SEEDS OF SERMONS FROM THE MINOR PROPHETS. MALACHI. [If the Bible as a whole is inspired, it is of vast importance that all its Divine ideas should be brought to bear upon the living world of men. Though the pulpit is the organ Divinely intended for this work, it has been doing it hitherto in a miserably partial aud restricted method. It selects isolated passages, and leaves whole chapters and books for the most part untouched. Its conduct to the Minor Prophets may be taken as a case in point. How seldom are they resorted to for texts! and yet they abound with splendid passages throbbing with Divine ideas. It is our purpose to go through this section of the Holy Word; selecting, however, only such verses in each chapter and book as seem the most suggestive of truths of the most vital interest and universal application. MALACHI-Which means messenger-the last of the Hebrew prophets, is a man whose personal history is wrapped in utter obcurity. He is supposed to have lived after Haggie and Zechariah, and was contempory with Nehemiah. It is likely that he occupied a relationship to Nehemiahs somewhat analagous to that which Haggi and Zechariah sustained to Zerubbabel. The general opinion is that he flourished about the year 420, B.C. This was that brilliant period in Greece in which flourished some of its greatest men. Cimion, son of Miltiades, distinguished at a commander: Pericles the greatest of Athenian statesmen, under whom Athens attained a splendour that made her the wonder and admiration of all Greece: Phidias, the celebrated sculptor, and a host of distiguished artists; Simonides and Pinder, eminent lyric poets: Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides distinguished dramatists; and Herodotus who has received a title really due to Moses, the "Father of History," The Jews had ever been accustomed to marry very young, the husband often being not more than 13 years of age and the wife younger. "Thy companion," not a slave, nor an inferior, but an equal and a friend. Love companionship is the highest ideal of matrimony. "Wife of thy covenant." A relationship established by mutual agreement. Marriage (Prov. ii. 17) is called the covenant of God, it is so because He has ordained it. "Did He not make one?" Thine exclusively. Abraham who had taken Hagar to the injury of Sarah his lawful wife. To this Malachi says now no one (ever) did so in whom there was a residue of intelligence (discriminating between good and evil), and what did the one (Abraham to whom you appeal for support) do, seeking a godly seed? His object (viz., not to gratify passion, but to obtain the seed promised by God) makes the case wholly inapplicable to defend your position." It is asked "and wherefore one?" Wherefore only Eve for Adam, Sarah Sarah for Abraham? "Instead" says Dr. Henderson, "of forming two into one, the Creator might have given to Adam There wives. many was no lack of spiritual existence from which to furnish them with intelligent souls. When he gave to Eve such an existence he did not exhaust the universal fountain of being. There remained all with which the human race had been furnished throughout its generations. What then, the prophet asks, was the design of the restriction? To this he replies, the securing of a pious offspring. Divorces and polygamy have ever been unfavourable to the education of children. It is only by the harmonious and loving attention bestowed by parents upon their children that they can be expected to be brought up in the fear of God. The reply bore In hard upon the priests who had married idolatrous wives." relation to the Divine institution of marriage it is suggested II. That it HAS BEEN SADLY OUTRAGED IN ALL AGES. The Jews outraged it. The command here, "take heed to your Spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth," implies thisThey dealt "treacherously " against the wife of their youth by marrying others. "Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives." (Ezra x. 10.) They do so also by putting them away, by divorce. "For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away, for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of Hosts." This has been done in all ages. (1) Polygamy is an outrage on it. (2) Cruelty is an outrage on it. (3) Mutual unfaithfulness is an outrage on it. The Divine idea of marriage is that the two souls shall be one, so united in love, sympathy, aim, that the two would think, feel, and act as one. But how few amongst the million matrimonial alliances reach this ideal! In relation to the Divine institution of marriage, we observe : III. That outrage of this institution is FRAUGHT WITH CALAMITOUS RESULTS. First: It is abhorrent to God. "The Lord the God of Israel saith He hateth putting away." A separation of man and wife, a divorce is abhorrent to the Almighty, although by the law of Moses it was allowed, because of the hardness of their hearts. Secondly-It involves violence. "For one covereth violence with his garment." Some suppose the garment here means the wife, and that the idea is that violence was done to her. Others suppose it means the pretext they employed for doing so by the permission of Moses. (Deut. xxv. 21.) Others suppose the garment means man's reputation and that he would damage his influence by it. Whatever the particular meaning of the passage is, it is certain that the outrage of the institution of marriage is fraught with great evils. CONCLUSION:-An extract from my marriage service in the "Biblical Liturgy," may not be out of place here. "Marriage is an institution of God: it accords with the dictates of nature and the laws of inspiration. It is coeval with human society, it was an essential ingredient in the happiness of Eden. It heightened, it perfected, the pure, fresh, and serene joys of that garden, the scene of every beauty and