in God's revelations, by words heard. "Came expressly." Ezekiel uses here a form of Hebrew emphasis, i.e., repeating the same verb. Such a repetition, in this connection, can scarcely mean that the word came directly to him, but rather that it was certainly, verily, really a divine word which in "coming came to him." It needed a special attestation, and that was given to it. The same authenticating feature is exhibited in the frequent reiterations and assertions by Ezekiel that he was acting under divine impulse and authority. "Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi.” The order in the Hebrew, is, "Ezekiel, the son of Buzi the priest." Of course Ezekiel was a priest by descent; but this order of the Hebrew may be intended to signify that, being in captivity, he had never fulfilled any specific priestly functions. His name, as usual among the Jews, has a meaning, and is to be translated either "God is strong," or "God will strengthen." Hengstenberg decides for the former, and says it is to be explained that "Ezekiel was he in relation to whom God is strong." Baumgarten chooses the latter, and says it signifies "he whose character is a special confirmation of the strength of God." The idea insisted on by Hengstenberg, following an older commentator, that it

"is not a name he had borne from his youth, but an official name which he had assumed at the beginning of his calling," appears to be groundless. It is true of all the prophets, both that God is strong to fulfil His purpose, and that He will give strength to His servants for that part of His work which He has assigned them. "In the land of the Chaldeans." This topographical addition seems to be intended for a further attestation that it was the word of the Lord which really came to Ezekiel. The Chaldee version interpolates thus, "In the land [of Israel, and again a second time He spake to him in the land] of the Chaldeans." It is believed that "the Jews had a notion that the Shechinah could not overshadow a prophet out of the Holy Land." Perhaps a strain of this notion is to be heard in the wail of the captives "by the rivers of Babylon" when they ask, "How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" The notion was to be eradicated. God could endue a man with prophetic power even in Chaldea, and that is further witnessed to by the words " was there upon him.” "The hand of the Lord" is a frequent Scriptural expression, and indicates that the thing which was to be done was done in submission to the restraining or the impelling energy of the Lord.

HOMILETICS

(1.) GENERAL CONDITIONS OF THE DESIGNATION.

I. The time to receive fuller knowledge of the Lord is uncertain. Who can tell why the call to Ezekiel came in the fifth year, and not in the first, second, &c. The pain and pressure of exile galled, no doubt, as deeply in the earlier years as in the later, yet Ezekiel had not seen "the heavens opened." What is uncertain to men is fixed with God. He is "the only wise God." He sees the end from the beginning of all lives. He alone knows where it is best to lead "the brook" across the way of His people, by drinking of which they "will lift up their heads." Though uncertain, men are not to be unconcerned. Having no criterion as to the appropriate time for special unfolding of the will of God, that does not sanction an utter indifference as to what they would have Him do. They must "wait on the Lord and keep His way," ever hoping that He will "exalt" them to see what they do not yet see of the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Though uncertain, men should always be on the alert. Waiting for blessing is not real and valid waiting, except they who wait are sensitive to the approach of the Lord. His word comes to comfort, strengthen, open up a duty, and those are the good and faithful servants who honour Him by receiving it, no matter at what time, convenient or inconvenient to them, He may vouchsafe it. Though uncertain men must never

lose faith. However long it be ere a word comes-one year or five years-they must believe in God. He has not forgotten His people. Let them trust that in some month He will bestow favour on them and His depressed interests.

II. The place is undistinguished. It has no memorable associations. The land of the Chaldeans was devoid of that instructive relation to the Jews which both Egypt and the mountains of Sinai had. The river of Chebar could not stir their thoughts as the Jordan could. But God can produce in an obscure or obnoxious place that which will be a hallowed memory.

