irresistible energy, fearing no leap of peril; and then it is that the eternal God glorifies her with the rainbow of His everlasting grace, makes the beauty of her holiness to shine forth, and, in the patience of the saints, reveals a heavenly radiance, which all men behold with astonishment. The golden age of true religion is the martyr period; war breeds heroes, and suffering unto blood in striving against sin draws forth men of whom the world is not worthy. So far from enduring loss by opposition, it is then that the cause of God receives its coronation. The rainbow of the Divine presence in the fulness of majesty encircles the chosen people when tribulation, affliction, and distress break them, as the stream is broken by the precipitous rocks adown which it boldly casts itself, that its current may advance in its predestined channel. When, at any time, our forebodings foretell the coming of evil times for the Church, let us remember that before the Spirit revealed to the beloved disciple the terrible beasts, the thundering trumpets, the falling stars, and the dreadful vials, He bade him mark with attention that the covenant rainbow was round about the throne. All is well, for God is true.e CHAPTER THE THIRD. 1-3. (1) when..come, Tisri.a The chief of the Heb. religious year. (2) Jeshua, the high priest. Zerubbabel, the governor. and.. altar, their first act. The foundations not yet laid.d (3) bases, on its old foundations. fear..countries, hence they would first propitiate Jehovah, who had so often defended and delivered their ancestors. As the altar xxix. 1; on the tenth, the feast of atonement-Nu. fifteenth, the feast of tabernaclesNu. xxix. 12. b ii. 2. xxix. 7; on the The temple begun.-I. The foundation laid. The first care of the returned exiles was to re-establish the worship of God. soon as they regained their own land, they began to observe the yearly feasts and daily sacrifices (vv. 3, 4). They longed to see God's worship restored to its former splendour, and so resolved to rebuild the temple. See-1. Their zeal : no difficuties disheartened c ii. 2. or deterred them; 2. Self-sacrifice: each gave freely of money d v. 6. and means to a work so sacred. II. The shout of the young, and A man is conthe tears of the aged. The young looked onward; the aged re-verted, and he called the past. As the aged recalled what the temple was in comes into the their young days, their cries all but drowned the shouts of the church. He is young. The young hoped that Israel might recover the former fit to be in the glory. Learn:-(1) Make the worship and glory of God your first care; (2) Count no sacrifice too great to promote His glory; (3) Enter with joy into God's worship; whatever regrets the past may cause, the future may be blessed. Security of the Church. VOL. V. With stately towers and bulwarks strong, Unrivalled and alone, Loved theme of many a sacred song God's holy city shone. Thus fair was Zion's chosen seat, The glory of all lands; Yet fairer, and in strength complete, church because he is so bad, and has found it out. For a man that is lame in the leg, and half blind, and deaf, and without the power of digestion-is not he just the man that ought to be in the hospital, if he knows what his condition is, and wants to get well? e Hive. company in which you will improve most will be least expensive to you." -Washington. foundations of the temple are laid a1 Ch. xxiii. 24. b ii. 40. It is remarkable that one of the Levites should be named Hena dad the grace of Hadad, a deity of Syria: hence Benhadad. servance.a The faithful of each clime and age The threat'ning tempest blows. And weak and powerless every arm 4-7. (4) as.. written, acc. to the prescribed rules of obas.. required, Heb. "the matter of the day in his day." Nothing omitted one day, or put off till to-morrow. (5) afterward.. offering, etc., Ex. xxix. 38. (6) from.. day, commencing, and going through the sacred month in order. but.. laid, they did not wait for the building, bef. they beg. the Worship; for God dwelleth not (exclusively) in temples made with hands. (7) unto.. Tyre, thus imitating Solomon. according.. Persia, see vi. 3, 4. The Gospel Church.