The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 27

us see what is then needed, 1. Fresh air. The coals may have "caked." They must be stirred and broken up. One vigorous thrust with the poker may startle the dull cinders into a brisk blaze, Souls need shaking up. Crusty habits must be broken, Changes, shocks of surprise, blows of trouble, all do their work to let the air of heaven in upon the dull fire of the self-contained soul. 2. More fuel. A fire cannot live for ever on its own cinders. Old grey ashes will not burn again. Souls need fresh fuel-new truth, repeated stores of grace, food in Scripture and in Christ, nomishment from communion with God, 3. .A free vent. While the chimney is foul the fire will be dull. The upward movement of the flame of devotion may be choked by the sooty accretions of earth. It must have a free course to the sky. It must also have scope for the play of its energy in life and work. Then it will leap up bright and strong. Vers. 15-21.- Wheels of Providence. Whatever else the prophet may have under- stood by the vision of the wheels, it seems clear that some earthly things are there indicated in contrast with the heavenly cherubim. The living creatures have win~s, to soar above the earth. The wheels are constructed to run along the ground. They therefore seem to represent the Divine upon earth. I. l<'REE MOVEMENT. Each wheel has another wheel within it, seemingly set at right angles to it, so that the two are like the equator and the meridian on a globe. This construction allows of free motion in any direction. 1. Providence is in motion. Change is part of the order of nature and of life. There is a Divine progress moving on to a grand consummation. 2. This motion is free. The wheels within wheels can run in any direction. The great world does not go spinning down the grooves of change. Nature and human life are not cramped and limited to the set course of a rail way. God works in freedom, and can tum the direction of events whithersoever be choo~es. II. TERRIBLE INTELLIGENCE. The circles of the wheels are awful to behold, for they are studded with eyes. The course of nature is not blind. Every fact is stamped with. thought; every change is marked by intelligence. History also, the great course of the human world, is marked by the thought of a Divine purpose. This tbought shows adaptation to circumstances. The many-eyed wheels can see well where they are going, and so avoid disaster and make straight for their goal. But such vast and universal intelligence has an element of terror about it. Man is sure to be baffled and confounded if he is mad enough to try to outwit God's providence. Even when he submits, there must be something tremendous in the conception of a universal and all- searching gaze. IIJ. HARMONY WITH HEAVEN, The wheels always accompany the living creatures. The lower course on earth corresponds to the direction of beings whose wings sweep through heavenly regions. Heaven and earth are linked together. The same principles that are displayed above are to be seen in the Divine movements here. Thu contrast between the two worlds is only too sauly apparent on the human side; on the Divine side it does not exist. Moreover, just in proportion as men endeavour to conform to the will of God do they ruake their lives to run parallel with the holy lives of heavenly beings. '.rhus the good man's career is a partial realization of heaven upon earth. IV. SPIRITUAL DIREOTION. Like the living creatures, the wheels run whithersoever the Spirit is to go. 1. God's Spirit is on the earth. Heaven is his throne, but earth is his footstool. Nature and providence are inspired. The thought and purpose and harmony of the whole are above and beyond the blind concourse of dead matter, the wild, chaotic ruRh of uncontrolled waves of circumstance. 'l'he signs of mind in the world are not like the wave-marks found on rocks, which bear testimony to the past existence of an ocean, but only in distant geologic ages. They show a pre~ent living Spirit. 2. The reco,gnition of the presence of God's Spirit will make earth agree with lieaven. The wheels do not follow the living creatures. Both aro directed by the same Spirit. It is a vain fancy that men co.n imitate the angels of heaven. But it is a. po~si~le thing to follow the leadings of God's Spirit. In doing so earthly life is surely ass1m1lated to the life of heaven.