IV
A PROPHECY OF PLENTY
(The plea of the prophet was effective. The people repented, and their prophet promised that the Lord would not only forgive his people, but would bless them with abundance.)
Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil,
And ye shall be satisfied therewith: And I will no more make you a reproach among the nations: But I will remove far off from you the northern army, And will drive him into a land barren and desolate, His vanguard into the eastern sea, And his rearguard into the western sea. Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice. For the Lord hath done great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: For the pastures of the wilderness do spring, For the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: For he giveth you the former rain in just measure, {379} And he causeth to come down for you the rain, The former rain and the latter rain, in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, The cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And ye shall praise the name of the Lord your God, That hath dealt wondrously with you: And my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else: And my people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward, That I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; And your sons and daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days Will I pour out my spirit. |
ZEPHANIAH
(Zephaniah is another of the prophets who tell of the destruction which will come upon the people in the terrible "day of the Lord." Then his prophecy, like the others, breaks into joyous strains at the close, as he tells of the blessings which will be showered upon the nation when it repents.)
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I
THE DAY OF WRATH |
The Day of the Lord is near: It is near and hasteth greatly. Even the voice of the Day of the Lord; The mighty man crieth there bitterly. That Day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of waste and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities, And against the high battlements. Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation that hath no shame; Before the decree bring forth, Before the day pass as the chaff, Before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, |
"THE PROPHETS"
From the frieze of "The Prophets," by Sargent, in the Boston Public
Library.
The prophets here represented are Zephaniah, Joel, Obadiah, and Hosea.
Which have wrought his judgment;
Seek righteousness, Seek meekness: It may be ye shall be hid In the Day of the Lord's anger. This is the joyous city, That dwelt carelessly, That said in her heart, "I am, And there is none else beside me:" How is she become a desolation, A place for beasts to lie down in! Everyone that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his head, Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted, To the oppressing city. She obeyed not the voice; She received not correction; She trusted not in the Lord; She drew not near to her God. Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions; Her judges are evening wolves; They leave nothing till the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: Her priests have profaned the sanctuary, They have done violence to the law. The Lord in the midst of her is righteous; 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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IV
SING, O DAUGHTER OF ZION |
Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; Be glad and rejoice with the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: The king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: Thou shalt not fear evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, "Fear thou not: O Zion, let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, A mighty one who will save: He will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, He will joy over thee with singing." |
NAHUM
(Nineveh was the capital city of the great empire of Assyria. It was, to the Hebrews, the expression of all the power and cruelty and bloodthirstiness of that mighty and oppressive empire. The story of the barbaric savagery of this empire almost passes belief. The monuments of Assyria are its own strongest accusing witnesses. They show pictures of captives of war whose eyes are being put out, who are being skinned alive, who are suffering all the tortures that a savage imagination can invent. Any such torture might come to any Hebrew taken in war. Is it any wonder that the people not only dreaded, but bitterly hated this city? Is it strange that they thought Jehovah would certainly overthrow it? Nahum, in a poetic prophecy of great vigor and vividness, pictures the overthrow, and exults in the fall of the great, rich, cruel city. That fall came, at the hands of the Medes and Babylonians, in about 608 B. C. Since that time, Nineveh has remained in ruins, and is to-day buried under the sand hills of the desert.)
I
THE GOODNESS AND THE GREATNESS OF THE LORD
The Lord is a jealous God and avengeth; the Lord avengeth and is full of wrath; the Lord taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of {386} his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him. The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that put their trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make a full end of the place thereof, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make a full end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. For though they be like tangled thorns, and be drenched as it were in their drink, they shall be devoured utterly as dry stubble. There is one gone forth out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, that counselleth wickedness.
Thus saith the Lord: Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so shall they be cut down, and he shall pass away.
Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.
And now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.
And the Lord hath given commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image; I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.
Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
That publisheth peace!
II
THE DOOM OF NINEVEH
(In describing the doom of Nineveh, the writer draws one of the most vivid pictures of war that was ever written.)
Hold the rampart! Keep watch on the way!
Brace the loins! Pull thyself firmly together!
