Fill thy hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims and scatter them over the city. Ezekiel 10:2 Divine forces and human agents is retribution Urijah R. Thomas. I. THERE ARE IN THE ECONOMY OF GOD, TERRIFIC FORCES FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF EVIL. The whirling globe of fire was but a symbol of the manifold elements that, through processes of pain, and it may be throes of agony, have punished and will punish sin. And very often those elements are just those that have been guiltily used by man. It was true of these Jews "that they had abused fire to maintain their gluttony, for fulness of bread was one of their sins; they burned incense to idols, and abused the altar fire which had been the greatest refreshing to their souls, and now even this fire kindled upon them." Thus, indeed, is it clearly taught in the prediction of Christ, "They that take the sword shall perish by the sword," that the implements of our evil become the engines of our punishment. And such engines have terrific force. 1. To avoid sin ourselves. 2. To believe in the final victory of goodness. II. THE GREAT FORCES PROVIDED AGAINST EVIL WILL OFTEN BE USED BY THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF MAN. A man's hand was to scatter these coals of retribution. Thus it commonly is. As man is the tempter, so is man frequently the punisher of man. Chaldean armies are instruments of Divine righteousness. Human judges are often the swords of God: human revolutionists the vindicators of liberty against despots. It is for this hand sometimes to scatter the fires of retribution; but ever to scatter the fires of purification. The consuming of the sin — sin in thought, sin in feeling, sin in habit, rather than retribution, on the sinner, may perhaps be the higher and better teaching of this vision for all of us. ( Urijah R. Thomas. ) And there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man's hand under their wings. Ezekiel 10:8 The hand and the wing E. P. Hood. There are two proofs of our religious life. The first is our great thoughts of God; the second is our great deeds for God. On the first we soar up to Him as on a wing; with the second we labour for Him as with a hand. The Bible, the whole structure of our sacred faith, appeals to the two aspects of life — divine and human. It has the wing and the hand; it reaches out to heights we cannot attain; it is suffused in splendours and in mysteries beyond our endurance. The Trinity and the Godhead, eternal duration, the origin of things, the eternal love of God to man, His electing and atoning grace — how far off these things seem. On the other hand, how it sinks down to sympathy, to fellowship, to suffering, arching them over by visible and invisible majesty. Thus, while man mourns over his lot, that "his strength is labour and sorrow," he finds, as Ruskin has finely said, that "labour and sorrow are his strength"; and God makes him fit for soaring by sorrowing or by sympathetic doing. I. SEE WHAT A DIVINE WORK CREATION IS. Here, in this human hand beneath the angel's wing, do we see the procedure of the Divine work. All God's most beautiful things are related to use. God does not unfold from His mind beauty alone. Infinite thought, ah! but infinite manipulation too; this hand, the hand of the Infinite Artist, tinted every flower and variegated every leaf into loveliness; this hand, the hand of the Infinite Mechanician — I do not like the word, but let it go — gave respiration and lustre arid plumage to the wing of every bird; this hand, the hand of the Infinite Arehi. toot, poised every planet in space, and adapted its measure of force to every grain of sand. I would not preach a gospel of cold utilitarianism — that word usually represents the hand without the wing; it is the depravity of logic which it represents, not the Divine reason and fitness. On the contrary, many know nothing of use. Oh, what wasted lives we lead! Alas! alas! our most beautiful things are as perishable foam bells, born and expiring on a wave. Not so God. II. THEN YOU SEE WHAT DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS. Man is the one manifold. In the multiplicity of Divine operations we see the human hand beneath the angel's wing. "A little lower than the angels," God carries on His great operations. What is this humanity which everywhere meets us alike, in things above and beneath? "Angels desiring to look" into the things of men, and all nature striving upward into manhood. By men surely God carries on some of the greatest affairs of His providence. From His exalted concealment, God is constantly energising by the human hand. This in all ages has been. And is not our redemption a hand, the human hand beneath the Divine wing, a hand stretched out, "the likeness of a man's hand beneath the cherubim." What is the humanity of Jesus but the human hand beneath the Divine wing? If all things on earth whisper man, and point to man, and reflect man, and prophesy the reign and the ultimate Christian perfectibility of man, oh, what a consolation is this! Thus, also, this thought, this idea, rebukes the many false modern notions of God. See in this God's own picture of His providence; and never be it ours to divorce that human from the Divine in God's being. III. See, in the human hand beneath the wing of the angel, THE RELATION OF A LIFE OF ACTION TO A LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION. The great Gregory says, "The rule of the Christian life is first to be joined to an active life in productiveness, and after, to a contemplative mind in rest." Thus, when the mind seeks rest in contemplation, it sees more, but it is less productive in fruit to God; when it betakes itself to working, it sees less but bears more largely. Hence, then, by the wings of the creatures we may behold the contemplations of the saints, by which they soar aloft, and, quitting earthly scenes, poise themselves in the regions of heaven; as it is written, "They shall mount up as on wings." And by the hands understand deeds, they administer even by bodily administration; but the hands under the wings show how they surpass the deeds of their action by the excellence of contemplation. IV. RELIGION IS THE HUMAN HAND BENEATH THE ANGEL'S WING. It is both. So I may say to you: Has your religion a hand in it? Has your religion a wing in it? Has it a hand? It is practical, human, sympathetic. Has it a wing? It is lofty, unselfish, inclusive, divine. Has it a hand? How does it prove itself? By embracing, and this hand laying hold upon — by works. Has it a wing? How does it prove itself? By prayer, by faith, by heaven. I do not know if you have read and are acquainted with the essay of that eminent man, Richard Owen, "On the Nature of Limbs"; if so, you did not fail to meditate on that frontispiece, in which the science of anatomy rises into more than the play of poetry; where that great, perhaps greatest of all anatomists, does not hesitate to show to us by a diagram, the human skeleton hand, clothed upon, preening, developing into the wing of an angel. But faith sees more than science: faith does, indeed, behold the hand rising into the wing; indeed, sees in the hand only the undeveloped wing. Without a doubt it shall be so; we are preparing for the hour when our wings shall burst from their prison and spring into the light. ( E. P. Hood. ) The hidden hands of Christlike ministry The Signal. Oberlin, the French philanthropist, was once travelling in the depth of winter amongst the mountains of Alsace. The cold was intense, the snow lay thickly upon the ground, and ere the half of his journey was over he felt himself yielding to fatigue and sleep. He knew if he gave way to sleep he would wake no more; but in spite of this knowledge, desire for sleep overcame him, and he lost consciousness. When he came to again, a waggoner in blue blouse was standing over him, urging him to take wine and food. By and by his strength revived, he was able to walk to the waggon, and was soon driven to the nearest village. His rescuer refused money, saying it was his duty to assist one in distress. Oberlin begged to know his name, that he might remember him in his prayers. "I see," replied the waggoner, "you are a preacher. Tell me the name of the Good Samaritan." "I cannot," answered Oberlin, "for it is not recorded." "Ah, well," said the waggoner, "when you can tell me his name, I will then tell you mine." And so he went away. ( The Signal. ) The four wheels by the cherubims. Ezekiel 10:9 The Divine government J. Parsons. I. THIS VISION REPRESENTS THE ABSOLUTE AND UNIVERSAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 1. That God does possess and wield such a government is indicated by the reference to the throne — an object which is in itself the symbol of supreme power. It is indicated also by a reference to the influences emanating from the throne, and regulating the movement of the cherubim and of the wheels — the cherubim signifying angelic beings, and the wheels signifying the procedure and course of mundane affairs, all subordinated to Him and regulated by Him, the possessor of infinite majesty. While we acknowledge its immensity, let us endeavour habitually and most profoundly to feel that we ourselves are subject to the government of God. 2. The peculiar connection in which this government is exhibited. The prophetic descriptions speak of a human form as being associated with the manifestation of the Divine glory. Now, from the analogous statements of inspiration we cannot do otherwise than consider this part of the vision as introducing to us the Son of God — Him who became incarnate in the fulness of time, as Mediator uniting in Himself the human and the Divine nature, and in that complex state effecting the great work of human redemption. What is pourtrayed can suit none but Him; and to Him, as "Emmanuel, God with us," "God manifest in the flesh," it does emphatically and beautifully answer. II. THIS VISION REPRESENTS THE CHARACTERISTICS WHICH THE PROCEDURE OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT INCLUDES AND EXEMPLIFIES. 