Page:An analysis of religious belief (1877).djvu/133

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suited to his abode. Of the holy places which are also consecrated, a conspicuous place is due to Solomon's temple; in the dedication of which the theory just stated is clearly embodied. Solomon, or his historians, perceived the difficulty of causing a being so transcendently powerful as Jehovah to dwell within local limits. The monarch, in his consecrating prayer, explains that he is well aware that even the heaven of heavens cannot contain him; much less this house that he has buiit. Nevertheless, he cannot give up the notion that this house may, in some degree, be peculiarly favored by having his especial attention directed towards it. His eyes at least may be open towards it, and if he cannot be there himself, his name may. Moreover, when prayers are offered in the temple, he may listen to them more graciously than to other supplications; and when the asseverations of contending parties are confirmed by oaths taken before the altar it contains, he may take unusual pains to execute justice between them. Jehovah fully approves of his servant's proposals. He emphatically declares in reply that he has hallowed this house which he has built, to put his name there for ever; and that his eyes and his heart shall be there pepetually (Kings viii. 22-ix. 3).

Very primitive peoples hold similar views of the relation of their deities to their temples. Just as there was "an oracle" in the Jewish temple, where "the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, as it had filled the corresponding place in the tabernacle, so in most of the Fijian temples there is "a shrine, where the god is supposed to descend when holding communication with the priests; and there is also a long piece of native cloth hung at one end of the building, and from the very ceiling, which is also connected with the arrival and departure of the god invoked" (Viti, p. 393). It seems to have been a general rule in the temples of these islands to have some object specially connected with the deity, and through which he might manifest his presence in the place. Thus, in one of them there was a conch shell, which "the god was supposed to blow when he wished the people to rise to war" (N. Y., p. 240). Nay, there was even an altar erected to Jehovah and Jesus Christ in one of the islands, "to which persons afflicted with all manner of diseases were brought to be healed; and so