The Pulpit Commentary — Zechariah — Section 127

covert and hn.bi tot ion of the young lions, the two parts of the figure are appropriate. As the lions howl and roar in dismay and fury when dislodged from their refuges a.nd dwelling-places, whether by the swelling flood sweeping over their lairs, or from the cutting down or the burning of their habitations, so should the priests and rulers of Jerusalem be alarmed and struck with desperation and rage, when they found their city, within whose walls they had counted themselves secure from the very possibility of hostile entrance, laid open to the outrage of an exasperated enemy, and all its resources given up to plunder and destruction---<:ountry as well as city thrown into confusion and desolation l" Such rulers may well be distressed. Let them bowl: 1., Because all the lceen-sighted and honest men over whom they preside despise them., Though the hordes of miserable sycophants worship them on account of the glitter and pageantry of their elevated position, the Carlyles, the Tbackerays, and the unsophisti- cated millions regard them with ineffable disdain. 2. Be.cause the righteous Governor of the world has denounced them. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' houses, a.nd for a pretence make long prayer : therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation .... Woe unto you, scribes a.nd Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cnmmin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, a.nd faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain a.t a gnat, a.nd swallow a camel. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites I for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess" (Matt. xx.iii. 14, etc.).-D. T. Vers. 4, 5.-0ppressed people, and their oppresl<lT's. "Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty : and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord; for I a.m rich: and their own shepherds pity them not." Notice two things. I. HERE IS A DUTY ENJOINED TOWARDS OPPRESSED PEOPLES. "Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock [sheep] of the slaughter." These shepherds, these rulers of the Hebrew people, "slaughtered" the people. Without figure, oppressed peoples are "slaughtered "-slaughtered, though they continue to exist, by unrighteous exactions. '!'heir rights are "slaughtered," their energies are "slaughtered," their liberties are "slaughtered," their independency is "slaughtered," their means of subsistence and advancement a.re "slaughtered." People " slaughtered" in these respects abound in every state and place in Europe. Alas! millions of them groan out a miserable existence in this highly favoured land of ours. What is our duty to these oppressed ones? "Feed the flock." "Feed " them : I. With the knowledge of their rights as men. Their rights as citizens to make their own laws, their rights as religionists to w6rship their own God in their own way, to form their own convictions and to work them out according to the dictates of their own conscience. 2. With the knowledge of the true methods to obtain these rights. Not by violence and spoliation, but by moral means, by skilful industry, by temperate habits, by economic management, by moral suasion, by skilful, honest, a.nd persevering industry. 3. With the knowledge of worthy motives by which to obtain these rights. Teach them that they should struggle for their rights, not for their own selfish aggrandizement, nor for the crushing of others, but in order fully to develop and honour the nature with which Heaven has endowed them. Let the oppressed peoples of Europe be thus fed by a Christly ethical education, and despotism will soon be swept from the face of the earth. II. HERE IS A SKETCH OF THE AUTHORS OF OPPRESSION. I. They are cruel. "Whose possessors slay them." Not only destitute a.ra they of all practical sympathy for the rights and comforts of the people, but they treat them with a heartless inhumanity, they kill them. 2. They are impiou,s. In all their cruelties they" hold themselves not guilty." The greatest despots of the world have ever been ready to justify themselves to their own consciences. Rulers have been found in all ages, and are still found, who, in. originating and conducting the most cruel wars," hold themselves not guilty." In war, the most fiendish of all the fiendish enterprises of wicked humanity, they have no qualms of conscience. 3. They are avaricious. "And they that sell them, say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich." A miserable greed was their inspiration; they hungered, not only for power, but for wealth; and so base were they in heart that they hyp,,critically ZEORARIAB. K. 130 THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH. [err. XI, 1-17.