1. There is a representation of its intricacy. This is conveyed in the structure of the cherubim; it is conveyed in the relation between the cherubim and the wheels; and it is conveyed in what is stated as to the wheels themselves. We live truly in the midst of mysteries; and as those mysteries pass, in their dark and shadowy forms, there ever resounds to us the challenge, "Lo, these are parts of His ways," etc. 2. There is the characteristic of intelligence. It is stated, with regard to the agencies which are now introduced for our attention, that "their whole body and their backs and their hands and their wings and the wheels were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had"; the eyes, according to the interpretation of Scripture symbols, being known as the signs and emblems of intelligence. Here, we conceive, we have the fact brought before us, that the system according to which the course of our world proceeds is not that of blind mechanism or fate — a dogma which modern infidelity, imitating its predecessors, has revived and promulgated, but that it proceeds under the direction of mind, the highest operation by which events can by possibility be regulated. The infinite mind of Jehovah is constantly occupied in directorial functions. That infinite mind formed the plan of government, and that infinite mind, as the course of His government proceeds, is ever active, diffusing itself to the furthest range, and penetrating to the most minute recesses, lighting up all as with the radiance of its own emissions, and by knowing all, prompting and ordering all. 3. There is the characteristic of immense and ever active energy. We read, for example, of the cherubim and of their movements, that "as for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down," etc. "And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning." And as to the wheels it is said, "when they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went." The agencies which are set in motion by God never cease and never tire, but pass steadily and uniformly onward, in order to accomplish the purpose of Him who "worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will" — their energy being constantly supplied and fed by the resources of His energy, which is inexhaustible, as the God who is almighty, the Lord God Omnipotent. 4. There is the characteristic of harmony. We read that the wheels have one likeness; and we read also that the wheels and the cherubim act and proceed in entire and in perfect concert. "I looked," says the prophet, "and behold the four wheels" — "the spirit of the living creature was in them." We learn from this that the agencies employed under the Divine administration are never disjointed from each other, never contravene or oppose each other, but blend all their movements and operations as though they were actually, notwithstanding their multifariousness and variety, one. We may observe that the procedure of these agencies is also in perfect harmony with the original plan of the Divine mind, never for a moment deviating from it, but always answering to that which is designed to be accomplished. We may also observe that the procedure of these agencies thus harmonising will finally appear so before the whole intelligent creation, that they may admire, and that God may receive His highest glory. III. THIS VISION REPRESENTS THE TRIBUTE WHICH THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD, SO CHARACTERISED, DEMANDS. 1. The government of God, thus characterised, demands our adoration. It is truly the development of what is great and ineffably majestic; and the proper tribute for the development of its greatness and majesty is that of humble and awful reverence. 2. The government of God, so characterised, demands our study. Intelligent beings were formed with the view that they should become the students of the government of God. It is made known to them that they might meditate upon it, so as to apprehend it; and only thus can they offer the other departments of the tribute which are required from them. The Divine procedure and government is the noblest theme which can possibly engage our immortal mind. There is nothing but what is comprehended here. It includes all history, all the inventions of art, all the discoveries of science — science, whether confined to matter or mind, whether referring to our own world or to the most distant tribes that are discoverable in the vast universal of space: all things that can engage our imagination or reason are comprehended in the government of God. 3. The government of God, as thus characterised, demands our submission. "Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Be still and know that I am God." 4. The government of God, thus characterised, demands our confidence. If for our eternal welfare we are reposing upon the testimony which He has given us concerning His Son, let us exercise the same confidence with regard to the interests of nations, and with regard to the wellbeing of the Church; and let us not doubt that all things now transpiring around us, in the passions of communities, in the convulsions of nations, and in the events disastrous or Otherwise, which affect the interests of the Church, are under the management of the same perfect principle, and are gradually intended to evolve the same grand and delightful results. And then let us trust also in our anticipations of the future. ( J. Parsons. ) Full of eyes round about. Ezekiel 10:12 Divine vigilance J. Parker, D. D. God has been called "All eye." This is the terrible pain of living, that there is no privacy, no solitude, no possibility of a man getting absolutely with himself and by himself. Wherever we are we are in public. We can, indeed, exclude the vulgar public, the common herd, the thoughtless multitude; a plain deal door can shut out that kind of world: but what can shut out the beings who do the will of Heaven, and who are full of eyes, their very chariot wheels being luminous with eyes, everything round about them looking at us critically, penetratingly, judicially? We live unwisely when we suppose that we are not being superintended, observed, criticised, and judged. "Thou God seest me"; "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." We need not regard this aspect of Divine providence as alarming. The aspect will be to us what we are to it. Faithful servants are encouraged by the remembrance of the fact that the taskmaster's eye is upon them; unfaithful servants will regard the action of that eye as a judgment. Thus God is to us what we are to God. If we are humble, He is gracious; if we are froward, He is haughty; if we are sinful, He is angry; if we are prayerful, He is condescending and sympathetic. Let the wicked man tremble when he hears that the whole horizon is starred with gleaming eyes that are looking him through and through; but let the good man rejoice that all heaven is one eye looking upon him with complacency, watching all his action that it may come to joy, reward, rest, and higher power of service in the generations yet to dawn. