The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 148

iniquity is destruction, desolation; witness the cities of the plain, Nineveh, Babylon, Jerusalem. The" de.y" of sin e.nd of defiance, of tyrannical power and guilty grati- fication may last long, but its sun is sure to set in dark clouds, and when the morrow comes, as it will come, there will be a de.y of dire and widespread desolation. "Woe worth the day I" when it arrives. II. THE DESOLATION OF THE SPIRIT. 1. In what it is found. Spiritual desolntion is experienced when a.II the.tie really precious to the human soul is broken up and has departed. When (1) the good habits of devotion and of virtue, formed in childhood, have become loosened and have given way ; (2) the soul bas lost its faith in the providence, the nearness, the notice, and perhaps even the being of God ; (3) the man has become separated, both in sympathy and in action, from those with whom he once walked and worshipped; (4) hope of future blessedness has left the heart. bare of all expectancy beyond the grave, and the future is nothing but a blank; (5) life has lost all its sru;redness, and therefore nearly all its worth. This sad desolateness of sou culminates in (6) the loss of all self-respect, and in (7) the extensum of the same spiritual waste to those who are within range of its influence; when one is "desolate in the midst of desolation." 2. How it may be averted. "None of them that trust in him shall be desolate," says the psalmist (Ps. xx.xv. 22). The fear of God, walking in the light of his truth, communion with Jesus Christ e.nd association with his friends and followers, the daily prayer for the restraining and the prompting influences of the ~cl~~~~~~~~~~~~lli~~ thus will not enter even the outer shadow of this calamity. 3. The way of deliverance. Men once thought that there was no way for a human soul to ascend from the pit of spiritual ruin to the lofty levels of holy service nnd sacred joy and immortal hope. We think thus no more now that he has spoken to us who bas said, " I am the Way."-C. Ver, 18.-Broken yokes. "I shall break there the yokes of Egypt." There a.re many yokes which a.re laid on men's shoulders from which they may well wish to be freed ; and there is one yoke concerning which no such thought need be cherished for a. moment. There is the yoke of- I. HUMAN OPPRESSION. 'fhe sad story of the human race is, to a. very large extent, the history of human oppression. "Man's inhumanity to man" may well "make us mourn" as we dwell upon it. And among his various cruelties and wrongs we have to give oppression a. prominent place-political, domestic, persona.I oppression. It includes the denial of the rights of manhood and of womanhood, the exacting of hard and burdensome labour, or of heavy and excessive tribute, or of a. dishonouring and hurtful homage, the inflicting of pain and sulfering of many kinds, It seems to bo in the nature of sin to harden men's hearts against one another, until they not only endure but positively enjoy the sight of the oppression they impose, Ezekiel speaks of" the yokes of Egypt." No doubt that country, in the plenitude of its power, exe.cteu tribute, enforced labour, laid heavy burdens upon many of its own subjects or (e.s iu an earlier time, when Israel was under its heel) on other peoples. But when the Babylonian power ea.me up and subdued it, its hard hold on these had to be relaxed, Its yoke was broken in twain. '!'his, in the providence of God, has frequently happened. Power becomes wealthy; wee.Ith leads to luxury and indulgence; indul- gence leads to effeminacy and decline; weakness succumbs to some other power that he.s arisen; and then and thus its " yoke is broken." II. THE SERVITUDE OF SIN. "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants [slaves] ye are to whom ye obey? . . . Ye were the servants [slaves] of sin" (Rom, vi. 16, 17), Sin conducts, by sure steps, to spiritual bondage; it la.ye a. hard and heavy yoke upon the soul; it may be tbe.t of a. grasping selfishness, or of an absorbing worldliness, or of a degrading vice, or of such e. fatal habit as that of procrastination. But it is a. he.rd bondage, a. cruel yoke, which must be b-roken if there is to be spiritual liberty and ett,rnal life. God, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, can and does break this deadly yoke. 1. He fillii the soul with a sense of shame, and with a. holy, renewing sorrow. 2. He leads the awakened soul to a. Divine Saviour, in whose love and service the bond is broken. 3. He gives to the seeking, trustful soul the cleansing, liberating power of his Holy Spirit; and thWI the  154 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [on. xxx1. 1-18.