They were ~elfish motives that brought secular disasters to the Jews now. 'l'he veree@ t.cech us that duty is vindicated by the Divine government, We offer two remarks here. l. THAT THE DITTNE GOVERNMENT RECOGNIZES THE SELFISH MOTIVES '.L'HAT AO'.L'IIATE JUEi':. Men are governed in everything by motive. Motive is the mainspring that keeps the world in action; motive is the fountain from which all the stree.ms of lifo procee<l; motive is the germ from which springs every branch and leaf of the great tree of charact.er. Vile judge each other from appearance; God, from motives, God sees theft, blasphemy, and all other crimes where they have never bean expressed in words or acts. This Divine inspection of motives argues three things. l. 'l'he necessity of moral reformation ·in the world. If all pertaining to human life springs from motive, and the motives of the world are depraved, then the grand necessity of the world is reformation. Knowledge, civilization, refinement, social order, mercantile prosperity, wholesome legislation,-these will be of no real service where the motives are bad. Hence the great Ref01mer has said, "Ye must be .born again." To accomplish this reformation is the great aim of the gospel. It is the fire to bum up false motives, it is the axe to strike the upas &t the roots. 2. The necessity/or attending more to the spirit=l than the formal, in the Church. It is not conformity to standards of faith, however scriptural, attention t.o rituals, however esthetic and impressive, the repetition of prayers, however beautiful in language, devout in sentiment, and correct in doctrine; it is not, in fact, in any externalism tbat religion consists or that God delights; it is ,in holy motive. "Neither circumcision ... nor uncircumcisiont etc. (Gal. v. 6), In. all true worship man is at once the temple, the sacrifice, and the priest. When will the time come that men shall regard the Church, not as a pi~e of _tim,ber carved into certain forms by the h&nd of art, remaining the same from age to age, but as a living tree, working itself by the power of its o:wn life into living forms with every s~on that passes over it? 3. The possibility Qf solemn disclosures on the last day. Here men conceal their real hearts from each other. We only know each other after. the flesh. Sometimes here Providence takes off the mask from those whom w11 thought friends, and we recoil from their hideousness with horror. At the last day all will be uncovered. "The hidden things of darkness will be brought to light" (1; Cor. i'v:, 5). What a revelatio11. on that day I lL Tlli.T THE DIVINE GOVERNOR .AVENGES THE SELFISH MOTIVES OF ACTION. "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little." The passage shows two ways in which God opposes the labour of selfish men. l. He neutralizes the results of their 'labour. "I will blow upon it." The man may realize the means which he thought would m.ake him happy; God will hinder it from doing so. One selfish man may get wealth in abundance; another may acquire vast treasures of knowledge; another, immense power in society; yet in all cases there may be unhappiness, because God "blows" upon the whole. In fact, nothing can make a selfish man .happy. 2. He renders ineffective the materials of their labour. Labour always empl0ys three things-agent, instrument, and materials. The materials of labour are here specified-" light," "air," "water," "earth." On these men operate. Out of these we weave our clothing, of them we construct our dwellings. God acts upon these and renders them all ineffective for happiness. "Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land." (1) Gqd directa the universe ; not necessity, not chance. (2) God directs the univer~e for mind.- (3) God directs the universe so as to meet the state of every heart. "To the pure all things are pure."-D. T.
EXPOSITION. of the new bu.i'ldlng with the 118Burance of the CHAPTER IL Divine protection and f av0t1,r. Ver. 1-ch. ii, 9.-Part II. Tim SEOONI> ADDilESS; THE GLORY OP THE NEW TEMPLE, Ver. 1.-In the 11eventh month, in the one and twentieth day. of the month. The Vtrs. 1-5.-§ I. The prophet oomforu seventh month is Etbenim or TiHi, answer- I/woe who grieve at the comparative porerty i11g to parts of September and October. The on. 11. 1-23.] THE .ijOOK OF HAGGAI. 19