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tower; in the centre of the quadrangle will be a large fountain, and around it trees will be planted. Here, it is hoped, the industrial classes will be able to buy wholesome food at a moderate price. Miss Coutts has also erected" model dwellings" near the grounds of her residence; "Holly Village," with its houses of yellow brick, others of white brick, and some with stone dressings, forms a very pretty appendage to "Holly Lodge," Highgate.

We are glad to find, and no sane person could have ever doubted it, that the building of decent dwellings for the poor is a success, commercially considered. Philanthropy has begun a work which commerce may safely take up and finish. The great opponents and slanderers of model dwellings are the shameless owners of squalid property in our large cities, who see that their days of greed are numbered, and that for a far less sum than has for years been extorted from them the poor may be comfortably and respectably housed. The great difficulty with which the humbler classes in London have to contend is the almost fabulous price of land; but this difficulty can be got over by the help of public companies. It has to a great extent been got over by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, of which Sir Sydney H. Waterlow is the mainspring. This company, at its last half-yearly meeting, reported that its capital had doubled within the past year, and now amounted to more than £80,000. The houses erected by them had never lacked tenants, who heartily appreciated the various advantages offered by their wholesome and cheaply-rented dwellings. The directors regarded their success as clearly demonstrating that failure would never attend any well-organised scheme to improve the dwellings of the poor. They are now content to rely entirely upon the commercial aspects of the question, and they are arranging for more extensive operations, through the assistance of loans from Government.

What is still needed is the erection of a class of house suitable for those who have lately been evicted from their miserable dwellings to make way for City improvements. During the present year as many as sixteen thousand tenements will be pulled down in London, and it is estimated that about one hundred thousand persons would thus be sent adrift. The houses doomed have long been known as fever dens and cholera nests, and one is glad to know that a clean sweep will be made of them, but common humanity requires that there should be accommodation found for those evicted. It is useless to offer them surburban residences and cheap trains. They must live near their work, near the fruit and fish markets. They can afford to pay sufficient rent to make it worth

the while of any company to put up houses for their use. As matters are, however, we drive them out of one neighbourhood only that they may introduce the evils of overcrowding into another.

On the whole, we think this question of providing decent dwellings for our industrial population should engage the attention of Christian men more than it hitherto seems to have done. It is almost an impossibility for men and women to be good in the fever dens in which so many of them are compelled to live in London. If we could make a poor man's cottage a welcome home to him, we should "outbid the house of gin," and do much in preparing the way for "godliness, which is next to cleanliness."

THE BOOK OF MALACHI.

(B. C. 420.)

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

A COMPARISON of the Book of Nehemiah with this prophecy shows that Malachi was contemporary with that eminent governor of Judah, to whom he seems to have sustained the same relation as that borne by Haggai and Zechariah to Zerubbabel a century earlier.

Malachi's prophecy is largely founded upon the writings of Isaiah, as Zechariah's is upon those of Jeremiah. Much of the interest of this book centres in the fact that it formed the keynote of the teaching of John the Baptist, the "man sent from God," whose ministry is in it foretold. We have the same call to repentance, the same exhortation to the relative duties, the same announcement of the coming of the Messiah to sift the wheat and burn the chaff as those which echoed in the wilderness four centuries later. Hence, though not the most modern of all Old Testament scripture (part of II. Chronicles being of later date), it forms a real and most important link between the scriptures of the old and of the new covenants. The name by which the Baptist designated Christ, "He that should come," seems taken from Malachi, and in the self

righteousness and unbelief here depicted we see the germs of the Pharisaism and Sadduceeism of after days.

The book may be divided into seven sections. The prophet (§ 1) assert's God's love to restored Israel in contrast with His rejection of desolated Edom: condemns (§ 2) the irreligion of the people, and especially of the priests: reproves the people (§ 3) for breaking the Divine covenant by their divorces and intermarriages with the heathen, for which the example of Abraham is no excuse: announces (§ 4) the advent of the Lord, preceded by His messenger: blames the people (§ 5) for neglecting to pay tithes, grounding promises of blessing on repentance: denounces scepticism (§ 6), promising a reward to faith and again (§ 7) foretells the day of wrath, exhorts to preparation for it by adherence to the law, promises the coming of Elijah, and threatens the land with a curse if his message should be rejected.

THE BURDEN OF THE WORD OF THE LORD TO ISRAEL BY MALACHI.

§ 1 (c. I. 2-5).

Lo, I have loved you, saith the Lord of Hosts;

And yet ye say,

"How hast thou shown thy love ?"

Esau was Jacob's brother, saith the Lord,
Yet Jacob did I love and Esau hate;
His mountain I made waste, his heritage

A home for jackals of the wilderness.

And when the Edomites shall, boasting, say,
"Lo, we are poor, but we will build again
Our ruined house," thus saith the Lord of Hosts,
They may build up, but I will overthrow!
They shall be called, The land of wickedness,
The people whom the Lord will ever hate.
This shall your eyes behold, then shall ye say,
"The Lord is magnified beyond our coasts!

§ 2 (I. 6--II. 9).

