his servant's wish, because he had been a man of war. David did not, however, give up all thoughts of the temple of the Lord, because he found he could not build it himself. No; his heart and his affections were still upon the house of his God, and he was determined to have some share in so delightful a work: therefore he did all he could, during the rest of his reign, towards laying up materials for the building of the temple, putting aside for that purpose a great portion of all the treasures which he took from his enemies.

But in the latter part of his life, when all his wars were over, and when he had in some degree recovered from the bitter sorrows he had to endure, he set to work in good earnest, doing all he could towards getting together every thing proper for so great a work. And first of all he desired his servants to gather together all the strangers in the land, that is, all those who had come over to the religion of Israel, and who were, probably, more clever in the works which he wanted to have done; and he set masons from among them to hew wrought stone to build the house of God. And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings, and brass in abundance without weight; also cedar-trees in abundance; for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar-wood to David. Now king David did all this, because he thought that his son Solomon, who was to be king after him, was young and tender, and would scarcely be fit to undertake so great a work immediately upon coming to the throne. Besides, he had great ideas about the sort of house that ought to be built for the Lord, saying

“ The palace is not for man, but for the Lord God; and the house that is builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical,” such as should be spoken of throughout all countries for its glory and its beauty; and he said, “I will, therefore, now make preparations for it.” So David prepared abundantly before his death, even with all his might for the house of his God; and he got together great quantities of all the materials proper for the work; even gold for the things which he meant to be made of gold, and silver for the things of silver, and brass for the things of brass, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistening stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. And because he had set his affections very greatly upon the house of his God, a great deal of all the riches which he got together were given out of his own possessions; even vast quantities of the gold of Ophir, and of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the house. Nor was he contented with what he could do himself, but he exhorted all the princes and great people in Israel, to give plentifully towards so good a work; and they, led by the example of their king, brought large and willing offerings for the temple of the Lord.

What a beautiful part of David's character is seen here! How can we enough admire the piety of this holy man; his exceeding love to God, and the delight which he took in honouring him? Happy David! How pleasing his conduct must have been in the sight of that God whom he loved so much! How blessed his latter days, spent as they were in so delightful a work!

I am sure you must admire David; and, perhaps, you wonder a little at the vast treasures of rich and valuable things, which he set apart for the temple of God. But you must not be content merely to admire what you read of holy men in old time; you must make it your endeavour to imitate them.

E. But, mamma, I cannot do as David did, for I am not rich and great as he was.

M. True, my child, you cannot do exactly the same things which he did; you cannot command the gold of Ophir ; but you may, by God's grace, do better than all this. You may love God as he did, and desire in all things, like him, to glorify God: and sometimes, it may be, you may have opportunities of contributing, in like manner, to God's glory, by giving of your money to advance his religion, and to spread the kingdom of his dear Son, a work far more glorious in reality than the building of that splendid temple of which we have been reading. For Christ was the true and living temple of God, the true tabernacle which the Almighty pitched among men, and he is pleased to give the like name to his Church also, which he vouchsafes to look upon as his own body, one with himself. By his Church, I mean the great company of Christians throughout the world, who are called in Scripture, “a temple of the Most High, a habitation of God through the Spirit;" and there is nothing more glorious than to help in building up this temple, as we may do by giving our assistance to Christian schools and good societies, which are rightly employed in this great work. But above all, we must keep in mind that we ourselves, even each separate Christian, are called in the Bible, living

stones in this spiritual house, which is built up upon Christ, to offer up the spiritual sacrifices of love and thanksgiving, and obedience; sacrifices which God loves better than offerings of the greatest riches, and which he is pleased to accept through Jesus Christ. Remember this, and be careful always to live worthy of the honour which Christ has done you in thus making you a member of his own body-his holy Church.

E. Mamma, I did not like to interrupt you before, but may I ask you now, what is meant by the gold of Ophir? Where is Ophir ?

M. You are asking me rather a difficult question, Edward; for there have been great disputes, among learned men as to where this place really lay. Some say it was the island of Socotra, at the entrance of the Straits of Babelmandel; some think it was an island in the Red Sea, which yielded abundance of gold.

By the Red Sea, I do not now mean the Arabian Gulf between Africa and Arabia, which is the one commonly called by that name, but the great Southern Ocean, which extends between India and Africa, and washes up to the coast of Arabia and Persia, where it is said to get a reddish colour from the bright rays of the sun in that hot climate: for which reason it was called the Red Sea. Some have thought that the island of Ceylon, and others that the island of Sumatra, was the Ophir spoken of in Scripture; and others again suppose Ophir to have been the southern part of Arabia. For this country is known to have yielded, in those days, vast quantities of gold; such quantities as have never been found in any other part of the world. One old writer tells us, that the in

habitants of this part of Arabia had gold in such abundance, that they would gladly give it in exchange for other metals; that for iron, they would give twice the weight of it in gold : for brass, three times the weight; and ten times the weight for silver. Besides these, some persons have thought that Ophir was Sofala on the south-east coast of Africa ; because this country was so famous for its rich mines of gold and silver, that it used to be called by the writers of the East," the golden Sofala.” And it abounded at the same time with those other choice commodities, which Solomon's ships afterwards brought from Ophir.

Now king David began a great trade through the Red Sea and the Straits of Babelmandel, not only to the coast of Africa on the west, but also to those of Arabia and Persia and India on the east, so that he might easily have got the gold of Ophir, even if Ceylon, Sumatra, or Sofala were the place which bore that name. But he could have got it in a much shorter time from the southern part of Arabia : for in those days a voyage from the Red Sea to India took up three whole years, which is a great reason for supposing that he got it nearer home; that is, that it was really brought him from Arabia, and not from the other places I have mentioned. Arabia abounded also with precious stones, so that it was here most likely that David got not only his gold of Ophir, but the onyx stones, and stones to be set, the glistening stones, and all manner of precious stones and marble in abundance, which he collected for the temple of God.

E. And now, mamma, do just tell me what sort of stone the onyx was.