nnd children will die, as well as the saints and the rich; and there will be a judgment or forgetfulness upon those thnt study the Law. In the fourth there will be abundance for some o.nd barrenness for others. In the fifth a great abundance; and they shall eat, drink, o.nd rejoioe, a.nd the Lew shall be a.gain held in honour, among those who teo.ch it. In the sixth yeo.r voices will be heard. In the seventh wars will break out, and o.t the end of the seventh the Son of David will appear.'" It was as necessary to correct these delusions as those which pictured a triumphant earthly conqueror. The severity must be fully recognized as a moral, not material, severity. I. MESSIAH WORKS To REVEAL EVIL. This his very presence does. Put a. foul thing beside a pure thing, and the pure thing shows and intensifies the foulness. Let God show, in a man's human life among men, what he requires and what he can accept, and wherever that man goes he is sure to bring evil to light. Christ is doing that work still. II. MESSIAH WORKS TO PUNISH EVH,, "All judgment is committed nnto the Son.'' But the sphere of the punishment is moral and spiritual, Christ never asked the secular arm to carry out his condemnations. III. MESSIAH WORKS TO DELIVER FROM EVIL. This is indicated in his work as Refine/I'. He is getting the metal freed from the dross. Much of our evil is not us, only attached to us, blended with us, a bondage of us. IV. MESSIAH WORKS TO CLEANSE FROM EVIL, This is indicated in the soap figure. The evil is conceived of as in us, and as having to be got out by the severe processes of the fuller, or wa.sher, by pounding.-R. T. Ver. 3.-Messia,h a,s a, Refine/I'. Moses gives Messiah the Leader, who should permanently take his place. Isaiah gives us Messiah the Sufferer, Conqueror, and Comforter, matching the condition of Israel as suffering and exiled. Daniel gives ns Messiah the Prince, matching the condition of the people as anticipating the r\11.-toration of their kingdom. Malachi gives Messiah the Refiner, matching the condition of the people as in e. ste.te of moral and religious degradation, It is important to note the many-sidedness of Christ's adaptation to human needs. This aspect of Christ as the Refiner is one that is suited to every age. Men make grave objections to the doctrine of human depravity, and yet all history declares, as with one united voice, that man has never yet been able to keep anything clean. Let him touch anything, and he brings in the stain. •1. Take the sphere of man's thinking. It is constantly observed that the followers of all great philosophers and teachers and thought-leaders always complicate and deteriorate their systems. They bring in the dirt and the dross. 2. Take the sphere of man's religion. All the world over, and all the ages through, you may see man recalled to pnre principles, and soon losing them again under the accumulating and debasing dross of ceremonies and superstitions. 3. Take the sphere of man's social relations. Self-interest has always proved to be the dross that gathers on and spoils the most perfect social schemes man has ever devised. 4. Take the sphere of man's personal life. The noblest ideals !\I'e unattained, for the dross of self-indulgence soon gathers, and in middle life men are content with low attainments. Getting th13 dross away is the great Refiner's work in every age and sphere. I. GooD SILVER MIXED WITH DROSS. There is a compliment in speaking of God's people as "silver," for silver is worth refining. It is a genuine and valuable metal. For mixture with dross see how lead, silver, and gold are found in the ore, surrounded with that which is comparatively worthless. Humanity is thus represented. It is not as God made it; it has become mixed. There is dross of heresy, vice, crime, etc. II. GooD SILVER FREED FROM DROSS, The result of renewed processes; ahvays involving suffering for the refined, and anxiety for the Refiner. Silver has to go through the process seven times. The issue is the purity of the metal, by getting the dross perfectly awny. Nothing can be usefully done with the metnl while the dross still clings to it. Conclude by showing that Messiah did (1) the work of his age; (2) a.nd does the work of thi.~ age. H0 did his own work as Refiner then ; he does God's refining work now.-R. 'l'.
Ver. 4.-'I'he pleasantness (?/religious offerings. The idea of offerings being pleasant to God reminds c11e of Nonh's sncrifice on the clcnnse,l and restored earth: "And 52 THE BOOK OF MALACHI. [cu. m. 1-18,