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) The eyes of Providence W. Greenhill, M. A. "Full of eyes round about." Here is a difference from that in Ezekiel 1:18 . It is said there the rings were full of eyes; here, that all, even wheels and cherubims, were full of eyes, and He that sat on the throne, even the Lord, He is full of eyes. 1. The motions of causes and creatures here below are not casual or disorderly. The wheels and cherubims are full of eyes, they see and know their way, the work they have to do, the place they are to go unto; the eye of Providence is in every creature and every motion. When things fall out contrary, or beside our expectations, you say they are mischances; but you are mistaken: in sea or land affairs, in martial, magisterial, or ministerial, yea domestic affairs, whatever falls out is an act of Providence; surprising or sinking of ships, disappointment of counsels, defeating of armies, escape of prisoners, interception of letters, firing of towns, drownings, self-murderings, divisions of brethren, clandestine marriages, abortions, divorces, the eyes of Providence are in them all, and heaven's intentions are accomplished in them. 2. There is much glory and beauty in the works of Divine providence. All the wheels and cherubims are full of eyes; the wheels have eyes round about, not in one place, but in every place; the cherubims, their bodies, backs, hands, and wings are full of eyes; and ( Revelation 4:8 ) they are full of eyes within, they are inwardly and outwardly glorious, beautiful. Man's eyes add not so much beauty and glory to his face, as these eyes do to the works of God in the world. The peacock's train, which is full of eyes, how beautiful and glorious is it! yet far short of the beauty and glory which is in God's government of the world. When the queen of Sheba saw so much wisdom in a man, so much glory and beauty in the order of his house, she admired, and had no spirit left in her ( 1 Kings 10:4, 5 ). And could we see the wisdom which is in God, the glory and beauty which is in His ordering the wheels, we would be so far from complaining of any wheel's motion that we would admire every wheel, the order and motion of it; but oh, how blind are we, who hardly have an eye to see any of these eyes! When a man is on a high hill, there are many hedges, ditches, and separations of one piece of land from another; there are low shrubs and higher trees, here a hill and there a river; yet all contribute something to make a beautiful and glorious prospect to the eye: and so it is in the works of providence. If we were lifted up by the Spirit to view the wheels and their motions, we should find that all these things that seem grievous to us, our wars, divisions, taxes, burdens, and such like, do contribute much towards a glorious prospect. ( W. Greenhill, M. A. ) O wheel. Ezekiel 10:13 The wheel of providence F. Tucker, B. A. I take this figure to refer to Divine providence — the actual dealings of the Creator with His creatures; so various, so complicated, and yet so harmonious after all. I. THE CHANGES IN GOD'S PROVIDENCE. The chariot that we see here is not of the old rude type, not a mere sledge drawn roughly and heavily along the ground; but something more ingenious and more elaborate. It has its wheels — that beautiful kind of mechanism, which none of the most recent improvements in locomotion have been able to supersede; the wheel, with its many spokes and perfect circle, ever revolving and revolving. Many of us can recollect the time when, as children, our minds first caught the idea of the motion of a wheel; the higher part becoming the lower, the spokes that were upward becoming reversed and pointing downward, whilst from beneath other spokes were ever rising to the top; and so, nothing continuing at one stage — nothing to be seen but change, change, perpetual change. And now, no longer children, we see it all in providence; and, seeing it, look up and cry, "O wheel!" 1. We see it in social life.(1) Look into the house. "One generation is passing away, and another generation coming." "Instead of the fathers are the children."(2) Look on the Exchange. Old long-established houses are sinking, are disappearing, and younger firms are taking their place.(3) Look into the Churches. Where are the old preachers that used to move all hearts? and who are these younger men that have risen to so much influence? 2. We see it in national experience. See what our Father is doing in the earth, what changes — what mighty changes — He is working on every hand. This is no new aspect of His dealings. There was a time when on the spokes of the wheel were written the names of Babylon and Persia, of Greece and Rome. And then the wheel turned round: and each in succession rose to the summit — and was humbled to the dust. Has it not been the same story ever since? and is it not the same story now? It matters not what political opinions you may hold. As you watch the rise and fall of nations, parties, and opinions on the wheel of Divine providence, you are constrained to cry, "O wheel!" 3. We see it in the history of the professing Church. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea — these are the names of seven famous Churches: Churches to which Christ Himself dictated sacred letters, and which stood high and conspicuous in the religious history of the world. Where are they now? The wheel has turned! They are sunk down into the mire, and lie buried there! So too with the Churches to which Paul wrote. Where are Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica? The mosque rises where once stood the Christian sanctuary, and the Crescent has displaced the Cross. But you say, The Church of Rome still stands. It does! But is this the Church to which Paul wrote? So you may go through the professing Churches of every name — at home and abroad — near or far, and you will find nothing uniform or stationary: only change upon change — increase and decrease — advance and decline until you stand amazed and bewildered, and can only cry, "O wheel!" II. PROGRESS IN THE MIDST OF ALL THESE CHANGES. The wheel the prophet saw was not like the wheel we may see in fireworks, — one which revolves round the axle, leaving the axle motionless; it was the wheel of a chariot — one which carries the axle with it, and bears the chariot on with each revolution. And there is something in this view very cheering in the truth it suggests: that in the midst of so many changes of God's providence a real progress is taking place. Bear in mind — the progress of the chariot is independent of the position of the separate spokes. Some of them may be rising, some falling; but each moment the chariot goes on. Nay, some of them may be actually moving backwards — but still the chariot goes forwards. Just so, all the changes in God's providence — even those that look like changes in the wrong direction — are helping on the progress after all. 1. In what sense is this to be understood? In what forward movement are these changes bearing a part? I answer, in the accomplishment of the purposes of God. The world is to be converted to God. "All the ends of the earth shall remember," "I, if I be lifted up," etc. The Church is to be complete in members, purity, and bliss. We read of "a multitude that none can number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues." We read of saints "without spot or blemish," and these are "presented faultless," etc. The Redeemer is to have a large and abundant reward. "He shall see of the travail," etc. 2. In what way can this progress come to pass? How can changes so disastrous help forward the accomplishment of purposes so delightful? We have to do with One who is "wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." There may be lions in the path — but He slays the lions, "and out of the eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong, sweetness." There may be passions in man's heart worse than beasts of prey, — but He so controls their working that in the end "the wrath of man shall praise Him." "Is there anything too hard for the Lord?" ( F. Tucker, B. A. ) The mysteries of providence Essex Remembrancer. I. THE EXTENT AND UNIVERSALITY OF ITS OPERATIONS. The wide reach of God's providential government comprehends what is easy to be understood as well as what is mysterious. The light and the darkness are often placed together, though in reality they are both alike to Him. With God there is nothing incomprehensible: — the terms great and little, easy and difficult, with Him are words of the same meaning. When we read the account of these wheels, of their rings and their motions, and the living creatures that accompanied them, we are confounded. Yet it is easy to conceive of the Son of Man governing the celestial inhabitants according to the will of His Father, regulating their movements by the agency of His Spirit, and employing them as instruments in accomplishing His gracious purposes. II. THE COMPLEXITY OF ITS MOVEMENTS. 1. Is it not intended to mortify our pride? There is no religion without humility. 2. Does it not serve to exercise our faith and patience? 3. Is it not designed to check in us a lawless spirit of curiosity? III. THE PERPETUITY OF ITS REVOLUTIONS. The changes that are taking place in the history of nations, churches, families, and individuals are all tending to the completion of His designs. Are they not intended to teach us how uncertain and unsatisfactory are all created things? IV. THE HARMONY OF THEIR CONCURRENCE. 1. They are all directed to one object. 2. They are all acting upon one plan. Here there is nothing casual or fortuitous. The past has made way for the present, and the present is preparing for the future. 