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Malachi Chapter
Four
Malachi 4
Chapter Contents
The judgements on the wicked
and the happiness of the
righteous. (1-3) Regard to be had to the law; John the Baptist promised as the
forerunner of Messiah. (4-6)
Commentary on Malachi 4:1-3
(Read Malachi 4:1-3)
Here is a reference to the first and to the second coming
of Christ: God has fixed the day of both. Those who do wickedly
who do not
fear God's anger
shall feel it. It is certainly to be applied to the day of
judgment
when Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire; to execute judgment on
the proud
and all that do wickedly. In both
Christ is a rejoicing Light to
those who serve him faithfully. By the Sun of Righteousness we understand Jesus
Christ. Through him believers are justified and sanctified
and so are brought
to see light. His influences render the sinner holy
joyful
and fruitful. It
is applicable to the graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit
brought into the
souls of men. Christ gave the Spirit to those who are his
to shine in their
hearts
and to be a Comforter to them
a Sun and a Shield. That day which to the
wicked will burn as an oven
will to the righteous be bright as the morning; it
is what they wait for
more than those that wait for the morning. Christ came
as the Sun
to bring
not only light to a dark world
but health to a
distempered world. Souls shall increase in knowledge and spiritual strength.
Their growth is as that of calves of the stall
not as the flower of the field
which is slender and weak
and soon withers. The saints' triumphs are all owing
to God's victories; it is not they that do this
but God who does it for them.
Behold another day is coming
far more dreadful to all that work wickedness
than any which is gone before. How great then the happiness of the believer
when he goes from the darkness and misery of this world
to rejoice in the Lord
for evermore!
Commentary on Malachi 4:4-6
(Read Malachi 4:4-6)
Here is a solemn conclusion
not only of this prophecy
but of the Old Testament. Conscience bids us remember the law. Though we have
not prophets
yet
as long as we have Bibles
we may keep up our communion with
God. Let others boast in their proud reasoning
and call it enlightening
but
let us keep near to that sacred word
through which this Sun of Righteousness
shines upon the souls of his people. They must keep up a believing expectation
of the gospel of Christ
and must look for the beginning of it. John the
Baptist preached repentance and reformation
as Elijah had done. The turning of
souls to God and their duty
is the best preparation of them for the great and
dreadful day of the Lord. John shall preach a doctrine that shall reach men's
hearts
and work a change in them. Thus he shall prepare the way for the
kingdom of heaven. The Jewish nation
by wickedness
laid themselves open to
the curse. God was ready to bring ruin upon them; but he will once more try
whether they will repent and return; therefore he sent John the Baptist to
preach repentance to them. Let the believer wait with patience for his release
and cheerfully expect the great day
when Christ shall come the second time to
complete our salvation. But those must expect to be smitten with a sword
with
a curse
who turn not to Him that smites them with a rod. None can expect to
escape the curse of God's broken law
nor to enjoy the happiness of his chosen
and redeemed people
unless their hearts are turned from sin and the world
to
Christ and holiness. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. Amen.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Malachi》
Malachi 4
Verse 1
[1] For
behold
the day cometh
that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud
yea
and
all that do wickedly
shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them
up
saith the LORD of hosts
that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
Cometh —
Tho' it be at a distance from you
yet it is coming and will overtake you and
overwhelm you too.
As an oven —
The refiner's fire
chap. 3:2
is now represented as a fire
burning more
dreadfully
as it did indeed when Jerusalem and the temple were on fire
when
the fire raged every where
but most fiercely where the arched roofs made it
double itself
and infold flames with flames. And this may well be an emblem of
the day of judgment.
Verse 2
[2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with
healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth
and grow up as calves of the
stall.
The sun of righteousness — Christ
who is fitly compared to the sun
being the fountain of light
and vital heat to his church. And of mercy and benignity; for the Hebrew word
imports both.
With healing —
His beams shall bring health and strength
with delight and joy
safety and
security.
Go forth — Go
out of Jerusalem
before the fatal siege.
Grow up — In
strength
vigour and spiritual stature.
Of the stall —
Where they are safe guarded and well ordered.
Verse 3
[3] And
ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your
feet in the day that I shall do this
saith the LORD of hosts.
Tread down the wicked — When believers by faith overcome the world
when they suppress their
corrupt appetites and passions
and when the God of peace bruises Satan under
their feet
then they indeed tread down the wicked.
Verse 4
[4]
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant
which I commanded unto him in Horeb
for all Israel
with the statutes and judgments.
Remember —
Now take leave of prophecy
for you shall have no more 'till the great prophet
'till Shiloh come
but attend ye diligently to the law of Moses.
For all Israel — So
long as they should be a people and church.
Statutes and judgments — Be not partial; statutes and judgments
that is
the whole law must you
attend to
and remember it as God requires.
Verse 5
[5] Behold
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the LORD:
Behold I will send —
Though the spirit of prophecy cease for four hundred years
yet at the expiring
of those years
you shall have one sent
as great as Elijah.
Elijah —
Namely John the Baptist
who came in the spirit and power of Elijah
Luke 1:17
and therefore bears his name.
Before —
That is
immediately before; so he was born six months before Christ
and began
his preaching a few years before Christ began to exercise his publick office.
The great and dreadful day of the Lord — This literally refers to the times of vengeance upon the Jews
from the
death of Christ to the final desolation of the city and temple
and by
accommodation
to the end of the world.
Verse 6
[6] And
he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children
and the heart of the
children to their fathers
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
And he —
John the Baptist.
Shall turn the heart — There were at this time many great and unnatural divisions among the
Jews
in which fathers studied mischief to their own children.
Of the children —
Undutiful children estranged from their fathers.
With a curse —
Which ends in utter destruction; leaving Jerusalem a desolate heap
and a
perpetual monument of God's displeasure. Some observe
that the last word of
the Old Testament is a curse: whereas the New Testament ends with a blessing
yea
the choicest of blessings
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us
all! Amen. Dec. 24
1766.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Malachi》
Elijah and John the Baptist
(4.5)
‘Behold I will send you Elijah the
prophet’ (4.5)
‘If ye will receive it
this is Elias
which was for to come’ (Matt. 11.14)
I. Each was empowered by the Spirit
of God for ministry (Luke 1.17)
II. Each had to do with a wicked
king and a more wicked queen (1 Kings 19.1~2; Mark 6.18~19)
III. Each received from God his
daily provision-food and raiment (1 Kings 21.20; Mark 6.18)
IV. Each was courageous in rebuking
sin in high places (1 Kings 21.20; Mark 6.18)
V. Each had a lapse into
despondency when his life was in danger (1 Kings 19.4; Matt. 11.2~3)
Contrast—Elijah was taken to Heaven
without dying; John was the last of the martyr prophets.
── Archibald Naismith《Outlines for Sermons》
04 Chapter 4
Verses 1-6
Verse 1
All that do wickedly shall be stubble.
The destruction of the wicked
It is matter of alarm and profound regret that this awful doctrine
is so seldom preached in these days
at least with plainness and fidelity. Why
is it? Surely not because the doctrine is not expressly and fully taught in the
Scriptures; not because it was not taught by Christ Himself during His
ministry; nor because it has not always held a prominent place in the creeds of
Christendom; nor yet because it is contrary to reason and the constitution of
the moral universe. There is no hope for the finally impenitent. Application--
1. Since the everlasting punishment of the finally impenitent is
clearly taught by Divine revelation
we are bound to accept it
reverently
submissively
and without criticism
however severe and terrible the aspect it
wears toward the wicked.
2. Being an essential doctrine of the Scriptures
we are imperatively
called upon to give it its due place and importance in the ministrations of the
pulpit
The pulpit that dares to ignore it
or presumes to be more liberal and
merciful than God in handling it
incurs a tremendous responsibility.
3. Christians are bound to have respect to it in all their prayers
and living
and intercourse with those who are unreconciled to God.
4. In view of a doom so certain
and so supremely dreadful to every
unforgiven sinner
how earnestly should every man “work out his salvation with
fear and trembling”! (J. M. Sherwood
D. D.)
Verse 2
Shall the Sun of Righteousness arise.
Sun-rising
There is only one sun in our system: and there is one Mediator
between God and man. The vastness of the sun is surprising
but Jesus is the
Lord of all. His greatness is unsearchable. The beauty and glory of the sun are
such that we cannot wonder at its being made the subject of adoration. But He
is fairer than the children of men. And all the angels of God worship Him.
Consider the inestimable usefulness of this luminary. How he enlightens
warms
fructifies
adorns
blesses. What changes does he produce in garden
wood
and
meadow! The sun that ripened Isaac’s corn ripens ours
and though he has shone
for so many ages
he is undiminished
and as all-sufficient as ever. What an image
of Him who is the same yesterday
today
and for ever! He that seeth the Sun of
Righteousness
and believeth on Jesus
hath everlasting life. The rising of the
sun is the finest spectacle in the creation. But when and how does the Sun of
Righteousness arise? His coming was announced immediately after the Fall. His
approach obscurely appeared in the types and services of the ceremonial law. In
the clearer discoveries of the prophets
the morning was beginning to spread
upon the mountains. At length He actually arose--God sent forth His Son. He
rises in the dispensation of the Gospel--in spiritual illumination--in renewed
manifestations--in ordinances. But how will He arise in the irradiations of heaven!--in the
morning of immortality; making a day to be sullied with no cloud
and followed
with no evening shade! Then their sun shall no more go down. (William Jay.)
The Sun of Righteousness
As for the godly
He promises to send Christ unto them
bringing
illumination
righteousness
healing
protection
and increase of grace
and
joy in the Holy Ghost.
1. An infallible character of the truly godly is their reverence and
holy fear (presumption being very contrary unto piety)
and that not only of
God’s justice and terrible judgments
which the wicked may tremble at
but also
of His name and
whatsoever He reveals Himself by; His word being enough to make them tremble
and His goodness to make them fear.
2. Christ is the substance of the encouragement of the godly
as
being unto His Church and children in a super-excellent manner
what the sun is
to this inferior world
in enlightening all their darkness
illuminating all
the inferior lights that shine in any measure
making all hid things patent
rejoicing
warning
cherishing
and ripening all fruits. “Unto you that fear My
name
shall the sun arise.”
3. Not only is every man by nature and without Christ
in a dark
disconsolate condition till He come to them
but His manifestation of Himself
under the law was far inferior to that under the Gospel
which is far more
clear
glorious
and comfortable
than the legal shadows were: for where Christ comes
“the sun ariseth” after a dark night; and this especially relates to His
incarnation
which is sunlight in comparison of the Old Testament
which had
but
as it were
moonlight.
4. That which makes Christ especially comfortable to the godly is
that He brings glorious righteousness to them
whereby they who durst not
appear before God
become glorious and beautiful in the eyes of the Lord. He is
the “Sun of Righteousness”--glorious righteousness--to them.
5. As these who get good of Christ will have many sores
and be made
to feel the deadly wounds and diseases which every one by nature hath; so
Christ is the only Physician to cure such sores
and deliver His people from
all sickness of sin and misery. “He arises with healing.” (George Hutcheson.)
The Sun of Righteousness
From the most glorious creature
“the sun
” He expresses
the most glorious Creator
“Christ Jesus
” taking occasion to help our
understandings in grace by natural things
and teaching us thereby to make a
double use of the creatures
corporal and spiritual. Christ is compared to the
sun--
1. Because
as all light was gathered into the body of the sun
and
from it derived to us
so it pleased God that in Him should the fulness of all
excellency dwell.
2. As there is but one sun
so there is but one Sun of Righteousness.
3. As the sun is above the firmament
so Christ is exalted up on
high
to convey His graces and virtues to all His creatures here below.
4. As the sun works largely in all things here below
so doth Christ.
5. As the sun is the fountain of light
and the eye of the world
so
Christ is the fountain of all spiritual light.
6. As the sun directeth us whither to go and which way
so doth
Christ teach us to go to heaven
and by what means; what duties to perform
what things to avoid
and what things to bear.
