long-continued hypocrisy; but there may be no hypocrisy in the case. The fallen man may have been sincere in hie earlier life of goodness. But he has turned aside from it. Here is a terrible warning. No character is crystalline; all characters are more or lees mobile. The best man may fall. Then all bis former goodness will not eave him. We have reason for watchfulness, diffidence, and prayer for God's protection. 2. The bad = may be recovered. The stern and changeless jndgment of the world dooms one who has fallen to lifelong ignominy, This is cruel and murderous. If we lend a helping hand, the fallen may be lifted up. By the grace of Christ the most hardened sinner may be softened to penitence and turned into the ways of goodness. Then his former sin will not hang like a millstone about his neck to keep him for ever down. God forgives it, and never mentions it again. It is the elder son, not the father, who refers to the former sins of the returned prodigal (Luke xv. 30). Ver. 30.-The alternatives of judgment. I. THE JUDGMENT. 1. It is to be by God. "I will judge you." The all-searching and almighty Lord will be the Judge. None can elude his inquiry; none can resist his sentence. 2. It is a matter of the future. There- fore we cannot wisely make light of it by comparison with present experience. The future will be different from the present in this tespect. Now is the time of probation; evil has therefore a liberty which will not continue. There will be a l?hange of dispen- sations, that of judgment superseding the dispensation of grace, 3. It will certainly come. It is not conditional on possible circumstances. There is nothing hypothetical in the prophet's words. God does not say, "lf I judge," but " I will juuge you." 4. It will come home to God's own people. God will judge the "house of Israel." Israel delighted in the prospect of the day of the Lord, when her oppressors, the neighbouring heathen nations, should be judged. But she herself will also be judged. God will judge Christendom; he will judge his Church. The Master calls his own servants to account (Matt. xxv. 14). 5. It will be individual. God will not judge the house of Israel as a whole, but "every one of you," Ea.eh will be judged separately. None will be over- looked. 6. It will be according to the cooduct of life. "According to his ways." (1) According to conduct-not according to creed, feelings, aspirations, bnt deeds. (2) According to normal conduct. His ways, i.e. his habits, his general course of conduct, not exceptional acts of virtue, nor occasional lapses below the usual manner of living. God judges on the conduct of the whole life. II. THE ALTEBNATIVEB. 1. .Amendment. This involves two changes, an internal and an external. (1) The internal change. Repentance. The first step towards amend- ment is that turn of mind which consists in grief and loathing for the past, together with a hearty desire for a better future. (2) The external change. " Tum yourselves from all your trangressions." It is useless to weep over the deeds which we do not forsake. Repentance of heart must be proved and confirmed by change of conduct. The drunkard must not only weep over his last night's debauch; he must give up the drink. The thief must cease to steal, the liar to lie, the blasphemer to swear. This is not to be fully accomplished without a change of heart (ver. 31). But while God only can truly regenerate us, we must voluntarily turn from the evil way and seek the new life. 2. Ruin. Ezekiel urges his readers to repent with the mingled warning an<l encouragement. "So iniquity shall not be your ruin." (1) The consequences of con- demnation are ruin. When God sits injudgment over an evil life, terrible issues are at stake. No mere temporary suffering will satisfy the just demands of law. The broad road leads to "destruction " (Matt. vii. 13), The end of sin is an utter undoing, a. shipwreck of life, a confounding of the soul, death! (2) This ruin flows directly from sin. God does not send an angel of judgment to punish the sinner. His own iniquity will be his ruin. Sin works directly on the soul as a deadly poison. Therefore all that the judgment of God can be required to do is to make it apparent that the ruin is justly earned, and to Bhow that nothing can be justly done to avert it.
Ver. 31.-" Why will ye die 1 '' I. GOD EARNESTLY DESIRES TO BA VE HIS CHILDREN. He repeatedly repudiates the notion that he has any pleasure in their death (e.g. vers. 23 and 32). He does not regard that terrible fate with indifference, as though it wero no concern of his, after the manner of an epicurean divinity. He might say that, as men have foolishly and sinfully earned their own ruin, he would regard their doom with 330 THE BOOK OF ~HE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [cm. xvm. 1-32.