HAGGAI.

[NOTE.-"Haggai, one of the twelve minor prophets, and the first of the three who, after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile, prophesied in Palestine. Of the place and year of his birth, his descent, and the leading incidents of his life, nothing is known which can be relied on. Some assert that he was born in Babylon, and came to Jerusalem when Cyrus, in the year B.c. 536, allowed the Jews to return to their country (2 Chron. xxxvi. 23; Ezra i. 1), the new colony consisting chiefly of people belonging to the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, with a few from other tribes. . . . The style of the discourses of Haggai is suitable to their contents: it is pathetic when he exhorts; it is vehement when he reproves; it is somewhat elevated when he treats of future events; and it is not altogether destitute of a poetical colouring, though a prophet of a more vivid imagination would have depicted the splendour of the Second Temple in brighter hues. . . . The prophetical discourses of Haggai are referred to in the Old and New Testaments (Ezra v. 1, vi. 14; Heb. xii. 26. Comp. Hagg. ii. 6, 7, 22).”—KITTO's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature].

Chapter i.

A PROPHETIC IDYL.

"Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying" (ver. 3).

H

OW did the word of the Lord come to Haggai and through Haggai ? The prophet himself tells us in his brief epistle, for an epistle it may be called, seeing that it was delivered so swiftly and directly and overpoweringly to the parties who were addressed by it. Haggai came into the prophetic office late in life. How wonderful is the development of human power! Sometimes there are boy preachers, whom we must always look upon with a kind of gracious distrust. I do not know what the world wants with boy-preachers, but if the Lord chooses to call them and honour them, who are we that we should criticise the way of God? Some are not called to the ministry or the prophetic office until they are well on in life.

God has not been rebuking the men, he has been educating them, chastening and training them, so that although their office be but temporary, of a short duration, yet sympathetically and suggestively it stretches over the whole space of unborn time. You do not know what you may be yet. You are a long time in beginning, but when you do begin who knows how wise will be your ministry, how rich your experience, how tender your spirit? Do not give up all hope, do not count your years; remember the reign and dominion of him who is master and Lord, and constantly say to him, Lord, at thy time, not at mine: if thou dost want me to preach I am ready when thou art ready; if it be better for me not to preach until I am an old man, mighty as Haggai was in grey hairs, so be it: thy will, not mine, be done.

Haggai was only a minister for four months. We are very critical about the duration of ministries now; unless a man has been in his place five years or ten, or two tens, we have unkind remarks to make about the possibility of his not lasting much longer. There are always plenty of malign critics: the world has never been poor in downright wickedness; if wickedness had been wealth all the other stars would have been paupers compared with this earth-millionaire. Four months: what can be done in a little space of time when the whole man works head, heart, hand, every power, faculty, element of his being, all consecrated with tremendous intensity towards the prosecution and culmination of one sublime and beneficent object! Some men say more in a sentence than others can say in a lifetime. Haggai may have done more in four months than some other man would have done in four centuries. Yet criticism is very foolish, vain, self-magnifying; for the later criticism, sometimes called the "higher criticism," has found out that the prophecy of Haggai is very tamely written. Criticism cannot coine home at night after a whole day's work and bring nothing with it, it would be ashamed to come back again. There be bold fishermer. who go out in the morning with nothing but rod and creel, and come back at night just as empty-handed; but they have had fresh air, enjoyment, and they are ready for refreshment and rest; there is bloom upon the cheek, there is music in the tone. But criticism must bring something back, and criticism has

brought back the report that Haggai has lost much of the old prophetic inspiration, that Haggai, because he began as an old man, has shown an old man's senility in all the writing which he wrote. It is a blessed thing that the prophecy itself is actually before us, so that we can test for ourselves the base insinuation that in Haggai the prophetic torch was almost extinct.

The prophecy of Haggai extends only over some forty verses; it might be committed to memory. In those forty verses you have little poems that could be elaborated into marvellous epics and idyls. We shall find words in Haggai we can find nowhere else. Every prophet brings his own special offering. Haggai has flowers that no other hand culled, fairer than any that the noblest prophets ever discovered in the garden of God; but criticism-pale-faced, blear-eyed criticism, with only two sharp teeth in its empty gums-has appeared to tell us that Haggai has lost inspiration, and has nothing to say unique and distinctive. Some witnesses are liars.

"Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people——” (ver. 2).

That is not like the Lord of hosts. "This people”—as if the speaker were pointing, with at least suggestion of contempt, to some motley, nameless, reputeless crowd. In other prophets he has said, even when he was about to rebuke the Church, "My people." Oh, this contempt of God! "This people "—not a personal pronoun, but a demonstrative adjective pronoun, an indicative impersonal: "This people," this crowd, this herd of ingrates. Language ought to be moral. The Lord's language is always deeply steeped in morality. The Lord does not speak anything by way of mere eulogy or panegyric; the Lord is critical in his judgment: behold the goodness and the severity of God. What do these people say? "The time is not come." They might have lived to-day. We have not advanced one inch from this position. It is a position of excuse, evasion, self-protection. Here is no denial of the divine right, not one word is spoken against the house of the Lord, but it is not "time"-to repair the roof, to clean the window, and let the morning light come in; it is not time to throng into God's sanctuary, and to make it thrill and throb with the music of thankfulness; as who

should say under the sluggard's blankets, By-and-by we will come to-morrow, or the day following, you will hear our voices; in a short space we will arise and repair the house, or rebuild the house, or do anything that the house may require to have done to it in the meantime a little more sleep, a little more slumber, and a folding of the arms and hands together. When is the time coming for you to be a man? When is the time coming for you to do your first noble deed? Do not dream that you are going to do something in a few summers' time: when all the children are off your hands, when business anxieties have abated a little, when the rush and competition of life have somewhat subsided, then the Church shall hear your music in song and prayer, and see your sacrifice in labour and in gift. The devil is deceitful; he does not say to a man, Deny God, pronounce his name as if you hated it. Sometimes he says, There is no need for you positively to deny the existence of God, nor is there any need for you to sneer or show contempt when religious ordinances are referred to; but you can take up a very strong position if you will say, "The time is not come ": that will be decent, that will be civil; it will be impossible for the keenest criticism to fasten upon an assertion of that kind, and under cover of that base protestation you can serve hell. Why spend time in metaphysical reasoning with people about these excuses? Such excuses are not to be metaphysically destroyed; they are to be burnt out of a man with the fire of heaven.

Is the Lord content with the speech? Does he say, This is carefully considered: here are prudent persons, they are watching for opportunities, and when opportunities occur they will be faithful; their activity may be relied upon; they have not denied the obligation, nor have they wantonly postponed its payment; they are simply waiting for the right time? Does the Lord speak so ?

"Then came the w rd of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste" (vers. 3, 4).

When did man ay, It is not time to make money, it is not time to look after my own interests. It is not time for me to pay the slightest attention to personal wants, or personal com

forts all these things can wait? Never do we house ourselves under gilded roofs without the Lord knowing where we are. Has he not counted every inch of decoration? Has he not read the estimate of every luxury with which our home is adorned? Does he not read the garden-bill, the larder-bill, the artist's account? And do we tell him who has just laid the invoices down that it is not time to attend to the greater house, the larger love, the wider, nobler sacrifice? Tell it to men who are blind, and deaf, and dumb, and dead, but do not tell it to him who searches the heart, and tries the reins of the children of men. He knows the exact condition of his house. Is this unreasonable? Is it unreasonable for the husbandman to come to his own field, or garden, or vineyard, and ask concerning the fruit thereof? Is it unreasonable for the householder to look into the condition of his house? And the Church is God's house, the temple is the dwelling-place of the Most High; and if we will not attend to his house, how can he attend to our house? And will he not presently, after giving us time enough to feel our security, blow the roof off our dwelling-place, and send upon us the storms of an angry heaven? This is the argument of this prophet-this prophet who is supposed to have lost the prophetic fire.

"Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways" (ver. 5).

Set your heart upon your ways; go into a private position up the mountain, and take the case with you, and turn it over page by page, and let your heart read it. What is the case to which he calls their attention? It is a case that can be understood by all; these are the terms:

"Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes" (ver. 6).

Here you have a process ought to look into it, and

How is this? What fools you are! going on under your very eyes: you inquire about it, and settle the moral principles of the case: how is it? This might be a report of our own life to-day. We sow much, we take out whole bags filled with seed, and throw the