7. As the sun is pleasant
and darkness is terrible
so Christ is
comfortable; for He makes all at peace where He comes; and He sends the Spirit
the Comforter.
8. By the beams of the sun is conveyed influence to make things grow
and to distinguish between times and seasons. Thus Christ
by His power
makes
all things cheerful
for He quickens the dead and dark soul.
9. The sun works these effects not by coming down to us
but by
influence.
10. As the sun doth work freely
drawing up vapours to dissolve them
into rain upon the earth
so doth Christ. He freely draws up our hearts to
heaven.
11. As the sun shines upon all
but doth not heat all
so Christ is
offered to all.
12. As the sun quickens and puts life into dead creatures
so shall
Christ
by His power
quicken our dead bodies
and raise them up again. How
shall we know whether Christ be to us a sun or not? If we find that we feel the
heat and comfort of a Christian
it is a sign that Christ hath effectually
shined on us. If Christ have shined upon any effectually
they will walk
comely
as children of the light. Uses of this doctrine--
The text describes this Sun as “with healing in His wings
” or
beams. In these beams there is a healing nature. Naturally
we are all sick and
wounded. We should take notice of our diseases in time
and go to the healing
God. Christ hath a medicine of His own
able to cure any disease
though never
so desperate
any person
though never so sick. Then why are we not healed?
What means this that we are subject to these infirmities of ours? Some of
Christ’s works are all at once perfected
and some by degrees
by little and
little. The text also promises
“Ye shall go forth
and grow up as calves of
the stall.” “You shall leap forth.” Both expressions signify a cheerful moving.
We need to grow up. What are means thereunto?
1. Purge and cleanse the soul of weakening matter. Practise the duty
of repentance daily.
2. Come at good food. Digest comfortable truths.
3. Use exercise of holy duties.
Take heed not to lightly esteem God’s ordinance; but in reverence
use all means for the strengthening of our faith; by the Word
sacraments
and
prayer. How shall we know whether we are grown? If we relish the food of our
souls
the Word of God; are able to bear great burdens of the infirmities of
our brethren; able
like Samson
to break the green cords of pleasure and
profits. Our growth in grace is seen in our Performance of duties: if they be
strongly
readily
and cheerfully performed. Text says
“Ye shall tread down
the wicked.”
While the Jews obeyed God
they were a terror to the whole earth. The Church
treadeth
etc.
in regard of true judgment and discerning of the estates of the
wicked. The Church tramples on all things that rule wicked men. The promise of
the text is finally accomplished at the day of judgment. (R. Sibbes.)
Sunrise
I. Who is this Sun
of Righteousness?
1. Jesus Christ
who is spoken of as “a light to lighten the
Gentiles.”
2. Light
a frequent Scrip ture symbol. The sun possesses some
excellent properties above other luminaries.
3. The sun possesses the property of communicating light to all the
other heavenly bodies. All men are indebted to the “light of the world “ for
everything that is good. Good men are called lights of the world. The Sun of
Righteousness is the great source of light and heat to the soul.
4. Similar effects are produced on the moral world on the rising of
the Sun of Righteousness
as are produced on the face of the earth by the
rising of the natural sun. Darkness is dispersed
and mists and vapour give way
before his powerful rays. When Christ
the true light
shines
moral darkness
is dissipated
and in proportion as the true light is received
superstition
error
and ignorance die away.
II. When may this
“Sun of Righteousness” be said to “arise”?
1. When the prophet says “shall arise
” we are not to infer that He
had never arisen before
but that a more abundant outbeaming of His light
should be reflected upon the faithful.
2. “In the fulness of time
God sent forth His Son.”
3. He arose from the dead.
4. He may be said to arise when He visits any place by His Gospel.
5. When He visits the souls of the children of men by His Spirit.
III. The manner in
which He is said to arise. “With healing in His wings.”
1. Only upon those who fear the Lord: by penitents
and by His own
children.
2. Penitents fear God
and seek His face. They shall be made whole
and saved from the guilt and power of sin.
3. The Lord’s children serve Him with reverence and godly fear
and
they too shall be saved from the pollution and indwelling of sin. (B.
Bailey.)
The Sun of Righteousness
Nature is replete with types
shadows
or symbols of spiritual
things. Our Lord is Himself called the Sun of Righteousness
because
in many
respects
He bears the same relation to the moral universe which the sun
sustains to the solar system. In this image
or symbol
there is a depth of
meaning which does not at once strike the mind; and which
from age to age
continually deepens and expands
as science reveals more and more the intrinsic
grandeur and glory of the sun. Plato says
“Light is the shadow of God.”
Scripture says
“God is light
and in Him is no darkness at all.” An apostle
says
“God is love.” But yet is the brightness of this light and love so veiled
and obscured to mortal vision that blessing
not blasting
everywhere follows
in the track of their influence. The more we study the symbolism of Scripture
the more are we lost in admiration of its richness
its fulness
its grandeur
and its beauty.
1. The sun is the central body of our system
by whose attractive
influence all the planetary worlds are held in their orbits
and so kept from
wandering into the outer darkness of infinite space. By Christ
the Sun of
Righteousness
all worlds are kept in society with God
the great central light
of the universe. For the Hebrew mind
this little earth of ours was the
universe
around which the sun
moon
and stars revolved as the appendages and
ornaments of its beauty.
2. The sun is the life of the natural world. Blot out the great
luminary and all the beautiful forms of nature
both in the vegetable and
animal kingdoms
would sink into one mass of universal decay and death The Sun
of Righteousness is the life of the spiritual world. “He lighteth every man
that cometh into
the world.”
3. The sun is the only self-luminous body in our system; from which
all others derive their light of life. So it is a symbol of Him who is “the light
of the world
” the moral world. It is given to Christ
and to Christ alone
to
have “light in Himself.”
4. The natural sun is
like the Sun of Righteousness
limited in the
beneficent effects of its influence. It is often made an objection to the religion
of Jesus
that it does not save all men. The same objection might be urged
against the natural sun. Behold the arid wastes and barren rocks
on which its
light-giving rays fall in vain. So the Sun of Righteousness shines in vain upon
all whose sins have rendered their hearts more than stony hard. But for all
this He is the life-giving power of the moral world.
5. The Sun of Righteousness is
like the natural sun
the source
or
rather the occasion
of many incidental evils. The natural sun
for example
in
acting on the corruptions of the earth
often breeds those noxious vapours
or
effluvia
which spread pestilence in the air we breathe. But is this the fault
of the sun
or of the corruptions on which it acts? It is only in relation to
Christ that men blame the physician for the disease He came to cure
and for
the evil and malignant passions He came to eradicate or subdue.
6. For many weary
countless ages men sought an answer to this
question: What is the foundation of the earth? After all their searching
it
was discovered that the earth rested on nothing: it was suspended from the sun.
Men have been seeking the foundation of society
but the everlasting
foolish
search is all in vain
for the foundation of the moral world is nowhere. It is
suspended from above. The Sun of Righteousness is its only point of support and
rest. All the planetary worlds are like a magnificent chandelier
suspended
from the sun; so are all social states
nay
all moral worlds
upheld and
sustained by the Sun of Righteousness.
7. The sun is
by virtue of its transforming power
a magnificent
type or symbol of Christ. The Divine power of Christ
working silently and
unseen through all the ages
is fitly symbolised only by those stupendous
agencies which
with such inconceivable grandeur
are ever at work on the
magnificent theatre of the material universe.
8. The power of the sun
by which all natural things are
progressively developed
symbolises the corresponding power or influence of Christ
in the development and progress of the moral world. The progress of
Christianity is the progress of man. All real progress has been confined to
Christian nations.
9. The Sun of Righteousness
like the natural sun
works silently
but efficiently
in the depths of His dominion
and acts on the secret springs
or principles of its inner life. And a glance at the past is sufficient to
inspire us with hope for the future. The kingdom of Christ
though once the
least of all seeds
is now the greatest of all trees. Having its roots in
faith
its vital principle is love
its blossoms are immortal hopes
and its
fruit eternal life. (R. Bledsoe.)
The rising of the Sun of Righteousness
I. The persons to
whom the promise is made. Those that fear the name of the Lord. By the “name”
of God is meant the “character” of God. We have
in ourselves
no knowledge of
the nature and character of God
and therefore cannot fear His name until He
send forth the Spirit of truth into our hearts
to lead us into all truth. All
the notions which we form of Him
before the Spirit of truth is in us
are as
contrary to His true character as darkness is to light. While we are in this
state of blindness we can have no real fear of God according to His Word. The
true fear springs up with faith
and arises chiefly from the soul believing
some part of God’s Word
which the Holy Spirit carries home to the sinner’s
conscience to awaken him. This fear will be marked by a growing desire to know
the true character of God. And this is not a feeling which passes away. The
text does not speak of those that have feared the name of God
but of those
that do “fear it
i.e.
continue to do so. It is not a passing
fright
but a holy abiding fear. The marks of it are an abiding sense of sin
a
desire to be taught of God
by searching the Word of God in order to know His
name
or true character
and by praying for the teaching of the Spirit of
truth.
II. The promise
itself. The “Sun of Righteousness” shall arise upon them “with healing in His
wings.” Jesus Christ is to the soul what the natural sun is to the earth. The sun gives
light and warmth to the earth
by which its various fruits are brought forth
and ripened. Jesus is especially the Sun of Righteousness
as being the
fountain of all righteousness; of that perfect righteousness by which believers
are testified in the sight of God. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness in His own
person when manifest in the flesh
and was perfectly obedient to the will of
God
even unto death. This perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed
or
reckoned to believers
through faith
as if they had entirely fulfilled it
themselves; and thus they are justified or made righteous in the sight of God.
Jesus is also the fountain of the righteousness of sanctification. The mode in
which the Sun of Righteousness arises upon the soul of His people is
by
pouring into them more and more of the light of the Holy Spirit strengthening
their faith
and enabling them to see that Christ
with all His blessings
and
all His promises
is theirs. He thus also rises with healing in His wings
to
heal the broken hearts of His people.
III. The happy
effect of the fulfilment of the promises. “They shall grow up
as calves in the
stall.” The believer is enabled to go forth with peace and joy on his way to
Zion. The blessed effect will be manifested both by the peace and shed into the
believer’s soul
and by his growth in holiness. The rising of the Son of
Righteousness will also greatly promote the believer’s growth in grace. The
growth in size of calves
when fed in the stall
is very great; so shall the
growth of believers be great. Apply subject to ourselves. Are there not too
many amongst you who are entirely strangers to the fear of the name or
character of God? Perhaps you have hitherto been brought only to fear God
and
you walk in dark ness. You should apply to yourselves this text: let the Sun of
Righteousness rise on your souls with healing in His wings. If He rises on your
soul you will have peace with God. (H. Gipps
LL. D.)
The Sun of Righteousness
This passage seems to refer principally to the second coming of
our Lord; the text itself may be safely understood of His first coming in the
flesh. It points out
primarily at least
the judgments to be brought upon the
unbelieving and impenitent Jews.
I. The coming of
Christ
as the Sun of Righteousness rising upon the world. The most glorious
object in creation is the fittest to represent the King of Glory. The sun is
the great source of heat and life and light; of everything that is beautiful
and beneficial. The Sun of Righteous ness here is the Lord and Saviour Christ;
the Lord and giver of life to His servants: a never-failing source of spiritual
health and comfort to His servants. Whatever the sun is in the material world
that
and much more
in a spiritual sense
is the Lord to His Church. “Sun of
Righteousness” may mean that He is perfectly just and righteous in Himself
and
therefore discovers and rebukes sin
brings to light the hidden things of
darkness and vice
and affords in Him self a perfect example of light and
virtue
by which others may see and avoid their errors and failings. Or it may
mean that
by His own righteousness
“He justifies many.” This Sun arose when
our Lord came into the world. He again rose in His resurrection. He will again
rise when He comes in glory. And He may be said to rise upon each of us when by
faith we receive Him into our souls.
