THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH

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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
PREFACE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

THERE are several matters of a critical nature which do not come within the scope of this book; such as the quotations from it in the Gospels, and the difference in style between the earlier and later chapters. These are questions that must be discussed before another audience than that which I address, and by a more competent hand.

It has been my single aim to give the salient features and lessons of each chapter, with the object of alluring the Bible-student to a more searching and careful acquaintance with this Prophet.

Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, complete the Old Testament canon -- their faces turned towards the sunrise, but conscious that darkness still brooded deep over their contemporaries. They remind one of the crisp breeze that awakes a little before the dawn, and announces its advent, to die down into silence and expectancy till the sun appears.

As one who has found spoil, which he would fain share, the author writes across this prophetic treatise, Dig here; and hopes that many will be attracted by Zechariah's holy and eager spirit, through which God spake.

The title of this little book lays stress on one thought which pervades the prophecy of Zechariah. He is preeminently the Prophet, as Peter is the Apostle, of Hope.
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
I.  THE PERMANENCE OF GOD'S WORDS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

(Zechariah 1:1-6.)


THE Prophet Zechariah was born in the latter years of the captivity in Babylon. His name means one whom Jehovah remembers. It was evidently a common name among the chosen people, as it is borne by several others in the course of Old Testament story. How good it is to be always sure that God thinks of us -- even when we forget or believe not! He remaineth faithful. "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand."
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
I.  THE PERMANENCE OF GOD'S WORDS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

Zechariah came of a priestly family. His grandfather (Iddo) is expressly mentioned as accompanying Zerubbabel, the Prince of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest, back to their desolated country (Ezra 2:1-2; and Nehemiah 12:4). His father, Berechiah, probably died when Zechariah was yet a child, and the boy was reared by the grandfather; he is therefore spoken of as the son of Iddo, and from the earliest his young mind must have been imbued with the traditions and habits of the priestly caste.

The first expedition of exiles, to which we have referred, reached Palestine about twenty years before our story opens. The immense majority of the Jews were too well circumstanced in the wealthy land of their conquerors to be in any hurry to return; and only some fifty thousand souls had risked the dangers of the desert and the privations of the new settlement -- but these would comprise, without doubt, the flower of the race for piety and national pride.

The majority of the returned exiles probably betook themselves to their ancestral portions in various parts of the country, only a comparatively small number settling among the charred and blackened ruins of Jerusalem. The Book of Lamentations describes, in elegiacs broken with sobs, the condition of the city, as their forefathers had left it seventy years before; and that period of desolation and waste must have still further added to the despair of the situation.

How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger!

He hath cast clown from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, And hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied;
He hath thrown clown in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire;
He hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden;
He hath destroyed his Place of Assembly
(Lam. 2.).

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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
I.  THE PERMANENCE OF GOD'S WORDS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

Amid these piles of blackened ruins, the handful of impoverished captives settled; and for some time after their arrival were occupied in rearing dwellings for themselves, and in setting up some at least of those religious observances of which for so long they had been necessarily deprived (Ezra 3:3-6). The foundation of the new Temple was laid shortly afterwards amid shouts of joy, which were overborne by the noise of weeping on the part of those who had seen the first house in its glory -- " the ancient men."

It was a fair dawn, but was soon overcast; for the enemies of the returned people set themselves to poison the mind of Artaxerxes (Smerdis), who, being a usurper and a magician, did not feel bound to respect the decree of Cyrus, and ordered the cessation of the work. And it ceased for fifteen years (Ezra iv.). At the end of that time Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, began to stir their fellow-countrymen to resume their neglected toils. The political horizon had undergone a great change in the interval; and there was every reason to hope that Darius, who had headed a successful conspiracy against the usurping Smerdis, and had lately ascended the Persian throne, would be favourable to the purpose of the Jewish exiles, since he was a monotheist, and zealous for the restoration of pure and spiritual religion. So it afterwards proved (Ezra 5, 6, especially Ezra 7, 12).

But the great difficulty experienced by the prophets was with the Jews themselves. "The time was not come," they Said, "the time for the Lord's house to be built." In the meanwhile they were living in ceiled houses, whilst God's house lay waste.

