when there ie no peace. Their visions a.re illusive, and their prophecies are false- hoods. II. STORM AND RAIN. The plausible appearance is bnt for a season. Time tries all. There is ever II day of reckoning at hand. The prophet of the Lord reminds pretenders and hypocrites that an overflowing shower, great hailstones, and a stormy wind shall come. The anger and fury of the Lord will not always be restrained. It was so in the history of the Jewish people. Smooth things had been prophesied, but not with Divine authority. 'fhe peace was superficial and brief. The calamities which false counsellors had represented as imaginary proved to be an awful reality. What, then, became of the work which had been carried out with loud professions of authority, and which had appeared to the unobservant so fair and sound? The wall was broken down, the daubing disappeared, and they who daubed it were no more seen. "Who can abide the day of his coming?" In the hour of trial there is no security save in a Divine foundation, in workmanship wrought upon Divine principles and in accordance with Divine plans. The building which is of God shall stand. But the worthlessness of all beside shall be made manifest. What is not of God shall be swept away by the flood and tempest of inevitable judgment. .APPLICATION. 1. The solemnity and responsibility of the ministry to souls are impressively taught in the imagery of this passage. Let every man take heed what and how he builds. 2. The importance is made apparent of applying to wise and faithful counsellors. It is not the learned, the prudent, the pretentious, who must needs be right and trustworthy. Let every man try the spirits, whether they are taught of God.-T. Vers. 11-23.-False prophetesses. Women have always played an important part in the religious history of every nation, sometimes for good, sometimes for evil. Tho Scriptures, with their proverbial impartiality, record instances of both kinds-of women who rendered signal service to their people by their fidelity to God, and of women who used their influence to corrupt and to mislead those over whom their power extended. Of the prophetesses whose pretensions are exposed in this passage we know nothing from other sources of information. But if curiosity is unsatisfied, enough is here revealed to justify us in thinking of these women as a very pernicious element in the Hebrew nation at the era of the Captivity. L THEIR SEDUCTIVE AlID IMPOSING ARTS. It is not important for us to understand all the allusions in this passage. Whatever were these pillows and kerchiefs, it seems clear that they were used in connection with superstitious divinations, and were intended to impress all beholders with a sense of the dignity and mysterious powers of these sorceresses. The mystic veil that robed the tall form of the prophetesses, the paraphernalia with which such persons were wont to invest themselves, tended to inspire reverence and awe, as if for a supernatural power revealed in the stately presence and authoritative voice. II. THEIR MER0ENARY ENDS. There is something picturesque and striking in the description given by the prophet of the poor, deluded victims who resorted to the sorceresses, carrying with them "handfuls of barley and pieces of bread "-the common tribute paid in such cases and to such persons. Probably the women loved to exercise power and to exact respect; yet with most of them the motive was mercenary, and they were content to deceive others if they could enrich, or even support, themselves. III. THEIR PROPHECIES. The term could only have been applied to their utterances in irony. For it is evident (1) that their inspiration came from their own heart, and (2) that the substance of their so-called prophecies was false. '!'hey were animated by a desire. to please those who resorted to them; and this they did to gratify their own prejudices or tu display their own worldly wisdom. In such communications there was nothing that deserved the name of prophecy; for a prophet is one who speaks in the place of God, and who shows no regard to the person or to the wishes of those addressed. It was no spirit of rivalry or of jealousy which induced the Prophet Ezekiel to speak thus severely of these female impostors; it was for the public good that their deceptions should be exposed. IV. THEIR PERVERSION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. They are said to have hunted the souls of the Lord's people; and this they did by their perverse and unjust oracles. The 238 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [cH, xm. 1-23.
language used concerning them is very remarkable, and it could not have been UHed through mere delight in antithesis. It is said that the ministry of the II prophetesses" was "to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live." They were reproached with their attempt to subvert God's righteous provi- dence: "With lies ye have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made S1Ld; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way." A more scathing denunciation could not have been uttered tho.n this. these women strove to overturn the moral order, to encourage the rebellious, and t~ depress the just and godly I V. THEIR UNMASKING AND EXPOSURE. The God of truth and rectitude declared himself opposed to these seducers of his people. The symbols of their delusive arts should be stripped from them. Their hypocrisy should be unveiled, and their pretences should be ridiculed. The means by which they had been wont to ensnare men should be taken from them. Their reputation and their power should be destroyed, and their inll 11ence should come to an end. VI. THE DELIVERANCE OF THEIR VICTIMS. Those whom the false prophetesses sought to entangle and to capture were the Lord's people; and the Lord claimed his own. It was his purpose to deliver them out of the hand of their spiritual foe, and to let the hunted souls go free. The means by which this result was to be brought about are not stated; but the resources of the Omnipotent were sufficient to ransom and liberate bis own. Thus it should be made apparent to all observers that the Lord reigneth, and that he is ever mindful oi his own.-T.