Two months had now elapsed since, stimulated by the prophet's glowing words, the temple builders had resumed their labours (comp. ver. 1 with ver. 10). These months were of great importance with reference to agricultural interests, being the usual season for sowing the seed and planting the vines. That at such a time they should manifest so much zest in the work of rebuilding the temple proved how thoroughly in earnest they were; sad this earnestness is the more evident as we remember that the previous harvests having failed, the people must at this time have been in very straitened circumstances. It is not surprising if, whilst engaged in these combined operations, renewed depression took possession of their hearts, and if in sadness they asked themselves what they would do if the next harvest should likewise fail. The address of Haggai recorded in these verses (10-19) was designed either to anticipate or to meet such gloomy apprehensions; and we have only to hear this design in mind, and the meaning of his words, otherwise somewhat ambiguous, becomes very clear.

I. THE CAUSE OF VAST ADVERSITY.

1. He traced this to their own moral defection. The method he adopted was peculiar - it was by means of parables that he sought to make vivid to them their last sinfulness, and which had caused their sorrow.

(1) The first parable and its application. He referred them to the priests, bidding them ask whether, if a man carries holy flesh in the lappet of his garment (i.e. flesh of animals slain as sacrifices), and he happened to touch any food with the lappet, the food thus touched would become consecrated. The priests, in accordance with the ceremonial Law (Leveticus 6:27), answered, "No" (vers. 11, 12), contending that the lappet of the dress was made holy, but that it was not said in the Law that it could communicate this holiness. So, the prophet implied (ver. 14), was it with his nation. God had chosen their land to set his Name there. His worship had been established in their midst, they had been constituted a favoured people, and their land had been consecrated through this association with the Lord. This, however, did not affect that which had been planted in the soil; the earth was not bound to yield an abundant increase by virtue of these sacred associations. It was only by their being faithful to their high calling, diligently cultivating the soil, and looking up to Heaven for the blessing, that temporal prosperity could be enjoyed, and the lack of this spirit had been the cause of all their sorrow.

(2) The second parable and its application. The appeal was again made to the priests, to know whether, if one who had been defiled by contact with a dead body happened to touch anything, the thing thus touched would be unclean. The priests unhesitatingly replied that it would, the declarations of the ceremonial Law upon this point being very explicit (Numbers 19.). So the prophet affirmed that his people, neglecting the claims of Jehovah, had rendered themselves morally unclean, and the blight had consequently rested upon the works of their hands (ver. 14). Their adversity was traceable to their sad defection from holy duty and devotedness to the Lord their God.

2. He intimated that because of this defection God had visited them in judgment. He had in chastisement smitten them with blasting and mildew and hail, rendering their labour so abortive that their sheaves had yielded but a scanty return (vers. 15-17).

3. He recorded the fact that, despite these judgments, they had persisted in their neglect of duty. "Yet ye turned not unto me, saith the Lord" (ver. 17). The prophet's strong faithful speech indicates that there had been amongst these returned captives much of indifference, coldness, and deadness in reference to the work of God, and it was only right that they should be reminded of this, and that by the painful memory of past failure they should be stimulated to more thorough and entire consecration in the future, and to which we may be sure the devoted seer gladly turned. The past is irrevocable and irretrievable. No tears, no regrets, can win it back to us.

"Thou unrelenting Past!
Strong are the barriers of thy dark domain;
All things, yea, even man's life on earth,
Slide to thy dim dominions and are bound." The future, however, is available, and hence, leaving the past, with all our shortcomings in relation to it, and rejoicing in God's mercy and in the strength he is so ready to impart, let us "go and sin no more."

II. THE ASSURANCE OF FUTURE PROSPERITY. (Ver. 19.) Their action had now completely changed. They fully recognized God's claims; instead of seeking their own personal and selfish ends, they now consecrated themselves heart and soul to the work of God, striving in every way to advance his glory. The temple rose, and "they finished it according to the commandment," etc. (Ezra 6:14). And their attitude towards God and his work being thus changed, his attitude towards them became likewise changed. They must still for a while experience the effects of their past neglect in that time must elapse before rich fruitfulness should appear where formerly there had been dearth and barrenness, but they might rest assured of the returning favour of the Lord; yea, from that moment this joy should be theirs. "From this day will I bless you" (ver. 19). So is it in our life, that whilst the cherubim with the flaming sword sternly guard the door of the past, so that there is no possibility of our return (Genesis 3:24), there is also the angel of the Lord opening up the path before us through the wilderness, and prepared to guide us, if we will, to the brighter Eden that lies beyond (Exodus 23:21, 22). - S.D.H.

