bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them." So when the prophets prophesied to captive Israel in Babylon of God's promises to themselves, and reminded them of the wonderful things which He had done for their forefathers, and talked with them of deliverance from bondage, and of restoration to the holy land, and of the reviving glory of Jerusalem, and of the rebuilding of the temple, they were partially awakened from their trance of sorrow and despondency; and they looked one to another, fellow to his fellow; and there was a movement as though they would arise, and pray, and give thanks, and be up and be doing, whilst a faint smile gleamed over their saddened features. But there was nothing real. It was only a semblance of life; it was the mere sound of the hollow wind sighing among the strings of their neglected harps. There was no breath of faith in them.

So in respect of spiritual things. The preacher delivers to his people the threatenings and the promises of God, His awful denunciations against sin, His gracious exhortations to repentance, and bountiful offers of mercy; tells them that the wages of sin is death-terrible, spiritual, everlasting death, but that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And there are tumultuous emotions in some conscience-stricken soul-those terrors of the Lord to which the war of the elements in the natural world affords no parallel. At one and the same moment, things past, things present, things to come, terrify the

sinner. He despairs-he takes hope-he half resolves to cast himself upon the mercy of God. No temptations are present to smother his convictions, nor profligate companions to laugh them away. There is the noise and the shaking among the dry bones—a hopeful prognostic of restoration to spiritual life. But, alas! it has been but a dreamy state. The vision vanishes; and the awakened sinner presently sinks down again into a fatal sleep, profounder than it was before.

Then said the Lord unto Ezekiel: "Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then He said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost."

So mourns the sin-troubled soul: "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me." I have known such a sad mourner-restless and wretched whilst all around were gay, solitary in the midst of a busy world, having nothing in common with anything that he saw or heard. The poet Cowper painfully depicts him in his lonely walk :

"Lips busy and eyes fix'd, foot falling slow,

Arms hanging idly down, hands clasp'd below."

I have followed him in imagination to his secret chamber, and there I have seemed to hear the deep

pouring out of his contrite grief to God. And could I believe that there was none other whose eye was on this afflicted mourner, and whose ears were open to his sighs and his groans and his prayers? No, I could not believe it; for the heart of the penitent is where the Lord delights to dwell. "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." At the very moment that the house of Israel were in their deepest gloom and despondency, the decree had already gone forth from the Lord: "Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord."

And therefore, not less applicable is the spiritual parallel in this concluding part of the vision of Ezekiel, than the preceding had been; not less true is this in respect of the penitent than the other was in respect of the sinner; there has been the noise and the shaking, and there shall be of God's grace the breath and the life; the work of the Lord would otherwise be incomplete. What but prayer was the invocation of the Prophet; "Come from the four winds O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live"? What but the Spirit of God was the wind which answered

H

the prayer, and breathed upon the slain, and they lived? And as surely as the invocation is made from a believing, humble, contrite heart, so surely shall the Spirit come. For this is the repeated promise of God written in His Word of truth and of love-written by that Holy Spirit Himself. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God for He will abundantly pardon." I have myself known the once spiritually dead and dry, so quickened, so contrite for his sins, so seeking grace through the ordinances of Christ's Church, so brought to the temple and to the table of the Lord; and amid all, so tried by sickness and pain and disease and sorrow of mind; and under all, so supported, so day by day more and more strengthened in the inner man, while the outer man was fast going to decay; as manifestly to have been, (so far as human hope and confidence could dare to pronounce,) one of that exceeding great army whom the Prophet saw starting into life, and standing before God.

Do not then, my dear brethren,—I mean you (if such be present), who have never yet found anything on which confidently to rest the burden and the desires of your soul; do not, I pray you, come to this house of God, nor kneel down in your private chamber, nor apply to any of the appointed means of grace in a faithless, lifeless spirit, almost expecting nothing, almost hoping nothing; but come, expecting everything, hoping everything which the power of that God can give, who breathed upon dry bones, and they

lived; and who has promised this life-giving Spirit to all who ask and believe. And come Thou, O Holy Spirit of God, and breathe into our souls; for without Thee we are in the shadow of death, powerless and motionless as the dry bones in the valley of Hinnom; clothed indeed with flesh and covered with skin, but having no spiritual life within! Come, and breathe upon the slain that they may live! Come from the four winds, and gather together the elect and multiply their numbers, for nothing is impossible with Thee! And so mercifully deal with us who are here present, that when the graves shall be opened and the ransomed "shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God"; we too, every one of us here present, may be there! a portion of that "great multitude which no man may number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, and crying with a loud voice, Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever! "