The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 191

tells us, "there ie no speech nor language, and their voice cannot be heard." But his nrticulate speech comes through the medium of human minds-the minds of prophet3 and apostles, and (above all) the mind of Christ Jesue. The Word speaks with thC1 Divine voice; in him alone that voice reaches us with all the faultless tones, and with tile perfect revelation which we need in order that we may realize and rejoice in the presence of the Divine Father of spirits, the Divine Saviour and H~lper. III. Tms EXPRESSION 0ASTS LIGHT UPON THE DUTY AND PRIVILEGE OF MAN. 1. It is ours to listen with grateful joy to the voice of God. " The friend of the bridegroom rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." Christ speaks, and his utterances are welcome to every believing and sympathetic nature; they are as the sound of a voice long expected and wished for, as it now falls upon the listening and eager ear. The sinner may well dread the voice which can speak to him as with the thunder of threatened vengeance. But the Christian recognizes the tones of love and the accents of gentleness. 2. It is ours to listen to the voice of God with believing submission and obedience, God's voice is always with authority. Because he reveals himself as our Father, he does not cease to command. "Ye have not heard his voice at any time," was the stern reproach addressed by Jesus to the unspiritual Jews. 'l'he exhortation comes to us all, "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."-T. Vere. 1-22.-The machinery of God's providence. A man must be embodied ignorance who should suppose that all the activities of God's government come within the range of his vision. Our knowledge is not the measure of existence. "There are more things in heaven and earth Than are dreamt of in our philosophy." What we know is an infinitesimal fraction of what we do not know. Hence every revelation of God's administrative rule should be welcomed with eager delight. I. GoD'S ESSENTIAL MAJESTY IS IN0ON0EIVABLE. The difficulty for man to compre- hend the nature and government of God lies, not on the part of God, but on the part of man. His spiritual nature is so environed with bars of flesh that he cannot discern spiritual realities. Truth finds its way into his mind mainly by the nse of sensuous images. The difficulty is aggravated by long habits of neglect and self-indulgence. Under these circumstances, the marvel is that he knows as much about the world as he does. We can form no definite conception of the Infinite or of the Eternal; yet it appears to our reason that God must be infinite in capacity and eternal in duration. Possibly, God is above the conception of the oldest archangel. Possibly, God cannot reveal the whole extent of his nature to any created being. Certain it is that the wing of human imagination soon tires in its attempt to soar to the height of the Godhead. All the machinery of his rule is in harmony with himself-majestic, ethereal, sublime ! How shall man measure himself with God? Surely he is but a mote in the sunbeam, incomparably minute, yet to God incomparably precious! II. GoD's PRESEN0E, WITHOUT A CLOUD, IS TO MAN INSUPPOBTABLE. On every occasion on which God has condescended to reveal himself to men there hM been the attendant circumstance of a cloud. "God is light;" but to human sensibilities the full blaze of light is insufferable. When God appeared to Moses among the solitudes of Horeb, "the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud." The presence ot Goel among the Hebrews in the desert was symbolized by the pillar of cloud. At the moment when the first Jewish temple was consecrated to the service of Jehovah, a mysterious "cloud filled the louse of the Lord." God was known to abide in the holy of holies, ia the cloud that covered the mercy-seat. When Moses and Elijah descended to commune with Jesus on \he Mount of Transfiguration, "a cloud overshadowed them," and the voice of the Father "was heard out of the cloud." At the close of our Lord's earthly mission he iscended from earth to heaven from the heights near Bethany, "and a cloud received Lim out of the apostles' sight." So too the prophecies which announce the next a~pearance of our Lord indicate the surroundings of a cloud: "Behold! he cometh with c'.ouds;" "Ye shall see the Son of man commg in the clouds of heaven." Clouds dstribute and attenuate the fierce light of the suu. and enhance the splendours of the scene. They are a ma.nifostatiou of the component parts of light. They reveal its beauty and its power. So God a.ttempers the brightness of his essential glory to suit tle necessities of men. 186 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [on. x.1-22.