pleasure generally develops only his sensuous tastes and appetites, to the grave neglect or injury of bis mental and moral powers. He who lives for riches develops hie acquisitive faculties, to the detriment of his communicative powers; he grows in co:nmercial sagacity and keenness, to the great risk of his tenderness, uprightness and rewrence; he becomes rich in his purse, but poor in his soul. He whose great object is to obtain power, if he pursue it wisely will develop several faculties of his nature. e.g. his powers of observation and analysis, of self-control and control of others; h~ ,vi!l ac'l uire knowledge of men and of times; but he is likely to lose conscience to become unscrupulous, overbearing, tyrannical. And he whose chief purpose is' to acquire knowkdge will develop his mental faculties, become more clear in intellectual perception, more comprehensive in mental grasp; but he will lose sensitiveness and strength of sympathy, tenderness of feeling, reverence of spirit. We see, then, that taken singly, these things are not satisfactory as the chief object of human life. But supposinf: one could combine all four-knowledge, power, riches, pleasure--as his object in life, and attain them, what then? Still he has not the true object of life, and for the reason already assigned; for in all (1) the acquisitive faculties are developed at the expense of the communicative; (2) man's relationship to God is ignored; (3) man's highest nature is neglected. Tenderness, sympathy, adoration, service, are overlooked. Turn now to the object sugge~ted by our text-holiness of heart and life, and useful- ness of influence and action. (1) It affords scope for the harmonious development of e't'ery faculty of our nature. (2) That development is beneficial, not only to the ind1,idual, but to society also. This, indeed, is part of the object or purpose itself. (3) That development is acceptable to God. It includes reverent worship of him, loyal obedience to bis will, etc. Hence we conclude that this, and this alone, is the true ohject of the life of man. Ill. IF A MAN'S Ll7E UTTERLY FAIL OF THIS OBJECT, IT lB FIT ONLY FOR DESTRUC• TION. Of what use is a hopelessly fruitless vine? "What is the vine tree more than any tree, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken thereof to make any work?" etc. If the vine does not produce fruit, it is not fit for timber; it is fit only for fuel. The Jews at this time had signally and com- pletely failed as to the end of their existence as a nation, and they were doomed to national destruction. So with the life of men. • If we do not answer God's design we are doing harm rather than good, onr life is a bane instead of a blessing; and if there be no hope of thorough change in this respect, we are fit only for destruction. Of the fruitless vineyard the Lord saith, "I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up ; I will break down the fence thereof, and it shall be trodden down ; and I will lay it waste : it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up briars and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." "The axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." " He said unto the vine-dresser, Behold, these three years I come seekini! fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why doth it also cumber the ground ? " Persistent fruitlessness means ruin, destruction . .A.PPLICATION. Have we our fruit unto holiness? Are we bearing fruit in good wo~ks? Then let us seek after increased fruitfulness. But if it be otherwise with us, let us penitently seek to amend our ways, lest our barrenness leads to our ruin.-W. J.
EXPOSITION. read it, just as we shudder in reading the CHAPTER XVI. sixth satire of Ju venal. The prophet speaks, Tbe section on which we now ent.er, with like the satirist, of things which we have iis companion picture in eh. xxiii., forms tbe learnt, mainly under the teuohing of Chris- most terrible, one might alwost say the most tian purity, to veil in a reticent reserve, r,pellent, part of Ezekid's prophetic utter- with a Lucretie.n e.nd Dante-like vividness. ances. We have, as it were, hill ijtory of the 'l'he nearest parallel, indeed, which literature harlot's progrese, his biography of the Mes- presents to it 18 found in the 'Epistole. !Ml 11alina of the uations. We shudder 8,9 we Florentinos' of'the latter poet. We n.recl to, orr. xv1. 1-63.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 2i1