Middletown transcript., 1899-08-26


copyright, 1899, by D. M. Stearns.J
/. "Now in the first year Of Cyrus, king
Of Persia, that the word of the Lord by
the mouth of jeremiah might be fulfilled,
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus =
AL Is done that the Scripture may be full
filed, and the Lord does itall. The open
ing verses Of this book are just the closing
verses of the previous book repeated and
therefore confirmed (Gen. XII, 32) or es-
tablished, that we may give special atten-
tion to them. God had said by jeremiah
that after 10 years He would punish the
king Of Babylon and restore Israel to their
own land (Jer. XIV, 12; xxx, 10). He
had also called Cyrus by name more than
100 years before he was born and had said
that Cyrus would perform all His pleasure
lisa. Xiv, 80; xiv, y.
3. "The Lord God of Heaven hath given
me all the Kingdoms of the earth, and He
hath charged me to build Him an house at
Jerusalem. The Most High ruleth in the
kingdom Of men and giveth it to whomso-
ever He will dan. iv, 82). When any
one, be he king or peasant, accepts the po-
sition he occupies as given him by God
and seeks therein to do the will Of God,
he cannot but be blessed, for God Himself
will see to it (II Chron. xvi, 81. Theresis
q house now being builded, even the
church Of God (Eph. ii, 1929, and every
pastor and teacher and evangelist and mis-
sionary is authorized to help build up the
church, the body of Christ.
8. "Who is there among you of all His
people? His God bewith him and let him
go up to Jerusalem and build the house of
the Lord God of Israel" Here every in
dividual who is willing is commissioned
to go up to Jerusalem and help to build
the house; so each individual believer is
commissioned to take part in saying to all
who have not yet received Christ that He
loves them, died for their sins and rose
again and will receive them if they will
come to Him (Rev xii, II; John i, 13;
vi, 37).
4, "And whosoever remaincth ii any
place where he sojourncth let the men of
his place help him." This help was to be
with silver, gold, goods, beasts, besides
the free will offering for the house at Je-
No one was compelled to go to
Jerusalem, but those who did not go were
to help those who did go. Sonow no one is
to 20 as a missionary to foreign
lands; it must be willing service; but
those who do not go must be ready to help
those who do go with all that they need.
8. "Then rose up the chief of the fathers
of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests,
and the Levites, with all them whose spirit
God had raised, to go up to build the
house Of the Lord which is in Jerusalem"
Five times in our lesson is the house of
C0Ir f,+
Not Jerusalem, nor the priests, nor Cyrus,
but God and His house. So now the great
thought in the mind of every preacher and
worker and every believer should be the
house of God-that is, the church of God
which He hath purchased with His own
blood (Acts Xxx, 9S).
6. NAnd all they that were about them
their hands with vessels Of
silver, with gold, with goods and with
beasts and with precious things besides,
Ill willingly offered" 1t 1lust have been
} very great privilege to minister to the
Lord Jesus when He was here on Garth,
but we can still minister unto Him by
to His people, specially to
hose who go forth in His lame to help
His body, and lie viii count it
Ill as done to Himself (Math. XIV, 40).
T. Also Cyrus, the king, brought forth
jhe vessels of the house of the Lord which
Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of
Jerusalem and had put them in the house
If his gods " Because of Isrdel's sin God
IL d suffered the holy vessels of His house
q be carried to Babylon, but He had His
,ye upon them even when Belshazzar used
;lam at his drunken feast. He suffered
II oh holy men as Daniel and Ezekiel and
II lers to be carried into captivity for their
good (Jer. xiv, 81. When speaking of
1 Tael, He said, II have given the dearly
beloved of my soul into the hand of her
i .smies" der. xii, y. Many redeemed ones
re in greater or less measure in the hands
# the enemy, and it may be your privilege
S restore some of these vessels to their
i ight place in tho house of the Lord
g. Even those did Cyrus, king of Per
IA, bring forth by the hand of Mithredath,
he treasurer, and numbered them unto |
shesh bazaar, the prince of Judah" All |
sracl was numbered by God. All the |
;,fnts are known by name. The Lord |
noweth them that are His, and lie says
o each one: "Fear not, for have re- |
oemcd thee; I have called thee by thy |
ianle; thou art mine" lisa xiii. u. Let |
t comfort you, dear child of God, thGt you |
re q numbered vessel and that if He al |
oWs you for time to be in the enemy's |
ands He still careth for you and will in |
ne time show you His deliverance (Rev
/, 10; III Cor. |, 10; II Tim. iv, II, 1S).
9. And this is the number of them: /
'hirty chargers Of gold, thousand char
ers OF silver, nine and twenty knives
he small number Of vessels of gold
with those Of silver suggest that
be most precious vessels are comparative
? few, not that one redeemed soul is of
1ore value than another, for the value of
be precious blood of Christ is the value Of
very redeemed soul, but those who are
yilling to be utterly abandoned to Him,
sparate from everything He does not de-
ght in, are comparatively few.
10. "Thirty basons of gold, silver basona
second sort four hundred and ten, and
ther vessels thousand There is an
ther helpful lesson of different kind to
Q learned from these vessels. If the
olden vessels be taken to represent the
lost talented or the most used vessels
efore people, then to be perfectly happy
, be vessel Of second sort or one Of
he other thousand not described might
9 equally glorifying to God, but might
squire more grace to take 1owly place,
ut in Math. XIV, 1923, the one who
lade good use Of two talents received just
ne same commendation as the one who
lsde good use of Ave.
IL Brought up from Babylon unto
erusalem." This Is the remark made of
Il the vessels. Babylon is record OF self
from the tower of Babel In Gen.
|, where they said, Let us make US
anne, to Rev. xvii and xviii, where they
are to make war with the Lamb. Jeru-
dem or Zion is the city of God, the city
peace, where our Lord was crucifled, by
hose blood peace was made. Many blood
ought ones are captiyes in Babylon, liv-
lg for self and to make themselves
anne instead Of magnifying the name OF
le Lord Given to Christ that God may
} glorified In us, let US live to complete
is body, the church
uosanly- uova ,v0., 1xna~d 4lso& Ta--~.t-