Ver. 18.-Fear. Ezekiel, in conformity with his new, desperate method of rousing the heedless Jews, is now to dramatize Fear in his own person and action, as a sign of the terror that will seize upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the days of its overthrow. I. FEAR ARISES FROM EVIL CAUSES. The sound and innocent soul in healthy cir- cumstances should not know fear. Observe some of the causes of feat·. 1. Igr,orance, "Fear always springs from ignorance," says Emerson. There is a sense of the mysterious and uncertain about it. When we perceive au approaching calamity, we may shrink from it and feel the keenest distress; but the peculiar agony of fear lies in the darkness of futurity. '!'his, of course, implies nothing morally defective, for we are necess:i.rily limited. Childish fears naturally haunt childish ignorance. But though not morally wrong, except in the careless and wilful, ignorance is au evil circumstance to be con- quered. 2. Wealcness. '!'here is a weakness of nerve which belongs to one's bodily condition, and so some are constitutionally timorous. But the worst fear springs from cowardice, i.e. from a culpable laxity of moral fibre. 3. Guilt. Fear followed the Fall. "'!'be wicked flee when no man pursueth." vVe know that we deserve ill; therefore we cannot be surprised if we are to receive it. 'l'bis is au intellectual conception; but the moral effect of sin is stronger. The man who is conscious of bis sin feels ash:i.rned, smitten with helplessness; and the heavens gather up black thunder-clouds over his head. II. FEAR IS HURTFUL. 1. It is one of the most pain/al elements of punishment. 'fbe murderer suffers infinitely more agony in the condemned cell than he can ever feel on the gallows. "There is but one thing of which I am afraid," says Montaigne, "and that is fear." 2. Fear is a cause of disaster. "The direst foe of courage," says Georgo Macdonald," is the fe:i.r itself, not tho object of it; and the man who can overcorno his own terror is a hero and more." \Ve are paralyzed by fear. As in dreams the limbs are heavy, like lead, when a terror is approaching, so in waking life we fin,l that the terror which threatens fascinates us into helplessness. 3. Worse than all this, fear is THE BOOK OFI THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [orr. xrr. 1-28.
momlly degrading. "Fear is cruel and mean," &'l.ys Emerson. It is a selfish passion, :rnd it lowers our whole tone and character. III. FEAR MAY BE oo::S-QUERED DY FAITH. Constitutional bravery will exclude tho possibility of fear. "Fear!" exclaimed the hero Nelson, when only a boy, to his grand- mother, who bad asked if he had not met fear when he had lost his way, "what is it like? I have never seen it." Such incapacity for fen.r is a splendid natural endow- ment, but it hns not the moral character of victory over fear in those who are capllble of its pangs. The true antidote to fear is faith. \Ve cannot know everytbincr and so dispel the ignorance out of which fear springs; nor can we create in ours~ives the strength of a hero by a sheer act of will ; nor can we deny or repudiate our guilt. But we may trust God's protection in the darkness, lean upon his strength in the hour of need, and rely upon his pardon when we repent of sin and turn to the grace of Christ. So the feeblest can say," When I am weak, then am I strong;" "I will go in the strenath of she Lord God." Moreover, the work of faith will be completed by love, for "perfuct lo1·e casteth out fear."
Yers. 22, 23.-.A worthless proverb. Ezekiel quotes a proverb with which the Jews are comforting themselves, and tells them that it cannot be relied on. I. A PROVERB JS READILY ACCEPTED. 1. Its aptness of expression attracts UB. We are taken by neatness of phrase. A lie may be ably expressed, and a great fallacy may strike us as particularly well put. Thus the form disguises the substance. 2. Its wide use throws us off our guard. We regard it as an embodiment of "the wisdom of the many." What "everybody" says is taken for granted as true. Passing freely in conversational co=erce, the question of a familiar proverb's soundness is scarcely raised. 3. Its antiquity make,:; it venerable. Proverbs are supposed to contain "the wisdom of the ancients." II. A PROVERB MAY BE FALSE. 1. .Aptness of expre.~sion is no guarantee of truth. This is only a matter of form. Surely Descartes made a mistake in asserting that seeing a thought clearly was equivalent to an assurance of the truth of it. Lucidity of expression may cover falsity of idea. 2. The mass of men may be in erro1". The voice of the people is by no means always the voice of God. When one common prejudice seizes many minds, they are all likely to be deluded into a common error. 3. The vcnerableness of a proverb does not guarantee its truth. It is forgotten that, as Bacon tells us, we are the ancients, and those who lived in the early days belong to the child- hood of the race. Other things being equal, the latest saying should be the truest. Certainly no premium is to be set on the knowledge of antiquity. IIL A PROVERB MAY BE MISAPPLIED. This was the case with the Jews to whom Ezekiel referred. They quoted a proverb revealing a startling insight into one remarkable feature of Hebrew prophecy which until lately had been almost lost sight of. The prophet sees the future as though it were present, and he describes it in such a way as to suggest to many that it is nearer than it proves to be. There is little perspective in prophecy. Its horizon often appears to move before us as its predictions arc translated into facts of history. But this is not al ways the case, nor does the post- ponement of fulfilment mean its never coming. In the present case the proverb of postponement was misapplied, for fulfilment was close at hand. Here is the danger of general phrases. True in one set of circumstances, they may be utterly false in another application. IV. A PROVERB SHOULD BE TESTED. We should treat our proverbs as uncertain coins, and ring them before using them. Then we shall find that not a few are of as base metal as Hanoverian sovereigns. There is a sort of proverbial orthodoxy con- htructed out of set theological phrases which has no other stamp upon it than that of pr~achers' usage. Loyalty to truth compels us to submit this religious coinage to the Lest of Scripture, conscience, and experience. 'l'hc most dangerous proverbial expressions axe those that flatter ourselves. With the Jews the favourite proverb was one that 1•ostponed the prospect of the evil day and threw don bt on the Di vine message. Cynical un Lelief is full of self-assurance. But it is not safe to trust to it simply because it may lie clever or prevalent. Every idea that denies the Divine word is sure to prove dolusive.
Yer. 24.-Tl,e end of delusion,. The J ewa had been deluding themselves with a ott. ~n.1-28.] THE BOOK OF TilE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 219