(1 Cor. x. 12). Yet, there is an eternity beyond, We cannot believe that God baa spc•ken his litst word to the sons of men. Now we know in part. There are treaeuree nf wisdom nod knowledge still hidclen in Christ. At times we long to have fuller nccess to them. ,ve should be thankful if some infallible living teacher could expound to us" the book," or gni<le us in the path of duty. Dut we fiu,l ourselves between t W? !IT'e&t epochs, the first advent and the second. We live in what a distinguished \Hiter has called one of the great "pauses" of the world. "Miracles have ceased. I'rophecy bas ceased. The Son of God is ascended. Apostles are no longer here to apply infallible judgment to each new circumstance Rs it arises, as St. Paul did to the ,tRt~ of tb~ Corin~hian Chur~h." _The written Word must be our appeal, and the D,vme Spmt, leadmg each behP,ver mto the truth, must be our Interpreter, He may show us fresh truths i:i the old familiar Word, just a.s Christians after the destruction ,,f Jerusalem saw further 11.tld fuller meaning in our Lord's predictions of his second coming. But the revelations of doctrine and duty in that written Word are e.11 we now need, and e.ll we have e. right to expect. If there are future revelations, they are among "the secret things" that "belong unto the Lord our God;" it is "those things that are revealed" which "belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words" of God's Law (Deut. xxix. 29). Then we may expect to "see greater things than these" (Matt. xiii. 12). As the Old Testament closes with promises of larger blessings (vers. 5, 6), so does the New Testament (Rev. xxi. 1-7, 9-27; xxii. 1-5). We know that a glorious future a.waits the sons of God (1 John iii. 1, 2). Yet in the midst of the most glowing promises occur awful threats. Here we read of "the great and dreadful day of the Lord" and "the curse." In the New Testament we find, embedded in its final chapters, such words as Rev. xxi. 8; xxii. 11, 15, 18, 19 (like traces of e. past volcanic eruption and warnings of a future one amidst the flowers and foliage of some sun-lit mountain). These warnings emphaticaily bid us" remember the Law," take heed to that gospel of Christ which comes to us with all the authority of e. law (Acts xviL 30; 1 John iii. 23), e.nd is all that we need for salvation. The Jews, who would be wiser than the prophet, insert the fifth verse again, snd read it e. second time, because Malachi ends so awfully. But the Creator of men's hearts knew best how to reach the hearts he had created. In a somewhat similar way some Christians would not end God's present revelation where he ends it, In Christ's description of" the last de..v" which is revealed to us, they would, as it were, after Matt. x:xv. 46, read age.in Matt. xxv. 34, and apply it to e.11. They would interpolate their own speculations of what God may do among the revelations of what God 'ID<nild have· us to do. Instead of pursuing such a perilous path, we bid men "remember." We point them back to the only and unchangeable Saviour and the unalterable gospel (John iii. 18, 36; Ge.I. i. 8, 9), which is all that we need for bal vation, and " wbereunt.o we do well that we take heed," etc. (2 Pet. i. 19).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. • Ver. 1.-~ Divine fire. "The day cometh that shall burn as an oven." Fire is one of the most familiar figures of the Divine working. It is one of the forces which man most dreads when it gets beyond control. And it is the force on which man most relies for the purifying of the gOO?- and t~e destruction of the evil. The fi~e of_the ov1;n is fire at its intensest. A hole 18 dug m the ground, a fire of stubble 1s kmdled m it ; by this fire a large stone is heated, and on the stone the bread can be bak_ed. Malachi bas already dealt with the refining power of the fire of God. That which is good is freed and cleansed and improved by means of it. The prophet does not see the whole of the features of the day of God; only those which are directly related to the condition and needs of the people in his day. Every prophet is one-sided; e.nd we must learn from all if we would apprehend the whole of truth, even concerning the Divine fire. Me.la.chi had to adapt his teachings to some who were sincere but mis- taken. To them the Divine fire is disciplinary. "Ho shall purify the sons of Lovi, 1u,d purge them as golrl a°:d silver." But he had also to a~e.pt his ~ac~ings to some wLo were wilfully and persistently wrong. To them the D1vme fire 1s, 1n some sense, destructive, consuming. '' The proud shall be 1tubble, and the day that cometh shall en. 1v. 1-G.J THE BOOK OF MALACHI. 6:'i