ITT. TRE BORE AGGRAVATIONS OF TITTS APOSTASY, 1. Their ea;treme 1·eadiness to d-epartfrom God. (Vers. 25-34.) The nations did not seek after them, but they after the nations. They were eager to adopt their idols, and to enter into political alliances with them. "The treacherous and wanton dealing we.s all on Israel's part," says Fairbairn; "she conceded everything to them, they yielded back nothing in return t-0 her-her wickedness was !!ratuitous and unrequited folly, A solemn and preanant truth, which the Church of God should never forget. She loses e.11, and the ~vorld rains all, when she foolishly stoops to impair the testimony of God, or adjust the claims and services of religion to the tastes and practices of the carnal mind, A nominal ad,ance or apparent reconciliation may possibly be made by the manreuvre; but it can be no more than nominal and apparent; the interests that really profit by such a policy are those of the flesh and the world. It is only when the Church f':J faithful t-0 her testimony-when she stands in the truth of Christ, and in that truth shines forth 'bright as the sun, clear as the moon,' that she is found also, in her con- flict with e,il, 'terrible as an army with banners.'" 2. Their abuse of his gifts in departing from him. (Vers. 17-19.) "My gold and my silver .. , mine oil and mine incense . . . my meat also I gave thee,"-these things he charges them with hanng applied to idolatrous uses. The • Speaker's Commentary' points out an illustra- tion of this in its notes on ver. 33: "The picture is heightened by the contrast between one who as a prostitute receives hire for her shame, and one who as a wife is so utterly abandoned as to bestow her husband's goods to purchase her own dishonour, The conduct of Ahaz in purchasing aid from the King of Assyria with the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord (2 Kings xvi. 8) is an excellent illustration, and may perhaps be referred to in this very passage." And very often still men abuse the gifts of God to his dishonour, as in the employment of their abilities for base or unworthy purposes, the nse of riches for vain or sinful objects, etc. 3. Their resolute persistence in departing from him. Nothing stopped them in their apostasy; or, if checked for a time, it was speedily resumed again. The bestowment of many and precious favours upon them did not bind them to the Lord. They actually made these (as we have seen) an occasion of apostasy. Nor did the infliction of chastisement effectually restrain their great and persistent unfaithfulness. Such chastisement is spoken of in ver. 27. The blessings which God had promised to his people on condition of their fidelity to the covenant, and which in former times had been so abundantly bestowed (cf. vers. 9-14), he diminished as a punishment for their sins. By their religions and political unfaithfnlnesses they had been great losers" in land, and people, and influence, and splendour;" but still they were bent upon backsliding from him. Neither mercies nor judgments, rewards nor punishments, availed to secure their fidelity to the Lord their God. " My people are bent to backsliding from me." Their hearts were "fully set in them to do evil."-W. J.
Vers. 35-43.-.A picture of righteous retrfbution because of apostasy. "Wherefore, 0 harlot, hear the word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord God; Because thy filthiness was poured out," etc. The scope and meaning of this paragraph is clearly and forcibly stated in the 'Speaker's Commentary:' "The punishment of Judah is represented by the same figure as her sin. She has been portrayed as an adulteress and a murderess. She is now represented as undergoing the punishment adjudged to an adulteress and murderess. The scene is a court of justice, before which the Lord himself appears to arraign the guilty woman. There are present those who are now her lovers, and those whom she has loved and deserted (the idolatrous nations with whom Judah has had guilty intercourse), to witness, to share, or to exult in, her disgrace. In proportion to her former honour shall be her present shame. As a woman suspected of infidelity to Ler husband had her head uncovered by way of disgrace, so this col)victed adulteress shall be stripped bare, exposed to utter shame, shall be stoned and slain, and her house shall be ruade desolate. Only in her utter destruction shall the wrath of the Lord, the jealous God, cease." In our text-- I. THE SINS OF WHICH THE PEOPLE OF JERUSALEM WERE GUILTY ABE STATED, These have been set forth at length in the preceding paragraph, and we have considered them here. And, indeed, all the important points in the section now before us have come under our notice in earlier portions of the writings of Ezekiel, most of them more en. xvt.1-G3.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 299