which the picture of a gate looking towards the east may call up when we take it as en illustration of what may be similar in other regions of life. I. AN ORIENTAL OUTLOOK. The new city of God has this outlook-she has a go.to which looketh towards the East. We must never forget that our religion comes from the Ea$t. In form it is Oriental still. 1. We need to remember this fact when we are in danger of interpreting its glowing metaphors in the cold matter-of-fact style of the West. 2. It might quiet the pri,le of Europe for men to remember that they owe what is best in European civilization to an Asiatic stock. 3. The wonder is that the unpro- gressive East produced tho most progressive religion. The world-religion of Christ sprang from Asia.. This very fact testifies to its Divine origin. 4. It shows, however, that Orientals especially should receive the gospel. II. AN OUTLOOK TOWARDS THE LTGHT. The light dawns in the East. We all need light, and should Juve, seek, and cherish it. We are too satisfied with our dim, human, artificial light., instead of looking for that Light of the world, which is indeed the Light of the ages. The true Christian will be ever looking towards Christ, his Sun. III. A"N OUTLOOK TOWARDS THE NEW DAY. Each day begins in the east. We shall miss the sunrise if we set our faces towards the west. Some natures always incline to turn with a melancholy gaze towards the waning light'.of setting suns. 'l'hey deplore the good old times; they weep over the days that have been, but can never be e.gain ; they weary their souls with incessant regrets. This continuous dreaming on the past is unwholesome; it tends to paralyze our energies and leave us in neglect of the duties as well as the hopes of the future. They are wiser who, like St. Paul, forget the things that are behind, and reach forth unto those which are before (Phil. iii. 13). God has a new day of light and service for the saddest, most wearied soul that will turn to his grace. Wise men Jive in the future; they look to the rising sun. IV. AN OUTLOOK TOWARDS CHRIST. The first sight which many a visitor to Palestine craves to set eves on is the Mount of Olives; his most earnest desire is to climb the very hill that ·Jesus Obrist often trod. Of all sacred spots about Jerusalem this must be most like its original self. Now the eastern gate looks right on the Mount of Olives. To the Christian its prospect is profoundly interesting. Yet Christ has arisen. He is not there. What we now look for is an eastern gate of the soul turned to that ever-living Christ who ascended from the Mount of Olives- " Faith has yet her Olivet, And Love her Galilee." Ver. 39.-Sacrifices in the new temple. As we read the dry details of the city that is to be rebuilt and its new temple, we are suddenly pulled up by e. startling item. Among the varioW! arrangements of the ancient temple that are to be revived, provision is made for the sacrificial rites. There a.re to be sacrifices in the new temple. The burnt offerinu and the sin offering and the trespass offering are all to be there. Then 0 sacrifices will be needed after the restoration. It might have been supposed that these would now be dispensed with, since sin was put away and the people were re-dedicated to God. But as a matter of fact, the temple ritual was never before cultivated with such assiduity and elaborateness. I. WE NEED REPEATED BEDEDICAT[ON OF OUR LIVES TO Goo. The burnt offering signified the self-dedication of the man who presented it. It was given whole, to show that he had surrendered his all to God ; it was consnmed by fire, to suggest that he was to make this surrender complete in depth, intensity, and reality, as well as in compre- hensiveness. Now, to have made this offering once for all did not suffice. It had to be continually renewed. The dedication of Israel to God in the restoration to their land could not be accepted as sufficient if it were done once for all. It had to be made over and over again. So is it with the Christian's offering of himself. When thinking of Lis great, decisive step, he may exclaim, in Doddridge's well-known words- " 'Tis done, the great transaction's done: I am my Lord's, u.nd he is mine." Yet if he rests satisfied with having once taken that step, he will soon fiud himself ~lipping back from his high resolve. We must continually renew our self-dedication to Christ. The sacrament of baptism, which signifies the first dedication, is ta.ken but OB. XL.1-49.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 331
once ; but it is followed by the.t of the Lord's Supper, which suggests renewal of dedication in deliberate intention, e.s when the Roman soldier took the oath of allegiance to his p:eneral. This sacrament we repeat many times. II. vVE NEED REPEATED CLEANSING FROM BIN. There were to be sin and trespass offerings in the new temple. This fact is startling e.nd most painful. Even while the people are returning, penitent and restored, provision has to be made for future falls and sins. 1. CJhristian people sin. We know the.t this is only too true of all Christian people. There is no sinless soul on earth. " If we say we have no sin, we deceive our- selves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John i. 8). The foresight of the fact is no excuse for us; for God does not make his children sin-he endeavours to save them from it. Thus Christ predicted Peter's fall although he had prayed that his disciple might be kept faithful (Luke xxii. 31, 32). 2. God has provided/or the recovery of Christians when they sin. There were to be sacrifices in the restored temple, This arrangement shows the wonderful long-suffering mercy of God. The same mercy is displayed towards Christiane. It is a shame that they who have once washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb should again stain them with the ruin of sin. Yet as this is done, God provides even again for cleansing-not now by repeated sacrifices, but by the eternal efficacy of the one perfect Sacrifice. " And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous: and he is the Propitiation for our sins" (1 John ii. 2, 3).