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was used for the temple of the Lord; and the servants of king Solomon, that is to say, the strangers that dwelt in the land and served him, and who, as I said before, were more skilful in such work than the Hebrews, they hewed and prepared the stones, and brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house. Four and twenty thousand of Solomon's servants were employed in hewing stones only; and three thousand three hundred of his chief officers were placed over them, to see that the work was properly done.

The costly stones, here spoken of, were, probably, valuable marble stones, found in the mountains of Judea.

These preparations for the temple took king Solomon several years; but as soon as every thing was ready, he began to build the temple on which both his father and himself had set their hearts so much. At Jerusalem he began to build it in the fourth year of his reign ; and the spot which he chose for it was Mount Moriah ; that very mountain, where, as I am sure you remember well, the faithful Abraham offered up his only son.

And now, Edward, that you may better understand what kind of building the temple of Solomon was, I must tell you, that he made it almost exactly like the tabernacle, which had been built by Moses in the wilderness. God gave the pattern of the tabernacle to Moses in the Mount; and God also gave David the pattern of the temple, putting into his heart, by his Holy Spirit, an exact idea of the manner in which he wished that house to be built, in which he not only himself intended to dwell, but which he meant

to be a kind of pattern of things in the heavens : a building, which in its different parts should be a figure or picture of the spiritual things which were afterwards to be made known by the Gospel of Christ. This pattern, received from God himself, was, as you may easily believe, given most carefully by king David to his son Solomon: and as if he thought that Solomon would be afraid of undertaking a work which, if made by the pattern given by God, must be so difficult, he entreated Solomon to be of good courage, and not to fear, lest he should not do so glorious a work well; for that God would certainly be with him to help and bless him in that which he had given him to do.

I said that the temple was to be, in many respects, like that tabernacle, which Moses had made in the wilderness of Sinai; but it was the same only in the pattern; for it was much larger, much more solid and lasting, and a great deal more magnificent. The tabernacle, beautiful as it was, being only a moveable tent enclosed with curtains ; whereas the temple was a building of stone or marble.

Like the tent, however, that was pitched in the wilderness, the temple was divided into two parts ;—the first or outer part, called the holy place, where the priests carried on the worship and service of God, and into which none but the priests were allowed to enter; the second or innermost part, called the holy of holies, which was the most sacred part of the building, where none but the high-priest ever tered, and that but once a year, to offer sacrifices for his own sins and the sins of the people. Besides

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these, there was a porch or entrance to the first part or holy place.

The temple was surrounded by three courts : first was the court of the priests, in which were chambers for their own use, and others for preparing the sacrifices, and laying up what was necessary for the use of the temple. About this court was another larger one for the people, called the court of Israel : here the people used to pray each apart by himself for the pardon of their sins, whilst the priests offered up those sacrifices which were meant to point out the one great sacrifice, which our Redeemer was to make, without which there could be no pardon for sin.

About this court again there was another, called the court of the Gentiles or proselytes, because they were allowed to worship there, but to go no further.

E. Who were the Gentiles, mamma? I never heard of them.

M. The Israelites or Jews had, as you know, been chosen from among all the rest of the world to be the people of God, and all the other nations were called Gentiles. The Gentile proselytes were those Gentiles or heathens, who had learnt from the Jews to worship the true God; and this court, of which I was speaking, was kept for their use.

Such, Edward, was the form of the temple; but you will have a better idea of it, if you bring the Family Bible, and look at the drawing of it that is given us there. This is all, I am afraid, that we shall have time to do to-night. Next Sunday, I hope to tell you how king Solomon got on in this interesting work,

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY EVENING.

THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE.

M. LAST Sunday, Edward, I endeavoured to give you some account of the form of the temple built by Solomon; but how will it be possible for me to give you any, even the most faint, idea of its magnificence? You have already heard of the costly and beautiful things which David and Solomon had collected together for the building of this temple. I must now tell you, as well as I can, how all these rich materials were employed.

But, first, I must mention how, in his respect for the house of God, Solomon would not allow any noise to attend the building of it, but had all the stones and other materials made ready before they were brought to the spot, so that there was nothing remaining, when they arrived there, but to join them together, which was done very quickly with little trouble and scarcely any noise; so that "there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building." Let us now go on to the different parts of the temple, which I told you of before, and see in what manner they were made.

And first there was a splendid porch or entrance, overlaid within with pure gold, and opening into the sanctuary or holy place by a large portal or gate, in which was a magnificent veil or curtain.

Then came the sanctuary itself, in which there was much to strike the eye with wonder and admiration. There was the lofty roof, overlaid with fine gold, and

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