of trouble, and prosperity nfter distress. Haggai's pledge on behalf of God was ui!-filled : for drought they had flowing waters ; instead of fruitless labour they had • tood for the hung-ry," and" the finest of the wheat 11 (cf. Ps. cxlvi. 6-10; cxlvii. 3, 8, 13-20, with Haggai, passim). In almost all great histories of deliverance and progress these two . elements are found .unite_d-fav?uring circumstance and human character. One-sidedness must be avoided m our mterpretn.tion of history. It is not wise to overlook the force of propitious events; we break human hearts if we teach that everything depends on our own fidelity, our own skill • not only so we thus obscure men's faith in the providence of God. On the other hn.nd n~ times are propitious to those who are not ready to serve God. God's provid~nce does not supersede our service, nor render needless his choicest gift of men. In- ability to read "the signs of the times " is declared by Christ to be a mark of in- sincerity (Luke xii. 54-57) ; the highest sc.rvice man can render man is to be an "interpreter II of God's purpose, a prophet calling for the fulfilment of God's will. II. T~E DEJ?ICATION. The festiv~l of the dedication contrasts strikingly with Solomon s £est! val. "The holy of holies was empty. The ark, the cherubim, the tables of stone, the pot of manna, the rod of Aaron were gone. The golden shields had vanished. Even the high priest, though he had recovered his official dress had not been able to resume the ':lreastplate with the oracular stones." (Cf. 1 Kings viii. and 2 Chron. vi. with Ezra vi. 17, and Ps. cmvi. with Ps. cxlvi.-cl.) It is the contrast of youth, flushed with prosperity and of an exultant tone of piety, with experienced and saddened manhood. The barbaric munificence of Solomon's offering 221000' bullocks and 120,000 she~p, contrasts also with the 100 bullocks, 200 rams, ~nd 400 lambs of the second sacrifice. But one touch of pathos appears here wanting in the first-the offering of twelve he-goats, a sin offering for each of the tribes. The ~in offering, for sins of ignorance and negligence, was a confession that all had been heedless ; they knew not, with all they had learnt, the full extent of their remiss- ness, they felt "the sin that mingled with their holy things." We are touched by the record ; the appeal went to the heart of God. "Thou desirest not sacrifice." " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." With the dedication was associated the first passover, about a month after. The true consecration of a house of prayer is not the angust ceremonial which attends its opening, but the habitual sen-ice offered in it. Note the carefulness to follow the law which is characteristic of this period (vers. 18-20). Negligence had been their undoing; the sin offering, confessed that ; but the true repentance is amendment of the evil habit. There -was a forward look in this arrangement of the priests and Levites ; it was provision for a long future of Divine service. And with this was combined hope for the ingathering of all the nation. All the tribes, the children of the captivity, the children of the dispersion, and the undistinguished remnant left behind by the king of Assyria were regarded as one. Their hearts-like that of Paul (Rom. ix.-xi. ) - could not endure the thought of losing any. The family is not complete until all are gathered ; humbler members, its very prodigals, as well as the virtuous and the prosperous. A nation, a Church, includes the weakly and the "less comely" members as well as those which are honourable. Among those who "had separated them- selves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land to seek the Lord God of Israel " may have been heathen proselytes. The " court of the Gentiles" appears for the first time in the temple of Zerubbabel. The true separation, it was recognised with increasing clearness, was separation from the sins of heathenism, nol national exclusiveness. The joyousness of the festival is twice noticed (vers. 16, 22). - It is remarkable how much is said of joy in the Divine service in these books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Perhaps we are never fully conscious of joy till we have been sobered by sorrow. And 1t is a religious duty to encourage hope and gladness in the depressed. We must learn how to treat the various experiences with which we have to deal ; not only weeping with them that weep, but doing all we can to win them to smiles. Elevating influences are most needed by the depressed. It was to slave, Paul told Titus to speak of "adorning, making beautiful, the doctrine of God our Saviour." To the prosperous we may speak of sobriety; we may remind him who lives many years, and rejoices in them all,• of the II days of darkness," which shall be many. But those who have seen affliction, and who have o.rduoull en. 11. 13-22.) THE BOOK OF EZRA. 95
labour and adverse times before them, require that their religious services shoulrl be made as joyous and as bright as possible.-M.