Homilist Malachi 2:9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways… The priesthood of Israel is referred to. No greater calamity could happen to a community than this. I. A CALAMITY TO ALL PARTIES. 1. To the priests. Few things are more painful to man than social contempt. It divests a man of esteem, confidence, and influence. 2. To the community. The highest educational instrumentality in a country is that which religious ministers are appointed to employ. In every way they are to cultivate the spiritual natures of their contemporaries. When they become socially contemptible, they are stripped of all power for this. The hearts of the people recoil from them with disgust. II. A CALAMITY TO WHICH THE RELIGIOUS MINISTRY IS LIABLE. There are moral elements at work amongst the clergy of all denominations which have a tendency to bring about this lamentable state of things. 1. Ignorance. 2. Greed. 3. Bigotry. 4. Sycophancy. III. A CALAMITY THAT IS MANIFESTLY TRANSPIRING IN OUR COUNTRY. The decrease in the numbers of those who attend churches: the growth of a literature in thorough antagonism to the spirit and aims of Christianity: and the fact that the great bulk of the reading and thinking men of England stand aloof from all churches, plainly show that the pulpit of England is sinking into popular contempt. The ' salt" of the pulpit has lost its savour, and it is being trodden under foot with disdain and contempt. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law. |
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