corrupted the covenant of Levi. It is a peculiar expression which we shall consider more closely when we come to the study of the book itself.

(2.) In that same chapter of Nehemiah (reading from the 23d verse to the 27th) you find that Nehemiah complains that the peculiar people of God have entered into unholy alliance with idolaters in the way of marriage, and follows that complaint by separating those thus united. Malachi speaks of exactly the same condition of things in the second chapter, verses 10 to 16, the evil of mixed marriages, and the awful neglect which ends in the tears and sobs of the women about the altars of God.

(3.) Again in the last chapter of Nehemiah and the 10th verse: "I perceive that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled every one to his field. '' Malachi iii. 10 calls attention to this omission, saying, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven." These three notes establish the fact that Malachi's prophecy was uttered in the days of Nehemiah's influence. I do not say in the days of Nehemiah. I know that it is a remarkable thing upon which comment has not been wanting, that Malachi's name does not appear either in the book of Ezra or Nehemiah. It seems most probable that Malachi's name is not mentioned because he follows immediately after Nehemiah. The people have fallen back into the very abuses that Nehemiah set himself to rectify, and Malachi is raised up, the last of the prophets, to bear to them this message.

Nothing whatever is known of the nationality or parentage of Malachi. The name itself is a significant one, and there have been those who have read the name simply as a title'My messenger." Others say that Malachi was an incarnation of an angelic messenger. I do not accept either of these theories. I believe the man's name was Malachi.

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The

Septuagint gives it as Malachius and so most likely Malachi is an abbreviated form of Malachia. It means the messenger of Jehovah, but if because it has that peculiar mean

ing, we argue it is merely a title, let it be remembered Joel means the Lord Jehovah.

But while that is so, it is noticeable that he was exceedingly careful to speak of himself only as "a bearer of the burden of the Word of God." He says nothing of himself. You cannot read this prophecy without seeing how he has excluded himself from it. You read Amos, and right through, you discover his calling, in the figures he uses. The man lives in it, very beautifully, but in this case the Lord's messenger is absolutely hidden behind the message he comes to bring. There is nothing from which we can gather his past history or trace anything concerning him. He is simply Malachi, the messenger, he comes to bear the message, and the burden of the word of the Lord is so upon him, and so consumes him, that we never hear the faintest whisper of his own personality or catch the faintest glimpse of himself.

The peculiar need of the age in which he spoke and wrote was a distinct and direct message, and it was that distinct and direct message from God that he came to pronounce. In that very fact I find one of the strongest arguments for the application of that message to this age. We need more than anything else today, that our preachers should be messengers of God, that the people should be spoken to, as out of the divine oracles; not that the preacher is to be an oracle, for that would be a return to the worst form of priestism, but that he is to be a messenger, and that even the fact of his being a messenger is to be lost sight of in the enormous weight of the message he comes to proclaim.

Standing upon these rock foundations, we come to the consideration of truths that are fresh as the spring, new, as God is new, and not simply to delve among parchments and musty history.

Jesus demands of us more than a formal confession of Him; He demands conduct, He demands character, He demands the copying of His example. "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Is this possible? Yes, it is not only a possibility, but a duty, and ought to be a delight. We may, by our Master's promised help, so live that when men see us, they may see Jesus.-T. L. Cuyler, D. D.

The first four chapters are apart, forming a kind of introduction. The fifth also in itself stands alone. It judges the people in view of the care that God has bestowed upon them. But we shall find this judgment resumed in detail in verse 8 of chapter ix. In chapter vi. we have the judgment of the people in view of the Messiah's coming glory; consequently there is a remnant acknowledged. Chapter vii. formally introduces the Messiah, Immanuel, the Son of David, and the judgment upon the house of David after the flesh; so that there is an assured hope in sovereign grace, but at the same time judgment upon the last human support of the people. In chapter viii. we have the desolating Assyrian who overruns the land, but also Immanuel (previously announced in chapter vii.) who finally brings his schemes to nought. Meantime there is a remnant separate from the people, and attached to this Immanuel; and the circumstances of anguish through which the apostate people must pass are alluded to, which terminate in the full blessing flowing from Immanuel's presence. This closes with verse 7 of chapter ix.; so that we have here in fact the whole history of the Jews in relationship with Christ. In verse 8 the Spirit resumes the general national history from chapter v., interrupted by His essential episode of the introduction of Immanuel. He resumes it from the time then present, pointing out the different judgments of Jehovah, until He introduces the last instruments of these judgments — the Assyrian, the rod of Jehovah. And here the immediate deliverance is presented as an encouragement to faith, and as prefiguring the final destruction of the power that will be the rod of Jehovah in the last days. Jehovah, having smitten the desolator; presents (chapter xi.) the Offspring of David, at first in His intrinsic moral character, and then in the results of His reign as to full blessing, and the presence of Jehovah established again in Zion in the midst of Israel. Thus the whole history of the people is given us in its grand features, until their establishment in blessing as the people of God, having Jehovah in their midst. Only that it is to be remarked that nothing is given of antichrist, nor of the power of the beast, nor of the time of tribulation as

such, because that is the period during which the Jews are not owned, though they be dealt with, while our prophecy speaks of the time when they are owned. It is stated in general terms that God would hide His face from the house of Jacob, and the righteous in spirit waits for Him.

not

From chapter xiii. to the end of chapter xxvii. we find the judgment of the Gentiles; whether Babylon or the other nations, especially of those which were at all times in relationship with Israel; the position of Israel, only in the midst of them, but of all the nations in the last days (this is chapter xviii.); and, finally, the judgment of the whole world (chapter xxiv.), and the full millennial blessing of Israel (chapters xxv.-xxvii.). From chapters xxviii. to xxxv. we have the detail of all that happens to the Jews in the last days. Each revelation closes with a testimony to the glory of God in Israel.

In chapters xxxvi. to xxxix. the Spirit relates the history of a part of Hezekiah's reign. It contains three principal subjects:-the resurrection of the Son of David as from death; the destruction of the Assyrian without his having been able to attack Jerusalem; and the captivity in Babylon. These are the three grand foundations of the whole history and state of the Jews in the last days.

From chapter xl. to the end is a very distinct part of the prophecy, in which God reveals the consolation of His people and their moral relations with Himself, and the ground of His controversy with them, whether in view of the position in which He has placed the nation as His elect servant in the presence of the Gentiles, or in respect to their rejection of Christ, the only true elect Servant who has fulfilled His will. This gives occasion to the revelation of a remnant who hearken to this true Servant, as well as to the history of the circumstances that this remnant pass through, and therefore at the same time to that of the people's condition in the last days, ending with the manifestation of Jehovah in judgment. The position of Israel with respect to the idolatrous nations gives occasion also to the introduction of Babylon, of its destruction, and the deliverance of captive Judah by Cyrus. This idolatry is one of the subjects on which the Lord pleads

with His people. Another and yet graver subject is that of the rejection of Christ. For more detail we must wait until these chapters come under examination.

Prophecy supposes that the people of God are in bad condition, even when they are still acknowledged, and prophecy addressed to them. There is no need of addressing powerful testimony to a people who are walking happily in the ways of the Lord, nor of sustaining the faith of a tried remnant by hopes founded on the unchangeable faithfulness and the purposes of God, when all are enjoying in perfect peace the fruits of His present goodness-attached, as a consequence, to the faithfulness of the people. The proof of this simple and easily understood principle is found in each of the prophets. It does not appear that the prophets, whose prophecies we possess in the inspired volume, wrought any miracles. The law was then in force, its authority outwardly acknowledged; there was nothing to establish; and Jehovah's authority was the basis of the public system of religion in the land according to the institutions appointed by Himself in connection with the temple. It was on practical duty that the prophets insisted. In the midst of the ten apostate tribes Elijah and Elisha wrought miracles to reestablish the authority of Jehovah and His patience towards His people. A new object of faith requires miracles. That which is founded on the already acknowledged Word, and which does not demand the reception of it as a new object, requires none, whatever the increase of light may be. The Word commends itself to the conscience in those who are taught of God; and if there are new revelations, they are to the comfort of those who have received the practical testimony and have thus recognized the authority of one who speaks on the part of God.-From J. N. Darby's "Synopsis of the Books of the Bible."

Writing to the London Christian, Mr. Joseph Offord calls attention to recent discoveries in archæology and their relation to the Scriptural narrative. An interesting example of this he relates as follows:

"A part of the book of Isaiah is strikingly confirmed and illustrated by an Assyrian inscription.

"For this interesting fact we are indebted to M. B. Sax, who has published his discovery in the 'Revue d'Assyriologie' of the present year. In Isa. x. 12 it says, 'When the Lord has performed His work upon Jerusalem I will punish the stout heart of the King of Assyria. For he' (the king) 'said, I have removed the boundaries of the people, I have robbed their treasures (or provisions) and my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth.'

The Bible

"It is evident upon close perusal of this that an historical fact is alluded to, namely, the boast of Sennacherib that he had altered the boundaries of countries he had conquered; pillaged them, and, like eggs in a nest, collected their wealth and treasures. distinctly accuses him of using this bombastic language. When he did so, his own inscriptions now tell us, in the text upon the Taylor Cylinder, which is repeated with some alterations upon the winged bulls at the palace of Kouyunjik, regarding the very campaign against Hezekiah in reference to which Isaiah is writing after enumerating the human captives 'I have taken their horses, asses, mules, camels, oxen and sheep, without number; as for Hezekiah, I have shut him in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage. I have separated from their countries the towns I have taken, having given them to Mitinti, king of Ashdod; and to Padi, king of Migron, and to Ismi-bel, king of Gaza, I have divided his (Hezekiah's) kingdom. Then follows a list of his booty, of treasures, of pearls and gold, metals, precious stones, ebony and slaves.

"Isaiah tell us Sennacherib said he had removed and changed the frontiers, and the king asserts that he had taken away portions of the kingdom and given it to other princes. Isaiah informs us that he said he had pillaged them and taken away their treasures; and here he recounts and enumerates the very articles he robbed them of. Isaiah refers to the simile of a bird's nest, and Sennacherib to a bird in a cage! This allusion, strange to say, to a nest is to be found in another still more interesting inscription of Sennacherib corroborative of Isaiah. In chapter xxxvii. 24, 25, Sennacherib is stated to have declared: 'By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the summit of the mountains to the sides of

Lebanon; and I will cut down the cedars thereof and the choice fir trees, and enter the height of his border and the forest of his carmel. I have digged and drunk water,' and so on. "Now these words of the Assyrian cannot be traced as relating to any actual invasion of the Lebanon, and they appear only to be a record of the vauntings or threats of Sennacherib. If, however, we turn to that monarch's records, we shall find their counterpart. After his army was partly destroyed by disease at the end of the Judean campaign, he proceeded to invade the country of Nipour, perhaps because it promised an easier prey. Upon the Taylor Cylinder we have also an account of this war, and in it occur these sentences: 'They' (the people of Nipour), 'had perched their houses like birds' nests in impregnable

citadels on the summits of the hills on the high mountains. From the stones of the torrents and fragments of the lofty and inaccessible mountains I have fashioned a throne. I leveled one of the tops to plant thereon my throne, and I drank the pure water of the mountains to quench my thirst. As for the men, I surprised them in the folds of the wooded hills.'

"The striking analogies between these two documents are evident. The two allusions to drinking the mountain water cannot be accidental; the symbol of the birds' nest in the cuneiform text corresponds with the like expression in Isaiah x. A Phoenician inscription recently found in Cyprus speaks of a 'carmel' there; evidently 'carmels' or sacred summits, were common in Western Asia."

"Iam among you as He that serveth."

It was the Lord, the Lord of Glory, who uttered these words, and it was to His disciples He addressed them. He knew that He was come from God" and that heavenly and divine dignity belonged to Him. He took the place of authority as one entitled to utter what was binding on men. He was clothed with power so that the winds and the waves obeyed Him. His disciples were His followers, taking instruction, direction, guidance from Him. They were His servants: they called Him Lord and Master and, so doing, they, He said, did well. He bade them and they unhesitatingly did His bidding. He reproved them and they submitted to His reproof. Yet, without foregoing any of this, and, indeed, in fullest consistency with it all, He could say, "I am among you as He that serveth."

The serving of the Lord could not, of course, be an attending to the will of His disciples nor a deferring to their opinions or judgment. Though He served them He was not their servant. He was indeed the servant of Jehovah ("Behold my servant in whom I am well pleased"); but He certainly was not, in such sense, the servant of men. In being as one that served He was as one actively engaged and at work on behalf of His disciples; He was as one laboring for them; as one who con

sidered their welfare and continued to put forth effort to secure and promote it. If He went about doing good," He did good to His disciples also. If He came for the lost sheep, He also tended His disciples; He fed, and watched, and defended, and led them. While He came to glorify His Father, He had always their good also in view. Whether He provided for their food and rest, or taught them, or wrought miracles, or sent them forth, He purposed their welfare, their peace, their knowledge, the enrichment of their character and usefulness. He was their Lord, but none the less He was full of the thought of benefiting them, and so of laboring for them, and stooping to their littleness.

