he1Lrt, we place true speech. "The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life" (Prov, x. 11), "uaturnl, clean, life-giving, refreshing;"" The tongue of the wise useth knowlerlue nright" (Prov. xv. 2); "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life" (Prov. xv. 4); "The lips of the wise disperse truth" (Prov. xv. 7). Happy they who resemble the character portrayed by George Eliot, in her 'Scenes of Clerical Life,' ar,d of whom she says, "He was the man to give me help and comfort when everything else failed: every word he says seems to have a new meaning. I think it must be because he has felt lire more deeply than others, and has a deeper faith. I believe everything he says at once; his words seem to come like rain on the parched ground. It has always seemed to me before as if I could see behind people's words as one sees behind a screen, but in this man it is hie very soul that speaks." And since speech thus reveals character, no more appropriate symbol could have been chosen by Zephaniah than this for the purpose of setting forth the Divine renewal in man, and of expressing that purity in heart and life which should characterize the members of the true Church of God in the happier days to which, despite the prevailing gloom, he looked forward so hopefully. "For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language." .• II. DEVOUTNESS IN BPIBIT AND DISPOSITION. Purified in heart, they should be rendered devout in spirit. Fellowship with God should be their delight. They should no longer grovel in the dust, but their aspirations should tend towards God and heaven. Delivered from idolatry and superstition and worldliness, they should all "call upon the Name:of the Lord" (ver. 9). "From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my Name shall b,e great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my Name, and a pure offering" (Mai. i. 11). III. UNITY m PURPOSE AND AIM. "To: serve him with one consent," literally" with one shoulder." The symbol was suggested by the thought of a number of men being engaged in bearing a heavy burden. They walk. in step, they act together, they stand shoulder to shoulder, the weight is proportiona'.tely shared by_each; such, indeed, is their agreement and concert that it would seem as though there were but one shoulder among them. .And so shall it be with the Church of God eventually. The time shall come when all divisions and strifes shall cease, when all antagonisms, whether real or seeming, shall be no longer traceable amongst good men, when that true unity in heart, in life, and in endeavour shall become manifest, for which the great Intercessor yearned, and for which he prayed as he cried," That they all may be one" (John xvii. 21-23). Happy era, predicted in this verse, and which, since "the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it," shall assuredly come at length, when all God's servants shall " with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. xv. 6).
Ver. 10.-'l'lie restoration of the Jews. These words have been regarded by some biblical expositors as having reference to the conversiou of the Gentiles. This utterance of Zephaniah in the Old Testament, and the prophecy of Caiaphas recorded in the New (John xi. 51, 52), have been associated together in their minds, and they have thought that by the " dispersed" Zephaniah meant the Gentiles, even as Caiaphas described the Gentiles as "the children of God that were scattered abroad," and that when the prophet alluded to the dispersed "beyond the rivers of Ethiopia," he meant to intimate that the Gentiles even from the remotest parts should eventually be brought home to God. Others, including many of the ablest interpreters, take the opposite view. They regard ver. 9 as referring to the Gentiles in their relatiou to the trnt~ and the kingdom of God, and as intimating the great fact of the calling of the _Gentiles, who should be led with one consent to serve the Lord, and then refer to this tenth verse ns having special reference to the spiritual restoration of the Jews, who, ~hrough th_e agency of the Gentiles thus converted to God, should at length be brought m (Rom. x1. 30, 31): .Accepting this latter interpretation, we have here declared the spiritual restoration of the Jews (ver. 10). Note- I. Trrnrn PRESENT POSITION. 1. Dispersed. Scattered ov?r the face of the wh_ole earth. "Can you find a country which they can call t be1r own? Can you find a nation in _which they are not? In Europe, Asia, Africa, and Americ_a, a.nd the furthest islands of the Southern Sea, o.n.ong bond and free, copper-co1oured and yellow, white and black, wherever there are men, there are Jews." 2. Yearning. 66 '!'HE BOO'.K 0~1 ZEPHAN!Alt. ton. m. 1-~0.