A SERMON.

HAGGAI I. 3, 4.

Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it a time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?

THIS expostulation was addressed to the Jews by the prophet Haggai, for their unnecessary and sinful delay in rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem. This sacred edifice, originally built by King Solomon, and renowned for its splendour and beauty, had lain waste from the time the Jews were carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon, until their return to Jerusalem, in the first year of Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, a period of seventy years ;-during which it had been foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, (chap. xxv. 11,) they should" serve the king of Babylon." Upon the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, and the consequent erection of the Persian empire upon the ruins of the Assyrian, that remarkable prophecy of Isaiah (chap. xliv. 28.), uttered no less than one hundred and forty years before the temple was destroyed, and two hundred before Cyrus was born,—that he should be the instrument in the hand of God for restoring his chosen people to their native land,—was fulfilled. Cyrus, having conversed with the prophet Daniel at Babylon, and being by him made acquainted with that prophecy, instantly issued a decree, desiring the Jews to return to Jerusalem," and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, which is in Jerusalem;" at the same time commanding that offerings should be made to assist them in accomplishing the work, and himself restoring "the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem," when he destroyed the city and temple, "and had put them in the house of his gods." Under the authority of this decree, and encouraged by the offerings they received, the captive people returned to their ancient city, building altars, and offering sacrifices thereon, and praising the High God their Redeemer," for this merciful deliverance out of the hand of their enemies. In the second year after their return, having prepared workmen and materials, they commenced the rebuilding of the temple, laying the foundation of it amid the tears and shouts of the whole assembled nation. For some time the work went on prosperously. But the Samaritans, a people who had debased the worship of the true God by joining with it that of images, having desired that they might be allowed to co-operate with the Jews in this great undertaking, and having, for wise reasons, been denied this request, intrigued with the court of Cyrus to frustrate their design: and, although they never entirely succeeded during his reign, yet they raised up so many adversaries, and threw so many impediments in the way, that the work was much retarded, and the effect of Cyrus' decree, in many respects, defeated. In the two following reigns of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, which were but of short duration, the enemies of the Jews continued their accusations against them, and at length succeeded in obtaining a

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decree from Artaxerxes, prohibiting the continuance of the work. "So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius (the next) king of Persia" (Ezra iv. 24), a period of about two years and seven months. This delay, however, appears to have been unnecessary; and, from its length, to have argued a want of zeal for the honour of God, and a disposition rather to indulge in the luxuries and refinements of life: for upon the death of Artaxerxes, the decree which he had issued, commanding the suspension of the work, became void. The Jews, therefore, ought instantly to have taken advantage of this favourable circumstance to resume their labour, shielding themselves under the authority of the original decree of Cyrus the Great; pursuing it until they should have been again prevented by a decree from the new monarch. Instead of this, they remained quiet and unconcerned about the re-erection of the temple, and the restoration of God's worship; caring for nothing but their temporal comforts, which they spared no pains in providing. They built fine houses, they sowed and reaped, they ate and drank and clothed themselves, and they laboured that they might acquire wealth. Foolish and ungrateful people! They forgot that prosperity can then only be truly enjoyed, when it is accompanied by the blessing of the Almighty, and used for the end for which it was bestowed; viz. the glory of God, as well as the benefit of man. They forgot, in a moment as it were, the miseries of a seventy years' captivity in a heathen land, and the merciful goodness of God, but recently manifested, in releasing them from it, and restoring them to their beloved "Sion," at the very recollection of whose former glories and privileges, they had "sat down by the waters of Babylon and wept. They forgot the silence of their "harps," and the insults of their enemies, while they were " in a strange land." They forgot the curses which they had there denounced upon their "right hand," and upon their "tongue," if they should "forget Jerusalem," or "if they preferred not her in their mirth." But God was not unmindful of these things. He had denounced a curse against "the man whose heart departeth from the Lord." While, therefore, they were neglecting him, and pursuing their own pleasures, and seeking their own gains, he sent a blight upon their corn, he made their food and raiment to be unsatisfying, and their wealth to be of no value.

That such signal indications of the displeasure of the Most High should have failed to restore in them a right sense of their duty, and to open their eyes to the fallacy of their pretences for neglecting it, may, at first, excite our astonishment. But we shall cease to wonder, when we call to mind the habitual obstinacy and rebellious spirit of the Jewish nation, ever a faithless and stubborn race. Perverseness was the besetting sin of that people; and is one of the base qualities of our nature. We love the pleasures of the world, and we will pursue them. We are ambitious of its dignities, and, often, to obtain them, sacrifice our virtue: although we are assured, that for these things God will bring us into judgment. We desire its wealth, and we labour to amass it, as if that would last for ever, and we should live as long to enjoy it. We do all this in spite even of our own belief, that this world is of short duration; and of our hope, that we shall soon live in a better, where such things are unnecessary and unknown. We do it,

moreover, notwithstanding all the warnings and corrections and remonstrances which God, in his mercy, is pleased to vouchsafe to us. Nay, in opposition to these, we ransack the stores of human invention to find excuses, no matter how absurd, so they do but serve for excuses, and give a semblance of rectitude to the neglect of that which we know to be a positive and inalienable duty. Thus it was with the Jews. They knew it to be in the divine counsels that they should be reinstated as a nation, that their temple should be rebuilt, and the worship of God restored in Jerusalem; and that for this especial purpose they had been released from captivity, and commanded to "go up" thither; yet, having met with one impediment, they give themselves up to the pursuits which they have chseon for themselves, refusing to go on with the work, although incited thereto by the admonitory judgments of the Almighty; and pretending, as a justification of their neglect," the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built." And, with the dispositions they then entertained, the time never would have come. It would always have been unseasonable.

