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1 Kings Chapter
Seven
1 Kings 7
Chapter Contents
Solomon's buildings. (1-12) Furniture of the temple.
(13-47) Vessels of gold. (48-51)
Commentary on 1 Kings 7:1-12
(Read 1 Kings 7:1-12)
All Solomon's buildings, though beautiful, were intended
for use. Solomon began with the temple; he built for God first, and then his
other buildings. The surest foundations of lasting prosperity are laid in early
piety. He was thirteen years building his house, yet he built the temple in
little more than seven years; not that he was more exact, but less eager in building
his own house, than in building God's. We ought to prefer God's honour before
our own ease and satisfaction.
Commentary on 1 Kings 7:13-47
(Read 1 Kings 7:13-47)
The two brazen pillars in the porch of the temple, some
think, were to teach those that came to worship, to depend upon God only, for
strength and establishment in all their religious exercises.
"Jachin," God will fix this roving mind. It is good that the heart be
established with grace. "Boaz," In him is our strength, who works in
us both to will and to do. Spiritual strength and stability are found at the
door of God's temple, where we must wait for the gifts of grace, in use of the
means of grace. Spiritual priests and spiritual sacrifices must be washed in
the laver of Christ's blood, and of regeneration. We must wash often, for we
daily contract pollution. There are full means provided for our cleansing; so
that if we have our lot for ever among the unclean it will be our own fault.
Let us bless God for the fountain opened by the sacrifice of Christ for sin and
for uncleanness.
Commentary on 1 Kings 7:48-51
(Read 1 Kings 7:48-51)
Christ is now the Temple and the Builder; the Altar and
the Sacrifice; the Light of our souls, and the Bread of life; able to supply
all the wants of all that have applied or shall apply to him. Outward images
cannot represent, words cannot express, the heart cannot conceive, his
preciousness or his love. Let us come to him, and wash away our sins in his
blood; let us seek for the purifying grace of his Spirit; let us maintain
communion with the Father through his intercession, and yield up ourselves and
all we have to his service. Being strengthened by him, we shall be accepted,
useful, and happy.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Kings》
1 Kings 7
Verse 1
[1] But
Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his
house.
House —
The royal palace for himself, and for his successors.
Thirteen years —
Almost double the time to that in which the temple was built; because neither
were the materials so far provided and prepared for this, as they were for the
temple: nor did either he or his people use the same diligence in this, as in
the other work; to which they were quickened by God's express command.
Verse 2
[2] He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was
an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof
thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the
pillars.
Of the forest of Lebanon — An house so called, because it was built in the forest of Lebanon, for a
summer-seat, whither Solomon, having so many chariots and horses, might at any
time retire with ease.
The length — Of
the principal mansion; to which doubtless other buildings were adjoining.
Pillars —
Upon which the house was built, and between which there were four stately
walks.
Beams —
Which were laid for the floor of the second story.
Verse 3
[3] And
it was covered with cedar above upon the beams, that lay on forty five pillars,
fifteen in a row.
Fifteen — So
in this second story were only three rows of pillars, which was sufficient for
the ornament of the second and for the support of the third story.
Verse 4
[4] And
there were windows in three rows, and light was against light in three ranks.
Against light —
One directly opposite to the other, as is usual in well-contrived buildings.
In ranks —
One exactly under another.
Verse 5
[5] And all the doors and posts were square, with the windows: and light was
against light in three ranks.
Windows — He
speaks, of smaller windows or lights, which were over the several doors.
Verse 6
[6] And
he made a porch of pillars; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the
breadth thereof thirty cubits: and the porch was before them: and the other
pillars and the thick beam were before them.
A porch —
Supported by divers pillars, for the more magnificent entrance into the house;
upon which also it is thought there were other rooms built, as in the house.
The porch —
Now mentioned which is said to be before them; before the pillars on which the
house of Lebanon stood.
Pillars —
Or, and pillars; That is, fewer and lesser pillars for the support of the
lesser porch.
Beam —
Which was laid upon these pillars, as the others were verse 2.
Verse 7
[7] Then
he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of
judgment: and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the
other.
A porch —
Another porch or distinct room without the house.
The other —
The whole floor; or, from floor to floor, from the lower floor on the ground,
to the upper floor which covered it.
Verse 8
[8] And
his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the
like work. Solomon made also an house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had taken
to wife, like unto this porch.
Another court —
That is, between the porch and the house, called therefore the middle court,
chap. 2 Kings 20:4.
Like this —
Not for form or quantity, but for the materials and workmanship, the rooms
being covered with cedar, and furnished with like ornaments.
Verse 9
[9] All
these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed
with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so
on the outside toward the great court.
These —
Buildings described here and in the former chapter.
The measures —
Hewed in such measure and proportion as exact workmen use to hew ordinary
stones.
Within, … —
Both on the inside of the buildings which were covered with cedar, and on the
outside also.
To the coping —
From the bottom to the top of the building.
And so on —
Not only on the outside of the front of the house, which being most visible,
men are more careful to adorn; but also of the other side of the house, which
looked towards the great court belonging to the king's house.
Verse 11
[11] And
above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars.
Above —
That is, in the upper part; for this is opposed to the foundation.
Stones and cedars —
Intermixed the one, and the other.
Verse 12
[12] And
the great court round about was with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of
cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of the LORD, and for the
porch of the house.
The court —
Namely, of Solomon's dwelling-house mentioned, verse 8.
Verse 14
[14] He
was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a
worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning
to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his
work.
In brass —
And Of gold, and stone, and purple, and blue, 2 Chronicles 2:14. But only his skill in brass
is here mentioned, because he speaks only of the brasen things which he made.
Verse 16
[16] And
he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the
height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other
chapiter was five cubits:
Five cubits —
The word chapiter is taken either more largely for the whole, so it is five
cubits; Or, more strictly, either for the pommels, as they are called, 2 Chronicles 4:12, or for the cornice or crown,
and so it was but three cubits, to which the pomegranates being added make it
four cubits, as it is below, verse 19, and the other work upon it took up one cubit
more, which in all made five cubits.
Verse 17
[17] And
nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were
upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the
other chapiter.
The chapiters —
Which those nets and wreathes encompass, either covering, and as it were
receiving and holding the pomegranates, or being mixed with them.
Verse 18
[18] And
he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover
the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the
other chapiter.
Two rows —
Either of pomegranates, by comparing this with verse 20, or of some other curious work.
Verse 19
[19] And
the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the
porch, four cubits.
Lilly work —
Made like the leaves of lillies.
In the porch —
Or, as in the porch; such work as there was in the porch of the temple, in which
these pillars were set, verse 21, that so the work of the tops of these
pillars might agree with that in the top of the porch.