Behold a son his father doth regard,

A servant fears his master. Am I, then,
To you a father? Where is my regard?
A master? Where is, then, the reverence due?
So saith the Lord of Hosts to you, ye priests
Who thus despise my name! And yet ye say,
"Wherein have we thy name despised?" Behold,
Polluted food ye to mine altar bring;
But still ye say, "Wherein is it unclean?"
Yourselves have judged it so, for oft ye say
"The table of the Lord deserves contempt;
And is not this an evil, thus to bring
The blind, the lame, the sick, for sacrifice?

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Present them now unto your Governor!
Will he be pleased with thee, and favour thee?
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, entreat ye, then,
The Lord for grace, and bring your offerings!
Will He His favour show? Thus saith the Lord,
Is there no man among you that will close
The temple doors, so that my altar fires
No more in vain may rise? Thus saith the Lord,
I have no pleasure in you; from your hand
No offering will I take! But now, behold,
From where the sun doth rise to where he sets.
My name among the nations shall be great!
In every place shall incense, to my name,
Accepted rise, and offerings pure be made.
Great shall my name among the nations be!
Thus saith the Lord of Host! But ye profane
My holy name in that ye scoffing say,
"Polluted is the table of the Lord;
Its fruit, its meat alike deserve contempt.
Lo, what a weariness!" ye say, and lift

A scornful head: so saith the Lord of Hosts.

The torn, the lame, the sick, as offerings,

Ye brought! Shall I, the Lord, be pleased with these?
Nay, on the hypocrite a curse shall rest,

Who keeps within his flock the unblemished male,

Yet vows, and to the Lord doth sacrifice

An offering corrupt. Thus saith the Lord,
Lo, a great King am I ; behold my name

Is terrible among the nations round.

And now, ye priests, this message is for you!
If ye hear not, and lay it not to heart,
To glorify my name: thus saith the Lord,
Lo, on you I will even send a curse,
And I will curse your blessings; and, indeed,
Already doth my curse upon them rest,
Because my glory ye have failed to seek.
Lo, I corrupt your seed, and on your face
Will spread the offal of your solemn feasts,
As refuse shall ye, too, be swept away.

Then shall ye know that I, the Lord, have sent
This warning message, that my covenant
May ever be with Levi, saith the Lord.
For, lo, with him my covenant I made
Of life and peace, and these to him I gave,
Because my fear was in him, and my name
Did he revere; the sacred law of truth
Was in his mouth, and ever in his lips
Was found no guile; with me he loved to walk
In truth and righteousness, and from their sin
By him were many turned to holy ways.
The lips of priests should ever knowledge keep,
And from their mouth the holy law be sought.
The messengers are they of God the Lord.
But ye aside have wandered from my way,
And many have ye caused to fall therein.
The covenant of Levi ye have broke!

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And I, the Lord, have made you mean and base
Before the people, for ye have not kept
My ways, nor have ye equal justice shown
To those who came for judgment to my law.

§ 3 (c. II. 10-16).

Have we not all one Father? Is not God,
He who is One, the Maker of us all?
Why, therefore, act we thus unfaithfully
Each to his neighbour? Wherefore thus profane
The holy covenant with our fathers made?
For, lo, unfaithfully hath Judah dealt;
An evil thing is done in Israel

And in Jerusalem! The holiness

Of God the Lord, the nation whom he loved,
By Judah is profaned, in that he took

To wife the daughter of a heathen god.

Him who doth this the Lord will cut him off

From Jacob's tents, both him who keepeth watch
And him who answers, also him who brings

A sacrifice unto the Lord of Hosts.

This also have ye done, with countless tears
Ye have o'erwhelmed the altar of the Lord,

Through them who weep and moan; for which no more
Doth God regard your offering, nor receive

A gift with pleasure at your evil hands.

Yet do ye say, "Why is the Lord displeased?"
Behold the Lord was witness to the vow

Made to the wife whom thou didst love in youth,

To whom thou yet hast thus unfaithful proved;

Yet she thy partner is, thy wedded wife!
Behold ye say, "This hath been done of old
By some in whom a holy spirit dwelt?"

But what sought they? They sought a holy seed.
Take heed, then, to your spirit! Let none deal
Unfaithfully with her whom he in youth
Did make his wife. For I, the Lord of Hosts,
The God of Israel, do hate divorce,

And him who violence and wrong doth hide,
As with a garment, saith the Lord of Hosts.
Take heed, then, to your spirit, and beware
That ye prove not unfaithful to your vows!
§ 4 (c. II. 17-III. 6).

Behold, the Lord is weary of your words,
And yet ye say,
"How have we wearied him?"
This have ye said, "Lo, he that doeth ill,
The Lord doth count him good, and favour him."
Or, doubting, thus ye speak, "Is there a God
Who judgeth in the earth? Then where is he?"
Behold, I send my angel to prepare

The way before me, and the Lord, ye seek,
Suddenly in His temple shall appear!
The angel of the covenant, in whom

Ye take delight, he cometh, saith the Lord!
But who shall bear his advent day? And who

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