And _delay_ not the return. By doing so, the growing languor and listlessness which is creeping over you, may settle into positive disrelish of God's house. Imitate the example of the Spouse in the Canticles, who, in mourning over similar spiritual declension, resolves on an _instantaneous_ seeking of the forfeited presence of her Lord. "_Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?_"[24] Go with the words which this exile of Gilead employs in the sequel to this Psalm, written on the same occasion--"_O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy._"[25] [24] Sol. Song i. 7. [25] Psalm xliii. 3, 4. Yes! go, and prove what the God of the sanctuary can do in the fulfilment of His own promise. He seems now to be saying, "Put me to the test." "_Prove me now herewith, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it._"[26] Every church is a _Peniel_, where God meets His people, as He met the patriarch of old at the brook Jabbok. Go and see what may be effected by _one_ lowly, humble, seeking soul--some wrestling Jacob, who, like "a Prince," has "power with God, and prevails!" The lowliest tabernacle on earth is glorified as being the _House of God_--the dwelling-place of Omnipotence and Love--the hallowed "_home_," where a loving Father waits to dispense to His children the garnered riches of His grace! The time may come when the holy and beautiful sanctuary where we worship may become a heap of ruins. The fire may lay it in ashes--the hand of man may raze it--the slower but surer hand of time may corrode its walls and crumble its solid masonry stone by stone; but as sure as it is God's own appointed treasure-house of spiritual mercies, may we not believe that there will be deathless spirits who will be able to point to it in connexion with imperishable memories,--"buildings of God," "eternal in the heavens," beyond the reach of human violence, and wasting elements, and corroding years? Does not the promise stand unrepealed in this Bible;--let it ever be the inscription on our temples of worship,--"_Of_ ZION _it shall be said, This and that man was born in her; and the Highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there?_"[27] [26] Mal. iii. 10. [27] Psalm lxxxvii. 5, 6.