"And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men. that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The JEHOVAH will not do good, neither will He do evil.

"The great day of the JEHOVAH is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the JEHOVAH: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

"That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

"A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.

"And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the JEHOVAH: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.

"Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the JEHOVAH'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy for He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land" (Zeph. i.).

:

"Seek ye the JEHOVAH, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the JEHOVAH'S anger."

There follows here a proclamation of judgment against the Philistines, Moab, Ethiopia, and Assyria. "I will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.

"Flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work." This sentence always seems to me to be a direct prophecy of the uncovering, or disinterment of Nineveh in our day: what a revelation from God to man, what a voice from the dead!

"This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand" (Zeph. ii.).

Such is the end of all human greatness, it expires in rising, and we do well to retire from it; to live in the kingdom of God, and to exert all our powers to help that forward. What is said of Babylon, is said of Nineveh: "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. xviii. 4).

Then follows again a proclamation of judgment against Jerusalem, and of divine sovereign grace towards her. "Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!

"She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the JEHOVAH; she drew not near to her God.

"Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.

"The just JEHOVAH is in the midst thereof; He

will not do iniquity: every morning doth He bring His judgment to light, He faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.

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Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.

"The JEHOVAH hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, the JEHOVAH, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.

"In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not and to Zion, let not thine hands be slack.

"The JEHOVAH in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing" (third chapter). It will be seen in a moment that this evangelical, or Gospel effusion, is to some extent borrowed from the Prophet Isaiah (xii. 5, 6, liv. 1). The voice of the Gospel drowns that of judgment; the Gospel scheme is brought in and offered to the people-to the world—if they will accept it. The same in all the prophets; they wind up with almost a crash of grace; the kingdom of God opens, to compel them to come in. The Church and the world stand still in their pollution and helplessness, and the glory of the JEHOVAH is seen to cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. But if we do not know that we possess a thing, it is useless to us, and we might as well be without it. "The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of JEHOVAH" (Hab. ii. 14; Isa. xi. 9). And St. Peter says: "If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world

through the knowledge of the JEHOVAH and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter ii. 20). And the JEHOVAH Himself said: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hos. iv. 6).

Now if my reader will turn to the chapters in Isaiah (iii. xiv. xv), in which I have said this prophecy of Zephaniah is rooted, and also the fortieth, he will see in a moment—the world in its pollution, it is true-but he will see also the gulf of separation between it and God bridged over, passed over; salvation and glory close upon the scene below, cover it as the waters cover the seas. Divine love, the law of the celestial world-" the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death"-I say, this law of God breaks in upon the world of sin, of darkness, and chaos, and the whole is light and life. Oh, Power unseen, Almighty God unseen, come in glory, and open the eyes of the whole world to see Thee, as Thou didst open the eyes of Thy two disciples going to Emmaus!

This is the very point I want to bring my reader to God with us, in, through, and by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "The King of Israel, the JEHOVAH, is in the midst of thee." "The JEHOVAH thy GOD in the midst of thee is mighty." In the work of Creation we see GOD; the Holy Trinity was there, but the august name that reveals GOD in trinity was not there (Gen. i.). Our first parents fell, and immediately in Eden the JEHOVAH GOD was there (Gen. iii. 8). The name that restores again the lost link between the Creator and the creature, between the Father and the child, was there. And

JEHOVAH was "THE WORD." Henceforth we have seen, from the beginning of the Bible to the end, the word of the JEHOVAH, of the JEHOVAH GOD, the Fiat of history. "The JEHOVAH called unto Moses." The word of the JEHOVAH that came "to all His prophets." "The Word was with GOD"-we have seen them thus conjoined; "and the Word was GOD" —we have seen it thus absolute; till "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us-Emmanuel, God with us."

Now let us fix this fact in our minds-God always with us. But when with us in the flesh, it was for the redemption of our race, for our salvation; and He is still with us to give us the knowledge of that salvation, and it is the most important knowledge we can acquire. But did we ever pause to inquire what was the point, the object, at which the devil aimed when he shot the deadly arrow of evil from his bow?

We read of worlds, of systems of worlds, of depths of worlds, of a universe of worlds, that no finite mind can span; all rolling and returning; performing eternally their revolutions in eternal stability, and uninterrupted by any interposition whatever. It was not at them the poisoned arrow of the arch enemy was directed. It was not at any of the works of God in the first five days of creation; it was not at angels or archangels. It was at the soul of man; at that life that came forth from the Great Parent of the universe, fresh, pure, holy, godlike; at the nature of the Deity. And that violence, that blot on creation, must be avenged. It was anticipated, and the Triune God