wat.chman must have courn.ge to sound the alarm, There are times when the harp must be exchanged for the trumpet. The preacher must have courage to say unpleasant things. Ver. 10.-A question of <lespair. I. THE OAUBE OF THE DESPAIR, The prophet ha~ just been told that his responsibility is limited to his warning tbe people faithfully. If the watchman blows the trumpet lustily he can do no more. The blood of the careless people will then be on their own heads. But this truth, which gives consolation to the prophet, is alarming to the people. It is meant to be so. Yet the alarm may be taken in a wrong way. Instead of rousing themselves to meet and overcome the danger, the people may sink down paralyzed in the blankness of despair. The explanation of this despair is sug"ested 0 by the language of the people. 1. A consciousness of guilt. The people perceive that their transgressions and their sins are upon them. 'l'he pilgrim feels the weight of his burden. The sudden awakening of an evil conscience plunges its possessor into midni<Yht darkness. The new thing is not to know that wickerlncss was done; that knowledge was always possessed, though hitherto not much considered. It is to know that the sins still rest upon their doer, i.e. it is the feeling of present guilt for past deeds of wlckedness. 2. .An experience of the consequences of sin. "And we pine away in them." The death-penalty of sin does not come like a fla~h of lightning. Sin is a slow poison. It kills by a sort of spiritual consumption. With an awakening conscience the man perceives himself to be in a spiritual decline. No perception can be more provocative of despair. II. THE QUESTION IT AROUSES. "How should we then live? " The despair is not yet absolute, or it would not suggest such a question as this. 'l'he most awful despair does not live in Doubting Castle. It is immured in e. black dungeon of certain negation. Possibly the question suggested does not expect any answer. It sees no reply, and does not believe that any can be given. The decline is so steadfast, and the disease of sin that causes it so deep-rooted, that the despairing soul cannot look for deliverance, and the question is a sort of expostulation offered to the prophet when he would take a more hopeful view. Still it is a question, and therefore it leaves room for nn answer. It is much that men should be brought to ask such a question. Too many do not perceive their danger, though they live in sin unrepented and unrestrained. The question implies certain thoughts. 1. Sinners are in imminent peril of death. 'l'o those who are truly awakened the prospect must be alarming. But the danger is not the less for those who do not yet perceive it. 2. Men cannot save their own souls. These endangered people must look elsewhere for safety. Unless salvation comes from above, it cannot be had. 8. Men need light on the way of salvation. It is not visible to the eye of sonse; it cannot be discovered by thinking. The world needs a gospel. The heathon pine awny, not knowing the Divine source of life. 4. Christ answers the question of despair with a gospel of hope. The answer is suggested in the next verse (ver. 11). It is completed in the gospel of Christ.
Ver. 11.-God's desire/or the world's salvation. This is n Divino oath. God swcan1 by his own life (see Heb. vi. 13). This shows how certain are tho words spoken, how earnestly God desires men to accept them, and how difficult it is for men to believe them. f. MEN HAVE FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE THAT GOD BAB NO PLEASUllE IN THE DEATH OF THE w~CKED. Doctrines of reprobation were once popular. Peoplo thought th_at God destmed _the ~renter pnrt of mankind to eternal misery before they were born, m order to magmfy his own glory. The heathen have had ideas of gods who delighted in blood. Christians have thought that there is a certain Divine satisfnction in taking vengeance on the sinner. Consider the causes of these views. 1. Divine warnings. . God warns sternly. Hence he is thought to will harshly. It is supposed that he desues to do what he threatens. 2. The analogy of human passions. With man "revenge is sweet." Thereforo it is thought to bo so with God. Men net too much in order to please themselves. Therofore they imagine that God docs tho same. i. The experience of Divine ;'udgments. 'l'hey aro at times so sweeping and wholesale, and escape from them seems to be so hopeless, that their victims are tempted to rcrrard 0 them as the outcome of God's own desires, 188 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [on. xxxm. 1-33,