Verse 20
[20] And
the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against
the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in
rows round about upon the other chapiter.
The belly — So
he calls the middle part of the chapiter, which jetted farthest out.
Two hundred —
They are said to be ninety and six on a side of a pillar; in one row and in all
an hundred, Jeremiah 52:23, four great pomegranates between
the several checker-works being added to the first ninety six. And it must
needs be granted, that there were as many on the other side of the pillar, or
in the other row, which makes them two hundred upon a pillar, as is here said,
and four hundred upon both pillars, as they are numbered, 2 Chronicles 4:13.
Verse 21
[21] And
he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right
pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and
called the name thereof Boaz.
Jachin —
Jachin signifies he; That is, God shall establish, his temple, and church, and
people: and Boaz signifies, in it, or rather, in him (to answer the he in the
former name) is strength. So these pillars being eminently strong and stable,
were types of that strength which was in God, and would be put forth by God for
the defending and establishing of his temple and people, if they were careful
to keep the conditions required by God on their parts.
Verse 23
[23] And
he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round
all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did
compass it round about.
A Sea — He
melted the brass, and cast it into the form of a great vessel, for its vastness
called a sea, which name is given by the Hebrews to all great collections of
waters. The use of it was for the priests to wash their hands and feet, or
other things as occasion required, with the water which they drew out of it.
Verse 24
[24] And
under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a
cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it
was cast.
Knops —
Carved or molten figures: for this word signifies figures or pictures of all
sorts.
Ten, … — So
there were three hundred in all.
Cast —
Together with the sea; not carved.
Two rows — It
seems doubtful whether the second row had ten in each cubit, and so there were
three hundred more; or, whether the ten were distributed into five in each row.
Verse 25
[25] It
stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking
toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward
the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were
inward.
Oxen — Of
solid brass, which was necessary to bear so great a weight.
Verse 26
[26] And
it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of
a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.
Baths —
Which amounts to five hundred barrels, each bath containing about eight
gallons; the bath being a measure of the same bigness with an ephah.
Verse 27
[27] And
he made ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four
cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it.
Bases —
Upon which stood the ten lavers mentioned below, verse 38, in which they washed the parts of the
sacrifices.
Verse 28
[28] And
the work of the bases was on this manner: they had borders, and the borders
were between the ledges:
Borders —
Broad brims, possibly for the more secure holding of the lavers.
Verse 29
[29] And
on the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubims:
and upon the ledges there was a base above: and beneath the lions and oxen were
certain additions made of thin work.
Base above — So
he calls the upper-most part of the base: for though it was above, yet it was a
base to the laver, which stood upon it.
Additions —
Either as bases for the feet of the said lions and oxen: or, only as farther
ornaments.
Verse 30
[30] And
every base had four brasen wheels, and plates of brass: and the four corners
thereof had undersetters: under the laver were undersetters molten, at the side
of every addition.
Wheels —
Whereby the bases and lavers might be removed from place to place as need
required.
Under-setters —
Heb. shoulders; fitly so called, because they supported the lavers, that they
should not fall from their bases, when the bases were removed together with the
lavers.
Verse 31
[31] And
the mouth of it within the chapiter and above was a cubit: but the mouth
thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and an half: and also
upon the mouth of it were gravings with their borders, foursquare, not round.
The mouth — So
he calls that part in the top of the base which was left hollow, that the foot
of the laver might be let into it.
The chapiter —
Within the little base, which he calls the chapiter, because it rose up from,
and stood above the great base.
Above —
Above the chapiter; for the mouth went up, and grew wider like a funnel.
A cubit — In
height, verse 35, whereof half a cubit was above the chapiter
or little base, and the other half below it.
A cubit and half — In
compass.
Four square — So
the innermost part, called the mouth, was round, but the outward part was
square, as when a circle is made within a quadrangle.
Verse 33
[33] And
the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axletrees,
and their naves, and their felloes, and their spokes, were all molten.
Molten —
And cast together with the bases.
Verse 34
[34] And
there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base: and the
undersetters were of the very base itself.
Of the base —
Not only of the same matter, but of the same piece, being cast with it.
Verse 36
[36] For
on the plates of the ledges thereof, and on the borders thereof, he graved
cherubims, lions, and palm trees, according to the proportion of every one, and
additions round about.
The proportion —
Or, empty place, that is, according to the bigness of the spaces which were
left empty for them, implying that they were smaller than those above
mentioned.
Verse 39
[39] And
he put five bases on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of
the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward over
against the south.
Right side — In
the south side, not within the house, but in the priests court, where they
washed either their hands or feet, or the parts of the sacrifices.
Left side — On
the north side.
The south — In
the south-east part, where the offerings were prepared.
Verse 45
[45] And
the pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which Hiram
made to king Solomon for the house of the LORD, were of bright brass.
The pots — To
boil those parts of the sacrifices which the priests, etc. were to eat.
Verse 48
[48] And
Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the LORD: the
altar of gold, and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was,
Vessels —
Such as Moses had made only these were larger, and richer, and more.
Table of gold —
Under which, are comprehended both all the utensils belonging to it, and the
other ten tables which he made together with it.
Verse 49
[49] And
the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left,
before the oracle, with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold,
Candlesticks —
Which were ten, according to the number of the tables, whereas Moses made but
one: whereby might be signified the progress of the light of sacred truth,
which was now grown clearer than it was in Moses's time, and should shine
brighter and brighter until the perfect day of gospel light.
Pure gold — Of
massy and fine gold.
The oracle — In
the holy place.
Flowers —
Wrought upon the candlesticks, as it had formerly been.
Verse 51
[51] So
was ended all the work that king Solomon made for the house of the LORD. And
Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; even the
silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the
house of the LORD.
Silver and gold — So
much of it as was left.
And vessels —
Those which David had dedicated, and with them the altar of Moses, and some
other of the old utensils which were now laid aside, far better being put in
the room of them.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Kings》
07 Chapter 7
Verses 1-51
Verses 1-12
Solomon was building his own house thirteen years.
Building God’s house and one’s own
A very curious thing this, that whilst Solomon was building the
temple of God he was also building his own house. It does not follow that when
a man is building his own house he is also building the temple of God; but it
inevitably follows that when a man is deeply engaged in promoting the interests
of the Divine sanctuary, he is most truly laying the foundations of his own
house, and completing the things which most nearly concern himself. “Seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you.” No man loses anything by taking part in the building of the
temple of God. He comes away from that sacred erection with new ideas
concerning what may be made of the materials he is using in the construction of
his own dwelling-place. The Spirit of God acts in a mysterious manner along all
this line of human conduct. The eyes are enlightened in prayer: commercial
sagacity is sharpened in the very process of studying the oracles of God: the
spirit of honourable adventure is stirred and perfected by the highest
speculations in things Divine, when those speculations are balanced by
beneficence of thought and action in relation to the affairs of men. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
The satisfaction of completing a work
Mr. Charles had a strong and ardent desire to procure a correct
and indefective edition of the Bible for his Welsh countrymen; therefore his
toil and labour were very great, though without any remuneration from man.
