Ver. 11.- Worship spoiled by the tears of the injured. The divorced and abandoned wives went to tbe courts of the temple "with tea.rs, with weeping, and .with crying." "Their wail of lamentation mingled with the prayers and hymas of the sacrificing priests. How could the Lord • regard the offering any more, or accept it at their bands,' when atteaded by such accompaniments?" The point forced on attention is this: Here were men bringing their sacrifices, and offering their prayers for _God's blessing. A.nd at the same time, here were the injured women praying against their prayers, and pleading that their worship should not be accepted. The tears were spoiling the worship. There is scarcely a thought more solemn and searching than the thought that few, if aay, of our prayers go up to God unqualified and unchecked. We pray for, something prays a1(ainst, and God withholds the blessing becaUBe the balance is in favour of the "against." I. WE lUY PRAY AGAINST OUR OWN PBAYEBB. It is said of St. Augustine that for some time he prayed," Lord, convert me, but not yet." That was himself praying against himself. When duty prays one way and heart another; when we a.re not quite sure whether we want what we ask for ; and when we are careless about receiving the answer,-we really pray against our own prayers. God may see our real prayer to be something quite other than our words. IL OTHERS ll.AY BE PRAYING AGAINST OUR PRAYERS. This may be done unreason• abk, and then God makes the prayer against strengthen the prayer for. Or it may h6 do~ reasonably, as when the cry of the widow, the fatherless, the divorced wife, the sweated workman, or the neglected sufferer, goes up to God against UB. It would be well sometimes to ask ourselves whether there can be anything praying against our prayers.-R. T. Ver. 15.-God served by -0ur meeting family obligations. This verse is difficult to paraphrase. • Speaker's Commentary' renders thus: "A:nd ~ath no one acted thus (in putting away his wife) who yet had a remnant of ~ense 1~ him?" The _prophet makes the people say this in excuse of their conduct, aud in allusion to the Patriarch Abraham, who put away his wife Hagar. Wordsworth puts the seatence interrogatively," And did not one (Abraham) do it (i.e. put away his wife Hagar), and yet he had a remnant of the spirit?" The answer to the question is that A bralJam was justified because he acted upon the 8pecial direction of God in seeking a seed within the coveaant. But tbe people of Malacbi's days were acting on pure self-willedness, and with no possible excuse of having received Divine directions. They were not serving God. God is 6erved by the fulfilling of family obligations. He cannot be served by the shirking of ,,rrlinary obligations at the instance of unbridled passion. I. FAMILY OBLIGATIONS SHOULD BE ENTERED UPON SERIOUSLY. And eerioUBly rneaus wi1h (1) due self-coutrol; (2) quietly; (3) tboughtfull1; (4) prayerfully. en. n. 1-17.] THE BOOK OF MALACHI. 33
Early marriages are natural, and may be prudent; but when they are the result of impulse, of wrong-doing, or of lightness and inconsideratenP-ss, they are a most fruitful Hource of trouble. No me.rriage should be consummated unless upon it the Divine blessing can be honestly, sincerely, heartily, and h0pefully asked. !I. l!'AMILY ODLIGA'flONS SHOULD BE MAINTAINED WITH PATIENT PERSISTENCY. Much occurB in married life to knit hearts together; but much must necessarily occur which, if permitted, would drive hearts asunder. Bearing and forbearing have to bo resolute work until they become easy work, And every triumph over self makes every new triumph easier. If each lives for the other, all goe~ well. If either lives for self, all goes ill. "Let none deal unfaithfully by the wife of his youth." III. FAMILY RELATIONS SHOULD BE BROKEN ONLY WITH EXTREME PAil!l. Cases do occur. But every one who is anxious for the moral well-being of the nation looks with extreme anxiety on the increasing readiness with which divorces are sought and granted,-R. T. Ver. 17.-The sin cf confusing moral distinctions. "Ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LorJ, and he delighteth in them." Isaiah pleads in a similar way, " Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, .and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa.. v. 20). It seems that some, in the days of Malachi, answered his pleadings with insolent defiance, even dariug to deny moral obligations altogether. I. CALLING EVIL GOOD IS THE WAY TO EXCUSE OUR SINS. Daring men who are determined to" follow the devices and desires of their own hearts," will bravely say, "Evil, be thou my good." But the process of deterioration is usually slower and more subtle. We want to do wrong, and we begin to wish that it were not wrong. Then comes the doubt whether it is wrong. '!'hen we begin to imagine that it is wrong only under particular circumstances, Then we find that our case does not come into the bad list. And the yvay is open to do the wrong under the shadow of our self-delusion that it really is good. There are family delusions that lead us to call evil good; society delusions; sectarian delusions; and personal delusions. These last are the most serious. .A. man can easily persuade himself that the pleasant is the right; and he may only mean the pleasant to the body. The pleasant to the soul, the pleasant because of God's benediction, helps to truer jud.gments. II. UALLING GOOD EVIL IS THE WAY TO RUIN OUB SOULS. There is no hope for a man when he loses his sensitiveness to good, for with it goes his sensitiveness to God. A man is never lost while he can believe in goodness. There is anchora~e in that. He is indeed driven with the wind and tossed hopelessly on the sea of life, if he ever comes to say, "All is evil;" "All is vanity and vexation of spirit;" "All men are liars ; " "There is no good: there is neither good nor God." There is good, for there is God. He is God, and much that his creatures do bears the stamp of his good- ness, Evil and good are contraries. Hope for humanity lies in their never getting confused.-R.. 'l'.