II. The salvation
which the Sun of Righteousness brings with him. “With healing in His wings.”
The Son of God came to earth as a Saviour. This character He maintained through
the course of His ministry upon earth
during which He went about doing good.
How did this Sun of Righteousness bring healing in His wings (or
as we should
rather say
in His beams and rays) at His rising?
1. The most natural interpretation is
of the cures which He wrought
upon the bodies of men.
2. The great act of salvation was bearing our sins in His own body on
the tree. “By His stripes we are healed.” This healing procured the pardon of
our sins
and the grace of the Spirit of God
to enable us to fulfil the
conditions required of us. Only by joining these two together can the salvation
be regarded as complete. Notice how great is His mercy in administering comfort
to the penitent.
III. The
qualifications required of those to whom the Son of God will prove a Saviour.
“You that fear My name.” Religious fear of God is necessary to qualify a man to
receive the healing grace of Christ. To the soul which has no fear Christ
brings no healing. This is the state of the true Christian; in which his terrors are
never so great as to extinguish his hopes
and his hopes never prevail so much
as to make him confident and secure. (T. Bowdler
A. M.)
Sun of Righteousness
I. Illustrate the
comparison of our Lord Jesus Christ to a sun.
1. His unapproachable pre-eminence.
2. His benign influence.
3. His relation to the whole world.
II. Describe His
restorative or remedial efficacy. In the world; in a country; in an individual.
III. Consider the persons to whom His
efficacy is confined. Who are they? And why are they the sole recipients of the
promised blessing? Consider Christ--as the centre of the spiritual world; as
the source of light; as the source of heat; as the object of attraction. (O.
Brooks.)
Parallel between Christ and the sun
A parallel is drawn between Jesus Christ and the natural sun.
1. Before the rising of the natural sun there is darkness; until
Jesus Christ arise or is apprehended there is darkness--moral and spiritual
darkness. Look to the world before the coming of Christ: the heathen; the
multitudes around us; any one of the unconverted; the place of outer darkness.
2. Jesus Christ
as the natural sun does
arose gradually.
3. Jesus Christ
like the natural sun
reveals or is the source of
light.
4. Jesus Christ
like the natural sun
is the centre of a system. Of
the material universe; and the moral and spiritual universe. Centre and sum of
revealed truth of the Church.
5. Jesus Christ
like the natural sun
has His image reflected
both
in the material and in the moral universe.
6. Is the source of enjoyment. He has all blessing; and admits to His
own joy.
7. Is often concealed by clouds.
8. He dispenses His influence freely. “Without money and without
price.”
9. He hastens the process of decay and corruption. “A stone of
stumbling and a rock of offence.” (James Stewart.)
The Messiah as the Sun of Righteousness
That the promised Messiah should be termed the Sun of
Righteousness may appear characteristic and appropriate. But what are we to understand by a sun
with wings? What by those wings being endowed with the powers of healing? what
mean we when we term the Messiah Sun of Righteousness
but that we
being by
nature the heirs of God’s curse
are through Christ reconciled to Him whom we
had offended? what mean we by the wings of the sun? In Egypt a sun with wings
was sculptured upon the gateways and monuments. Some regard the sign with a
reference to the rays or beams of the luminous body itself. Others interpret it
as representing that overhanging canopy of the heavens which bends
like a
protecting arch above this lower globe of ours
brooding over it
so to speak
and sheltering it. Others explain the wings as betokening the swiftness with
which the light of the sun traverses illimitable space. Others appropriate the
term to the cooling breezes which in the East accompany the early sunrise.
Those who have experienced the glare and weariness of an Eastern day may be
better qualified than most of us to appreciate those first hours of cool and
refreshing daylight which are appropriated to health ful exercise and the
enjoyment of nature’s loveliness. The period at which we celebrate the rising
of the predicted Sun cannot convey real and fitting gladness to the hearts of
those who do not entertain this chastened and holy fear of God’s name. The
verse preceding the text is full of woe and alarm for them that despise His
loving-kindness and disobey His laws. Apt as is the image of the sun’s rising
and progress through the heavens
to represent the rising of the Sun of
Righteousness and His increasing influences as He goes on His way rejoicing
it
is when He has reached His height that the metaphor fails us altogether. Slowly
and surely the material orb sinks at last in the darkness. Herein we are taught
the infinite inferiority of the sign to that which is signified thereby. (T.
Ainger
M. A.)
The Sun of Righteousness
Why was it that God permitted His ancient people to be
overwhelmed with such unheard of calamities? We have reason to believe it was
simply because they rejected Christ
and the offers of mercy and salvation
through Him. If God
however
take vengeance on the wicked
He will be
favourable to the righteous
and spare them in the great day
as a father
spareth his own son that serveth him.
I. The Sun of
Righteousness. There is but one Sun from whom proceeds righteousness
and that
must be the Son of God. As Christ is the source of all spiritual life and light
so by His
sufferings and death He hath procured or merited righteous ness. He is
therefore the believer’s justifying righteousness.
II. His rising on
God’s people. Christ’s face shines on His people and disperses their sorrows
but His face is dark towards sinners
for He is angry with the wicked every
day. In the spiritual world
when Christ took on Him our flesh and was born in
Bethlehem
then the light was come
and the glory of the Lord was risen upon
us! This Sun still shines; He is still shining
in His Gospel and in the power
of His Word.
III. The effect of
his rising. “With healing in His
wings.” Understanding this literally
we may see how Christ
as man
has arisen
with healing in His wings. How many; yea
what multitudes did His hands heal of
various maladies. This Sun is still shining. All our spiritual light is from
Him. All our spiritual healing comes from the merit of His works. (R. Horsfall.)
Our sun
I. The sun. Of all
the things the eye can see the most Christlike is the sun
for he is quite
alone in our world. Nor rival
nor helper
nor partner has he. We have many
stars
but only one sun. All light is in and from the sun. Yet even this
glorious image of the light of the world fails in some ways; for the sun has
its dark spots
but in Christ
our sun
is no darkness at all. The sun is the
centre of all the worlds. Every star is held in its place by the attractive power of the sun. The
sun is the grand river in this world. Our thoughts wax warm as we sum up all
the benefits with which he fills our earth. You cannot overstate them. Science
is every year finding fresh wonders in sunlight. All kinds of force come from
the sun. As the sun gives according to a never-changing law
so Christ blesses
only in a righteous way.
II. The sun-rising.
Sunrise is probably the grandest sight in the world. In the East it is so
magnificent as almost for the moment to make one a Parsee
a worshipper of the
rising sun. Malachi was in the twilight
and you are in the daylight. To him
the sun was beneath the horizon
sure harbinger of the wished for day. You live
in the Gospel-day.
III. The blessings
christ brings to men. As the sun destroys only darkness and its hateful brood
so Christ destroys only our miseries
and brings us all blessings.
1. Healing. The Easterns often carved a winged sun above the gateways
of their temples. Malachi has a poet’s quick eye for the glories of nature
and
perhaps this also was in his mind
--the sun rises like a birch
with equal
wings wide enough to cover the world. Malachi’s meaning is
that as sunlight
brings health to a diseased
dying world
so Christ brings health to our
diseased
dying souls; and this healing comes to us with all the ease
swiftness
gentleness
and freshness of morning sunshine. This healing brings
health
which shows itself in joyous activity. To healing and health Christ
adds victory. (James Wells
M. A.)
The blessings of the Sun of Righteousness
I. The promise
which is made.
1. The metaphor under which the coming of Christ is spoken of. The
rising of the Sun of Righteousness. Malachi assimilates Christ’s coming to that
of the sun rising upon the earth. Is He not well entitled to this appellation?
2. The manner in which Jesus is to come to His saints. “With healing
in His wings.” It is a bold poetical figure used by the prophet for the beams
or rays of the sun; and such bold painted figures are by no means uncommon with
Eastern writers.
II. The persons to
whom this promise is made. “To them who fear the name of the Lord.” This
expression is used in Scripture for religion in general. Without a certain
mixture of fear
taking the term in its most literal signification
no worship
can be accept able to Jehovah. Without a certain mixture of fear
no worship
can produce any deep or lasting impressions on the worshipper himself--no
sanctifying effects on his
heart and conscience. The term may
however
be limited and applied to some
particular classes of saints.
1. To them who are spiritual mourners.
2. To them persecuted for the sake of religion.
3. To them who sit in heathen darkness.
4. To the elect on the day of judgment.
To the righteous on that day Christ shall “arise with healing in
His wings.” To them shall He come with joy and songs of triumph. (James
Watson.)
Christ Jesus the Sun of Righteousness
The great light which the Almighty Maker of the world set up in
heaven to rule the day is the most glorious object in the whole visible
creation of God. The worship of the sun
as it was the first
so it was
assuredly the least degrading of all the idolatries by which men and nations
have since been enslaved. Does the sun exhibit the glory of God? What
then
shall we say of Christ Jesus
in whom “dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily”? Seen as an absolute God
and by the flashes of the law from Sinai
our
God is a consuming fire; but we have the light of the knowledge of His saving
glory in the face of Jesus Christ. “In Him is light
and the light is the spiritual
and everlasting life of men.” By rising in the ancient promise He dispelled the
midnight ignorance and utter hopelessness of guilty creatures; by rising in His
own person
and glorious acts of grace
He chased away the dim shadows of the
ceremonial law; by rising in Gospel ordinances He abolished the night of error
and delusion; and by rising in His spiritual influences upon the believer’s
soul He says
“Let there be light
and there is light.” The sun rises gradually
over the earth; and so hath the Sun of Righteousness displayed His saving
light. His first ray was cast upon this fallen earth when the promise of
redemption was given to guilty man in paradise. The law and the prophets
reflected it with increasing brightness until His advent. But it is only when
that advent is spiritually and graciously made to a soul once darkened and dead
in trespasses and sins that the true and efficacious light of salvation reaches
him and renews him. Upon whom
then
will this bright and radiant Sun arise?
Upon those who “fear the name” of God. This fear of God is produced by that
work of regeneration which the Holy Spirit effects. The fear of the Lord is a
gracious and heavenly state; not meritorious of any good at the hand of God
but a disposition which best subserves His great design of raising up and
glorifying the riches of His undeserved love. He who thus evangelically fears
the Lord is led to serious and solemn self-examination. If you fear God there
is a deep
earnest
ardent
unceasing breathing of the soul for Christ
a
constant application to His blood as its true Bethesda
its everlastingly
appointed house of mercy
where the soul may be made whole. Note the blessing
which shall attend those who fear the Lord. Sin is the cause of all spiritual
dark ness
because sin is the soul’s separation from God. Christ comes with
spiritual health
and with the abundance of spiritual peace: peace from the
guilt of sin rising up to condemn
peace from the accusations of conscience
peace from the curse of the law
peace with the blessed Trinity
and peace with
all who are one with Him. The material sin is the source of earth’s fertility.
And how free
how common
how accessible is the sun of the natural world
for
all who live beneath it! (R. P. Buddicom
M. A.)
Christ as a sun
I. Of the
metaphorical representation of Christ. Metaphors are useful. They arrest the
attention: the imagination is engaged in discovering their beauty and admiring
their aptitude
while they rivet themselves in the memory by the force with
which they bring home to us the subject they are intended to illustrate. To
illustrate Christ as the “Sun of Righteousness
” consider the miserably
benighted state in which the human race were in the days anterior to the Gospel
dispensation. Jesus Christ
that “Sun of Righteousness
” pure and spotless
is
the author of all righteousness
whether imputed for justification or imparted
in sanctification. When Christ rises in the soul He enlightens
quickens
and
comforts.
II. What is meant
by “healing in His wings”? The beams of this heavenly luminary may indeed be
perceived by us
but do they pervade our hearts and lives? To fear the name is
to reverence Him as God and man; to participate by faith in His incarnate
sufferings; to accompany Him to the scene of His cruel death. It has its
foundation in a deep sense of the enormity of sins
and a humbling conviction
of our depravity. (Samuel Crowther.)
