0 glory of the lighted mind
How dead I'd been, how dumb, how blind. The station brook, to my new eyes, Was babbling out of Paradise, The waters rushing from the rain Were singing Christ has risen again.
1 thought all earthly creatures knelt From rapture of the joy I felt.
The narrow station-wall's brick ledge, The wild hop withering in the hedge, The lights in huntsman's upper storey, . . Were parts of an eternal glory, Were God's eternal garden flowers. I stood in bliss at this for hours.3
1 W. James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 248.
2 F. W. Bourne, The King's Son — A Memoir of Billy Bray, 9. 8 John Masefield, The Everlasting Mercy, 97.
Life from the Dead.
t3»
Literature.
Bonar (H.), Light and Truth : Old Testament, 317.
Brooke (S. A.), The Kingship of Love, 309.
Davidson (A. B.), The Book of Ezekiel (Cambridge Bible), 266.
Dixon (A. C), Through Night to Morning, 127.
Forsyth (P. T.), Missions in State and Church, 291.
Gollancz (H.), Sermons and Addresses, 1.
Hare (J. C), Sermons Preacht in Herstmonceux Church, ii. 419.
Jowett (J. H.), Things that Matter Most, 163.
Laidlaw (J.), Studies in the Parables, 207.
Lamb (R.), School Sermons, i. 347.
Liddon (H. P.), Foiiy-Two Sermons Selected from the Penny Pulpit, iii.,
No. 1047. Lusbington (F. de W.), Sermons to Young Boys, 76. McFadyen (J. E.), The City with Foundations, 73. Macgregor (W. M.), Some of God's Ministries, 203. Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Ezekiel to Malacbi, 26. McNeill (J.), Regent Square Pulpit, iii. 97. Manning (H. E.), Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects, i. 417. Parker (J.), Studies in Texts, ii. 52. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, v. 217. Pulsford (J.), Our Deathless Hope, 278. Skinner (J.), The Book of Ezekiel (Expositor's Bible), 342. Trench (R. C), Sermons Preached for the Most Part in Ireland, 348. Tuckwell (W.), Nuggets from the Bible Mine, 128. Vaughan (C. J.), Sundays in the Temple, 235. Virgin (S. H.), Spiritual Sanity, 126. Cambridge Review, iv., Supplement No. 97 (J. Mitchinson). Christian World Pulpit, xxvi. 377 (F. W. Farrar) ; xliii. 267 (G. S.
Barrett) ; lxxxv. 234 (A. F. Moody). Church of England Pulpit, xxxii. 289 (J. L. Roberts). Church Pulpit Year Book, 1914, p. 257. Churchman's Pulpit : Easter Day and Season, vii. 400 (C. H. Prichard) ;
Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, xiii. 16 (R. Winterbotham) ;
Mission Work, i. 77 (J. L. Roberts). Treasury (New York), xii. 208 (J. M. Dickson).
33a
Life from the Dead.
And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live ? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.— Ezek. xxxvii. 3.
1. Theke is perhaps no passage in all the Bible which, for weird imaginative power, surpasses Ezekiel's Vision of Dry Bones. By means that are as simple as simple can be, he transports us into a veritable valley of death, and the gloom and the horror of it enter our souls. We shall let the prophet himself lead us into the valley, and tell us what he saw, and how he felt, and what the vision did for him. This is the story in his own words, with something of their muffled music :
Jehovah touched me with His mighty hand,
And bore me in the spirit to a valley,
And in the midst thereof He set me down,
And it was full of bones ; and round and round
Among the bones He led me. And, behold*
Thickly they lay upon the valley's face,
Exceeding many and exceeding dry.
Then thus He spake to me : "0 child of man !
Can these bones live ? " "0 Lord," I said, " Thou knowest."
" Lift up thy voice," He said, " and prophesy
Upon these bones, and in these words address them:
'Ye dry bones, listen to Jehovah's word.'
Thus saith Jehovah to these bones, ' Behold !
I will breathe into you the breath of life,
Sinews and flesh will I bring up on you,
And I will cover you with skin, and put
The breath of life in you: then ye shall know
That I am God the Lord Omnipotent.'"
Straightway I prophesied as I was bidden,
And, as I prophesied, behold ! a shaking !
Each several bone drew near unto his fellow.
And, as I gazed, behold ! there came upon them
Sinews and flesh and skin to cover them.
234 LIFE FROM THE DEAD
But still within them was no breath of life. " Lift up thy voice," He said, " and prophesy. Speak to the wind, thou child of man, and say, • Thus saith the Lord Omnipotent : 0 wind ! Come hither from all quarters of the heavens, And breathe upon these slain that they may live."' So then I prophesied as He had bade me, And into them there came the breath of life; As living men, they stood upon their feet — A mighty host and great exceedingly.1
This picture is not drawn from the Divina Commedia of Italy's favourite poet ; it is not a reproduction of any of Lord Leighton's works ; it is a canvas from an older collection of paintings, so often stowed away, neglected, and forgotten amid the dust of the cellars of the world's academies and picture-galleries. Nevertheless, even to those possessed simply of artistic feeling, devoid of sentiment or religious spirit, there is a pathos and beauty contained in these words of the prophet Ezekiel which it would be difficult to surpass, or even to equal.