Thus far in the history of the world, every age or dispensation has come to a close in a similar manner. In the end of each age there is a climax of wickedness on the part of mankind, and a decline or falling away of a majority of those who profess to serve God, calling forth the judgments of God; and on the other hand an intense religious heroism and devotion on the part of the few who have constituted the jewels of God gathered out from the wreckage of that dispensation. Such was the case when God took Abraham and Sarah from the Nimrod age, and such was the case when God gathered the Hebrews from the wreckage of the wicked nations of Egypt and Canaan, and such was the case at the close of the Jewish age when He gathered the little company in the upper room at Pentecost, and such will be the case at the end of this age.

The prophecy of Malachi draws a picture which very accurately fitted in with the close of the Jewish age, and will just as truly fit in with the close of the church age. After describing the terrible condition in the nation, he gives us an account of a little band of holy ones that met frequently for prayer and religious conversation. "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not." Mai. 3:16-18.

These verses present all the features applicable to God's true saints at the winding up of every age; and they are to have their perfect accomplishment at the approaching close of the present Church Age. Let us notice these words in detail.

1. "They that feared the Lord." The word "fear" is the Old Testament term for the expression of godliness and holiness as the word "love" is the more special term used in the New Testament. The Old Testament standard was "walking in the fear of the Lord all the day long," but the New Testament standard is "walking in love as God's dear children." This kind of fear is not the slavish, tormenting fear, which is to be cast out by perfect love, but the basis of reverence and a dread of sin, out of which comes godliness. It is that fear which is 'The beginning of wisdom." Fear and love are the two hemispheres to holiness. Fear is the law side, and love is the grace side. Fear by itself would lead to sadness, and love by itself would lead to license. Fear is the root, and love is the tree. Fear runs down into the dark, cool shadows of the earth, and takes firm hold on the rocks of truth, while love runs up in the sunlight, bearing bloom and fruit. Fear gives stamina to the gentleness of love. Fear is the buckram in the white robe of holiness. We really fear those most whom we love most. Thus fear is the Old Testament form of love, and love is the New Testament form of fear.

2. "They spake often one to another.'' Religious conversation, personal testimony to the inward operations of Divine grace, is the badge of all true piety, and has marked every period of religious revival in the history of the world.

With the death of the class meeting among the Methodists is the death of all their fruitfulness. Verbal testimony to heart felt salvation is a double necessity, for in the first place out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak, and in the second place if the testimony is stopped, the grace will leak out of the heart. It is thrilling to read the history of the various revivals through the dark ages, among the Waldenses, the French huguenots, the German reformers, the Scotch covenanters, the early Quakers, and then the Methodists, and now in the modern holiness movement, and trace the same feature among them all, of reaction from formalism, and of personal testimony to the inward work of the Holy Spirit. Just as fire will die without ventilation, so the heat and power of Divine love will die out of the heart without testimony. Malachi distinctly intimates that this religious mark of talking about salvation, and giving personal testimony to it will, in a special way, distinguish the holy ones who will comprise God's jewels in that day when Christ comes. That will be a sad day for the great multitude of church members who have no relish for conversing on holiness, and no testimony to the cleansing blood of the Lamb.

3. "The Lord heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him." God appreciates being praised and loved, and every testimony to salvation spreads the honor of His Son, and magnifies, and advertises His grace. Hence in all generations He has had His recording angels keep an accurate record of the religious conversations and testimonies of His people. This "book of remembrance" referred to here, is not the same as the Book of Life. The Apostle John shows us the difference between the Book of Life, which simply registers the names of those who are saved, and tells us there were other books out of which the great and the small are to be judged, according to their works (Rev. 20: 12). We must distinguish between the simple fact of being saved and the receiving of rewards. Salvation is by faith, but rewards are always according to works. Salvation is received in the present moment, but according to Scripture, no servant of God is ever rewarded till the second coming of Christ (Rev. 22: 12).

Salvation is received secretly in the heart, but the reward will be open and visible (Matt. 6:6).

All the saints in heaven will be equally saved from sin, but there will be well-nigh an infinity of variety and degrees of rewards. In order to get a Scripture idea of this book of remembrance, out of which the saints will each receive his appropriate reward, let us notice an incident in the life of Queen Esther. Haman had plotted to kill the Jews, and the saintly old Mordecai and the other Jews had fasted and prayed for deliverance.

The night before, King Ahasuerus could not sleep, and thinking that something had gone wrong in his government, he called for the book of records in which the daily chronicles of the government were kept. On reading this book of remembrance, he found that the humble Mordecai had never been rewarded for delivering the king's life from a plot of murderers, and at once had the good man exalted and rewarded for his fidelity. In a similar way the government of God is conducted according to absolute justice to every creature, both as to rewards and punishments.

