The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 411

and ennobled. Our very tears of repentance must be washed. The fonntain of truth and piety must be kept sweet. IJJ. THI!: PUilIFIOATION OF TIIE BAN0TUABY DEMANDS THE FIRST MOMENTS OF OUR TIME. The holiest work must be the work first done. The dawn of the new year is the most fitting time for this sacred service. Just as every part of the nation is hallowed for God by the hallowing of a particular spot, so the whole year is hallowed by the consecration to God of its first moments. God's claim to every part of our nature and of our possessions must be practically yielded; and we admit the obligation by bringing the firstfruit of our fields, the best of our flocks, the central spot of our territory, the first moments of the year. It is by giving that we gain. None have been losers by giving freely unto God. That which we thus give we really po8sess.-D. Vers. 1-5.-Devotement and eonseeration. In the iiieal kingdom there was to be a certain portion of the land devoted to sacred objects-to the sanctuary of Jehovah and to the residence of his ministers. This was called "a holy portion;" it was "an oblation unto the Lord." Thus in the very heart of the metropolis, in the most commanding situation, on the very best possible site, there was an abiding witness of the presence and the claims of God, and a continual recognition of and response to those claims on the part of the nation. In a country as Christian as ours the towers and spires of our sanctuaries, rising heavenward under every sky, standing strong and even thick among the homes and the shops and counting-houses of town and city, bear their testimony that God is remembered, that Jesus Christ is honoured and worshipped by the people of the land. But better than this devotement of land and this building of sanctuaries, good as that is, is the consecration of heart and life to the Person and the service of the Redeemer. The first and essential step in this act is- I. THE BUBBENDEB OF OURSELVES TO JESUS CHRIST. The clear recognition that we are not our own, but his; that he claims us in drtue of his surpassing love and his supreme sacrifice; that he has "bought us with the price" of his own blood (1 Cor. vi. 20). And the fre,e and full surrender of ourselves to himself; the hearty and definite acceptance of him as our Divine Teacher, Lord, and Friend; so that in the future it is the will of Christ, not our own will, that will be the determining power within us. This surrender or consecration of self necessarily includes- H. 'l'HE DEDICATION OF OUR DAYS AND OUR POWERS TO BIB SERVIOE. Being his, in the deepest tbought of our mind and the strongest feeling of our heart and the most deliberate choice of our will, we can withhold nothing from him. 1. Not merely will one day in seven be given to worship in his sanctuary, but all the hours of all our days will be spent as in his presence and to his praise. 2. Not only shnll we sing somo psalms and utter some prayers "unto the Lord," but we shall use every faculty we possess, both of mind and sense, with the view of pleasing and of honouring him. And beyond this, or we might say, implied and included in this, is- III. 'fHE ABSIONMENT OF OUR POSSESSIONS TO HIM AND TO HIS BEBVI0E, This includes: 1. The holding and the spending of all that we have in the spirit of obedi- ence, having regard to his will in all that we do with our substance. 2. The assign- ment of some serious proportion of our means to the cause of God and of man, of religion and of humanity. What that proportion shall be, and what form it shall take-land, money, time, labour-is loft to the individual conscience. There is no prescripti~n in the New 'l'estament. We are called unto liberty; but we are Sllcredly and happily bound to give all we can for such a Saviour, in such a ca'IJ,86.-C. Ver. 8.-Human oppression. "My princes shall no more oppress my people." God is now upon the throne (see eh. xliii. 7), and there is no room for an earthly sovereign. The highest ruler is the "prince;" but that word stands for human authority and power, whatever be the name by which it is indicated. The promise has a reflex 11ignificance; it points to the evils which had been in past times. And Israel would have been fortunate indeed if it had escaped the common doom of oppression at the hand of its kings and princes. Many and sad are the sorrows which this poor world of ours has endured at the hand of those who should have lived to bless and not to curse it. The view, or review, is melancholy in the last degree; surely it is only too true that-  426 TRE BOOK OF THE PMPH~T EZEKIEL. [cu, xLv.1-25.