e regard the
babe," only she cried, "The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark
of God is taken." Then the women who stood by said to her, "What shall
the name of the child be, thy husband who should have named it is dead,
thy father-in-law is dead, thou must name it." "But she answered not,
neither did she regard it,"--only she cried, "The glory is departed
from Israel." Then the women that stood by said, "So shall the name
be," and they called the child Ichabod, which means, "Inglorious." A
few minutes later, and she was dying, and the last murmur on her lips,
and the last thought of her heart were, "The ark of God is taken."

I say this is a singularly touching story, for it shows us a woman
whose whole soul was imbued with zeal for the glory of God, and that
woman was the wife of a man whose whole priestly career was one of
dishonour to God.

II. Now I have given you two striking instances of zeal for God's
honour, one in a man, and one in a woman. Have you any such zeal in
you? Are your thoughts at all taken up with God's church, God's altar,
God's worship? Are you eager that all should be beautiful and seemly
in the temple of God? Does it pain you above every other pain when you
know of something which is to the dishonour of God and of His Church?
Have you any zeal at all like that of David? Have you any
self-forgetfulness in what concerns His honour, like that of the
nameless wife of Phinehas? I think if there were a little of this
zeal, so many of our churches would not be untidy, neglected, ruinous.
There would not be moth-eaten altar-cloths, and worm-eaten altars.
There would not be green mouldering walls, and broken pavements. There
would not be a service slovenly, unmusical, irreverent, or if not
irreverent, at least unworthy of the glory of God.

In heaven flame the golden candles, and the censers fume with
frankincense. In heaven the seven lamps ever burn, and the altar
shines like the sun. In heaven the angels and the saints cease not day
nor night in singing praises, and bowing in worship--and we! how do we
show that we love God's worship? The zeal of God's house does not eat
us up, we do not even know what it is.

LXVI.

_THE MEETING HEREAFTER._

Funeral Service.

Joshua iii. 17.

"And the priests that bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood
firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites
passed over on dry ground, until all the people were pa