t stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the
glory of the Lord had filled the house of God_. Thus the Divinity took
possession of his sacred edifice.

The king then rose upon the brazen scaffold, knelt down, and spreading
his hands toward heaven, uttered the prayer of consecration. The prayer
was of unexampled sublimity: while it implored the perpetual presence of
the Almighty, as the tutelar Deity and Sovereign of the Israelites, it
recognized his spiritual and illimitable nature. _But will God in very
deed dwell with men on the earth? behold heaven and the heaven of
heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have
built?_ It then recapitulated the principles of the Hebrew theocracy,
the dependence of the national prosperity and happiness on the national
conformity to the civil and religious law. As the king concluded in
these emphatic terms:--_Now, therefore, arise, O Lord God, into thy
resting-place, thou and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Lord
God, be clothed with salvation, and thy saints rejoice in goodness. O
Lord God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies
of David thy servant,_--cloud which had rested over the Holy of Holies
grew brighter and more dazzling; fire broke out and consumed all the
sacrifices; the priests stood without, awe-struck by the insupportable
splendor; the whole people fell on their faces, and worshipped and
praised the Lord, _for he is good, for his mercy is forever_.

Which was the greater, the external magnificence, or the moral sublimity
of this scene? Was it the Temple, situated on its commanding eminence,
with all its courts, the dazzling splendor of its materials, the
innumerable multitudes, the priesthood in their gorgeous attire, the
king, with all the insignia of royalty, on his throne of burnished
brass, the music, the radiant cloud filling the Temple, the sudden fire
flashing upon the altar, the whole nation upon their knees? Was it not
rather the religious grandeur of the hymns and of the prayer: the
exalted and rational views of the Divine Nature, the union of a whole
people in the adoration of the one Great, Incomprehensible, Almighty,
Everlasting Creator?

This extraordinary festival, which took place at the time of that of
Tabernacles, lasted for two weeks, twice the usual time: during this
period twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand
sheep were sacrificed,[30] every individual probably co