The Sun of Righteousness arising with healing in His wings
I. The characters
spoken of. The “name of the Lord” signifies the perfections of the glorious God
of heaven--the great ness and goodness of the Lord--God Himself. It is the
peculiar character of the people of God that they “fear His name.” It is a fear
of offending God
the tenderness of the child that fears to offend its parent.
This fear is an abiding principle
and it is a practical principle; it operates
upon the life.
II. The blessed
privilege of those that fear the name of God. The Sun of Righteous ness is
Immanuel
God with us. And He arose at His birth
because more conspicuous in
His ministry; was eclipsed at His death
shone forth brighter after His
resurrection and ascension
and attained His meridian splendour when the Jewish
dispensation closed and the Christian dispensation was fully established. But the
promise of our text is daily receiving its fulfilment in the hearts of God’s
believing people. The promise of the text
however
still awaits the
consummation of its fulfilment. (Benjamin Maturin
B. A.)
The Sun of Righteousness
I. The persons.
Those that “fear the name of the Lord.” Fear is the passion of our nature
opposed to hope
and by it the author of our being guards us against danger.
The “fear of the Lord” is the sublimest principle which can influence a soul.
It casts out all other fear. Filial and godly fear is always accompanied with
love.
II. The blessings.
The Messiah should be
to the spiritual world
what the sun is to the natural
world. In this view we may regard Him as the source of light
fertility
comfort
and health. (Peter Grant.)
Christ
the gun of Righteousness
Were I to adhere to the textual view of these words I should be
shut up to consider what Christ’s coming was to those who already had some true
light
to those who already feared God and thought upon His name
and thus I
should have mainly to set forth the superiority of Christianity to Judaism. But
I shall make no apology for giving to this title “Sun of Righteousness” a wider
application
and for considering not so much Christ’s rising then and there
upon Jewish cloudiness and dimness
as rather His arising from first to last
upon the total darkness of our fallen world.
I. The nature of
Christ’s light
or enlightening power.
1. This light is saving light. In many parts of the Old Testament
“righteousness” is used in nearly the same sense with “salvation.” The
salvation of God
resting on the perfect righteousness of God’s own Son as the
sinner’s substitute
applied to believers in Him for justification
and in its
gracious operation
terminated and completed by their willing return to
personal righteousness and holiness of life
--this is what is here meant under
the name of “righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6). We speak in our own
language of the “sun of freedom” rising upon a country
or of the “sunshine of
peace” revisiting it. But the light which here bursts upon a lost and guilty
world is the saving light of righteousness. It announces to the condemned the
hope of pardon
and shows the way; and it discloses with equal clearness the
means of deliverance from the power and bondage of corruption. In Christ the
whole salvation is contained
even as the sun reveals himself. In Him the
guilty are righteous in law; in Him
and as subdued by His birth
they are righteous
in fact.
2. This light is original light. The light of the sun is unborrowed.
It is a mystery which our science has not yet solved
how this fountain is fed.
But relatively to all sources of light that we know
it is higher and
self-sustained. This images the nature of Christ s light
in contrast with all
the knowledge of Divine things which comes to us from other quarters.
3. This light is pre-eminent light. The most glorious object in
nature is the sun. The ancient world had its lights
we grant--its poets
philosophers
moralists
law-givers. But what were they in regard to righteous
ness or salvation? How much did they diffuse of the light of life? Christ was
even pre-eminent above Jewish prophets
who had known and revealed God to men.
They were but secondary lights. Their use was to point to Him. It is needless
to assert Christ’s pre-eminence over His own apostles and ministers and people.
4. This light is a universal light. What a universal blessing is
sunshine! What an emblem of the Higher Light which is not less universal
though
for reasons which we cannot fathom
it is still beneath the horizon in
many a wide region of the earth. Where it has shone
can the natural sun be
more unrestricted and free?
II. The nature of
Christ’s healing influence. By wings the prophet means the rays or influence of
the sun. In addition to the influence of light we are now to take into account
that of heat
of which
too
the sun is the centre.
1. Christ’s healing power in relation to sin. What is wanted to
moralise the whole community? Only one thing
the love of Christ in every man’s
heart.
2. Christ’s healing extends to sorrow. This follows from the healing
of sin. Every sin has its own sorrow
its remorse
its injuries to mind and
heart
and often also to body and estate.
3. The influence of Christ’s sun shine upon death. The natural sun
lights all generations to their grave. How is Christ risen from the dead
risen
with healing in His wings for all that sleep in Him! Oh
the glory of that
victory over death
the last enemy
which the light of Christ’s immortal
countenance shall achieve! (John Cairns
D. D.)
Christ the Sun of Righteousness
We with the early Fathers take our Lord to be “the Sun of
Righteousness.” The mass of the sun being so vastly greater than that of all
the planets and satellites taken together
constitutes it a suitable centre of
light
heat
and gravitation; and therefore a striking emblem of Christ. Of the
many points of resemblance we will examine two. The darkness which precedes the
dawn
and the gradual growth of the light. These are seen--
I. In the growth
of Christianity. At the dawn of Christianity there was a darkness like that of
Egypt
“that might be felt.” Darkness is the symbol of ignorance and sin. The
intellectual greatness of the Augustan age is seen in its poets
philosophers
etc.; but the flowers grew on a marshy and rotten soil. Classical writers
confirm St. Paul’s testimony in Romans chap. 1. to the awful moral degradation of the
time. The “dayspring from on high” appears
and gradually asserts its power
over the darkness. Christian teachers penetrated where the Roman legions never
trod. Persecution did not arrest the wave. When the northern barbarians
overwhelmed the Roman Empire
they had to yield to a power greater than their
own--that of the Cross. The glory of the meridian sun must fill the earth.
II. In the growth
of the Christian. Before conversion our hearts were “dark
void and formless
”
like the original world. The spirit of man is illumined by the Sun of
Righteousness
and chaos becomes cosmos. This growth is gradual. Three stages
of Christian growth. God calls
touches
blesses; which corresponds in some
sort to assent
affiance
and assurance. Growth in religion is mainly
characterised by thought of ourselves at its beginning
by consideration for
others as we advance in holiness
and by a desire for the glory of God when
more matured. Is Christ growing in us? We must be advancing or receding. If
Christ be growing in us
certain effects will follow. His light will cleanse
and purify; and shining from us
it will give us influence on others. (J. S.
Pilkington
M. A.)
The rising of the Sun of Righteousness
All nature is laid under contribution to furnish emblems of Christ
in His Person and offices. Text refers to the second advent. But the glory of
the second will be the consummation of the grace of the first advent. It was
the rising of the Sun of Righteousness when Christ appeared as the Light of the
World revealing pardon
peace
liberty
and joy. It will be the rising in full
meridian splendour
when He shall appear the second time
to complete the
salvation of His saints and to be glorified in them.
1. What the sun is to the natural world
that Christ is in the
spiritual
the source and centre of its light and life.
2. Christ is the Sun of Righteousness. He is Righteousness embodied
exhibited as a living reality. He fulfilled all righteousness. He makes His
people righteous. As their justification
and as their sanctification and
illumination. By His Spirit He imparts His own nature to them
creates them
anew in righteousness and true holiness.
3. Christ rises “with healing in His wings.” The figure admits of a
natural and beautiful interpretation. On certain coasts there sets in with the
rising sun a balmy breeze which
because of its soothing and salubrious
character
the residents call “the healer.” Regarding this with poetic fancy as
winged zephyrs of the rising sun
the prophet speaks of the coming Messiah as a
sun rising with healing in His wings.
4. “Grow up as calves” is better rendered
“bound as calves loosed
from the stall.” Liberty and enlargement of heart
exultation and lightness of
spirit
shall be to them on whom the Sun of Righteousness arises. The
expression “go forth” denotes release. We know the exuberance of a young animal
set free to range in the open pasturage. To them who “fear His name” the rising
is with “healing in His wings.” But the sun in the heavens can smite
and
scorch and slay. Oh
that terrible sunstroke
so fatal in the East! Christ’s coming
may he to some a revelation of flaming fire taking vengeance. (A. R.
Symonds.)
The Sun of Righteousness
I. The blessings
Christ imparts
like those of the sun
are of the utmost value. A sunless
landscape is less dismal than a Christless soul; whilst a Christly soul has on
it “a light that never shone on sea or land.” The blessings of the natural sun
and of the Christ are
in many respects
similar.
1. They are enlightening. Sunrise means daylight.
2. They are restorative. Healing
--for does not the sun’s influence
on drooping flower and faded face of human weakness but hint Christ’s influence
on men’s hearts and lives?
II. The blessings
Christ imparts
like those of the sun
come to men in a remarkable manner. The
sunrise and these “wings” combine to suggest--
III. The blessings
Christ imparts
like those of the sun
bring benefits that
in a large degree
are universal. The sun shines on the evil and on the good. What spot of earth
does it not
directly or indirectly
reach and bless? So many of Christ’s
blessings bless all. Is there not through Him--
IV. The blessings
Christ imparts
like those of the sun
demand special conditions for their full
appropriation. The best cultivated soil will best utilise the heat and light of
the sun. So the soul that in steadfast faith and love turns to the Christ
and
with intense desires drinks in all His truth and grace
will be the soul on
which will be most evident the healing
influences of the great Sun of Righteousness. (Homilist.)
A message for the faithful
Changed
indeed
are our days from those in which the words of the
text were written. Since that time the Sun of Righteousness has arisen. Elias
the prophet has come already
and they have done to him all that they listed.
The law of Moses
commanded in Horeb for all Israel
has been exchanged for the voice of One who
speaks to us from heaven. And yet God’s last words
as here recorded
are still
substantially the same with those which He speaks to us to-day after the lapse
of more than two-and-twenty centuries.
1. What is the great basis
here set before us
of all revelation?
Behold
the day cometh. Everything is tending to one point; every act
every
word of ours
is running on before us to that great end
the day of final
reckoning. How difficult it is to believe this; how much more difficult still
to act upon it! How often does sin triumph! The day cometh; a day revealed by
fire; a fire not purifying but consuming to all the proud
yea
and all who do
wickedly. And need we remind you who these are? They are all who say in their
hearts
--not with their lips indeed
but in their hearts
--There is no God: all
who live
that is
as if there was none; live without intercourse with Him;
live without regard to His will and His approval. Take with you unto your new
life this one great principle
there is a day of judgment coming.
2. Then what force and interest will this first truth give to that
which follows. He who is expecting the coming judgment can alone rejoice to
hear of One who will enable him to meet it. “Unto you that fear My name shall
the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings.” The prophet is
speaking of a time when those who have served God in their generation shall
find to their eternal comfort that they have not served Him in vain. This is
the great blessedness of God’s service
that all its difficulties and troubles
come first: they lie on the surface; they beset its first entrance; diminishing
commonly
or made by use lighter to bear
as life advances; and all ceasing
absolutely when this life ends. A true Christian is on the winning side in the
great battle. With what patience
then
should he who is called to suffer some
times for his Christian faithfulness regard those who thus deal with him.
3. This for every one of us is the great lesson
that we look well to
our hearts and lives
to the work which God has set us to do
and to the spirit
in which we may do it.
4. There remains yet one portion of these last words of God by His
prophets
which is scarcely less applicable to days when He has already spoken
to us by His Son. “Behold
I will send Elijah
” etc. The prophetical part of
these words has already been fulfilled. The mission of the Baptist accomplished
them. But the practical lesson which they contain is of unchangeable moment. You
all know how large a part of your duty is connected
by God’s wise appointment
with your parents. God accepts through them an obedience which cannot yet be
paid consciously to Himself. God makes it one portion of your duty to Him to
honour and obey them. Their approval He would have you to regard as your
highest earthly reward; their comfort and happiness as your highest earthly
object. (Dean Vaughan.)