The shields of the heroes are red,
The warriors are in scarlet;
Like fire is the shining of his chariots in the day of his muster,
And the horsemen are prancing.
Through the markets rage chariots,
They tear across the squares;
The look of them is like torches,
Like lightnings they dart to and fro.
And now they flee. "Stand, stand!" but there is none to rally.
Plunder silver, plunder gold!
Infinite treasures, mass of all precious things!
Void and devoid and desolate is she.
Melting hearts and shaking knees,
And anguish in all loins,
And nothing but faces full of black fear. {388} Where is the Lion's den,
And the young lion's feeding ground?
Whither has the Lion retreated,
The whelps of the Lion with none to make afraid:
The Lion who tore enough for his whelps,
And strangled for his lionesses.
And he filled his pits with prey,
And his dens with rapine.
Lo, I am at thee,
I will put up thy lair in flames,
The sword shall devour thy young lions;
I will cut off the earth from thy rapine,
And the noise of thine envoys shall no more be heard.
Woe to the City of Blood,
All of her guile, robbery full, ceaseless rapine!
Hark the whip,
And the rumbling of the wheel,
And horses galloping,
And the rattling dance of the chariot!
Cavalry at the charge, and flash of sabres,
And lightning of lances,
Mass of slain and weight of corpses,
They stumble on their dead!
All thy fortresses are fig trees with figs early ripe:
Be they shaken they fall on the mouth of the eater.
Lo, thy folk are but women in thy midst:
To thy foes the gates of thy land fly open;
Fire has devoured thy bars.
"THE PROPHETS"
From the frieze of "The Prophets," by Sargent, in the Boston Public
Library.
The prophets here represented are Amos, Nahum, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Get thee down to the mud, and tramp in the clay!
Grip fast the brick mould!
There fire consumes thee, the sword cuts thee off!
Asleep are thy shepherds, O king of Assyria,
Thy nobles do slumber;
Thy people are strewn on the mountains,
Without any to gather.
There is no healing of thy wreck,
Fatal thy wound.
All who hear of thy fall shall clap their hands at thee,
For upon whom hath not thy cruelty passed without ceasing?
[Footnote: This translation is, in part, that of George Adam Smith.]
HABAKKUK
(The little book of Habakkuk was written just before the fall of Jerusalem. This prophet is dealing with a problem new to Israel. It was, Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? It came from the rapid rise of the great, cruel empire of Babylon. Assyria had fallen, but instead of Israel being free as the people had expected they would be when Assyria was out of the way, it found itself under the power of the New Babylonian government. Why did God allow this? the people asked, in sad despair at the hopeless political situation. The prophet Habakkuk attempted to answer the question. He called himself a watchman, set to see if God would not answer this question. And the answer comes. It is in a sort of enigma: "Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him; but the just shall live by his faith." Then the rest of the book is the expansion of the thought of this enigma. And what is its meaning? It could be expressed somewhat in this way: "Be patient; hold faith in God. In faith in him is the promise of life. Wickedness contains the germs of its own destruction, and will inevitably fall, Wait and you will see that this is so.")
I
WARNINGS OF THE WATCHMAN
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what he will speak with me, and what I shall answer concerning my complaint.
And the Lord answered me, and said, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not {393} delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith."
Woe to him that getteth an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil! Thou hast consulted shame to thy house, by cutting off many peoples, and hast sinned against thy soul. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the peoples labour for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity? For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink.
