ing calamities the Isro.elitee would seek the help which they had despised in the time of their prosperity. So tho proud Pharo.oh, when the plagues were upon him and his subjects, repeatedly called for Moses and Aaron, and besought them to entreat the Lord on his behalf. So e.lso the perverse and rebellious Israelites applied unto Moses when they were smarting under the Divine chastisements (Numb. xi. 2; xxi. 7; cf. Ps. lxxviii. 34--37), And the presumptuous Jeroboam, soon as his hand was smitten with paralysis, entreated the prayers of the prophet whom a moment before he was about to treat with violence (1 Kings xiii. 6). By thus seeking deliverance from God in the time of their distress, the wicked bear witness to their sense of the reality of his Being, and of their need of him. And by seeking the intercession of his faithful servants they unwittingly testify to the worth of genuine religion. IV. 'l'HAT MEN WHO HAVE REJECTED Gon IN SEASONS OF PEACE MAY SEEK HELP FROM: HIM IN SEASONS OF DISTRESS, YET NOT OBTAIN IT. "They shall seek peace, and there shall be none; , .. then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the Law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. The king shall mourn," etc. The following points require brief notice. 1. Deliverance from trouble, and direction in trouble, sought in vain. The Israelites seek for safety, but find it not; for prophetic guidance, but it fails them. The prophet or seer has no vision for them ; the priest has no instruction in the Law or in religion; the ancients or wise men have no counsel for their life and conduct. Saul, the King of Israel, presents a mournful illustration 01 this (1 Sam. xxviii. 6, 15). "Because 1 have called, and ye refused," etc. (Prov. i. 24--31). 2. Failure to obtain help in trouble producing great distress. "The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation," etc. The distress is general. The kinj!:, the prince, and the people all feel it. The calamities are not partial or sectional, but national. The distress is very great. The king mourns in deep inward grief; the prince clothes himself with horror, is as it were wrapt up in terror; and the hands of the common people tremble. 3. The righteousness of these iudgments. "I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them." The dealings of the Lord with them would be regulated by their conduct. His judgments would correspond with their lives and works. They would reap the fruit of their doings. 4. The righteous fudgments of God leading to the recognition of him. "And they shall know that I am the Lord." In this day of their calamity they· will feel and acknowledge the supremacy of Jehovah. (See our remarks on ver. 4, and on eh. vi. 7, 10.) Let us seek to know him, not in his judgments, but in his mercies; not in wrath, but in love. "And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ."-W. J.
EXPOSITION. CHAPTER vm. port me.y he.ve led to the visit from the elders of Judah, if we understand by the.t Ver. 1.-And it came to pass, eto. We term the exiles of Tel-Abib. I venture, begin with o. fresh de.te. One year and one however, ou the conjecture that possibly month had passed since the vision of Chebnr, those who co.me to the prophet were e.ctually ~nd had been occupied partly by the ~ted, visitors who he.cl come from Judah. Else- partly by the spoken, prophecies of the pre- where, a.a in oh. xiv. l and xx. l, those who ceding chapters. In the mean time, things thus ea.me a.re described as "elders of had gone from bacl to worse in Jerusalem. Isre.el," or the co.ptives (eh. i. 1), •• they of [n the absence of the higher priests, idolatry the Captivity" (oh. iii. 15). In either eo.se, was more rampnnt, and had found its woy the visions the.t follow go.in e. special sig- 0veu into the temple. It is probable that ni.1lce.nce. The prophet becomes the eeer. tidings of this \Joel reached Ezekiel, os we It is given to him to know, in 11. manner know that frequent communicotions po.seed which finds e. spurious nne.logue iu the between the exiles e.nd those they ho.d left alleged mental travelling of the olo.irvoye.nt behind (Jer. xxix. 1-8, 9, 25). Directly of modern psychology, who.Lis passin~ in or indirectly, Elaso.h the son of She.phe.n, the city from which the messengers had 11.nd Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, me.y come-and to show that he knows it. With have cuvveyed a messnge, orally or written, such fncts before his eyes, what other from Jeremiah himself. Some such re- o.nswer can there bo thiin that evil must 14-4 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [err. vm.1-18.