Poets are not always inspired. 2. Wlien men will not hear. Ezokiel's repeated dis- courses, and even his striking illustrative actions, had beo11 treated with indifference by the Jews. It is useless to "cast pearls before swine," 3. When events are speak- ing. God ~ays, "Be still, and know that I am God" (P$. xlvi. 10). The awful voice of pro,idence silences every utterance of man. 4. When we are called to reflect. We ha,e too much talking and too little thinking. This is an age of expression. We ha'l"e lost the art of reticence. The consequence is shallowness and instability. More silence would allow of a richer brooding thoughtfulness. II. EVEN'l'S OPEN THE MOUTH OF THE SILENT. Ezekiel was to be silent in the grief of his sudden widowhood, and the Jews would be silenced by the frightful calamities of the siege of Jerusalem. Afterwards the prophet's lips would be unsealed, and he would be able to speak to better purpose. Events help to this result: 1. In suggest- ing topw;. The truest thought is inspired by fact. New occurrences give rise to new lesi;ons. The age of literature follows the age of action, and great books spring up in the soil that has been fertilized by great deeds. The facts of the gospel history are the chief topics for Christian preaching. The new scenes of the life of Christ and the Acts of the Apostles are the inspiration of all evangelistic speech. 2. In inclining men to listen. Ezekiel was silenced by indifference; he was to be rendered eloquent again by a newly awakened interest. Now, this change was to be brought about through the instrumentality of external events. Thus God breaks up the fallow ground and prepares the soil to receive the seed of the Word. 3. In inducing faith. This is the principal cause of the change in the present instance. The Jews bad refused to believe Ezekiel. But when his words had been verified by the occurrence of the calamities he had predicted, the sceptical hearers would be forced to acknow- ledge that he was a true prophet. The fulfilments of Christ's prophecy in the growth of the kingdom from the grain of mustard seed to the great tree should incline people to listen to Christian teaching with faith. III. THE WISE TEACHER WILL SEIZE OPPORTUNITIES FOB SPEECH. His mission ie to proclaim the will of bis Master; and, though silence may be suitable on occasion, and room for thought is greatly to be desired, he must be on the watch for every opportunity of delivering his great message. It is a glorious time when inspired lips are unsealed. The mere babble of empty talk is not to be compared with such utter- ance. The Jews bad it in the thunders of prophecy, and the early Christians in the gift of the cloven tongues. But every Christian teacher who bas power to speak to his brother may receive Divine impulses which should give him words of helpfulness and healing. The great art is then to utter the word in season-the right word, to the right person, in the right spirit, at the right moment.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Yers.1-14.-The consuming cauldron. 'I'he threatenedjudgment has at last descended upon the guilty city; and Ezekiel, far away in the land of the Captivity, eeee in vision, and declares to bis fellow-captives by a parable, the siege of Jerusalem now actually taking place. As in so many parts of bis prophecies, Ezekiel reveals by symbol thaL which he bas to communicate. Opinions differ as to whether the cauldron was act~\ly filled with the joints of animals and was actually heated by a fire. But the fannhar operation, whether literally performed or merely imagined and described, served vividly to portray to the mind the calamities which were befalling the doomed metropolis. I. THE SIN OF THE CITY. As described in this passage, the errors of Jerusalem may be classified under three headings. 1. Lies. By which we must understand the co1Tup- tion, the deceits and frauds, the political insincerity, which bad eaten away the very heart of the citizens. 2. Lev:dness. Or the prevalence of sensual sins and of carnal luxury, opposed to that purity and simplicity of domestic life in which the rn?ral henlt~ of a nation ever consists. 3. Blood-guiltiness. Or violence and murder, which at this time were rife in Jerusalem, each man seeking his own interests, even at the expense of the life of his neighbours. These three classes of iniquity are chosen by the prophet as peculiarly heinous and obtrusive, not as e:11h11usting, but simply ae exemplifying, the city's sinfulness. o1I. xxrv. 1-27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIBL. 89