Man's temporalities.
"And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord," etc. The subject of these verses is man's temporalities; or, in other words, his earthly circumstances, his secular condition. And the passage suggests three ideas in relation to this subject.
I. THAT MAN'S TEMPORALITIES ARE AT THE ABSOLUTE DISPOSAL OF GOD. Here the Almighty is represented as at one time, namely, the period daring their neglect of rebuilding the temple, withholding from the Jewish people temporal prosperity. But after they had commenced the work in earnest, the stream of prosperity would begin to flow. Here are the words: "Before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord: since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the press fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty." "It was I that gave you only ten instead of twenty measures, only twenty instead of fifty vessels in the vat. It was I that smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail." So it ever is. Man's temporal circumstances are at the disposal of God. Out of the earth cometh all man's temporal good; but he can make the earth barren or fruitful as he pleases. He can bind it with frosts, inundate it with floods, or scorch it with heat. Man, cease to pride thyself in thy temporal prosperity!
II. THAT GOD SOMETIMES REGULATES THE TEMPORALITIES OF MAN ACCORDING TO MAN'S MORAL CHARACTER. The Almighty here tells the Jewish people that in consequence of their neglect of his command to rebuild the temple, temporal distress would befall them. He 'smote them with "blasting" and with "mildew" and with "hail in all the "labours of their hands" But as soon as they commenced in earnest he said, "From this day will I bless you? The fact that God sometimes and not always regulates man's temporalities according to his moral obedience or disobedience suggests:
1. That the cultivation of a high moral character is important to man eves as a citizen of this earth. "Godliness is profitable to all things."
2. That even this occasional expression of God's regard for moral conduct is sufficient to justify the belief in the doctrine of a future and universal retribution. Antecedently, we should infer that, under the government of an all-wise, all-powerful, and all-just God, man's secular circumstances would be according to his moral worth. It would have been so, had man not fallen, no doubt. It is sometimes so now, as in the case before us. It will be universally so one day—the great day that awaits humanity.
III. THAT THESE FACTS OUR MIGHTY MAKER REQUIRES US PROFOUNDLY TO STUDY. "Now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward." This call to consider the facts is thrice repeated. Consider why the adversity came upon you in the first case, and why the blessing is promised in the second case. It was, in one ease, because you neglected your moral duty, and in the second because you began to discharge it. Why should these facts be studied?
1. That we may have a practical consciousness that God is in the world. In all the elements of nature, in all the seasons of the year, in all the varying temperatures and moods of nature, we see God in all things. "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
2. That we may have a practical consciousness that God recognizes moral distinctions in human society. God and evil are not alike to him. The good he sees, he approves; the evil he beholds, he loathes.
3. That we may have a practical consciousness that retribution is at work in the Divine government.—D.T.