HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 2.-Siege. By the remarkable symbolism described in this chapter, Ezekiel was himself assured that the metropolis of his country was about to endure the horrors of a siege, and his action was intended for a sign to the house of Israel. Jerusalem, like many of the famous cities of antiquity, and indeed of modern times, underwent th& calamity age.in and age.in. It was probably the siege by Nebuchadnezzar which was foretold by the symbol of the tile and the iron pan. To be besieged was a not uncommon incident of warfare. But the prophet of God treated this approaching catastrophe, not merely as a fact of history, but as a moral and Divine lesson. l. THE GENERAL LESSONS VIVIDLY PRESENTED BY A 0ITY ENDURING A STATE OF SIEGE. 1. Community in civic life. Every city always has its own social character- istics. Citizens take a pride in the prosperity and izlory of their city, especially if it be the metropolis of the nation. In our own time Paris was besieged by the German 11.rmy, e.nd its unity was never so realized as when thus encompe.ssed by the enemy. 2. Community in resistance and hostility. Distinctions of rank and of social position almost vanish when a common danger threatens every class alike. Each man takes his share in the defence of the city, in bearing the common burden. All are drawn 78 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [en, 1v, 1-17.
together by their community in dread or in defiance of the foe. 3. Community in tlie experwnce of suffering. Hunger and thirst, privation and want of rest, are shared by all the citizens of a beleaguered city. Men who partake the same calamity are drawn together by their common experience. The annals of a siege will usually be found to contain the record of remarkable cases of heroic unselfishness and public devotion. II. TITE SPECIAL LESSONS PRESENTED DY THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM. There may well have been manifested a community in spiritual discipline and profit. I. The vanity of human pride and ambition was strikingly exhibited. The Jews were a vain- glorious people; they possessed many distinctive marks of superiority raising them above the heathen, and they knew and boasted that it was so. They took credit to themselves for much for which they ought to have offered thanks to God. Their self- confidence and glorying were rebuked in the most emphatic manner when their fair and famed metropolis was besieged and threatened with destruction. 'l'his lesson is impressed upon their countrymen with unsparing faithfulness by the ancient Hebrew prophets. 2. Equally pointed was the lesson conveyed as to the utter vanity of merely human help. The Jews did indeed sometimes seek alliances which might befriend and assist them in their distress; but against such alliances they were repeatedly warned by the prophets, whose duty it was to assure their countrymen of the vanity of the help of man. Especially were they rebuked for seeking friendship and aid from Egypt against the forces of the Eastern foe; and they found such friend- ship hollow, and such aid ineffectual. 3. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and the people of Judah generally were, by the siege of the city, directed to seek Divine deliverance. The city might fall; its walls might be levelled with the dust; its defenders might be slain; its inhabitants decimated. But all this might be overruled for the nation's real and lasting good, should calamity and humiliation lead to repentance, should Divine favour be entreated, and a way of salvation be opened up to the remnant of the people.-T. Ver. 4.-Substitution. In order to his being a religious teacher and guardian of his nation, it was necessary that Ezekiel should enter into the state of his fellow-country- men, and even share the sufferings due to their unbelief and rebellion. The Christian reader cannot fail to discern in the prophet of the Captivity a figure by anticipation of the Lord Jesus, who himself "bare our sins and carried our sorrows." Doubtless Christ bore the iniquity of men in a sense in which no other can do so. Yet there is no possibility of benefiting those who are in a state of sin and degradation, except by stooping to their low estate, participating in their lot, enduring somewhat of their sorrow, and thus bearing their iniquity. L WHETHER WILLINGLY OR UNWILLINGI,Y, IN EVERY NATIONAL 0ALAlll:ITY THE INNOCENT SUFFEil WITH THE GUILTY. 'l'he guilt is the nation's, the suffering is the individual's. The righteous may witness against the city's sin and rebellion, but they are overtaken by the city's catastrophe. It is not always that the city is spared for the sake of the ten righteous who are found therein. One common ruin may, as in the case of Jerusalem, overwhelm the inhabitants, alike those who have erred and offended, and those who have raised their voice in protest and in censure. II. THE RIGHTEOUS DEAR THE INIQUITY OF THEIR NEIGHBOURS BY SENSITIVENESS TO TREIB SINS, .AB Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the dwellers in Sodom, as there were those in Jerusalem who sighed and cried for all the abominations done in the city, so in the midst of a corrupt and ungodly community there may be those who lay to heart their neighbours' iniquity, and who feel bitter distress because of conduct which to callous sinners brings no sorrow. It may be granted that this is to some extent a matter of temperament; that a sensitive character will be afflicted Ly what a calmer, colder disposition bears with impunity. Yet every good man shoulcl watch himself, lest familiarity with abounding sin should dull tho edge of his spiritual perceptions, lest be should cease to be distressed because of the prevalence of iniquity. llJ. 'J.'HE RIGHTEOUS DEAR DY SYMPATHY THE SUFFERINGS WHICH BIN ENTAILS UPON TllEIB NEIGHBOURS. A siege is usually accompanied by most painful and heart- reudiug iLJci<lents; wounds and privations, pestilence and violent death, are all but inseparable from so frightful an aspect of humi1n warfare. 'l'he prophet was not a man OII. iv. 1-17.J 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKrnL. 79