back with Zerubbabel,
and it has been suggested, though without any certainty, that he may
have been one of the old men who remembered the former house. But these
conjectures are profitless, and all that we know is that God sent him to
rouse the slackened earnestness of the people, and that his words
exercised a powerful influence in setting forward the work of
rebuilding. This passage is the second of his four short prophecies. We
may call it a vision of the glory of the future house of Jehovah.

The prophecy begins with fully admitting the depressing facts which were
chilling the popular enthusiasm. Compared with the former Temple, this
which they had begun to build could not but be 'as nothing.' So the
murmurers said, and Haggai allows that they are quite right. Note the
turn of his words: 'Who is left ... that saw this house in its former
glory?' There had been many eighteen years ago; but the old eyes that
had filled with tears then had been mostly closed by death in the
interval, and now but few survived. Perhaps if the eyes had not been so
dim with age, the rising house would not have looked so contemptible.
The pessimism of the aged is not always clear-sighted, nor their
comparisons of what was, and what is beginning to be, just. But it is
always wise to be frank in admitting the full strength of the opinions
that we oppose; and encouragements to work will never tell if they blink
difficulties or seek to deny plain facts. Haggai was wise when he began
with echoing the old men's disparagements, and in full view of them,
pealed out his brave incitements to the work.

The repetition of the one exhortation, 'Be strong, be strong, be
strong,' is very impressive. The very monotony has power. In the face of
the difficulties which beset every good work the cardinal virtue is
strength. 'To be weak is to be miserable,' and is the parent of
failures. One hears in the exhortation an echo of that to Joshua, to
whom and to his people the command 'Be strong and of good courage' was
given with like repetition (Joshua i.).

But there is nothing more futile than telling feeble men to be strong,
and trembling ones to be very courageous. Unless the exhorter can give
some means of strength and some reason for courage, his word is idle
wind. So Haggai bases his exhortation upon its sufficient ground, 'For I
am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts.' Strength is a duty, but only if we
have a source of strength available. The one basis of