itting His worship at Jerusalem. Although he had plenty of cares to
distract him, yet he never had this out of his heart. "I will not come
within the tabernacle of mine house; nor climb up into my bed; I will
not suffer mine eyes to sleep, nor mine eyelids to slumber; neither the
temples of my head to take any rest; until I find out a place for the
temple of the Lord; an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob."

One of the first things he did after he was anointed King over Israel,
was to go to Kirjath-jearim, and bring up thence the ark of God from
the house of Abinadab in which it had lodged. And David went before
the ark playing his harp, and his heart was so full of joy that he
danced before the ark, singing and striking the strings of his harp.
Then Michal his wife, Saul's daughter, looked out of a window, and
sneered at him, "and despised him in her heart." She was one of your
cold-blooded people, with no enthusiasm in her, with no zeal for God,
no heart for God's glory. Better David dancing for joy of heart, than
captious Michal with a contemptuous curl of her lips.

David collected great treasures to build the temple, and directly he
was at peace, his heart began to yearn to be about the work, and build
to the glory of God. "See now," he said, "I dwell in an house of
cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains." But the word of
God came to him by Nathan the prophet, forbidding him to build, because
he was a man of blood, the temple was to be erected by his son Solomon.
Nevertheless, David collected for the temple, and above all, composed
his beautiful psalms to be sung in it. The gold and the cedar that
Solomon set up are gone, but the Psalms remain, and have passed over to
be the heritage of the Church.

SUBJECT.--How striking is the zeal of David, and how little zeal have
we for God's glory, and for the adornment of His house! Let us
consider to-day this zeal for God's house, and for those things that
appertain to the worship of God, and tend to His glory.

I. Of all the pathetic stories in the Bible, there is one which has
struck me for its singular pathos, yet it is one which I dare say has
escaped your notice. You have heard of the zeal of David, how his
enthusiasm carried him away, out of himself, so that he forgot his
royal dignity, and danced before the ark. You have heard of his bitter
disappointment, how when through many years he had longed and planned
to build the temple of God,