He can make communications in a garden as to Adam, in an outlying district of Luz as to Jacob, in a cave of the desert as to Elijah, in exile as to Ezekiel. He may manifest Himself anywherein ship or customhouse, by road or rail, in a family or alone. It has no recog

nised religious privileges. The captives could not make yearly pilgrimages to the City of the Great King; they could not approach to the place where His honour dwelt, For them there was no treading of His courts, no appearing before Him, no burnt-offerings and sacrifices to offer for His acceptance. Their hearts might thirst and faint for His altars, but they could not be relieved. As Nathanael in after times, they might have put a question expressive of contempt and unbelief, Can any good thing be obtained by the rivers of Babylon? They had not yet learned by experience that the Lord would make "a little sanctuary" for them in the place to which He had driven them, and there reveal His justice and His grace. So when Ezekiel was constituted an organ of new revelations, they were blessed where they did not look for blessing. Happy is it that the help of God is for the feeble who cannot, for the charged with duty who must not, for the wanderers who may not enter into the assemblies of worshippers, as well as for those who have all means of grace at their command. "In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

III. The person is inconspicuous. So far as is known, there was nothing to give prominence to Ezekiel over other members of priestly families, or the general body of his fellow-captives. "There is no respect of persons with God." He does not limit His manifestations by any classifications which men may make. "Base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen." The boy with a good education or the boy without it, children who are taught by their parents the truth in Jesus from their earliest days, or children who have learned no more than they learned in a Sunday-school, may equally obtain from God an entrance into "the secret of His covenant."

This designation of Ezekiel furthermore suggests-God can provide fit agents in unexpected circumstances. He only knows when and where it is required that He should make special additions to men's knowledge of Him and His ways, and He has the wisdom and the power to select the persons to whom that knowledge can be given. So He finds Enoch amid gigantic iniquities, Moses in the palace of Pharaoh, Ezekiel among the captives of Babylon, Paul (Saul) among the fiercest of persecutors, Luther in a monastery. Lowly places or prominent places cannot. be obstacles in His path of goodness and mercy. He proves that "His strength is made perfect in weakness."

God can bestow great boons on the person He may call. An exile amongst exiles, with none of the appointed external means of worship, in the face of political disabilities, pressed upon by social troubles, allied to men who had no heart to help him, yet Ezekiel not only found God near, but, moreover, saw heavenly things, and was touched by a hand which made him one of the forces of the world. It tells us that not any circumstances of life, not any conditions of body need to prevent us from being dignified by a faith in the unseen, and sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

God can increase His servant's power by connecting him with an organisation. Robinson Crusoe, alone on Juan Fernandez, might have received large favours from

God, but he could not use those favours for the welfare of neighbours. Power with men depends more or less upon the links which bind us to them. There is influence from a family. When the solitary are set in families it is that they may give and find help which could not have been otherwise secured. Each member has a power to affect the rest who are within the same circle. There is influence from a caste. Commercial, social, intellectual, religious interests bind men to one another, and that bond enables them to carry out schemes which could not have been accomplished individually, e.g., guilds, trades' unions, companies, an aristocracy, an army, a priesthood, a denomination of Christians. There is influence from a nation. The members of a small nation are not so powerfully backed as those of a large. Civis Romanus sum was a phrase which gave, to the person who could employ it, greater consideration and security than were given to the citizens of any other state contemporary with the Roman. The phrase, "I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews,”however the speaker of it might have been counted as "the offscouring of all things," was pregnant with mightier influences than have been wielded by the nationalities of those who derided him. The use of a nation's influence cannot be indifferent to God who loveth righteousness; and in Ezekiel He designated a man who had received a certain education and status on account of his priestly origin, and who, because he was a Jew and could contribute to Hebrew literature, has obtained a position which commands the suffrages of the world. "This also is of the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." Organisations may be hurtful by checking the fair development of personal life, but they can also add to personal power.

(2.) PRELIMINARY STEPS TO THE DESIGNATION.

I "Ezekiel, the son of Buzi the priest" (ver. 3).

