was left, like a building, to settle down before being built higher, between the times of Joshua and of Samuel. The pause in the captivity, and now again a pause. So, in the natural world. Just as in summer there is a gush of nature's forces and a shooting forth; and then the long autumn and winter, in which is no growth, but an opportunity, taught by past experience, for the husbandman to manure his ground, and sow his seed, and to wait for a new outpouring of life upon the world. And just as in human life, between its marked lessons there is a pause, in which we live upon past experiencelooking back and looking on. Experience and hope, that is human life: as in youth, expecting manhood, and then looking for future changes in our condition, character, so in all God's revelation system there have been periods of “open vision," and periods of pause-waiting; when men are left to experience and hope. It is in vain that we have studied God's Word if we do not perceive that our own day and circumstances are parallel with those of the prophet Malachi. We live in the world's fourth great pause. Miracles have ceased. Prophecy is silent. The Son of God is ascended. Apostles are no longer here to apply infallible judgment to each new circumstance as it arises, as St. Paul did to the state of the Corinthian Church. But we are left to the great Gospel principles which have been already given, and which are to be our food till the next flood of God's Spirit, the next revelation-that which the Scripture calls "the second advent." And the parallel holds in another respect. The Jews had but undefined hints of that which was to be. Yet they knew the general outlines and character of the coming time; they knew that it would be a searching time, it was to be the "Refiner's" day; they knew that He should turn the hearts of the fathers to the children: and they knew that the messenger age must be preceded by a falling back on simpler life, and a return to first principles, as Malachi had predicted, and as John the Baptist called them to. They knew that it was an age in which the true sacrifice would be offered. And so now-we know not yet what shall be; “but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is." "And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself.” We know that it will be the union of the human racethey will be "one fold." This is the outline and character of the revelation; and we may work, at least, towards it. "Ye are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day." "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do." To strive after personal purity and attempt at producing unity, that is our work. We rest on that we have, and hope for that we see not. And only for the glimpse that hope gives us of that, is life worth having. II. Let us consider the conduct of different classes in these evil times. 1. Some lived recklessly. Foremost among these were the priests, as has been always found in evil times. The riot of a priest is worse than that of the laity. Mutual corruption. Against the priests Malachi's denunciations are chiefly directed. He speaks of the profanation of the sacred places (chap. i. 6, 7). Of sacrifice degraded (ver. 12, 13). Vice honored (chap. ii. 17). In that they called good evil and evil good. By these men belief in God was considered ridiculous. And then it was that one of those glorious promises was made, to be fulfilled in after-times. Malachi foresaw that the Gentiles would take up the neglected service (chap. i. 10, 11), and the vision of a universal kingdom of God became the comfort of the faithful few. 2. Others lived uselessly, because despondingly. The languor and despair of their hearts is read in the words (chap. iii. 14, 15); and indeed it is not surprising: to what point could good men look with satisfaction? The nation was enslaved, and worse-they had become slaves in spirit. Their ancient purity was gone. The very priests had become atheists. Where was the promise of His coming? Such, too, is the question of these latter times. And our reply is from past experience. That dark day passed, and a glorious revelation dawned on the world. From what has been, we justly infer what will be. Promises fulfilled are a ground of hope for those yet unfulfilled. Where is the promise now of holier times? Yes, but remember the question seemed to be just as unananswerable then; it was just as unanswerable in the days of the Judges, and in the captivity in Egypt and in Babylon. This "Scripture was written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the world are come." Then the consolation of St. Peter becomes intelligible, "We have a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." 3. But in these evil times there were a few who compared with one another their hopes, and sought strength in Christian communion and fellowship. Of them the text speaks. This communion of saints is twofold: it includes church fellowship and personal friendships. It is plain that from church fellowship they could gain little in those days. Unity there was not, but only disunion. Over that state Malachi lamented in that touching appeal"Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers ?" Israel had forgotten that she was a family. And it is true that in our day church fellowship is almost only a name. The Christianity of the nation does not bind us as individuals. Well-does the Church? Are there many traces of a common feeling? When church privileges are insisted on to produce unity, do they not produce division? Are not these words of the prophet true of us? Where are the traces of Christian brotherhood? Here in this town? here-in this congregation? at the holy supper which we join in to-day? Shall we meet to get private good, or to feel we are partakers of the same Body and the same Blood? Therefore to insist on church union as the remedy would be to miss the special meaning of this verse. The malady of our disunion has gone too deep to be cured by you or me. We will consider it, therefore, in reference to Christian friendship. We find that within the outward Jewish Church there was an inner circle, knit together by closer bonds than circumcision or the passover-by a union of religious sympathies. "Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another:" they "thought upon His name." Let us consider the blessing of Christian friendship. In such times it discharges a double office. 