human race, o.nd accordingly attributes morally reprehensible as well as n.ttributcs morally commendable have been assigned to the deities whom men have worshipped. Indeed, worship has to no small extent consisted in methods supposed efficacious to appease the wmth of the cruel and malicious powers from whose ill will humanity, it has been thought, bad much to dread. And it is not to be questioned that even Jewish and Christian worship have not been free from some measure of this same error. It has been customary to refer the governmental and judicial infliction of punishment to a disposition to take pleasure in human sufferings and torture. The student of Scripture is aware that thore is no authority, no justification for such a view; but the student of human nature is not surprised that such a. view should have been taken. II. GoD's REPUDIATION OF :MALEVOLENCE IN PLAIN AUTHORITATIVE WORDS. "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? saith the Lord God." It is indeed con• descension in the Supreme Ruler thus to remove the misunderstandings and difficulties which men create for themselves by their own ignorance and sin. Again and again he represents himself as merciful and delighting in mercy, but nowhere does he give the least ground for a suspicion that he delights in, or even is indifferent to, the sufferings of the children of men. Since all his words are faithful and true, we can but rest and rejoice in such an assurance as that of the text. III. Goo's PROOF IN HIS DEEDS OF THE BENEVOLENCE OF ms NATURE. Israel, as a nation, had abundant evidence of the loving-kindness and long-suffering of him who chose the people as his own, trained them for his service, instructed them in his Law, bore with their frequent disobedience and rebellion, and ever addressed to them promises of compassion and of help. But a.11 proofs of the Divine benevolence pale before that glorious exhibition of God's love and kindness which we Christians have received in him who is the unspeakable Gift of Heaven. Had the Almighty felt any pleasure in the death of the wicked, he would not have given his own Son, while we were yet sinners, to die for us. He took pleasure, not in the condemnation and death. but in the salvation of men. In Christ his love a.nd kindness appeared; for Christ came, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. IV. THE ENCOURAGEMENT THUS AFFORDED TO PENITENT SINNERS TO HOPE FOB ACCEPTANCE AND LIFE. The pleasure of God is that the wicked " should return from hie way, and should live." Thus there is coincidence between the good pleasure of the Omnipotent upon the one hand, and the best desires and truest interests of penitent sinners on the other. He who repents of his evil deed, who looks upwards for forgive- ness, and who resolves upon a new and better life, has not to encounter Divine displeasure er ill will; on the contrary, he is assured of a. gracious reception, of immediate pardon, of kindest consideration, and of help and guidance in the carrying out of holier purpose and endeP.vour. The demeanour and the language of G0d are those of the compassionate Fll.ther, who welcomes the returning prodigal, accords him a benign reception, and proffers him all those blessings, now and hereafter, which alone can answer to the glorious and comprehensive gift of Divine love--eternal life!-'r.
Ver. 31.-Divine remonstrance. There is something very impressive in the form of this remonstrance. If the question were taken in its literal sense, and published among men npon Divine anthority; if men were invited to accept immunity from bodily dissolution ;-iti how many cases would the appeal meet, not only with earnest attention, but with eager response! The death which is here referred to must be that which consists in Divine displeasure, or, at all events, that death in which such displeasure forms the most distressing ingredient. The appeal may be enforced by several obvious but weighty considerations. I. WHY WILL YE DIE, WHEN DEATH IS THE WORST OF DOOMS? If the death of the body is in itself aud in its circumstances and consequences of a repulsive nature, all the more fitly may it serve to set forth and to suggest the evils denoted in Scripture as spiritual death. Insensibility and dissolution may be taken as figures of that spiritual state in which interest in Divine truth and righteousness and love has departed, iu which there is no occupation in the service of God. The soul that has any just sense of itcl own good must needs shrink from such a condition. 331- THE IlOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' EZEKIEL. [cu. xvm. 1--:12,