songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

In addition to those painful feelings connected with a state of bondage, they had to contend with the cruel insults of their idolatrous masters. Instead of meeting with that commiseration and sympathy which were due a conquered people, their enemies insulted them in their distress; and while their hearts were bursting with grief, the heathen required of them the language of happiness and contentment.

Had their enemies, from proper motives, asked them to sing the songs of Zion, they would joyfully have yielded to their requests; but it was done to ridicule the devotions of an afflicted people, and to turn their religious exercises into a jest. The Psalmist, at a particular period, influenced by considerations similar to those which produced silence on the part of the Jews, declared, "I will keep my tongue as it were with a bridle, while the ungodly are in my sight." In unison with the same feelings the afflicted Jew observed, "How shall I sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" How shall I sing that which is so sacred to my soul in the presence of idolaters, and render a service peculiar to the worship of God a source of merriment to the wicked; to those who are strangers to its importance, and determined to ridicule my devotions? Dark, however, as was the period in which they lived; tempestuous as was the sea of calamity in which they were involved,-a gleam of light would sometimes reflect itself upon their minds and enable them to realize the promise of their liberation. "O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us." ("Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against a stone.")

It was in a moment thus dark and gloomy, a moment in which Israel was prostrated in ruin; as destitute of the power of exertion as those dry bones which Ezekiel saw in

his vision, (a vision which declared, that although the release of the Jews was an event which, to man, appeared impossible, yet that it was not impossible with God; but that the time was at hand in which Jehovah would arise and have mercy upon Zion, and restore his people to their own country,) that the king of Persia was selected by heaven as the instrument of their relief; their deliverance was effected by Cyrus, who, in conjunction with Darius the Mede, subdued the Chaldean nation, and established the Israelites in their own land. "The dry bones of the captive tribes were animated with new life; the Lord breathed upon the slain and they lived."

The vision contained in the text, is also descriptive of the resurrection of immortal beings from the death of sin to a life of righteousness.

However solemn the reflection, still it is asserted as a truth in the Scriptures, that they who live in pleasure are dead while they live; they are insensible that this life is a state of probation; they live as if there was no other state of existence than the present. Sin is the death of the soul: consequently, wherever habitual sin prevails there is a privation of spiritual life, an insensibility to divine things, a deadness to any enjoyments but those of our carnal nature. The practice of iniquity renders the sinner obnoxious to a God of holiness, and cuts him off from God the fountain of life. That St. Paul considered the Ephesians in a state of spiritual death prior to their conversion and establishment in holiness, is evident from the manner in which he addressed them subsequent to their moral change. "You hath he quickened," said the venerable Apostle, "who were dead in trespasses and sins." The conversion of a soul to God, is its resurrection from death to life. It then begins to live when it begins to live to God; to breathe after heaven and holiness; to move towards the Almighty, and to make preparation for that eternity toward which we are rapidly hastening.

When we reflect upon the number of those who live regardless of the Almighty; when we call to view the

whole human family, and consider how great is the proportion of mankind who habitually violate the laws of God, and refuse a subjection to his authority, we must acknowledge that the metaphor in our text is perfectly descriptive of their awful state. Instead of evidencing the possession of spiritual life, they appear dead and insensible to divine impressions. "The valley," as the prophet expresses it, “is full of bones; and those bones are very dry." Destitute, however, as they are of a disposition to engage in spiritual things, the gospel of Christ is calculated to infuse life and vigor into them. The breath of divine grace will breathe upon the slain that they may live, and man, who by the fall lost his moral principle, will become a living soul, active in the discharge of duty, alive to God and devoted to his service. This was the case with Saul of Tarsus, and it was also the case with the thousands who were converted at the feast of Pentecost. When the Holy Ghost displayed his divine power among them, they awoke from the death of sin to a life of righteousness. Saul exclaimed, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" and the astonished Jews inquired," Men and brethren what shall we do to be saved?" St. Paul, instead of breathing out threatenings and slaughter against his fellow-creatures, was endued with a spirit of peace and good-will to man. The most perfect accomplishment of Ezekiel's vision will be found by considering, thirdly, its reference to the resurrection of the dead at the last day.

Upon this solemn and important event the Scriptures are very full. Daniel proclaims it in these words: "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Job, animated with the pleasing prospect which awaited him at that hour, testified of its certainty; "I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and, though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not another;" and the Psalmist,

"Thou turnest men to destruction, and again thou sayest, return again ye children of men."

When the light of the gospel, by which life and immortality have been brought to light, was reflected upon the world, the mystery in which the resurrection had been clothed was rent asunder, and the most clear and manifest representation of it has been exhibited to our view. "The hour is coming," said the Lord Jesus Christ," when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation."

St. Paul, impressed with the solemnity of the subject, declares, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the reward according to the deeds done in the body." St. John, in the Revelation, asserts, "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away. I saw the dead both small and great stand before God: and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to his works." (St. Peter paints to our view, in colours truly awful, the solemnity of the last judgment; "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall be rolled up with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.")

It was this momentous principle, the resurrection of the dead at the last day, which invigorated the Patriarchs, and has sustained the people of God under every trial. It was this principle which Paul asserted and vindicated in the presence of King Agrippa; "Why should it be thought a thing incredible," said he, "that God should raise the dead." If it be an event to which the powers of man are unequal, it cannot constitute a principle which exceeds the power of God. Did not the Almighty architect create the world out of nothing? calling into existence the sun, and

covering the heavens with hosts of glittering stars? Did he not form man out of the dust of the earth, and endue him with life? and can he not again form them out of their own clay, and reanimate their bodies?

The universal impression stamped upon the human mind, relative to the event under consideration, forms a strong argument in favour of the position. Almost every nation with whose history we are acquainted, bears witness to the truth. A longing after immortality pervades our whole species; they all look forward to a future state, and, however clouded and inconsistent may be their views, still, as the opinion is universal, it carries on it the impress of an Almighty hand.

In his Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul enters into a long and satisfactory argument upon the subject of the resurrection, proving the truth of the principle, not only from the ability of the Almighty to execute it, but from analogy also. "Some man will say, how are the dead raised up, and with what body will they come? Thou fool! that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die." The seed we deposit in the earth must first corrupt before it will quicken and spring up; it not only vegetates after it is corrupted, but it must die that it may live; our bodies are sown in corruption, but they will be raised in incorruption. They will then be subject to no decay-liable to no infirmity or disease-made like the glorious body of our Redeemer-refined into an etherial substance, immortal in the heavens.

It was this event, which is so fully, so sublimely represented in the vision of Ezekiel; "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about; and behold, there were very many in the open valley and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again, he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones; say unto them, O, ye dry bones, hear ye the word