark, but they wanted to get clear of it, if anybody would take it away. What you have won the ark,-keep it. They took it from place to place, and could make nothing of it; it was a torment to them. Last of all they said, "Let us send a present along with it, and by all means get clear of it!" Aye, it will even be so with ill-gotten results; with undeserved, unrighteously attained gain, be it wealth or influence, or what it may. It will not rest with the individual; it will say, "Send me away!" Judas took the thirty pieces of silver, but they had become so hot in his hand as to boil his blood, and he said to those who had bought him: "Take them away!" But the buyers said, "No!" The bad man has a hard lot of it; when he wants to get clear of his gain, he cries and begs that somebody will relieve him of his very victories. The Lord's sword is two-edged; touch it where you like, it cuts clear away to the bone!

Learn that the false relation of things always brings torment. Be it in the family: if the heads of the house are disagreed concerning great spiritual truths and realities, there cannot be peace in the house. Be it in business: one partner is a righteous man, and another is careless about moral obligations. There

cannot be peace; there may be success, sharp practice, keen fencing, and methods of doing things that look very successful; but there will be a stinging process, after all,-a sting that will pierce the heart and fill it with pain and anguish. You cannot rub right and wrong together, and make them cohere. It is so in a man's own heart. If half of the man is going one way and the other half wants to go the other way, the man's life is a most agonising, distressing struggle. Everywhere this great law is written. If it had never been spoken by Jesus, it might have been spelled out by scholars in the world's school,-"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

The great spiritual application and the significance of the ark is undoubtedly Jesus Christ. We have no sacred chest; we have no box covered with pure gold; no tables of stone; no manufactured seat of mercy. All the great spiritual significance and application of these things we find in Christ. What the ark was to Israel, Jesus Christ is to the Church. In Jesus Christ we find law. Some Christians find that a difficult lesson to learn. They speak of Jesus as being all love, gentleness, and compassion, tenderness exceeding, and pity infinite. He was more than that. Whenever he spoke of law, he spoke of it as the Lawgiver. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but this law must be fulfilled." Jesus never trifled with equity, with righteousness, with probity, with moral obligation. Jesus Christ was not all mere sensibility. His was the sensibility that comes out of justice, righteousness, truth, purity, as well as tenderness, mercy, compassion. In Jesus Christ we find all the mercy of God! Observe that form of expression. By it we intend to signify that nowhere else can you find an element of mercy that is wanting in the character and spirit of Jesus Christ. He is at the head of all things. As the ark was in the tabernacle, in the holy of holies, so he is the Head over all things. He is highly exalted. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. He was not made for creation; creation was made for him. The ark was not built for the tabernacle, but the tabernacle was built for the ark. All things are in Christ and for Christ. One day this will be seen. He must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet. The

last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death; and in the resplendent universe there shall be everywhere life, immortality. "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." When he is satisfied, who shall be discontented? When he says, "It is enough," who shall require any addition? When he who came up from unbeginning time—God the Son, lived and died, and rose again-suffered all Bethlehem, Gethsemane, Golgotha— when he shall say, "I am satisfied," who shall be able to suggest that one thing is wanting to complete the happiness of his redeemed family?

SELECTED NOTE.

“Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh ” (iv. 3).—We cannot attempt to define the object of the ark. It was the depositary of the Tables, and thus of the great document of the covenant. It seems also to have been a protest against idolatry and materialism. The mercy-seat was the place where God promised his presence, and he was, therefore, addressed as dwelling between the cherubim. On this account the ark was of the utmost sanctity, and was placed in the Holy of Holies, both of the tabernacle and of the temple. When the Israelites were moving from one encampment to another, the ark was to be covered by Aaron and his sons with three coverings, and carried by the sons of Kohath (Numb. iv. 4-6, 16). Joshua placed the tabernacle at Shiloh, and the ark does not seem to have been removed thence until the judgeship of Eli, when the people sent for it to the army, that they might gain success in the war with the Philistines. Yet the Israelites were routed and the ark was taken (1 Sam. iv. 3-11). After seven months, during which the majesty of God was shown by the plaguing of the inhabitants of each town to which it was brought, and the breaking of the image of Dagon, the Philistines hastened, on the advice of their priests and diviners, to restore the ark to the Israelites. These incidents and those of the coming of the ark to Beth-shemesh, where the people were smitten for looking into it, show its extremely sacred character, no less than does the death of Uzzah, when he attempted to steady it, on the journey to Jerusalem, an event which caused David to delay bringing it in. It is noticeable that it was carried in a cart both when sent from Ekron, and, at first, when David brought it to Jerusalem, though after the delay on the latter occasion, it was borne by the Levites in the ordained manner (1 Chron. xv. 11-15; 2 Sam. vi. 13). It was then placed on Mount Zion, until Solomon removed it to the temple. From the statement that Josiah commanded the Levites to place the ark in the temple, and to bear it no longer on their shoulders (2 Chron. xxxv. 3), it seems probable that Amon had taken it out of the sanctuary, or else that the Levites had withdrawn it from the temple then or in Manasseh's time, and the finding of the book of the Law under Josiah favours this idea (2 Kings xxii. 8; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14). A copy of the Law was deposited with, or, as some suppose in the ark, and it seems that this was the copy from which the king was required to write his own (Deut. xvii. 18-20). But perhaps the ark was only removed while the temple was repaired. It is generally believed that it was destroyed when the temple was burnt by the Babylonians, and it is certain that it was not contained in the second temple.

PRAYER.

ALMIGHTY GOD, thou settest up and thou bringest down, as servants of thy Church and ministers of thy will, whom thou pleasest, according to a counsel we cannot understand. Thou hast made the stone which the builders refused the head stone of the corner; thou hast passed over the wise and the mighty, the noble and the great, and thou hast revealed thy secret unto babes. Who can resist the call of the Lord? Who shall answer, but with all his love, the appeal and challenge of the Most High? Impress each of us with a deep sense of personal responsibility, which can be measured only by the gifts which thou hast bestowed upon us and the opportunities with which thou hast blessed us. May the servant entrusted with five talents, and the servant entrusted with but one, each do his Lord's will with simplicity, diligence, and all the homage of the soul! Save us from all uncharitableness in regard to one another; from all envy and malice; from all censoriousness and unfriendliness. May each esteem other better than himself; may the strong bear the infirmities of the weak; may the aged prophets be gentle and tender towards thy young servants; and may those who are youthful in the Church of Christ have within them sense of veneration, confidence, and respect in regard to those who have borne the burden and heat of the day. Establish us all in the counsel and service of Christ. May we love the Saviour with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. May the supreme joy of our life be to uphold the rights of his crown and to explain the mystery of his cross. Let thy blessing now descend upon us, that we may have life more abundantly, that our peace may pass understanding, that our joy may be unspeakable and full of glory. Shed light where there is darkness. Send the delivering word to souls held in the captivity of the enemy. Turn those whose faces are turned away from the living God and the eternal light. Now may our hearts lift themselves up towards their Father in praise, in thankfulness, in hope! Amen.

1 Samuel vii. 3.

"And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."

SOLITARY POWER.

AMUEL is now in full office. Eli died when the messenger

time we have had no express communication from Samuel him

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