Christ’s first coming
There is a touch of sadness about the Book of Malachi. His are
parting words
and they show how God’s people had degenerated
had lost their
fervour
and become content with a mere outward service. Malachi revealed the
spiritual state of the people to themselves
denounced their sins
and warned
them of judgment to come. But he does not leave them without hope. It is the
manner of Hebrew prophecy to blend together different events which have
relation to one another
and here we have words which belong to both comings of
Christ.
I. Christ’s first
coming. Described under the image of the rising of the sun. This implies that
the world was in a state of darkness before the Incarnation. The title which
the prophet gives to Christ
“the Sun of Righteousness
” marks one great
purpose of His advent illumination. “Healing in His wings
” applies to the work
of Christ
in body and soul. As the rays of the sun look like wings when they
stretch out across the heavens
so this healing work of Christ extends
by
means of His mystic body
the Church
far and wide over the nations.
II. Who profit by
it?
1. Light is diffusive.
2. But we may close our eyes against it
or hide from it.
3. Christ is the sun to those who fear His name.
4. Christ’s light was convictive
as well as attractive.
5. Even our Lord’s first coming was
in some sense
an act of judgment.
Lessons--
1. Realise the need of spiritual illumination.
2. Question ourselves how far the light and healing effects of
Christ’s coming have reached us
and how far our daily life is influenced by
His presence.
3. To be clear about the fact whether He is a “swift witness” against
us
or the “Sun of Righteousness
” depends upon ourselves and our use of the
grace which is given to us. (The Thinker.)
What Christ is made to believers
Jesus Christ is made unto us of God
a soul-heating
soul-warming
sun.
I. What need have
we of these warming influences from christ
the sun of righteousness? It is
upon the account of the coldness we are subject to in spiritual things. Some
are key cold
stone cold; dead in trespasses and sins. Even such as are
spiritually alive
are subject to their cold fits. The causes of this spiritual
coldness are--
1. Some inward distemper prevailing in the soul.
2. From the season; night-time
and winter-time
are cooling times.
When God withdraws
it is both night and winter to the soul.
3. From cooling circumstances
such as want of ordinances
engage
ment with carnal relations. The effects of spiritual coldness are--
II. How is heat and
warmth communicated by christ to those that fear His name? In general
it is by
His wings. In particular
He is a warming sun to us--
1. By the immediate motions and comforts of His Holy Spirit.
2. By His Word and ordinances
though not without the Spirit.
3. By good society. And Jesus Christ is made a heavenly sun
with
“healing” in His wings. Ours is a sick and wounded condition. Sick of the
disease of natural corruption; sick of the wounds of actual sin. This is--
And Jesus Christ is made a growth-furthering sun to us. “Grow up
as calves.” Can a tree or plant grow without warmth? And
finally
the Lord Jesus
is a fruit-furthering sun. (Philip Henry.)
The inner world of the good
The “name of the Lord” means Himself
and to fear Him with a
loving
filial reverence
is genuine godliness. We have here
in fact
a
picture of their inner world.
I. It is a world
of solar brightness. The “Sun of Righteousness” rises on the horizon of their
souls. There are souls that are lighted by sparks of their own kindling
and by
the gaseous blaze springing from the bogs of inner depravity. All such lights
whether in the forms of philosophic theories or religious creeds
are dim
partial
transitory. The soul of a good man is lighted by the sun. The sun--
II. It is a world
of Divine rectitude. “Sun of Righteousness.” “The kingdom of God is within.”
Eternal right is enthroned. God’s will is the supreme law. The meat and drink
of the godly soul are to do the will of their Father
who is in heaven. Such a
soul is right--
III. It is a world
of remedial influence. “With healing in His wings.” The sun’s beams are in
Scripture called His wings. “The wings of the morning” (Psalms 139:1-24.). The soul through sin
is diseased. Its eyes are dim
its ears are heavy
its limbs are feeble
its
very blood is poisoned. The godly man is under remedial influences. The beams
of the “Sun of Righteousness” work off the disease
repair the constitution
and enable it to run without being weary
and to walk without being faint.
There is a proverb among the Jews that as “the sun arises
the infirmities
decrease.” The flowers which drooped and languished all night
revive in the
morning. The late Mr. Robinson
of Cambridge
called upon a friend just as he
had received a letter from his son
who was surgeon on a vessel then lying off
Smyrna. The son mentioned to his father
that every morning about sunrise a
fresh gale of air blew from the sea across the land
and from its wholesomeness
and utility in clearing the infected air
this wind was called the doctor.
Christ is the Physician of souls.
IV. It is a world
of buoyant energy. “Ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.” See
the calf
which from its birth has been shut up in the stall
let forth for the
first time into the green fields in May
how full of buoyant energy
it leaps
and frolics and frisks. This is the figure employed here to represent the
gladsomeness with which the godly soul disports its faculties under the genial
beams of the “Sun of Righteousness.” Conclusion--What a transcendent good is
religion! How blessed the soul that has come under its bright
benign
and
heavenly influence. (Homilist.)
Progress in the religious life
They were before in darkness and disease; both of which confine.
But the Sun of Righteousness arises
and with healing in His wings; and thus
the true light now shining
and health being restored
they become free and
active--they go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. For even now they
have not attained
they are not already perfect. Nor are they to remain what
they are
but to increase with all the increase of God. We are not to deny what
God has done for our souls. But though we must not despise the day of small
things
we are not to be satisfied with it. A day of greater things is
attainable: and if we do not aspire after it
we have reason to suspect even
the reality of our religion. Spiritual principles may be weak
but if they are
Divine
they will evince it by a tendency to growth. The sacred writers express
this progression by every kind of growth. By human growth; vegetable growth;
and here we have animal growth. No creatures
perhaps
increase so rapidly and
observably as calves
especially when they are well attended and fed
and for
the very purpose of growth. We have been reminded
sometimes
of the truth of
this image
by the spiritual reality. We have seen those who
in a little time
have surprised all around them
by their progress in the Divine life. But many
of us have reason to exclaim
“My leanness
my leanness!” How little progress
have we made in religious knowledge
experience
practice
and usefulness
though we have possessed every advantage
and long enjoyed the means of grace.
At present the comparison reproves us. But let it also excite and encourage. It
not only reminds us of our duty
but of our privilege. This growth is not only
commanded
but promised. It is therefore attainable--and we know the way to our
resources. Jesus came
not only that we might have life
but have it more
abundantly. (William Jay.)
“The Sun has risen”
The natives of the now thoroughly Christianised Samoa Islands have
commemorated the coming of the Gospel among them
and the remembrance of their
friend
John Williams
who laid down his life on their behalf
by erecting a
church on the spot where the missionary first landed. The motto chosen for
inscription on the walls is simple and expressive
“The Sun has risen.” (Missionary
News.)
Hopeful view of the future of the world
I do not know whether any of my hearers have ever gone up from
Riffelburg to Gorner Grat
in the High Alps
to behold the sun rise. Every
mountain catches the light according to the height which the upheaving forces
that God set in motion have given it. First
the point of Monte Rosa is kissed
by the morning beams
blushes for a moment
and forthwith stands clear in the
light. Then the Bretthorn
and the dome of Misehabel
and the Matterhorn
and
twenty other grand mountains
embracing the distant Jung Frau
receive each in
its turn the gladdening rays
bask each for a brief space
and then remain
bathed in sunlight. Meanwhile the valleys between lie down dark and dismal as
death. But the light which has risen is the light of the morning; and these
shadows are even now lessening
and we are sure they will soon altogether
vanish. Such is the hopeful view I take of our world. “Darkness covered the
earth
and gross darkness the people; but God’s light hath broken forth in the
morning
and to them who sat in darkness a great light has arisen.” Already I
see favoured spots illumined by it; Great Britain and her spreading colonies
and Prussia extending her influence
and the United States
with her broad
territory and her rapidly increasing population
stand in the light; and I see
not twenty
but a hundred points of light
striking up in our scattered mission
stations
in old continents and secluded isles and barren deserts
according as
God’s grace and man’s heaven-kindled love have favoured them. And much as I was
enraptured with that grand Alpine scene
and shouted irrepressibly as I
surveyed it
I am still more elevated
and I feel as if I could cry aloud for
joy
when I hear of
light advancing from point to point
and penetrating deeper and deeper into the
darkness which we are sure is at last to be dispelled
to allow our earth to
stand clear in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. (J. M’Cosh.)
Properties of light
Light is purifying; let sunshine into a dark cellar
and it soon
becomes pure. Light is vivifying; expose a withered plant from a dark room to
the sun
and it colours up. Light is power; all sources of fuel are directly
from the sun
coming in rays of light. Light is joyous; nothing contributes so
much to making a brilliant assembly as a flood of light upon it. Light is
comforting; a dark day is always a gloomy day
but a burst of sunshine brings a
cheer. Light is strengthening; a puny child may grow strong if he can play in
the sunshine. So you should get into the light that streams from the Sun of
Righteousness. His presence purifies the heart
energises the mind
brightens
the life
cheers the spirits
and strengthens the whole man. (Sunday
Companion.)
The Sun of Righteousness
I. His oneness. In
the universe there is infinite variety and abundant repetition. In our world
many rivers roll their waters into many seas; many mountains attract the many
clouds which are born out of many deeps. Above and around us are many worlds;
many stars twinkle over many watchers. But there is for m only one Sun
unique
in splendour and in power. There is but one Jesus
the only begotten Son of
God. There is no other name given under heaven
or among men; only one
all-meritorious Saviour.
II. Centralness.
Our solar system holds its place in the mechanism of the heavens by revolving
in silent grandeur round the central sun. That sun is the pivot and point round
which
in smooth
unbroken harmony
the mighty worlds are ever moving in their
courses
linked and ordered by the law of gravitation; so is Jesus the true
centre of the soul. Apart from Him
the soul
like an erratic meteor
a
wandering star
flies ever away from the central point of bliss
to be finally
lost and shattered in awful night. The true believer is bound to Jesus by the
mightier law of love. Round Him
in the orbit of light and duty
he revolves
for ever
subject to the law of righteousness
and brightened with the
beatific beams of grace.
III. Light. The
moon
bright though her beams are
and radiant her beauty
has no inherent
illuminating power. The stars that make obeisance to their fiery lord borrow
their glory from this central source
and shed a reflected lustre on the world
below. The coal dug out of its subterranean bed
and all other sources of
artificial light
have drawn their resources from this central reservoir. So
with Jesus. “It pleased the Father
that in Him should all fulness dwell.” “I
am the light of the world.” As the sun chases the gloom
scatters the clouds
conquers the night
and floods the worlds with day
so He banishes the night of
nature
the darkness of ignorance
the clouds of doubt and fear
the gloomy
shades of death.
IV. Life. The sun
is the great quickener. Winter
made by its absence
is the time of death; bird
and beast are sluggish
and comparatively inert; tree and plant and flower are
paralysed by an icy grasp. With the returning sun comes the germinating seed
the bursting bud
the swiftly circulating sap
and a marvellous activity
pervades creation. So Jesus raises dead souls to life
and quickens the soul of
man into hale and thriving resurrection. “I am the Life
” He says.
V. Beauty. The sun
is the greatest artist. His magic pencil gives the sky its peerless blue
robes
nature in emerald vestments
silvers every lake and stream
and paints in
fairest hues the flowers that gem the earth. Spring-tide’s green
summer s
flush
autumn’s gold
and winter’s white
“all are the offspring of his magic
pencil
while the sun itself is more glorious than they all. So Jesus Christ is
Himself the fairest among ten thousand
and altogether
lovely.” He invests
with moral excellence and spiritual beauty all that His love shines down upon.
He invests the believing soul with the garment of praise and the beauty of
holiness.
VI. Gladness. “The
sun
” says the Psalmist
“rejoices as a strong man to run a race.” It is a type
of perfect happiness. A happy face is said to be a “sunny” countenance;
gladness is oft called “sunshine.” All nature breaks into song under the sun’s
influence; the tiniest insect dances in his beams; the weary invalid welcomes
the first rosy salutation of the morning. Jesus is the joy-giver.