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It is sometimes argued that Ezekiel was trammelled by his connection with the priestly organisation, that his lineage induced him to weave a sacerdotal element into his prophecies, that he presents "a Levitical turn of mind, in virtue of which he sets a high value upon sacred customs." Attempts to prove this do not appear eminently successful. When commentators say that his sacerdotalism is shown in the demands he makes for obedience to the requisitions of the Law, we seem to hear in that statement, not a simple reading of the prophecies, but a reading with interpolations from fancy or prepossession. Isaiah, Jeremiah make the same demands, and, taking account of the different circumstances of Ezekiel, he exhibits no more of a sacerdotal tendency than they do. It would have been an odd place in which to manifest a genuine priestly turn of mind "-whatever that may mean-the place where he could not by any means fulfil the special functions of the priesthood; but a very suitable place in which to endeavour to impress the captives with the conviction that they were still "under the law to God," even though far from the Temple of Jehovah. It would be as hard to signify where Ezekiel exhibits "a strong priestly feeling," marking him off from other prophets, as it would be to exhibit a strong pastoral and fruit-gathering feeling in Amos (chap. vii. 14). Yet Fairbairn writes, "In Ezekiel alone of the later prophets does the priestly element become so peculiarly prominent and prevailing as to give a tone and impress to the general character of his ministrations, and to render even his prophetical labours a kind of priestly service" (p. 8). We see what we expect to see! God chooses prophets not to unfold their own ancestral or technical habits, but His true and broad righteousness and love. That Ezekiel, when acting in accordance with this, should employ imagery borrowed from the Law and worship of Israel was natural. He did it, however, not as one who would exalt whatever the priests had to carry out, but as one who had been taught that against the degrading tendencies of Israel there was no barrier, against heathenism there was no power, in Temple, offerings, or priests. He was taught that there was no preservative in the evil days of dire captivity save in the latent energy and intrinsic truth of "the

lively oracles" given by Moses. So he sets himself, not to do a service for priestliness, but for the Law. As a priest he was doubtless one of that kind whose lips kept knowledge, and as an enforcer of the Law was "the messenger of the Lord of hosts" (Mal. ii. 7).

II. "Now I was among the captives" (ver. 1).

Ezekiel had been, apparently, by himself. His mind had been exercised upon the sad days that were passing over him and his people. He had been laying himself open to thoughts of the Lord, and then he was called into a nearer communion than he had ever experienced. Unconsciously he was stepping forward to receive competency to do actions for God. He does not tell how he had been moving-only that, while so employed, "it came to pass" that God spoke to him. They who would learn of Christ must: 1. Go alone with Him. Things pass in secret from Him which no stranger need intermeddle with, and no personal insufficiency need intercept. 2. Go with all cares. Outer circumstances may be harassing, associates may be lukewarm or ungodly, prospects may seem utterly blank, but neither ignore them nor make light of them before Him, for "He careth for you." 3. Go in hope that He will manifest Himself. Unlooked-for light may be lifted up on you, strength may be infused, faith be increased, and new scenes in your history be entered on; for "He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond what you think."

III. "The heavens were opened” (ver. 1).

1. Men have faculties for realising what is beyond the earth. We dwell on the borders of the unknown, and can take interest in noticing the traces of what may be therein. God's hands have made us and fashioned us so that this is possible. To use only animal functions, to develop only earthly aims, and to present a muti lated nature to all the influences which play upon us, is a spectacle darkened with criminality in reference to ourselves and our Maker. But to use our faculties for looking at "the things unseen and eternal," that is the part of full and true manhood-a token that our life is a life worth living.

2. God adopts methods for acting on those faculties. As light is made to suit the organ of sight, and sound the organ of hearing, so His Spirit is able to operate upon us in order that we may discern spiritual things. The person who sees light or hears a sound cannot prove to another person that he sees or hears. He can only affirm, witness. So a person, who has "the eyes of his heart enlightened to know" what is his inheritance in the heavens, cannot give any demonstration of the change which he is conscious of, he can only affirm, witness, that he does know what he did not know. "Whereas I was blind, now I see," is as applicable to heavenly as to earthly things. All men do not receive the benefit of God's methods. Some deny their operation, and some their validity. Some acknowledge them only to neglect them, and some hope that they will see the heavens opened though they do not go to the only door thereinto. But whatever the reason be for their deficiency, the light has been opened up to the world, and men are judged for not believing in it. The Son of God has come from heaven and has again ascended to His Father through Him heaven is always open, and open to every one who will. "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth."

