n11en be learnt how the children of Israel had gone astray in the matter of the mixed marriages, he was overwhelmed with strong and profound feeling. There was- I. DISMAY AT THE PRESENCE OF SIN (ver. 5). He sat "astonished until the evening sacrifice" (ver. 4), having just given way to an Oriental exhibition of ertreme agitation (ver. 3). This blow se~ms to have stunned him. He was simply chsmayed, appalled. Afier a burst of grief he sat overwhelmed with a sense of the exceeding great folly and iniquity of the people. II. SHAME UNDER A SENSE OF SIN (vers. 5, 6, 15). Placing himself in penitential attitude, he addressed himself to God, and said, " 0 my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face t.o thee "(ver. 6). He went on to identify himself (though per- sonally guiltless) v.ith his people: "Our iniquities,'' &c. (ver. 6). "We are before thee in our trespasses" (ver. 15). And he concluded by saying," We cannot stand before thee because of this" (ver. 15). Such was his intense fellow-feeling and sympathy with those whom he was serving, that he felt overwhelmed with shame under a consciousness of their guilt. Sin, the sin of our family, of our city, of our country. of our race-quite apart from our personal share in it-is a shameful thing, something to humiliate us and cause us " confusion of face." III. FEAR OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. "Wouldest thou not be angry with ue till thou hadst consumed us," &c. (ver. 14). He lamented that the brief sunshine they were enjoying would probably disappear, in God's rekindled wrath, in utter darkness. God's mercy was for a space encompassing them, and now they were going to throw it, desperately and wantonly, away. No sooner were they out of bondage than they were inviting the great Disposer, in his righteousness, to send them back into cap- tivity. Sin had ruined them before, and would surely ruin them again, and this time utterly and completely (vers. 7, 8, 9, 14). What insensate folly I We may look at sensibility in respect of sin as it relates to--1. Owr Divine Lord himself. He became man in order that he might suJfer in our stead ; in order that, as man, be might bear the penalty we must otherwise have borne. • The Sinless One was never conscious of sin, nor yet of shame as we know it; but by becoming a member of our race, thus entering into perfect fellowship and intense sympathy with us, be could be affected, sorrowfully and sadly, by a sense of human sin. He did, in a way necessarily mysterious to us, thus suJfer for us. It was to his soul a dreadful, horrible, shameful thing that mankind-to whose family be belonged, and of which be was a member-should have sinned so grievously as it had. 2. Our oum souls. It is well for us indeed when we have come to feel the shamefulness of our own sin. The heart that, thus affected, can say," 0 my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee" (ver. 6), is in that state of contrition, of poverty of spirit, " of which is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. v. 3); Sin is shame- ful because (1) it is the act of those who owe everything they are and have to God, and (2) it is directed against him who bas (a) multiplied bis mercies unto us in so many ways, and (b) borne so long with us, and (c) done and, suJfered, in Christ, so much to reclaim us; and because (3) it is continued in spite of our knowledge of what is right, reasonable, and beneficial. 3. Our fellows. . We may well be sympatheti- cally affected by the sins of others-our kindred, our fellow-citizens, our fellow-men. Rivers of water i;bould run down our eyes because men keep not bis law. We may well be ashamed and appalled, and pour out our souls to God, under a sense of the guilt of the world.-C.
Ver. 5.-Tlte dawn of hope. Here is a graphic scene. Behold Ezra, the chief man of his nation, and a prince of the Persian Empire, with bis garment and his mantle rent, bis hair and beard tom and disordered, bowed in silent grief, and sur- rounded by the best men of bis people, all trembling atJLhe word of God. But lo I a ray of hope from the fire of the altar kindles in his· soul. "And at the evening sacrifice," &c. Here learn- I. THAT THE ONE WAY TO GOD IS THROUGH THE BLOOD OJI' ATONEMENT. 1. Ezra sat w,onud until tke evening sacrifice. (1) He saw the sin of his people. Its enor- mity. Its aggravations. (2) He saw the gathering storm of Divine anger. The more be reflected, the blacker became the cloud. (3) He saw no way of escape. ,a:. IX. 1-Hi.] THE BOOK OF EZRA. 149