by the very things which seemed most likely to counteract it. There is an invisible and Almighty Agent engaged to carry it on1. He will fulfil what he has spoken by the prophet k — . Of this comforting truth we may be confidently assured *.]
Infer —
1. In what manner we should regard difficulties —
[We are apt to exaggerate the difficulties that lie in our way ; but, if we inspected them more narrowly, they would often appear contemptible. " Who art thou, O great mountain ? " Art thou a fiery furnace, or a den of lions ? I am ready to encounter thee : for, great as thou art, " thou art not worthy to be compared with the sufferings I shall escape, or the glory that shall follow"1." However great they be, we should not be afraid to address them in the exulting language of the text. They will always, in the issue, be the means of glorifying Christ". Let us therefore go forward in dependence on that promise0 — .]
2. In what manner we may overcome difficulties —
[Remember who the Builder is: it is Zerubbabel, the Lord Jesus Christ ; and is there any thing too hard for him ? The greatest mountains before him will become a plain : he therefore must be viewed as our all-sufficient helper. If we trust in him, we shall never be disappointed. We shall surely experience the truth of that declaration p — . To him then let us commit ourselves with thankful adoration q.]
1 Isai. liv. 17. Ps. cxxxviii. 8. k Luke iii. 5. ] Phil. i. 6.
m Rom. viii. 18. Acts xxi. 13. "2 Cor. xii. 9, 10.
0 " Fear not, thou worm Jacob .... Thou shalt thresh the mountains." Isai. xli. 14 — 16. The whole passage is replete with beauty.
p Zech. iv. 9. i Jude, ver. 24, 25.