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exceeding great army, the breath of life in their nostrils, and the light of life in their eyes, then they will know " that I am Jehovah." For those hopeless men of whom the sapless bones are the emblem do not yet rightly know what manner of God is theirs, and how by His mighty power He can revive them again.
Tf "What precise meaning we ought to attach to expressions such as that of the prophecy to the four winds that the dry bones might be breathed upon, and might live, or why the presence of the vital power should be dependent on the chemical action of the air, and its awful passing away materially signified by the rendering up of that breath or ghost, we cannot at present know, and need not at any time dispute. What we assuredly know is that the states of life and death are different, and the first more desirable than the other, and by effort attainable, whether we understand being "born of the spirit" to signify having the breath of heaven in our flesh, or its power in our hearts.1
" Can these bones live ? " —
" God knows : The prophet saw such clothed with flesh and skin; A wind blew on them, and life entered in; They shook and rose.
Hasten the time, 0 Lord, blot out their sin, Let life begin."2
3. Observe then, the first lesson of the vision. That lesson is commonly misread, even by us, or at least read with the wrong emphasis. The object of this vision is not to produce the sense of our own spiritual helplessness. No doubt its picture of the dead — unburied, dismembered, so long dead that only bones are left; these bones so long exposed as to be bleached and dry — is appallingly vivid. But that is not the point of the Lord's answer in the vision. The real point is a challenge to God's power. The people were saying, " Our bones are dried, our hope is lost ; we are cut off for our parts." Well, said the Lord, I take you at your own terms. You talk about "dry bones." I will give My servant the prophet a vision of a whole valley covered over with dry bones; and, in face of that vision, say,
1 Ruskin, The Queen of the Air, § 55 ( Works, xix. 354). 3 Christina G. Rossetti, Poetical Works, 204.
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" Can these bones live ? " The power of God, not the helplessness of man, is the real meaning of the vision. For the prophet is so sure that the thought of such bones being brought again to life could never have come but from Him who quickeneth the dead, that he instantly replies, " 0 Lord, thou knowest."
4. And the second lesson is that the power of God is exercised through human means. " It is my power," says the Lord ; " but it is to be applied in the exercise of your ministry." So Ezekiel is bidden prophesy " upon " or " over " these bones. He is bidden address the word even to these bleached and scattered relics: " Say unto them, 0 ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord."
The turning-point of the prophet's ministry was when he bore a message declaring that the Lord would do the very thing which men themselves said was impossible. For that prophecy had a quickening power in it which brought about its own fulfilment. And so has it always proved. When God's servants tell men plainly of their " death in sin," of their utter want of power in themselves to serve the living God, and yet proclaim that God has sent His message for this very purpose, that they shall live, it brings its own fulfilment. Often men think other- wise. They call it a discouraging doctrine ! They say, " What use is there in preaching the helplessness of man ? " But that is not the kernel of our message; it is the helpfulness and the power of God. God sends His message for this very purpose — to rouse men, to draw together these bones to one another, to call to them " Arise from the dead ! " for Christ shall give them light. It is then and thus that awakeniugs, conversions, revivals have invariably followed.
Tf When Tennyson passed from school to the university, religious life in England had very much decayed. The spirit which animated Wesley, and which had fallen like the prophet's mantle on the earlier Evangelicals, had now become cold. English religion, in and out of the Church, was like the valley Ezekiel described, full of bones, and the bones were dry. And in the midst of the valley one figure, now old, who had seen the fire of religious sacrifice rise high to God in the past, who had welcomed its descent and directed it into new channels but who had outlived his enthusiasm, went to and fro, chilled at heart, and wailing for what had been. It was the soul of Coleridge,
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and if the voice of the Spirit asked him, "Son of man, can these bones live ? " he answered, but not in hope, " 0 Lord God, thou knowest." He died before he saw the resurrection which Tennyson saw, the blowing of the wind of God, and the bones coming together, and the slain breathed upon, so that they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.1