Ver. 18.-Song, silmced, Bongs may be silenced either because they are found to be unworthy to be sung or because the singers aro no longer able to sing them. The hnrp may be broken, or the minstrel may be in no mood to touch its chords. Our old joys may be given up for either of these reasons. We may find them to be unworthy, or, if no fault is discovered in them, sorrow may extinguish them. I. SONGS ABE SILENOED BY THE DIB0OVEBY OF THEIR UNWORTHINESS, The songs of Tyre were not like those of Zion. Heathen songs are too often degrading to the singers of them, because false religion and immoral conduct are therein celebrnted. There are pleasures of sin which it is a shame to permit unchecked, The a.wakening of conscience necessarily extinguishes such pleasures and stills their accompanying songs. In this way the thoughtless world may be brought to regard religion as a gloomy, repressive iufluence, inimical to joy, and therefore very unattractive. We should look a littlo deeper. The wicked song must be stopped at any cost. But it need not be followed by a reign of perpetnal silence, A new song may follow, and this may be 11s joyous as it is innocent. Christianity is not the enemy of gladness, it is only the enemy of wickedness; and when joy is purged from evil, joy is found to be deeper, stronger, end sweeter than ever it was while intoxicated with the old corruption, II. SONGS ARE SILENCED BY SORROW. There is a time for everything, and singing is not always seasonable. Nothing can be more unnatural than a forced song. Now, there are sorrows that quench the most vigorous soul's delights, as there are storms that beat down the strongest wings. Such were the calamities that accompanied Nebucbo.d- nezzar's invasion. Such too were tho troubles of the Jewi~h captives when they hung their harps upon the willows, and refused to sing the Lord's song in a strange land (Ps. cxxxvii. 2-4). But there will be worse causes of the silence of old songs in God's future judgments on sin. Pleasure is no refuge from trouble. It tempts to hoi;ies that nre delusive. No one is safe just because he feels himself happy. Cheerful people may be in as great danger as despondent ones. 'i2 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oH. XXVI, 1-21
III. SoNGs ABE sn.RNOED TO BA VB THE BINGER. Tyre is made desolate utterly and eternallv. The songs of her gay citizens are no more heard. Her very rocks are scraped ·bare, and the fisherman spreads his nets on her once populous places. Thus cities are doomed to irretrievable ruin. But it is not so with souls. There are restoration and redemption for individual men. At all events, though a dark shadow of mystery hangs over the grave, this is the case on earth. Now, it would be best for the singer t-0 silence his old thoughtless song in the sober reflection of repentance. The silence may be a first step to better things. We are too noisy and too superficial. The hush of demonstrative life gives us an opportunity of hearing the still small voice of God. When our songs are silenced we may listen to the songs of the angels. Then that heavenly music may teach us to tune our harps to its higher melody and inspire our souls with new songs of redemption (Rev. v. 9). Ver. 16.-" The princes oft~ sea." The Tyrians were a seafaring people on a large scale. Unlike the poor Philistines, who did not go beyond the fisherman's simple toil, those adventurers swept the Mediterranean with their fleets, and even ventnred to distant shores of the Atlantic. They had the advantages and the evils of a great maritime nation. I. THE PRINCES OF THE BEA GATHERED BICHEB. The merchants of Tyre were princes. Wealth was got by industry, daring, and enterprise. ThUB the Tyrians anticipated the good fortune of the English. Prosperity is not often won except by means of energy and adventure. When the spirit that urges on daring attempts is enervated by luxury, the success that it once achieved is surely doomed. It is happy when that spirit is transformed into a higher character, and seeks for better returns than b!lles of merchandise. We cannot but feel that the voyages of the Be,a,gle and the <Jhal.lenger are nobler in this respect, as their aim was to gather treasures of knowledge. Bot better still is it when the command of the waters is used for the promotion of peace, the extension of liberty, and the check of the slave-trade, and above all, the propagation of Christianity. 11 THE PRINCES OF THE SEA U!IITED BAOEB. In ancient times the Tyrians were the great link of connection between the East and the West, Through them the venerable civilization of Asia woke up the genius of Europe, e.s yet slumbering in unconscious barbarism. Tyre gave the alphabet to Europe. Thus she laid the foundation of Greek culture and started European literature on its wonderful course. She gave more than she took. Immense and untold good comes from the peacefu1 intercommunication of races. IIL THE PRINCES OF THE BEA BAN GREAT BIBKB. They trusted their wealth to the treacherous waves. The Merchant of Venice finds himself beggared by unexpected calamities. The greatest wealth is usually won by the most uncertain means, i.e. by foreign trade and home speculation. 'l'his is a warning to the prosperous not to put their trnst in riches which so easily take wings and fly away, The fate of Tyre should drive us further to seek those better riches in the heavenly treasury, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal (Matt. vi. 20). If even the princes of the sea were ruined, who can be satisfied to rest in the greatest earthly success? IV. Tm: PBINCEB OF THE SEA LIVED LOW LIVES. Princes they were, but not saints. Their mercenary character was not hidden by I'll the splendour of their surroundings. In their gorgeoUB palaces, among their well-stocked bazaars, with their heavy-le.den ehips on many waters, they were the cynosure of every eye. Yet in God's sight they were" miserable, and blind, and naked," for they were hut mammon-worshippers. More enlightened than the Tyrian merchants, Englishmen will be guilty of greater sin and folly if they fall down and worship the same image of gold.
HOM1LIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS, Ver. 2.-The jealousy of Tyre. It is a singular fact that, in his reproaches and censures directed against the states and tribes by which Israel was surrounded, Ezekiel does not confine himself to a condemnation of their idolatries and their vices and crimes on. xnt. 1-21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 73