What profiteth the graven image, that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and the teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood, "Awake;" to the dumb stone, "Arise!" Shall this teach? Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
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II
A PRAYER OF THE PROPHET |
O Lord, I have heard the report of thee, and am afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, {394} In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy. God came from Teman, And the Holy One from mount Paran His glory covered the heavens, And the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light; He had rays coming forth from his hand: And there was the hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence, And fiery bolts went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth; He beheld, and drove asunder the nations: And the eternal mountains were scattered, The everlasting hills did bow; His goings were as of old. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers, Or thy wrath against the sea, That thou didst ride upon thine horses, Upon thy chariots of salvation? Thy bow was made quite bare; The oaths to the tribes were a sure word. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. The mountains saw thee, and were afraid; The tempest of waters passed by: {395} The deep uttered his voice, And lifted up his hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; At the light of thine arrows as they went, At the shining of thy glittering spear. Thou didst march through the land in indignation, Thou didst thresh the nations in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, For the salvation of thine anointed; Thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, Laying bare the foundation even unto the neck. Thou didst pierce with his own staves the head of his warriors: They came as a whirlwind to scatter me: Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. Thou didst tread the sea with thine horses, The heap of mighty waters. I heard, and my belly trembled, My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in my place: That I should rest in the day of trouble, When it cometh up against the people which invadeth him in troops. For though the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no meat; {396} The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength, And he maketh my feet like hinds' feet, And will make me to walk upon mine high places. |
HAGGAI
(In 538 B.C., while Israel was still captive in Babylon, the mighty Babylonian empire was overthrown by Cyrus the Great. What a rejoicing there was among the Israelites and all the other enforced colonists of Babylonia! Cyrus was a statesman. He saw how Babylon was made weak by the large number of discontented inhabitants who had been imported as captives of war. He wisely decided to allow all who wished, to go home again. Many Israelites, who now were often called Jews, accepted his offer and returned to Palestine, with high hopes of a brilliant future for the nation. But they found Jerusalem in ruins and their brother Jews discouraged. Then followed a long series of famine years. Most of the people who came back had been reared on the rich plains of Babylonia, and were not able easily to make a living on the barren, rocky ridges of Judea. They became poor and discouraged. Their plan had been to build the temple, and they had set up an altar soon after they came, but fifteen years had passed, and the temple was not yet built. Part of the time the government had interfered with the building. The enemies of the Jews had persuaded the imperial officers that a temple would be only a fortress in disguise, and that the record of the Jews for insurrection and revolt was such that fortresses were not safe in their hands. But now a new king had come to the throne, and Haggai, who seems to have been a priest, came forward on a feast day with a proposal to build the temple. His little book has no grace of style, no great prophetic thought, no poetry or oratory, but is a plain proposition to get the temple built, with a promise that if they do, God will give them his blessing. It is good to know that the people responded to his appeal and the temple was built. This prophet with his plain style was more successful than almost any other prophet.)
I
THE PROPHET URGES THE PEOPLE TO BUILD THE TEMPLE
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the high priest, saying, "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, 'This people say, It is not the time for us to come, the time for the Lord's house to be built.'" Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the prophet, saying, "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: 'Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.'"
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: "Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and 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. 'Why?' saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that lieth waste, while ye run every man to his own house. Therefore for your sake the heaven withholdeth the dew, and the earth withholdeth her fruit. And I called for a {399} drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands."
Then Zerubbabel and Joshua, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, "'I am with you,' saith the Lord."
And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God.
A month later came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, "Speak now to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying, 'Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing?' 'Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,' saith the Lord; 'and be strong, O Joshua, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land,' saith the Lord, 'and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts, according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my spirit abode among you: fear ye not.' For thus saith the Lord of hosts: 'Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the {400} heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the treasures of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory,' saith the Lord of hosts. 'The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,' saith the Lord of hosts. 'The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former,' saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace,' saith the Lord of hosts."
ZECHARIAH
(Zechariah aided Haggai in his attempt to get the temple built. Nothing is known of his personality or history. Most of his prophecy is in the form of a series of visions, whose meaning as a whole is that God is guiding in the history of the world, and will make Israel glorious by and by, in spite of its present low estate.)
In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the prophet, saying, "The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them, 'Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Return unto me saith the Lord of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Return ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? and they turned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.'"
I
THE VISION OF THE HORSEMEN IN THE GLEN
I saw in the night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the glen; and behind him there were horses, red, sorrel, and white. Then said I, "O my lord, what are these?" And the angel that talked with me said unto me, "I will shew thee what these are." And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, "These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth." And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, "We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest." Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, "O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?" And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me kind words and comforting. So the angel that talked with me said unto me, "Cry thou, saying, 'Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. And I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. Therefore thus saith the Lord: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, {403} and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem. Cry yet again, saying, 'Thus saith the Lord of hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.'"
