trespasses and sins, because His Spirit had been taken away, and with the realm of the dead. It was the same Being who said: "I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in Me, though He were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death."

Probably this chapter in Ezekiel was written fifty or sixty years before the return of the Jews from captivity; but see them then. Ezra fifth and sixth chapters; Nehemiah eighth and ninth chapters; Daniel ninth and tenth chapters. The Spirit of God did enter into them, that they lived. Kings were their nursing fathers, and queens their nursing mothers; so that when the words of the JEHOVAH were fulfilled, they knew Him to be God. Secondly, this chapter was a prophecy of the final ingathering of the Jews, of their spiritual resurrection; and as surely as the one took place, so will the other, but with greater glory; and then with such a sign from heaven, the world will know that Christ was God. O Church of Christ, "Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the JEHOVAH." (See Rom. xi.) And then again the chapter was a prophecy of the general resurrection of the dead; resurrection life from the death of sin, and life from the dead, are the same thing in the mind of the Spirit. "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you (Rom. viii. 11).

"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, 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" (John v. 28). This connection of "the Son of man" with the Almighty, Supreme Being, in His own teaching, is very striking. "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory (Matt. xxv. 31, to the end). What is the conclusion we must arrive at from this subject? That man was lost, dead to God, and under the power of the devil, in spiritual oneness with him; and that God did set Himself to deliver, and to restore him; the Creator to atone for the sin of the creature; the God of glory to enthrone him in glory with Himself. This is the teaching of the whole Bible. Tremendous death! Stupendous and eternal life! "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; in Him" (Eph. i.).

In the end of this chapter in Ezekiel is a prophecy of the universal reign of Christ, a spiritual reign, and an ever present God. "David my servant shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. My tabernacle also shall be with them yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

In Rev. xxi. 3, we have the response to this ancient prophecy: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His

people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." This tabernacle means Christ's body, or human nature, of which the Jewish tabernacle was a type: as God dwelt in the one, so He did in the other. And all prophecy respecting Him will be fulfilled. His grace will culminate in glory. And hence the name of the Eternal City, as named in the last words of this book of Ezekiel: "The name of the city from that day shall be, the JEHOVAH is there," never more to depart, as He did from the tabernacle and temple, but to be the ever present God of His people for ever.

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Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the JEHOVAH shall be thine everlasting light, and thy God thy glory" (Isa. lx. 20).

"Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job xxii. 21).

CHAPTER XX.

GOD IN CHRIST, IN THE NAME JEHOVAH.

“O JEHOVAH, hear; O JEHOVAH, forgive; O JEHOVAH, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name."DAN. ix. 19.

HE Prophet Daniel was taken captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, in the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah (Dan. i. 1, 2), some few years before Ezekiel was taken captive, in the reign of Jehoiachin. Four conquests against Judah succeeded rapidly each other, in the separate reigns of the four sons of Josiah. The first conquest was by the king of Egypt, and the other three by the king of Babylon (2 Kings xxiii., xxiv ; 2 Chron. xxxvi.; Jer. lii. 31; Ezek. i. 2). Doubtless the seventy years of the captivity foretold by Jeremiah dated from the first conquest by the king of Babylon, when, as I have said, Daniel was taken captive (Jer. xxv. 1, 11, 12; xxix. 1, 10). So that he was captive throughout the whole period of the captivity, and prophesied throughout that period. He was a young man when taken into Babylon, and one of the princes of Judah, so we may suppose he was about ninety years of age when the last part of his prophecy was written. He

died in the land of his captivity, after he had delivered his people. His work was done, and it was then more merciful that he should be numbered with the dead than that he should return to Canaan. "Go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." That was, you shall not return to Canaan with those who are about to return, but at the end of the time to which your prophecies reach, you shall have your inheritance and lot in the heavenly Canaan. The promise was rooted in the lots of the tribes (Num. xxvi.)—his to the lot of the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv. 1-12), as he was of the royal house of David, and probably of the family of Zedekiah. The Jews do not place Daniel among the prophets, because he lived in courts, and because he had visions and revelations, instead of receiving directly the word from JEHOVAH. But Christ called him, “Daniel the prophet."

I have thus glanced at Daniel's position, and at the time he wrote, to understand why he never used the name JEHOVAH, save in one chapter of his writings. In the first place, he left the Holy Land very young, and perhaps it is not till later in life that we do really learn the doctrine of grace to profit-the great Name in its depths of grace, so as to have faith in it effectually for ourselves, and to proclaim it faithfully to our people. Had the name been known, honoured, loved, and pleaded by the royal house of Judah, it might never have been led captive at all. Secondly, perhaps the name would not have been understood in the pagan court of Babylon. How could the worshippers of a demagogue, and a king