that men may "return," that is, think the subject through again, "and discern between the righteous and the wicked," that is, be able to see in their condition in life the effect of right or wrong doing.

We are not able to promise every man who becomes a Christian that he will get rich. If we could insure this, we should have to stake off church pews like claims in the Klondike, and guard them with Gatling guns. We may yet have to separate wholly our charities from our distinctively church work for no other purpose than that we may be sure how far men who come to us in need are influenced by worthy motives. There are already too many Christians for revenue only. But so much as the prophet affirms, we may safely affirm, that when we think the subject through carefully, we are able to see the relation of conduct to prosperity, and to be sure that righteousness tends to success and happiness in life.

If we could stop sin, we could vacate in a few generations half the beds in our hospitals, as fast as the laws of heredity would enable us to do so. If we could eliminate unrighteousness from the community, we could administer our charities without beggary and without want. The poor we have always with us, and shall have as far ahead as human foresight can predict a probability. But the poverty which dwarfs and degrades could be eliminated in a single generation from all lands in which righteousness should come into universal acceptance. To affirm that a profession of Christianity will in every case bring prosperity would be to put a premium on service whose leading motive is reward, and against this danger God has guarded by many surprises and disappointments which come into the lives of faithful men and women. The book of Job, far from being the record of an isolated experience, is designed to meet the perpetual objection of the ungodly that the believer does not serve God for naught, and the constant temptation of

the believer to convert his religion into some marketable commodity. That the danger is real, may be learned from those volumes, too many in number, which relate alleged answers to prayer, a large portion of which are purely selfish, and exhibit no higher thought of religion than that it is intended to confer exceptional privileges upon believers. God can better afford to have some undoubtedly good men suffer than to have this opinion grow, inside the Church or without. Yet not a few good people, when called upon to meet adversity, at once inquire, "What have I done, that this should come upon me?" Nothing, perhaps, and yet the disposition to ask the question not infrequently shows the need of the affliction, that faith may rebuild itself on a surer foundation.

III. The good time coming.

The third thing which the lesson suggests is the coming revival of prophecy and righteousness, and of joy among the people of God. This is correlative with the display of God's wrath against sin. The same cloud that is darkness to the Egyptians gives light to God's people. The day of wrath and burning to the wicked is, to those who fear God, the rising of the sun of righteousness with health-giving beams. In its light and warmth the people of God, now so depressed, shall play and gambol as young calves or lambs released from the stall, and allowed the freedom of sunlight and pasture.

As a means to a fidelity which may endure to that day, the Messenger calls for a faithful observance of the law of Moses. He has already called on them to bring in faithfully the tithes, and to refrain from robbery of God. He now exhorts them to an obedience of the whole law, moral as well as ceremonial. With this return to the law, he promises a revival of prophecy. It is long since the people have heard the voice of a great prophet. How low the conception of a prophet had fallen we may gather from

Zech. 13: 3-6, where prophecy and idol worship are to be abolished together, and the prophet is assumed to be a deceiver. Perhaps we have an indication of the same spirit in the fact that this prophecy comes from a possibly nameless author. But the Messenger is not willing to admit that prophecy is dead. It is to revive in the might and personality of an Elijah, a prediction which, whatever it meant to the man who first uttered it, impressed the Jews so strongly that they had not forgotten it in Christ's day, and which found a striking fulfilment in the person of John the Baptist.

The Messenger has given us a faithful declaration of a permanent truth. The history of the world has been a series of wave-like advances and recessions, but with a rising tide of righteousness. The recessions have been most trying to the faithful, but the earth has never been wholly given over to ungodliness. There have been times enough when it has seemed as though God had forgotten his covenant, but history has enabled the believer to "return and discern between the righteous and the wicked." A faithful preaching of righteousness, and a faithful adherence to the law of God, such as this unknown Messenger plead for and foretold, have accompanied the incoming tides of godliness, that have borne on their bosoms peace of conscience, trust in God, and large material blessings.

William Eleazar Barton.

CHRIST'S COMING FORETOLD

ISAIAH 9: 2-7

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light," etc.

The first question which confronts us in the study of this passage is, In what sense is Christ here foretold? The immediate reference is, of course, to the vicissitudes of the kingdom of Judah. Ahaz, its wicker ruler, had become alarmed by a coalition between Syria and Ephraim which had been formed against him. Distrusting his ability to resist them, he made an alliance with the king of Assyria. Jehovah was offended at this because it meant unbelief toward him; because, too, it was a union with an idolatrous prince, and he pronounced upon Judah severe judgment. The very ally whom his people had chosen should be suffered to turn against them, to sweep through their land like a mighty flood, inflicting upon them dreadful disaster, till they saw their mistake, repented and renewed their allegiance to the true God. This ninth chapter describes the merciful relief which would eventually come to them. One of the districts to be desolated was Galilee of the Gentiles, and there deliverance would begin. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light." As sometimes, after a long storm, we see in the west a faint streak of light which betokens fair weather, small, at first, but increasing till the sky is filled with brightness, so it was with those who dwelt "in the land of the shadow of death;" upon them the light shined.

But what was the light they saw? Some scholars reply: They saw the salvation which was coming to them from

the despotism of Tiglath-pileser; a new ruler would sit upon the throne of Judah, Hezekiah, a man of such character, such resources, that he would scatter their enemies and bring to the kingdom the dawn of a better day. Even though this was the immediate promise, such interpreters admit, many of them, at least, that Isaiah's vision was not limited to such reference but, according to what is called the "perspective of prophecy," looked forward to the times of the Messiah. Whether he apprehended it or not, that his words had some vital connection with the birth of Christ seems evident from the fact that the gospel of Matthew, in the fourth chapter, quotes them, literally, and applies them to the Saviour. After Isaiah has promised the people this wonderful light, he describes the completeness of their deliverance: the yoke of the oppressor shall be broken; "All the armour of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall even be for burning, for fuel of fire." That is, the weapons, the uniforms, all the manifold apparatus of battle shall be destroyed as though they had never been. The war would end and there would follow glad, prosperous, abiding peace. "For unto us a child is. born, unto us a son is given."

Here again the inquiry occurs, What child was referred to? Some eminent interpreters say it was Hezekiah. But they acknowledge, most of them, that Isaiah, though alluding primarily to his good reign, meant more than that; was looking forward, as in the previous verse, to the Messiah. Some of them have undertaken to show how the description given this character, "Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace," might have been applied exclusively to Hezekiah, in the exuberance of Oriental imagery. But such interpretation is against the almost universal instinct of Christian people in all the ages. It is opposed as well to the judgment of many scholars who rank among the foremost in the world. One