2. How evidently must all the glory of our salvation be given to Christ !
[We always wish to ascribe some of the glory to ourselves: but the whole work is his from the foundation to the top-stone : He is " the author and the finisher of our faith." Are we reconciled to God? it is through the blood of his cross.' Is our peace maintained with God? it is through his prevailing intercession. Are we freed from the bondage of sin and Satan ? it is through his mighty power, and victorious grace. Let him then " bear the glory:" on him " let us hang all the glory of his Father's house11:" and let us now sing, as we hope to do to all eternity, " To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen0.]
n Isai. xxii. 24. ° Rev. i. 5, 6.
Zech. vii. 4 — 7. Then came the ivord of the Lord of Hosts unto me, saying, Spieak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did ye not eat for yourselves, and drink for your- selves ? Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem ivas inhabited and in prosperity ?
THIS was an answer to a question which had been proposed to the prophet, by persons who had been sent from Babylon to consult him on a matter of considerable importance. The Jews, when carried captive to Babylon, instituted four annual fasts a, two of which are mentioned in the text ; that in the fifth month, in remembrance of the destruction of their temple and city by Nebuzar-adan, the Chaldean general ; and the other, in remembrance of the mur- der of Gedaliah, who had been placed, as governor, over the poorer part of the Jewish population that were left in the landb. But the people were now restored to their land ; and the temple was in part
a Zech. viii. 19. b 2 Kings xxv. 8 — 10, 22 — 25.