First Haggai spoke. On the first day of the sixth month of the second year of Darius, he pointed to the disasters beneath which the country was groaning, that the dews of heaven were stayed and the earth was unproductive; that a drought lay upon the land and upon the mountains, upon the corn, and wine, and oil, upon men and cattle, and upon all the labour of their hands; that they sowed much and brought in little; ate and had not enough; drank and were not filled; clothed themselves but were not warm; earned wages which were dissipated as though holes were at the bottom of the bag -- and urged that all these misfortunes were intended by God as a remonstrance against their laxity and an incentive to diligence. "Why?" saith the Lord of hosts. "Because of my house that lieth waste, while ye run, every man to his own house" (Haggai 1:1-11).

"Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God, in the four-and-twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the King" (Haggai 1:12-15).
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
I.  THE PERMANENCE OF GOD'S WORDS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

In the following month, the seventh, a very encouraging word came again through the mouth of Haggai, predicting that the latter glory of the new Temple should even excel that of the former one; a glory not of gold or silver or precious stones, but the spiritual radiance and splendour of Him who was to be the Desire of all nations, and whose advent was destined to invest that building with eternal significance and interest (Haggai 2:1-9).

The month after, "the Word of the Lord came unto Zechariah." Probably the Word of the Lord is ever circling through the world, as the waves of wireless telegraphy through the air; but there needs an anointed, prepared, and receptive heart to receive and translate the sacred impressions. In the case of the prophets, however, there would be more than this. They spoke as they were moved or borne along by the Holy Spirit. When the apostle speaks of the senses being exercised to discern good and evil, he suggests that to each sense of the body there is a corresponding one of the soul; and this, like that, may become more or less acute. Seek after the quickened, 'Spirit-touched soul-sense!

Be still and strong,

O Man, my Brother! hold thy sobbing breath,
And keep thy soul's large window pure from wrong!
That so, as life's appointment issueth,
Thy vision may be clear to watch along
The sunset consummation-lights of death!

Zechariah prefaces his prophecies with a very tender message. True, he does not slur over the sins of the past.

Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers." .The memory of that displeasure was only too recent, the signs too obvious; but he hastens to accentuate the divine pitifulness and tender mercy. "Thus saith the Lord of: Return unto Me, and I will return unto you." yet was a backslider for whose return the of God did not yearn, and after whom it did messages like this. In this the divine love exceeds love. Even our Lord could not depict the father Of the prodigal sending messages into the far country, where he sat among the swine; but this is precisely what God does. Can you not hear the peal of the silver bells, borne across the valley? -- " Return! return!" And when thou art yet a great way off, the Father will see thee, and being moved with compassion, will run and fall on thy neck, and kiss thee much, and reinstate thee where thou wast at first. He remembers sins no more.
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
I.  THE PERMANENCE OF GOD'S WORDS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

The only fear was lest God should call in vain. "Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets cried; . . . but they did not hear, nor hearken unto Me, saith the Lord." Though the chosen people had suffered so terribly, there was a pitiful possibility of the obstinacy of the former generation reappearing in this. Each generation insists on trying its own bitter experiences, unwarned by the experiences of the preceding.

"Your fathers, where are they?" They were rebellious and sinned, and have passed away under the divine judgments. "And, the prophets, do they live forever? But even though the lips that utter the divine word wax cold in death, the word itself remains; and it shall have ever-abiding force. "But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?" -- as a foe overtakes the flying fugitive. So much so as to extort from them a confession of the righteousness of their doom: and they turned and said, "Like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us."

The conclusion is forcible and clear The prophet may die, but the divine word remains. Heaven and earth may pass away, but no word of God shall fail. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass, more transient still; but the Word of the Lord is incorruptible, it liveth and abideth for ever. The fulfilled predictions of the past -- whether threatenings like those which befell the Jews, or promises like those realized in the advent of our Lord-all confirm the certainty that "no word from God is void of power." Let us give the more earnest heed then to his invitations, warnings, threatenings, and promises, fashioning the whole course of our lives by them, and ever remembering that they are the asseverations of "Lord of Hosts."

