The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-10
Fourth Quarter. IT. October II, 1908.
 9 Samuel vii, 4-16.
Gods Covenant with David.

Gods Covenant With David.
 David sat gazing through his palace window. How novel his sensations of se- cnrity and repose. The fugitive and for ager had suddenly come to a hxedness < of life. The cave, the leafy cover, the tent, had given place to the sealed dwell- ing. ample and elegant In the highest art of that day. Through the open win dow the king in his reverie saw the Eoodly battlements of a city beautiful for situation. and destined to become S go beautiful in itself as to be the joy of &alf the earth.
 That moment his eye rests upon the scurtained temple crowning the heights. < if is a painful anachronism. However well 1t may have suited the pilgrim epoch of the nations history. it is now palpa- hly out of date. Its swaying walls are { in strange contrast to the irnmovable that motl-eaten and shaking tent shrines the nations palladium and Jehovah's presence.
 David's saevout heart can scarcely con tain itself HA gazes from the tessellat- ed floor to the fiuted cedar columns sup porting gold-fretted ceiling, and then to the anticipated tabernacle quite ready to dissolve, cries deprecatingly to his congenial companions: See, how, dwell in house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains"
 Nathan was trife precipitate wher he said, ''Go, and do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee" Ht spoke his own mind. not the Lords. He could not even claim that permission which St. Paul in a certain place as. sumes in contrast to positive com. mandment.
 A psychological basis for the revela- 1ion, which the prophet received thai nI4ht is found in the profoundly impor- 2 1ant and spirited conversation which he had had with the king that day. It il borne in upon his consciousness as in an audible voice that, however desira- ble from the human standpoint, it is not expedient that David should build the proposed temple.
 An enterprise so vast requires a pe- rfod In which plans and specifications shall be matured. and adequate resources and materials gathered. The actual erec- ffon of a structure so unique and colos- sal. whose minutest detail, and all It's wealth of curious furniture. is to be spiritually significant, requires the undi- wided attention of a person thoroughly equipped for such a task. David is not that person. Leisure from other pursuits lsf falso indispensable. Additional military undertakings are in store for him be- fore the perpetuity of his royal house is G8EAA
 Jehovah, in ineffable condescension, has < koresworn a temple. and been satisfied with a tent for four hundred years. There is no need of precipitation nowl Jeho- yah can wait. He has never yet said, ssWhy build ye me not a house of ce- darf" Let the man who proposes 1t do khis thing for God knows he would have no power to do, it except as 1t was given him from God. Let him remember his 10wly origin-the sheep and the sheep cote
 The sine qua non of David's building house for God Is that God should first build a house for David. This God will do in the establishment and perpetuation of his dynasty. Davlds holy ambition, however. shall be consummated in the person of his son, who shall build a house for Jehovah's name.
 Punitive judgments may fall on Da- vid's successors, but there shall never bs such withdrawal of Divine favor as In the case of Saul. His house and king dom shall be established forever, so min utely and satisfactorily the will of the Lord touching this matter of the rebuild ing of a temple is revealed to David by the vision and word of the prophet Nathan.
 The Teachers Lantern.
 The diameter of all the psalms and nrophecies relating to the Hebrew mon- nrchy is always longer than the life time of that monarchy. It overlaps 1t prodi- gfously. It is an exaggeration. How can Davtd's throne be said to be established forever when it has already ceased to ex- ist2
 The promised eternal perpetulty of the Davidfc dynasty finds its fulhllment in the spiritual empire of David's great Son. The promises, as they related literally to David and his descendants. were contin- went and temporary. These very prom lees. fn thelr larger and sublimer ref srerce to the Messiah and his kingdom,