The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 111

and gold. It is God's 11ill that the nations of the earth should interchange their products. The wisdom requisite for enterprise and commerce God himself gives. "Say not in thine heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth; but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for he it is who giveth thee power to get wealth." Far-reaching sagacity, careful plan, prudent thrift, and bold adven- ture bring stores of wealth. '' The hand of the diligent maketh rich." II. Com.rEBOIAL BU00EBB LEA.DB TO STATE MAGNIFICENCE. More or less in every human breast there is a hunger for dignity, luxury, magnificent display. AB soon as means are forthcoming this hunger will satiate itself. Nor is it merely a matter of personal satisfaction. It lends importance to the man; it lends importance to the state; it impresses other people-other nations-with a sense of superiority. It obtains homage and deference from men, and this is delicious. How otherwise can wealth be expended? The king cannot consume more food, unless it be to his injury. Expendi- ture on dress soon reaches its utmost limit. Therefore wealth can find outlets only on palatial buildings, pompous equipages, and martial defences. III. STATE MAGNIFIOEN0I!l BREEDS A SPIRIT OF VAIN ASSUMPTION. The tendency of all material possession is to foster a feeling of self-importance. The adulation of others strenglbens this feeling. Every addition of influence or power contributes to this inward vanity. In proportion to a king's poverty of mind will he over-estimate his Importance. He looks upon bis granite ramparts and upon bis vast armaments, and imagines himself unconquerable. All other monarchs flatter him. He is easily cajoled into the belief that he possesses a clear superiority among men-yea, positive supremacy. He conceives that he is cast in a mould unlike that of mortals-that he is deathless and divine. He demands honours which belong to God alonll. Instead of making his perilous position secure by the ramparts of God's friendship, he makes God an enemy. IV. PROFANE ASSUMPTION IS DESTINED TO A TERRIBLE REVERSE. "Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers." A castle built without foundation is sure, sooner or lllter, to fall. In proportion to the loftiness of the erection will, in such a case, be the greatness of the catastrophe. Instead of being secure and permanent as God, he will find himself vulnerable as a man, frail as a flower at noonday. The spears of those he had despised will pierce his flesh as they would the flesh of another man; and when another king-the king of terrors-riding furiously on his pale horse, shall confront him, his heart will be the victim of such remorse and shame as other mortals have never known. Better far not to be lifted up than to be lifted up and then cast down. The momentum of a body falling from a dizzy height is terrible: what is the momentum of a lost soul? V. Gon's WORD IS IDGHTIER THAN ALL BUMAN BI!lSOUROES. "I have spoken it, eaith the Lord God." In the largest sense it is true that we cannot go against the word of the Lord. God's word is the forthputting of his thought, purposo, will. It is omnipotent resolve interpreted into speech. "He spake, and it was done." A word becomes a world. A breath of God sweeps the earth like a. tornado. A promise is a ladder by which we can climb to the skies; it is a ship that will bear us away safely to the eternal haven. One word of God is a feast that will nourish the life of our soul for ages. It is a refuge in which we may securely hide. Jchovah's word is a rampart, from behind which we may calmly defy ten thousand foes. It is a wall of fire that never has been broken through. '!'hat word is more worth than all bankers' coffers- than all Californian mines. It is a title-deed to immortality and to heavcn.-D. Vers. 11-19.-The glory and shame of Eden reproduced. There is no reason why we should not regard the biblical narrative of Adam's trial and fall as fact ood as allegory also. There is no real discrepancy between these two principles of interpreta- tion. We are bound to accept it as a narrative of historical fact. Yet it is also o.n outline picture of every man's history. In <"Och man's case there is the Edenfo period of innocence, there is the crisis of first temptation, there is the fall, and then the banishment from Edenic joy. The circumstances of the first probation aro more clearly and vividly reproduced in the case of o. young prince than in any other. Hence the application to the King of Tyre. I. THE KING CONSIDERED AS THE IDEAL MAN. Ad~m was placed in Eden as 11 monarch. He was placed in dominion over aU creatures in eo.r~h, or air, or sea. Th\• l>Zl!:IUEI,-lJ, i  114 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oa. xxvm.1-26.