In 2 Sam. 7:1-6 we read that both the king and Nathan the prophet said that which was quite contrary to the mind of God. We know that both David and Nathan were men of God, and that they desired to honor His name in what they said and proposed to do.

We learn, however, that they were not in the current of God's thoughts as to this. They desired to make a permanent house, or abode, for Him in this world, when His mind was to dwell in a tent. He would not have a house of cedar until conditions were changed by the accomplishment of certain purposes of His; and if they wished for association and fellowship with Him, they too must be content with a tabernacle for the time. The house of cedar would come later, in its suited time. David's lifetime was the period for the tent, and not for the temple, even as this present time is for us Christians a time of tents-not yet the house of cedar. It has been the history of those who in past days have walked with God, and it will be the history of all who continue to walk with Him, until Christ comes again, and sets up His kingdom in more than Solomon magnificence.

"I have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle," said the Lord; and while He did so, all who had fellowship with Him walked in that mind. The eleventh of Hebrews gives us an array of them. "By faith Abraham . . . sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles (tents) with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." They also "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth "; and although God had said unto Abraham, " Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward ; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever" (Gen. 13:14, 15). The only land of which Abraham actually took possession was a cemetery lot.

These two things marked his whole life:he was a stranger and a sojourner; for the time of possession and rule was not yet.

O beloved, do we know and own our stranger and pilgrim condition in this world, while yet our Lord
is rejected by it, and gone away from it ? When He returns in glory, then we shall reign with Him. All things are His, in earth and in heaven, and we share all He has. So, when He takes possession and reigns, we too will share the same. " In a tent" now with Him, we shall have the house of cedar also with Him when the time has come. This may take us out of many things with which others mingle, but it will keep us in fellowship with God, and therefore preserve us from the evil, and make us fruitful.

There was only one thing which gave Abraham power to " sojourn in the land of promise as in a strange country." It was faith-that blessed thing which can wait on God till He works out all His purposes, and suffer patiently meanwhile. So with us, faith alone will give us power to look on the glorious issues which follow the coming again of our Lord, and meanwhile enable us to "suffer with Him " and be strangers like Him in this evil scene. May we be found in it patiently '' looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works " (Titus 2:13, 14).

"Oh, fix our earnest gaze
So wholly, Lord, on Thee,
That, with Thy beauty occupied,
We elsewhere none may see."

This is the prayer from the heart of every true child of God who loves the Saviour's name, who knows His grace, and who values His love. Let it be ours. F.