Beus propitius esto mihi peccatori!

HAGGAI i. 4.

“Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?"

"IN the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the

free-will offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem 1." And thus was the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled, "That saith of Cyrus, He is my Shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid "."

And now, when the Prophet Haggai wrote the words of the text, sixteen years had elapsed since this edict of Cyrus, and the temple was not then finished. It is true the people had had divers hindrances. The Samaritans were stumbling-blocks in their way, and "hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia "."

Notwithstanding, however, all the real hindrances that occurred, there was the hindrance of negligence on the part of certain amongst the Jews themselves. Their "enemies," so to say, were "those of their own household." They laboured not in the Lord, neither considered that, usually, where there is a will there is a way. And this was evident enough in their own concerns, and as related to their private interests. To forward them they could rise up early, and go to bed late, and labour hard, and eat the bread of carefulness. Neither the princes of Persia, nor the Samaritans, were an obstacle to their doing good unto themselves. Oh no! "They think that their

1

1 Ezra i. 1-4.

2 Isa. xliv. 28.

3 Ezra iv. 5.

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houses shall continue for ever: and that their dwelling-places shall endure from one generation to another; and call the lands after their own name *." In a word, the children of the captivity that had returned thought more of themselves than of the service of the sanctuary. And what was the end thereof? Why the Lord was wroth, and public calamity was the result of private indifference, and negligence in things appertaining to God.

And so, "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste ?"-Is it time for you, O ye Jews, to build for yourselves, and to deck your own houses with every adornment, to enlarge and to beautify your own border, but to leave the sanctuary unadorned, nay, waste and desolate?" Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways."-Look to the state of your affairs, and see how God hath crossed your hopes."Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat,

Ps. xlix. 11.

but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes ;"—that is, he is none the better, none the richer, his gains do not prosper in his hands, they take wings, and fly away." Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and, lo! it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of Hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands "." Thus were their hopes baffled. But what was the promise when they set their hands to the work? Even this, "From this day will I bless you "." And again in Zechariah, referring to the same subject; "The seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things "."

Such, Christian brethren, is this very remarkable passage of Scripture. And herein, as it were, is the veil lifted up, and we see the dealings of the Almighty with his people. It is true, we are not Jews, but are under the Christian dispensation. But still, God hath declared that He will be worshipped with a holy worship, and that worship He has accepted of in temples made with hands. This, his will, once made known, implies an obligation on the hearts of all men. The house, indeed, of God, wherever built, is the repository of blessings. As it is written, “In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." And as the building of Churches in the earlier days of the Gospel was a part and portion of religious service, "so it hath continued ever since; and unless we should have new reason and new revelation, it must continue so till our churches are exchanged for thrones, and our chapels for seats placed before the Lamb in the eternal temple of the celestial Jerusalem "."

O! well and wisely has it been said, "Nothing can be so sacred, so public, so permanent, so really benevolent, so truly gracious an offering, as a building devoted to the worship of the living God. By what

Exod. xx. 24.

'See Jer. Taylor, "Of the Religion of Holy Places," Works, vol. ii. p. 350. The passage beneath is from the "British Critic," No. lii., p. 461, which I have left, together with certain other extracts, in which there need be no difference of opinion. O si sic omnia!