when H had not (Exod. ii. 11-16; Acts vii. 25); by the Jewi.~h rulers in Chri,t's day, who failed to discern in the Galilrean Prophet the manifest tokens of Me.;sia.h (Matt. x~i. 3, 4); by the city of Jerusalem, wh~ch knew not the day of her visitation (Luke x1x. 42); and by the present-day unbeliever, who cannot see that "now i8 the accepted time, and now iM the day of salvation" (2 Cor. vi. 2). II. TllEY WERE TOO EASILY DAUNTED BY OPPOSITION. 1. The natwre and sowrce of this opposition is described in the Book ef Ezra (iv.). Prevented from takin" part in the building of the temple, the Samaritan settlers first "weakened the bands of the builders," next" hired counsellors against them," and ultimately obtained an interdict commanding them to cease. It was certainly annoying, but: 2. They should not have been so easily discouraged. No enterprise of any moment was ever carried throuo-lt without encountering difficulties and frequently hostilities, and without calling for patient perseverance in well-doing. How otherwise would Israel have been brought from Egypt at the first, or Judah from Babylon a few years before? 3. The same mistake is committed still by those who imagine the spiritual temple of Jehovah, eitner in the individual soul or in the Church as a whole, can be built without difficulty, without experiencing resistance from enemies within and without, or in any other way than by indqmitable perseverance. 4. " Never despair " and "Never give in " should be the twin mottoes of every one engaged in temple-building for God--of tne individual believer, of the Christian minister, of the foreign missionary. III. THEY PREFERRED THE MATERIAL AND TEMPORAL TO THE SPIRITUAL A:-:ID RELIGIOUS. The ordinary occupatioos of life had more attraction for them than the duties of religion. To assert that they cared nothing for religion would, perhaps, be wrong, since what had brought them back from Babylon, where for the most part they had comf9rtable settlements, was a true feeling of piety no less than an ardent spirit of patriotism. Yet were they not long back upon their much-loved ancestral soil before they showed they had brought back with them from Babylon a passion stronger than even their love for religion, namely, devotion to the earthly and material pursuits of life. Their zeal in temple-building was quickly damped, but not so their enthusiasm in ploughing and sowing their fields, in working for wages, in erecting magnificent mansions, sumptuous palaces like those they had seen and perhaps lived in in Babylon, with walls of polished stone and roofd of cedar. With much ease they could see that ''the time for building God's house was not come," as tbey supposed; they had large difficulty in perceiving it was not the season to attend to their ordinary avocations.. So do many on becoming Christians carry over with them into their new life "passions for things material and temporal," which, while religious feeling is fresb., are kept in abeyance, but which, the moment this begins to abate, assert themseh- cs to the hindrance of what is properly religious work, and to the detriment of the soul's religious life. This constitutes a third mistake against which Christians should be on their guard. IV. THEY FOLLOWED THEIR OWN INTERES'l'S RATHER THAN TllE GLORY OF GoD. One cannot help thinking that, had the building of the Lord's house been a matter that concerned their own glory, comfort, or interest, they would not have suffered it to lie waste as they did; but only the honour of the Deity was involved, and what was that to their material advantage and temporal felicity? Was it not of greater moment that, they themselves should be well housed, well fed, well clothed, than that even Gotl, who dwelleth not in temples made with hands, and requireth not to be worshipped as though he needed anything, should be well lodged? If it came to the worst, they could do without a temple altogether, could worship in the open air, as they had dono since coming from Babylon, but they could not well do without well-stocked farms aud finely ceiled houses. And so they let the work, which had only God's glory as its motive, drop, and applied themselves to that which contemplated man's or their owu material good. Is it wronu to find in this a parable for Christians? Is not the essence of Christianity just this-that a man, like Christ whom he follows, shail seek, not his own glory, but God's; shall do, not his own will, but the will of hiw who bath sent him into the world ? Yet among professing Christians are those who cannot see beyond their own little selves, and who imagine that a man's chief ,luty upon earth, even after having become a Christian, is•to do the best he can for himself, wl,creas it is to do the best he cau for God. Acting on the former principle ler,ds to spiritual blindness, 8 THE BOOK OF HAGGAI. [oR, I, 1-15,
to oowardioe, to this-worldiem, all of which are deplorable mistakes; acting on the latter principle terminates in no such disastrous results, but brings with it to the individue.l so RCting spiritual insight, more.I courage, and heavenly-mindedness, three que.lities which ennoble all by whom they are possessed. LEssoNs. 1. The duty of discerning the signs of the times. 2. 'l.'he necessity of combining courage with forethought. 3. 'l.'he propriety of guarding against the disturbing influence of supposed self-interest.