While engaged in this work, he acknowledged that he had a strong wish to live
until it was completed; “and then,” said he, “I shall willingly lay down my
head and die.” He lived to see it completed; and he expressed himself very
thankful to the Lord for having graciously spared him to witness the work finished;
and the last words ever written by him, as it is supposed, were these, with
reference to this work--“It is now finished.”
Verse 6
And he made a porch of pillars.
The porch
Since this porch was the common place of reception for all
worshippers, and the place also where they laid the beggars, it looks as if it
were to be a type of the church’s bosom for charity. Here the proselytes were
entertained, here the beggars were relieved, and received alms. These gates
were seldom shut; and the houses of Christian compassion should be always open.
This therefore beautified this gate, as charity beautifies any of the churches.
Largeness of heart, and tender compassion at the church door, is excellent; it
is the bond of perfectness (1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 13:1-4; John 5:5; John 5:7; Colossians 3:14). (John Bunyan.)
The pillars of the house of Lebanon
(1 Kings 7:6-22):--These pillars were
sweet-scented pillars, for they were made of cedar; but what cared the enemy
for that, they were offensive to him, for that they were placed for a
fortification against him. Nor is it any allurement to Satan to favour the
mighty ones in the church in the wilderness for the fragrant smell of their
sweet graces; nay, both he and his angels are the more beset to oppose them
because they are so sweet scented. The cedars, therefore, got nothing because
they were cedars at the hands of the barbarous Gentiles--for they would burn
the cedars--as the angels or pillars get nothing of favour at the hands of
Antichrist, because they are pillars and angels for the truth, yea, they so
much the more by her are abhorred. Well, but they are pillars for all that,
yea, pillars to the church in the wilderness, as the others were in the house
of the forest of Lebanon. The glory of the temple lay in one thing, and the
glory of this house lay in another; the glory of the temple lay in that she
contained the true form and modes of worship, and the glory of the house of
Lebanon lay in her many pillars and thick beams, by which she was made capable,
through good management, to give check to those of Damascus when they should
attempt to throw down her worship. (John Bunyan.)
Verses 13-51
Verse 13-14
King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre.
Hiram, the master builder
I. Hiram was a
born master builder. The influence of heredity needs no more signal
illustration. He combines his mother’s heart and his father’s mind. Strange,
that in a correspondence between Eastern kings of antiquity, with whom woman’s
fame was of less than cypher value, Hiram’s mother should be mentioned at all;
stranger still, that the premier place is given to her, implying that, while
both parents were eminent, the mother was pre-eminent. Who was she? “A woman of
the daughters of Dan” (2 Chronicles 2:13-14). The Danites
bore the brunt of all the Sidonian incursions, until, driven from hearth and home
for refuge to the hills, privation and isolation but varied the form of the
disasters that dogged them. Finally, submitting to capture or surrender, they
were taken across the border into Tyre to suffer further ignominy amid alien
surroundings. But never did the sons and daughters of Dan forget their tribal
ancestry or affinities. Their traditions and Pride became a splendid
inheritance, and their faith sustained them under the sharpest persecution.
Even their oppressors grew to respect them, and permitted them to thrive in
their midst. Hiram’s mother had the tribal grit, the unswerving courage of her
people, so that when named at the Tyrian Court, it is as “a woman of the
daughters of Dan.” And, in his letter to Solomon, Hiram the King lets drop this
bit of feminine biography that is a tribute to her fine fidelity to conscience.
Do not think that this passes in the record as of no account. You can prophesy
with tolerable certainty as to Hiram’s future when you read his mother’s story,
and you can as surely anticipate as much for every child of promise whose
mother is true to the form of faith that holds her to the people of God--call
it what you will, whether Danism or Methodism. Keep your eyes open for these
embryo workers, who are, like poets, born, not made. It is the self-constituted
man we want. It is character, and not birth, that mainly tells. The river has
its source in the mountain torrent, but the true test of its strength is in the
assimilative power with which, while preserving its identity, it absorbs its
tributaries. Therefore we judge Hiram as we would judge ourselves, at the bar
of self-examination--and he emerges from the ordeal admirable.
II. Hiram the
master builder had a mastermind.
1. He was a cunning man. When the Saxons said a man was “cunnen” they
meant that he was knowing--that he had his wits about him. And they implied
more. The root of the word obtained amongst the Latins also. It means a wedge,
and we get its signification in the word cuneated, which precisely hits off the
disposition of the man Hiram. He was a wedge-shaped man. Let opportunity give
him but the smallest conceivable opening, and in he went, especially if the
hammer of necessity but tapped home the wedge. Every Christian worker should be
of wedge-shaped character.
2. Hiram, the cunning man, was endued with understanding. To have an
understanding is to be able to get to the bottom of things; and to Re endued
with understanding, as Hiram was, is to exercise this faculty from
circumference to centre. It means that he had not only a mental bias, but also
a mental equipment, thoroughly comprehensive.
III. Hiram of the
master mind was also a master craftsman.
1. Hiram wrought in gold, to him the most precious of metals; of
supreme quality, of standard value, capable of sovereign impress, non-rusting,
non-corroding. Gold is the one mineral that does not depreciate; it is
immutable amid all change of time and circumstance; it is gold--always gold.
This he used for overlay work, for the decoration of the holy place, and for the
consecrated vessels. We, too, work in gold when we work in Divine truth. We
cannot alter the material, but do we make its presentation attractive or
repellant? Is the image and superscription of the King upon it? When we use it
in the holy place, does it shine as the wings of a seraph or an overlaid panel
would when Hiram wrought? Are the “vessels unto honour sanctified, and meet for
the Master’s use”?
2. Hiram wrought also in silver--fair and chaste. Silver is subject
to market fluctuation, but it is increased manifold in value when it receives a
sovereign impression. It is the rich man’s plenty, and the poor man’s wealth.
We, too, work in silver, when we serve in human sympathy, that is brightened by
use, and that, when beautified with the Divine likeness, as “the liquid drops
of tears that you have shed,” “brings ten times double gain of happiness.” And,
when you work your silver into the Gospel trumpet, the world will hear sounds
that for thrill and cadence will rival the music of a thousand harps.