There are certain things of a temporal nature which are rewarded or punished in this life, but those things which are spiritual have their rewards or punishments in the age to come. These rewards for God's people will extend down to the infinitesimal things, as our Savior tells us, even to our words, or a cup of cold water. And Malachi says that the book of remembrance is written for those who feared the Lord, and thought upon His name. God's name is His character, including all of His blessed perfections, and every time that one of His servants deliberately fastens his thought upon God in loving meditation, or adoring fear, it is registered in the book of remembrance. In the sight of God a thought is an act, and if His punishments extend down to evil thoughts, so His bright and beautiful rewards are to be bestowed upon every act of mental worship.

Holy fear is in the heart, and worshipful thoughts are in the mind, and these are the two poles of that current of loving fire which marks a life of entire devotion to Jesus, it our thoughts upon God are recognized and registered by Him as acts of loving worship, and it is so easy to think of Him, and if we can think of Him under all circumstances, and in every position of life, why are we not pouring out around His blessed throne ceaseless showers of bright, silvery thoughts to gladden His heart, and repay Him in some small measure, for that eternal sea of thought which He has constantly poured over us from everlasting?

4. ''They shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels," or as the margin reads, my "special treasures."� The expression "they shall be mine"� does not imply that they are not already the Lord's, but that when Jesus returns they shall be His by open acceptance of them, and they shall be blessedly and eternally appropriated as His special property forever. We say the crown of a kingdom belongs to the heir apparent, but on the day of coronation the crown becomes his by an august and public act of approbation; and so the saints are to be publicly appropriated as the Lord's possession in the day of His return. The expression "the day"� refers to the second coming of Christ, called "the day of the Lord,"� that is the dispensation of His open, manifested glory and kingdom on earth. The expression, "make up my jewels,"� refers to the gathering together the elect saints of all generations, and forming them into that glorious portable city which St. John says is the Bride of the Lamb.

Every one who is saved from hell and sin is a treasure to God, but this word refers to a class whose entire devotion made them "special treasures,"� or "crown jewel" that are to fill the highest rank in me coming kingdom. The Scriptures abundantly teach that not all of the saved ones compose the Bride of the Lamb, but that in every generation there have been those who were entirely yielded to God, sanctified by His Spirit, who had the martyr metal in them, and these are to compose the queenly company who sit by Christ's side in the coming age, "dressed in the gold of Ophir,'' who "are to be the princes of all the earth"; and beside this company there are others spoken of as "honorable women," and as "the daughter of Tyre," and as "the virgins her companions." Psalm 45: 9-16.

5. "I will spare them as a man spareth his own son." What can this mean? It does not refer to sparing them from hell, for all the saved ones are spared from that place. It does not mean from death, for millions of holy ones have died. It must refer to sparing them from some calamity or form of judgment that not only sinners have but that unfaithful servants pass through. It would seem clear that it refers to sparing the most devoted saints from the great tribulation judgments, similar to taking in the five wise virgins, and leaving on the outside the virgins who had no oil and went into the tribulation. But how can this be applied to all those who have died? We know not the details, but it is positively affirmed in the Scripture, that among all the saved ones, whether dead or alive, at Christ's coming some will have advantages, honors and blessings, that others do not have. The apostle speaks of those who will be saved, and yet says, "they shall suffer ' I Cor. 3:12-15. Thus the jewel saints are spared from these losses, and if living, sparet from the great tribulation.

6. ''Then shall ye return." This dictates clearly that the real saints of the Lord are first gathered out from the earth, and taken away from that awful period of tribulation, which Jesus says is to exceed anything the world has ever known, and then afterward are to return back to the earth with their Master.

There is no way possible to understand the reading of the Scripture, except in the light of the pre-millennial coming of Jesus.

7. "Ye shall discern between the righteous and the wicked."� That is, after the saints, who have been spared from the tribulation judgments, return with their Lord back to the earth, they having been glorified, will be endowed with all spiritual gifts, including judicial authority, to have power over the nations. The word "discern"� implies perfect spiritual vision, to read the secrets of men's souls as quickly and as easily as you discern colors in a landscape. The New Testament words to "judge"� and to "discern"� are the same words in the Greek. Hence this passage from Malachi positively affirms that the crown jewel saints are to "return'' back to this earth with spiritual gifts and power to discern and judge all the nations that survive the tribulation period, and these high honors of "judging the world,"� as Paul says, will be a part o>f those magnificent rewards for having feared the name, and having frequently "spoken one to another"� about God, and for all their good deeds which were recorded in the book of remembrance.