Ver. 36 (last clause).-Aoominations declared. I. ABo:r,HNATIONB MAY BE BIDDEN. 1. They may be committed in secret. Then they are unknown to every one but the guilty persons and their accompiices. •2. Their corrupt character may not be admitted. 'l'hen they may be done in open daylight without shame or rebuke. Not only the out- side public, but even the guilty persons themselves, may not perceive the full evil of what they are doing. 3. They may be forgotten. People do not wish to call to mind a disagreeable past. As the years glide by it slides further and further into the dim land of forgetfulness. By dint of reiterated self-flattery the guilty persons almost persuade themselves that they did not do the evil things of those old bad years, or that somehow they have left their former selves behind them in that evil past; or they put the thought of it q nite out of their minds. II. ABOMINATIONS CANNOT BE mDDEN FOB EVEB. God does not forget them. The recording angel has :written them in his awful book wHh ink that never fades. The subtle poison of them lingers in the souls of the guilty. " Whatsoever a man sowetb, that shall he also reap." Some seeds take long to germinate. But the seeds of evil deeds have a fatatvitality, though they be slow to make an appearance. We cannot escape the consequences of our misdeeds by forgetting them. ffi IT IS BEST THAT AIIOMINATIONB SHOULD BE REVEALED TO THE GUILTY ON EARTH. It is no piece of idle vengeance that tortures Israel with a revelation of its abominations. L It is well/or the guilty to know them. There is no chance of repentance until the heinousness of sin is acknowledged. But that this may be the case, the abominations must first be revealed to the sinner, There may be little good in proclaiming his guilt aloud to the world. What is needed is that it should be brought well home to bis own conscience. 2. It is well that they should be known now. If men wait for the certain revelation of final judgment, the abominations will be declared in trumpet-tones of denunciation, and buroed_into the soul in memories of fire. It is infinitely better to become conscious of them first, that the awakening knowledge of guilt may perchance lead to contrition and repentance. IV. GoD DECLARES THEIR ABOMINATIONS TO BINNEBS. He is too merciful to permit his children to perish without warning. The Bible contains awful revelations of human sin. If we take it as a lamp, and turn its light on our own lives and into our own hearts, it will reveal many an abomination of wickedness hitherto calmly ignored. The prophets of Israel were required to reveal man's sin quite as much as to make known the thoughts and will of God. John the Baptist came to prepare for Christ by declaring to men the abominations of their ways. Christ himself makes men feel their sin by his own holy presence. So Peter feared to be near him (Luke v. 8). A vision of Christ throws a wholesome light on the hideous condition of an impenitent soul. This is to lead to repentance and salvation through Christ, Then the abominations may be blotted out (1 John i. 7). Vers. 4-0 and 42.-The foreign and the common. In ver. 40 Israel is seen to be seek• iog distant foreign connections, like a faithless wife who goes far afield for comp~nions in sin. In ver. 42 the charm of the distant and the foreign is swallowed up in the vulgarity of sin, which is the same in essence all the world over. L THE cHABM 01' THE FOREIGN. The Jews were P.specially warned age.inst foreign alliances, as they meant distrust in God, and as they led i,& the introduction of corr~pt- ing heathen influences. Nevertheless, the foolish people gave way to the fatal fasc1?a• tion of foreigners. 1. There u a charm in nQVelty. We are tempted to accept a hen ideas just because they strike us with a certain freshness. Thus all sorts of earthly Dotions and practices have been imported ill.to God's Israel, the Christian Ohurch, by on. xxm.1-49.) THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 25
men who have been" sent for from far," i.e. by the influence of external philosophy and worldly exnmple. 2. There is an attraction in cosmopolitanism. We in England have peculiarly wide and varied relations with the world, and Christianity claims all the earth as its domain. But the fatal charm is that of following the example of the various practices of mankind instead of impressing a Christian influence on the race. This was Israel's mistake. Called to carry out a mission to the world, she succumbed to the spirit of the world. There is great danger lest the Church should follow her example in this respect. Indeed, this has happened already to a deplorable extent. A pseudo- liberalism claims to be following the zeit-geist, and so to be adapLing Christianity to the world. This means unfaithfulness to Christ. St. Paul would be all things to all men, but only that he might win all mon to Christ, never so as to surrender Christ to please the world. That is the part of a Judas. II. THE DISILLUSION OF THE COMMON. Israel and Judah cast wistful glances on the foreigner. But when they bad accomplished their purpose and were indulging in revelry with a multitude of people who had adorned them with the barbaric magni- ficence of golden bracelets and crowns, what did it all amount to but the shame of a low, drunken debauch? Novelty in sin does not elevate the evil thing, which is essentially the same, however it may be clotbed:and· decorated. The so-called refine- ment of vice is but a veneer on the surface which leaves the rottenness beneath untouched. Cosmopolitanism does not save from moral corruption. The whole world is essentially one in its sin. There is a horrible vulgarity about all wickedness. If we woulrl be i:a.ved from this we must in a sense become a "separate people." We may and we should still sympathize with all our fellow-men, send the gospel to every nation, and ourselves learn such lessons as a wide view of mankind may teach us. Yet for all the higher efforts of life the inspiration muet be found in the retired and secret chamber of prayer.