3. Hiram wrought in brass. The word is used technically for a
compound of metals, that should be rendered bronze. It is a fusion of
copper--the only alloy with gold--and tin. And our thoughts, like the sea, must
be wide and deep, generous and cleansing. Join prayer and thought, and you will
get a spiritual amalgam of the utmost use in temple service.
4. Hiram wrought in iron, that is rough, resistant, obdurate; but in
his hands it became ductile, and exceeding serviceable. When we forge these our
wills, we, too, toil in iron. Proud, repellant, unlovely they are; yet, when,
by the grace of God, they become wrought-work, they are marvels of resource,
strength, control, support.
5. He worked upon stone, rugged and hard; but, by patient continuance
in well-doing, he formed the useful block that helped to make the temple, and
brought out upon it the
artistic form and beauty of the sculptured decoration. This is just what we do.
6. Hiram wrought upon timber, that supported the roof, that panelled
the holy place, that formed the tables for the shewbread, which was the symbol
for the bread of life.
7. Hiram wrought upon textiles, and in their subdued colours he could
see mysteries. Perhaps only mysteries; whereas, to you and me, the mysteries
seem revealed. But, small blame to the worker Hiram. It was the purpose of his
dispensation to make the marvel, and sustain it.
IV. Hiram had the
master spirit. He came to Solomon a man skilful “to grave every manner of
graving, and to find out every manner of device.” Nothing issues from his
master mind that is not a sublimely pure conception; the Divine touch glorifies
everything he fashions. That is true sacrifice; it is the master art, and you
know it to be true, for it is your Master’s art.
V. For such
service as Hiram’s, what was the reward? No man labours as he did without
recognition, for no man serves God for naught. The upraised temple; its outer
ornamentation; its inner splendour; its acknowledgment of the people; the
accepted sacrifice, and the consummate approval of the Divine presence--surely
these tokens were enough? Shall we each be a master builder? Then let us
remember that he who would seek to fulfil this high calling must have a master
mind; that he who would have the master mind must have the Master’s spirit;
that he who would have the Master’s spirit must be much in the presence of the
Master. There, amid the silences, he will hear the Master’s voice: there are
the hidden victories that overcome
the world. (J. R. Jackson.)
Verse 22
Upon the top the pillars was lily-work.
Lily-work
1. Strength. These pillars were deemed of such importance as to
deserve a name, a name for each. The one was called Jachin, which means “He
will establish”; and the other was called Boaz, which means “in strength.” The
two ideas are near akin, and together express stable strength. Why these names
were given we are not told; whether to indicate the magnitude and fixedness of
the pillars, or the stability
of the religion which was to be represented in that temple, we cannot say. But
we read--and probably in allusion to these pillars with their crowns of
lily-work--“strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.” These pillars are
symbolic, or may be considered as symbolic, of truth, not merely in the world
of grace, but in the world of nature. The world in which we live may be justly
regarded as a temple reared gradually and progressively through long ages under
the ever-active hand of the Divine Architect. But look at the order. It did not
begin with what we call beauty. No doubt every atom of it was beautiful to Him
whose eye seeth all things, but relatively to us the beauty was not at the
beginning. The strength and firmness came first. “The world is established that
it cannot be moved.” “The earth He hath established for ever.” Here, indeed,
you have the Jachin
and Boaz of our text, the two kindred and complementary ideas of “strength” and
“stability.” You have the firm, deep, compact rock, hidden for the most part
beneath your feet, or piled in massive mountains. Then in due time come the
living things, which could only live on firm foundations. Let the foundations
be destroyed, and all the beauty will perish with them; as when an earthquake
swallows in its devouring abyss gardens and orchards which were laden with the
richest flowers and the sweetest perfumes. Now man is a temple, as the earth
may be viewed as a temple. He is designed to be the temple of the Holy Ghost;
and in this temple are meant to be strength and beauty, the pillars of Jachin
and Boaz, and on their top “lily-work.” And the religion of Christ starts with
the conceptions of strength and stability. Its very first notion and
foundation-idea is that of “a stone laid in Zion, a sure foundation-stone, a
stone elect and precious.” It is a rock on which God builds His Church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Great pains are taken to set forth
this as the first idea, on which all the others depend. The same idea in
another form is found in the fact that the Gospel is called a kingdom and
therefore a thing of power and strength. The Christian, therefore, is to be,
and must be in proportion as he is a Christian, a man in whom strength and
stability are to be found in conspicuous force and play. For he is in a world
in which he cannot hold his ground without them. It is not an uncommon thing
for men of the world to look on the Christian Church as if it were a refuge for
the weaklings of the race. What is it that the Christian does which shows his
weakness? He confesses his sins; but is that weakness or is it strength when a
man is a sinner and brazens it out before the face of Almighty God? He asks for
mercy; but is that weakness when to ask for mercy is to acknowledge the
righteous claims of God? He seeks for Divine guidance; but is that a weakness
in a world like this in which it is so easy to err and lose oneself, and in
which “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps”? And what are these
robuster graces, these rocky principles of the Christian life? There must be
truth, the lip that will not lie. There must be honour and justice, which will
not swerve to the right hand or left from fear or for reward. These things
there must be as the primary formation at the basis of a Christian life. The
pillar of the Christian character must be upright whatever else it be, and
sound in its structure from base to capital and from side to side. Jachin and
Boaz were of this character.
2. Beauty. We have looked at the elements of strength, let us now
glance at the elements of beauty as set forth in the lily-work which crowned
and glorified the heads of the two columns. As we have seen, the world itself
has grown up from strength to beauty. Hiram did not invent his decorations.
They were furnished to his hand from another and more skilful hand. “Behold the
lilies of the field, how they grow,” etc. He borrowed his art from nature, that
is, from God, from whom, indeed, all the noblest and purest art has ever been
borrowed, and must be to the end of time. The Greeks, pagan though they were,
seem to have seized this secret with a firm hand, for their name for the world
was “Beauty.” They saw beauty everywhere, and they saw it because it was there.
They saw what God had seen before them, and had put there that it might be seen
by them. Oh, what infinite beauty there must be in the Divine nature, seeing
that all the beauty of the world comes from it as from a fountain, and still
comes from year to year! And just as the world has grown from strength to
beauty, and just as the pillars of Jachin and Boaz were not finished till their
capitals bloomed, as it were, in “lily-work,” so must it be with a true human
life and character. This is not completed without its capital, a capital which
need not be of lily-work, but must be the reproduction of some Divine flower.
