himself acknowledged and felt; it was God who deprived him of the desire of his eyes. 'l'he dead return n'lt to their place, which knows them no more. Thie fact gives keen- nres to the sorrow, whilst it aide submission. Ezekiel's fellow-countrymen were to learn that it was the Divine purpose to inflict upon Jerusalem the last indignity. No human power could avert, and no human power could repair, this evil, any more than such power could save or restore the life which the Creator resumed. A new career might indeed open up before the people of Israel, but the old career was closed peremptorily and irrecoverably. IV. Cn.usmNG EVEN TO SILENCE. Ezekiel was bidden, when his bereavement came upon him, to refrain from weeping and mourning, and from all the outward signs of grief. Distressing and difficult as the command certainly was, it was obeyed. And the prophet's obedience to it was significant. When the day of Judah's trouble came, it came in such a manner and with such circumstances accompanying it that the sur- vivors and spectators of the national calamity were rendered speechless through grief. Their experience reminds us of the memorable language of the psalmist, "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it." There is a time to be silent. When the hand of God is heavy upon those who have resisted his laws and rebelled against his authority, they have nothing wherewith t-0 answer their righteous Lord whom they have offended. It is for them to refrain from complaint, which in such a case would be merely blasphemy ; it is for them to bow beneath the rod; it is for them, in silence and in speechless bitterness of heart, to repent of all their sins. It is the Lord: "Behold, here am I; let him do to me as seemeth good unto him."-T. _ Ver. 24.-Ezekiel a sign. _This prophet was commissioned to· utter many words and to perform many actions which were of the nature of signs to Israel. Bnt in this verse, by God's own instruction, Ezekiel is directed, not to show, but to be, a sign to the people. In his own person, in his own remarkable experience, he typified great truths. J. IN TIIE AFFLICTION WHICH BEFELL HIM. II. IN THE ANGUISH WHICH HE EXPERIENCED. III. IN 1118 SILENT SUDMISSION TO DIVINE APPOINTMENTS. IV. IN HIS UNCOMPLAINING OBEDIENCE TO DIVINE BEHESTS. V. IN HIS DESIRE AND RESOLUTION, BY ALL HIS EXPERIENCE AND AC1rION, TO GLORIFY Goo. APPLICATION. There are occasions when a good man can do little in the way of directly benefiting or influencing the ungodly by whom he may be surrounded. But even in such circumstances he may be a witness to God, and he may render service to hi~ fellow-men, by his own lire, and especially by his demeanour in times of affliction and trial.-T.
Vere. 1-14.-The interior mechanism of war. The prophet is commissioned to employ another holllely metaphor. The patience and ingenuity of God's love a.re ,ncxhaustible. The homeliest imagery is employed with a view to vivid and abiding impression. Here it is shown that behind all the machinery and circumstance of war, 1' ho.nd Divine directs and overrules. A moral force resides within the material and humnn agency. I. THE NECE~SITY FOR THE SCOURGE. The necessity arose from the excessive criruino.lity of the Jewish people. 1. They are described as a "house of rebellion." 'l'he authority of Jehovah was trampled in the dust. 2. Jerusalem was a city of blood. Justice was so grossly maladministered that the guilty escaped; the innocent were judicially murdered. 3. Bin assumed the most flagrant fo1ms. "In thy filthiness is lewdness." All restraint to vice was cast off. All moral vigour was eaten out with self-indulgence. 4. There had been wanton abuse of God's corrective methods. "1 purged thee, and thou wast not purged." Costly remedies had been wasted o.nd scorr.ed. 'l'he hand of the great Physician had been with:!tood. This is the culmination of guilt. The condition of such is hopeless. II. Tm: CER'l'AINTY OF THE SCOURGE. "I the Lord have spoken : it shall como, nod I will do it." The event was based upon the word of God, and God's word is tho forthputting of bis will. He puts himself into his speech. Fnlfilrnent of his word is not only invariable as law; fulfilment is o. neces8ity. But further, the scourge had 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [ou. XXIV, 1-27,