That title is specially applied to the Divine Being by the three post-exilic prophets. It occurs in this Introduction, five times in six verses. How significant! Though the Jews had seen the vast hosts of their enemies arrayed against them in battle, or marshalled in their own distant lands, they were assured that their Jehovah had vaster squadrons; and that all the powers of nature, all the restless wills of men, all the unseen kingdoms of the dead, and all the principalities and powers of the heaven -- the archangels, angels, seraphim and cherubim -- stood obedient to his sovereign sway, going, coming, doing this or that, as He chose. Look up, child of God! thy Father is also the great King, who doeth as He will "in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." "Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, O my soul!"
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
II. THE MYRTLE VALLEY
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

(Zechariah 1:7-17.)

THREE months had passed since the preceding vision, and the month Sebat had come, when the trees begin to shoot, and Zechariah says, "I saw by night." What did he see?

If we may be allowed to follow the suggestion of one of the commentaries, we may imagine that not far from the prophet's home there was a green valley, or bottom, filled with graceful myrtle trees, amid which a water-course had its way. Thither he may have been accustomed to resort for prayer, as our Lord retired among the olive trees outside Jerusalem. It is conceivable that ever since the return of the exiles from Babylon he had paced this green glade, pouting out his heart in words like those which were afterwards uttered by the Angel-Intercessor: "O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these three-score and ten years?" It is pleasant to pray in the open field of nature: the expanse above is suggestive of eternity and unchangeableness, and all the sounds of Nature's varied orchestra, from the rustle of the wind among the leaves to the long-drawn wave-beat on the sand, are marvellously adapted to be an accompaniment to the voice of supplication.

There was a special significance in the presence of the which grew in humble and fragrant beauty around. The myrtle was a native of Persia and Assyria. Esther's name, Hadassah, meant myrtle. It was, therefore, significant of the return of the exiles from the lands of the north; and its humble beauty was an appropriate symbol of the depressed condition of the chosen people, who could no longer be compared to the spreading cedar, or the deeply-rooted oak, but were like the myrtle which, though graceful and evergreen, is nevertheless an inconspicuous and unassuring plant. Many believers are as the myrtle. Their heart is not haughty, nor their eyes lofty; neither do they exercise themselves in great matters, nor in things too wonderful for them. They still themselves, as a child weaned from its mother; and their hope is in the Lord for evermore.
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
II. THE MYRTLE VALLEY
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

On the night in question, which may have followed a day of unusual exercise of spirit, Zechariah thought that he was in his favourite valley, surrounded by the myrtles; and behold, in the midst of them, "a man riding upon a red horse; and behind him" there was a group of companions, mounted on horse -- red, sorrel, and while. The whole valley seemed alive with these mysterious figures. They had doubtless been there whenever the prophet had paced to and fro, or knelt in intercession; but never before had his eyes been opened to see them. Ah! how perpetually are our eyes holden, so that we do not perceive the bands of God's marshalled angels, gathered to our succour. The fountain rises from the desert sands, on which our Ishmaels are dying for thirst; but we perceive it not. The mountains are full of horses and chariots of fire; but we tremble as, though there were nothing to prevent the enemy making an end of us. The glorious Lord engirds us, as a broad river with its flashing surface might encircle a city; but only to the anointed eye is his defensive presence made manifest.

Naturally the. prophet's curiosity was excited, and he sought the significance of the heavenly vision. "Then said I, O my Lord, what are these?" This inquiry was Zechariah was in constant fellowship. He often alludes to him as "the Angel that talked with me" (Zechariah 1:9, Zechariah 1:14, Zechariah 1:19; Zechariah 4:1-5; Zechariah 5:5, Zechariah 5:10; Zechariah 6:4). This celestial visitant must be distinguished from "the Angel of the Lord," referred to in verse (Zechariah 1:12, and who could be none other than the Angel of the Covenant, our blessed Lord Himself, to whom, also, the riders gave in their reports (Zechariah 1:10-11).

It has often been the comforting reflection of individual saints, that their lives were under the direct tutelage and care of guardian angels. Still God gives his angels charge over us to keep us. Still He sends his angel before us, to bring us into the place that He has prepared. Still the interpreting-angel talks with us -- or, as Jerome says, within us -- and says, "I will show thee what these be."

