HOMILETICS. Vers. 2, 3.-The shut gate. The" Golden Gate" at Jerusalem, on the eastern side of the temple area, looking towards the Mount of Olives, is now built up, so that it can only be traced by means of the form of the arches and carved work embedded in a line of wall, 'l'radition associates this now inaccessible archway with the gate which Ezekiel said should be shut till the Prince passed through it. There is a striking symbolism in Ezekiel's description of the shut gate. I. THE GATE WAS SHUT, 1. The way to God was closed. Man once had free access to his Father. Sin barred the door and shut him out in the waste. 2. The way to life was closed. Cherubim with flaming swords, stood between Adam and the tree of lire (Gen. iii. 24). Fallen man cannot recover his spiritual life; he has forfeited eternal life, and it is beyond hie power to regain it. 3. The way to happiness was closed. The tree of life stood in Eden, and Eden was shut against fallen man. 4. The way to heaven was closed. The door was shut against the foolish virgins. The bliss of futurity is denied to man in his sin. II. THE HOLINESS OF Goo BARB THE GATE. God had passed through the gate ; therefore it was to be closed against man. This suggests a painful thought; where God is man may not be. The same idea was prominent at Horeb, when no man or beast was to come near the mount.while God descended upon it (Heh. xii. 20). There is a natural feeling of the supreme majesty of God that leads to a thought of utter separateness. No being approaches him in greatness or rank. The Sovereign of all is alone in his awful majesty. Yet we must not associate vulgar ideas of pomp and ceremony with God. He does not need the artificial dignity of separateness. He is necessarily apart from us in sheer greatness. But he desires to be near to his children. 'l'he real secret of the separateness is sin, Man cannot come where God is because man is sinful and God is holy. III. TnE GATE 1s OPENED FOB THE PRINOE. Christ, and Christ alone, realizes the Messianic vision of Hebrew prophecy. He is the Prince par excellence. Christ has a right of access to God by reason of his sinlessness, and by reason of his nature as "the Only Begotten of the Father." He hns made a way to God by his intercession and his sacrifice. The door, long barred by sin, is now opened by grace. First onr Prince goes through it, nnd himself realizes communion with God. But he does not keep this as a rnre privilege for himself alone. He is the "Firstborn among many brethren," and he opens the door of access to God for all men. He leads all his people to the tree of life, for "he that hath the Son hath life" (1 John v. 12). He gives true blessedness to his people. He unbars the golden gate of heaven. All who sleep in Jesus will awake in the glorious resurrection-life of which he is the Source and Centre who could say, "I am the Resurrection and the Life" (John xi. 25). Ver. 6.-The attentive consideration of religious truth. Ezekiel was to mark well th~ minute directi~ns which were gi_ven to him concerning the temple. lie was not a builder, and there 1s no reason to think that he was expected to consider these matters with a view to carrying out the work of constructing the new temple. But it was important that he should attend to the suggestiveness of every detail, because nil that was here set forth was symbolical of spiritual truth. The smallest points of thi8 truth should be considered with exactness, while every effort is made to grasp and comprehend it in its vast length and breadth. I. RELIGIOUS TRUTH IS WOilTHY OF ATTENTIVE CONSIDERATION. Great attention is required for a man's business if that is to bo made successful. Politics absorb the thoughts of those who are much cn~aged in them. Pleasure, and what is called "sport," command earnest attention. Is it right that these things should occupy all a man's faculties, and that religion should bo treated in an off-band style as not worth much thought? Yet the conduct of multitudes would suggest that this supreme 394 THE DOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [err, xuv. 1-31.
interest could be sufiiciently consi<lered by occasional and listless attendance at publio worship. Dut note how important it is. 1. It concerns God. Surely he-Maker of all things, Ruler of the universe, "in whom we live and move and have our being" 1 our Fat.her and our God-is worthy of some thoughtful attention. 2. It concerns ow· duty. The chief thing to be thought of is what we ought to do. 'l'o give much attention to our worldly interests ancl pleasures, and to treat our duty with thoughtless indiffereace, is to show shameful negligence of what is supremely important to us. 3. It concerns our eternal welfare. Religion is a matter of life and death. Its truth embraces e~rnity. When the petty_ affairs of this brief life are forgotten, its mighty issues will still proceed to work our highest blessedness or our utter destruction. II. RELIGIOUS TRUTH NEEDS ATTENTIVE CONSIDERATION, It is not to be taken in with indolent ease. A man cannot comprehend his Dible at a glance, as he would his newspaper. Religious truth requires thought for several reasons. 1. It is remote from Q'll,r common experience. It should not be so; but sin has introduced an entirely different train of ideas. We require an effort to bring thoughts of religion vividly to mind. 2. it is concerned with great mysteries. We can never understand it perfectly; but there is room in it for the explorations of the greatest minds. We must never forget, indeed, that its most precious pearls are for simple, childlike minds; that God has revealed to babes what he has hidden from the wise (Matt. xi. 25). But who give such absorbing attention to what interests them as children? We just need the child's whole-hearted listening, as when he drinks in a tale, every detail of which he pictures to himself in his fresh imagination. III. RELIGIOUS TRUTll SHOULD RECEIVE ATTENTIVE CONSIDERATION. We now come to the practical point-How are we to p;ive full attention to this great subject? Ezekiel suggests three ways. 1. We must fix attention. "Mark well." The mind tends to float away from difficult subjects. The anchor to hold it is some keen interest. The love of truth, or, better, the love of Christ, should serve as such an anchor. 2. We must look £nto truth. "And behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears." We must, so to speak, visualize truth. 'l'o make it real we must see it before us. But first we must look for it. There is a seeiag and hearing by experience that is better than all indirect testimony. As soon as we thus come into personal contact with truth it is likely to be interesting to us. Then it is a real thing. Above all, it is well to follow the Greeks, who" would see Jesus,» and by living experience to know him for ourselves.