IV. "I saw visions of God" (ver. 1).

More is meant than that Ezekiel saw grand and vast visions. His expression is not to be limited to visions given by the action of God, or to visions notifying the will of God, but embraces also the marvellousness of revelations of God. He was made a seer of God in order to be a prophet for God. Observe

1. Thoughts of heaven must receive their character from views of God. If we could see into heaven and did not see signs of God there, we should remain in spiritual darkness. We must pass into the house to perceive the householder. We are vagrants still, as to all moral progress and undertakings, if we do not find ONE who can enlighten and guide and strengthen us. All beliefs of our interest in

the heavens will be blighted unless they are steps on our way to know we have a living, almighty, perfect Friend.

2. All true views of God are given by God. "He dwelleth in light, which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." Human power cannot make Him manifest Himself. The highest knowledge which men of themselves can reach does not embrace one of the secrets of His being. He alone opens the inward eyes and presents the aspects He wants to reveal. He may open them through some outward impulse, or by action on the heart, but in either case the ripple of sensational life is hushed by the flow of a grander life, and the reasoning faculty stands still, waiting to know what it shall receive. Then, as the light air comes to a hanging leaf and stirs it, as a father's love and wisdom come to an erring child and prompt to confession, so the subject of visions of God knows that God has affected him that God alone could accomplish that which has happened to him. The visions are real. The prophet did see some appearances of God; and, whether it were by an external operation or by his own inward rapt attention, he was prepared to avouch it as confidently as he would a vision obvious merely to his physical sight. How many He gives! Is there a week, a day passing in which He does not set forth something of His glory?

3. Visions of God require a conscious apprehension by men. Men can look upwards or downwards, outward or inward; but they may shut their eyes. So they decide whether they will see the things of God or not-whether they will accept the fuller manifestations of God or not. And the bowed in heart, the seeker for the truth learns that, back of the material world and its forces, is He whom they all obey, and whom hearts should believe in. They yield themselves up, not by the push of a blind necessity, but according to the laws of their own freedom, and yet they are elevated, guarded, and assured of the reality of their visions by the supreme Spirit operating.

4. Various aspects of God are presented. No man can see God, and all that is perceived by the most favoured seer is but the back parts of His goodness and glory. Parts of His ways are recognised; "but how little a portion is heard of Him? but the thunder of His power who can understand?" He is working in the earth which He has filled with good; in the heavens which declare His glory; in the movements of men's spirits which accuse themselves, repent, trust, love; in the prosperous or depressed trade of nations, in their freedom from or subjection to calamities; in the birth, life, death, resurrection, and exaltation of the Son of His love who hath declared Him. Wonderful in number and variety are the views which God has provided for willing hearts. "They are new every morning." It is a sign of no reverence or true knowledge when some assume to tell just what God must show of Himself, just what God must do. They forget that He gives no account of His matters-that "He dwells in the thick darkness." It is for men to be humble before Him, even though He may let them see many a token of His will. They are to look and wait. "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie" (Hab. ii. 1–3). V. "The word of the Lord came expressly" (ver. 3).

This is an evidence of the fact that the vision and the word were closely allied in prophetical phenomena. Isaiah " saw the word which he received concerning Judah and Jerusalem." Amos begins his book thus, "The words of Amos which he saw concerning Israel." Daniel was overwhelmed by a great vision, "yet heard the voice of his words." Paul had "visions and revelations of the Lord." John in Patmos saw one like unto the Son of man, and then listened to what He said. So was it with Ezekiel now.

Notice: 1. "God is His own interpreter." Symbols and scenes are less capable of definite explanation than words. It is hazardous to take impressions, feelings, &c., as intimating the will of God, in the absence of His Word or of principles