The holy soul, which has its myrtle valley for prayer, and has been accustomed through long years to pour out its intercessions and supplications before God, though it may have been with small response, is the one for whom presently the vail shall drop from the invisible world; and in that rapturous moment the anointed eye will be opened to behold the ministries of God's high angels, as they go to and fro throughout the world on his embassies; whilst the purged ear will become the auditor of their elevated converse as they discuss the affairs of men, and especially of those intercessions with which Christ pleads for his own. "The man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth." Then, as the prophet waited and listened, he heard the report which the angel-scouts handed in to headquarters, one in which they agreed with perfect unanimity: "We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest."
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
II. THE MYRTLE VALLEY
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

It was a time of almost universal peace. The new empire of Cyrus had become securely settled, and beneath the strong rule of his successors there was a grateful cessation of the throes and convulsions which had ushered in the fall of the empire of the Chaldeans.

But to the peace and prosperity of all surrounding countries the condition of the returned remnant presented a notable and strange contrast. If any spot should be verdant and radiant, surely it should be the hill which the Lord had chosen for Himself; and yet it was desolate. This astounding contrast elicited from the Angel of the Covenant an earnest entreaty that God would show Himself strong on behalf of those whom He had brought back from the land of the enemy. "He answered [as though He were speaking to the prophet's thoughts] and said, O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah?"

This is a beautiful glimpse of the intercessions which emanate from our Lord's unchangeable Melchizedek priesthood. The believer having viewed Him in his Aaronic ministry, by which He put away sin through the sacrifice of Himself, derives great comfort from considering Him as a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek; having no beginning of days nor end of life, but abiding a Priest continually, and ever living to make intercession in the heavenly temple for his people. "Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee." What untold benefit accrues to us from his ceaseless and prevalent prayers!

"And the Lord [i.e., the Angel of the Covenant] answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words." It was as though the Father had heard and answered the pleadings of the Son, and returned Him an answer, which he passed on to Zechariah's angel-guide; and then the prophet in turn was bidden proclaim them with the urgency and insistence of a cry: "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy."

More disclosures of God's will followed; that He was displeased with the nations, who had gone beyond his commission; that He had returned to Jerusalem with great mercies; that the holy house should be built again; that the line of the builder should be stretched again over Jerusalem; that the cities of Judah were his cities, which should yet be spread forth in prosperity; that the Lord should yet comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
II. THE MYRTLE VALLEY
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

Zechariah awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. But was it not more? Did he not visit that valley at daybreak with new and awful wonder? And did not the people, when they heard what he had seen, and the message which had been communicated to them, pluck up new courage to prosecute their toils? If God was with them, who could stand against them? If angels were encamping round Jerusalem, how inevitable would be her resurrection from encumbering ruin! The return of God to his city meant her return to the beauty that had attracted the wonder and jealousy of the world (Psalms 48:1-14.).

These words may come under the eye of some who have sighed and cried over the desolations of the house of God, whether of the universal Church, or of some beloved sphere of labour, on which they seem to have expended prayers and tears in vain. Have such waited for fifteen years, as Zechariah did? Have they had their myrtle grove of supplication? Have they remained steadfast and unmoved amid universal surrounding declension? If they could hear the good and comfortable words that are being spoken, how glad and thankful they would be! for when men and women pray like this, they do but echo the prayer of the great Intercessor yonder, and their prayer is the sure precursor of the return of God to his heritage with great mercy. Whenever God lays the state of his Church on the hearts of his people, so that they travail in birth for it, a powerful revival of his work is at hand.

Are you, my reader, desolate through the pressure of long-continued sorrow? God's chastenings have been greatly exaggerated by those who have helped forward the affliction. What was once a busy scene of active service is waste; your home is desolate; your heart sad. Yet, be of good cheer! There is One that ever liveth to intercede. Jesus has graven you upon the palms of his hands. Your sad lot is ever before Him. He will yet talk with you with good words and comfortable ones. " Turn " -- they are his own words'' O backsliding children; for I am married unto you, saith the Lord." "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away." "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them."
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
III.  THE SECOND MISSION
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

(Zechariah 1:18-21.)

