the dull embers of a listless devotion. 2. Lack of ener,gy. The weak heart beats feebly, and the person who is affiicted with it does not feel equal to any great exer- tions. '!'here are souls in this condition or torpor, 3. Readiness to give way. The weak heart may be overstrained; its action may be depressed; or it may be excited to unhealthy palpitation. The soul that is similarly affected lacks stability. II. 'l'HE SIGNS OF A WEAK HEART. I. Yielding to evil influences. If the heart were true to God, temptation would be harmless. It is the feeble soul that first falls. When a little fear depresses us, and a little worldly joy distracts from the love of God, the heart cannot be strong in its affection. The stout heart will stand out bravely against the agonies or martyrdom. Thus with the Christian, sin is always a sign or weakness in the first instance. 2. Failure in service. Apparent failure may indicate no weak- ness in God's true servant. The best seed sown by the best sower will fail of fruitfol- ness if it fall by the wayside or on stony ground. Real failure is in ourselves-it is the giving up of earnest, faithful endeavour. This only comes from a weakness of love. When the heart beats strong and true to God, the service of the life does not flag. 3. Inability to repent. The true servant of God is somet.imes found in sin. But he grieves over it, and seeks forgiveness with tears of anguish. When he despairs of recovery or will not exert himself to repent, he proves that his love is cold and his heart feeble. III. THE SINFULNESS OF A WEAK HEART. We have every reason to love God with all our heart, and with a warmth and decision of character that nothing can shake, for we are embraced by his infinite love. The strong heart of God has cared for us in trouble and redeemed us in sin, and we can only measure his love by the preciousness of the gift of his Son. In view of the great love of Christ, proved to us by his death and Passion, any love short of the warmest and strongest shows ingratitude on our part. Note, further, that weakness of heart is sinful on certain definite grounds. 1. God expects love in the heart, not merely obedience in the life. 2. God is not satisfied with measured devotion ; he seeks a whole-hearted love. 3. Sin in the hearl leads to sin in the life; for "out of it are the issues of life." IV. THE DANGER OF A WEAK HEART. 1. It provokes the wrath of God, It is an insult to the wonderful love of God that we should receive it with a half-hearted response. Christ says to all Laodiceans, " I would thou wert either cold or hot." In some respects weak-hearted devotion is worse than ardent enmity; for it confesses an obliga• tion it does not satisfy. 2. It leads to death. The weak heart will become the heart of stone (eh. xi, 19). This degeneracy cannot stay in its present stage. When love to Christ cools, it is on its way to extinction.
Ver. 32.-The shameful sin of apostasy. Apostasy is repeatedly compared to adultery by the Old 'l'estament prophets, but the comparison is nowhere so full and powerful and even appalling as in this long sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel, which consists in o.n elaborate indictment of Israel on that terrible charge. A mealy-mouthed modem fastidiousness resents this style of describing sin as though to name it were more shameful than to commit it, for the fact of apostasy from God is by no means excluded when the old name for it is condemned as too coarse for polite society. It may be well for us to brace up our nerves to endure the strong words on the sin of unfaithfulness to God which the inspired messengers of Jehovah felt themselves impelled to utter. In what respects, then, may apostasy be compared to that shameful thing, adultery? I. IT PRESUPPOSES A MARRIAGE RELATION BETWEEN GoD AND HIS PEOPLE. That relation has been described with graphic pictures in the preceding verses. God had chosen Israel in her forlorn condition as a miserable castaway child, reared her in kind- ness, and then adorned her with splendour and taken her home to himself as his bride. In like manner, all God's people have been first found by him, and then brought into the closest bonds of union with himself. Such a union with God is 1ike marriage, because it implies (1) love; (2) close fellowship; (3) a sacred and indissoluble tie. II. IT CONSISTS IN UNFAITHFULNESS TO GoD. The people of God are not at liberty to leave him whenever they choose. I. Love should bind them. There is n such thing as innocent" free love" under any circumstances; for love always implies obliga• tions. Its bonds may be soft and silken, but they are strong and sacred. God's love to us, accepted by us, carries with it a duty of gratitude and loyalty, 2. The pledges o/ THE ROOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [err. xvr. 1--G3.'
fat'.tl1 must ever bind God's people to the duty of cleaving to him. When we accept the blessings of the gospel we enter into a covenant relation like that of marriage vows. III. IT SPRINGS FROM TIELDING TO A LOWER LOVE, God's people do not forsake him from weariness or ll'itbout motive. But some fatal fascination lures the heart of the foolish wife from her true husband. In the case of Israel this was the sensuous and florid idolatry of the Ca.naanites, with its coarse, cruel, lustful charms. Anythin" that draws us from God by counter-attractions is an "idol of the heart." Money, ple7isure power, success, may thus deceive and destroy. Yet a prior condition of unfaithfulnes; is the failing of love to God. "How weak is thine heart I" IV. IT 1s A GREAT SIN. Adultery is confessedly a black and awful sin, standing side by side with murder, as a horror of great wickedness. So, according to the Hebrew prophets, is unfaithfulness to God. As we are not free to forsake him who has purchased us at the great cost of bis own Son, and to whom we are doubly bound by the ties of our own vows, to "change onr mind" in this matter and fling up our religion is not a light affair of private convenience. In the sight of God it is adultery. V. IT IS A PECULIAR SOURCE OF SHAME AND SORROW. No sin is so shameful as that of adultery, and none brings in its train such heart-rending sorrow. 1. It is shameful to be unfaithful to God; for it outrages the deepest instincts of the soul and violates the secret sanctuary of life. 2. It is certainly a source of bitter sorrow, if not now, yet hereafter; for it means banishment from the home of heaven, with the pangs of remorse to gnaw like a worm, long after the short pleasures of sin have sunk to ashes.