3. They are all animated by one influence. V. IT IS UNIMPEDED IN ITS PROGRESS. We mean not to say that there are no hindrances in the way of the Divine purposes being accomplished; for ignorance, prejudice, and sin present most formidable barriers; but as the wheels in the vision are described as going forward, impelled by a Divine influence, it certainly teaches us that God's will is irresistible, and intimates the certain triumph of truth in the world. ( Essex Remembrancer. ) Ezekiel's vision of the wheel J. Halsey. The cry, "O wheel," the articulated cry of the universal human spirit, meant, "O Divine mystery! the intellect cannot comprehend thee, yet the heart's aspiration is towards thee." 1. This exclamation indicates our proper attitude in presence of these mysteries as one of awe, and not of definition. Modern scientific investigation tends to reveal to us, more and more humiliatingly, the narrowness and impotence of our faculty. The very growth of knowledge makes manifest the limitations and the illusiveness of knowledge. And the danger is that of a universal scepticism; that men should say, "I cannot know anything as it is, and therefore I will believe nothing, obey nothing, but the instincts of my own nature." It is only the spirit of reverence that can save us. Let us not spend our intellectual energies and dissipate our spiritual forces in the pursuit of that which ever eludes us. Let our language be, "Though we cannot comprehend, we will adore." And so let our reverence teach us obedience and love, and our piety be of the life and not of the intellect. Let us not divorce religion from life, and make it a series of dead abstractions instead of a living spirit. It is the pursuit of a good that is known, and not speculation, however dogmatic, upon that which is unknowable, that constitutes practical religion. It is "in loving our brother whom we have seen" that we attain to the love of God, "whom we have not seen." 2. In all this imagery the prophet is describing a vision of God, and by the emblem of the wheels he describes so much as is understood of the Divine nature. There is breath in the wheels. It is a living deity. There are eyes around the peripheries. This points to infinite knowledge and intelligence as overruling the world. The wheels are four-faced; the faces representing the different orders of creation, showing the relation of the Divine Spirit to all the various kingdoms of life. The movements are swift and in all directions, there being a double motion of the wheels, which are inserted in pairs at right angles to each other. This suggests the idea of omnipresence. The mischief is, that so many minds stay in the symbol and suffer it to block out the spiritual idea, instead of serving as a stepping stone to it The wheel becomes the deity instead of the symbol of deity; the object of idolatry, instead of simply a spiritual hieroglypbic to aid our conceptions of the Divine. 3. The wheel which the prophet saw in his vision stands not only for a representation of the Divine nature, as he conceived it, but also as an illustration of the Divine method in the universe.(1) It is curious, in the light of the prophet's representation, that the scientific theory of the origin of the universe which at present holds the field is the doctrine of "vortices," which teaches that the atoms of the impalpable ether first became compacted into solid matter through a spinning motion in some way imparted to them, or generated amongst themselves. All the planets were originally whirling rings of molten or meteoric matter thrown off from their central sun, such as may still be seen in the rings of the planet Saturn. The mightiest forces of nature with which we are acquainted on our earth travel in circles more or less perfect: the cyclone, the whirlwind, the whirlpool, the ocean currents. There is perpetual circulation, or, to use the prophet's term, "wheeling" or "whirling" everywhere. It is in the body, in the course traversed by the blood. It is in the cells of minutest plants, where the protoplasmic fluid travels in circles or circuits with a movement that is called for this reason "cyclosis." It is in the meteorological conditions of the earth. The fierce heat of the sun in equatorial regions causes the water of the ocean to evaporate in vast bodies of invisible vapour, which, rising to the upper regions of the air, are drawn into currents which bear them to the colder northern regions of our planet, where they distil in snow and rains upon the mountains; form rivulets and rivers which flow back into the sea, and are borne once more by the trend of the pelagic currents to the regions whence they arose. The movements of the tides imply a constant circulation. This portion of the globe on which we dwell has experienced remarkable rotations of climate. It has known, for long ages together, both tropical heat and arctic cold; and it is supposed that the slow oscillations of the earth's polar axis may bring round similar changes again. And so, in the movements of History, the same law prevails — the whirling wheel is still the type. The very words we use to describe the course of providential occurrences is a proof of this. We talk of cycles — of revolutions — of evolution. In all these words the central idea is that of circular motion. There is everywhere revolution and return. There are cycles of thought which complete themselves, and then the human mind seems to revert to its starting point. Old exploded errors are continually cropping up again, and the world's teachers have to be perpetually doing their work anew. We all know how fashions recur: not only fashions in dress but fashions in thinking. We laugh at witchcraft and toy with spiritualism. The pages of history are filled with

Benson Commentary Ezekiel 10:1 Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. Ezekiel 10:1-3 . Then I looked, &c. — Most of this chapter has been explained in the notes on chap. 1. In the firmament, &c. — See Ezekiel 1:26 . The repetition of the vision here signified that the heavy and terrible judgments of God were drawing nearer and nearer. He — That sat on the throne; spake unto the man clothed in linen — To the angel, as before, Ezekiel 9:2 ; and said, Go in between the wheels, under the cherub — Or, between the cherubim, according to the explication given Ezekiel 10:7 . And fill thy hand with coals of fire — Which sparkled and ran up and down between the living creatures: see Ezekiel 1:13 . This part of the vision signified that the city would shortly be consumed by fire. Coals of fire do elsewhere denote the divine vengeance. Now the cherubim — Which were part of the vision shown to the prophet; stood on the right side of the house — In the inner court, on the north side of the temple, Ezekiel 10:18 ; namely, the court of the priests. And the cloud filled the court — A splendour, or brightness, went before, and a cloud followed it. The splendour signified the clearness of the judgment; and the clouds, the storms of calamity which would follow it. Ezekiel 10:2 And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight. Ezekiel 10:3 Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. Ezekiel 10:4 Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD'S glory. Ezekiel 10:4-7 . Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub — In token of his departure from the temple. The words may be better rendered, For the glory of the Lord had gone up, &c. For the prophet repeats here what he had related before, Ezekiel 9:3 . And the house was filled with the cloud — The account here given must strike every reader as to its similarity with the description given of the Shechinah in the books of Moses and the first book of Kings. A bright cloud was the sign of God’s presence, which first filled the tabernacle, Exodus 40:35 , (afterward the temple, 1 Kings 8:10 ,) where it fixed itself upon the mercy-seat, Leviticus 16:2 . From whence God is said, so often in Scripture, to dwell between the cherubim. This glory now removed from the place where it used to appear in the inner sanctuary, and came down toward the porch of the temple, and stood, or fixed itself, partly in the temple and partly in the inner court adjoining to it: see note on Ezekiel 9:3 . The glory stood, to show God’s unwillingness to leave his people, and give them time to return to him, and placed itself where it might be seen, both by priests and people, that both might be moved to repentance. And the sound of the cherubims’ wings, as the voice of the Almighty — As the sound of loud thunder. The cherubim, in the prophet’s vision, seem to have moved to attend upon the Shechinah, which now had taken its station at the threshold of the house. He went and stood beside, rather, between, the wheels. Ezekiel 10:5 And the sound of the cherubims' wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh. Ezekiel 10:6 And it came to pass, that when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubims; then he went in, and stood beside the wheels. Ezekiel 10:7 And one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the cherubims, and took thereof , and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linen: who took it , and went out. Ezekiel 10:8 And there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man's hand under their wings. Ezekiel 10:8-13 . There appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand — See Ezekiel 1:8 . The following verses to the 12th are the same, in substance, with Ezekiel 1:16-18 , where see the notes. To the place where the head looked they followed, Ezekiel 10:11 . Each wheel consisted of four semicircles in correspondence to the heads of each animal. It was cried unto them, O wheel — Or, move round, as some render the word. They were put in mind of continually attending upon their duty; for the wheels and living creatures were animated with the same principle of understanding and motion. Ezekiel 10:9 And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone. Ezekiel 10:10 And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel. Ezekiel 10:11 