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After charging so solemnly his son, David turned to the princes of Israel, giving them an equally solemn charge to help his son Solomon in his great work. Every line of this charge to the princes is replete with spiritual instruction. The first line is a precious one: "Is not the Lord your God with you?" The presence of God is the Christian's great power for all work. "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." Moses knew its importance when he said, "If thy presence go not with us, lead us not up thence." The second line is equally precious: "Hath he not given you rest on every side?" The true Christian has indeed found "rest" in Christ the true David, and for the reason assigned here in David's third line - "for he hath given the inhabitants of the land [the Canaanites] into mine hand." Every enemy the child of God has is in the hand of Christ. Every sin he has committed, as well as the broken Law, and everything else that shut him out from God, have all been laid on Jesus. Everything that could injure or stand in the Christian's way, in the present or in the future, is all in the hand of Jesus. "Subdued" is the word written by Christ's cross on all his sins, on all his foes, on everything against him. Nay more: in all these things "he is more than conqueror through him that loved him." This being so, to what end is it all? David tells us: "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God." Every affection, every desire, every energy, every aim, everything within us, is to be "set." And where? Christ-ward. On him who has done such great things for us. And does such grace tend to sloth or indifference? Far otherwise. "Arise therefore." Get up out of sloth, out of sin, out of earthliness of every kind. Get higher. "Nearer my God to thee, nearer to thee." And how is this rising to show itself? "Build ye the sanctuary." Let every thought and energy, every heart and every hand, be put to build up the kingdom of God - the true sanctuary of God in this world. And the last word in this charge is the climax - the great end to which everything points: "Build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built to the Name of the Lord." Observe the sanctuary was fur this end - "to bring in the ark of the covenant and the holy vessels." So is it now. That ark is Christ. The "holy vessels" are everything that pertains to that ark. This is the great end of every building - to bring in Christ and everything that is of Christ. Is the sanctuary the believer's soul? Then let Christ and everything Christlike be brought in there. Is the "sanctuary" a Church - any of the Churches of Christ or the entire Church - the body of Christ? Then see that the ark is brought in and its vessels-Christ and everything that will glorify him. The house was "to be built to the Name of the Lord." This Name is on the Christian, on every Christian Church, on every Christian duty, on every Christian nation, on every Christian work. See that the ark and its vessels are where the name is. See that we have not the name without the ark and its vessels. We may have the name in baptism, in the Holy Communion, in the Church and its ordinances, but the grand question is, "Are the ark and its vessels there?" - W.

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KJV: David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying,

WEB: David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying,