SERMON XXI.

Malachi, iii. 16.

Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the

Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.

The Prophet Malachi lived some time after the restoration of the Jews to their own country and the building of the second temple, when they had been brought back from the captivity in Babylon. He was the last of all the Prophets, and flourished about four hundred years before the coming of Christ. Of this period of four hundred years, therefore, the Bible tells us nothing ; nor, as far as the Jews are concerned, can we learn much about it from any other quarter. We know only that they were left during this time just under similar spiritual circumstances to those in which we ourselves are living now. I mean, that they were left in a state of trial to see how far they would make

use of the means of grace already given ; that the revelation of God was for the time completed ; miracles were at an end, and prophecies were at an end: there was in their hands the Volume of the Law and the Prophets, and in that written word alone were they to seek for the knowledge of God's will. At the same time they were taught to look forward to some future day when God should again visit them in a more open manner, and should establish a state of things far better and more perfect than that which actually existed. We see at once how exactly this corresponds with the condition in which we ourselves are placed now. With us too, God's revelation is completed : miracles are ceased, and prophets are no more: we have the Volume of the Law and the Prophets, with the more precious volume of the Gospel; and from that alone can we learn any thing of what God has done or will do for us, or of what he calls upon us to do for him. And to complete the exact likeness ; we too are looking forward to that great day, when the heaven and earth shall be destroyed, and a new heaven and a new earth shall be created, in which there will be no more sorrow nor pain, but where righteousness and holiness shall dwell for ever. We are thus left in a state of trial similar to that in which the Jews were left between the prophesying of Malachi and the coming of Christ, that it may be seen

whether we will use the means of grace which have been given to us, or no.

There is nothing which affords to my mind so convincing a proof of the truth of the Gospel promises and prophecies, as their exact agreement with what has been already confirmed by actual experience. In this way all that we know and remember of the changes through which we have already gone from childhood to manhood; of the manner in which the character is formed; of the clearness with which we perceive in our riper years many things which were quite beyond our comprehension when we were children; of the vain regret which we feel for hours unprofitably wasted in our youth; of our strong sense of the worthlessness of what we once most liked, and of the real importance and use of what then was only irksome and uninteresting ; our recollection and consciousness of all these things is a most satisfactory warrant for our faith with regard to those future changes in our condition, character, and notions of things, which the Scriptures tell us to expect hereafter. Now to take a similar instance connected with our present subject. When we read that the Jews were once placed for four hundred years in circumstances similar to those which we now see existing ; that they were left with no visible miracles or continued revelations, but merely with the Bible to guide and comfort them, and a promise of some better things to come hereafter ; and when we know that that promise was exactly fulfilled; that a very great and happy change did take place by the coming of Christ, in which a far greater light was given, and a far more clear and certain, and therefore a more comfortable hope : we have every reason to believe that the promise of the better things to come hereafter, under which we are living, will be fulfilled with equal certainty: that we are left for a while to walk by faith, and not by sight, and that he who shall endure unto the end shall find that his faith was reasonable.

The history of the Bible mentions further a third case similar to the two which I have noticed; the state, namely, of the Jews, for another period of nearly three hundred years, from the death of Joshua to the beginning of the ministry of Samuel. Of this period also it is said expressly, that the word of God was precious in those days, there was no open vision : that is, there were no prophets or divine revelations, but men were left with the book of the law alone to guide them; and with those hopes, faint and vague doubtless, yet still enough to give comfort to a thinking mind; with those hopes of some future blessing yet to come, of which the earlier prophecies recorded in the book of Genesis had obscurely spoken. So then, after

, each of God's revelations was given, there was a pause during which all further knowledge was forborne, in order that men might be proved whether they would rightly use what they possessed already. There was a pause of more than three hundred years from Moses to Samuel ; then followed a long period of successive revelations from the time of David to that of Malachi, in the course of which the Psalms and Prophets were added to the original revelation of the law. After Malachi there ensued a longer pause of four hundred years, and then blazed forth the full light of the Gospel. The dispensation of the fulness of times required a longer period of trial; and accordingly since the closing of the volume of the New Testament, there have elapsed nearly seventeen hundred and forty years; and we are still looking for the last revelation of all, when the Son of Man shall be revealed from heaven to make all things new. Twice then already have the servants of God had their term of patient waiting; twice have they had to struggle with the temptations of the world with no other weapons than the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. And twice has experience shown that their faith and their struggles were not in vain; and that the Lord in whom they trusted was able and willing to save them to the uttermost. If our faith has been tried for a longer period than theirs, we must acknowledge that it is better furnished for the contest, that it ought to be better able to stand the trial.