Vers. 7-13.-The chambers of imagery; or, secret sins. ".And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a bole in the wall," etc. In the case of "the image of jealousy " the idolatry of the Israelites was open; in this case it is secret. In that the abominations were committed by the house of Israel; in tbis'by the elders of the house of Israel. The paragraph suggests several observations on secret sins. L THE MOST HEINOUS SINS ARE GENERALLY COMMITTED IN SEORET. These chambers of imagery, in which the elders of the house of Israel did their wicked abomiMtions, were concealed and difficult of access. The secrecy with which their vile sins were committed is graphically set forth in the text. "He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall,'' etc. 1 The idolatry practised in these chambers of imagery was the animal-worship of the Egyptians. The prophet beheld "every form of creep- ing things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall." Such idolatry indicates deep spiritual degradation, and by its influence it increases that degradation. It is fitly characterized as "the wicked abominations that they do." Hengstenberg well says, "Every thing created, however good it may be in itself, becomes an abomination as soon as it stands with man beside, or quite about God." What a fall for the elders of Israel, from the elevating worship of the true a'.nd holy God to the debasing adoration of cattle and creeping things! .And they must have felt the wrongness of this, or they would not have so carefully striven to conceal it. There are secret sins in the lives even of good men-sins of thought and feelina that are hidden from our fellow-men, Who eould bear to have everything that transpires in his ~nd and heart exposed to the gaz~ of even· his tenderest and best human friend; or, mdeed, to any one except the merciful and holy One? •• Or what if Heaven for once its searching light Lent to some partial eye, disclosing all The rode bad thoughts, that in our bosom's night Wander at large, nor heed Love's gentle threll? .,Who would not shun the dreary uncouth placeP All if, fond leaning where her infant slept, A mother's arm a serpent should embrace: So might we friendless live, and die unwept. 1 An interesting description of these chambers, an<l the mode of access to them, as
illustrated by Egyptian chambers of imagery, will· be found in Kitto's 'Doily llible. lllustratioWI.' on. vm. 1-18.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 159