seed right and left, from morning till ni,ht, and lo, in the harvest what is there but disappointment? Mien should ask themselves questions about these things. Of course, there is a high and haughty and noble science that says, These things have nothing whatever to do with Providence. Who says so? Who are these men that talk thus? What have they done for the world? Where are their sacrifices, where are their heroisms, where are their convictions? Where are those elements of life that can compare for one moment with the heroic history of a man like the Apostle Paul? You cannot at the same time have the Bible and deny it. Christians, make your minds upon this point. If you could get rid of the Bible you would have a much freer hand in all controversies-it is the Bible that binds you. For God's sake do not wriggle out of it: shut it up and throw it into the river, then we can understand your action; but do not propose to yourselves both to have the Bible and to disbelieve it; to honour it, and disobey it; and do not pretend to get over the rugged, hard parts evasively, shirkingly face these parts, for in them is the very test of discipline. The Bible contends that the. actions of men are followed by consequences; and it does not scruple to lay down the solemn doctrine that if we dishonour God he will make us feel the result of that dishonour. We cannot scorn his spirit, and steal his harvests. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. Notwithstanding incidental circumstances that appear to go against this doctrine, this is the teaching of God regarding the great trend of history, regarding the marvellous development and purpose of providence. Thus God calls our attention to physical circumstances, that we may awaken our minds to moral considerations.

"Ye have sown much, and bring in little " (ver. 6).

What?

❝ Ye eat,

What is the meaning of that empty hand? but ye have not enough." How comes it that what you eat goes to nothingness, instead of repeating itself in purer blood, firmer flesh, and thus rising up and flaming into poetry, and thought, and philosophy? How comes it that you stuff the skin that withers under the burden you impose upon it? Why? "Ye clothe you, but there is none warm." Clothing cannot get near your skin; it is so stiff, so hard, it does but create passages for

cruel draughts. How is this? You have weight, but no warmth ; an abundance of things to cover you with, and yet the flesh shivers in the cold. All the Lord asks of us is to think about it, consider it, test this matter in regard to conscience and behaviour. Yet this is the prophet who was supposed to have lost the prophetic fire!

What will the Lord have done? He will create a space for repentance :

"Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house" (ver. 8).

Get the work done, then the blessing will come. There are some of us who want the blessing without the work, and we cannot have it. You cannot have the harvest without having first the seedtime, and that seedtime may be very cold and harsh, and you may have to face many a morning that is all keenness and coldness. But there is a law-a law of service, a law of action, a law of sequence. The Lord will not allow us to live an irregular life, inventing philosophies for ourselves; we may blow bubbles from the pipe of invention from morning until night, but the earth will not allow one of these bubbles, sun-gilded and beautiful for a moment, to influence its solemn, regular, inexorable, and irresistible action. You must sow the seed when the earth tells you, when the sun tells you; not when you please, but when Nature says, "Now is the accepted time." And shall we be barriered and caged by law in all these matters, and yet be allowed to lead a fool's life in relation to things that lay hold upon eternity, and are of the nature of the quality of God?

What will the Lord do when we build the house?

"I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it [Literally: I did blow it away.] Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste" (vers. 8, 9).

"Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." The Saviour said, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's house?" In the Authorised Version it is, "about my Father's business"; but literally it should be, "about my Father's house." There must be some

test of obedience, some test of loyalty, and worship, and character; and if the Lord has appointed this test, it is not for us to vary the scale by which our moral action shall be measured, or the standard by which our moral work shall be estimated. Why was the heaven stayed from, and the earth stayed from her fruit? Why was there a drought upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the earth bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands? Why? The answer is given in plain words: "Because of mine house that is waste." There are those who tell us that potato disease, cattle plague, bad harvest, all natural disappointinents have nothing to do with moral spirit, moral discipline, moral behaviour; the only thing we can reply is this, that we have given ourselves a book called the Bible, which distinctly declares the contrary, and we cannot keep both the book and the doctrine that opposes it. Without saying which is right, here is the eternal verity; ye cannot have a Bible and no Bible, a God and no God, a Cross and no sacrifice.

NOTE.

