HOMILETICS. Ver. 1.-MalacM and hi8 burden, I. MALACHI, THE LAST OF THE PROPHETS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. He may be compared to: 1. A late evening closing a long day of light and blessing, and which is itself: 2. A midsummer twilight in some northern latitude, bearing on its bosom the new and still brighter day of the gospel. 3. A finger-post pointing a.cross an untrodden waste of time in the direction in which the ages should move onwards towards the advent of their expected King. 4. A faithful minister, the la.at of a noble succession, resigning his trust ~the prophetic gift), but bidding his flock expect to "see greater things than these,' and expiring with the gospel on his lips (eh. iv. 2-6). II. 'l'HE PROPHET'S BURDEN. Any word of the Lord is: 1. A burden of responsibility to the bearer (1 Cor. ix. 16, 17). Especially so a.re messages of judgment with which Malachi was charged, So Jeremiah felt (Jer. xv. 10-21; xx. 8-10), and Paul (Phil. iii. 18), an<l our Lord Jesus Christ (Luke xix. 41-44). It is thus a test of fidelity (Prov. xxx. 6; Ezek. iii. 17-21) and of courage (Micah iii. 8). 2. Messages of judgment should be felt to be burdens by the sinner because they proceed from a God to whom judgment is "a strange work," yet who hates sin more than suffering, and whose holiness is seconded by his omnipotence. Only by repentance toward God and faith toward our. Lord Jesus Christ ca.n the burden be changed into a beatitude, the curae in to a blessing. Vers, 2-6.-The sovereign love of God. Remembering that the scriptural sense of "bate" in this and correijponding passages is to love less in comparison, or to reject when there is a competition of claims, we nevertheless learn from this passage- I. THAT GoD'S LOVE TO INDIVIDUALS AND TO NATIONS JS A SOVEREIGN LOVE, By this we mean that it is a love which bestows special favours, for reasons which cannot be discovered in those that enjoy them, but in the gracious purpose of God. 1. In the case of the two brothers personally we note the following facts : Esau was the elder, yet not the heir of the promise. He suffered at the hands of a. brother in some respects less noble than himself. He thus lost his father's chief blessing and had to take the remnants, and to be mtisfied with a poorer inheritance, while Ja.cob received" the glory of all lands." 2. The two nations, Israel and Edom, were separated like two riven issuing from the same fountain, the one destined to be a highway of commerce and a source of fertility, the other to be lost in the sands of the desert. Israel, blessed with a priesthood, a succession of prophets, and a covenant "ordered in all things and sure, n : 1 spite of many apostasies; Edom, allowed to drift into idolatry and crime till it became known e.s "the border of wickedness," etc. (ver. 4). Such gifts and calling of God cannot be annulled any more thllln his sentences of judgment can be reversed (ver. 4). In those judgments and in those mercies men shall see the finger of God, and shall stand in awe of the glory of God (ver. 5). Tbese truths applicable to God's dealings with nations now. 3. The salvation of individuals is no less the result of sovereign love, inasmuch a.a the very beginnings of spiritual life are of God, and a.re "according to his own purpose and grace," etc. (2 Tim. i. 9). Election is not "an order of merit," but a cord or love. The experience of all Christians confirms the doctrine of God's sovereignty in salvation, though it cannot answer the many questions suggested by God's varied dealings with individuals, or explain the reasons of his eternal purposes. Note St. Paul's "conclusion of the matter" (Rom. xi. 33-36). II. THAT THI~ UNMERITED LOVE OF GOD MAY BE IGNORED BY THE RECEIVERS. "Wherein hast thou loved us?" This may a.rise from: 1. Forgetting past mercies under the presence of present trials, like Israel (Ps. cvi. 12-14). 2. Forgetting our present blessings as contrasted with the lot of others. 3. Having an imperfect sense of our absolute dependence on the unmerited mercy of God (Deut. vii. 7, 8). 4. And there- fore taking even our spiritual blessings very much ns a matter of course, and indulgin).( in self-complacency rather than cultivating gratefnl humility in view 0f "tbe love of God which is in Chri8t Jesus our Lord" (cf.1 Uor. iv. 7, 8).
Ver. 6.-The reverence due to God. Earthly analogies to Divine relationships ard 6 (ou. 1.;l,14.