In this state of affairs, God sent his prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to remonstrate with his people; to point out to them the cause of the judgments which had been inflicted on them; to urge them to renew the building of the temple; and to predict, by way of encouragement, the honours and glories which he had in store for this latter building, which should more than supply the deficiency of the Shechinah, or symbol of the Divine Presence, which was in the first temple, and of the exterior splendour which had rendered it the admiration of the known world. The prophet Haggai commences his remonstrance in the words of the text: "Is it a time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?" Ye say, "The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built." If that be the case, can it possibly be a time to build fine houses for your own accommodation and enjoyment, while the house of God lies desolate and in ruins? or, can it be a time to deck your own dwellings with cedar and vermillion, while the dwelling-place of the Most High remains unfinished and unadorned, and the barest accommodation is afforded for the celebration of his worship? 66 "Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways." Reflect upon the inconsistency of your conduct, and call to mind how I have crossed the purposes of your hearts, that I might shew you the sinfulness of it. "Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore, the heaven over you

* Jer. xxii. 14,

is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands."

This remonstrance and exhortation of Haggai had the desired effect; and we learn that, in the sequel, "The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, and of Joshua, and of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God."

From the portion of sacred history which we have just considered, we may learn, First, that it is the will of the Almighty that buildings should be erected, and set apart from all profane uses, and dedicated solely to his worship and service. The whole history of God's dealings with man, from the creation until this day, confirms this position. There can be little doubt that Adam, even during his continuance in Paradise, had some place where to present himself before the Lord : and, after his expulsion thence, his sons, in like manner, had whither to bring their oblations and sacrifices. The patriarchs, both before and after the flood, used altars, and mountains, and groves for the same purpose. Thus we read of Noah's building an altar to the Lord, and offering burnt-offerings upon it. Abraham, when he was called to the worship of the true God, erected altars wherever he pitched his tent: he planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord; and it was upon a mountain that God ordered him to offer up his son Isaac. Jacob, in particular, called a place by the name of God's house, where he vowed to pay the tithes of all that God should give him.

In the wilderness, where the Israelites themselves had no settled habitations, they had, by God's command, a moveable tabernacle; and as soon as they were fixed in the land of promise, God appointed a temple to be built at Jerusalem, in which he himself condescended to dwell, by the Shechinah, between the cherubims. After that was

destroyed, another, as we have seen, was built by the Jews upon their return from captivity, which Christ himself, "the glory of this latter house," owned for his house of prayer, and which both he and his apostles frequented, as they did also the synagogues.

In the New Testament we discover more than probable footsteps of some determined places, appropriated solely to the solemn assemblies of Christ's followers. Of this nature was the place where the apostles and disciples were assembled, with the doors shut, on the evening of the day of our Lord's resurrection, as well as that in which they were assembled on that day week; as also that upper room into which, after their return from witnessing His ascension, they went up as into a place commonly known to be set apart for sacred purposes. Such another, if not the same, was that one place in which they were all assembled on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost visibly came down upon them. So also, "the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying;" and to which Peter repaired after he had been miraculously delivered out of prison. And as many of the first believers sold their houses and lands,

and laid the money at the apostles' feet, to supply the necessities of the Church, so it is not unlikely that others might give their houses, or at least some convenient room in them, for a place of worship; which may be the reason why the apostle so often salutes such and such a person, and the church in this house.* Nay, farther, St. Paul speaks of the whole church coming together into one place; and St. James gives a general caution against shewing respect to the rich, and neglecting the poor, who come to such assemblies.

It is not reasonable to expect that we should have more than obscure intimations, in the writings of the New Testament, of places set apart for christian worship. The new dispensation, in the life-time even of the latest of the authors of the inspired volume, was a despised thing. Its professors were considered as the scum and offscouring of the earth, and constantly the object of the most cruel persecutions. Their places of meeting were necessarily the most secret; and, therefore, continued, as at first, to be a room in some private house, or some grove far removed from the observation of men. It was not till the third century that they ventured to attempt the building of religious edifices. But from that time, wherever Christianity obtained a firm footing, churches were built and endowed, sometimes at the cost of pious individuals, at others, by the united exertions and contributions of the whole society : and so it has continued unto this day.†

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The utility of such edifices is well stated in the Homily for Repairing and Keeping Clean churches. Our churches are set up for godly and necessary purposes, that is to say, that like as every man hath his own house to abide in, to refresh himself in, to rest in, with such like commodities; so Almighty God will have his place, whither the whole parish and congregation shall resort, which is called the church and temple of God, for that the church, which is the company of God's people, doth there assemble and come together to serve him. Not meaning hereby, that the Lord, whom the heaven of heavens is not able to hold or comprise, doth dwell in the church of lime and stone, made with man's hands, as wholly and only contained there within, and no where else, for so he never dwelt in Solomon's temple. Moreover, the church or temple is counted and called holy, yet not of itself, but because God's people resorting thereunto are holy, and exercise themselves in holy and heavenly things. And to the intent ye may understand further, why churches were built among christian people, this was the greatest consideration, that God might have his place, and that God might have his time, duly to be honoured and served of the whole multitude in the parish. First, there to hear and learn the blessed word and will of the everlasting God. Secondly, that there the blessed sacraments which our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ hath ordained and appointed, should be duly, reverently, and decently ministered. Thirdly, that there the whole multitude of God's people in the parish should, with one voice and heart, call upon the name of God, magnify and praise the name of God, render earnest and hearty thanks to our heavenly * Vide Horne's Introduction.

The whole of this subject is largely treated by the learned J. Mede, p. 319, and ably condensed in a Sermon by the Rev. H. H. Norris. Sce CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER, Vol. XI. p. 209.