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We, therefore, need to be " expert," "not ignorant of the devices" of our great enemy (2 Cor. ii. 11). And in order to this, we must be trained under our great Leader and Captain : Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight" (Psalm exliv. 1, 2; Psalm xviii. 32; &c.). We must be clothed in the "whole armour" he has provided for us (Eph. vi. 13 ; &c.), carefully remembering also, that "no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life” (2 Tim. ii. 3, 4). We bear sadly too little of the soldier's life and character about with us, though it is the one so especially belonging to us as members of Christ's Church militant here upon earth. The sword should be ever in hand.

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Every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.”

"Every man”—for it is an individual conflict; they all hold swords. Not one follower of Jesus but is called to " fight the good fight of faith" (1 Tim. vi. 12; 2 Tim. ii. 3).

As it is written of our Captain, " Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty," so has the Lord commanded to each of his soldiers, "Put every man his sword by his side" (Psalm xlv. 3; Exodus xxxii. 26, 27).

Thus in Neh. iv. 18, we read that " every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded.”

"Your loins girded." It must be an habitual thing, for at the moment of attack no time will be allowed for girding on armour. We must be ready, lest it be with us as with the

foolish virgins, who, when the cry was made at midnight, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh," had no oil in their lamps!

Let us not have to own to our shame, that we seek the Lord, if haply we may find him, by night upon our beds; but rather be found “watching,” with our loins girded and our lamps burning all through the night of conflict, till the rising "Sun of Righteousness" puts every enemy to flight by his noonday shining (Psalm civ. 22).

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King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon."

Another stage of the Church's history is now glanced at. King Solomon no longer abides, as it were, "within curtains;" but makes for himself a more durable and lasting dwelling-place-" a chariot (margin, bed') of the wood of Lebanon." It was emphatically of this wood that the temple was built; it was even called "an house of cedar" (2 Sam. vii. 7). All was cedar, there was no stone seen (1 Kings vi. 15-18). Of this building, spiritually applied, the Lord Jesus is himself the foundation,

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the chief corner stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. ii. 20, 21). We, as lively

stones, are built up a spiritual house for the Lord to dwell in. He makes himself a dwelling-place in believers : "the temple of his body."

Ver. 10. "He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple ; the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem."

The pillars of "silver" denote durability, and the names of the two pillars, which Solomon set up in the temple of the Lord, signified, "He shall establish," and "In it is strength" (1 Kings vii. 21, margin). "The bottom thereof of gold" bespeaks its amazing costliness. Not only was every part of the house "overlaid with gold," but even "the floor, within and without' (1 Kings vi. 30); and the "purple" denotes royalty.

Such was the royal residence of the true Solomon -the King of kings. It has its spiritual antitype in the Church now, and it shall have its full accomplishment in the heavenly temple, where the faithful ones who have overcome shall be made pillars to go no more out (Rev. iii. 12), the street of the city being "pure gold" (Rev. xxi. 21), and the inhabitants "kings and priests" to reign as co-kings with Jesus for ever and ever (Rev. xxii. 5).

And yet, its chief glory remains to be spoken of -"the midst thereof being paved with love!" The very foundation on which it rests is, "God is love.”

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He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him" (1 John iv. 8, 16).

"He shall rest in his love!" (Zeph. iii. 17).

Ver. 11. "Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart."

"O that the months would roll away,

And bring that coronation day!

The King of Grace shall fill the throne,

With all his Father's glories on."-WATTS.

Behold the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him" (Matt. xxv. 6). "For I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion" (Psalm ii. 6). Therefore, "rejoice greatly, O shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. cometh unto thee!" &c. (Zech. ix. 9).

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daughter of Zion; "Behold thy king

Behold Him." For if Sheba's queen came from the uttermost parts of the earth to behold Solomon's glory, how much more should we come forth from our lusts, and from the world, to contemplate His glory who is far "greater than Solomon!" Now the Church reaches the climax of its glorious history. The day of grace is merged into the day of glory. The lowly "Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death," is seen crowned with glory and honour” (Heb. ii. 9). The whole company of the elect being gathered in, his crown, which may be said to be composed of

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sinners saved by grace, is put upon his head, in place of that crown of thorns with which those very sinners"in derision crowned him!"

For this is essentially the crown with which the Holy Spirit (as the author of the new birth in the souls of sinners), may be said to crown him in the day of his espousals. Then "he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah liii. 11); it shall be "the day of the gladness of his heart." He shall be anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. He shall fully realise “the joy set before him," and shall "Come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe" (Psalm xlv. 7; Heb xii. 1, 2; 2 Thess. i. 10). For all shall own him as King of kings, and Lord of lords."

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"All hail the great Immanuel's name!

Let angels prostrate fall:

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown him Lord of all,

"Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget
The wormwood and the gall,
Come-spread your trophies at his feet,
And crown him Lord of all.

"Let every tribe, and every tongue,
Around this earthly ball,

Now shout in universal song,

The crowned Lord of all!"

"And on his head were many crowns" (Rev. xix. 12).