The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 165

higher influences. If the sun were blotted out, all life on our globe would perish in darkness and cold-the world reduced to a block of silent frozen matter. If God were to withdraw, all being would come to an end. II. THE LIGHTS OF HEAVEN ARE DARKENED BY SIN. Sin eclipses the soul's sun. It spreads black c_loud~ between th~ ~ff~nder and the heavenly regions. It shuts a man out from fellowship w~th God. This 1s its ~ors~ effect, though men may treat it lightly at first. The process 1s twofold. 1. Man is blinded. Though the sun shines in noon- day splendour t'?e ~lind man w~lks in midnight darkness. Now, sin puts out the eyes of the ~oul. . It 1s hke a red-hot iron that burns away the vision of spiritual things; then the bngbt lights of heaven are made black. 2. God withdraws his brightness. · We pray that God may lift up the light of bis countenance upon us. But he may do the reverse, and tnrn bis face from us. He will not for ever display bis graciousness to heed- less, rebellious souls. Ill. THE DARKENING ON THE LIGHTS OF REA VEN BRINGS MANY GRIEVOUS CO!,• SEQUENCES. 1. K11owledge is obscured. We cannot see truth when God's light is with- drawn or when our souls are bliuded to the perception of it. "In thy light we shall see light " (Ps. xxxvi. 9). "Jndicial blindness" must be a fearful fate. 2. Joy is extinguished. A gloomy day is depressing. Darkness brings sadness. When heaven is dark all sunshine vanishes from the soul. 3. Life is threatened. The soul's higher life grows sickly and threatens to pass away in the darkness of separation from God. IV. THERE IS A DARKENING OF THE BRIGHT LIGHTS OF HEAVEN WHICH MAY COME IN THE COURSE OF THE souL's DISCIPLINE. There was darkness round the cross when J=s was dying. Then in mysterious spiritual gloom he cried," My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. xxvii. 46). Earnest souls may have times of darkness, during which the vision of heaven is obscured, seasons of deep depression, when all that once seemed most real melts into the blackness of a great doubt. V. CHRIST BRINGS A NEW LIGHT TO BENIGHTED SOULS. If we are dark now we need not remain in gloom for ever. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Isa. ix. 2). Christ came as "the Light that shineth in darkness," ns "the Light of the world." Though the bright lights of heaven be made dark over us, they are not annihilated; they are but beclouded or at worst eclipsed. For all dim, bewildered, sorrow-laden souls there is the hope of light in Christ. But ae sin brings on the deepest night of darkness, so it is by repentance and after-forgiveness that we can hope to see the darkness clear away and a new light from heaven arise to shine into our souls. • Ver. 9 (" I will also vex the hearts of many peoples '').-Vexation of heart. J. THE GREATEST DISTRESS 1B THAT WHICH IS CAUSED BY VEXATION OF HEART. Terrible reverses of fortune may be endured, and the millionaire may become a beggar, and yet ihe deepest sorrows may not be reached; for there are men who have proved themselves superior to their circumstances, and who have been able to look with a serene countenance on the wreck of their fortunes, because they have been possessed of interior sources of happiness. Bodily sickness which produces acute physical pain does not induce the greatest real sufferings. Not only have martyrs learnt to triumph at the stake, but patient, obscure sufferers have acquired peace and even joy while their bodies have been racked with torment. But when the heart is sore vexed the most terrible sorrow is felt. This may be endured amid external circumstances of affluence, and then those circumstances appear but as gilded vanities, mocking the bitter grief that lurks within. We live in our hearts, and if our hearts be sore and sorrowful, our lives are darkened with a distress that no outer comforts can cheer. JI. VEXATION OF HEART SPRINGS ESPECIALLY FROM LOBB AND DISAPPOINTMENT. We accustom ourselves to the usual, and do not grieve greatly over what we never hnd and never expected to possess. No man is much distressed at the thought thnt he is not a prince of the archangels. The simple peasant does not grieve because he is not the owner of a kingdom, as Alexander is said to have grieved because he could rnd no new worlds to conquer. The childless wife iR not desolate as the mother whose baby bas been snatched from her. The lose of the loved and the disappointment of cherished hopes are the greatest sources of vexation of heart. Now, we have all Jost a great in!i('Iifance, we have missed our high Divine vocation. The porrow of failnre is at the  cu. xxxu. 1-32.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 171