It is a still more mournful imperfection and defect when men are dead to the
sense of what is beautiful in the moral and religious life. And some are thus
dead. They believe, and they do well to believe, in the sterner qualities of
that life. They believe in the firm grit of character, granitic compactness and
strength. They like the heroic nerve which never shakes, the eye which blenches
at no danger, the tongue which can utter boldly unwelcome words to an age which
needs them though it hates them, the valiant courage which dares not lie, but
dares to die. These are the only forms of character for which they care. They
have a touch about them of stern sublimity, like bold headlands that shatter
the waves into spray, or mountains that challenge and defy the storms of
heaven. Still it must be repeated that Christian character is very incomplete
until it rises up to the efflorescence which crowns strength with beauty. It
may be thought that the two are incompatible, that you may have your choice
between men whose characteristics are those of strength or those of beauty, but
you cannot have them both in one. But this is a mistake. We have them both in
one, and in perfect union and harmony in Him who is the Son of man, and the
type of that perfect humanity which by His redemptive work He came to create.
The full, true man was Christ, and to become a perfect man in Christ is to
become transformed into His image, and to re-embody in ourselves all the
elements of His character. And what were these elements? Were they not strength
and beauty? Now, the more tender, gracious, and softer aspects of the Christian
life are to find their authority, inspiration, and nourishment in the example
and work of our blessed Lord. And if you read the Epistles carefully, you will
observe how deeply their writers had drunk into the spirit of their Lord. The
strength is there, and also the beauty. We are not to lie, to defraud; we are
to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul; we are to endure
hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ; we are to put on the whole armour of
God, to watch, to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, These
ideas form the pillar of the Christian life. But the lily-work is also set forth
again and again. “Be kind one to
another, tender-hearted, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another,
even as God in Christ hath forgiven you.” “Above all things, have fervent
charity among yourselves, which is the bond of perfectness.” “Bear ye one
another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” “Be courteous.” “Use
hospitality one towards another without grudging.” It is not enough to speak
the truth, we must speak it in love. It is not enough to be just, the justice
must be tempered with compassion. (E. Mellor, D. D.)
Lily-work
In the porch of this building were two pillars, strength and
“beauty.” Even they, besides their immediate purpose, would suggest meanings to
the reverent observer. Solomon was not what we should call a utilitarian. The
pillars could and Should be made beautiful as well as useful. People might say,
“Why this waste?” But he did not think it waste at all, and he was right. God
has given to some men special genius for things of beauty, men like Aholiab and
Bezaleel and Hiram. And such genius can hardly be better employed than in
making God’s house beautiful. But the temple was used by prophets and by
apostles as a type of the great spiritual church. And do not these pillars,
divinely designed, in the material temple, bring home to ministers and all
church officers, the pillars of our churches, some qualities which they also
should possess?
I. Essential
qualities.
1. Strength. The pillars had to uphold, to give security to the
building. They must be strong enough to sustain the weight which is to rest
upon them. So pillars of the church should be strong men, with a faith in God
which makes them upright, reliable characters. They should be men who do not
need propping and persuading, but with an independent and tenacious strength.
2. Soundness. Some hidden flaw in a pillar might one day be the cause
of disaster to the whole edifice. The discovery of a serious flaw in the moral
character of a leading man in a church has sometimes wrought irremediable
mischief.
3. Suitable and staunch material. Any substance will not do for a
pillar. Wood will not. It is not stern enough, and it is liable to catch fire.
But it would be madness to use unseasoned wood for such a purpose. So all
members are not made for pillars. There needs endurance and firmness. A pillar
must always be there--should uphold his church in good report and evil report,
should be present whenever possible, night as well as morning, week-night as
well as Sunday. This steadiness and fidelity is an invaluable quality in a pillar.
Between the pillars Hiram made five mouldings in imitation of pomegranates.
There should be a connection of mutual trust and reciprocal courtesies between
the officers of a church. Now on the top of the pillars was lily-work.
II. Non-essential
but very desirable qualities. The lily-work did not add to the strength of the
pillar. There have been very useful pillars of the church who had little enough
lily-work about them. But these men would have been still more useful if their
characters had been winsome too. A church is not like a prison. It needs to
attract men. For this it should be beautiful as well as strong. (David
Brook, M. A.)
Strength and beauty
I. God finds room
for strength and beauty. Is it not by these that God makes the world what it is to us? The
rugged rock affords a home for the soft mosses and the plumes of ferns as if
these things paid for board and lodging by their adorning. The trees with roots
thrust deep into the earth, with thick black branches, stretching into
heaven--how are they decked with the leaves, and how are they now gay with
blossoms and now rich with fruit, Strength and beauty. Is it not the very
picture and the very perfection of the home? Here comes the man stained and
soiled by his day’s toil; and here is she who keeps home sweet and clean, and
makes his heart bless her as he sets foot within the place. Strength and
beauty--yet more complete if possible as the toiling father and the busy mother
bend over the little one that looks and laughs its music at them. So God blesses
the world with strength and beauty.
II. First strength,
then beauty. The constant emblem of our religion is the rock. The house built
upon the rock, against which the winds blow and rains beat, but the house
abides, for that its foundation standeth sure. The Church of God is built upon
the rock, the Rock of Ages, that abideth for ever. Religion is not a matter of
sentiment, of feeling, of changeful emotion. It is rooted and grounded in the
everlasting Word of the living God. What triumphant strength is begotten within
the soul when it can cry, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that
He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” That
first, always and everywhere--strength. Is there anything in the world more miserable
than religion without any bones, a thing that you can squeeze into any shape
you like?--religious sentiment that can talk piously and yet is not exact in
its sayings and doings, that can be particular about its creed, and yet
slipshod in business? There are some people who affect to despise beauty, and
consider it a weakness. “Give me a brass pillar,” say they, “solid and
substantial. I don’t want any nonsensical lily-work about the top of it.” Now
such people may do much harm in the world--more harm than good. Strength and
beauty--how shall we combine the two? In one way, and in one way only. Love is
both. He that loveth hath the secret. For is there any strength like love? Is
there any endurance like love’s? Is there any defiance like the defiance of
love? Love is strength and love is beauty. And love is ours as nothing else
could make it ours but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is love
compelling love that sustains our strongest service and our tenderest thought.
How graciously are these two combined in that word concerning Jesus Christ: “As
many as received Him to them gave He power to become the children of God.”
Authority and strength to become children, simple, trustful, loving, obedient.
Strong that we may be made beautiful. Thus doth our God seek to make us pillars
in His temple, strong with His strength, beautiful with the beauty of the Lord
our God. (M. G. Pearse.)
