VI. •ro nNow GoD-TIIIS IS TITE FINAL JBSUE, It is instructive to observe how that this is the frequent refrain: "They shall know that I am the Lord." This was a lesson which the Hebrews would not learn in days of prosperity; therefore they were led into tho deep shades of adversity to acquire it. The discipline, though severe, was success- ful. Experiencll is an excellent school, though a costly one. It cured them of their foolish belief in idols, and wrought in them the conviction that the unseen Jehovah alone was Goel, Yet in many persons this knowledge was only intellectual. It did not command their affection, nor draw after it spontaneous service. The knowledge of God which becomes to us salvation, is an experimental !mow ledge. It is knowledge of God as our God-our reconciled Father. ',Ve know him with personal intimacy. ,ve admit him to the inmost chamber of our hearts. He becomes Emmanuel, i.e. God with us-God in us. We grow up into his likeness. We imitate his qualities. We yield to him will and heart and life.-D. Vers. 21-28.-Thesnare of unbelief. Faith has the power to make thP- distant near. It obliterates distance of time and space. Bnt unbelief reverses the effect. It looks in at the wrong end of the telescope, and reduces realities to a mere speck. Unbelief corrupts all blessing; it makes sour the very cream of God's kindness. "Because judgment is not speedily executed," incorrigible rebellion makes a mock of retribution. I. 'l'HE ANNOUNCEMENT OF DISTANT JUDGMENT IS GREAT KINDNESS. The ancient Greeks had an adage: "'!'he gods have feet of wool." But this does not describe the character of the living God. Instead of overtaking men hastily, "he is slow to an:,:cr." He does not willingly afflict.. "The axe is often laid at the root of the tree," and that for a long spell; aou if repentance and fruitfulness appear, the sentence is ~ladly revoked. 'l'he aim and purpose of our God are not destruction, but restor:i.tion. If it is within the range of possibility to awake the slumbering conscience, and save the man, God will do it. 'l'o announce _beforehand ordained judgments is kindness infinite. II. DEFERRED JUDGl\lENT OFTEN LEADS TO MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. The best blessings, when corrupted, become our direst curses. Neither the bitter experience of sin, though long-continued, nor the royal clemeucy of God, produces any beneficial effect on some men. They seem deaf to every appeal of prudence, insensible to every over- turn of kindness. All tender feeling appears to have vanished; tbey have reached already a state of hopeless reprobation. If the severity of justice for a moment should relax, they put it down to cowardice, or weakness, or irresolution. They say, "'\Ve shall have peace, though we walk after the imagination of our own hearts." "Give a. loose rein to lust," say they; "God doth not regard us." III. UNm:LIEF PUTS FAR OFF THE DAY OF RECKONING. Its shallow line of reasoning is this: "No punishment has fallen upon us as yet. To-day will be as yesterday, and to-morrow as to-day. Probably," say they, "punishment will not come at all; or. if it should, it is so far away that for all practical purposes we may disregard it." There is a strong force of inertia in every man's nature. '\Vhat has'been, he thinks, will continue to be. " Where is the promise of his coming?" The wish becomes father to the thought, that punishment is dubious, problematic-a mere ghost of probability. All the evidence of Divine rule and Divine interposition unbelief rejects as hypothetical craze. What cannot be seen and handled and touched unbelief despises as unreal. IV. THE HOUR OF DOOM AT LENGTH SUDDENLY STRIKES. To men it often seems a sudden event; not so to God. He has seen the elements preparing stage by stage, and "suddenness" forms no part of his experience. So it has been with all the great calamities that have overtaken men. In the period of Noah's deluge, men saw no prognostication of coming danger. "They bought, they sold, they manied, they were given in marriage, until the very day that Noah entered into the ark." On the day of Sodom's doom, the sun rose over the eastern hills with his usual splendour and tran- quillity; yet before noon the smoke of the devastation rose and smothered in silence tho cries of its dying population. "So shall tho coming of the Son of man be." When profligate men least expect it the storm shall break upon their heads. Whonsoever the long-suffering kindness of God is made an occasion of fresh licence, be quit11 224: THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oH, x11. l-28.
sure that retribution is not far away, "In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh."-D.