Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.-HAG. i. 2.

-Circumstances are unsuitable, means are wanting, men are few. We cannot do much for the Lord this year; 'the time is not come.' Like the disciples of later times :

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?— JOHN iv. 35.

-When behold the fields were already white.'

Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?-HAG. i. 3, 4.

-How is it that the times are generally good for anything except missions? Houses go up, gold accumulates, feasts are spread; but this house lies waste.' Start an air line in any direction, make known the wildest new invention, and you will have stockholders enough; but mission fields wait, and heathen ask in vain.

The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.

-If you study well that first chapter of Haggai, you will get light on several questions of profit and loss. But it is like the Lord's pitiful 'remembering our frame,' the way a message of comfort follows this sharp one of reproof. For while there was real slackness of hand among the people, and much blame-worthy slothful ease; yet the tears of the old men had been an honest, loving lament over (as they thought) the lost glory of the Lord's house. To that the

Lord now makes tender answer; flashing out upon the mourners such a glow of dawning light, that for a moment the clouds were all lit up.

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?— HAG. ii. 3.

-Two months (nearly) had passed since the first message, to which the people had replied with fear and obedience. Now came the comfort.

Yet now be strong,-O such a one,-and be strong,-O such another,— and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work.

-With scant means, with many

hindrances. Listen.

For I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts.
My spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.

-Listen, and hear what the Lord will do.

I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.

-We look back and think of the good old times when Abraham's prayer would have saved Sodom, and when the people brought 'willingly' more than could be used for the Lord's service; and when congregations 'came out as one man.'

Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord.

The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.

-All outward means, all inward power; and this poor despised company,' this struggling Church of God, shall

yet march as an army with banners, when her Captain

comes.

The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.

It meant Christ's first coming, for them: even 'his humiliation' was more glorious than all the splendour of 'the first house.' But to us it means,

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.-2 THESS. i. 10.

Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.-ZECH. vi. 13, 14.

:

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.ISA. ix. 7.

For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.-1 COR. xv. 25.

-No, the Lord's cause can never really go back; a short tack before the wind must always be followed by a long run ahead. This clouded glory, these failing times, are but for a moment. The Church which dances and plays cards and goes to the theatre, may seem little like the Church in the wilderness, leaving all for Christ; yet still there is no such word as discouraged. 'For yet a little while,' and all these things-the things which can be moved-shall be shaken :

And the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory.-HAG. ii. 7.

-Even this house. The poor endeavours, these few results,

these unknown tired servants,-over them all shall spread the glory, 'when the Lord shall come.'

Let me bring together once more three points of our story. On the one side:

Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?-HAG. i. 4.

On the other:

Yet now be strong.

Be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work. -HAG. ii. 4.

For I am with you.

Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. — MATT. xxviii. 20.

XXXV.

In the Rain.

He mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away.-EZRA X. 6.

Do I then

No indeed :

But I would

IIow strange it is to look back two thousand years or so, to another country and another race, and find words so suited to this year of grace, and to our own dear land! think that other nations are better than ours? I think ours is the best that the sun shines on. have her better than she is. For if you remember what our country might be, and also what God has done for her ('He hath not dealt so with any nation'), then all those who 'tremble at the commandment of our God,' may well take up Ezra's confession, and 'spread out their hands,' and make it for America.

O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our heads, and our trespass is grown up into the heavens.-EZRA ix. 6.

-What was the matter? What should make a patriot blush for his nation? Even the same causes that might redden our own cheeks. For (as I said somewhere else) the exact circumstances matter little, and time and place have still less to do the grievous heart-sin then, as now, was this: great