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The state of Judea at the period of the Messiah's Advent, conveyed to us in terms illustrative of the Domestic Constitution, and the extreme degeneracy of the Nation.

AMONG the various remarkable eras, to which the attention of man can be directed, there is not one to be compared, in point of interest or importance, with that in which the Saviour entered our world. The state of all nations, in remote or immediate connection with this mysterious event, may be and should be investigated; but the sources from whence information can be drawn, though not vague or uncertain, are opened chiefly to the learned and the studious. The moral and religious condition of that peculiar people, among whom He condescended to appear, is however not so veiled in obscurity; nay, it is remarkable that, to infinite wisdom, it seemed meet to foretell minutely, not only the time and circumstances of the Saviour's appearance, but the precise state of the Jewish nation at the moment of his advent. The volume of prophecy teems with references to this period:

even the close of the Old Testament is intended to describe the opening of the New; and the very last words of the last of the prophets, direct the eye to the harbinger of the Sun of Righteousness :—He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.

The phraseology adopted by Malachi, on this occasion, is certainly of a peculiar character; and it deserves more attention, from its being intended to describe the melancholy state of the Jewish nation, immediately preceding our Saviour's actual appearance in it. On the general complexion of society, it looks very hard; and even as though it were intended, by a master-stroke of the prophetic pencil, to depict wherein the greatest demoralization of a nation consists, the dissolution of the Family compact. At the same moment, however, it points out the only way in which the tone of society may be restored; the only way in which, under such sad and degenerate circumstances, a general improvement may be attained, or at least an effectual one, so far as it goes.

But why, it may be inquired, adopt such a phraseology? Why not fix upon some of the other links in the chain of being; some of the other relative connections? Why not have said, He shall turn the heart of the masters to the servants, and the heart of servants to their masters,― the heart of kings, or of governors, to their subjects, and the heart of subjects to their rulers? If the general prevalence of religion throughout a nation be the object, would not this be a much more effectual method, and more likely to produce a permanent and public change? To all this I reply, without hesitation, in the negative. The precise terms of divine revelation are of great moment, and for them, as well as for the order in which these terms are introduced to our notice, the strongest arguments may, in numberless cases, be adduced, and so it seems here.

1. Such a phraseology most effectually embraces the body of a nation. Indeed, whatever may be the civil, the moral, or the religious condition, it at once fixes the mind on the broad surface of human society all over the world. The proportion of individuals who sustain neither of these relations is comparatively insignificant, while nearly the whole of human existence in this world is also embraced by the terms employed. How short, in almost all instances, is the period in which man sustains neither of these endearing relations! Suppose a man to be miserable first as a child, in consequence of the misconduct of his parents, and then miserable as a parent, in consequence of the misconduct of his children, and with him what a small proportion of the wick of 'life's poor shallow lamp' has burned brightly! Such a man may be said, never to have eaten with pleasure;' for so small is the space which you have left him to enjoy, that you may almost close the account by adding,-" all his days are sorrow, and his travail grief."

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2. The terms employed by Malachi have the advantage of presenting the individuals of any, or of every nation, and especially the Jewish people at that period, in one of the most affecting and solemn points of view.

'Fathers' and ' children,' are terms which remind us, not of consanguinity only, but of different periods in human existence: the former, now descending into the vale of years, are followed by the latter, all joyous and sportive, in the morning of their days; the sun which is rising on the one party, is now declining or setting on the other. This, too, is the generation going away, and the generation coming, between whom there exist connections of the most serious and important nature. It is the generation who ought to be distinguished for hearts of tenderness and for grey experience; who, after having trod

den the greater part of this weary pilgrimage, are going away'-away to meet their Judge: and it is the generation following after them, in the same solemn path.

3. This division of a whole population may be said to enter most effectually into the heart of human society.

Not that society is uninterested in the other ties by which it is held together, and by which it may be described. Any measure which would generally or universally affect masters and servants not living under the same roof, or the governor and the governed in the same kingdom, must both engage and engross the public mind; but never can you so effectually penetrate into the whole economy of man, as by touching the hearts of both parents and children in a land. There is something at once so tender and so powerful in this relation, that, with only one exception, all others are weak in comparison. An appeal to this is irresistible. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, saith Jehovah, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." "He only is left of his mother," said Judah, "and his father loveth him." Joseph might make himself strange to his brethren, and answer roughly too; but what could he say to this?

That the terms employed by the prophet are intended to reach the core of moral disease, may be seen in a very striking and melancholy point of view, if a nation is supposed to be in a state of degeneracy; for Malachi intends to mark a period of great and general degeneracy, and stronger terms he could not employ. It has been said,

When nations are to perish in their sins,
"Tis in the church the leprosy begins.

Let this be granted; still there is a previous question. How did this leprosy commence in the church? The

church comes in contact with families; and from the bosom of those families has come the leprosy which primarily infects the church, and thus ultimately destroys the nation. As repentance and reformation in a community is found to originate with some one individual; so, did we know all, degeneracy in the church, and the torrent of immorality in a nation, might be traced to the bosom of a single family. Nor is this necessary: let only one parent relax and neglect his duty, and his example be followed, then all the powers of legislation, and all the precepts of Christianity, are in vain. The alienation, or even carelessness of the parental heart, much more the dissolution of the domestic tie, constitutes the most hopeless of all conditions: a nation cannot sink lower; for it marks the lowest step of human depravity, and just precedes the eventful moment, when God himself "smites the land with a curse." Modern times have furnished us with some dreadful illustrations. France was precisely in this state before the Revolution; and as this fretting leprosy still infests that fine country, one cannot help anticipating an evil day, which if the "hearts of the fathers are not turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers," must and will arrive. In ancient times also the fate of Sodom and the cities of the plain is awfully illustrative. Their signal overthrow may be distinctly traced to the want of family government: so, before that awful catastrophe, we find the Almighty on his way to the sad scene, calls for Abraham, saying, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that

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