II
THE VISION OF THE CITY OF PEACE
And I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, "Whither goest thou?" And he said unto me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof." And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, "Run, speak to this young man, saying, 'Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, by reason of the multitude of men and cattle therein. For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her.'
"'Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the Lord shall inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord: for he is waked up out of his holy habitation.'"
III
THE VISION OF THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK
And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. And he said unto me, "What seest thou?" And I said, "I have seen, and behold, a candlestick all of gold, with its bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are upon the top thereof: and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof."
And I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, "What are these, my lord?" Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, "Knowest thou not what these are?" And I said, "No, my Lord." Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, "This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it.'" Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel."
IV
THE VISION OF THE FLYING BOOK
(The flying book or roll is the vengeance of God, which flies into the house of the evil-doer like a great bird, and roosts there and destroys it.)
Then again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, a book flying. And he said unto me, "What seest thou?" And I answered, "I see a book flying; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits."
Then said he unto me, "This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole land: for every thief shall be purged away from hence; and every perjurer is hereby purged from hence. I will cause it to go forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall roost in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with its beams and its stones."
V
THE VISION OF THE WOMAN IN THE BARREL
(The prophet sees Wickedness as a woman who is in a barrel measure. She is pushed down into it, the leaden cover is put on, and she is carried away out of the land.)
And the angel of Jehovah who spake with me came forward and spake to me and said to me, "Lift now thine eyes and see what this is that comes forth." {406}
And I said, "What is it?"
And he said, "This is a barrel coming forth."
And he said, "This is their transgression in all the land."
And behold, the round leaden top was lifted off, and lo, a woman sitting inside the barrel.
And he said, "This is Wickedness," and he thrust her back into the barrel, and thrust the leaden cover upon the mouth of it. And I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and lo, two women came forth with the wind in their wings, and they bore the barrel betwixt earth and heaven.
And I said to the angel that talked with me, "Whither do they carry the barrel?"
And he said to me, "To build it a house in the land of Shinar, that it may be fixed and brought to rest there in a place of its own."
VI
THE VISION OF THE CHARIOTS OF THE FOUR WINDS
(The four chariots of the four winds go forth to guard the boundaries of the land from all threatening foes.)
And again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass. In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses; and in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot dappled bay horses. {407}
Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, "What are these, my lord?"
And the angel answered and said unto me, "These are the four winds of heaven, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth." The chariot wherein are the black horses goeth forth toward the north country; and the white went forth after them; and the dappled went forth toward the south country. And the bay went forth, and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth: and he said, "Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth." So they walked to and fro through the earth.
MALACHI
(Malachi wrote after the Exile. The temple, whose building Haggai had urged, was erected; but the people were already tired of its service. "What a weariness it is!" they said. They brought worthless animals for sacrifice, and would do nothing in the temple except for pay. Malachi denounced their selfishness, but said that if they would turn to God, he would still be ready to bless them. Malachi's writing is less poetical in its style than most of the prophets, but he speaks in a very plain, straightforward fashion.)
"Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in, behold, he cometh," saith the Lord of hosts. "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto the Lord offerings in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against perjurers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me," saith the Lord of hosts. "For I the Lord change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
"From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside {409} from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you," saith the Lord of hosts. "But ye say 'How then shall we return?' Will a man rob God? yet ye rob me. But ye say, 'Wherein have we robbed thee?' In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation. Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in mine house, and prove me now herewith," saith the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field," saith the Lord of hosts.
"And all nations shall call you happy: for ye shall be a delightsome land," saith the Lord of hosts.
"Your words have been stout against me," saith the Lord. "Yet ye say, 'Wherein have we spoken against thee?' Ye have said, 'It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and are delivered.'"
Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
SELECTIONS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT
These selections from the Epistles are not in poetic form, but they are given here because they are, in a way, the culmination of the lofty and inspiring thought of the Bible. Not only do they treat of the great themes of life and death, but they treat of them in the most solemn and impressive manner. They are like organ music, not pleasing the ear by the delicacy of rhythm, not having the rhyme and melody of lyric verse, but moving with grandeur and sublimity of thought in the higher ranges of being. Thus they form the fitting climax for all the wealth of song and story which precedes them.