"In his first message to the people the prophet denounced the listlessness of the Jews, who dwelt in their 'panelled houses,' while the temple of the Lord was roofless and desolate. The displeasure of God was manifest in the failure of all their efforts for their own gratification. The heavens were 'stayed from dew,' and the earth was 'stayed from her fruit.' They had neglected that which should have been their first care, and reaped the due wages of their selfishness (i. 4-11). The words of the prophet sank deep into the hearts of the people and their leaders. They acknowledged the voice of God speaking by his servant, and obeyed the command. Their obedience was rewarded with the assurance of God's presence (i. 13), and twenty-four days after the building was resumed. A month had scarcely elapsed when the work seems to have slackened, and the enthusiasm of the people abated. The prophet, ever ready to rekindle their zeal, encouraged the flagging spirits of the chiefs with the renewed assurance of God's presence, and the fresh promise that, stately and magnificent as was the temple of their wisest king, the glory of the latter house should be greater than the glory of the former (ii. 3-9). Yet the people were still inactive, and two months afterwards we find him again censuring their sluggishness, which rendered worthless all their ceremonial observances. But the rebuke was accompanied by a repetition of the promise (ii. 10-19).”—SMITH'S Dictionary of the Bible.

PRAYER.

ALMIGHTY GOD, as thou hast made us to pray, so do thou teach us how to pray. We know not how to pray as we ought, but thou wilt teach us, if we bring before thee a meek and obedient heart, a waiting and expectant spirit. We know not what we need; we feel our hunger, but we cannot put it into words: answer thou the hunger that is felt, and not the words that are uttered. We need thy presence every moment, for thou art the Light; we need to feel thee near, for thou art the soul's security; we need to feel the touch of thine hand, for in the hand of the Lord is almightiness and all gentleness. Thou knowest the littleness of our life, yet thou canst fill it with sunlight; thou knowest how poor are our faculties in their outlines and beginnings; yet thou canst employ them all in useful and holy service. We, therefore, put ourselves into thine hands, O Lord, Maker, Redeemer, Sanctifier of us all. We come to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, whom we adore as one God. Help us to live and move and have our being in that ineffable unity. May all our thoughts be elevated; may our expectations be fixed in the heavens; may we have a holy discontent with everything that is on the earth and that is therefore perishable; may we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Thou hast made us for eternity. Thou hast set within us a great light, thou hast called us by name into all these relations of grace: may we accept the call of God, may we rise in loving and loyal obedience to our Father's voice, and do all the law, and remember all the statutes gratefully and lovingly, and may we obey because of the inspiration of the Cross. For the Cross we bless thee, as for all gifts in one. It is a holy Cross; it is the way to pardon, to purity, to peace; it is the creation of God, and the crown of God's creation. We bow down before it, we have no other plea; we rest in the Son of God. Amen.

Chapter ii.

THE GLORIOUS FUTURE.

"Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?" (ver. 3).

THE

HE glorious past is never disdained. There ought not to be any past, in the sense of exhaustion or annihilation. The past should be the most vivid and graphic influence in the

present. Because we have seen greatness we shall see glory, should be the tone of every man who undertakes to teach the mysteries of the divine kingdom, and lead the enterprises of the elect and consecrated Church. The house indeed had gone down, in that sense it was nothing in comparison with the house in its first glory. There is a past that humbles the present, that makes the present insignificant and worthless; but the Lord never regards that past as the end of his own opportunity; it is rather the occasion of the beginning of new revelations of his omnipotence. The Lord never stops his kingdom in its darkest hour and says, This is all. The Lord never interrupts a prayer at the point of confession; he listens until the prayer glows with thankfulness, until it becomes violent in sacred ambition, until it would seize the treasures of the kingdom and appropriate them all with a grateful heart; then he says, This is the prayer you meant to pray, and to this prayer I return a grand Amen. It is thus God leads us and educates us. He takes us at our best points, not at our worst. What he sees in us, not what we see in ourselves, is the explanation alike of his discipline and his inspiration. The Lord promised that the house should assume a glory to which the first glory was as nothing. Here is a principle in the divine economy; it is a principle of development, of progress, of gradual and assured consummation. That is a revelation of the providence of God. Men are to become stronger and stronger, the Church is to become purer and purer, the path of the just is to be as a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day. What a rebuke is this to our unfaith! We say, What will the world do when certain men are taken away from it? Surely then the world would die if the world were self-created; but, if it were divinely governed, what will God do when he removes the immediate life? Will he say, I can do no more, it does not lie within the range of Almightness to find another man, thinker, statesman, captain, leader, that can take the place of the one who is about to be removed? Then it would be God who failed, and failure is a term that must never be associated with the name of God.

What will the Church do when this beautiful house is broken up, and the winds howl through the aisles of the sanctuary?