VII. Perfectness.
The sun is the great ripener. It brings all the processes of nature to
perfection. It finds the leaf an imprisoned embryo in russet husk and shell
and continues to expand and beautify it until it flutters in perfect growth on
plant or tree. It touches the green bud
and never rests until it shines upon-
the perfect flower. It nurses the fruit till it drops ripe and mellow into
October s lap. It undertakes charge of the green corn-blade
and never ceases
until the golden harvest bends to
the reaper’s scythe. So Jesus is the Great Perfecter; and in the believer’s
nature the good seed of the kingdom is nursed and nurtured until
as Job has
it
he becomes a “shock of corn ripe for the garner.” He that pardons and He
that sanctifies is all of one.
VIII. Fulness. The
sun’s resources never fail. What liberal largess he has conferred on the world!
What harvests he has ripened! What mountain snows he has melted into crystal
streams! What flowers he has
painted! What spirits he has gladdened since first his mission was begun! and yet
his eye is not dim nor his natural strength abated! So with Jesus. “It pleased
the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell!”
IX. Universalness.
“His going forth is from the end of the heaven
and his circuit unto the ends
of the earth: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” It bronzes the
brow of the rude Fijian
reddens the skin of the Indian warrior
blackens the
negro’s swarthy face
and wraps the world in its benevolent embrace. “I am the
light of the world
” says Jesus. His saving beams have blest humanity in all
its tribes
from shivering Esquimaux to sweltering Ethiopian. He tasted death
for every man.
X. Impartialness.
The sun makes no selection. Where it can shine it will. It beautifies the
garden
and smiles upon the desert. It glorifies the rose
and flings a halo
round the thistle. It flashes on the crystal lakes
and shimmers on the
stagnant pool. It gleams on the topmost oak leaf
and shines on the humblest
violet. It burnishes silk and rags alike. “Whosoever” is the widespread word of
Jesus too. “If any man thirst
’ etc. Wealthy Nicodemus or Joseph
poor
Bartimeus or the woman by the well. This Sun of Righteousness
does He shine on
you? He is your one centre of life and light; the one source of gladness
beauty
and perfection. (J. Jackson Wray.)
Verses 4-6
Verse 4
Remember ye the law of Moses.
Moses defended
Of all the books of the Old Testament
the first five books are
the most vital. The Pentateuch is not a branch of the tree of revelation; it is
one of the very roots. If objectors must attack some portion of the Old
Testament
let them assail the Book of Kings
the writings of Solomon
the
prophecies of Daniel
the glories of Ezekiel
the sublimities of the Book of
Job
for these
though inspired
are not of such vital importance; but of the
foundation truths of Genesis
we say
“Touch not
handle not.” If the writings
of Moses are not authentic; if the facts therein recorded are untrue; if
in
fact
Moses in his offices and character
be a mere fiction of the brain
then
the most tremendous results must necessarily follow. If such be the case
then
the whole of revelation must be blotted out. If the Pentateuch suffer an
eclipse
the New Testament suffers the same. You cannot have a partial eclipse.
The Pentateuch and New Testament are woven together in one seamless robe. If
you make a rend
you destroy the whole. The Epistles of St. Paul are full of
Moses. If Moses falls
St. Paul falls with him
and all the glorious apostles.
He that rejects the law must reject the Gospel also: for the law is our
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Moses spake of Christ
and testified of
Christ. The man who rejects Moses must reject the Lord Himself. We have other
witnesses to the authenticity of the Pentateuch than the inspired Word of God.
The testimony of the rocks of Sinai
etc. (Alfred Cay
A. K. C.)
The law
its place and power
In our text Malachi
the last of the Old Testament
prophets
shows that the fear of the Lord necessarily involves reverential
regard for His law. This law is described as that which was given to Moses in
Horeb
and the charge is given: “Remember ye the law.” These words seal up the
Old Testament revelation. Our text expresses a necessary
universal
and
perpetual obligation: “Remember ye the law of Moses My servant
which I
commanded unto him in Horeb.” In very many minds there are very hazy notions in
reference to the relation of the Old Testament to the New
of the Mosaic to the
Christian dispensation
of the law to the Gospel. It is quite true that there
are statements in the New Testament which indicate that some old things had
passed away
and that some new things had come. There is a sense in which the
revelation of the Gospel is in contrast to that of the Old Testament--not
however
the contrast of contradiction
but rather of fuller and clearer
development. We must remember that the term “law of Moses” is used in two
senses--the one covering the whole Mosaic legislation
the other having special
reference to what are called the “Ten Commandments.” There were things in the
legislation of Moses which were purely civil--which could apply only to the
Jews as a nation. There were other things which were ceremonial--belonging to a
dispensation which was symbolical
typical
and preparatory. All these things
national and ceremonial
passed away with the dawn of the new dispensation. But
there was one part of the revelation given by Moses--and this the central and
most important part--called distinctively “the law
” the moral law
the ten
commandments
which is of universal and perpetual obligation.
I. The law is a
glorious revelation of the character and will of god. God is the Creator and
Governor of the universe. He hath made all beings and things by His almighty
power. He governs them according to His own infinite wisdom. Over material
things and irrational creatures His control is a matter of forceful operation;
but over all orders of rational
responsible beings His control is a moral
government. This renders an intelligible revelation necessary. His moral nature
is at once the source and the standard of all purity and beauty. The moral law
reveals Him as the just and holy God
pointing out the way of duty and
demanding obedience. This law is perfect. It reveals God s character
declares
His will
and discloses the fundamental
unalterable principles of His moral
government.
II. The law is
suited to the nature of man
and is fitted to secure his highest development
and happiness. Man is a moral
responsible being
who was crested in the image
and intended
for the service and glory of God.
1. Likeness to the Divine character is essential to man’s true
development. The moral law revealing the purity and beauty of God
or declaring
His holy and righteous will
sets before men the original pattern of their own
character and the standard of their intended development.
2. Thus we may say also that obedience to the law of God is the
necessary justification of man’s existence. The holy and righteous God could
not create a race of rebels intending that they should exist to be disloyal and
disobedient. Man
coming under the power of sin
through rebellion and
disobedience
forfeited his right to existence in the sight of God and among
His creatures. The law declaring man’s duty justifies his Divine sentence of
condemnation and death upon transgressors.
3. Still more
it is absolutely certain that harmony with the will of
God is essential to man’s happiness. Holiness and happiness are in their very
nature closely and inseparably linked together.
III. The law came
straight from God to man. Man was not left to discover or reason it out for
himself. The law is not a constitution agreed upon among men for
self-government. This same law was given of God to Moses in Horeb.
IV. The law is
enforced by the most powerful sanctions. To it are attached promises of
blessing and reward
and threatenings of curse and punishment.
V. The law has
necessary
universal
and perpetual authority.
1. Necessary. Man’s obligation to keep the law does not depend upon
his own profession or resolution. Some people excuse themselves in reference to
a certain looseness of conduct by saying that they make no profession of
religion
or that they have very liberal views. They say that it is quite
proper and necessary that professing Christians should recognise the authority
of the law
but they contend that every man has the right to judge for himself.
This is all wrong; no man has the right to set his judgment or opinion or prejudice
or wilfulness against the plain
positive precepts of the Divine law. The
authority of the law is due to its Divine authorship.
2. Thus it must be evident that obligation to the moral law is
universal. Wherever you find the moral faculty
the moral law has authority.
3. Thus also the authority of the law is perpetual. God cannot
change.
VI. The law is the
basis
and shall be the crown and glory of the gospel. The Gospel did not
destroy the law. It did not lower its standards. It was not intended as an
apology for its severity. The Gospel honours and maternities the law
declaring
that it is holy
just
and good. The law could not pardon a transgression
therefore it could not give life and salvation to guilty sinners. It gave the
knowledge of sin
measured the extent of man’s weakness and the depth of his
fall; thus it prepared for the exhibition of pardoning mercy and saving grace
by showing the necessity for it. Then again
the law determined the plan of
salvation and the provisions necessary
so that in the exercise of mercy the
Divine righteousness might be preserved and declared
so that God might be just
in justifying every one that believeth. Still further
the condition of pardon
and salvation under the Gospel--which is faith--is determined by the law. What
is faith but the recognition and acceptance of the truth that Christ in our
behalf made a full satisfaction to the law
and took away our guilt and
cancelled the sentence of condemnation by the sacrifice of Himself? Thus we
must see that the law is the basis of the Gospel--determining its plan and
provisions and conditions of salvation. But there is more to be told. Through
Christ Jesus come the renewal of man’s nature and the gift of life and power
so that men who were dead in trespasses and sins
and under the carnal mind
and led captive by the devil at his will
are caused to love and delight in
and are enabled to obey the law. The law is always the same. The motives to
obedience are higher and the power stronger
because of full satisfaction and
reconciliation
and the free gift of life and salvation through the redemption
of Christ. The crown and glory of the Gospel come to each man when the law of
God is enthroned in his heart and manifested in his life and conduct. It is
said that in ancient times some laws were put into verse
so that the people
might learn to sing them. Through the grace and Spirit of Christ
God’s law
becomes poetry to us and His statutes a song. (J. K. Wright
B. D.)
Verse 5-6
Behold
I will send you Elijah the prophet.
Malachi’s predictions
Of the prophecies
relating to the Messias some were so obscure
and had such an appearance of
inconsistency
if applied to one and the same person
that they could not well
be understood
till the event reconciled and unfolded them; for which obscurity
many good reasons have been assigned. But it is reasonable to suppose
that as
the time of Christ’s coming drew nearer
the later predictions concerning Him
should be more distinct and plain than the former.
I. Explain the
prophecies of Malachi relating to the Messias. The Jews
after their
deliverance from Babylon
were free from idolatry
but in other respects they
were base and wicked; and as unsettled people go from one extreme to another
they had exchanged a pagan superstition for a kinder religious libertinism and
cold indifference; and this nation
which had once adored any and every idol
was become remiss in the worship of the true God. Malachi reproaches the Jews
for their ingratitude to God
who had so lately showed them so much favour and
mercy. He accuses them of irreligion and profaneness; he tells them that God
abhorred their offerings
and would raise up to Himself better worshippers
amongst the Gentiles. Then the prophet proceeds to declare the coming of a very
considerable person. The passage indeed describes two persons. The messenger
and another person who
being called the Lord
and having a prophet to go
before Him
must be one of the highest dignity. This same person is also called
the “Angel of the Covenant.” He is to come suddenly
and to come to His temple.
He should make and confirm a covenant between God and men. Who may abide the
day of His coining? How few will be found fit to appear before Him! He may be
compared to fire which tries metals and purges them from dross
and to soap
which cleanses garments; for He shall pass a just and impartial judgment upon
the lives and doctrines of His people
distinguishing false opinions from the
Word of God
and false appearances of holiness from true piety. He shall find
religion greatly corrupted
and the priests and Levites as bad as those whom
they should instruct; but He shall correct all that is faulty
and so reform
the worship of God that it shall be again acceptable to Him. The day of His
coming shall be destructive to the wicked. A new Elijah was to prepare His way.
He was to make converts by his ministry
but not to produce a general
messenger.
II. The completion
of these predictions. Jesus fulfils these predictions. He came suddenly; came
to His temple; was the messenger of the covenant; was a refiner s fire;
purified the sons of Levi; freed the law and the worship of God from all
defects and innovations
from all that was superfluous
burdensome
and
temporary. Jesus Christ arose as a Sun of Righteousness with healing in His
wings. His coming was truly the great and terrible day of the Lord. The
prophecy of Elijah’s coming was fulfilled in John the Baptist. He might be
not
improperly
said to turn the hearts of the people
and to restore all things
as he did all that was requisite for that purpose. Elias in Malachi was to
prepare the way of the Lord: to turn the hearts of men
and to call the Jews to
amendment: not to cause a general conversion of the Jews; to convert several
and thereby to save them from destruction. John the Baptist was like Elias in
his prophetic office; in living in a corrupted age; in fervent zeal; in
restoring decayed religion; in rebuking vice; in suffering persecution for
righteousness’ sake; in offending wicked princes by reproving them for their
sins; in austerity of life
in habit
and in dwelling in retired places. By the
ministry of our Lord and His apostles is that remarkable passage in Malachi fulfilled.
