Transcribed , email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
Contents:
Fathers and Children
Salvation
AGood Conscience
Names
Sponsorship
Justificationby Faith
Duty and Superstition
Sonship
TheLord’s Prayer
The Doxology
Ahaband Naboth
The Light of God
Providence
England’sStrength
The Life of God
God’sOffspring
Death in Life
Shame
Forgiveness
TheTrue Gentleman
Toleration
PublicSpirit
Malachi iv. 5, 6. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophetbefore the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And heshall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart ofthe children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth witha curse.
These words are especially solemn words. They stand in an especiallysolemn and important part of the Bible. They are the last wordsof the Old Testament. I cannot but think that it was God’swill that they should stand where they are, and nowhere else. Malachi, the prophet who wrote them, did not know perhaps that he wasthe last of the Old Testament prophets. He did not know that noprophet would arise among the Jews for 400 years, till the time whenJohn the Baptist came preaching repentance. But God knew. And by God’s ordinance these words stand at the end of the OldTestament, to make us understand the beginning of the New Testament. For the Old Testament ends by saying that God would send to the JewsElijah the prophet. And the New Testament begins by telling usof John the Baptist’s coming as a prophet, in the spirit and powerof Elias; and how the Lord Jesus himself declared plainly that Johnthe Baptist was Elijah who was to come; that is, the Elijah of whomMalachi prophesies in my text.
Therefore, we may be certain that this text tells us what John theBaptist’s work was; that John the Baptist came to turn the heartsof the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to thefathers; lest the Lord should come and smite the land with a curse.
Some may be ready to answer to this, ‘Of course John the Baptistcame to warn parents of behaving wrongly to their children, if theywere careless or cruel; and children to their parents, if they weredisobedient or ungrateful. Of course he would tell bad parentsand children to repent, just as he came to tell all other kinds of sinnersto repent. But that was only a part of John the Baptist’swork. He came to be the forerunner of the Messiah, the Saviour,the Redeemer.’
Be it so, my friends. I only hope that you really do believethat John the Baptist did come to proclaim that a Saviour was born intothe world—provided only that you remember all the while who thatSaviour was. John the Baptist tells you who He was. If youwill only remember that, and get the thought of it into your hearts,you will not be inclined to put any words of your own in place of theprophet Malachi’s, or to fancy that you can describe better thanMalachi what John the Baptist’s work was to be; and that turningthe hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the childrento the fathers, was only a small part of John the Baptist’s work,instead of being, as Malachi says it was, his principal work, his verywork, the work which must be done, lest the Lord, instead of savingthe land, should come and smite it with a curse.
Yes—you must remember who it was that John the Baptist cameto bear record of, and to manifest or show to the Jews. The Angelson the first Christm