When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went. Ezekiel 10:12 And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had. Ezekiel 10:13 As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheel. Ezekiel 10:14 And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. Ezekiel 10:14 . And every one had four faces — See notes on Ezekiel 1:6-10 . The first had the face of a cherub — That is, of an ox, as appears by comparing this verse with Ezekiel 1:10 . The word cherub, indeed, originally signifies an ox. The several faces are here represented in a different order from the description given of them Ezekiel 1:10 , of which difference this reason may be assigned. In the first chapter the prophet saw this vision coming out of the north, and advancing southward, ( Ezekiel 10:4 ,) where the face of a man, being placed on the south side, was first in view. The lion, being on the east part, was toward his right hand; the ox, being placed toward the west, was on his left; and the eagle was toward the north. This interpretation is justified from the situation of the standards of the several tribes of Israel in the wilderness, ( Numbers 2:2 ; Numbers 2:10 ; Numbers 2:18 ; Numbers 2:25 ,) where Judah, whose standard was a lion, was placed on the east side; Reuben, whose standard was a man, was placed on the south; Ephraim, whose standard was an ox, was placed on the west; and Dan, whose standard was an eagle, was placed on the north side. Here the prophet is supposed to stand westward of the Shechinah, as that was moving eastward: so the ox was first in his view. Ezekiel 10:15 And the cherubims were lifted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the river of Chebar. Ezekiel 10:15-17 . And the cherubims were lifted up — To attend upon the divine glory wherever it went, and particularly at its removal from the temple. This is the living creature, &c. — Here it is spoken of as only one living creature, though before it is called the living creatures; because it was, as it were, but one creature, of the likeness of four different animals. For the spirit of the living creature was in them — There is a perfect harmony between second causes in their dependance on, and subjection to, the one infinite, wise, good, holy, and just God. The Spirit of God directs all the creatures, upper and lower, so that they all serve the divine purpose. Events are not determined by the wheel of fortune, which is blind, but by the wheels of providence, which are full of eyes. Ezekiel 10:16 And when the cherubims went, the wheels went by them: and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them. Ezekiel 10:17 When they stood, these stood; and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also : for the spirit of the living creature was in them. Ezekiel 10:18 Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims. Ezekiel 10:18-19 . Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold, &c. — The cloud of glory, emblematical of the divine presence, now makes a further remove from the temple: it now quite left the house itself, and settled upon the cherubim, which stood in the court adjoining to it, Ezekiel 10:3 . And the cherubims lifted up their wings: the wheels also — See Ezekiel 1:19 ; Ezekiel 1:26 . And stood at the door of the east gate — This was a still further remove from the temple, (for the east gate was just at the entrance into the inner court before the temple,) to signify that the divine protection would entirely leave the house; and, God departing, the angels depart also, and withdraw that benefit and service which they gave before. Here, however, the glory of God, the cherubim, and the wheels, all stood, respiting execution, and giving opportunity of preventing the approaching misery. Ezekiel 10:19 And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD'S house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. Ezekiel 10:20 This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims. Ezekiel 10:20 . This is the living creature, &c. — See Ezekiel 1:22-26 . And I knew that they were the cherubims — Either by special assurance as a prophet, or from reading and hearing about those that were represented in the holy of holies. Ezekiel 10:21 Every one had four faces apiece, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. Ezekiel 10:22 And the likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their appearances and themselves: they went every one straight forward. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Ezekiel 10:1 Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. YOUR HOUSE IS LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE Ezekiel 8:1-18 ; Ezekiel 9:1-11 ; Ezekiel 10:1-22 ; Ezekiel 11:1-25 ONE of the most instructive phases of religious belief among the Israelites of the seventh century was the superstitious regard in which the Temple at Jerusalem was held. Its prestige as the metropolitan sanctuary had no doubt steadily increased from the time when it was built. But it was in the crisis of the Assyrian invasion that the popular sentiment in favour of its peculiar sanctity was transmuted into a fanatical faith in its inherent inviolability. It is well known that during the whole course of this invasion the prophet Isaiah had consistently taught that the enemy should never set foot within the precincts of the Holy City-that, on the contrary, the attempt to seize it would prove to be the signal for his annihilation. The striking fulfilment of this prediction in the sudden destruction of Sennacherib’s army had an immense effect on the religion of the time. It restored the faith in Jehovah’s omnipotence which was already giving way, and it granted a new lease of life to the very errors which it ought to have extinguished. For here, as in so many other cases, what was a spiritual faith in one generation became a superstition in the next. Indifferent to the divine truths which gave meaning to Isaiah’s prophecy, the people changed his sublime faith in the living God working in history into a crass confidence in the material symbol which had been the means of expressing it to their minds. Henceforth it became a fundamental tenet of the current creed that the Temple and the city which guarded it could never fall into the hands of an enemy; and any teaching which assailed that belief was felt to undermine confidence in the national deity. In the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel this superstition existed in unabated vigour, and formed one of the greatest hindrances to the acceptance of their teaching. "The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these!" was the cry of the benighted worshippers as they thronged to its courts to seek the favour of Jehovah. { Jeremiah 7:4 } The same state of feeling must have prevailed among Ezekiel’s fellow exiles. To the prophet himself, attached as he was to the worship of the Temple, it may have been a thought almost too hard to bear that Jehovah should abandon the only place of His legitimate worship. Amongst the rest of the captives the faith in its infallibility was one of the illusions which must be overthrown before their minds could perceive the true drift of his teaching. In his first prophecy the fact had just been touched on, but merely as an incident in the fall of Jerusalem. About a year later, however, he received a new revelation, in which he learned that the destruction of the Temple was no mere incidental consequence of the capture of the city, but a main object of the calamity. The time was come when judgment must begin at the house of God. The weird vision in which this truth was conveyed to the prophet is said to have occurred during a visit of the elders to Ezekiel in his own house. In their presence he fell into a trance, in which the events now to be considered passed before him; and after the trance was removed he recounted the substance of the vision to the exiles. This statement has been somewhat needlessly called in question, on the ground that after so protracted an ecstasy the prophet would not be likely to find his visitors still in their places. But this matter-of-fact criticism overreaches itself. We have no means of determining how long it would take for this series of events to be realised. If we may trust anything to the analogy of dreams-and of all conditions to which ordinary men are subject the dream is surely the closest analogy to the prophetic ecstasy-the whole may have passed in an incredibly short space of time. If the statement were untrue, it is difficult to see what Ezekiel would have gained by making it. If the whole vision were a fiction, this must of course be fictitious too; but even so it seems a very superfluous piece of invention. We prefer, therefore, to regard the vision as real, and the assigned situation as historical; and the fact that it is recorded suggests that there must be some connection between the object of the visit and the burden of the revelation which was then communicated. It is not difficult to imagine points of contact between them. Ewald has conjectured that the occasion of the visit may have been some recent tidings from Jerusalem which had opened the eyes of the "elders" to the real relation that existed between them and their brethren at home. If they