The Pulpit Commentary — Malachi — Section 66

burn them up." There are two things characteristic of the Divine fire, which are suggested by the double figure of refining and consuming. I. 'l'nE OPERATION OF THE DIVINE FIRE DEPliNDS ON WHAT IT OPERATES ON. This is ono of the most marked peculiarities of common fire. It scatters water; it melts wax ; it destroys wood; it hardens clay; it purifies metal. It makes silver valnable; it makes dross worthless. And so with the Divine fire. The apostle dwelts on its testing power (1 Cor. iii. 13); but here its actual moral effect on differing characters is Indicated. Take classes of character in Malachi's time, and show the different effects which Divine dealings had upon them. Take types of character now, and show how Di vine dealings soften or harden. IJ, THE DIVINE FIRE IS DESTRUCTIVE OF THE FORMS OF THl?sGS, NOT OF THINGS. Science now explains that common fire destroys nothing; it only changes the forms and relations or things. When the state of the wicked is irremediable by any existing moral forces, then their form and relation must be changed. As in the time or the Flood, humanity had to be put in new conditions. God's fire-destructions always begin a new regime.-R. T. Ver. 2.-The healing sunrise. "The Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings." "As the rising sun diffuses light and heat, so that all that is healthy in nature revives and lifts up its head, while plants that have no depth of root are scorched up and wither away, so the advent of the reign of righteousness, which will reward the good and the wicked, each according to his deserts, will dissipate all dark- ness of doubt, and heal all the wounds which the apparent injustice of the conduct of affairs has inflicted on the hearts of the righteous" (W. H. Lowe). 'l'he figure of "healing in his wings "-may be illustrated by the fact that, off Smyrna, every morning about sunrise a fresh gale of air blows from the sea across the land, which from its wholesomeness and utility in clearing the infected air is always calleu "the doctor." I. THE WORLD UNDER THE DARKNESS OF REIGNING EVIL. Represented by those clark, depressing, unhealthy days when there is no light in the sky, and the damp mists lie low. Then the plants droop, the flowers do not care to open, and the leaves hang. The song-birds are silent, and the hours drag on wearily. To the good the darknelll! of prevailing evil sentiment, evil opinion, evil practice, is necessarily afflictive. These things make an unnourishing atmosphere and bad circumstances. When the darkness of evil prevails in (1) the intellectual world, or (2) the moral world, or (3) the social world, then there will surely be abounding error, moral mischiefs, spiritual depression, and vital disease. As Malachi saw the people in his day, they were in the gloom of triumphant self-will, and there was no sunlight of God in their sky. That sunshine was his hope for the future. IL THE WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF REIGNING RIGHTEOUSNESS. .A.nd that time he saw dawning when Messiah should appear. The birth of the Babe of Bethlehem was the strong sunrise of righteousness. Picture the dawning of the sun in full, clear strength after weeks of dulness, damp, and disease. How the snnbeams dry up the mists, warm the chilled earth, waken the music of the birds, make the flowers smile, and gladden man's heart. "Notice these flowers all around us, how they turn smiling to the sun's ardent gaze, bend forward in seeming reverence, throw open their pretty cups, and cast around their sweetest perfume. So, when the Sun of Righteousness shines, all morn! goodness joyously responds. Evil slinks away into the shadows. When that Sun shines on through the eternal day, man's answering goodness may flourish abundantly."-R. 'l'. Ver. 3.-The secret of triumph over wickedness. The figure of" treading ashes" is suggested by the previous figure of "burning." When the wicked are burneu up iu the fire of God, all their power to injure the good will be gone. They will but be as ashes of the oven, ashes spread abroad, ashes made a path to walk over. The tone of the prophet is not one of glorying over the fate of the wicked, but of rejoicing in the removal of the hindrance which the wicked ever put in the way of God's faithful servants. J. 'l'HE ILL ESTATE OF THE GOOD WHEN THE WICKED, OR GODLESS, TRIUMPH. This may be illustrated in every sphere. 1. Tlfe national. lllus~rate from the times_ of Jeremiah, when a godless party held power m the state, and tned to force an Egyptian KALAOHI, ~  THE BOOK OF MALACHI. [cu. Iv. 1-6.