Strength and beauty
I. The handiwork
of God in the wide field of nature. The rocky steeps of the mountain are belted
with pines; the rivers that fertilise the soft nourish the flowers which grow
on their banks; “the great wide sea” is often surpassingly lovely on its
surface, and there are beautiful-corals in its depths, brilliant shells on Its
shores; on the broad, unmeasured plains and moors are the blue-bell and the
purple heather. If this earth be a temple in which God manifests His presence,
His wisdom, and His power, then are the mighty and massive objects upon it the
pillars of that temple, and all exquisite and delicate things are the flowers
His hand has fashioned upon them. We have it also in--
II. The Gospel of
Jesus Christ. In the Gospel are many mighty and massive truths which may be
said to be the very pillars of the sacred edifice: such as the leading truth
that “God Is a Spirit,” etc.; but in close connection with these great and
solid truths is that which is exquisite, delicate, beautiful. Such is the truth
that the faintest whisper of prayer that comes from the lips of the little
child may enter the ear and touch the hand of God, and bring down His
benediction; or that the first sigh of the relenting human spirit is dearer to
the Father’s heart than the finest anthems of the angels; or that the
cherishing of a pure feeling of forgiveness or the doing one act of real
peace-making brings us further into the likeness and childhood of God than
would the accomplishment of the most brilliant intellectual achievement.
III. Christian
character. We have in our churches strong men, helpful, influential,
sustaining--men who are pillars. They may be strong in virtue of adventitious
aids, or of natural endowments, or of acquired, powers, or of spiritual
acquisition: and these “pillars” may be either as beams m a mine, rude, rough,
unpolished; or they may be as the fluted columns of a cathedral, as these
pillars of Solomon’s temple with lily-work on the top of them.
IV. Christian
service. The worship of God, the service of Jesus Christ, is the power for good
in human society; it upholds the goodness and the happiness of the world. Its
strength and its beauty are determined partly by the stage to which we here
come in our Christian course.
1. The strength of service in age is in submission, willingness to
decline, to take the lower
place, to be of diminishing account; and the beauty of submission is
cheerfulness of spirit.
2. The strength of service in prime is in activity, in usefulness, in
putting out our “talents” for the glory of Christ and the well-being of the
world; and the beauty of activity is thoroughness, regularity, punctuality,
heartiness, doing effectively and continuously what has been undertaken.
3. The strength of service in childhood and youth is obedience and
self-denial; and the beauty of this is alacrity, promptness, rendering it not
tardily and reluctantly, but readily and sweetly, with willing feet and
cheerful voice. It is well to have strength and beauty in our Christian
buildings; it is far better, in the estimate of Christ, to have these two
harmoniously combined in the character we are forming and the life we are
living. (W. Clarkson.)
Strength and beauty in character
In this divinely planned structure I know of nothing outside the
Holy of Holies more impressive than the pillars built by Hiram. These were of
the finest brass, of great height, splendid in symmetry and crowned with
lilies. It is a law of art that the most perfect and enduring effects are
produced by the combination of things unlike each other. A painter throws into
his picture the darkest shadows that he may intensify his clearest lights. A sculptor
carves for the top of his columns capitals of delicate design, An architect
relieves the heavy masonry of his walls with items of exquisite device and
forms of sculptured beauty. God Himself is our original teacher; for whilst He
“setteth fast the mountains, being girded with power,” He hath woven around
their summits tender vines and rooted in their crevices sweet scented flowers
that warmly clasp and colour the cold grey cliffs. That widow’s son from Tyre
was not a stranger to this alliance, and so wrought his pillars as to adorn the
sanctuary of the Highest with both strength and beauty. Observe that the
strength was first and the beauty of lilies afterward. We have here the
uplifting of those two qualites which are worshipped by the soul of man the
world over. Power and beauty alike win his homage, but not unfrequently he
yields himself to that which is but the sham of strength, and renders service
to that which has but the semblance of beauty; to power ungifted with love, and
to beauty unadorned by holiness. It is the lie of the world, often uttered and
often believed, that the righteous must needs be the weak and the pure the
uncomely. God declares the right to be the only strong, and the good, the only
beautiful. The power that enters human life to rule it within and without must
be a power of conquest, having the inherent qualities of stability. Man is born
in battle. His cradle is rocked by his own strugglings. His history is that of
a shifting factor in a shifting world. He can neither command himself nor
control his surroundings. Antagonisms swarm on his path. Struggling alone, he
can have but one experience: the shame that comes of perpetual impotency and
the confusion that arises from continued defeat. Sooner or later he learns this
truth, that “all power is of God,” and that the strength that conquers for the
spiritual--that takes hold of eternal things and abides, that elevates life
into firmness of character and adorns it with real beauty, is possible only
through the patient, helpful, regenerative ministry of Jesus Christ. (R. W.
Davis.)
Strength and beauty
1. The Divinity of labour. Hiram, who wrought these pillars, was the
son of a widow in Tyre. To him labour was a divinely ordered force, which a man
took into his life and into his faculties, and which taught him that he was a
workman, not simply for himself, or for some taskmaster, who was set over him
to watch him; but that he was a workman for God, and that the fidelity of his
toil must represent the purity of his worship. Whether he sculptured a column,
carved lilies, drove a nail, or set the plough in the furrow, he believed he
was doing a Divine thing. The curse of labour to-day is that men have lost God
out of it. The highest conception of Christianity is the idea that Christianity
can get itself down into the ordinary processes of life, can find a God there,
and, grasping the details of things, can change them and beautify them as life
goes on; that no matter what our work may be, it is worship, and if faithfully
done, every day that comes and goes will leave behind it something in the
reservoir of life, some deposit of character which, when all days are over,
shall constitute our treasure laid up in heaven.
2. Beauty without strength. In our day there is a great desire for
the lily work without the pillars, a vain longing for the graces of life and
for the beauties of character without the supporting power of truth and duty.
There are thousands of men who would like the virtues of the fathers, but who
do not want the faith which made them virtuous. They would like to have
reproduced in their life the qualities of soul which marked the early
Christians, the Reformers, and the Puritans; but not their sturdy faith, nor
their tenacity of conviction, not their majestic conscience or their tremendous
hold on things unseen. They want the simplicity and affection of the Waldenses,
but not their
faith in God; the audacity and fearlessness of John Knox and Oliver Cromwell,
without their vivid sense of the Divine Presence; the morality of John Robinson
and Miles Standish, without their heroic creed; the integrity of Washington and
Lincoln, without their trust in a sustaining and over-ruling God. Mothers are
anxious that their daughters should shine in every social accomplishment; that
their sons should be men of talent and of skill; that their homes should be
beautiful with music and art and all kindly grace. But they are not so
solicitous about the solid foundations of character. The spirit of the time is
to dwell on the surface. To dig deep is to contradict the age. Glittering
pinnacles on insecure foundations! Remember all skaters are not navigators. It
is one thing to skim the surface of a pond, and quite another to sail upon the
angry deep. The twittering sparrow has as many wings as the eagle, but he
cannot dip them in the glory which burns just beneath the sun. A candle is not
a comet. The keels of mighty ships are not built of mushrooms. Depth of
character first, not ornament, is to be sought for. In house building digging
must precede decoration. You do not begin with the painter and the gilder, but
with the stone-layer. A pasteboard hut is not a castle, it will be borne away
by the mocking winds. It is dangerous to reckon the virtues of a man’s
character by buttons on his coat, for some are all coat and no character. The
looking-glass is the only book some people read. They are splendid
advertisements for their tailor, but a sorry disgrace to their schoolmaster.
