II. IT IS A FACT THAT GOD HAS NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATII OF THE WICKED, 1. This i,s positivdy a:ffirmed. Here it is st."lted on oath. No truth of revelation is more clear or positive than this. 2. It is true to the character of God, God is love, and love cnn have no pleasure in suffering and death. God is our Father, and a true father can have no plMSnre in the death of his children. 8. It is confirmed by tlie action of God, who ha.s sout his Son to save the world. While death is the wacres of sin, the gift of Gorl is the opposite-eternal life. The New Testament is a g;nd contradiction to thPOlogical pessimism. III. THE DEATH OF THE WICKED IS DUE TO THEm OWN WILLS. "Why will ye die?" He wills to die who wills tbe means of death. The man who takes poison takes his life. When the process is revealed this is done openly. When it is not seen it is still done. The sinner then wills his own death, though unwittingly, by deliberately choosing the course that will certainly issue in it. Now, thi~ is a matter of a man's own volition. So absolute is the territory of will that the wicked may yet die in their sins, although God not only does not desire their death, but earnestly desires their salvation. The awful freedom of man's will-this is the rock on which universalism breaks. IV. GoD ENTREATS MEN TO TURN AND LIVE. 1. It is possible/or all to live. As the sinner chooses his own death, so the means of life-deliverance are within his reach. He cannot save himself, but he may choose whether he will be saved. 2. The condition of life is conversion. "'l'urn ye from your evil ways." This is true repentance. It means more than regretful tears. It takes place in the will, not merely in the emotions. A tearless change is true conversion, while weeping without change is worthless senti- ment. Yet this does not require perfect conquest of evil and a full recovery from it before God will have mercy. We are to turn round. The progress up the hill to light and life has yet to be made. Repentance sets our faces in the right direction. 3. God urges and entreats sinners to turn and live. This shows (1) their great danger; (2) God's wonderful compassion nnd love ; and yet (3) the difficulty of inducing men to repent. Thus God still pleads in infinite pity with his lost children. Happy are they who hear bis gracious call and respond to it I Vers. 12-16.-Past and present. L THE PRESENT WILL NOT BE JUDGED BY THB PA.ST. This is one principle underlying the various very clear statements of the passage. It is a principle that is needed in order to balance the influence of other principles that appear to work in an opposite direction. Indeed, at first sight it seems to be con- tradictory to some well-known laws. Is it not repeatedly asserted that a man will b,, judged by hie past life? The sins of the past may be forgotten, but they stand recorded in the book of judgment and the guilt of them remains on the sinner. How, then, is it possible for the present and future to be free from the past? 1. The past lives by its effects in the present. If, however, by effort of will, aided by Divine grace, we neutralize the bad past, then that past is slain. 2. l•'orgiveness removes the guilt of the past. 3. Past innocence has 110 power in it to prevent present sin. It is a help in that direction, for it works through the force of habit. But habit may be resisted and broken. IL PABT RIGHTEOUBNEBS WILL NOT EXOUBE PRESENT BIN, We are judged chiefly, e.t all events, by what we are, rather than by what we were. Moreover, there is no possibility of our having acquired an extra stock of merit in the past which we can sd; off a~ainst our present failings. We never have a balance on the credit side of our account with Heaven. At our best we are but" unprofitable servants" (Luke xvii. 10), An employer cares little for old testimonials. He must see a certificate of character up to <late. If a man has borne an excellent reputation for years, and at last breaks down and <liBb'Taces himself, he is said to have "lost his character." His good name in the past Dow counts for nothing. It is utterly gone. Now1 the practical warning that issues from these considerations is that we must take gooa heed to our present life. It is of Do UBe to hark back to the day of conversion for assurance, We may long have left the good beginnings of that day. '!'here is no security in past service, position in the Church, etc. We need to be on our guard against falling, even to the last. It is possible to turn a.side at the eleventh hour. The ship may be wrecked in eight of the haven; \hen her passengers will not be saved by their memory of their long prosperous voyage, OB. xxxm. 1-33.] THE BOOK ·oF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 189
III. PAST BIN WILL NOT PREVENT PBEBENT SALVATION, Happily, the principle works both ways. If we must first take it as e. warning against trusting in a good past, we may also consider it as a rco5on for not despairing on account of a bad past. 1. The bad past may beforsalcen. The grace of Christ will help us to break loose frcm the tyranny of habit. 2. The bad past may be forgiven. The Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world removes the stains of guilt from penitent souls. Then God will no more accuse them of the past. Pardon covers the pa~t with oblivion. 3. The new present is what God observes. " If any man be in Christ, he is e. new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new " (2 Cor. v. 17). 'fhen God only looks at the new life and judges of that. 'l'herefore we supremely need grace for the present moment. We live in the present. Religion is for the present.