The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 294

rain of his grace migM penetrate the soil. It is pure love that originated the covenant and pure love that maintains it. ' II. THE NATURE OF TRUE REPENTANCE. "Thou shaH be ashamed." Repentance comes from reflection. Sin is the effect of slumber of mind, callousness of conscience. When the real man awakens and reflects, he is filled with shame. He sees himself in the mirror of truth, and bis emotional nature is pained, wounded, abashed. He loathes himself, He is willing to give anything, to hear anything, if only he might undo the guilty deeds. A sense of shame is self-inflicted punishment. It is not simply remorse because the sin has been discovered. It is change of mind with respect to sin itself. It is dislike for all sin. III. THE PROOFS OF REPENTANCE. Great humility is an evidence of repentance. The old pride is sapped and eradicated. Old prejudices and antipathies disappear. Better still, there springs up concern for others-an ardent desire to bless our rivals and our foes. Sodom and Samaria should be received as daughters. The good we obtain we long to share with the worst of men. Generous and benevolent affection is good evidence of repentance. " Then will I teach transgressors thy ways." IV. THE EFFECTS OF REPENTANCE, Two effects are mentioned. 1. Intimatefriend- ship with God. "They shall know that I am the Lord." There is meant here, not simply intellectual knowledge, but strong conviction, intimate acquaintance, familiar friendship. This knowledge will increase and ripen into life eternal. 2. Greater self-restraint. "Thou shalt never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame." This indicates great tenderness of conscience; yea, a sensitive dread of offending God. The more we know of God the more reverence we have for him, and the stronger becomes our d1.1sire to please him. As is our knowledge, so is our humility-ay, our self-extinction. "The more thy glories meet my eyes, The humbler I shall lie; Yet while I sink, my joys shall rise Immeasurably high." I D. Vera. 1-15.-.A picture of human depravity and destitution,land of Divine con- descension and favour. ".Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations," etc. "We have here," says Heng- stenberg, "one of the grandest prophecies of Ezekiel. The prophet surveys i.u the Spirit of God the whole of the development of Israel, the past and the future." In this development we have the following stages: The condition in which the Lord found his people; the condition to which he raised them; their shameful departures from him; his severe judgments upon them; and their restoration to his favour. Each of these developments of Israelitish history may be viewed as an emblem of man's moral con- dition or relAtions with God, or of God's dealings with man. It seems to us that it would be unwise to attempt to deal with the chapter as a whole in one homily. We shall therefore consider its chief paragraphs separately. In the section before us we have two graphic pictures. I. A PICTURE OF HUMAN DEPBA VITT AND DESTITUTION, OB OF THE CONDITION CT WHICH THE LORD FOUND ms PEOPLE. 1. Their depraved moral parentage. " Thus eaith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is or the land of Canaan; thy father was an .Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite." The people of Israel are here designated" Canaanites," to indicate their degraded moral character and condition. "The Amorites and the Hittites are two chief Canaanitish tribes, that elsewhere so often represent the whole of the Canaanites; the Amorites already, in Gen. xv. 16, where they specially represent the Canaanitish people in their sinfulness." Moml character and conduct are often viewed as indicative of moral parentage. "When men live according to the courses, natures, manners of others, they are styled their sons, or children." Thus the Jews are called" sons of the sorceress," etc. (Isa. lvii. 3). The Jews in the time of our Lord's ministry upon earth claimed to be" Abraham's seed. . . . They said unto him, Abraham is our father." But Jesus said unto them," Ye are of your father the devil" (John viii. 33-44). And St. Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, called Elymas the sorcerer a "child of the devil" (Acts xiii. 10). The ten.den.cy to siu which characterizes  294 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [aH. xvi. 1-03,