(1) Let the wiclced pause before they begin their wicked course. They take many things into the account; let them not leave this one out of their reckoning, that when they have reached the field of their proposed achievement, though they may reach it well armed and eager for the fight, there may come down upon them, out of the heavens, e. blow which will smite their weapons out of their hand, and leave them "naked to their enemies." (2) Let the righteous hope, even if they be outnumbered and out-weaponed. It is not every well-equipped army that wins the battle. Victory does not necessarily go with the latest rifles and the cannon that carry the furthest. There is one Power that presides over all the forces that are at work ; when he will and as he will, he will interpose on behalf of his children, and those who seemed so strong and so invincible will stand like a disarmed soldier in the midst and in the power of his enemies. It is worth while, by way of contrast, to glance at-- II. Gon's GRACIOUS BESmn>TION. He who "smites the bow out of the hand" of the enemy is the One who gently and graciously takes the sword out of the hand of his own soldiers, that he may place on their head the "crown of righteousness," the "crown of life," When God sends the feebleness which can do no more active work below, or when he comes to us in death, he resumes the weapon he once put into our, bands, and either (in the one case) bids us wait his time and our reward, or (in the other) he takes us where a stronger and a wiser hand will wield a far better weapon in a much nobler sphere.-C. Ver. 5.-Falling on the field. "Thou shalt fall upon the open field." These words are clearly to be taken as- I. A SERIOUS PENALTY, The hosts of the invader should encounter those whom they thought to defeat, and be by them defeated and slain; they would perish where they fought, beneath the heavens, on the open field. Now, a life of sin is only too likely to lead to such a death as men would not willingly die, and such a death " on the open field" of battle is fitted to suggest: 1. A death of violenu, or in some way that is unnatural. Sin begets strife, hatred, jealousy, the dominance of some evil passion ; and in how many cases does this lead to the loss of life by some unnatural means! Instead of passing peacefully away, according to the order of nature, dying under his own roof nnd in his own chamber, a sinful man, more especially if he be a man who indulges in the greater transgressions, is likely enough to die an unnatural death in some form or other. 2. .A death in loneliness. The hosts of Gog were to be stretched in the valley, and, though they would indeed keep one another company, how different is the near neighbourhood of wounded and dying soldiers from the presence of the nearest and dearest of human kindred and of beloved friends I How ofton bas a sinful course led the erring one to die a lonely death, far from a father's grasp, from a mother's ministry, from the sympathy and succour of dear ones at home I 3. A death in the midst of life. It is not the aged, but the strong and the young, who go forth to battle and die on the open field. 'l'he army of the slain in the open field is a large company of men who have perished before their time; their days a.re incom- plete; they have been cut off from many (or from some) of the possibilities of life, of its engagements and achievements. Thie, too, is the frequent, the continually recurring, consequence of an evil course. They who enter upon it may reckon that their life will not hold all, or nearly all, the blessings which a.re the heritage of the holy and the wise. 4. A death without the consolations of piety, These are seldom, indeed, found "on the open field;" and they are usually absent from the experience of the man who abandons himself to an evil life. But while these words are meant as a penalty, they may be regarded, on the other hand, as- II. AN ACCEPTABLE PROMISE. For the Christian workman would most willingly "fall upon the open field" of sacred usefulness. There is no vision of death more welcome to an earnest spirit than that of an end arrived at in the very midst of useful and fruitful activities, Good it may be to spend some months in retirement and con- templation before the eyes close in death and open in immortality; yet shall we not ~ay that it is better to work on, in untiring and joyous devotion, building up the king- dom of Christ, cheering and comforting the feeble, raising up the fallen, leading the undecidLd into the fold of the good Shephard, striking strong and faithful blows for righteousncs11 and heavenly wisdom, aud, "falling on tl:\e field" of spintual conflict, 318 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [oa, x:xxxx, 1-29,
pass from the battle-ground of earth to the peaceful shores and the blessed scenes of heaven?-C.