Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/233

 begin with; and they regarded them, not only as intrinsi cally meritorious, but as an end in themselves rather than as the means of turning away from self and all idea of self-merit to the grace of God. And not only in their fasts but also in their feasts there was the same concentration on self and regardlessness of God. "And when ye eat and when ye drink, do not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? " which is the very opposite of the apostolic exhortation, which really sums up the intention and spirit of the many precepts and commandments of the law " Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God"

But apart from the special message which they conveyed to those to whom they were originally addressed, and their application to the Jewish people at the time, there is a solemn lesson in these words which men at the present time, both Jews and Christians, should lay to heart. Are there not thousands now who are very zealous and regular in religious observances, and who think that they are acquiring great merit before God, to whom Christ in that day will say, " Depart from Me; I never knew you? " Did ye at all do it unto Me, even Me? Was it not for the most part will-worship and mere religiousness, without any knowledge of, or real regard for, the will of God?

The 7th verse begins in the Hebrew with the words, Halo eth haddebharim asher qara Yehovah to which most translators and commentators have supplied a verb, on the supposition that the sentence is elliptical, and have rendered it, " Should ye not hear the words which Jehovah hath cried," as the Authorised and Revised Versions do; or, " Should ye not do the words," etc., as Maurer and others translate; or, " Do ye not know the words," according to Ewald, Koehler, Pusey, and others. But the sentence is also capable of another rendering, which we are inclined to think is the correct one, namely: "Are not these the very things which Jehovah cried (that, is did He not have the same complaints to make, and the same remonstrances to