o.nd fruitful when ministries of o.ctive benevolence are most vigorously maintained. Jesus was the Son of man, who" went about doing goo<l." II. ALL CLASSES SHOULD TAKE PART JN THE SERVICE 01!' MAN. The one tribe of Levi was told off for the service of the temple ; but every tribe was to be represented in the city guard. The special work of the Christian ministry devolves upon those who o.re specially adapted to it, and called by God to devote their lives to it. It is not every Christian who is required to occupy the post of a minister of a Church or to go out a.q a missionary to foreign lands. But every man, woman, and child should take part in the Christian work of helping others. Every class in society, every order of mind, every gift, faculty, and opportunity can and should be used for this wide and varied service. III. A CITY HAS PECULIAR CLAIMS ON CHRISTIAN SERVICE. Jerusalem was to be specially provided for as the capital of the land. The metropolis needs to be carefully guarded. But every city has its claims. These depend on several considerations. 1. Great needs. A city is a heterogeneous collection of human beings. The energetic are attracted and the helpless are drifted there. In the city human life is lived at its best and at its worst. The poverty, the vice, the deiz;radation, that haunt the purlieus of great cities call for especial attention. The enemies that now attack our cities are not armed men besieging after the old style. But strong drink; gambling; profligacy; cruel oppression of workpeople; fierce competition among traders; selfish inconsiderate- ness on the part of the public, making this competition almost a necessity of life; over- crowding, rendering common decency a physical impossibility, and infant mortality a frequent occurrence; the tremendously rapid growth of the centres of population over- taking the means of Christian work ; the obscurity and loneliness of life in a crowd permitting the unfortunate to perish unheeded ;-these and other characteristic cir- cumstances of modem city life call for redoubled energy on the part of all Christian people in great fields of work. Christ concentrated his ministry on the densely populated regions round about the Sea of Galilee. 2. Great influence. A city is a centre of influence to all the region round about. The metropolis is the heart of the nation. If there is righteousness in the centre, righteousness may flow through all the national life. Christianity, which came as a cosmopolitan religion, manifested from the first metropolitan affinities. The apostles concentrated their labours to a great extent on the principal cities of the empire-Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Corinth, Athens, Rome. The country-people were more slow to receive the gospel, and thus the names "pagan" and " heathen" came to stand for " non-Christian." It will be a bad thing for Christendom if the cities are lost to Christ.
Ver. 31.-The city gates. I. THE CITY GATES ARE FOR EGRESS. The citizens are not to remain always immured in their streets and houses. They are to go forth to the country-till their vineyards, lead their flocks over the hills, visit their neighbours. 1. Je is bad to be always in society. Christ called his disciples away from the multitude to a desert place, to rest awhile. 2. It is desirable to cultivate the spirit of enterprise. We English have our island home guarded by the friendly sea, but we take cnre to have many gates, and to go forth over the wide world. We travel and trade; in discovery and adventnre the hardy vigour of the British race finds scope, and grows by exercise. It will be a misfortune for England if this spirit of enterprise gives pince to a more indolent, self-indulgent tone of life. The same spirit should be seen in the Church. We ought to have more energy and daring, not content to enjoy our privileges at home, but eager to go forth and do some fresh service for our Master. 3. It is a Christian duty to carry missionary work out into the world. Christians should go out of the gates of Christendom to bring the standard of the gospel into heathen lands. II. TBB OITY GATES ARE FOR INGRESS. 1. Stranger, shoold be welcomed. The gates of the city of God are open day and night (Rev. :u:i. 25). The heavenly Jerusalem is always ready to welcome new guests. The city is to be a metropolis of man, a centre and home for all travellers in the weary journey of life. It is utterly contrary to the ap!ri~ of Ohri~t for a Ch"!c~ t~ sh?w any spirit of exclusiveness, any; desire to keep its privileges to itself. Chr1st1amty 1s for the world. "Whosoever will, let him come." 2. The citizena should return home. "Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour. until the evening" (Ps. civ. 23). Then ' "The ploughman homeward plods hie weary way." i!)ZEKIEL-IL 2 I 482 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [arr. xtvm. 1-35,