v. 24; xi. 26; 1 John ii. 25; v. 11; 1 Tim. i. 16; vi. 12; Titus i. 2; iii. 7). All other life but that which Christ bestows is temporal and perishing. Vers. 6-8.-.A parable of woes: 1. Woe to the rapacious! I. THEIR PERso~s IDENTIFIED. 1. The Ohaldean nation, in its kings and people, who were animated by a lust of conquest, which impelled them upon wars of aggression. 2. The enemies of the Ohurch of God and of Jesus Ohrist, whether national or individual, ill whom the same spirit dwells as resided ill the Babylonian power. God's promises and threatenings in the Bible have almost always a. wider sweep and a larger reference than simply to those to whom they were originally nddressed. II. 'l'HEm BIN SPECIFIED. Spoliation, robbery, theft, plunder. A wickedness : l. Un/ust; as all theft is. In heaping up the spoils of plundered nations, the Chalclean was increasing what was not his; and the same is done by those who -etore up money or goods gotten by fraud or oppression. What men acquire by violence or guile is not theirs. How much of the wealth of modern nations and of private persons is of this character may not be told; to assert that none is may be charity, but is not truth. The practices complained of by James (v. 4-6) have not beell ullknown since his day. 2. Insatiable; us the lust of possessioll is prone to be. The plulldered natiolls a.re depicted as asking-How long is this devastating power to go on despoilillg peoples weaker thall himself? Is his career of rapine never to be arrested? Will his thirst for what belongs to others never be quenched? So "he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth .abundance with increase" (Eccles. v. 10). The passion for heaping up ill-gotten gains grows by what it feeds on. 'l'hose who determine to enrich themselves at the expense of others seldom know when to stop. Almost never do they cry, "Enough!" till retribution, overtaking them, strips them of all. 3. • Vain; as all sin will ultimately prove to be. The foreign property -taken by the Chaldean from other nations, the prophet characterizes as "pledges" exacted from them by au unmerciful creditor, perhaps intending thereby to suggest that the Chaldean woulcl be "compelled to disgorge them in due time" (Keil). The idea, true of all man's earthly possessions (Job i. 21)- "Wha.te'er we fondly call our own Belongs to heaven's great Lord; The blessings lent us for o. de.y Are soon to be restored." -is much more applicable to wealth acquired by fraud or oppression (Jer. xvii. 11). The day will come when, if not by the rcibbed themselves, by God the rightful Owner of the wealth (Hag. ii. 8) and the strong Champion of the oppressed (Ps. x. 18), it will be demanded be.ck with interest (Job u.. 15). III. 'l'iIEIR PUNISHMENT DESCRIBED. 1. Certain. "Shall not all these take up a parable against him?" The overthrow of the Chaldean is so surely an event of the future that the very nations and peoples he has plundered, or the believing remnant amongst them, will yet raise a derisive song over his miserable and richly merited fall; and just as surely will the rapacious plunderer of others be destroyed, and bis destruc- tion be a source of satisfaction to beholders (Prov. i. 18, 19). 2. Heavy. The wealth he has stolell from others will be to him as a "burden of thick clay" that will first crush him to the earth, making the heart withill him wretched and the spirit sordid and grovelling, and finally sink him into a hopeless and cheerless grave (Eccle~. ii. 22, 23; vi. 2; Ps. xlix. 14). 3. Sudden. Retribution should fall upon the Chaldean in a moment-his biters should rise up suddenly, and his destroyers wake up as from a sleep to harass him (ver. 7); and in such fashion will the end be of" -,very one that is greedy of gain and taketh away the life of the owners thereof" (Prov. i. 19); he may "spend his days in wealth," but "in a moment he shnll go down to the grave" (Job xxi. 13); he may "heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay," but he shall "lie down and not be gathered;" he shall "open his eyes, and behold! he is not" (Job xxvii. 16, 19). 4. Retributive. 'l'he Chaldean should be spoiled by the nations he had spoiled. So will violent and rapacious men reap what themselves have sowed. How often is it seen that money goes as it comes I Acquired by speculation or gambling, it is lost by the same means. He who robs others by violence or fraud not unfroquently is himself robbed by another stronger or craftier than ho. "Whatsoever a man soweth," etc. (Gal. vi. 7), 32 THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK. [OH, II, 1-20,
LEssoNs. 1. "rrovide things honest in the sight of all men" (Rom. xii. 17). 2. "Do violence to no man" (Luke iii. 14). 3, "If thou do that which is evil, be afraid" (Horn. xiii. 4).