the temple of God. In mercy it has been perpetuated to the present hour as a social blessing to soothe and sustain our nature amidst the depressing circumstances of our fallen state. Jesus threw around this relation ship a peculiar grandeur, He clothed it with sublimity: to Hisholy eye it was a holy thing, He ratified its contract, He guarded its obligations, He expounded itslaws, He graced its celebration with His presence: the first miracle His sacred hands performed was at a bridal feast. The Apostles caught the idea of their Master and invested it with a mystic solemnity by representing it as a type of the substantial, invisible, and everlasting union existing between Christ and His Church. It involves the most tender, close, and lasting ties that can unite human beings together in this life. "Therefore shall a man leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they both shall become one flesh." It combines the earthly interest, fortunes, and happiness of two, it may influence the destinies of many. The interests of the parties united, the triumphs of truth and the upward progress of humanity are all dependent on the nuptial bond." No. CCCCLXI. The Words of Scepticism.. "YE HAVE WEARIED THE LORD. WITH YOUR WORDS. YET YE SAY, WHEREIN HAVE WE WEARIED HIM? WHEN YE SAY, EVERY ONE THAT DOETH EVIL IS GOOD IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, AND HE DELIGHTETH IN THEM; OR, WHERE IS THE GOD OF JUDGMENT?"-Malachi ii. 17. These words are directed against the spirit of scepticism and discontent which prevailed amongst the Israelites in the time of the prophets, and they lead us to offer two remarks on the words of scepticism. COM I. They are words of PLAINT AGAINST GOD. "Ye say, every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord." This is what they said, this was perhaps their current talk. A very old topic of complaint was theirs. It means this, "Wherefore doth the wicked prosper ?" Wherefore are the righteous afflicted? This was the chief problem of the book of Job, this was the burden of Psalm 73rd. Since vice is here triumphant and virtue oppressed, "Where is the God of judgment?" If there is a God who governs the world His righteousness is not seen on the contrary, He shows more favor to the evil than to the good. "Where is the God of judgment?" We want Him to put an end to this state of things. Another remark we offer concerning the words of scepticism, is : II. They are words UNGRATEFUL TO THE EAR OF GOD. "Ye have wearied the Lord with your words." Observe, First ::-God hears the words of men. Every syllable enters His ears, He understands our thoughts afar off. Observe, Secondly:- Sceptical words are offensive to Him. "Ye have wearied the Lord with your words." Wearied with their ignorance, their falseness, with their impiety. The creating and the supporting of a universe does not weary God, for He "fainteth not, neither is He weary." But the endless chatterings of sceptical and discontented souls weary Him. Observe, Thirdly :-The authors of sceptical words are indifferent to this terrible fact. "Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied Him?" They go on talking against God in their families, their clubs, in their public halls, in their workshops and their warehouses, and are utterly indifferent to the fact that their words are offensive to the ears of the all-Hearing One. CONCLUSION :-" I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof on the day of judgment." Every idle word, not merely the profane and impious language of the scoffer and blasphemer, but every idle word-words that have little or no meaning, the most airy words of wit and humour spoken in jest, not to delude or pain, but simply to please. HOMILETICAL BREVIARIES. No. CCCCVIII. Striving against Conviction. "IT IS HARD FOR THEE TO KICK AGAINST THE PRICKS."-Acts xxvi. 14 THIS sentence was one of the oldest of Greek proverbs. If it seems strange that it was now addressed to Saul in the Hebrew language, we reply, it is but an instance of the voice of Religion rightly using the tones of every-day life. And if it seem strange that at such a time Christ should use a figure in His appeal to a human soul, we reply that it was His habit, Who used the bird and the flowers as parables, thus to speak to men in figures. And yet, again, if it seem strange that in this hour of his conversion, this supreme moment of his life, that Paul should be addressed as though he was then and there specially resisting conviction, and finding the painfulness of such conviction, we reply that there is every reason to believe that the statement applied to many of Paul's recent experiences, which were finding their climax in that crisis. Doubtless the reflection of one who knew the Scriptures as Paul did, and who had the warning Gamaliel gave him, and the recollections he must have had of the martyrs he was making, and pre-eminently his recollection of Stephen's suffering and death, must have brought many misgivings to his heart-misgivings like so many goad-thrusts, which found their full force in the vision and voices of that hour. Anyhow, the text tells, that, whether for a longer or a shorter time, Paul had been consciously resisting conviction. So we notice, I. Conscious resistance to the convictions of duty is COMMON. We see it (1) In continuance in outward sin which is felt to be evil. (2) In cherishing secret evils known to be wrong. (3) In postponing allegiance to claims of religion felt to be just. II. Conscious resistance to the convictions of duty is PAINful. (1) It is "hard" because a man is in collision with the best social influences-in Church, in godly family, etc. (2) It is "hard" because a man is in conflict with his own higher nature. Reason, conscience, have been goad-thrusts. (3) It is "hard" because a man is in opposition to God. |