The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1911-12-21
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDNSCIiOOL
LESSON
LESSON FOR DECEMBER "a
MALACHI REsukEs JUDAH.
LESSON TEXT-Malachi S.1-4:3.
MIrNfnDX xyrTDJtrC o.tc ~

the Lord. Luke 2:11.
TIME-Some time during the age OF
Ezra and Nehemiah but It is not certain
whether about 45S O1zra) or 444 or 4S0.
PLACE--Jerusalem and vicinity.
CONTEMPORARY HISTORY Alci-
blades at Athens. The Peloponnesian
war (431-40i. The republic at Rome, gov
erned by consuls and military trlbunes.
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 (430-350). was now boy.
listening to Socrates. Xenophon (4A-35D
leads the retreat OF the ten thousand
back to Greece Q0O which retreat he
has immortallzed 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 ass through the
rest of the century. Most place him
soon after Nehemiah's second coming
to Jerusalem, between 433 and 430.
He is plain spoken. and direct, with
out high eloquence, or supreme poetic
power, but abounding In effective
similes, 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, 1t 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
its golden age Is in the future, not, as
in other ancient nations, In the past
And as the golden age must have a
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 a son is given; and the gov
ernment 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 Testa-
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 l, God, will send my messen-
ger, one coming in Gods name, and
bearing a divine message, whose
fore me, 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.
II is possible that these words had
a partial fulfilment 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. Darken the
shades as these things grow less. til
we come to the blackness Of the low
est sayagery. The two maps willNl