The recovery of the Jews from the disasters attending the Babylonian Captivity was necessarily slow and painful. The handful of patriots who returned with Zerubbabel were poor, weak, and despised. They found Jerusalem and the temple heaps of ruins, covered with weeds and rubbish. The first two years witnessed the rebuilding of the altar, the re-establishment of the burnt sacrifices, and the laying of the foundation of the second temple amid the liveliest conflict of emotions. Just at this point a second oracle, full of Divine encouragement, came to Haggai. Weak hands were strengthened, timid hearts were cheered, religious faith and patriotic zeal were kindled into a glow of enthusiasm that never failed until the work was done. We note four considerations by which the prophet wrought this happy change in the temper of his people.

I. JEHOVAH'S ABIDING PRESENCE. Regarded from a merely human point of view there were many and cogent reasons either for an abandonment of the work, or for its postponement until a more auspicious time. The hostility of the neighbouring peoples showed itself in persistent plots to harass the returned exiles, in fomenting discords among them, and in discrediting them at the Persian court. In comparison with the number, wealth and influence of their adversaries, were not the Jews themselves weak and contemptible? Only a few years had passed since their return to a ruined city and a desolate land. In their poverty and distress would it not be audacious folly to undertake the rebuilding of a structure that had taxed the resources of the kingdom in its meridian glory and power? Had not this generation borne burdens enough without being crushed under another? Why not relinquish this enormous load to a better equipped posterity? Moreover, since they returned from Babylon, had not the Lord withheld the legitimate increase of the fields and vineyards? In these straitened circumstances did not the care of their families demand all their time and substance? It might be a pardonable, but was it not a rash enthusiasm in the prophet that had incited them to waste a month of labour on this hopeless task? Religious leaders are always unreasonable! These discouraged Jews could have invented a hundred excuses for abandoning the work. Self-justification is easy when one is eager to recede from an unwelcome task or duty. All human objections, however, are as chaff before an explicit Divine command. The voice of prophecy, re-awakened after long silence, had spoken the authoritative word. However sore the discipline to which their sins had subjected them, they were His people still, a "holy seed," a "very small remnant" indeed, but one over whose preservation He had watched with jealous care. With loving reiteration Jehovah exhorts them to forget their own weakness in joyful recognition of His omnipotence; to assure themselves that "the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, is not as a sojourner in the land, nor as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night." As He covenanted with them when they came out of Egypt, so "His Spirit abideth among them." "Be strong and. work, saith the Lord of hosts; for I am with yea, and fear ye not." There is no better ground for victorious confidence than that. His presence is infinitely more desirable than unlimited worldly wealth and power. We, likewise, face the depressing problems of our own day, grappling with them as we can, only to be overwhelmed by the consciousness of our inability. Through repeated failures we learn that without Divine help we can do nothing. We are overmatched in the battle. "All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

II. JEHOVAH'S EXHAUSTIBLE RESOURCES. What if Jehovah's people are poor, insignificant, despised? He who is in the midst of them is the rightful owner of the world's treasures. The silver and the gold are His. He will "shake all the nations, and the costliest things of all the nations shall come" into His sanctuary. Now, see, when the people really trusted the Lord and went to work (Ezra 6:3-9), how wonderfully the prophet's word was fulfilled; how the expense of rearing the massive walls, and the cost of the wood-work were defrayed from the treasury of the Persian Empire; how the priceless vessels of silver and gold, that Nebuchadnezzar had carried to Babylon for his own glory, as he thought, but really for safe keeping during the exile, were all restored again; how the adversaries of the Jews, who had plotted against them, were compelled by the royal decree to furnish them day by day with young bullocks, rams and lambs for sacrifices, and with wheat, salt, wine, and oil as the priests had need. Not only this, but from the very day (Haggai 2:19, 20) when the rebuilding of the temple began, Jehovah would bless their land with affluence, instead of smiting it with blasting, with mildew, and with hail. God's work never stops for lack of means when men are willing to obey Him, and to launch out confidently on His promises. The silver and the gold are forthcoming, not by miracle, but through natural channels, as surprising sometimes as actual miracles. Is the time ripe for carrying the Gospel into the heathen world? See how the millions are poured every year into the Lord's treasury. If men will not give spontaneously, as did Darius, to the furtherance of God's purposes, He compels them to bring the best of their substance, as the Samaritans were forced to do. God scatters His resources neither extravagantly nor in conformity to the whims of men. The law of parsimony withholds Him from giving so freely as to make unnecessary the discipline of anxiety and struggle. Even when social and moral reformations are greatly needed He does not purchase transient success by lavish expenditures. Moral results are not permanently secured by material agencies. God could have supplied the early Church with means enough to have freed every slave in the Roman Empire. Instead, He projects into humanity two lofty ideals, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, confident that these ideals will ultimately and for ever accomplish what neither gold nor force can do. Nor does He waste His resources in perpetuating institutions that have survived their usefulness. Local churches, as well as individual saints, are but temporary factors. "Holy relics" He suffers with absolute indifference to moulder into common dust.