1. For the interchange of Christian hope and Christian feeling. It is dreary to serve God alone; it is desolate to have no one in our own circle or family from whom we can receive sympathy in our hopes. Hopes die. 2. It is a mighty instrument in guarding against temptation. It is a safeguard, in the way of example, and also as a standard of opinion. We should become tainted by the world if it were not for Christian friends. In conclusion, cultivate familiar intimacy only with those who love good and God. Doubtless there are circumstances which determine intimacies, such as rank, station, similarity of tastes. But one thing must be paramount to and modify them all-communion in God. Not in a sectarian spirit. We are not to form ourselves into a party with those who think as we do, and use the formulas that we do. But the spirit of the text requires us to feel strongly that there is a mighty gulf between those who love and those who do not love God. To the one class we owe civility, courtesy, kindness, even tenderness. It is only those who love the Lord who should find in our hearts a home. XX. RECONCILIATION BY CHRIST. "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled."-Col. i. 21. THERE are two, and only two kinds of goodness possible: the one is the goodness of those who have never erred; the other is the goodness of those who, having erred, have been recovered from their error. The first is the goodness of those who have never offended; the second is the goodness of those who, having offended, have been reconciled. In the infinite possibilities of God's universe, it may be that there are some who have attained the first of these kinds of righteousness. It may be that amongst the heavenly hierarchies there are those who have kept their first estate, whose performances have been commensurate with their aspirations, who have never known the wretchedness, and misery, and degradation of a Fall. But whether it be so or not is a matter of no practical importance to us. It may be a question speculatively interesting, but it is practically useless, for it is plain that such righteousness never can be ours. The only religion possible to man is the religion of penitence. The righteousness of man can not be the integrity of the virgin citadel which has never admitted the enemy; it can never be more than the integrity of the city which has been surprised and roused, and which, having expelled the invader with blood in the streets, has suffered great inward loss. Appointed to these two kinds of righteousness there are two kinds of happiness. To the first is attached the blessing of entire ignorance of the stain, pollution, and misery of guilt -a blessed happiness: but it may be that it is not the greatest. To the happiness resulting from the other is added a greater strength of emotion; it may not have the calmness and peace of the first, but, perhaps, in point of intensity and fullness it is superior. It may be that the highest happiness can only be purchased through suffering: and the language of the Bible almost seems to authorize us to say, that the happiness of penitence is deeper and more blessed than the happiness of the righteousness that has never fallen could be. There are two kinds of friendship-that which has never had a shock, and that which, after having been doubted, is at last made sure. The happiness of this last is perhaps the greater. Such seems to be the truth implied in the parable of the prodigal son: in the robe, and the ring, and the fatted calf, and the music, and dancing, and the rapture of a father's embrace and once more, in those words of our Redeemer, "There is more joy among the angels of heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance.' All these seem to tell of the immeasurable blessedness of penitence. And this, then, is our subject-the subject of reconciliation. But the text divides itself into two branches: I. Estrangement. II. Reconciliation. Estrangement is thus described: "You that were sometime" (that is, once) "alienated and enemies in your mind. by wicked works :" in which there are three things. The first is the cause of the estrangement-wicked works; the second is the twofold order; and thirdly, the degree of that estrangement; first of all, mere alienation, afterwards hostility, enmity. And, first of all, we consider the cause of the estrangement "wicked works." Wicked works are voluntary deeds; they are not involuntary, but voluntary wrong. There is a vague way in which we sometimes speak of sin, in which it is possible for us to lose the idea of its guilt, and also to lose the idea of personal responsibility. We speak of sin sometimes as if it were a foreign disease introduced into the constitution: an imputed guilt arising from an action. not our own, but of our ancestors. It is never so that the Bible speaks of sin. It speaks of it as wicked works, voluntary deeds, voluntary acts; that you, a responsible individ |