He

example within the sacred volume to encourage such a notion, there are ample promises of salvation during life, but not one if only sought in death. If you suggest the thief upon the cross as an example, you must remember that he was pardoned at such a time and under such circumstances which renders your pardon on the same ground impossible. "Wherefore thus saith the Lord God, behold I am against your pillows . . . and I will tear them from under your arms." God will sooner or later take away from us every false hope. has His own way of salvation, which is through the Redeemer. Every other way is inefficient. However delusive expectations may prop persons up for a time, they must ultimately give way, leaving the dependants to sink into perdition. "I will tear them from your arms," when you will be left destitute of support in time of need. God is offended, not only at the actual commission of sin, but also at the attempt to deliver by any means of man's own device. Such an attempt is a reflection on His clemency, as requiring more than is necessary for the satisfaction of justice; it is a reflection upon His wisdom in appointing His Son to suffer and die for no purpose, as the end might have been accomplished by easier and less painful means; it is a reflection upon His veracity as having given declarations inconsistent with the real state of things; it is a reflection upon His power, as being unable to save without an elaborate system of means which would in such a case be perfectly useless. Regarding these and other attested truths we find no difficulty in proving that God is against our pillows, and that He will tear them from under our arms. Then, brethren, may we relinquish them in time, resting on nothing but Christ, forsaking the sin that doth so easily beset us, and devoting ourselves to the obedience of faith and love.

264

The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity.

MORNING SERVICE.-First Lesson: Ezek. xiv.

Verse 20." Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness."

GRIEVOUS sins bring grievous plagues. In proportion to the number and magnitude of the sins will be the punishment awarded. Sin, in its mildest aspect, is exceeding offensive to God, and it incurs a penalty corresponding to its aggravation; but when that sin is repeated in defiance to admonitions and warnings the penalty receives a renewed impetus at every commission until ultimately it falls with a force that involves unavoidable and irretrievable ruin. In like manner when a sin is the act of one single individual, the punishment is confined to that individual (unless, indeed, it be committed by a person in high station, such as a king or a governor, then those connected with him are included in the temporal punishment, still the spiritual punishment is confined to himself). When a family is implicated in a sin, the punishment falls upon the family; and when a sin extends to a nation, the whole of that nation is under the ban of the divine displeasure.

Should it be asked, When does a sin become national? there would be some difficulty in answering the question. It is certain that it may be pretty generally committed, and even persons of influence in a country may be implicated in the guilt, without its incurring the character of a national sin. We might presume that two things would be necessary to constitute it such; first, its being encouraged by the executors of the law; and, secondly, its being connived at by the

ministers of the altar. When this is the case the nation partakes of the guilt, and the nation must partake in the punishment. The sin of the Jews at the time to which this chapter refers, which consisted in idolatry, disobedience, and utter disregard of the laws of God, partook fully of this character, and was consequently a national sin. They also increased gradually in wickedness, going from bad to worse, from one stage to another, until we find them here sunk into such depths of iniquity that by an irrevocable decree the judgment is denounced against them to the utmost of its virulence. Their sin was not confined to an individual nor to a family, but the King, the governors, the priests, and the prophets were equally guilty. Their cup of iniquity was full, and they had to drink its very dregs. When this chapter was penned by Ezekiel the greater portion of the nation had been taken into captivity, and those who were left took no warning, therefore, they also became a prey to their enemies. In the beginning of the chapter we find certain of the Elders of Israel coming to consult the prophet. Some think that those elders were the ambassadors whom Zedekiah had sent to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon; and that they came to Ezekiel, not from any good motive, as coming to a prophet of Jehovah, but from a feeling of curiosity to consult him as they would consult an oracle of their idols respecting the welfare of their country. God warned the prophet of their hypocrisy, and announced the woful judgments on Jerusalem which are recorded in the chapter.

There are three important lessons to be learnt from those announcements. First, that God will punish for sin; secondly, that when the sin of a people is come to its crisis, and the decree has gone forth for their punishment, the piety and prayers of the best of men shall be unavailable to ward off the evil; thirdly, that though pious praying men shall not succeed to deliver others, yet they shall save their own souls.

I. God will punish for sin. He may, and does exercise great patience. His longsuffering is infinite, hence the reason

why the punishment is generally so long delayed. He first warns, then He threatens, giving every opportunity to the sinner to repent and improve. Like a kind father lifting up his hand to correct his erring child, the hand grasping the chastising rod ascends slowly higher and higher to see whether the child will relent and express his penitence, but if there be no indication of amendment the stroke must fall with an irresistible force. He exercised great patience towards our first parents, death was threatened, but that death was postponed for some hundreds of years. In like manner he warned the antediluvians, and the Egyptians, and the Ninevites, and the Churches of Asia, and thus He still warns every sinner. The blow does not descend at once. There is a certain limit to which He allows the transgressor to go.

The iniquity of

the Amorites was not full in the time of Abraham, nor until four generations afterwards, but each generation added to its fulness, and it came at last. So the Jews were often warned and threatened, both by revelation and by minor punishments; each warning and threatening lifted the hand that held the sword; there was no amendment, and it fell. You sinners. are also warned you are warned by the law, you are warned by the Gospel, you are warned by the examples of others, you are warned by personal affliction, you are warned by bereavements, you are warned by the strivings of the Spirit in your consciences; God does not wish to punish you, but He must except you relent; sin is so repugnant to His nature. Light and darkness, justice and injustice, holiness and pollusion, purity and impurity cannot coalesce. God would be inconsistent with Himself if He did not punish sin; the rights of His government would not be defended, the honour of His law would not be preserved, the veracity of His character would not be vindicated did He remit the punishment. Truly His love is so great towards the offender that he consented to allow the stroke to fall upon a substitute in the person of His own Son, but in that very act above all others He manifested the necessity of punishment.

God has various ways of punishing sin in this world. He

punished Adam by turning him out of Eden, and making him earn his bread by the sweat of his brow; He punished the antediluvians by water; He punished the Sodomites by fire; He punished the Egyptians by different plagues; He punished Korah, Dathan, and Abiram by an earthquake; He punished many of the Israelites in the wilderness by fiery serpents; He punished the Moabites and other nations by the sword. In this chapter He mentions "the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence, and the noisome beast." He has all things at His command-every beast and every element are subservient to His will.

The punishment is always in proportion to the privileges previously enjoyed. This was the reason why those combined judgments were threatened upon Jerusalem; even one of them would have been a grievous calamity to any nation, from the four escape was impossible. The phrase "How much more," in the twenty-first verse, signifies that Jerusalem had incurred a heavier judgment than any other city or country, on the principle that it had been previously raised to a higher position of prosperity by the special interposition of Providence in behalf of its inhabitants. It was on this principle our Saviour declared of the cities of Galilee that it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon and for Sodom in the day of judgment than for them; and on the same principle a heavier punishment will be inflicted on those who had enjoyed the privileges of the Gospel than on those heathen nations that had never been favoured with the knowledge of salvation through Christ.

We observe

II. That when the sin of a people has come to a crisis, and the decree is gone forth for their punishment, the piety and prayers of the best men shall be of no avail to ward off the calamity, "Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter." This is a most solemn declaration, rendered still more awfully emphatic by being confirmed with God's oath,