by contRct with evil, while, on the other band, it seems preferable to his wisdom and love that wickedness should have free scope to reveal ite true character, and ample opportunity either to change its mind or to justify its final overthrow (see homily on vers. 12-19). III. OVER THE MANIFEST FRUITLESSNESS OF HIS PRAYERS. An experience: 1. Stramge. Habakkuk had cried long and earnestly to Jehovah about the wickedness of his countrymen. If rivers of waters ran not down his eyes because they kept not Jehovah's Law, as the psalmist tells us was the case with him (Ps. cxix.136), and Jere- miah (ix. 1) wished that it could have been with him, long processions of groanings ascended from his bosom to the throne of God on that very account. Doubtless, also, he expostulated with Jehovah about his seeming indifference, saying, "How long, 0 Lord, will this wickedness prevail? and how long wilt thou be silent?" Yet was there " no voice, nor any the.t answered him," any more than if he had been a wor- shipper of Baal (1 Kings xviii. 26); and this although Jehovah was pre-eminently the Hearer of prayer (Ps. lxv. 2), and had invited his people to call upon him in the day of trouble (Ps. I. 15). 2. Common. It is not wicked men alone whose prayers are denied-men like Saul (1 Sam. xxviii. 6), and the inhabitants of Judah in the days of Isaiah (i. 15) and of Jeremiah (xi. 14), but good men like Job (xxx. 20) and David (Pe. xxii. 2) as well. As the Syro-Phcenician woman cried aCter Jesus, and was answered never a word (Matt. xv. 23), so many prayers ascend from the hearts of God's people to which, for a time at least, no response returns. 3. Valuable. Fitted to test the fe.ith and sincerity of the petitioner, it is also admirably calculated to teach him the sovereignty of God in grace as well as in nature, to show him that, while God distinctly engages to answer prayer, he undertakes to do so only in his own time and way. Learn: 1. That no good man can be utterly indifferent to the moral and spiritual cbaracte1· of the age in which he lives. 2. That good men shonld bear the highest interests of their country before God upon their hearts in prayer. 3. That good men should never lose faith in two things-that God is on the side of righteousness, even when iniquity appears to triumph; and that God hears their prayers, even when he delays to answer or appears to deny them.
Vers. 5-11.-Judgment on the wing. I. lTs CHARACTER DESCRIBED. (Ver. 5.) l. Its subfects. The land and people of Judah (ver. 6). These, though Jehovah's covenanted people, had declined from his worship, departed from his ways, dishonoured his Name. It was in the covenant that, under such circumstances, they should be chastised (2 Sam. vii. 14; Pe. lxxxix. 30); and Jehovah is never unmindful of his covenant engagements (Ps. cxi. 5), if men are of theirs (2 Tim. ii. 12, 13). 2. Its .Author. Jehovah. "The Judge of all the earth" (Gea. xviii. 20), "his eyes bebold and his eyelids try the children of men" (Ps. xi. 4), communities and nations no less than individuals (Ps. lxvii. 4). As "justice and judgment are the habitation of bis throne" (Ps. lxxxix. 14), so "all his ways are judgment" (Deut. x:xxii. 4), and" the works of his hands are verity and judgment" (Ps. cxi. 7). As the least significant occurrence (Matt. x. 29), so the most momentous, cannot happen without the Divine permission. 'l'he Supreme is behind all second c11.uses. He regulates the rise and fall of nntions and kings (Job xii. 23; Ps. lxxv. 7), the ebb and flow of ocean (Job xxxviii. 11), the movements of the heavenly bodies (Job xxxviii. 31-33), the growth and decay of flowers (Isa. xl. 7). When Nineveh is overthrown aad Babylon raised up, Jehovah, unseen but all-powerful, is the prime Mover. When Judah or Israel is chastised, it is Jehovah's hand that holds the rod. 3. Its certainty. Being matter of clear and definite promise on the part of Jehovah: "I will work a work;" "Behold, I raise up the Chaldeans." So certain is Jehovah's future judgmeat of his enemies (Mai. iii. 5; Acts xvi i. 31). This, like that, has no basis but J ehovah's announcement. That this will not fail may be inferred from the accomplishment of that. 4. Its vicinity. Close at hand. "Behold, I work a work in your days" obviously meant that within a generation at furthest the Divine stroke should descend on Judah, and that every person in the nation should regard it as near. In the same way are Christians directed to think of the judgment of the great qay as at hand (Jas. v. 9; 1 Pet. iv. 7; Rev. xxii. 12), though of that day and of that hour knoweth no man (Mark xiv. 32) more than this, that it is certain (Job xxi. 30; Ps. 1. 4; Dan. vii. 10; 8 THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK. [ou. r. 1-17