1 Chronicles 28:19

"Handfuls of Purpose,"

For All Gleaners

"All this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing, by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern." 1 Chronicles 28:19 .

Thus David would not be a plagiarist. Instead of saying that his own genius had invented the pattern, he distinctly, as in the 12th verse, said, "The pattern of all that he had by the spirit," and again, in the 19th verse, "The Lord made me understand." In reality there is but one Architect. The Lord is the builder of all things. He supplies the material, he inspires the genius, he directs the skill; in short, they labour in vain that build the temple if the Lord be not with them and within them. Of every man it may be inquired, What hast thou that thou hast not received? We should look beyond the vessel to the treasure, beyond the instrument to the user of it. The organ did not build itself; the organ cannot play itself; it must be an instrument used mightily and wisely, yea, with cunning skill, and not a little tender sympathy, by a living soul. Have we correctly read the plans of God, so far as he has outlined them? Have we not worked much under them, rather than fully up to all their possibility of meaning and use? Have we not been afraid to mention all the ideas which God has communicated to us? We may have feared the people, we may have feared our equals, we may have feared some loss of reputation or remuneration, by going out of the common way and declaring that God has made a narration to us respecting the enlargement of his purpose or the variation of his providence. In this way we are to read the Bible. David would say the same about his Psalms that is said about the patterns of the temple and its contents. At the end of each psalm he would have written, This is what the Lord made me understand; or, This is the pattern that I have had by the spirit. The same may be said of the whole Bible: it is God's book, it is God's plan of his earthly sphere, it is God's outline of providence and redemption. We have to carry out many details, we have to readjust elements and materials to suit the image and aspect of the times passing over us; but we must never alter the plan, the essential thought, the ruling purpose of God. We must not regard the Bible as of human origin; in every line of it we must see the movement of the Eternal Spirit.