which he sets us in this respect I Let us imitate him, endeavouring to obey tlie holy will even RS he did. III. THE 111.1!:ANS oF TIIIS JUDGMENT. " Fill thine hand with coals of fire, . . , and scatter them over the city." The fire denoted was elemental fire; for it was taken from between the wheels, and the wheels symbolize the forces of nature; and it was to be used in burning the city. In this use of fire we have an illustration of: 1, A most useful sc1·vant becoming a most tei·rible foe, The Most High, if he pleases, can turn our greatest comforts into our direst curses; and he may do so if we misuse them. "They had abused fire," says Greenhill," t.o maintain their gluttony, for fulness of bread was one of their sins; they burned incense to idols, and abused the altar fire, which had been the greatest refreshing to their souls ; . . . and now even this fire kindled upon them." And as a matter of fact, fire was used in destroying the temple and other places in ~erusa\em._ Josephus tells h?w Ne~uzaradan, by command of the King of Babylon, haV1ng desp01led the temple of its precious and sacred treasures, sot fire to it. " When he had carried these off, he set fire to the temple in the fifth month, the first da.y of the month, in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, and in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar; he also burnt the palace and overthrew the city" (' Ant.,' x. viii. 5). 2. The divers uses of fire as represented in Holy Scripture. It is there used to set forth both cleansing and avenging powers. It is the symbol of the purification of the human heart and life from sin (Isa. vi. 6, 7 ; Mal. iii. 2, 3). It is also the symbol of the punishment of the incorrigibly corrupt (Matt. xxv. 41). "Our God is a con• 6UDling Fire;" and we must each be brought consciously near unto him, either to be cleansed from our sin, or, failing in this, to bear the just judgment thereof; for the Divine fire is essentially antagonistic to sin. CoNCLUSION. 1. Let us eschew every form of sin. 2. Let us seek the application of tl.e purifying fire of the Divine love to our hearts.-W. J.
Vera. 4, 18, 19; and eh. xi. 22, 23.-The withdrawal of the presence of God from a gui7ty people. "Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house," etc. These verses, which are all essentially related to one subject, suggest the following observations. I. THAT GOD NEVER WITHDRAWS mB GRACIOUS PRESENCE FROM A PERSON OR A NATION UNTIL THEY HA VE QUITE FORSAKEN HIM. 'l'he chosen people had despised his laws ; they had turned aside from his worship for the most debasing idolatries; they had filled the land with their violence; they had denied his observation of their lives, and his interest therein; and they had persecuted his prophets who called them to repent- ance. They bad abandoned him provokingly and persistently; and now he is about to take from them his gracious presence. That presence he never withdraws from any individual or from any community until he ha.s been rejected-driven away, as it were, by heinous and continued sin. In proof of this we may refer to the following and other portions of the sacred Scriptures: 1 Sam. xv. 23, 26; xxviii. 15-18; 1 Chron. xxvili. 9; 2 Chron. xv. 2; Ps. lxxviii 56-64; Jer. vii. 8-16. II. THAT GoD WITHDRAWS HIS GRACIOUS PRESENCE FROM A PERSON OR A NATION VERY GRADUALLY. We have an intimation of his leaving the temple in eh. ix. 3, where the glory of God departs from the holy of holies to the thresb~ld of the house, by which is meant, says Schroder, "the outermost point, where the exit was from the court of the people into the city." In ver. 4 the prophet beholds the same movement repeated. '!'hen in vers. 18 and 19 the Lord's complete abandonment of the temple is symbolically exhibited. And in eh. :xi. 22, 23 the symbol of the gracious presence departs from the city, and makes a temporary sojourn on the Mount of Olives before forsaking the land. Thus step by step the symbol of the glory of the Lord goes away from them. It is as though he forsook them with great reluctance. By his servant Hosea he expresses the same truth: "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel?" etc. (Hos. xi. 8). It seemed, too, as though he would be entreated by them not to depart from their midst, and moved away so gradually in order that they ru.ight so entreat him. And if God withdraws himself, or withholds his gracious influences from any one, be does so, as it were, with measured steps and slow. Men are not left to themselves and thr.ir own devices hastily. God waits long to be gracious unto man. He doeE not depart from any one until he has received great and protracted provocation. lie is " tlie God of patience;" aTJd "he ddighteth in mercy." oR. xr. 1-26.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 189
III. THAT WHEN Gon WITIIDRAWS HIS GRACIOUS PRESENCE FROM A PERSON OR NATION THEY ARE DEREFT OF ms PROTECTION. Shortly after Ezekiel bad seen the glory of God -pass away from the holy of holies to the threshold of the house (eh. ix. 3), the destroy- Ing angels began their work of slaughter in the temple. And before the complete destruction of the city, the glory of God departed from it to the Mount of Olives. When the Lor<l bad quite withdrawn bis gracious presence they were at the mercy of their enemies, and troubles came upon them fast and furiously. "When the sun is in apogee," says Greenhill, "gone from us, we have short days and long nights, little light but much darkness; and when God departs, you have much night, and little day left, your comforts fade suddenly, and miseries come upon you swiftly." What a tragical example of this we have in the case of King Saul I When God bad departed from him, and answered him no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams, he was sore distressed, and the terrible end was close at hand (1 Sam. xxviii. 15-20; xxxi.). "This is to be forsaken indeed, when God prepares to forsake us. Lo! then more than ever darkness comes over all the powers of man's spirit and over his life, and even trusted, loved countenances of friends go into shadow. Good thoughts grow ever fewer, impulses to prayer ever more rare; admonitions of conscience cease; the holy of holies in the man becomes empty down to the four walls and the usual pious furniture" (Schroder). CONCLUSION. "Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God : but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitful- ness of sin." And let us pray, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me,"-W. J,