The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 255

citizenship is to be in heaven (see Phil. iii. 20). <rt>d is to be our God, and we are tc be his people. All human and earthly relationships are to find their highest and best illustration in those which are '' in the heavens," which are spiritual and eternal. Communion between ourselves and our Father in heaven is to be common and con- stant-a daily, an hourly incident through a.11 our life and in all our circumstances and conditions. Far below and far above all other things, we are to be the children and the heirs of God, we are to be the servants of Jesus Christ, we are to bear witness to his truth, we are to promote the coming of his kingdom on the earth.-C. Vers. 33-37.-The period of spiritual prosperity. The promised restoration and prosperity of Israel very fitly portrays the ~ondition of spiritual well-being in the Church of Christ. It is marked by four things. I. SPIRITUAL STABILITY. "I will cause you to dwell in the cities" (ver. 33). They were not to be as travellers who are always moving, sleeping beneath the trees or the stars, or as men that pitch their tents for a few days and pass on; they should "dwell in the citirs." It is one sign of s healthy moral condition when we reach some per- manency of principle and of feeling; when we are not "driven with the wind and tossed," but abide where we are, dwelling in the strong cities of assured conviction, of peace, of sacred joy, of blessed hope. It is the man who has learnt much of God and has attained to no small measure of heavenly wisdom whom we know where to find, on whose constancy we may depend, who is "steadfast and immovable." II. FRUITFUL ID."ERGY. "The wastes shall be builded, ancl the desolate land shall be tilled" (vers. 33, 34). Before the Churches of Christ there lie sad and desolate wastes-souls that are in ruins and urgently need to be restored; large stretches of manhood that are now uncultivated, but that would yield a very precious harvest if only the seed of heavenly truth were sown. The great work to which these Churches should have addressed themselves with utmost earnestness and zeal is the work of human restoration, of sacred culture. The fields lie fallow and are barren; the land is desolate; men.kind is not yielding its fruit, though there are boundless capacities slumbering in the soil. But when the breath of Divine inspiration is felt by the Church, and the pulse of a Divine life is beating within it, then does it go forward in the fuluess of its faithfulness and its pity, and the wastes are builded and the land is tilled. : III. IMPBEi,BTVENESB AND INFLUENCE. (Vere. 35, 86.) A Christian Church mny not be composed of those whose outward behaviour contrasts greatly with what it once was; for its members may be those who have" been with Christ from the begin- ning." N!Wertheless, it ought to be a distinctively and unmistakably holy community; R society of men and women who are recognized by "all that pass by" es those that love righteousness and hate iniquity; as those that are seriously and earnestly endea- vouring to translate the will of Christ into their daily and their public life; as those whose whole coDduct is governed by Christian principle; as those who arc intent upon the elevation of their country and of their race, whatever sacrifice of time, or money, or strength it may require to accomplish it. 'l'hen would the gr~at Name of Jesus Christ be magnified, and wen would know that he was the Lord, the Lord of all power and grace. IV. PRAYERFULNESS. (Ver. 87.) God will have his children near to him in reve- rential and grateful thought, and he desires that they ask him for the help and the blessings they need at his hand. He will "be inq nired of." As soon as we reo.ch a point where we begin to think of independence, we are in spiritual danger. 'l'he wise, sare, prosperous condit.ion, both of the individual and of the Church, is that of constant nearness to God and a deep sense of dependence upon him. 'l'he upward look and the earnest prayer become us well; aud they not only becO'll'IA m, buL they BeCU,rejo,· w the responsive bouuty and bleliljing of God.-O. cH, xxxvn. 1-28.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 2G3