all Divine perfections are involved in and may be developed from the very definition. But it will be found that when "the Name" of God is used, as in this passage, it calls attention to these two attributes of Deity. 1. He is righteous in his judgments. 2. lie is faithful to his promises. 11. AMONG WHOM WOULD Go» MAKE ms NAME KNOWN? To whom would he hav« his attributes and the characteristics of his moral government revealed with clearness and unmistakable power? The text gives an explicit answer to this question. 1. Among the Hebrews: "In the midst of my people Israel" These, his people, had been prone to forget or to misunderstand his Name, and needed that their attention should be recalled to the revelation which Jehovah had given of himself. 2. Among the heathen: "The heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in IsrBel." In this case it was not a revival of knowledge that had lapsed or grown dim; it was a fresh communication. Those who had trusted in their false gods should have their foolish confidence shaken; those who had thought lightly of Jehovah should learn to revere his power, and (better still) should learn to contemplate the moral attributes of the Supreme Power, and thus receive a special illumiuation, which might be for their spiritual good. III. How WOULD GOD EFFECT THIS END, AND MAKE HIS NAME KNOWN? 1. By delivering his people. The dangers threatening Israel were great, and their foes were formidable. All the more marvellous was the interposition wrought upon their behalf. 'l'he Name of God, as the great Deliverer, was manifested and glorified by the experi- ence of the rescued and saved. 2. By destroying the enemies of his people. In this manner the fame of the Most High, the God of hosts, was spread abroad, so that distant nations were impressed by the revelation of bis power, by the proof c,f his universal sway. APPLICATION, The preacher and teacher of religion should never lose sight of the fact that his one great o.im is the honour and exaltation of the Name of Gorl. Tliis is often utterly misrepresented, either through the childishness or the malice of the enemies of religion, and it is affirmed to involve an unworthy conception of the Deity, as though in vanity God delighted in the adulations of men. This is anthropo- morphism indeed. 'fhe Name of God is truth, righteousness, holiness, and love. 'l'o manifest and extol his Name is to display the supremacy of his glorious attributes. And than this man can have no higher object at which to aim. If man's chief end is to glorify God, if human life does not find its law and its aim iu itself, then it is evident that the exaltation of the Divine Name is a worthy and most noble end for the Christian man, e.nd for the Christian minister, to set before him.-'r.
Ver. 10.-The spoiler spoiled. There is something very picturesque and impressive in this prediction. The foes of Israel, under the leadership of Gog, are represented as defo11ted, scattered, and slain. Their bodies arc strewn over the soil which they came in their haughty self-confidl:lnce to conquer and to possess. The dwellers in the cities of Israel are depicted as going out upon the plains to gather the weapons of war-the shields, the bows, and the spears-which lie upon the ground where the mighty have fallen, and as collecting them that they may use them as fuel. The Israelites spare their own forests, and use the weapons of their enemies in place of the firewood they havll been accustomed to cut. Thus for seven years their necessities in this respect are supplied I The spoiler is spoiled, aud those who robbed them are robbed in turn. This poetical hyperbole sets forth the utter confusion of the enemies of God's people, and tho signal and complete character of Jehovah's interposition and delivering power and mercy. It is impossible to confine such statements as these to nay event which has ever happened or ever will happen in any particular time or place. They onun- oiate a principle of world-wide and lasting application. Sin is the great spoiler that has entered into the world with the view of robbing and ruining mankind, and Christ is the great Deliverer, who spoils the spoiler, leads captivity captive, and rescues from the threatened destruction, I. 'l'HIB FAOT IS ENTIRELY CONTRARY TO HUMAN UNDERSTANDING AND EXPECTATION. H. Tam FACT I8 AN EXEMPLIFICATION OF A DIVINE PRINCIPLE THAT THE DATTLB 18 NOT TO THE STRONG, III. Tms FACT 18 A PROOF OF Go»'B OARE AND SOLICITUDE FOR RIB OWl'I. lV. A.ND OF Goo's UNIVERSAL GOVERNMENT AND CONTROL. 312 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [all. xxxrx. 1-29,