Ver. 14.-.The breach of heredity. It is possible for the son of the sinner not to tread in his father's evil footsteps. Here we have the door of escape from the odious proverb of the sour grapes (ver. 2). I. A FATHER'S SIN IS A SHAMEFUL SIGHT FOB HIS SON. The verse before us presents a distressing picture, though one with bright features in it. The father should be an example to his children, and they should be able to look up to him with reverence. Indeed, very little children naturally regard those who ha.ve charge of them as good. When :first a child discovers that one who has directed his conduct is doing wrong, the revelation comes upon him with a painful shock of surprise. How sad that this should become a familiar sight! The very centre of authority in the home is then degraded. The child may still obey from a sense of fear, from a feeling of duty, or from mere force of habit. But all reverence is gone, and contempt is beginni_ng ~o take its place•. The:e must be something sadly wrong when a right-minded child 1s forced to despise his father or his mother. Surely such a prospect 8hould be a. warning to parents when personal considerations fail to influence them. IL A SON MAY BE SAVED FROM SHARING ms FATHER'S BIN BY ITS VERY BllAMEFUL- NESS. There is an influence which is just the contrary of heredity in sin. Uncon- sciously, by force of physical constitution, and by the influence of exaa:iple no doub~, a child is drawn towards his father's sin. But when he reflects upon 1t and exermses his own judgmcnt, he bas miserable opportunities for witnessing its sha1;llefuln_ess which are not accorded to the happily guarded children of purer ho~es. _'!-he c~1ld of,,the drunkard knows the evil or strong drink only too well. Thus 1f he con~1dereth . he has an ever-present warning. Do we not see children who have turned with ~oath~ng from the habits of disgraceful parents, shunning the fir~t approaches to the evil which has wrought such havoc in their homes, when ~ther children who have not been to so painful a school toy with it in the con6dence of ignorance ? JII. JT IS THE DUTY OF CIIRISTIANB TO RESCUE THE CHILDREN OF WICKED PARENT~ The problem furnished by the wreck of broken-down character among the degrndc~ creatur~s who haunt the slums of great cities is well-nigh insoluble, because so ~any ol tlwse Lopeless beings refuse to be reclaimed. If the}'. are remov~d to decent dw~lhngs and supplied with the means of conducting respectable (1 ve~, they sin~ back to their old state of degradation. Emigration alone will not cure this d1Hcase of d1ss~lut<;nes~. _We could 01,ly burden America and our colonies with useless paupers by sen<lrng its ~1ct1ms acr?>s tLe 8ea. Tlicy have w,ither the moral nor the phy~ical streugth to begm a new lik OH. xvm. 1-32.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 327
It would Beem that the best thing we could do for them would be to shut them up in e. hospital for incurables, where at least they might be prevented from spreading moral contagion. 'l'hey have reached moral imbecility. But we can eave their children. It is with the children that the hope of recovery is most encouraging. Good work already done in rescuing the little waifs of the streets points to a much more extensive effort in that direction. For the price of an iron-clad we might save the children of the slums of a whole city I It is here that the solution of our great social problem will begin.
Ver. 23.-How God views the death of the wi,cked. I. HE HAS NO PLEABUB"E IN rr. 1. It might appear that he had. (1) Men transferred to God their own low notions of vengeance. "Revenge is sweet" among men ; therefore it was supposed that God must take some pleasure in avenging himself on those who have offended him. (2) The rigour of the Law of God appeared to favowr this notion. If God had no pleasure in the death of the wicked, why did God let him die? Such a question goes on the assumption that the only motive of action is the personal pleasure of the agent. 2. But on the other hand, it is certain that the fate of the sinner is no pleasure to God. (1) God is righteous. The pleasures of vengeance are sinful. It cannot be good to feel anything but distress at the ruin of a soul. There might be a certain pleasure in the infliction of useful chastisement, because of its happy end; but the death of a soul is wholly dark. (2) God is merciful. God does not hate his enemies. "He hateth nothing that he hath made." God loves the souls that perish. His long-suffering and delay of punishment, his readiness to forgive the penitent, and, above all, the gift of his Son to redeem the world from death, are proofs that he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. II. STILL Goo PERMITS IT. 1. God has given freedom to his children. It can acarcely be said that God kills a. wicked man. 'fhe sinner is bis own executioner; his sin is its own sword of vengeance. Sin itself slays. The sinner is practically a suicide. God has no pleasure in the ruin which the foolish man brings on his own head. But there would be no moral nature left for him, and therefore no possibility of goodness, if God did not leave him the use of that freedom which he abuses in slaying his own soul. 2. God is jusl, though justice may be painful. It may be said that we cannot throw the whole burden of his death on the sinner, because God has made him and has made the laws which connect death with sin. No doubt, therefore, there is a certain Divine retribution in the punishment of sin. But then God is jDBt, and does not regard his own pleasure. It is only an epicurean deity who would refuse to punish sin because he took no pleasure in the death of the sinner. 3. There can be no escape for the impenitent. If it were merely a. question of God's pleasure, we might appeal from that to his mercy. But he already denies himself to permit the punishment. It is therefore the more sure. III. Goo PREFERS THE LIFE OF HIB OHILOREN. If he has no pleasure in their death, he will welcome any avenue of escape. Nay, he will provide all possible means of deliverance. Hence the gospel of Christ. 1. There is a possibility of escape through amendment. It can come no other way, or justice would be outraged; for it is better that the soul should die than that it should continue for ever in sin. The life of sin is a curse to the sinner and a blight on God's world. But a retnrn to the better way iH open to a.II ofus through Christ (2 Cor. v. 20). 2. This escape gives life. God loves life, or he would not have created a. world teeming with living beings. He loves to gives us a new life in Obrist (1 John v. 12). Let no one despair. God does not desire our death ; God wills our life.