The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 166

root of the worst heart-ache. The old weary world groans without perceiving the cause of its anguish. Clearly something is wrong, for a good Creator would not have made a world for sorrow and disappointment. 'l'he great disillusion which at some time comes to every sanguine soul, and turns May into November, must have a cause. The worlc\. bas suffered a great loss; it has met with a great disappointment. The first step is to have the courage to admit the fact, and not to be living in the optimism which the first touch of reality proves to be but a dream. 'The next is to discover the cause and to see that the loss is the loss of God, and t be failure sin. III. CHRIST BAB COME TO CUBE VEXATION OF HEART. He may not help us to retrieve broken fortunes. "To the poor the gospel is preached "-and yet they remain poor; be may not now restore health as be did during bis earthly ministry. But be aims at the deepest trouble-be cures vexation of heart. To the labouring and beaYy laden be gives rest. It is not bis ,vill that bis people should go mourning all their days. The dim and faded life may be brightened and gladdened by the love of the great Saviour. This is possible because Christ goes to the scat of the trouble, whereas most earthly comforters have only tried to smooth away the superficial symptoms. He finds the lost God. He restores man to bis missed destiny. He slays the sin that is the worm at the root of the world's life. He brings the heart-joy of life eternal in fellowship with God. Ver. 14.-Still waters of death. The waters of Egypt are to settle and so to be clean. From being a highway of commerce the Nile is to become an undisturbed inland river. The water-wheels shall be still, the splash of the oar shall be no more heard. The silent river shall be left to its own peace-the peace of death. I. Sm DESTROYS CIVILIZATION. The river is the busy scene of Egyptian life aucl activity, Its waters will be quiet because Egypt will lose its energy. This is repre- sented as the consequence of the nation's wickedness. Consider how the process works. 1. Sin is anti-social. Civilizntion is the art of city-life. It is dependent ou co-operation, division of labour, mutual ministriei,, and mutual confidence. .All tbesc things are shattered by the selfish and untrue conduct of sin. 2. Sin is unaspiri11g. Civilization presses forward; essentially it seeks an advance. Sin may be greedy nnd grasping, and may incline men to seize much for tbemselveR, buL it does not insl'in, energy for general progress. It is depressing and discouraging. 3. Sin is essentially opposed to the laws of God. Now, no civilization can be secure and lasting tbnt is not ba~ed on those laws. .All corrupt civilization bears within it the seeds of its own destruction. The only "city which bath foundations" is the city of God, nnd this is "let down from henven," i.e. it is e. city of which the constitution is Divine, nnd which embodies the idea of "the kingdom of heaven." II. IT IS WEJ.L THAT A SINFUL CIVILIZATION SHOULD DE SHATTERED. The East is scored with the ruins of ancient empires, To-day the scene of decay is melancholy and oppressive. Yet the sight of those old, bad empires in their flomishing days was far more snd to behold. They were seats of cruelty and haunts of vice. It is well thnt- they hnve ceased to be. The hyenas and jackals that now infest their neglected temples an<l palaces are clean nnd innocent inhabitants compared with the lustful nml murderous men who formerly lived there. The running sore of modnn Christendom is in the condition of its great cities. The broken-down wrecks of civilization arc far more degraded than the simplo savages of the forest. It was good for the world that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, that great Nineveh became a lonely resort of lions of the desert, that the Egypt of the Pharaohs fell from her proud and wicked splendour. It will be well for modem civilization to be swept away if it becomes only secular, atheistic, e.nd immoral. JI[. 'fHE RESULTS flF A SHATTERED CIVILIZATION WILL BE A PREPARATION FOR A llETTEI\ FUTURE. 'l'he old foul Nile is to setlle quietly and so become clear. Its oncu disturbed waters are to run smoothly like oil. 'l'hese facts which occur in tho list of calamities for Egypt-and rightly, because they indicate the departure of the old, busy, populous life from its banks and its surface-are nevertheless in themselves good. It is well that the river should be clear and run smoothly. The destruction of empires brin~s deliverance to oppressed subject races. 'l'be loss of civilization may be the gain of naturalness. There may be less wealth, but more welfare; less pleasure, but more 172 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oH. xxx11. 1-32.