Again : Will it not be a bitter subject of regret to you in a dying hour, that the day in which you might have worked is passed away ; and that the night is arrived when no man can work ?
To all then, I say, in the name of the Most High God, " Consider your ways." Consider the evil of them, that you may see your guilt; consider the fruit of them, that you may bewail your folly ; consider the commands of God relating to them, that you may amend them henceforth, and obtain from God the blessings reserved for you in the eternal world.]
Hagg. ii. 7. The Desire of all nations shall come : and I will Jill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts.
MANKIND are apt to imagine that God is pleased with what is grand and magnificent in their eyes ; hence the many splendid edifices that have been raised to his honour : but a contrite heart is a more accept- able residence for God than even the temple of Solomon itself3. The Jews, on their return from Babylon, began to rebuild their temple ; but they, who remembered the former temple, wept aloud b. To encourage them to complete the structure, the prophet was sent to declare, that, however inferior this should be to the former in point of magnificence, it should exceed that in glory ; for that the Messiah himself should adorn it with his own personal ap- pearance.
Let us inquire,
I. Who is the person here spoken of —
The prophet does not speak of desirable things, as silver and gold0. He refers to Christ's advent, and
a Isai. lxvi. 1, 2. b Ezra iii. 11 — 13.
c Some, indeed, put that interpretation on the text : but it is not probable that such an event would be so solemnly introduced ; or that such a fact ever took place in the degree supposed ; or that, if it did, the glory of their temple could by such means be brought to exceed that of the former, considering how many things there were in the former, of which the latter was destitute.