ON THE LORD'S DWELLING

PLACE.*

LORD, I HAVE LOVED THE HABITATION OF THY HOUSE, AND THE PLACE WHERE THINE HONOR DWELLETH.-Psalm xxvi. 8.

HE Psalmist, being fully convinced of the

·T."

insufficiency of things terrestrial to satisfy the desires of a soul immortal, looked from Nature up to Nature's God. Participating in the Divine clemency, he was enabled to rejoice in the knowledge of sins forgiven. Hence he exclaimed, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay; and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my

* A Sermon preached at the dedication of the meeting-house built for the M. E. Church in Amwell, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, on 24th of October, 1843. Written from notes, at Burlington, New Jersey, 25th of September, 1844.

mouth, even praise unto our God," (Psalm xl. 1-3.) Being thus renewed in the spirit of his mind, his affections were placed on and concentrated in Jehovah. Therefore could he say, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee." (Psalm 1xxiii. 25.) Thus having a conscience void of offense towards God and man, David calls upon the Lord to judge, examine, and prove him; willing that all the motives and purposes of his heart should be open to Divine inspection; desirous, were there any evil in him, that it should be removed, and he be led in the way everlasting. He manifested his aversion to sin by having no fellowship with its votaries; and his affection to God and His cause, by the love which he had for His dwelling-place, saying, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, the place where Thine honor dwelleth."

In the elucidation of this important and highly appropriate portion of Holy Writ, I propose :

I. To make some remarks on the habitation of God's house the place where His honor dwelleth.

1st. Since the Almighty is an omnipresent being, and filleth immensity, it cannot be that He should be located in any one place, and His presence be wholly excluded from another. The

heaven of heavens cannot contain Him; much less one place on earth. Nay, it would be preposterous in the highest degree to suppose that He is not everywhere "beholding the evil and the good." Notwithstanding this is the truth as it relates to His essential presence, yet we learn from Scripture that where His gracious presence is manifested in a special manner, the place may be denominated the "House of God."

Hence, when Jacob departed from the paternal home into a strange land, as he journeyed by the way, the evening shades having approached, he prepared a place and laid himself down — having the earth for a couch, a stone for a pillow, heaven's canopy for his covering, and the Almighty for his defense. Now, as he rested in the embrace of "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," he dreamed; and in his vision he beheld a ladder extended from earth to heaven. This ladder may have been emblematical of our Redeemer, in whom supreme Divinity and real humanity are associated, forming a communication between earth and heaven.

When Jacob awoke from his profound slumber, he exclaimed, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not! How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God,

and this is the gate of heaven." (Genesis xxviii. 16, 17.) So, with equal propriety, may we say, wherever God graciously manifests Himself to us, this is the house of God, this the gate of heaven. He spake to Abraham while in the land of Ur, to Jacob on his way to Padan-aram, to Moses in the bush; and, blessed be His name, it is the privilege of His devoted followers,

"Where'er they be, where'er they move,

To meet the Object of their love."

This gracious presence makes the Christian's Paradise; and where God thus manifests Himself is Heaven to the believing, loving, obedient soul. 2d. The Tabernacle was called the house of God, and was the place where His honor deigned to dwell in a gracious and special manner. To this, without doubt, the Psalmist refers in the text.

When the Almighty, by a strong and an outstretched arm, had liberated the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, He caused the Red Sea to part asunder and make a way for His ransomed, and then to return and ingulf their pursuers. He brought His chosen into the wilderness, where they sojourned in tents; and as He was pleased to manifest His gracious presence, therefore would He have a tent in which to dwell.

The Tabernacle was the place for the Shechinah, or visible majesty of the Divine Presence, through a glorious light, enveloped in cloud, between the cherubim upon the mercy-seat. This, doubtless, was a special type of God's future dwelling in the human nature of Christ, who was the true Tabernacle of the true Shechinah. The Tabernacle contained the sacred chest, or ark, of the testimony, in which were the tables containing the Decalogue. Above this was the mercy-seat, concerning which the Lord informed His servant Moses, "There will I meet with thee, and converse with thee from off the mercy-seat." In the Tabernacle sacrifices were offered, intercessions made, and heavenly instructions obtained. This was the portable house of the Almighty; this the place where His honor dwelt with traveling Israel.

3d. When the Israelites were come into the promised land, and were well settled in fixed habitations, the Lord, likewise, would have a permanent abode. Hence He qualified Solomon for the important work of erecting a house to His name. The Temple was commenced four hundred and eighty years after the liberation from Egypt. In seven years was the magnificent edifice completed. Thither were brought the sacred vessels which had long been deposited in the Tabernacle.