Ver. I3.-Re7i_gion a weariness. "Ye said also, Behold, what a weal'iness is It I" It is clenrly a bad sign when the people find the worship of God to be _a weariness; but it is a much worse sign when the ministers of religion 'both feel the worship to be 'a weariness, and show that they feel it to be such. • L JN T!IE NATURE OF THINGS RELIGIOUS WORSHIP SHOULD NOT DE A WEAIIINl!:Sfl. I. Take 'it as the proper and fitting expression of the creature's dependence on his Creator. It ought to be full of the joy of thankfulness. 2. Take it as the natural impulse of the sinner's Jove to his Saviour. Man fallen should feel a joy in worship even beyond that of man unfa.Ilen. The song of the redeemed is an 'altogether nobler song than the innocent can ever sing. And religious worship, kept within the lines of Divine claims, never need be a weariness. It is religion with the multiplied ·added demands of men that is in danger of proving a weariness. No reasonable man ·could ~-a~· that Mosaism was a weariness, eo far as it was a Divine institution. But every man could say that Rabbinism was a weariness ; for it Jaded men with burdens too grievous to be borne. Spiritual religion is always simplifying worship; As spirituality fail~, exacting demands are increased, and religion tends to become a weariness. TI. THROUGH THE lllOODS OF MEN RELIGIOUS WORSHIP BECOMES • A WEARINESS. Wbat the priests of e11.rlier times had done gladly and joyfully, the priests of Malacbi's time dragged through. The joy of Levites in their work is expressed fo the Korahite psalms (xlii., lmiv., etc.), which are full of longings for restoration to the temple service. There was no difference in the worship. The difference was in the moods of the men. Their spiritual life was low. They had no personal joy in God, so they conld have no joy in the routine of God's worship. The sadness of the restored Judaism of the exiles was that, to so large ·an extent, it was the restoration·of·:th:e Jewish formalities, withont the restoration of that spiritual life which would ~ave vitalized t.he formalities. And still the weariness men feel at the length of Christian services, etc., is the revelation of their wrong mood·; of their lost personal joy in God their Saviour.-R. T. ' Ver. 14.-.77ie great and dreadful Name. The idea in the word "dreadful" would be better conveyed by "awe-ful," if that were a word in familiar use. " Dreadful " we reserve for something that is unm;ually calamitous and destructive. Awe of God·; reverence of his august majesty; fear which leads to the symbolic removal of the shoes ;-these things are essential to right and acceptable worship, and these things are absolnt.ely befitting to man the creature, and much more to man the sinner. A mav. mav be tested bv the measure of his reverent awe of the Divine Name (comp. Josh. vii. 9). "With a startling reiteration. after every specifio denunciation of the sins of priests and people, they are represented as asking, as if in utter unconsciousness of their sin, ' Wherein have we polluted thee? Wherein have we despised thy N amo?' Tbey have fallen into the last stage of selfish formalism when conscience ceases to do its work as an accnsing witness, ioto the hypocrisy which does not even know itself to be hypocritical; the hypocrisy, in other words, of the scribes and Pharisees." L REVERENCE FOB THE DIVINE NAME 18 A SIGN OF SPIRITUAL LIFE, It was neces- sarv that God should demand reverence for bis Divine Name in one of hie ten great cori:imandments, "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not bold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain." But that la.w is never needed by aoy man who has and cherishes right thoughts of God; he. simply cannot take his Name in vain. All worship is truly reverent according to the sp1ritua.l life that is at tbe heart of it. Therefore we train children in reverence for th!l Divine Name, because it is the basis of spiritual religion. II. FAILING B.EVEBEl!l'OE FOB. THE DIVINE NAME IS A SIGN OP FAILING SPfltITtTAL LIFE. It is one of the first, and one of the surest, signs.' •A;light tone of speech, in reference to the infinitely Holy One, at once tells of lost spiritual health. Loos'el:I tlie. CH. I, 1-14.] THE BOOK OJ!' :M'.ALACHI. lG
sense of awe, and innumerable evils c&n creep in. Reverence for the great Name koeps the gate or the soul safe shut against intruders; and it is our continual inspiration to pure and holy living.-R. T.