— See the Gospel Church secure, And founded on a Rock; All her promises are sure; Her bulwarks, who can shock? The Church can never fail.d set.. 8-11. (8) from.. upward, this was David's rule." Lord, they would overlook the masons, etc. (9) Jeshua, a Levite. Judah, or Hodaviah. (10) apparel, dressed in their official robes. after.. Israel,d taking David's rule for the service, as Sol.'s for the building. (11) sang.. course, an antistrophical chaunt. One portion of the singers rendered one part, and then the rest answered. The rebuilding of the temple.-That an exuberance of joy and of sorrow should be excited at once by the same event, is undoubtedly a curious fact; and it will be profitable to show you— I. What there was at that time to call forth such strong and widely different emotions. This work was--1. To some, an occasion of exalted joy; 2. To others, an occasion of the deepest sorrow. That this subject is not uninteresting to us, will appear whilst I show-II. How far similar emotions become us at this day. 1. Certainly there is at this time great occasion for joy; v. 10. J. Doughty, 2. Yet there is among us abundant occasion for grief also. See, then-(1) What, above all things, should interest our souls; (2) What use we should make of our knowledge and experience.c c ii. 69. d1 Ch. vi. 31, xvi. 4, xxv. 1. Analic. Sac. 340. v. 11. W. Corbin, A Ser. 1695. vv. 11-13. Bp. Wilberforce, Srs. on sev. occas. 188. Thankfulness.-At a dinner given by a member of Parliament in the north of Scotland, the health of the electors was proposed. When the cheers had subsided, a hint was given to an aged elector that he should return thanks. Wholly unacquainted with all the world beyond his native glen, he hesitated for some time, but was at length prevailed upon to rise, when, lifting his hands, and closing his eyes, he returned thanks, not in a florid political harangue, but in a strain of devout and pious gratitude to God for all His mercies. The worthy old man knew nothing ever formed. of the phrase "returning thanks" in the public sense of the e C. Simeon, M.A. The Lord's than any church that men's hands term, but construed it into the act of returning thanks after "For in the silent grave no conversation, Suddenly the notes of the deep-labouring organ burst upon the ear, falling with doubled and redoubled intensity, and rolling, as it were, huge billows of sound. How well do their volume and grandeur accord with this mighty building! With what pomp do they swell through its vast vaults, and breathe their awful harmony through these caves of death, and make the silent sepulchre vocal! And now they rise in triumphant acclamation, heaving higher and higher their accordant notes, and piling sound on sound. And now they pause, and the soft voices of the choir break out into sweet gushes of melody; they soar aloft, and warble along the roof, and seem to play about these lofty vaults like the pure airs of heaven. Again the pealing organ heaves its thrilling thunders, compressing air into music, and rolling it forth upon the soul. What long-drawn cadences! What solemn sweeping concords! It grows more and more dense and powerful-it fills the vast pile, and seems to jar the very walls the ear is stunned-the senses are overwhelmed. And now it is winding up in full jubilee-it is rising from the earth to heaven-the very soul seems rapt away and floated upwards on this swelling tide of harmony. 12, 13. (12) ancient, aged. that.. house, wh. had been destroyed 52, or at most 59 yrs. bef. wept, tears caused by contrast betw. (1) prosperous circumstances in wh. foundats. of first temple were laid, and present reduced state of country; (2) inferior size and cost of stones;a (3) smaller extent of foundation, etc.; (4) the comparative smallness of present means; (5) and esp. bec. of absence of ark, Shekinah, etc. many.. joy, these prob. the younger, comforted by Haggai.c (13) so.. people, the Eastern's expressions of emotion are always loud and vehement. The sad memories of the aged, and the joyousness of the young.I. Why did the aged weep? 1. In part, because of the poor preparations made for building this house as compared with those for building the first house; 2. Because of the absence of many things that were the glory of the temple at the first. II. Why do the young rejoice? 1. It was the gladness of patriotism: the temple was the centre of the nation; the manifester of the nation's growth, the fountain of law, and the instrument of progress; 2. It was the gladness of piety; to such it was a proof of the return of the Divine favour. Learn—(1) How variously the same event may affect different minds; (2) Not to misjudge manifestations of feeling that differ from our own. The past, the present, and the future.