II. GREAT FOLLY. "His heart is lifted up in his height" 1. &if-adulation. To admire one's self so as to forget our Divine Benefactor is both foolishness and sin. This is to cheat God of his due. If robbery is criminal anywhere, it is specially criminal when directed against God. 'l'o interpose ourselves between God and his proper worship is grievous sin. 2. False ground /err admiration. To find satisfaction in external rank or elevation is a sore mistake. Neither wealth, nor station, nor anything outside ourselves is a proper ground for solid satisfaction. We should find our chief delight in real excellence-in likeness to God. Else we divert our minds from substantial good, and are taken up with gaud and tinsel. 3. Self-trust. Pride arrogates to itself qualities and possessions which do not belong to it. It is a condition of mind we may call "self- inflation." Self-trust is ruinous, because it is reliance upon a broken reed. Human strength, apart from God, is sheer frailty. No ~gure can exaggerate its f~ebleness. It is a vapour, a shadow, a mere cobweb. Man 1s strong only when affiliated to God. Therefore self-trust is self-deception, is suicide. III. A GBEAT DOWNFALL. Carrying out the harmony of the figure, there is: 1. Mutilatim. "His boughs are broken." So pitiful is God, that he does not at once destroy. He visits with partial chastisement, in the hope that repentance and amend- ment may be the result. If he can spare from destruction, he will.. This m:-itilation of his beauty was a lesson he ought to have ta.ken to heart. If a higher bemg than he could, against his will, despoil him of some of his members, could he not despoil ,hi':°' of all? A wise man would have halted, reflected, turned over a new leaf. fh1s mutilation represents dismemberment, loss of territory. '!'his outward mutilation indicates diminution of vitality: "Grey hairs were h< re and there upon him, though he knew it not." 2. Scattering. "Upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen." Memorials of this ruined cedar were distributed far and wide. Every stream bore them on. Every storm of wind scattered them. So in the time of a nation's misfortune, fair-weather allies easily desert. As prosperity brings many superficial friends, so adversity scatters them. At such a time a hundred foes will start out of ambush to annoy, if they cannot inj_ure. When God becomes our foe, our resources speedily waste like snow at midday. 3. Degradation. "Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be'upon his branches." In other words, he shall be treated with contempt. Those before whom he has paraded his superiority shall, in turn, triumph over him. This conduct is to many a sweet revenge. It gives to them a conviction that they too have some hidden merit which now shall come to light. This degradation in the scale of being, in the scale of society, is a bitter element in God's penalty. "He that exalteth himself sholl be abased." The pendulum that has swung too far in one direction will presently swing to the other extreme. 4. Commiseration. "I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him." The fall of a flourishing king naturl\lly causes consternation and concern in every palace. The self-security of others is rudely shl\ken. Every throne on earth seems to totter with the great vibration. Then, in noble minds, the sense of brotherhood appears. A tender tie, though often unseen, runs through the human rnce. The fall of one is a lesser fall to all. We nil have a common interest in the fortune and destiny of humanity. 5. Diabolic triumph. "All the trees of Eden . . . shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth." This sense of exultation over the fo.11 of another-whether it be latent or expressed-is base and devilish. Hence we learn that the feelings of men, in the state of Hades, is not improved by suffering: the exact reverse. Intelligent natures degenerate in hell. " Evil men wax worse and worse. n Some, too, to whom the king, in prosperity, rendered signo.l service, will be disposed to taunt him in the day of his fall. An ingrate becomes the blackest of demons. IV. A GBEAT LESSON. "To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height." The terrible fall of the Assyrio.n king is used as a lesson and a warning to Pharaoh. God's judgments are stepping-stones to mercy. Over the most lurid cloud he flings the rainbow of his kindness. The darkest events may become to us fountains of blessing, ifwe are willing to gain the good. Thus God exhibits the strength and fulness of his love. If by any method, by any example, he can win us back from evil courses, he will. Marvellous is the obduracy of the human heart that will not yield to the charms of infinite love I The death of one may become life to many. God's aims are magnificent and far-reaching. By-and-by, he shall have 164 THE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPHET EZEKlEL. [cu. xxx1. 1-18.
the praise which is his rightful due. If with such displays of Divine kindness men nre not ashamed of their sin, they must become more hardened and more depraved than ever. "My soul, come not thou into their secret! "-D.