“From the rising of the sun
unto the going down of the same
My name shall be
great among the Gentiles.” (J. Jortin
D. D.)
The herald of the day of the Lord
The last of prophets
who heralds the day of the Lord
is to
restore the spiritual continuity between the generations of God’s people; he is
to bring the spiritual fathers of the race to recognise in the men of his own
age their spiritual sons; he is to make the men of his own age welcome with the
affection of sons their spiritual progenitors. He is to restore spiritual
continuity
“lest God come and smite the earth with a curse.” For breaches of
spiritual continuity
that is
religious revolutions
are almost always
disastrous. There are times
indeed
when God has willed nations to break with
the past. But such exceptional moments we need not now consider. Breaches of
religious continuity are not always permanent. The incoming of some flood of
new knowledge may antiquate received statements of the current religious
teaching
and the men of the “new learning” may revolt from what seems like
intellectual bondage
and yet after all it may appear that what they revolted
against was rather the parody of their faith than their faith in its true
character
and a harmony between the combatants may yet be arrived at again
which is a victory of the faith
but not a victory to either side. There are
reformations and counter-reformations; these are revolts and reactions. There
are “blindnesses in part” which happen to our Israels
which may be necessary
to let loose new and suppressed forces
and which may lead at last to
reconciliation. There are revolts which are not apostasies. But so it is not
always. There are breaches which are never healed
at least in this world. And
in any case such losses of spiritual continuity are terrible evils. More and
more
as we go on in life
we feel our responsibility for making the best of
the heritage which the past has bequeathed to us--the heritage of Christian
creed and character. Verily
we have entered into the labours of other men. How
are we to get the old religion to recognise the men of our day? How are we to
“turn” them from the one to the other! Let a man get at all into the heart the
Christian religion
and he becomes conscious at once that what that religion
corresponds to is nothing which is changeable in human nature. Knowledge grows
and past knowledge is outgrown; criticism develops
and its method alters
and
a past criticism is a bygone criticism. But underneath all these developments
there does lie a humanity that is permanent. The dress
the circumstances of a
particular epoch fall easily off the Christ
and He stands disclosed the
spiritual Lord of all the ages. The consciousness to which He appeals
the need
of God
the desire for the Divine Fatherhood
the sense of sin
the cry for
redemption
the experience of strength which is given in response to the self
surrender of faith
the union of men of all sorts and classes in the fellowship
of the Holy Ghost--this consciousness
this experience
does not belong to any
one age or class. It belongs to us now as much as to the men of old. The pledge
that a Catholic religion is possible lies in the recognition (in the moral and
spiritual departments only) of a Catholic humanity
which may be dormant in superficial
ages and men
but can everywhere be awakened by life’s deeper experiences or
the profounder appeals of the men of God. How then are we to play our part
in
keeping unimpaired
or in restoring
the spiritual continuity of our age with
the past?
1. The task is to be wrought out in the character by spiritual
discipline. Christianity finds its chief witness in life
in character. All
down the ages it is character which has been the chief instrument in
propagating the truth. The Christian character is sonship; something which is
peculiar to Christianity; much more than mere morality
or abstinence from sin.
It is the direct product of a conscious relation to the Divine Father
a
fellowship with the Divine Son
a freedom in the Spirit. Christian sonship is the
direct outcome of Christian motives
and its chief evidence lies in itself.
Certainly the chief witness for Christ in the world is the witness of Christian
sonship. Here then is your first vocation--realise and exhibit the temper of
sonship. It is developed by generous correspondence with the movement of God’s
Spirit within us
by constant ventures of faith and acts of obedience: it comes
of the deliberate and regular exercise of those faculties of the spirit to
which Christ most appeals
of prayer
of self discipline
of faith
of
self-knowledge
of penitence. The obligation of keeping up the spiritual
continuity of the generations
presses with especial force on the Church’s
teachers. The prophetic office of the Church consists in the permanent function
of maintaining an old and unchanging faith
by showing its power of adapting
itself to constantly new conditions; it is to interpret the old faith to the
new generation
with fidelity to the old
and with confidence in the new. The
old dogmas are to many men
and to many of the best men
as an unknown tongue.
The prophetic office of the Church is to interpret the unknown tongue of old
doctrine till they speak in the intelligible language of felt human wants. How
is this to be done? By knowing the wants. By being in touch with the movements.
There is a special sense in which the task of maintaining spiritual continuity
down the generations belongs to the Christian student. Two things are
necessary
as for the pastor: the knowledge of the old
and the appreciation of
the new. The Christian student will study with reverent care
irrespective of
modern wants
the genius of historical Christianity: making himself at one with
the religion of Christ in that form in which it has shown itself in experience
most catholic
most capable of persistence through radical changes
least the
product of any particular age
or state of feeling. So with frankness and
freedom he will study the conditions of the present. Mostly the same person
does not do both these things. There is much work before us to emancipate
Christianity from the shackles of mediaeval absolutism
of Calvinism
of mere
Protestant reaction
and to reassert it in its largeness
in its freshness
and
in its adaptability to new knowledge and new movements. We live in an age of
profound transition
socially and intellectually. What is wanted is for the
same people to take measure of the ancient faith
and to discern the signs of
the times. (Canon C. Gore
M. A.)
The gilt of prophecy the supreme need of our age
A strange and weird figure is this of the prophet Elijah
the Tishbite. A unique
person
with a unique mission. John the Baptist was one of his spiritual
successors
and the greatest. Athanasius
perhaps
was another
and Martin
Luther
and perhaps John Wesley; or
at least
these latter have been like Eliseus
catching up
his mantle
baptised with a potion of his spirit. They have been the men who
have accomplished the great social and spiritual revelations of the world.
Rough
earnest
strong-willed men most of them
not given to mince their words
or to stand upon courtesies; but they have been the men to keep alive the flame
of religion
and to prevent its dying out. Mark their ages
and then compare
the work of the man with the needs of his age. There were giants in the earth
in those days
and people say we shall never see giants again. The individual
grows less as the world grows more. Knowledge has got to be so diffused
and
the elements of life so manifold
society so vast and complicated
that an Elijah
whom all would recognise as a messenger from God seems impossible. The age of
prophets
at least of Elijahs of the old type
has passed away. Yet
though no
Elijah
there may be an Elisha; though no Isaiah
yet a Malachi. St. Paul tells
us that prophecy is the highest gift bestowed by Christ upon His Church; and it
is certain that all who feel that our call is to proclaim God’s truth to men
may well pray to be endowed with a portion of it. Whatever spiritual gifts may
have been necessary or profitable to the Church at other times
I am persuaded
that the gift of prophecy is the most necessary and profitable now. Men felt
the difference between a Paul and
a Philetus
for Paul spoke “in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power.” A man may well pray for a portion of this power
and for grace to use
it in the noblest cause. It is not eloquence
it is not popularity
it is not
the power of attracting the crowd; it is something impalpable
but most real
when men bend their wills and hearts and consciences before the uttered truth.
It is strange how even educated men misread the signs of the times. This age
wants
and is prepared
to receive
not the priest
but the prophet: not the man who claims to stand
between them and God
and says
“No access to the Heavenly Father but by me”;
but the man who can teach the truth
and help them
in their blindness
and
waywardness
and ignorance
to discern the way of peace and righteousness. The
prophet must be in earnest
or men will not receive him as a prophet; must
himself believe his message
or he will carry no conviction to his hearers. We
have a message able to stir the most phlegmatic feeling
and to arouse the
dullest conscience
if only we knew how to deliver it. If our own hearts have
found out the secret
we can speak of present peace and joy in believing
of
the kingdom of God standing in righteousness
of the nearness of a Father to us
in our dangers
difficulties
troubles. There are those who can speak of these
things with a strange and moving power
and their arguments will rise high
above the clouds of doubt and speculation
till they seem to bring us almost
face to face with God. Such men are in very truth the Lord’s prophets; such
teachers build on immovable ground the fabric of faith. They are sure and trustworthy
guides; for they are leading men to God through grace by the ways of holiness:
they have themselves travelled
or are now travelling the road; they are
testifying to us out of their own experience; they speak that which they know.
It is a faith thus quickened
and faith cometh by hearing
” that vitalises
sacraments and prayers and worship. Without such faith
all these things are
dead; with it they become living
quickening powers. It is the spirit of the
prophet
before all other gifts
that the Churches need to enable them to
evangelise the world. (Bishop Fraser.)
And He shall turn the
heart of the fathers to the children.
The reconciliation of the old and young
I. The prophet was
thinking of what may fairly be called a time of transition. The passing from
one dispensation
or order of things
to another. Such a period was that under
Moses
when the people passed from a patriarchal to a national life. The
bringing in of the only begotten Son was the greatest event of the sacred
history. All that had gone before seems trivial in comparison with it. It was a
change from law to grace
from a religion limited to one nation to a universal
faith
from a system of rite and ceremony to one of inward spirit
But all
times of great change are full of danger. They give great anxiety to all
thoughtful minds. Ours is a time of transition
and the grave danger of our
times is
the possibility of estrangement between the fathers and the children
i.e.
between the old and the young. The fathers are disposed to be conservative;
the older we get the harder we find it to receive new thoughts
or accustom
ourselves to new ways. So when the fathers see the children entering on new
ways
adopting new methods
forming new parties
there is a danger that their
hearts should be turned away from them and on the other hand
the young are
disposed to that which is new; their minds are receptive and plastic. They are
tempted to think their fathers’ ways and thoughts are old-fashioned
to
underrate the good of the past
and to leave their fathers behind.
II. Our duty in
such a time of transition.
There is a duty peculiar to such an age. To fulfil it was part of the mission
of John the Baptist. He did much to break the abruptness of the transition from
the one dispensation to the other.
1. The duty of the fathers to the children. That “the fathers should
recognise the new needs
and the new powers of the children.”
2. The duty of the children to the fathers
the young to the old.
“The children should recognise the value of the institutions and traditions
which they inherit from their fathers.” The opinions of the fathers are
certainly entitled to respectful consideration. Age should prejudice you not
against them
but in their favour. Be not swift to remove the ancient
landmarks.
III. Our safe guard
in such a time of transition. There is a certain deep interest in this as the
last word of the Old Testament. It is filled with the hope of one who should be
the messenger of the Highest; but lying close behind it is the thought and hope
of Him whose way should be thus prepared. We think not of the herald
but of
the King before whose face he went. The true safeguard amid the perils of our
day is in Christ. The young may outgrow the special forms in which His doctrine
has been cast
but they cannot outgrow the Christ. Christ
rightly regarded
meets the needs of old and young. It is absurd to talk of outgrowing Jesus
Christ. He is the true gathering point for the old and the young. (W.
Garrett Horder.)
Religion in the Family
The family is a radical and fundamental organisation and agency in
human society. It is the original source of authority
government
morality
and religion. Without family ties
family government and discipline
family
virtue and piety
the Church could not exist
and society would quickly relapse
into anarchy and barbarism
and fall to pieces. Here are the roots of
godliness
of self-government
of right development. Is it any marvel
then
that God guards the family sanctity and life with such jealousy
and lays upon
the marital and parental relations such solemn sanctions and obligations? There
is no more alarming sign of the times than the decay of family religion. And
the decay is not superficial but radical
and the effects are far reaching
disastrous
and permanent. Family government is fearfully relaxed
family
religious instruction is almost a thing of the past
parental restraints have
come to be obnoxious
children have lost reverence for their parents
the home
altar
in ten thousand households
is broken down
and the children even of
Christian parents grow up without the fear of God
without Christian training
and restraint
and go forth into the world
wholly unprepared to resist
temptation
or to meet the responsibilities of life. We must have a speedy and
grand revival of family religion
or we are doomed. Nothing else can stay the
tide of religions declension
in faith and in practice
the tide of
demoralisation that threatens to make a clean sweep of social integrity
of law
and order
and self-government. We must heed the Divine warning uttered by
Malachi
or God will smite us with a still more fearful curse. (J. M.