-As it may fall out, it is B.C. cir. 536. There is no wall that can contain the Church of God on earth, and there is no sect line that can reach around it. Toe Lor 's garment is large enough to cover all sects, and to leave room for nations to camp under it besides. Association is the delight of the heart not less than of poetry. Alison observes that an autumn sunset, with its crimson clouds, glimmering trunks of trees, and wavering tints upon the grass, seems scarcely capable of embellishment. But if in this calm and beautiful glow the chime of a distant bell steal over the fields, with the sensa tion that Dante so tenderly de the bosom heaves Will scribes." mott. JW. Irving. the joy and mourning of the people a 1 Ki. vii. 9, 10. b Hag. ii. 3. c ii. 9. "Here is an apt enblem of everything however joyous, which is dne in the Ch. militant on earth. Her march of victory is through a vale of tears; her restorations are memorials of sins wh. caused the destruction of that wh. had been dissolved. B.C. cir. 536. Even when she celebrates the glories of the Incarnation of Christ who made our nature to be a temp. of the Godhead, she may not forget to weep for the ruin into wh. the temp. of that nature fell by sin."--Bp. Wordsworth. v. 12, Noah Hill, 143. d Bp. Hall. "Whatever is bighest and holiest is tinged with melancholy. The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos. A prophet is sadder than other men; and He who was greater than all prophets was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."Mrs. L. M. Child. e Dr. T. Brown. some degree of misery to have been happier. Every abatement of the degrees of our former height, lays siege to our thankfulness for lesser mercies. Sometimes it proves an advantage to have known no better. He shall more comfortably enjoy present benefits who takes them as they are, without any other comparisons than the weakness of his own deservings. It is nothing to me what myself or others have been, so I be now well. Neither is it otherwise in particular churches. If one be more gloriously built than another, yet if the foundation be rightly laid in both, one may not insult the other, may not repine; each must congratulate the truth to the other, each must thankfully enjoy itself.- Varieties in melancholy.-Of the melancholy of common life there are two species that have but little resemblance. There is a sullen gloom which disposes to unkindness and every bad passion; a fretfulness in all the daily and hourly intercourse of familiar life, which, if it weary at last the assiduities of friendship, sees only the neglect which has forced and not the perversity of humour which gave occasion to it, and soon learns to hate, therefore, what it considers as ingratitude and injustice; or which, if friendship be still assiduous as before, sees in these very assiduities a proof, not of the strength of that affection which has forgotten the acrimony to soothe the supposed uneasiness which gave it rise, but a proof that there has been no offensive acrimony to be forgotten, and persists therefore in every peevish caprice till the domestic tyranny becomes habitual. This melancholy temper, so poisonous to the happiness not of the individual only but of all those who are within the circle of its influence, and who feel their misery the more because it may perhaps arise from one whom they strive, and vainly strive to love, is the temper of a vulgar mind. But there is a melancholy of a gentler species, a melancholy which, as it arises, in a great measure, from a view of the sufferings of man, disposes to a warmer love of man this sufferer, and which is almost as essential to the finer emotions of virtue as it is to the nicer sensibilities of poetic genius.e B.C. 535. the proffered help of the adversaries a v. 10, see on 2 Ki. xvii. 24. b2 Ki. xix. 37; 2 Chr. xxxiii, 11. c Ne. ii. 20. d2 Ki. xvii. 3, 24-34. Luke Melbourne (1683). CHAPTER THE FOURTH. 1-3. (1) adversaries, Samaritans.a captivity, or "of the migration.” (2) since.. Assur, son of Sennacherib. (3) ye.. God, their offer rejected, as they did not profess the true faith, nor adhere to the pure and holy worship. They would be safe, though they were slow. Many such hands would mar the work. Their real temper is soon seen. The declaration of the adversaries.