had ever cherished any illusions on the point, they had certainly been disabused of them before Ezekiel had this vision. They were aware, whether the information was recent or not, that they were absolutely disowned by the new authorities in Jerusalem, and that it was impossible that they should ever come back peaceably to their old place in the state. This created a problem which they could not solve, and the fact that Ezekiel had announced the fall of Jerusalem may have formed a bond of sympathy between him and his brethren in exile which drew them to him in their perplexity. Some such hypothesis gives at all events a fuller significance to the closing part of the vision, where the attitude of the men in Jerusalem is described, and where the exiles are taught that the hope of Israel’s future lies with them. It is the first time that Ezekiel has distinguished between the fates in store for the two sections of the people, and it would almost appear as if the promotion of the exiles to the first place in the true Israel was a new revelation to him. Twice during this vision he is moved to intercede for the "remnant of Israel," as if the only hope of a new people of God lay in sparing at least some of those who were left in the land. But the burden of the message that now comes to him is that in the spiritual sense the true remnant of Israel is not in Judaea, but among the exiles in Babylon. It was there that the new Israel was to be formed, and the land was to be the heritage, not of those who clung to it and exulted in the misfortunes of their banished brethren, but of those who under the discipline of exile were first prepared to use the land as Jehovah’s holiness demanded. The vision is interesting, in the first place, on account of the glimpse it affords of the state of mind prevailing in influential circles in Jerusalem at this time. There is no reason whatever to doubt that here in the form of a vision we have reliable information regarding the actual state of matters when Ezekiel wrote. It has been supposed by some critics that the description of the idolatries in the Temple does not refer to contemporary practices, but to abuses that had been rife in the days of Manasseh and had been put a stop to by Josiah’s reformation. But the vision loses half its meaning if it is taken as merely an idealised representation of all the sins that had polluted the Temple in the course of its history. The names of those who are seen must be names of living men known to Ezekiel and his contemporaries, and the sentiments put in their mouth, especially in the latter part of the vision, are suitable only to the age in which he lived. It is very probable that the description in its general features would also apply to the days of Manasseh; but the revival of idolatry which followed the death of Josiah would naturally take the form of a restoration of the illegal cults which had flourished unchecked under his grandfather. Ezekiel’s own experience before his captivity, and the steady intercourse which had been maintained since, would supply him with the material which in the ecstatic condition is wrought up into this powerful picture. The thing that surprises us most is the prevailing conviction amongst the ruling classes that "Jehovah had forsaken the land." These men seem to have partly emancipated themselves, as politicians in Israel were apt to do, from the restraints and narrowness of the popular religion. To them it was a conceivable thing that Jehovah should abandon His people. And yet life was worth living and fighting for apart from Jehovah. It was of course a merely selfish life, not inspired by national ideals, but simply a clinging to place and power. The wish was father to the thought; men who so readily yielded to the belief in Jehovah’s absence were very willing to be persuaded of its truth. The religion of Jehovah had always imposed a check on social and civic wrong, and men whose power rested on violence and oppression could not but rejoice to be rid of it. So they seem to have acquiesced readily enough in the conclusion to which so many circumstances seemed to point, that Jehovah had ceased to interest Himself either for good or evil in them and their affairs. Still, the wide acceptance of a belief like this, so repugnant to all the religious ideas of the ancient world, seems to require for its explanation some fact of contemporary history. It has been thought that it arose from the disappearance of the ark of Jehovah from the Temple. It seems from the third chapter of Jeremiah that the ark was no longer in existence in Josiah’s reign, and that the want of it was felt as a grave religious loss. It is not improbable that this circumstance, in connection with the disasters which had marked the last days of the kingdom, led in many minds to the fear and in some to the hope that along with His most venerable symbol Jehovah Himself had Vanished from their midst. It should be noticed that the feeling described was only one of several currents that ran in the divided society of Jerusalem. It is quite a different point of view that is presented in the taunt quoted in Ezekiel 11:15 , that the exiles were far from Jehovah, and had therefore lost their right to their possessions. But the religious despair is not only the most startling fact that we have to look at; it is also the one that is made most prominent in the vision. And the Divine answer to it given through Ezekiel is that the conviction is true; Jehovah has forsaken the land. But in the first place the cause of His departure is found in those very practices for which it was made the excuse: and in the second, although He has ceased to dwell in the midst of His people, He has lost neither the power nor the will to punish their iniquities. To impress these truths first on his fellow-exiles and then on the whole nation is the chief object of the chapter before us. Now we find that the general sense of God-forsakenness expressed itself principally in two directions. On the one hand it led to the multiplication of false objects of worship to supply the place of Him who was regarded as the proper tutelary Divinity of Israel; on the other hand, it produced a reckless, devil-may-care spirit of resistance against any odds, such as was natural to men who had only material interests to fight for, and nothing to trust in but their own right hand. Syncretism in religion and fatalism in politics-these were the twin symptoms of the decay of faith among the upper classes in Jerusalem. But these belong to two different parts of the vision which we must now distinguish. I. The first part deals with the departure of Jehovah as caused by religious offences perpetrated in the Temple, and with the return of Jehovah to destroy the city on account of these offences. The prophet is transported in "visions of God" to Jerusalem and placed in the outer court near the northern gate, outside of which was the site where the "image of Jealousy" had stood in the time of Manasseh. Near him stands the appearance which he had learned to recognise as the glory of Jehovah, signifying that Jehovah has, for a purpose not yet disclosed, revisited His Temple. But first Ezekiel must be made to see the state of things which exists in this Temple which had once been the seat of God’s presence. Looking through the gate to the north, he discovers that the image of Jealousy has been restored to its old place. This is the first and apparently the least heinous of the abominations that defiled the sanctuary. The second scene is the only one of the four which represents a secret cult. Partly perhaps for that reason it strikes our minds as the most repulsive of all; but that was obviously not Ezekiel’s estimate of it. There are greater abominations to follow. It is difficult to understand the particulars of Ezekiel’s description, especially in the Hebrew text (the LXX is simpler); but it seems impossible to escape the impression that there was something obscene in a worship where idolatry appears as ashamed of itself. The essential fact, however, is that the very highest and most influential men in the land were addicted to a form of heathenism, whose objects of worship were pictures of "horrid creeping things, and cattle, and all the gods of the house of Israel." The name of one of these men, the leader in this superstition, is given, and is significant of the state of life in Jerusalem shortly before its fall. Jaazaniah was the son of Shaphan, who is probably identical with the chancellor of Josiah’s reign whose sympathy with the prophetic teaching was evinced by his zeal in the cause of reform. We read of other members of the family who were faithful to the national religion, such as his son Ahikam, also a zealous reformer, and his grandson Gedaliah, Jeremiah’s friend and patron, and the governor appointed over Judah by Nebuchadnezzar after the taking of the city. The family was thus divided both in religion and politics. While one branch was devoted to the worship of Jehovah and favoured submission to the king of Babylon, Jaazaniah belonged to the opposite party and was the ringleader in a peculiarly obnoxious form of idolatry. The third "abomination" is a form of idolatry widely diffused over Western Asia-the annual