Never mistake the mystery of an echo for the originality of a voice.
3. The foundation of faith. I tell you the quickest way to produce a
sweet and beautiful life, either individual or national, is by placing
underneath it a strong, unwavering faith. “The Parthenon, which lifts toward
the golden-tinted sky the whiteness of its untarnished front, must repose on
the immovable Acropolis of truth and goodness.” The modern professor of fine
arts, who prefers form and finish to substance and thought, who, forgetting all
that is greatest in architecture and sculpture, in painting and music and
poetry, asserts that ethics and aesthetics have nothing in common, who prates
about “art for art’s sake,”
who scorns the teaching of Schelling that the aesthetic lies in character, and
of Dante that art is a descendant of God, is the apostle of the unwholesome,
the tawdry, and the lustful, the art of literary fops and the disciples of what
Carlyle called the gospel and the philosophy of dirt. But the highest art,
which lifts us to the joy of elevated thoughts as in imagination we watch the
hand that pencilled Madonna, or the greater--
Hand
that rounded Peter’s dome,
And
groined the aisles of Christian Rome,
is always found the friend and promoter of truth and goodness, of
aspiration and of faith. “The highest art,” as Professor Blackie has said, “is
always the most religious. A scoffing Raphael or an irreverent Michael Angelo
is not conceivable.” We must have the strength first, and beauty afterward. It
is disaster to reverse this order--to try to get beauty and then have strength.
The magnificent Brooklyn Bridge, when viewed at a distance, is a beautiful
poem. But the beauty is dependent on the strength of mighty abutments which
reach down far below the river bed, and take hold of the foundations of the
earth. In everything, both artistic and moral, strength is the stalk; beauty is
the flower that blooms on it.
4. Divine deliberation. The Almighty shows great deliberation in all
His works. Haste, a hurry, fussy activity is always an evidence of weakness.
The six days of creation may have been six sunsets or six millenniums; but the
days moved slowly and majestically forward toward man as a child of God’s
infinite Spirit, and in that result the process finds its climax and its
justification. If God pronounces each of these days of creation to be very
good, it is because He beholds them in the unclouded light of that seventh
glorious morning when He finds Himself not Creator merely, but, since He can commune
with a spirit kindred to His own, finds Himself a Father of immortals. Study
the bases of the mountains and the foundations of the everlasting hills. He who
is girded with power has settled them in their sockets unchangingly. Then He
gave the earth beauty, the forests and ferns, the waving grasses and the
flowers. And the young woman who concentrates all her life on attitudes,
effects, sensations, impressions, striving to get the ornamentation, oblivious
to the sterling, splendid qualities that should be wrought into the womanly
character--she asks only for lilies. But there are no lilies worth having that
do not come out of columns. If you were to knock the pillars from under the
globe, where would your flower-gardens be next morning? We have most excellent
illustrations of strength and beauty in the study of two national
characteristics--Hebraism and Hellenism. It is in the ultimate realisation of a
union of the Hebraistic and Hellenistic elements that ultimate perfection is to
be found; the son of Abraham is to join hands with the son of Hellas. The
Hebrew furnished the indispensable basis of faith, of conduct, of self-control;
the immovable foundation upon which alone the perfection aimed at by Greece was
to come to bloom. The Hebrew Bible is not wanting in suggestions of the radiant
beauty of God’s thoughts and works, but there the beauty is subordinate to morality,
it is a blossom on the stalk of strength. As the indestructible azure in sea
and sky, as the golden ghory of the sunshine, so this characteristic of beauty
shines forth from strength all through the Bible, immortal in God.
5. God’s love of beauty. There are qualities aside from strength and
truth and courage that every life ought to cultivate. We see that He who
setteth fast the mountains also garnishes the heavens and the hills. Charles
Kingsley used to say, “Study matter as the countenance of God.” “Strength and
beauty are in His sanctuary.” And
God wants beauty incorporated into religion. Strength and beauty
have been divinely joined--what God hath joined together let no man put
asunder.
6. The transforming power of beauty. Beauty dwells in and finds its
basis in strength, as sunshine breaks into glory through the mist, as life
beats and blushes in the flesh, as an impassioned thought breathes out of a
thinker’s face. There are numberless analogies in human life--if we could stop
to consider them--of the way in in which one life can influence another by the
impartation of strength or beauty. Here is a man who has been always stern,
truthful, moral, cold--a human pillar. Some day he loves a noble woman, full of
all womanly and lovely graces. That transforms and transfigures him. Under her
influence his sternness flowers into grace. And Tennyson shows us how the ideal
union will be that one where--
The
man is more of woman, she of man;
He
gain in sweetness and in moral height,
Nor
lose the wrestling thews that throw the world;
Till
at the last she set herself to man,
Like
perfect music unto noble words.
With every man the real man is the woman he carries in his heart.
He is her strength; she is his grace. He upholds; she adorns. The one is the
complement of the other. History is full of the names of men who had strength;
how few there are who had both strength and beauty. I shall never forget the
lessons I learned at the tombs of two men born in almost the same year, men
equally though differently famous--Napoleon Bonaparte and Walter Scott.
Napoleon was born two years before Scott, in the same month and on the same day
of the month, August 15. The years passed by. Both do their work and die. I
have stood under the “Column of Napoleon,” built by himself from twelve hundred
pieces of cannon taken from the Austrian and the Prussian, and crowned with a
statue of the emperor in his imperial robes, and I could not help contrasting
it with that noble monument in Edinburgh, not built by Scott to commemorate his
own glory, but by the generosity and love of his fellow-countrymen to honour
one they loved. And when I stood at the tomb of that great soldier, guarded by
the stained flags of so many battlefields, arranged in his fated number of
nine, I could but think how many burning cities had been laid waste, with
suffering and starving populace, and all for one man’s glory. How different
from all this hollow mockery and fictitious grandeur is the hallowed peace of
St. Mary’s ruined aisle in the Abbey of Dryburgh. In May 1871 the “Column of
Napoleon” was hurled to the ground by his own infuriated countrymen, though
since rebuilt. And in the same year Scott’s magnificent monument at Edinburgh
was wreathed with flowers. Napoleon had only strength, and lives mainly in the
recollection of the ruin he wrought and his blasted ambitions. Scott had both
strength and beauty. He did something good and lasting for mankind. His life
was a real blessing to humanity. He never wrote an impure or hateful or
revengeful word. Amid crushing financial disaster he kept his temper and his
faith in God.