-A very interesting explanation of this passage has been recently obtained from the Assyrian sculptures. On a large cylinder, deposited in the British Museum, there is inscribed a long and perfect copy of the annals of Esar-Haddon, in which the details are given of a large deportation of Israelites from Palestine, and a consequent settlement of Babylonian colonists in their place. It is a striking confirmation of the statement made in this passage. Those Assyrian settlers intermarried with the remnant of Israelite women, and their sation."--Massin- descendants, a mongrel race, went under the name of Samaritans. Though originally idolaters, they were instructed in the know ,Malice scorned, puts out itself; but, argued, gives a kind of credit to a false accu ger. ledge of God, so that they could say, "We seek your God;" but they served Him in a superstitious way of their own. B.C. 535. their false a Cyrus was engaged in war Ly 4-6. (4) then.. building, this proves that Zerubbabel was right in rejecting their help. Their conduct shows that their accusations offer of aid was a pretence. (5) counsellors, intriguing men to spread evil reports. Prob. bribed others at the Persian court. all..Persia,a till 7 yrs. aft. return of Jews. even.. Persia, i.e. during the time of Smerdis, succ. of Cambyses, to time of Darius Hystaspes. (6) Ahasuerus, prob. Cambyses; some say Xerxes. с The crafty architect.—It is recorded of an architect of the name of Cnidius, that having built a watch-tower for the king of Egypt, to warn mariners from certain dangerous rocks, he caused his own name to be engraved on a certain stone in the wall, and then having covered it with plaster, he inscribed on the outside, in golden letters, the name of the king, as though the thing was done for his glory. He was cunning enough to know that the waves would ere long wash away the coat of plastering, and that then his own name would appear, and his memory be handed down to successive generations. How many there are who, while affecting to seek only the glory of God and His Church, are really seeking whatever is calculated to gratify self-love. Could the outer coat, as it were, of their pretences be removed, we should see them, as they really are, desirous not of God's glory but of their own.& 7-10. (7) Artaxerxes, here arta great (as in Arta-banes, etc.). Herodotus a renders the word great warrior. Xerxes' seems to be an appelative=warlike. companions, societies. Bislam, etc. were prob. deputy-governors. Syrian, Aramæan, called Chaldee sometimes in our version. (8) chancellor, lit. master of judgment. scribe, secretary. (9) then wrote, etc., to vi. 18 this bk. is now in Chaldee. Dinaites, prob. fr. city of Media. Apharsathchites, a tribe of Medo-Persia. Tarpelites, per. fr. E. of Elymais. Apharsites, Persian origin. Archevites, fr. Babylonia. Susanchites, fr. Susa. Dehavites, Dâi. Elamites, fr. Elymais. (10) Asnapper, prob. one of the officers of Esarhaddon,9 kg. of Assyria. The alarm bell of Atri.-At Atri a great bell hung in the market-place, which, whenever wrong was done to any man, his was the privilege to ring for justice. The days sped happily at Atri; it was a peaceful hamlet in Abruzzo, and there were not many wrongs to right, and the rope at last was worn away. But leaves and tendrils of a vine had grown upon it, and they Hung like a votive garland at a shrine." 66 with the dians and Seythians at the time. He died B.C. 529. He left the gov., while at his wars, in the hands of his wicked son, Cambyses, who the Jews. See Jos. Ant. xi. 2, 1. Darius, son of to throne B.C. 521, Hystapes; raised on death of Pseudo-Smerdis. c Ussher, Jahn, Prideaux, Rosenmuller, Ewald, W. Smith, was hostile to Dr. Dr. Pusey., g 2 Ki. xix. 37. "In consequence of the difficulties and obstacles A poor old horse, half starved and thin, turned upon the highway by a knight who had no gold for provender, barked at by the dogs, and torn by brier and thorn, sought food wherever it could be found. Grazing near the tower he saw the hempen rope with thus interposed, for a period of the vine entwined about it, and began to tug at leaf and sprig 20 yrs., the prountil there sounded out upon the sleepy town the accusing bell.gress of the work The proclamation of the king was made in answer to this appeal, was very slow." and the poor steed was cared for from that day. 11–13. (11) thy.. river, i.e. W. of the Euphrates. (12) building..city, which was not true. They were building the temple -Port. Com. the purport of the letter |