mourning for Tammuz. Tammuz was originally a Babylonian deity ( Dumuzi ), but his worship is specially identified with Phoenicia, whence under the name Adonis it was introduced into Greece. The mourning celebrates the death of the god, which is an emblem of the decay of the earth’s productive powers, whether due to the scorching heat of the sin or to the cold of winter. It seems to have been a comparatively harmless rite of nature-religion, and its popularity among the women of Jerusalem at this time may be due to the prevailing mood of despondency which found vent in the sympathetic contemplation of that aspect of nature which most suggests decay and death. The last and greatest of the abominations practised in and near the Temple is the worship of the sun. The peculiar enormity of this species of idolatry can hardly lie in the object of adoration; it is to be sought rather in the place where it was practised, and in the rank of those who took part in it, who were probably priests. Standing between the porch and the altar, with their backs to the Temple, these men unconsciously expressed the deliberate rejection of Jehovah which was involved in their idolatry. The worship of the heavenly bodies was probably imported into Israel from Assyria and Babylon, and its prevalence in the later years of the monarchy was due to political rather than religious influences. The gods of these imperial nations were esteemed more potent than those of the states which succumbed to their power, and hence men who were losing confidence in their national deity naturally sought to imitate the religions of the most powerful peoples known to them. In the arrangement of the four specimens of the religious practices which prevailed in Jerusalem, Ezekiel seems to proceed from the most familiar and explicable to the more outlandish defections from the purity of the national faith. At the same time his description shows how different classes of society were implicated in the sin of idolatry-the elders, the women, and the priests. During all this time the glory of Jehovah has stood in the court, and there is something very impressive in the picture of these infatuated men and women preoccupied with their unholy devotions and all unconscious of the presence of Him whom they deemed to have forsaken the land. To the open eye of the prophet the meaning of the vision must be already clear, but the sentence comes from the mouth of Jehovah Himself: "Hast thou seen, Son of man? Is it too small a thing for the house of Judah to practise the abominations which they have here practised, that they must also fill the land with violence, and (so) provoke Me again to anger? So will I act towards them in anger: My eye shall not pity, nor will I spare." { Ezekiel 8:17-18 } The last words introduce the account of the punishment or Jerusalem, which is given of course in the symbolic form suggested by the scenery of the vision. Jehovah has meanwhile risen from His throne near the cherubim, and stands on the threshold of the Temple. There He summons to His side the destroyers who are to execute His purpose-six angels, each with a weapon of destruction in his hand. A seventh of higher rank clothed in linen appears with the implements of a scribe in his girdle. These stand "beside the brasen altar," and await the commands of Jehovah. The first act of the judgment is a massacre of the inhabitants of the city, without distinction of age or rank or sex. But, in accordance with his strict view of the Divine righteousness, Ezekiel is led to conceive of this last judgment as discriminating carefully between the righteous and the wicked. All those who have inwardly separated themselves from the guilt of the city by hearty detestation of the iniquities perpetrated in its midst are distinguished by a mark on their foreheads before the work of slaughter begins. What became of this faithful remnant it does not belong to the vision to declare. Beginning with the twenty men before the porch, the destroying angels follow the man with the inkhorn through the streets of the city, and slay all on whom he has not set his mark. When the messengers have gone out on their dread errand, Ezekiel, realising the full horror of a scene which he dare not describe, falls prostrate before Jehovah, deprecating the outbreak of indignation which threatened to extinguish "the remnant of Israel." He is reassured by the declaration that the guilt of Judah and Israel demands no less a punishment than this, because the notion that Jehovah had forsaken the land had opened the floodgates of iniquity, and filled the land with bloodshed and the city with oppression. Then the man in the linen robes returns and announces, "It is done as Thou hast commanded." The second act of the judgment is the destruction of Jerusalem by fire. This is symbolised by the scattering over the city of burning coals taken from the altar-hearth under the throne of God. The man with the linen garments is directed to step between the wheels and take out fire for this purpose. The description of the execution of this order is again carried no further than what actually takes place before the prophet’s eyes: the man took the fire and went out. In the place where we might have expected to have an account of the destruction of the city, we have a second description of the appearance and motions of the merkaba, the purpose of which it is difficult to divine. Although it deviates slightly from the account in chapter 1, the differences appear to have no significance, and indeed it is expressly said to be the same phenomenon. The whole passage is certainly superfluous, and might be omitted but for the difficulty of imagining any motive that would have tempted a scribe to insert it. We must keep in mind the possibility that this part of the book had been committed to writing before the final redaction of Ezekiel’s prophecies, and the description in Ezekiel 8:8-17 may have served a purpose there which is superseded by the fuller narrative which we now possess in chapter 1. In this way Ezekiel penetrates more deeply into the inner meaning of the judgment on city and people whose external form he had announced in his earlier prophecy. It must be admitted that Jehovah’s strange work bears to our minds a more appalling aspect when thus presented in symbols than the actual calamity would bear when effected through the agency of second causes. Whether it had the same effect on the mind of a Hebrew, who hardly believed in second causes, is another question. In any case it gives no ground for the charge made against Ezekiel of dwelling with a malignant satisfaction on the most repulsive features of a terrible picture. He is indeed capable of a rigorous logic in exhibiting the incidence of the law of retribution which was to him the necessary expression of the Divine righteousness. That it included the death of every sinner and the overthrow of a city that had become a scene of violence and cruelty was to him a self-evident truth, and more than this the vision does not teach. On the contrary, it contains traits which tend to moderate the inevitable harshness of the truth conveyed. With great reticence it allows the execution of the judgment to take place behind the scenes, giving only those details which were necessary to suggest its nature. While it is being carried out the attention of the reader is engaged in the presence of Jehovah, or his mind is occupied with the principles which made the punishment a moral necessity. The prophet’s expostulations with Jehovah show that he was not insensible to the miseries of his people, although he saw them to be inevitable. Further, this vision shows as clearly as any passage in his writings the injustice of the view which represents him as more concerned for petty details of ceremonial than for the great moral interests of a nation. If any feeling expressed in the vision is to ‘be regarded as Ezekiel’s own, then indignation against outrages on human life and liberty must be allowed to weigh more with him than offences against ritual purity. And, finally, it is clearly one object of the vision to show that in the destruction of Jerusalem no individual shall be involved who is not also implicated in the guilt which calls down wrath upon her. II. The second part of the vision (chapter 11) is hut loosely connected with the first. Here Jerusalem still exists, and men are alive who must certainly have perished in the "visitation of the city" if the writer had still kept himself within the limits of his previous conception. But in truth the two have little in common, except the Temple, which is the scene of both, and the cherubim, whose movements mark the transition from the one to the other. The glory of Jehovah is already departing from the house when it is stayed at the entrance of the east gate, to give the prophet his special message to the exiles. Here we are introduced to the more political aspect of the situation in Jerusalem. The twenty-five men who are gathered in the east gate of the Temple are clearly the leading statesmen in the city; and two of them, whose names are given, are expressly designated as "princes of the people." They are apparently met in conclave to deliberate on public matters, and a word from Jehovah