Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/320

 6. Moreover consider the parties, unknown to the era of the Theocracy, which divided the Church after the captivity; the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the rest; the necessary consequence of a relaxation of the original principle of national union. The case is the same in this day; as if the Church were already dead, new forms of organization, multiplied varieties of life and action, show themselves within her.

7. Lastly. The following texts suggest hope to all true Christians. (Hag. ii. 5—9.) According to the word that I covenanted with you, when ye came out of Egypt, so : fear ye not." He will be with us even in this base and grovelling age, as with St. Paul, St. Cyprian, and St. Athanasius.

"The glory of this latter house, saith the of Hosts."

Strange it now seems before the event, how the Church should close both with glory and yet in unbelief; yet surely, as in the history of Jerusalem, so now both predictions will be at once fulfilled. (Mal. iv. 1, 2.) "The day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all who do wickedly, shall be stubble: but unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings."

And let it be remembered, that when our Lord seems at greatest distance from His Church, then He is even at the doors. Doubtless, when the Angel appeared in the Temple to Zacharias, the news of a miraculous interposition was as great a marvel to the world at large as if it were now noised abroad of one of our own Ministers in the course of his Christian Service.