ruler1. They are open to bribes, in direct violation of Exod. xxiii. 8, and therefore pervert judgment. These sophists on the judgment-seat make "the worse appear the better reason;" and at length reach such a stage of iniquity that they "abhor judgment," and "call evil good," etc. (Isa. v. 20; cf. 2 Pet. ii. 14). In the striking figure of Isaiah (!ix. 14), "truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." Their crimes are set out in detail in verR. 1-4. Meanwhile they are building fine mansions or laying out estates, but at the price of blood, like Ahab (l Kings xix.) or Jehoiakim (Jer. xxii.13-19); or they are wronging the poor, though the consequences may be fatal; as in modem society some of the "htads thereof" connive at social systems in government or in business, by which the poor are defrauded of thrir claim to a livelihood. "The bread of the needy is their life; he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood. He that taketh away his neighbour's living slayeth him : and he that defraudeth the labourer of his hire is a bloodshedder" (Ecclus. xxxv. 21, 22). 2. Ecclesiastical leaders. The priests' duty was to teach the Law (Lev. x. 11; Deut. xvii. 11; xxxiii. 10), but they too needed douceurs, or fees or bribes. They probably misinterpreted the Law from the same motive as did Eli's sons (1 Sam. ii. 12-17). "So Arian bishops, themselves hirelings, by false expositions of Scripture countenanced Arian emperors in their persecution of the faithful" (Pusey). So, too, persecuting priests and prelates in more recent days. 3. Prophets. These religious teachers were raised up to promote a reformation ; but they too bad been dragged down to the level of other teachers. Divine prophecy had been corrupted into divination, as in the case of Balaam, and covetousness was universal (ver. 5; and cf. Ezek. xiii. 1-6). An instructive parallel may be found in the case of the regular clergy of the medimval Church, who were gradually degraded to the low moral level of the secular clergy. 1<Ve are reminded of the odiousness of a mercenary ministry. Thus all classes were com- bined in a conspiracy of unrighteousness (as in Ezek. :xxii. 23-31), and the love of money was the root of all this evil. II. AN INDIGNANT PROTEST AGAINST UNWARRAN'rED FA.ITH IN GOD. They flatter themselves: 1. That they may lean '11,p<Jn the Lord. Deaf to all past teachings, blind to the danger signals which history bas erected, they insult God by leaning npon him, and expecting him to support their vile souls and pampered bodies (cf. Deut, xxix. 19, 20). They further take for granted: 2. That the Lord is among thimi. Though invisible to sense, and sending repeated protests, they assume his favourable presence. They trust in lying words, saying, "The temple of the Lord are these," as though the temple of the Lord and the Lord of the temple were identical. In a church at Innsbruck, on the tabernacle containing the consecrated wafer are the words, "Ecce tabernaculum Dei." H this daring perversion of Scripture had proclaimed a truth, what a falso confidence for an unworthy communicant; as though "Corpus Christi" and "Christ in you" were the same I " There standeth One among you whom ye know not" may be true, but in a new sense; if not to sanctify, to condemn. 3. That no evil will befall them. As though God's protests and a guilty conscience were not in themselves evils and the foreco.st shadows of coming doom. So deceitful and desperately wicked is the heart of man. These truths may be applied to many "nominal Christiaus." (1) Ambitious monarchs or statesmen, "building up" their country by huge standing armies, or navies, or palaces, at the cost of grinding taxation, leading to semi-starvation and loathsome disease as among the Italian peasantry, or of tyrannical extortions from Egyptian felaheen, or of a merciless conscription as in Germany, driving some of her best sons from her shores. (2) Landlords amassing fortunes from rack-renting the fever-slums of London, or confiscating the fruits of the tenants' industry in Ireland. (3) Drink-sellers fattening on the pauperism of their wretched customers, or carryin" liquid poisons to tribes just emerging from barbarism. (4) Hireling preachers o~ priests, prophesying smooth things to unrighteous aristocrats or plutocrats, or lulling guilty consciences by the opiate of the sacrament. Such men of expediency crucified even the Son of God that Zion might be" built up" (John xi. 48; sea Jer. v. 30, 31). To that final question an answer is found in ver. 12.-E. S. P.
Vera. 1-6.-0ivil rulers. "And I said, Hear, I pray you, 0 heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hat-e the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their fl 'sh from 4.0 THE BOOK OF MIOAH. [cu. m. 1-12.