THE next vision was full of comfort. The good words and comfortable words of the previous chapter are continued, like the long-drawn-out sweetness of a lullaby.

As the little group of returned exiles looked nervously out on the mighty world-empires, which surrounded and threatened them, they were filled with alarm. How could they cope with them? There were Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their companions, of the nations whom Nebuchadnezzar had settled in Samaria; Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, so ready in their use of the pen to exert influence on the great kings beyond the river, to make the work of temple-building cease; and the reactionary influences at work in the far-distant court, always adverse to the resuscitation of a subdued nation, like the Jews, which had given such proofs of inveterate independence. Beneath the irresistible pressure of these hostile forces the work of temple-building had already ceased for fifteen years, and there was every fear that the new resolve to arise and build would meet with similar opposition and a similar fate. There was singular appropriateness, therefore, in the prophet's vision: "Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns."

In the language of a pastoral people like the Jews, the horn naturally represents the pride and power of the ravager and oppressor of the flock. The Divine Shepherd is heard from the very horns of the wild oxen (Psalms 22:21); and Daniel speaks of the horn which made war with the saints and overcame them, until the Ancient of Days came. The wild fury of man against the people of God is aptly described by the irruption of a herd of tusked boars, by the charge of the rhinoceros, or the rush of the wild ox on a harmless, defenceless flock, which has no power of resistance, but only of flight.

The number four reminds us of the cardinal points of the compass, and indicates that, wherever the people turned, there were foes, which were sworn to resist their attempt to renew their national life. On the north, Chaldea, Assyria, and Samaria; on the south, Egypt and Arabia; on the west, Philistia; and on the east, Ammon and Moab. And it is probable that the Spirit of God looked beyond these to the four great Gentile monarchies, which have occupied, and still occupy, the "Times of the Gentiles," and which were represented in the four metals of Daniel's vision, or in the four great beasts, which one after another emerged from the sea.
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
III.  THE SECOND MISSION
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

As yet Babylon and Medo-Persia alone had arisen; Greece and Rome, the latter including the kingdoms of modern Europe, were to come; but all were included in this one comprehensive glance at the kings of the earth, which set themselves, and the rulers who took counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying: Let us break their bands asunder, And cast away their cords from us.

We must not forget that God Himself gave these world-powers their authority. He says, in Isaiah, "I was wroth with my people; I profaned mine inheritance, and gave them into thine hand" (Isaiah 47:6-7). And in Daniel He lifts the vail and shows that the world-rulers represent not flesh and blood merely, but malign and mighty spirits that actuate and inspire them (Daniel10:13-20). As long as God's people are perfect in their loyalty and obedience towards Him, they need fear the power of no adversary whatsoever; but when there is a break in the holy connection which binds Him and them in an inviolable safety, it seems as though all the forces of evil are set free to bear down on and ravage them, until their chastisement is completed, and they return to their first love.

If we were asked to name the four horns which are ravaging the Church in the present day, we should not hesitate to say that they are Priestcraft, Worldliness, Christian Science, and Spiritualism.

Priestcraft, which substitutes the priest for the living Saviour; rites for faith; and the sacrifice of the Mass for that once offered and finished on the cross; and which is corrupting and undermining, by the accursed system of the confessional, the home-life of our country, as it has that of every nation which has fallen under its blighting scourge.

Worldliness, to which our Lord alludes in his description of the lusts, the strong desires for other things, which enter into competition with the seed sown in our hearts, and make it unfruitful.

Christian Science, which, under the specious use of Christian terms, really eviscerates Christianity of its essential doctrines, making sin an illusion and its penalty a mortal dream; denying the Atonement, and the true nature of Jesus Christ; and teaching men to look on sin, sickness, and death, as matters of wrong thinking rather than wrong being and doing.

