said 'the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built',

yet Haggai as the mouthpiece of the Lord asked:

'Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this

house lie waste?' (Hag. 1:4).

Dispensational truth must run on all fours.  If we live in a

dispensation characterized by 'All Spiritual blessings', dispensational truth

demands that we shall not, at the same time, expect or aim at 'blessings in

basket or store'.  If dispensational truth tells us to set our affection on

things above, and teaches us that our Citizenship is there, it will expect us

to react, as did Abraham, and confess that we are 'strangers and pilgrims on

the earth'.  We cannot have things both ways.

Haggai calls upon the people to 'consider' their ways, or as the Hebrew

has it, 'set your heart' on your ways, a call which the prophet makes five

times over:

'Set your heart on your ways' (1:5).

'Ye have sown much, and bring in

little' (1:6).

'Set your heart on your ways' (1:7).

'Ye looked for much, and, lo, it

came to little' (1:9).

'Set your heart from this day' (2:15).

'Before a stone was laid'

'Set your heart now from this day' (2:18).  'From the day that the

foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, set your heart to it ... from

this day will I bless you' (2:18,19).

What had their self -seeking and fearfulness brought?

'He that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes'

a text that could be used with profit at many a conference claiming higher

wages today.  The value of a wage is to be computed in what it will buy, any

other computation is uneconomic.  In the newspaper on this day of writing is

a headline 'The Little Man's Budget' and shows how a steelworker with a wife

and one small child spends his weekly wage of oe7 0s 5d. (oe7 2 newpence), a

sum of money if it had been earned in the days of our own boyhood would have

spelled wealth and affluence!

'Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it

home, I did blow upon it.  Why? saith the Lord of hosts.  Because of

Mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house'

(Hag. 1:9).

It is a noteworthy feature in the outworking of the purpose of God,

that Israel's fortunes are linked with the 'house of the Lord'.

In Part 2 of this Alphabetical Analysis, the reader will find an

article entitled House2 which is devoted to the evident relation which

Scripture reveals, of this association of the house of the Lord, and the

nation of Israel.  Also a complete survey of history from David (1 Chron. 28)

to the edict of Cyrus (2 Chron. 36) is set out in structure form in this same