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND SERVICE
PAUL'S EPISTLES
The letters of a man tell us more about him than any books he could write. Now Paul never wrote any books; but he wrote many letters. Some were to the churches he had founded; some to his fellow workers. Some of these letters were preserved and are in the Bible under the name of Epistles. Even in these letters others are mentioned which are not preserved. We have two letters to the Corinthian Church, but in them Paul mentions other letters which he wrote to that church. In the letter to the Colossian Church, he mentions a letter to the church at Laodicea, a city near to Colosse. It is fair to suppose that many other letters have also been lost. Probably the best and most important of his letters were preserved. These letters are the outcome of long thought. They were on subjects that Paul had considered for many years. The writing of the letters, however, was often the work of a short time, and their expression is not smooth and polished and carefully wrought. Sometimes, as in the case of Galatians, the letter was written because of a situation which he felt demanded immediate attention. Sometimes, as in the case of I Corinthians, he replied to letters of questions that had been sent to him from the churches. Sometimes, as in the case of Philippians, the letter was called out in thanks for the kindness of the church. The most important letter, Romans, was written to prepare the church, which he had never visited, for his expected coming to them. In every case--it is always true of letters--the occasion of the letter largely determines its style and tone, but in all cases the spontaneity of the letter-writer is seen. Paul dictated or wrote his letters hurriedly. He cared less for style than for thought. Vigor and force mark his writing. He did not try to imitate the graces of the rhetorician. He did not {414} always follow out a topic to the end. He sometimes began a sentence in one way and finished it in another. He sometimes began a sentence, and, going off to another topic, never finished it at all. He is not always easy reading. But these evidences of a free, spontaneous writing are only occasional. The greater part of the letters of Paul are very clear, simple, forceful statements of what he wishes to say.
Paul was not merely a Jew. He was a citizen of the great world of the Roman empire. He had been brought up in a city where Greek culture and civilization were very flourishing. His travels brought him into contact with all the varying forms of Greek life. He visited Athens. He made long stays in Corinth, where the commerce of the world crowded the docks, and sailors and merchants from all parts of the great empire were to be met in the streets. He lived for nearly three years in the great city of Ephesus, where the courtiers of the governor of the province, fresh from all the latest fashions of Rome, jostled the priests of the great temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Before the end of his life he was a prisoner in Rome itself, the one city into which all the world poured its representatives, where the fair-haired men from distant Britain in the North met the dusky Ethiopian from Africa, and the Spaniard from the Atlantic coast walked the street with the Scythian from the distant East. Paul the prisoner lived for two whole years in his own hired house, and had permission to receive all who came to him. During this time, and for two years of previous imprisonment, he was in daily contact with the Roman soldiery. This cosmopolitan man, with his wide experience of many phases of Roman and Greek life, has dropped here and there in his writings many pictures from the civilization with which he was in touch. He used it to illustrate the Christian life. The athlete in the theater gave him a picture of the earnest, eager strife of the Christian. The soldier with his clanging armor suggested to him the armor by which a Christian might meet his foes. The temples that studded every great town taught him how the Christian was himself the temple of the living God. Thus it happens that the most lasting memorial, the most widely read allusions, to the great civilization of Greece and Rome come from this wandering preacher of an obscure faith who at last {415} was a despised prisoner at Rome. How it would have astonished the crowds at Ephesus who shouted, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" to be told that their great temple and their goddess herself would be known to most people in the world only because of their connection with the life of this man Paul whom they wanted to put out of the way! It was a wonderful civilization in the midst of which Paul lived, and a very bustling, active, self-important world through which he moved, but the most permanent things in it were by no means the things that seemed to most people of the time to be the greatest.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that {416} which is evil; cleave to that which is good. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honour preferring one another; in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing steadfastly in prayer; communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality. Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly. Be not wise in your own conceits. Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for things honourable in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto wrath: for it is written, "Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense," saith the Lord. But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.