Spiritualism, which reduces Christ to the level of a medium, and works lying wonders by the aid of seducing spirits.
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
III.  THE SECOND MISSION
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

As we look on these and kindred evils which are just now invading and ravaging the professing Church, we may well adopt the words of the prophet: "And I said unto the Angel that talked with me, What are these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

In every life there are similar experiences. Sometimes, when we lift up our eyes, we find ourselves begirt with opposition and threatened by hostile powers. Think of the martyr-host who have witnessed for God in every age, and who could reiterate the words of the greatest Sufferer of all, "Many bulls have compassed Me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset Me round about; they gape upon Me with their mouth as a ravening and a roaring lion." Ignatius, who complains that his custodians were like "ten leopards, who only wax worse when they are kindly treated"; Blandina, the girl slave; Germanicus, the noble youth; the Waldenses, whose wrongs roused Cromwell's wrath and Milton's muse; the Netherlands, in their long conflict with Philip, when the leaders saw their homes covered again by the ocean from which their ancestors had redeemed them; Madame Guyon, beset by husband, mother-in-law, servants and priests; Samuel Rutherford, and hundreds of his time, harried by the fiercest and most insatiable hate; William Tyndale, the celebrated translator of the English Bible; John G. Paton, beset with savages -- these are specimens of a multitude, which no man can number, of every nation, and kindred, and people, who have seen the vision of the four horns.

But there is something beyond; and surely it is not without significance that the prophet says: "The Lord showed me four carpenters" (or smiths, R.V.). We have no difficulty in descrying the sources of alarm for ourselves; but we need a Divine Hand to reveal our assured deliverance. "And Elisha prayed and said: Lord, I pray Thee open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."

For Babylon, the "carpenter" was Cyrus; for Persia, Alexander; for Greece, the Roman; for Rome, the Gaul. Very different from each other, very ruthless and unsparing; but very well adapted for their work. Commenting on this, Comfort ye, comfort ye, saith thy God. "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In overflowing wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." The late C. H. Spurgeon said: "He who wants to open an oyster must not use a razor; for some works there needs less of daintiness and more of force; Providence does not find clerks, or architects, or gentlemen, to cut off horns, but carpenters. The work needs a man who, when he has work to do, puts his whole strength into it, and beats away with his hammer, or cuts through the wood that lies before him with might and main. Let us not fear for the cause of God; when the horns become too troublesome, the carpenters will be forthcoming to fray them."

Remember how in every age He has found his appropriate messenger. Athanasius frayed Arianism, and Augustine Manichaeism; Luther frayed the power of the Pope in Germany, and rough Hugh Latimer in England; Wesley and Whitefield frayed the religious indifference of the last century. When Haldane went to Geneva, he frayed the scepticism which was destroying the Helvetian and Gallic Churches. The Lord knows where to find his servants, and when the predestined hour strikes, there will stand the workman ready. "These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head; but these are come to fray them, to cast down the horns of the nations which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it."

O child of God! there have been many horns engaged in scattering thee. Year after year they have wrought sad havoc in thy plans, and cost thee bitter tears. But thine Almighty Friend is greatly displeased that they have hurt thee more than his purposes of chastisement required, and He has resolved that they shall be frayed. He is well able to do this; for He hath sworn that no weapon which is formed against thee shall prosper, and that every tongue which shall rise in judgment against thee shall be condemned. Since the discipline has fulfilled its purpose, it shall be stayed; since the refining fire has purged out the dross, it shall die down; since the winnowing fan has purged the chaff from the wheat, the grain shall no longer be tossed in the breeze.
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
IV.  THE MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

(Zechariah 2:1-13.)

A THIRD vision was granted to Zechariah. "I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand."

It was natural enough. We dream of what occupies our waking thoughts; and probably Jerusalem was full of surveyors, engaged in mapping out the new streets and walls.

Some feeble attempts had already been made towards rebuilding; but as yet the ancient sites were principally distinguished by blackened walls and heaps of ruins. The walls of the city, especially, resembled the rubble of a quarry. At last, however, the national pride was awakening the common interest of citizens for their city, of patriots for their fatherland; and the young man with the measuring line in his hand was the fitting embodiment of this new spirit which was breathing throughout the nation.

"Then said I, Whither goest thou? And 'he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof." It was as though he were defining the limits of the future city, indicating the direction the walls should take, and where they should stay. "Thus far," he kept saying to himself. "The city will never get beyond this boundary line. Grow as it may, it will never exceed this." How apt we are to do this. We are all given to forecasting the future, and place limits, which God has never designed, on the growth of the City of God.

