origin. Job declares his innocence of it (Job xxx.i. 26). It is distinctly prohibited in the Law given by Moses (Deut. xvii. 3). In its earliest form, among the Arabians, the worship was addressed directly to the heavenly bodies, without tbe intervention of images. In times preceding those of the prophet this idolatry had been inlroduced into Jerusalem, and abolished by King Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 5, 11). But by some means it had been revived or reintroduced, and now in the days of Ezekiel was openly flourishing again, Moreover, their worship of the sun was aggravated by the posture in which it was practised, "With their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east." The sanctuary of the Lord God was behind them, as a thing they were renouncing, while they were looking to the new object of their hope and adoration rising in the east. A still further aggravation of their sin is mentioned: "And, lo, they put the branch to their nose." We are not certain as to the meaning of this expression. But the opinion of Hengstenherg seems to us the most probable: "The Persian sun-worshipper, according to Strabo and others, held in his hand a bunch of shoots, called barsom, when praying to the sun, and applied it to the mouth when uttering prayer. This quite agrees with the rite here." And Professor Cheyne says of this rite, "It appears to be of Persian origin; only this qualification must be made that, considered as a Persian practice, it has reference not to the worship of the sun, but to that of the sacred fire. In the Avesta we read of a bundle of branches called baresma (later writings call it barsom), which occupied as important a place in Zoroastrian worship as in the worship of these 'five and twenty men.' The twigs preferred for this sacred object were those of the date, the pomegranate, and the tamarisk, and the words of the Zoroastrian Scripture (Vendidad, xix. 64) are rendered as follows by the latest translator: 'Let the faithful man cut off a twig of baresma, long as a ploughshare, thick as a barleycorn, The faithful one, holding it in his left hand, shall not leave off keeping his eyes upon it.' Thus it is not expressly stated by the Zoroastrian authorities (nor yet is it by Strabo) that the baresma was to be held to the mouth (or the nose). This, however, was the way of holding the veil called paitidana, the object of which was to prevent the impurities of the breath from passing into the sacred fire. Professor Monier Williams informs me that this at least is still in use among the Parsee priests.'' By this heathenish and idolatrous practice the Lord Jehovah was insulted by his own people. 3. The social injustice and oppression. "They have filled the land with violence.'' Unfaithfulness to God and cruelty to man were sios that went band-in-hand amongst the people of Israel (cf. eh. vii. 23; ix. 9). "State oppression and Church corruption go together," says Greenhill; " in the temple wore pollutions, and in the land violence. The princes and judges, they wronged men; the priests and prophets, they wronged God (Zeph. iii. 3, 4). . . . If there be violence in a land, there will be corruptions, pollutions, abominations in the sanctuary; if there be superstition, idolatry in the Church-state, there will be oppression, injustice, and spoil in the civil-state: when the temple is a den of thieves, the land will be a den of oppressors and murderers (Jer, vii. 9-11)." Thus the people provoked the Lord to anger by their oft-repeated and much-aggravated sins and crimes. II. Goo's PUNISHMENT OF MAN. "Therefore will I also deal in fury : mine eye shall not spare,'' etc. (ver. 18). The nature of the punishment is not stated here; but it has already been set forth at length by the prophet, and is still further indicated in the next two chapters, Two remarks concerning it are suggested by this verse. 1. It will be the expression of his righteous anger. "Therefore will I also deal in fury," 'fhe "therefore" indicates the close connection between the sin and the punishment. They are related as cause and effect (see our remarks on eh. vii. 4). 2. It will be inflicted without any relenting. "Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.'' 'l'he former of these clauses we noticed on its occurrence in eh. vii. 4. And as to the loud cries of the wicked in their distress, they are generally the mere outburst of selfishness, without a particle of true penitence or prayer (cf. Prov. i. 24--31). "When Nebu- chadnezzar came, besieged the city: when plague and famine increased, then they fell upon their knees and cried to God for help; as malefactors, when the judge is ready to give sentence, cry out, and importune him to spare their lives. Such prayers arn the voice of the flesh, not of the spirit: forced, not free: faithless and unseasonable prayers, coming too late, and therefore unacceptable. Let men therefore not defer seeking of EZEKIEL. Ill 162 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oH. 1x. 1-11.
Goel till necessity puts them upon it" (Greenhill). And let us seek him not· with the selfish cries of terror, but with penitent and believing hearts. "It is' not the loud voice, but the upright heart, that God will regard."-W. J.