Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-12-22
INTERNATIONAL
SUNLlSISCIDD(L
LESSON
LESSON FOR DECEMBER ~
MALACHI REBUKES JUDAH.
LESSON TEXT-Malachi 3:1-4:3.

| and I will return unto you, saith the
| Lord of hosts. NAL. 81.
| 2. "Unto you is born this day in the
city of David Savior, which is Christ
| the Lord. Luke 2:11.
| .TIME-Some time during the age of
| Ezra and Nehemiah, but it is not certain
| whether about 45S (EzrO or 444 or 43O.
| PLACE-Jerusalem and vicinity.
| CONTEMPORARY HISTORY = Alci-
| blades at Athens. The Peloponnesian
war (431-4oD. The republic at Rome, gov
| erned by consus and military tribunes.
| About this time Socrates was teaching
| the only approach to a pure morality
| which Athens ever knew. Herodotus was
nearly through his travels (4S4-400). Plato,
the philosopher (430-550), was now boy,
listening to Socrates. Xenophon (444-354)
leads the retreat of the ten thousand
back to Greece (4OO), which retreat he
has immortalized in his Anabasis.
There is no certainty as to the
definite time when Malachi uttered
his prophecies, because no data is
given in the book, and the sins which
he sought to reform were present
throughout the whole period of Ezra
and Nehemiah, from 45S through the
rest of the century. Most place him
soon after Nehemiahs second coming
to Jerusalem, between 433 and 43O.
He is plain spoken, and direct, with
out high eloquence, or supreme poetic
power, but Astounding in effective
SMILES, metaphors and imagery which
hit the mark, and do the work. What
a London paper says of distin-
guished mans straightforward
speeches applies well to the sermons
Of Malachi: "a sound and healthy
gospel doubly welcome because the
world is waking to the consciousness
of intellectual and moral hunger
which only these truths can satisfy
If we read the later chapters Of
Nehemiah and compare the sins and
evils which Nehemiah labOred to re-
form, with the sins and evils which
Malachi denounces, it will be seen
that both are laboring for the same
ends, and realize the same necessity
of reform. God was dishonored, and
religion made q mere form and farce,
by offering mean things for sacrifices,
as polluted bread, and lame and sick
animals, by refusing to do the sim
plest service in the temple without
pay, by refusing to pay tithes for the
support of the temple worship, by
being weary of serving the Lord, by
intermarrying with the heather. In
all these things they broke the d.
vine law; they showed that their
minds were all wrong.
One of the peculiar glories of the
Bible is that from the very beginning
it's golden age is in the future, not, as
in other ancient nations, in the past.
And as the golden age must have
maker, Gods revelation soon brings
into view the one, the Messiah who
alone can make the age of gold which
is the Kingdom Of Heaven. Isaiah
tells US that unto us a child is born,
unto us son is given; and the gov
eminent shall be upon his shoulder;
and his name shall be called Wonder
full Counsellor, the mighty God, the
everlasting Father, the Prince Of
Peace"
In the last book of the Old Tesla
ment, about 400 years before Christ
was born, the last prophet brings the
hope and ideal and goal in the person
of the Messiah, Christ. the Jesus who
was born on the true Christmas day.
Behold I, God, will send my messen-
ger, one coming in Gods name, and
bearing a divine message, whose
orb oh I, tLa no.
fore ne, the coming of God himself.
This messenger, interpreted by our
Lord himself on two occasions, was
one who should come in the spirit
and power of Elijah, doing the same
work, rebuking sin, denouncing all
wrongs, calling men to repentance,
awakening the conscience.
It is possible that these words had
q partial fulflment in Nehemiah, a
foreshadoWing on a smaller scale, Of
John the Baptist who completely full
filled the prophecy. Nehemiah's re-
forms were a part of the preparation
for the coming of the Kingdom Of
Heaven, and fixed the eyes of the
people on the great ideal toward
which they were slowly moving.
Suppose We make two maps of the
world on the plan furnished by the
United States census to show the de-
gree in which ignorance, certain dis
eases, and many other things prevail,
by means Of higher and darker
shades On one map we will note the
countries where the purest Christian
ity prevails, by white. A darker shade
will mark the more imperfect forms,
and then let the shades grow darker
and darker through Mohammedanism
and the various forms of heathenism
till we come to the blackness Of the
lowest fetishism
Then, with entire independence,
make a similar map Of the moral and
intellectual condition of men, Where
there is the most manhood, the no
blest womanhood, the highest moral
ity, the best social conditions, the
most done for the sick and suffering,
the most of all that elevates the peo-
pie, and brings the greatest happiness
these put in white. Darker the
shades as these things grow less, till
We come to the blacknoSS of the low