FRln,tinn (If lsmel ~hRll be R<'<'(lmplished. disowned them, she.11 recognize them ae We me.v therefore Bl!Snme that in the true Israelite~, true children of Abraham. ~spel the RppellRtinn " EliR.S" smnile bnth Others explRin-He shall unite the Jews for ,Tohn 1md for ElijRh himself; for thG who are our fathers in the faith to us messenger who prepe.red the WRY for Christ's Christians who are their children (see Luke first e.dvent. e.nd for the prophet who WRS i. 17, where the angel Gabriel quotes part to oon,ert the Isrnelites before the judgmeut of the passage, anrl applies it to John the da~- ; for him who came in spirit e.nd po"•er, Baptist). The hea.rt. Here not the seat of snd him who shall e.ome in bodily presence. the intellectual powers, but of love and The great and dreadful day. The day of final confidence, which lel\d to union e.nd con- judgment. No other crisis ooulcl be named cord. Lest I oome and smite the earth in rnoh terms (see Joel ii. 31, whence the with a ourse ; or, smite the land, with. the words are te.ken). ban. Thie ie nn allusion to the bon Ver. 6.-He shall turn, etc. : i.e., taking threl\tened in the Law, which involved the preposition, rendered" to," in the senseof extermination (eee Lev. xxvii. 29; Deut. "with," he she.11 convert one and all, fathP-rs xiii. 16, 17; :u:. 16, 17). 8o Elijah shall and children, yonng and old, uut,o the Lord. come and preach repentance, u.s the Baptist Or, in agreemPnt with the versions, he shall did at Christ's first coming: and unless the bring hack the Jews then living to the Jews listen to him nnd turn to Christ, they faith of their ancestors, who'rejoiced to see shall be destroyed, shall share in that the day of Christ (John viii. 56); and then eternal anathema which shall fall on the the patriarchs, who for their unbelief had ungodly at il.Je day of judgment.
HOMILETICS. "Ver. 2.-" The Sun of Righteousness." In vers. 1 and 2 we are once more presented with the twofold aspect of a Divine fact. (See homilies on eh. iii. 2 and iii. 6.) "Dies irre, dies illa." But "that day" need not be a. "da.y of wrath." It may be memorable, admirable, as tbe day of full salvation. As the first coming of Christ was for the "rising again" of some, "that they which see not might eee" (John ix. 39), so at his second coming, though "revealed from heaven in flaming fire," he shall be "admired in all them that believe;" for he shall bring "rest" and full redemption to them (2 Tbess. i. 6-10). The great and terrible day of the Lord will have both a bright and a dark side, like the cloud that came between the Egyptians and the Israelites. To " the proud and all that do wickedly " it will be a. day of utter destruc- tion. It will " bum like an oven," fire burning more fiercely in a furnace than in the open air. The wicked, having made themselves like " the dry tree," "ready for the burning," will be consumed root and branch, with no hope of renewed life such as might sur,ive the stroke of the feller's axe (Job xiv. 7-9). These threats are applicable to all times of judgment, when "the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud . . . and upon ali the cedars of Lebanon," etc. (Isa. ii. 12-17). We may see fulfilments of them in successive epochs of judgment, from the troublous times that followed the days of Malachi down to the destruction of Jerusalem and the judgmcnt of the great day. Similar figures of destruction by fire justify this _extended applica- tion (Ps. :u.i. 9, 10; Isa. v. 24; x. 17, 18; N ah. i. 5; Zeph. i. 18; Ma~t. iiL 12; 2 Pet. iii. 7-10). But such times need be no terror to the faithful servants of. God, for" unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wio"s." Ai; we do not confine the prediction of" the day of the Lord" to·any one day, soewe do not limit the promise of "the Sun of Righteousness" to any one person. Whenever a signal ma.nifestation of God's righteousness is displayed on behalf of his servants, it is like the rising of the sun on a dark, cold, and unhealthy land. Dut the manifestation of the righteousness of God in the Person and work of Christ so far excels all other manifestations that wo may limit our further application of the words to our Lord Jesus Obrist," that in all things he may have tbe pre-eminence." '\Vlmt the a•m is to the material world, tbe Messiah ie to the moral world. 'l'ne following blessings are su.~gested by t_he figure.. 1. Light after darkness .. f?uch is Christ to all men (John 1. 4, 9), especJ.ally to hie own countrymen (Luke 1. 78, 79; Matt. j,. 12), but in a deeper sense to all that followed him (John viii., 12), He br,,•wht the liaht of truth (Isa. ix. 2), for he was himself" the Truth." Where he iises,, like the dawn: ur,on the benighted and bewildered traveller, he guides into the way of CU, IV, 1-6.] THE BOOK OF MALACHI. 63