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The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.

EVENING SERVICE.-First Lesson: Ezek. xxiv.

Verse 27.-"In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the Lord."

THERE are seasons when God's special messengers' mouths are closed in communication to man. His voice in creation and providence is never silent. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work: day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge." There is not a day nor a night in which God does not speak to us through those mediums; but this is His ordinary language which is uttered in common to all. In addition to this He has extraordinary communications which are given through special messengers, whom He raises for the sole purpose. Those messengers vary according to the changes of dispensations. Formerly He employed angels on peculiar occasions, sometimes dreams and visions were the medium, more commonly prophets were raised up to declare His will. Under the Gospel dispensation the messengers employed are the ministers of the word, who are commanded to go forth with the Bible in their hands warning man of his danger, and inviting him to return from his evil ways, that he may obtain pardon, and peace, and life. When these messengers are withdrawn, as they were from the apostate churches of Asia, or when through a continued rejection of the message the voice of conscience is hushed, so that the man sinks into indifference and hardness of heart, it is a sure sign of God's displeasure, and that man must beware lest he be given up to irremediable perdition. The prophet Ezekiel was a special

messenger sent to the Jewish people at the commencement of the Babylonian captivity. A portion of them had been taken from their country, the remainder were now warned and expostulated with, but continuing relentless and obstinate the expostulations were discontinued, and they were left to observe their own inclinations. In the twenty-sixth verse of the third chapter God tells His prophet, "And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house." Whether Ezekiel was struck actually dumb as Zecharias was for a season is not certain; the object was to withhold any communication from the people by the restraint of prohibition, which was a heavy judgment to avenge their rebellion and ingratitude. He was also to be bound and shut up for a season, which was designed as a miraculous interposition of heaven to represent the prostrate and humbled state of the people deserted by their God. This state of the prophet continued for the space of three years, or until he received the tidings of Jerusalem being finally taken and destroyed by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, under the command of Nebuzaradan. But God would not keep His anger for ever; those who escaped were to come to the prophet for instruction, and the text contains a promise that the Divine communications should be resumed. "In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb and thou shalt be a sign unto them: and they shall know that I am the Lord."

The opening of the prophet's mouth furnishes us with an emblem of God's gracious communications to man, which may be considered under two heads. First, the contents; and secondly, the results of those communications.

I. We shall consider the contents of God's special communications. When He sends a messenger He gives him a message to deliver, and that message must be delivered with all fidelity as coming from God and not from man; it is to be delivered in the name of God, by the authority of God, and

to the glory of God. "Now then," says the Apostle Paul, "we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

The message may be comprised in three words, which are, warning, escape, and duty-words of the widest import, comprehending all that God is to man, and all that God requires from man.

1. When the messenger's mouth is opened he is to warn. Warn against sin, and warn of danger; against sin as being the cause of the danger, and of the danger as being the inevitable result of the sin. Now, every man is a sinner; this is a part of the message: being a sinner every man is in danger of punishment, which is to suffer the displeasure of an offended God for ever. Such was the contents of the message which God Himself delivered to Adam, and the same is continued throughout the whole of the chapter. Noah preached it to the antediluvians, Abraham taught it to his family, Lot declared it to the Sodomites, Moses proclaimed it to the Israelites as well as to the Egyptians, the prophets shewed it to their respective generations, Christ announced it in His public ministry upon earth, the apostles held it forth prominently in all their discourses; and it is to be the first lesson in all our religious instructions-man is a sinner and is in danger of punishment. If we lose sight of this, we lose sight of the great necessity for the sufferings and death of the Son of God, we lose sight of the bane whence originates all the evil that exists in the world, we lose sight of the reason for the depraved propensities which exist in the heart, and the untold miseries which afflict the mind; we lose sight of the necessity for a Redeemer, for "the whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Deny this fact, and you deny your real position as moral agents, you deny God's claim to the services of His creatures, you deny the relationship between Him and yourselves, you deny the responsibility of a rational being, you deny the existence of heaven and hell, you deny the connection between crime and penalty, you deny that there is any

truth in the book which is emphatically called the Word of God. You may as well deny that water drowns, that fire burns, that fever inflames the blood, that disease produces death. Conscience and experience, past and present, prove that man is a sinner, and is in danger of punishment. Of this fact God's message warns you-disregard it at your peril.

2. There is a way of escape, mercifully pointed out in the message, which is committed to the messenger. Man is not allowed to grope in the dark being told of his danger, then left to find a way of escape from it by his own ingenuity and effort. We have the antidote presented to us as well as the bane, a place of refuge as well as a sense of danger. If the world was to be drowned, an ark was appointed for Noah's safety; if fire and brimstone were to burn Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot was directed to Zoar for escape; if the destroying angel killed the firstborn of the Egyptians, the blood of the lamb secured the Israelites; if those people were bitten by the fiery serpents in the wilderness, the serpent of brass was placed on a pole to cure the effect; if the avenger of blood had power to kill the manslayer, the city of refuge was provided to save him from the attack; if God threatened Adam with death in consequence of his disobedience, He presented to him a prospect of life in the promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. He has not yet withdrawn the promise of life through the woman's seed, but graciously extends the blessing of hope in Christ and Him crucified. Whilst He tells us in the message that "in Adam all died," He tells us also that "in Christ shall all be made alive." Whilst He tells us that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," He tells us also that "He has exalted Christ a Prince and a Saviour, for to give redemption unto Israel and forgiveness of sins." Whilst He tells us that "by the offence of one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation," He tells us also that "even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Here is a foundation on which we may safely build our hope, a rock on which we may firmly stand, a refuge to

which we may confidently flee; for "God in Christ reconciles the world to himself, not imputing their transgressions unto them." If you wish to escape the danger you may; there is no impediment on the part of God; He waits to be gracious, and invites you to come unto Him that you may have life.

3. There is also a duty contained in the message. The path of duty is the path of safety. No one can expect to realise the benefit of pardon and life except he attend to the conditions on which they are offered. Ezekiel was to be a sign to the remnant of the Jews that escaped. In his person were represented contrition, belief, and obedience, showing the necessity of such being possessed by them, before God would manifest His favours unto them. Their contrition was expressed in the humiliating postures which he assumed as well as the afflictive circumstances which he endured : their belief was expressed in the confidence which he reposed in the word of God; and their obedience was expressed in his readiness to comply with the Divine command. These three parts of duty are still required from all who hope to obtain the safety presented in the Gospel. Being sinners, we need repentance: nothing can be more rational than when we have offended a friend we should express our sorrow in deep contrition of heart. God has been justly offended by our past sins: they have reflected upon His wisdom; they have defied His authority; they have abused His goodness; they have cast contempt upon the agonies of His Son; they have slighted and quenched His Spirit-it is only right, therefore, that we should manifest corresponding grief for such acts of ingratitude. If we thus repent, like Job, in dust and ashes, we exercise a firm belief in His word: whether that word contains a threat or a promise, to doubt it would be a mistrust of His truthfulness, and would preclude an implicit reliance on what He says. If you do not believe that you are such a deeply-dyed sinner as you are represented to be— that God's justice demands your punishment in a state of impenitence that you may obtain mercy only by coming to God through Christ-and that your utmost goodness and