When our Lord uttered these words there was no thought on the part of the disciples of gainsaying them. They could not but acknowledge the truth of them. Their Lord was not as "the kings of the Gentiles." There was nothing in Him of what is known among men as selfishness. There was no exercising authority for vain display or in what is known as self-importance. There was nothing arrogant, nothing haughty, nothing that made for glory from men. He did not use His disciples to save Himself; nor did He give them work which, for Himself, He would look on as menial. In fine, there was nothing in Him of what men know as the self-life, or living unto self. While He was ever to His disciples their Lord, He was

the Lord of love, of all-wise, holy, unfailing love. And love "served."

The disciple is not above his Lord: "serving" one another is the portion of all who name the name of Jesus. The Lord has enjoined it over and over again. The Holy Spirit has been given to believers to enable them so to serve. He who serves little, or has little heart for serving, is surely one who is in a backward spiritual state.

Love is the spirit of service. "By love serve one another." He who truly, wisely, persistently loves, will find that love must express itself in serving. The great hindrance to serving is the selfishness which is not love. The desire to be to the front, to be first, to get honor for oneself, to appear of consequense, to take the lead, makes one to be a seeker of "his own" and hinders his stooping to serve. The desire to gratify oneself, to make it easy for oneself, to save oneself, or to indulge oneself, makes one avoid the possible trouble of serving. He who is begotten of God has a capability of love created in him, and has occasion given him for the exercise of that love within the family of God. "See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." "By love serve."

Serving can only be by considerateness. We cannot be spiritually helpful to one another apart from considering one another. Love which is inconsiderate may hurt where it would fain benefit. There is a fulness of meaning in the word "Consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." If we would help another to love, if we would stir up or call forth his love, must there not be a wisdom of love on our part, of lowliness, of

holy adaptation, such as could not be apart from "considering?" If we would help another to good works, if we would incite or stimulate in him holy desire and purpose and endeavor, may we not through lack of considering fail and blunder?

"If any man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness." To restore one is indeed

to serve him. The serving in this case calls for the spirit of meekness. And as in this case, so in others; so that it might be said that he who fails in meekness will in consequence fail in no small measure in serving. He who was among His disciples as one that served, was among them as the meek and lowly One. High-mindedness, contentiousness, hastiness of spirit, readiness to take offense, will render efforts in serving ineffective and barren.

The serving life may seem to some but little attractive. There are so many inclinations and desires of the natural heart that seek their gratification far otherwise than in the serving which is according to Christ. But he who is enabled to see things in the light of God, will say that the serving life is the true life and the highest life. He who has come under the power of the Spirit of Christ is constrained to live no longer unto self, but unto Him who died for him and rose again; and in living unto Him to live for His people; aye, and to live for His lost ones, whether at hand or far off. He who has learnt to value the Lord's approval at His coming, and to estimate things, in some measure, according to the estimate of the judgment seat of Christ, diligently sets before him as his constant aim to "occupy" for his Lord, and, in occupying, to serve."

DR. BARROWS ON PANDITA RAMABAI'S WORK. CHICAGO, DEC. 4, 1897. 4812 Woodlawn Ave. Mr. W. R. Moody, "Record of Christian

Work," Mt. Hermon, Mass.:

DEAR MR. MOODY: Your letter of November 30th, in regard to the work of the Pandita Ramabai is received.

I took great interest in visiting her home for high caste widows in Poona last February. It is one of the worthiest institutions in the world, and the Pandita Ramabai is the most illustrious Christian lady of India. I found

the missionaries of Poona very warm in her praise, and in my public addresses I have very frequently called attention to her great work. Faithfully yours,

JOHN HENRY BARROWS.

The following letters in acknowledgment of donations from the readers of the RECORD OF CHRISTIAN WORK, have recently been received from Pandita Ramabai and will be of interest to the many who have generously subscribed to her work:

SHARADA SADAN, POONA, INDIA.
October 28, 1897.