The Sacramentarian comes with his measuring line, and insists that Baptism, however administered, and by whomsoever, is the limit; and that all the baptized, Protestants, Roman Catholics, or of the Greek Church, are included in God's City; but he refuses to include the member of the Society of Friends, or the adherent of the Salvation Army. Slightly modifying the ancient challenge, he says, "Except ye be baptized, ye cannot be saved."
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
IV.  THE MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

The Pessimist comes with his measuring line, and draws the plan of the City within the narrowest possible boundaries. He justifies his forecast by quoting such a text as "Fear not, little fleck"; or "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Sometimes he fears that he will not enter; at other times he doubts all others but himself. It may be that depression of spirit, or long removal from contact with the manifold activities of God in the world, induce these morbid views -- as with Elijah, who thought that he only was left.

The Bigot comes with his measuring line and insists that the City walls must coincide with his shibboleth, and follow the tracings of his creed. We have known men much given to splitting hairs, and making minute and often imaginary distinctions, who have excommunicated all who did not exactly agree with them. Very narrow is the enclosure they mark out for future populations, and very scant their acreage of the Holy City.

The Experimentalist is apt to refuse to consider as Christians those who have not experienced exactly the same doubts, fears, ecstacies, deliverances, and cleansings, which he himself has felt. Before a man may be included in his city, he must have gone through a series of defined and successive steps or chambers in the divine life.

The Universalist goes to the other extreme, and practically builds his walls around the entire race of man, including within their circumference every member of the human family.

It is not for us to fix the boundaries, or insist on our conceptions. These are secret things which belong to the Lord our God. On the one hand, He only knows if those who call themselves and are considered Christians are really so; and He only can detect the seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal or kissed his image. "Lord," said the apostles on one occasion, "are there few that be saved?" And the Master made answer, as though to turn away their inquiry, "Strive ye to enter in." It is not for us to measure the city, but to be sure that we have entered in.

"Run," said another angel to the prophet's angel-guide, "speak to this young man (i.e., who had the measuring line) saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, by reason of the multitude of men and cattle therein." It was useless to mark out boundaries, because the city was destined to exceed all ordinary dimensions, and become so great that no walls would be capable of containing or keeping pace with it. The mighty populations that would congregate at that sacred centre would overflow all limitations, as London has radiated to every point of the compass beyond the narrow enclosure of its ancient walls. It is hard to imagine the time when our own metropolis was contained between London Wall and the Thames.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
IV.  THE MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

So shall it be with the saved. We have no right to include in their ranks any who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, who have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil But apart from these, there will be a multitude which no man can number, out of every nation and of all tribes, and peoples, and tongues; as stars in the midnight sky, or the sand-grains on the seashore; enough to compensate for the travail of the Redeemer's soul, and to satisfy the yearning love of God. But here an objection might be raised. If the Holy City was to be without walls, would it not be open to every assailant? What would there be to afford a cover for the soldier, or hinder the advance of the spoiler? Supposing that the enemy should say, "I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at quiet, that dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates: to take the spoil, and to take the prey" (Ezekiel 38:11)! How then would Israel fare? No sooner is the suggestion made than it is met. "I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her." The image is probably borrowed from the camp-fires with which hunters surround themselves at night to scare off the beasts of prey. Imagine what that means! Just as no pestilence, and certainly no intruder, could break through a cordon of flame, so the unseen but almighty presence of God would be a bulwark on which all the powers of earth and hell would break to their own undoing.

This is what every congregation 6f believers may perpetually enjoy. They may be situated in the midst of the ancient civilisation of China, or the rude heathenism of West Africa; no walls of wealth, or worldly influence, or prestige may engird them: but they will be absolutely safe, because that cordon of Divine and inviolable protection will enclose them on every side. God will be to them all that walls can be, and more. Indeed, it is better to dwell in an undefended, unwalled city; because we are made more conscious of, and more dependent upon, the environing presence of the Eternal. Surely, the same thought was in the apostle's mind when he gloried and took pleasure in weaknesses, injuries, necessities, persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake; because, when he was weak, then he was strong.
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