lays open to the prophet the nature of their projects. "These are the men that plan ruin, and hold evil counsel in this city." The evil counsel is undoubtedly the project of rebellion against the king of Babylon which must have been hatched at this time and which broke out into open revolt about three years later. The counsel was evil because directly opposed to that which Jeremiah was giving at the time in the name of Jehovah. But Ezekiel also throws invaluable light on the mood of the men who were urging the king along the path which led to ruin. "Are not the houses recently built?" they say, congratulating themselves on their success in repairing the damage done to the city in the time of Jehoiachin. The image of the pot and the flesh is generally taken to express the feeling of easy security in the fortifications of Jerusalem with which these light-hearted politicians embarked on a contest with Nebuchadnezzar. But their mood must be a gloomier one than that if there is any appropriateness in the language they use. To stew in their own juice, and over a fire of their own kindling, could hardly seem a desirable policy to sane men, however strong the pot might be. These councillors are well aware of the dangers they incur, and of the misery which their purpose must necessarily bring on the people. But they are determined to hazard everything and endure everything on the chance that the city may prove strong enough to baffle the resources of the king of Babylon. Once the fire is kindled, it will certainly be better to be in the pot than in the fire; and so long as Jerusalem holds out they will remain behind her walls. The answer which is put into the prophet’s mouth is that the issue will not be such as they hope for. The only "flesh" that will be left in the city will be the dead bodies of those who have been slain within her walls by the very men who hope that their lives will be given them for a prey. They themselves shall be dragged forth to meet their fate far away from Jerusalem on the "borders of Israel." It is not unlikely that these conspirators kept their word. Although the king and all the men of war fled from the city as soon as a breach was made, we read of certain high officials who allowed themselves to be taken in the city. { Jeremiah 52:7 } Ezekiel’s prophecy was in their case literally fulfilled; for these men and many others were brought to the king of Babylon at Riblah, "and he smote them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath." While Ezekiel was uttering this prophecy one of the councillors, named Pelatiah, suddenly fell down dead. Whether a man of this name had suddenly died in Jerusalem under circumstances that had deeply impressed the prophet’s mind, or whether the death belongs to the vision, it is impossible for us to tell. To Ezekiel the occurrence seemed an earnest of the complete destruction of the remnant of Israel by the wrath of God, and, as before, he fell on his face to intercede for them. It is then that he receives the message which seems to form the Divine answer to the perplexities which haunted the minds of the exiles in Babylon. In their attitude towards the exiles the new leaders in Jerusalem took up a position as highly privileged religious persons, quite at variance with the scepticism which governed their conduct at home. When they were following the bent of their natural inclinations by practising idolatry and perpetrating judicial murders in the city, their cry was, "Jehovah hath forsaken the land; Jehovah seeth it not." When they were eager to justify their claim to the places and possessions left vacant by their banished countrymen, they said, "They are far from Jehovah: to us the land is given in possession." They were probably equally sincere and equally insincere in both professions. They had simply learned the art which comes easily to men of the world of using religion as a cloak for greed, and throwing it off when greed could be best gratified without it. The idea which lay under their religious attitude was that the exiles had gone into captivity because their sins had incurred Jehovah’s anger, and that now His wrath was exhausted and the blessing of His favour would rest on those who had been left in the land. There was sufficient plausibility in the taunt to make it peculiarly galling to the mind of the exiles, who had hoped to exercise some influence over the government in Jerusalem, and to find their places kept for them when they should be permitted to return. It may well have been the resentment produced by tidings of this hostility towards them in Jerusalem that brought their elders to the house of Ezekiel to see if he had not some message from Jehovah to reassure them. In the mind of Ezekiel, however, the problem took another form. To him a return to the old Jerusalem had no meaning; neither buyer nor seller should have cause to congratulate himself on his position. The possession of the land of Israel belonged to those in whom Jehovah’s ideal of the new Israel was realised, and the only question of religious importance was, Where is the germ of this new Israel to be found? Amongst those who survive the judgment in the old land, or amongst those who have experienced it in the form of banishment? On this point the prophet receives an explicit revelation in answer to his intercession for "the remnant of Israel." "Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren, thy fellow-captives, and the whole house of Israel of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, They are far from Jehovah: to us it is given-the land for an inheritance! Because I have removed them far among the nations, and have scattered them among the lands, and have been to them but little of a sanctuary in the lands where they have gone, therefore say, Thus saith Jehovah, so will I gather you from the peoples, and bring you from the lands where ye have been scattered, and will give you the land of Israel." The difficult expression "I have been but little of a sanctuary" refers to the curtailment of religious privileges and means of access to Jehovah which was a necessary consequence of exile. It implies, however, that Israel in banishment had learned in some measure to preserve that separation from other peoples and that peculiar relation to Jehovah which constituted its national holiness. Religion perhaps perishes sooner from the overgrowth of ritual than from its deficiency. It is a historical fact that the very meagreness of the religion which could be practised in exile was the means of strengthening the more spiritual and permanent elements which constitute the essence of religion. The observances which could be maintained apart from the Temple acquired an importance which they never afterwards lost; and although some of these, such as circumcision, the Passover, the abstinence from forbidden food, were purely ceremonial, others, such as prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and the common worship of the synagogue, represent the purest and most indispensable forms in which communion with God can find expression. That Jehovah Himself became even in small measure what the word "sanctuary" denotes indicates an enrichment of the religious consciousness of which perhaps Ezekiel himself did not perceive the full import. The great lesson which Ezekiel’s message seeks to impress on his hearers is that the tenure of the land of Israel depends on religious conditions. The land is Jehovah’s, and He bestows it on those who are prepared to use it as His holiness demands. A pure land inhabited by a pure people is the ideal that underlies all Ezekiel’s visions of the future. It is evident that in such a conception of the relation between God and His people ceremonial conditions must occupy a conspicuous place. The sanctity of the land is necessarily of a ceremonial order, and so the sanctity of the people must consist partly in a scrupulous regard for ceremonial requirements. But after all the condition of the land with respect to purity or uncleanness only reflects the character of the nation whose home it is. The things that defile a land are such things as idols and other emblems of heathenism, innocent blood unavenged, and unnatural crimes of various kinds. These things derive their whole significance from the state of mind and heart which they embody; they are the plain and palpable emblems of human sin. It is conceivable that to some minds the outward emblems may have seemed the true seat of evil, and their removal an end in itself apart from the direction of the will by which it was brought about. But it would be a mistake to charge Ezekiel with any such obliquity of moral vision. Although he conceives sin as a defilement that leaves its mark on the material world, he clearly teaches that its essence lies in the opposition of the human will to the will of God. The ceremonial purity required of every Israelite is only the expression of certain aspects of Jehovah’s holy nature, the bearing of which on man’s spiritual life may have been obscure to the prophet, and is still more obscure to us. And the truly valuable element in compliance with such rules was the obedience to Jehovah’s expressed will which flowed from a nature in sympathy with His. Hence in