Sherwood
D. D.)
Our debt to childhood
There are encouraging hints that the study of the young is not to
be always undervalued. One is
the careful observation of child-life which men
of science are beginning to make simply in the interests of science.
Legislators also are beginning to see that in order to have good citizens we
must educate the young. The Church needs to establish an early tutelage of her
children. In the old New England meeting-house all was stately and sterile
rigid and unattractive
to the children. Notice some of the advantages of the
modern method of youthful Sabbath instruction.
1. Children learn more in company than alone. It is good to see truth
through the eyes of others.
2. There are elements in the Church which are brought out by the
effort to discharge our debt to the young. Here is a field for lay activity. It
is an inexplicable fact
that a teacher
or some one outside the family
will
sometimes get nearer the child’s heart than the dearest home-friend. How can we all co-operate? As
this enlarging interest in childhood is the hope of the world
so the growth of
this spirit of helpfulness in individual lives is the guarantee of the healthful and
happy development of Christian character. (Jesse B. Thomas
D. D.)
Parental responsibilities
Malachi
in his last chapter
prepares the people for the long
silence of revelation by two words
of which one is a promise
and the other a
precept. The command is
to walk by the law of Moses. The promise is
that in
due time the Messiah’s forerunner
coming in the spirit and power of Elijah
shall usher in the solemn yet glorious day of Christ
by his preparatory
ministry. This was to be the next prophet whom the Church was entitled to
expect. But his work was to be prominently a revival of parental fidelity and
domestic piety. The work upon fathers and mothers was to be far more than the
removal of domestic alienations. It was to embrace a great revival of parental
and filial piety
an awakening of parents’ hearts to the salvation of their
children
and the docile seeking and reception of parental instruction by the
children. This revival of domestic piety and parental fidelity is necessary to
prevent the coming of the Divine Messiah from being a woe instead of a blessing
to men. God’s way of promoting revival is
not to increase” the activity of any
public
and outward means only
but to “turn the hearts of the parents to the
children. The duty of parental fidelity is equally prominent in both
dispensations.
1.The old terminates with it
the new opens wire it. This is the
connecting link between both. The fidelity of the parents ought to imply the
docility of the children. The duties are mutual.
I. The urgency of
parental responsibility appears in a solemn manner from the nature of the
parental relation itself. Wherever human society is
there a parent is. Every
human existence begins in a parental relation. The glory of the Divine beneficence
towards the human race appears in this
that the parents
without alienating
anything of their own immortality
are able to multiply immortalities in
ever-widening and progressive numbers. Here are the two facts which give so
unspeakable a solemnity to the parent’s relation to his children. He has
conferred on them
unasked
the endowment of an endless
responsible existence.
He has also been the instrument of conveying to this new existence the taint of
original sin and guilt. Can the human mind conceive a motive more tender
more
urgent
prompting a parent to seek the aid of the great Physician
for dealing
with the spiritual disease which they have conveyed?
II. From the unique
and extensive character of parental authority. Men win be held accountable
according to the extent of the powers intrusted to them. The trust is that of
immortal souls. Let the extent of the parent’s legitimate or unavoidable power
over his children be pondered. Neither Divine nor human law gives the parent a
right to force the tender mind of the child
by persecutions
or corporeal
pains or penalties; or to abuse it
by sophistries
or falsehoods
into the
adoption of his opinions. But this power the providential law does confer: the
parent may and ought to avail himself of all the influences of opportunity and
example
of filial reverence and affection
of his superior age
knowledge
and
sagacity
to reinforce the power of truth over the child’s mind
and in this
good sense to prejudice him in favour of the parental creed.
III. But this power
has suitable checks and guards. One is found in the strict responsibility to
which God holds the domestic ruler. Another is found in the affection which
nature binds up with the parental relation.
IV. The parent’s
influence for good and evil will be more effectual than any other. As parents
perform or neglect their duties
the children usually end in grace or impiety.
The parent has the first and all-important opportunity. Application--
1. The education of children for God is the most important business
done on earth.
2. The Church-membership of the children of believers may be
reasonable and scriptural. (R. S. Dabney
D. D.)
Family government
True family government is instituted for the sole benefit of the
governed. “The true end of government is to make the pathway to virtue and
morality easy
and the pathway of crime difficult and full of peril.”
I. The vast
importance of family government. Of Abraham it was said
“He will command his
children.” Neglect of commanding is seen in the failure of Eli. By “turning the
hearts of the fathers to the children
” the text means that the chief duty of
every father is to bring his children to God. In every ease where family
government has been enforced the pious parents have fully realised the truth of
the glorious promise
“Train up a child in the way he should go
and when he is
old he will not depart from it.” We may learn the importance of family
government from the teachings of all the greatest philosophers and statesmen
of all ages and climes. The Greeks and the Romans
the rulers of the world
and our
grander Old English and Puritan fathers
all taught and practised family
government. Every pastor knows that young converts who have had no family
government make as a general thing worthless Church members. The last argument
on the importance family government
is the happiness of the child. An
ungoverned child is a bundle of bad passions
a seething volcano of untamed and
ungovernable passions
hating everybody
and hateful to everybody.
II. How shall i
govern my child? Lay down seven golden rules.
1. Begin
continue
and end in prayer.
2. Begin early.
3. Be tender.
4. Be firm.
5. Have no partiality among your children.
6. Let father and mother be united.
7. Imbue the soul of your child with reverence for God and right.
A strong wall
and safe quarantine
may be made of four great
laws. No bad company; no idle time; no fine clothes; and make home happy. (Rufus
C. Beveleson
D. D.)
The home school
With this verse the Old Testament ends. So far down had Malachi
come towards the Messiah
that the East was already growing bright with His
coming. He predicts the end of sacrifices
and the coming of a more glorious
era. What were the words that
when the last record was ended
were to come
with blessed undulations down to our time? See the text. The institution
nearest to the heart of society is the family. The most important office in
society is the parental office. The sphere of each family is small
but the
number of these spheres is incalculable. As each drop is small
but the sea is
vast
so is it in society. Families are the springs of society. Declension in
religion will be found to be accompanied with carelessness in the family; and
the earliest steps of religious reformation ought to take place in the family.
If all the families of a nation were to reform
the nation would be reformed.
All preparation for God’s work should begin in the household. Many persons are
for ever running round for revivals
careless of home
neglectful of children
and seeking their own pleasurable excitement
frequently in a kind of religious
carnival. Any conception of religious culture and life that leaves the family
out
or that is at the expense of the family
is fundamentally wrong
and in
the end cannot but be mischievous. The divinity of revivals may be tested by
their effect on the family. If religious excitements make home dull
and
parental and filial duties and religions tame and tasteless
they may be
suspected of being spurious
carnal
worldly.
I. Parents are
responsible to God and to human society for their children. It is a
responsibility assumed by every parent
to look after the welfare
temporal and
eternal
of his child.
II. This
responsibility is just. Because God has framed the family so that nothing can
exceed the advantage which parents have in rearing their children. They take
the child before all other influences. None gains ascendency over the child
before the parent. The parent receives the child in a condition perfectly
fitted to be moulded and stamped. The child comes to us with all natural
adaptations for taking impressions. It is sympathetic
trustful
and imitative.
The hardest work we have to do in this world is to correct the mistakes of
parents in the education of their children. The parent receives the child into
an involuntary atmosphere of love
which is that summer in which all good
dispositions must grow. Justice
and all other feelings
in the family
act in
the sphere
and under the control
of parental love. Nowhere else is love so
much the predominating element. Love is the atmospheric condition in which we
are to mould and teach the child. Besides
the family is sheltered from contact
and temptation and interruption. The family is the” only institution in which
one can repel all invasion and all despotism from state and from meddling
priests. God has nut our children into our hands with the declaration that they
are His; that they have in them the germ of immortality
and that He commits
them to our charge that we may fit them for the future life that is prepared
for them.
III. The destiny of
a child renders it worthy of a parent’s whole heart
thought
and time. Your
child is given to you to be brought up in the manner best calculated to qualify
it for the life to come. Your supremacy over it is absolute. With such a charge
it is worth while to stay at home. Sometimes mothers think it is bard to be
shut up at home with the care of little children. But she who takes care of
little children takes care of great eternities.
IV. When a child
has gone forth from parental care
parental neglect cannot be made up to it.
Some alleviation there may be
and some after-refuge
but there can be no
complete remedy. There is no way of compensating for neglect to sow the seed at
the proper time. The most precious legacy that a parent can give to a child is that
throughout all its after life it should in connection with everything that a
wise and true and just and pure and spiritual call to mind father and mother. (H.
Ward Beecher.)
Decay of family power
The text is in the form of a prediction. The object and effect of
Elijah s coming mission shall be what is set forth in the text
namely
to reform mankind
and bring the world back to those elementary principles or institutes ordered
of old for human improvement and salvation. The special mission of John the
Baptist was that of a reformer. He come to preach repentance. Degeneracy and
corruption were so deep-seated and universal that it was necessary to begin at
the beginning; not with the church or the state or society
but with the
family
the fountain of moral influence; and build up again the family
constitution which irreligion and vice had overthrown. We have here
then
the
Divine plan of reforming and saving mankind. This prophetic utterance has
application to all ages and nations. Christianity is God’s ordained instrument
to plant and extend His kingdom on earth; and
contrary to the teachings of the
schools and the expectations of the wise
it shall not do this by the power of
the state
by the force of law
by ecclesiastical organisms
by the influence
of fraternities
or by means of patronage
learning
and wealth
but by simply
recognising and working the original elemental principles of society; by simply
“turning the heart of the fathers to the children
and the heart of the
children to their fathers.” The Gospel seeks to accomplish the mission of life
by the power of family religion--by invigorating and purifying the family
constitution
by drawing close and sanctifying the bonds of domestic affection
and life
and if it fails to do this it fails of its end. Affection is the
great family bond and the chief element of power in domestic life. And
Christianity appeals powerfully to the affections of our nature. There is a
mighty force in it to excite and purify
to strengthen and exalt our nature. A
family not under a religious training and influence is a fountain of social
corruption. Here are the sources of infidelity and vice and disorder
of
social
political
and religious declension and overthrow. Is there a
widespread corruption of morals pervading society? Depend upon it
the main and
primary cause of it all may be traced up to the family. This fundamental
elementary justification is not honoured
but abused and perverted. There are
three fundamental agencies by which Divine wisdom seeks to reform and save the
world--the family
the state
and the Church. They sustain most intimate
relations to each other. They underlie all goodness
all prosperity
all order.
The family is more radical than the others
and they cannot exist without it.
It is a wonderful arrangement
this division of the whole human family into
little separate communities
each community a little government
a miniature
world by itself--marriage the foundation
love the bond
and Divine authority
the governing power. Such an arrangement
simple as it is
touches all the
elementary and radical principles of human nature. The family power is the fountain
of all moral power in the world. Without such an agency we cannot see how
religion could ever have gained a footing in it. During all the patriarch ages
the family alone preserved the knowledge and worship of God. We cannot estimate
the full value of such an agency. We cannot tell all its vital bearings on the
kingdom of Christ
on the world at large. Where the family power is neglected
or perverted religion has nothing to build upon. The only way to build up
Christ’s kingdom is to make the family what it should be. The household must be
sanctified. There is no agency that can be substituted for the family. It is a
shallow and miserable philosophy which would set it aside
or endeavour to
improve upon it. It belongs to all time
to universal humanity. (J. M. Sherwood.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》