7. Goodness and grace. As all adornment of life finds its basis in
truth, it is equally necessary that all truth should find expression in a noble
life, that all the pillars should blossom at last in lily work. Nature is full
of genuine reality as one true existence, yet manifested in the endless variety
with which the earth teems. There is the solemn, stately mountain standing in
its serene strength--but upon the mountain nature takes up endless incarnations
of loveliness. The bird sings, the lily blossoms, the sunbeam dances, the brook
flashes--and they are all one, while yet our eyes and ears and all our senses
are tingling with the tidings of the difference which they always express. The
mountain, the ocean, and the man--first strong each in its own way, and then
each beautiful with the superadded things, great and gracious. That is what
makes life so full of fascination to the man who has eyes--the eternal,
undivided unity of strength, of permanence, of Divine stability, ever unfolding
itself “into one glory of the sun, and another glory of the stars,” and all
together fill the radiant sky. And when Paul comes to speak of the flowering of
Christian character, he shows how healthy and rational he is when he says it is
a change from glory to glory. (F. L. Goodspeed, A. B. , S. T.
B.)
The lotus
The lily referred to as adorning the capitals of Solomon’s temple
pillars was the lotus or water-lily. Graceful in form and delicately beautiful
in colour, serenely floating on the surface of the rising Nile, the sacred
Ganges, and inland lakes of the old world, apparently anchored to the soft yet
rising and falling with the flood, and opening its peerlessly fair petals to
the sun, the mystic ship-flower of the waters naturally found a place in the
ornamental symbolism of every temple-building race. To the Egyptians it was a
token of blessing because it appeared with the annual overflow of the Nile, a
type of immortality, of the creation of the world, of the Deluge and the Ark,
and other sacred mysteries. It adorned and finished the capitals of Jachin and
Boaz in Jehovah’s temple at Jerusalem. It was an emblem of purity. Over the
gateway of the temple of Phocis was written, “Let no one enter here whose hands
are unclean.” David says, “I will wash my hands in innocency: so will I compass
Thine altar, O Jehovah.” Purity of heart and life was the lesson of the lily
work over the pillars of God s house in Solomon’s day, as it is in ours. (W.
Balgarnie.)
Simplicity in decoration
The character of sublimity is chaste and simple. In the arts
dependent on design, if the artist aim at this character, he must disregard all
trivial decorations, nor must the eye be distracted by a multiplicity of parts.
In architecture there must be few divisions of the principal members of the
building, and the parts must be large and of ample relief; there must be a
modesty of decoration, contemning all minuteness of ornament, which distracts
the eye that ought to be filled with the general mass and with the proportions
of the greater parts to each other. In this respect the Doric is confessedly
superior to all the other orders of architecture, as it unites strength and
majesty with a becoming simplicity, and the utmost symmetry of proportions. (Tytler’s
History.)
Alliance of strength with beauty
Beauty is ever seen to best advantage in its natural alliance with
strength. The lotus on the river, the dove in the cleft of the rock, the wife
by her husband’s side at church, the infant in the parent’s arms, the voices of
young men and maidens . . . blended, in harmony in the praise of the sanctuary,
the wrestling power and child-like pleading at the throne, the force and
tenderness of the Gospel, are combinations in nature and grace that are doubtless
intended to teach us how all forms of strength may become beautiful, and all
that is beautiful may become strong. Is it not when our Lord is seen in the
might of His Deity and the peerless beauty of His humanity that He becomes to
us all our salvation and all our desire? God in Christ is Omnipotence become
beautiful to us in its condescension and love; Christ in God is our security
and strength. When at last the Bridegroom shall come to take his Bride to
Himself, and the Church puts on “her beautiful garments” to receive Him, when
they enter the Father’s house together, then strength and beauty in their
completeness will be seen in the sanctuary. On the top of the pillars there
will be lily work, and the work of the pillars will be finished. (W. Balgarnie.)
Sensitive to the beautiful
I am sorry for persons who always see the bad first, and the good
last, or never. Whether it be in art, or whether it be the conduct of affairs,
or whether it be in social life, one should know what is harmony and what is discord, what
is straight and what is crooked, what is right and what is wrong. A man that is
strongly sensitive to the beautiful, and true, and right, is in a healthy
condition of mind--and health is the most beautiful thing in the world. In the
plant, in its place; in the animal, in its place; in society, in its place; in
all parts of the mental economy, a healthy, normal condition--that is the thing
which is the most beautiful, and which ought to be the most attractive. (H.
W. Beecher.)
Character attractive
Character is not determined by a single act, but by habitual
conduct, says the Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D. It is a fabric made up
of thousands of threads, and put together by uncounted stitches. Some
characters are stoutly sewed, others are only basted. A Christian ought not
only to have his spiritual garments well sewed, but kept clean--in fact, as a
representative of Jesus Christ, he ought to present such an attractive apparel
before the world that others should say to him: “Where did you get this? I want
one just like it.”
Verse 50
Snuffers.
Snuffers
(Children’s service):--You smile at such a text, and no wonder!
But snuffers were very useful in the temple; they kept the lights trim and
bright.
1. Now you see what snuffers are for; they are for making a dull
light shine brighter. When the candle has been burning for some time it seems
to get dull and drowsy, then “snap” go the snuffers, and the light gets bright!
There are snuffers which do that for boys and girls, and men and women, too,
for that matter. There was that sum you worked out on your slate. It was all
wrong. What did the master do? Rub it all out. That was the snap of the
snuffers. It made you brighter; you took more care over your sums next time.
You see these men lopping the trees? Why do they do that? To make them bear
more fruit. The
trees are the better for the sharp snuffers--and so are you. Never be
discouraged.
2. Sometimes you are the snuffers. There’s your little brother, for
instance, he isn’t half so wise as you, and sometimes he makes mistakes. Put
him right; but take care how you use the snuffers. If you use them carelessly
you may put out the light altogether. What I mean is this--you may so
discourage him that he won’t have any heart to try to do better. Therefore, use
the snuffers gently. Don’t call him “stupid,” or ridicule him. Remember, God
wants your light to shine that others may get blessing by it; so you must
expect Him now and again to trim it. By one way or other He tries to trim our
light that it may shine the brighter. Think of this when any trouble comes: God
wants to make use of it to make you braver, better, purer. (J. Reid Howatt.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》