towns over seas and deserts, and seeking refuge in distant lands, the Hebrews, restored to their own soil, freed from civil strife and foreign danger, will be fortified with that courage which is inspired by faith and virtue-'I will strengthen them through the Lord, and they shall proceed in His name, says the Lord.'

About this time some atrocious deed was perpetratedprobably the murder of some distinguished men, whom the prophet, in a bitter lamentation, introduces by the image of lofty cedars-Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fires may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty is spoiled; howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the vintage is come down. -There is a voice of the howlings of the shepherds, for their glory is spoiled; a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.'

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Then he describes, in a remarkable parable, the efforts he had so often and so fruitlessly made to advise and to guide the community. A flock of sheep, neglected by its shepherd, is straying about, and is in danger of falling a prey to wild beasts. The prophet pities the flock, and by God's command undertakes to tend it. For this purpose he chooses two rods, one of which he calls Beauty and the other Unity. But the flock heeds him not, and refuses to obey his call. In his anger he exclaims, I will not feed you: that which is to die, let it die; and that which is to perish, let it perish; and let the rest devour, every one the flesh of the other.' Now disobedience and strife cause havoc among the sheep, and as a sign that they will be without shelter and safety, the prophet breaks the staff Beauty. He now demands his wages; and the people, to show their contempt for his services, offer him no more than thirty pieces of silver, which he puts into the Temple treasury; and then he breaks the staff Unity also. In His wrath God menaces that He will give the people a

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faithless shepherd, who shall not look after the sheep that perish, nor search for those that go astray, nor heal those that are wounded, nor feed those that are healthy, and who eats the fat ones, and allows their hoofs to be torn ;' but who shall suffer no less than those he so shamefully betrays: Woe to the worthless shepherd that deserts the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye; his arm shall be altogether dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.'

By allegories like these the prophet hoped to rouse the young settlement to a sense of their heedlessness and their dangers; and in order to encourage them in their efforts of improvement, he again pronounced promises of deliverance: Jerusalem would be a devouring sword for heathen nations, and all the enemies of Judah would be visited with destruction and ruin. 'I will make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left, and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in its own. place. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them in that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.' But infinitely more precious than these material blessings will be the spiritual gifts that are to be diffused among the nation all minds will be freed from error, and all hearts cleansed from sin; and the bonds of affection will unite the people and their once persecuted prophets: Then I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and shall weep for him bitterly, as one weeps for his firstborn.' Pious thoughts will result in virtuous

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deeds; every idol will be dashed to pieces, and idolatry detested. Above all, the chief tempters to error, the false prophets, will be banished or annihilated; and even if they continue their deluding speeches, they will be unable to lead the people astray; so that the rough garment, symbolical of the prophetic office, will no more be desecrated, nor shield its deceitful wearer; nay, those nearest and dearest to him will bear witness against him, and bring him to punishment' And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and mother that begat him shall say to him, Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord.' Two-thirds of the evildoers will perish, and the surviving third will 'be refined as gold is refined,' and will be true servants of the Lord-They will call upon Him, and He will hear them; the Lord speaks, It is My people, and they speak, Jehovah is our Lord:' they will be the holy seed destined to perpetuate God's glory and truth in all eternity.

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Then the prophet resumes his chief theme once more, and he dwells upon it in glowing language. He speaks in metaphors and similes which indeed seem at first sight obscure, but become clear if read in the light of his previous addresses. He announces in no lenient terms, misfortunes which the Jews will have to suffer the enmity of all nations, the ruin of their cities, the plunder of their property; but though many will be carried off into captivity, the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city,' but will behold God's mercy, and rejoice in their safety. Then, desirous to describe God's omnipotence, the prophet shows that the laws of nature which men regard as immutable, are subject to His command; and evidently taking his images from an earthquake, he says, And His feet shall stand on that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem in the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be cleft in the midst,

towards the east and towards the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove towards the north, and half of it towards the south. . . . And the Lord, my God, appears-all the holy ones with Thee.' Then comes the great act of salvation. The time itself-which will be neither day nor night, but the evening twilight-will mysteriously forebode the impending event, the spiritual grandeur of Israel, of which all the nations of the earth will be eager to partake. And it shall be on that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them towards the eastern sea, and half of them towards the western sea, in summer and in drought shall they remain. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall there be One Lord and His name One.' This was the great object of all prophetic teachings, the ideal of all prophetic aspirations. The Divine light shall not be limited to the chosen people, but shall reach all nations, to dispel the mists of vice and ignorance. Then Jerusalem will be the centre of the earth, and the enemies of Israel will feel God's retribution. The world being purified from idolaters and sinners, all men will join in the same worship, as the type of which the prophet takes one of the most joyous of the Jewish festivals; And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be, that whosoever will not come up of all the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt do not go up and come not, it will have no rain; there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.' This feeling of universal brotherhood will produce a state of

active virtue and of unalloyed piety, which will not only be witnessed within the walls of the Temple, but will be exercised in the gates and the market-place, in the open streets and at the domestic hearth. In that day shall there be written upon the bells of the horses, "Holiness unto the Lord," and the pots in the House of the Lord shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, and all those that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein; and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the House of the Lord of hosts.

Thus concludes one of the most remarkable Books of the Biblical Canon. If it is inferior to some other prophetic productions in clearness, simplicity, and beauty, it yields to none in force and sublimity. It breathes the loftiest patriotism, and the most ardent zeal for the spiritual progress of mankind. The author never fails to engage the imagination or to rouse the reflection of the reader; and many of his expressions have become current among all nations.

XII. MALACHI (about 430).

The Book of Malachi embodies some of the latest utterances of prophecy. Although we have no details of the prophet's life, it may be safely concluded from his orations that he was a contemporary of Nehemiah, and wrote about a hundred years after the return of the first colonies from Babylon. For the same offences and follies which excited the indignation and prompted the exertions of the great statesman are rebuked by Malachi. At that period of Jewish history, which is contemporary with the latter part of the reign of the Persian king Artaxerxes Longimanus (464-424), extraneous causes were again at work to endanger the morality and the ever vacillating