to keep others down. See how the whole civilized(!) world is standing armed to the teeth, possessed of dee.dlior weapons, Bnd, consequently, of deadlier determination, than ever. How restful to the spirit to look beyond all this to that described here! 2. Their cruel disappointments. Much as these evils have been bewA.iled and lamented, and often as many men have hitherto tried to relieve them, how little comparative success they have reached I Political endeavours to remedy these evils have only led to worse, as a rule. Even the religion of Jesus, the religion of" liberty, equality, and fraternity," in the very best (and perhaps only possible) sense, has become the occasion, too often, though not the cause, of that which it sought to remove. It is a comfort to know that another hand will itself apply this remedy in due time; and that that will be easily accomplished by him when he comes down from the" mount," which is now impossible to his friends (Mark ix. 14-27). Vera. 12-21.-.A regenerate world. ".And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem," etc. A regenerate man is not a man without disposition to sin, but a man in whose case that disposition is habitually overcome. In that regenerate world partially described in the previous verses, something very similar is to hold good. All the elements of evil are not then altogether to cease; but there shall be in operation then a new principle of action, which shall prevent them from raising their beads. How exceedingly different a condi- tion of things the full establishment of such a rule will result in seems to be taught us, in these concluding verses,• in three different ways; viz. in regard (1) to those who shall hate "Jerusalem;" (2) to those who shall despise it; and (3) to those who shall inhabit it, in those days. I. THOSE WHO HATE I'l', For snch persons there will be, even at that time, as at all previous times, in existence. There will even be some in existence-at any rate, at the very beginning of" that day "-who shall be bold enough to declare war against it. How will it be with such then? Not at all as it is with them now, when they seem so often and so mysteriously to have the "upper hand" (Ps. ix. 19, Prayer- book Version) against God. On the contrary, partly (1) by jndgments within them, their very bodily organs, as it were, visibly withering away under God's displeasure ; partly (2) by judgmeuts among them, causing them, as in a kind of frenzy, to lay violent hands on one another; partly (3) by judgments upon them, which shall tum their very endeavours to injure" Jerusalem" into means for enriching it; and partly (4) by judgments around them, represented as coming even on the poor brutes they employ for their sakes ;-God will testify openly what are his feelings and purposes witb. regard to such doings. In such circumstances, if evil be sometimes desired, it will very seldom be deliberately attempted, and never achieved. How total a contrast, in every respect, to that which we read of in Eccles. viii. 11 ! II. 'l'HOBE WHO DESPISE IT. Besides that hostility which is open and active, there is that which is passive and half-concealed. Some men do not so much oppose religion as ignore its injunctions. Men disposed to act thus will not be lacking, even in that glorious" day." This illustrated here by a reference to that well-known ancient" Feast of Tabernacles," in which the settled Israelites co=emorated the fact of their having been wanderers once in the wilderness (Lev. xxiii. 41-43). Something so far corre- sponding to this, at any rate, as to be fitly described by the same appellation. will be of universal obligation in the final settlement of that great sabbatical" day" (comp. Heh. iv. 1-9). How will things be with those who despise it and neglect to" come up" (ver. 17)? Not as now (see Matt. v. 45); but rather as it was in those days wb.cn Goshen was distbguished for Israel's sake, as by a special command from Heaven, from all the rest of the land. Every such contemptuous nation or" family," whatever the peculiarity of their circumstances and ordinary climate, shall be made to feel then the open displeasure of him who commandeth the clouds. How widely different in those days the language of Hel\ven ! How widely different the conduct, may we not expect, therefore, of the most callous of men I III. THOSE WHO mHABIT IT. 'l'heso men shall find Jerusalem then "the holy city" indeed. Speaking here of the futnro, in language drawn from the usages of his own tiUJe; or possibly, as some bnvo supposed, speaking so bacc1use there will be a certain measure of return to those usages in the future ;-there are three great changes which 164, THE BOOK OF ZECHARI.A.H. [oH, XIV, 1-21,
1 l,e prophet bids ue expect in the "Jerusalem" of" that day." Its inlmbitauts will see : 1. The 'Pre,riously "common" become " holy." The very bells of the horses being outwardly marked for God's service, like the bi~h priest's mitre Was iu ancient times (Exod. xxviii. 36-38; see also ls&. :n.iii. 17, 18). 2. The previowly holy made holier still. The ordinary temple "pits," only used of old days for " dressing the victims" (Pusey), being now regarded a.s like the sacrificial "bowls before the altar," containing the atoning blood itself; and even those vessels outside the "house," which were only so fe.r holy before that they were found in" Jerusalem" (the holy city), or belonged to" Judah" (the holy people), shall now be regarded as fit for employment in the temple worship itself. 3. The irreclaimably profane for ever shut out. "The Canaanite," ,'.e., as representing those who, though not truly the children of promise, yet" would live" amongst them (Judg. i. 35) through all the ages, being never seen there again (comp. Isa. xxxv. 8; Joel iii. 17; Eph. v. 27; Rev. x.xi. 27; xxii. 15). " Not yet I not yeti The faultless flock, The field without a tare, Come last of a.II the blessing sough* By centuries of prayer I" How fitting a. close of the whole is this thought! How rightly does this chief prophet of tbe post-Captivity Jerusalem tell us thus, in conclusion, of that far more glorious Jerusalem which is some day to shine forth I It is much the same that the Prophet Daniel does at the end of his prophecy. It is the same also that "St. John the divine " does at the end of his song. They bring their message to an end when they have given us a. glimpse of the end which God has in store. It is for us to take ea.re that we are truly numbered with those for whom that "end" is prepared.