III. JEHOVAH'S GRACIOUS PURPOSES. Haggai prophesied in a transition period. The older men who heard him had witnessed the wreck of the Jewish monarchy. The return of the captives to Jerusalem was the glimmering dawn after a dark and stormy night. The glory of the past was a memory; that of the future a dream. Transition periods are always charged with doubts and fears, with peril and pain. The sorest trials are alleviated by an assurance that they lead to higher and richer experiences. And yet men would often forego these if they could thereby escape the trial. They cling to long-cherished errors because they dread the effort and pain of adjusting themselves to new truths. Hoary abuses linger in the community, in the State, in the Church, because men shrink from the sharp but transient evils attending a crisis. modern science, philosophy, criticism, — the forces that are continually precipitating these crises — are not enemies but friends. God's purposes do not move backward. A new and better world always emerges from the chaos of the old. So long as God's hand directs the development every transition will be, not toward darkness and anarchy, but toward truth and order. Haggai encouraged his people with the assurance that their sufferings were not meaningless. Painful as their national discipline had been, it was but an unavoidable step in the evolution of a sublime purpose. Not only did he assure them that Jehovah, their covenant-keeping God, was still in the midst of His People; not only were His resources inexhaustible, and ready to be poured out in their behalf; but He had also a purpose of grace concerning them and the whole world, immeasurably exceeding the brightest memories of the past. Despicable as this new house might appear to those who had seen the splendours of Solomon's temple, the new would nevertheless outshine the old. Greater shall be the latter glory of this house than the former, saith the Lord of hosts." Observe that it is the "latter glory" (R.V.) and not the "latter house" (A.V.); for whatever be its material condition, Jehovah knows of but one abiding dwelling on His holy hill of Zion. That messianic day, moreover, will be characterised by universal peace. For "in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." Peace, first of all, between man and God, that which every true heart yearns for supremely, but which is not found in the world. Peace also between man and man. Inter national rivalries, the ambition of conquerors, royal greed of power will no longer hurl nation against nation in bloody strife. Peace, finally, between man and the wild beasts of the field (Isaiah 11:6-9). The distrust between them will cease. As nature has shared in man's curse, so it will share in the benefits of man's redemption.

IV. JEHOVAH'S "LITTLE WHILE," Some of the despondent ones might have retorted, "Such glowing pictures were painted by the older prophets, but they are as far from realisation as ever." "No," says Haggai; "it is only one period more, a very brief one, and then Jehovah will work signs and wonders among the nations to arouse them from indifference, to turn them unto Himself, and thus prepare for the golden age." In a measure His utterance was fulfilled at once, but in its larger signification it still awaits complete fulfilment. The centuries after the Exile were really a brief preface to the messianic period which began with the coming of Christ into His temple, and which still continues. Men are impatient at the moderate pace of events in the kingdom of God. They wonder why He does not force men into swift obedience by stupendous displays of power. Because love and obedience are not wrought by force. Love conquers the kingdom of hatred only inch by inch. Viewing these things by and by from the side of eternity, men will see that earth's longest periods are only Jehovah's "little whiles." The world is ripening faster than we think. Who knows but that the full glory of the messianic time may be close at hand? Whether near or far, every man's supreme duty to God and to his fellow-man is so to live, by the Holy Spirit's help, as to make the world better, and thus to hasten the advent of that golden age.

(P. A. Nordell, D. D.)