and powerless people shall be "an exceeding great army," ready to wage the battle of the Lord God Almighty. The valley of vision, heretofore covered with the fragments of a nation which has long ceased to have a name amongst. kingdoms, shall be crowded with emissaries from Jerusalem, bearing in their hands the cross which their fathers erected, and proclaiming the Saviour whom those fathers denied. We admit again that, on every human calculation, such result is almost incredible; and that, though we live in the old age of the world, when the day is perhaps not distant which is to witness this stupendous resurrection, we are unable to assign the mode in which it will be effected. But the vision of Ezekiel sets before us an immediate interference of God, showing that there will be miracle in the restoration of Israel, as there would be in the gathering of the bones with which the valley was strewed. But if there is to be miracle, the strangeness brings no evidence against the truth; and we wait with confidence the issuing of a divine edict, which shall be heard and obeyed by the dispersed seed of Abraham. The aspect of the valley may still be the same as when Ezekiel was carried thither "in the Spirit of the Lord." Still, in the whole compass of imagery, there may be no more faithful representation of the national condition of the Jews, than that which sets them before us as the pieces into which skeletons have been shivered, and which have been tossed over the globe by some irresistible deluge. Nevertheless we are listening with the prophet for a sound as of a shaking amongst these bones. It shall be heard and the nations on whose mountains and in whose valleys the bones are thickly strewn shall be startled by the mysterious noise. And when, as though actuated by one uncontrollable impulse, the thousands in

every land, who have been mixed with its population and yet not confounded, who have lived under its laws and yet been aliens, made themselves homes in its cities and yet been foreigners; the remains of a dead nation, the wreck of a lost state, the shreds of a scattered community -when these shall arise, and league themselves to one purpose, and pour into Judea till the waste and desolate places swarm, as in ancient days, with the tribes of the Lord then will there be accomplished to the full what Ezekiel saw in strange vision; and the whole world shall confess that the marvel would not be exceeded, nay, would only be represented as in a figure, if piles of human bones. were formed suddenly into bodies, and a vast army sprang from the dust of the sepulchres.

But we proceed from considering the Jews in their national, to the considering them in their typical capacity. We have already given you reasons for regarding the Jews as a typical people, and which therefore warrant our searching for truths which concern the whole race, in representations which primarily belonged to a solitary nation. And if your minds be informed on the great doctrines of Scripture, you can scarcely read the parable without feeling that it was written for our instruction, that it presents as accurate a picture of men in general, as of the Jews in particular. You know that the foundation truth of the whole Christian system, that which is taken for granted in every part of the Gospel, and to disprove which would be to disprove the necessity for a Mediator's interference, is the truth of human corruption and helplessness. It would not be easy to exaggerate this truth, to overstate it as taught in Holy Writ, though erroneous inferences may be deduced from it, or false representations given of its character. The important thing is that we carefully distinguish

between man as the citizen of this world, and man as the citizen of another world; for unless such distinction be kept in mind, we may easily advance statements in regard of human degeneracy which men will justly reject as unfair and overcharged. So long as man is viewed only as a member of society, he is undoubtedly capable of much that is noble and excellent; it were absurd to make the sympathies which he can display, and the virtues which he can cultivate, the subject of one sweeping and indiscriminate censure. If he did not belong to two worlds; if he owed everything to his fellow-creatures, and nothing to his Creator, we should be met on all hands by fine instances of what is generous and upright and amiable, which would tell strongly against our theory of the corruption of nature, and almost force us to confess that man cannot be "very far gone from original righteousness."1 But when you survey the human race in relation to its Maker, then it is that the corruption may be proved radical and total. You will not find that those who are most exemplary in the discharge of relative duties, and whose conduct, in all the intercourses of life, wins the most of respect and admiration, are by nature one jot more disposed to love God and recognise His authority than the openly dissolute. There are the very widest differences between men regarded as members of society; there is a thorough uniformity amongst them, if you judge by aversion from God and determination to sacrifice the eternal for the temporal. If they belonged to this world alone, they could not be proved totally and equally corrupt: for this would be to deny that lovely things, and things of good report, yet linger amid the ruins of humanity. But forasmuch as they belong also to another world, and have 1 Art. IX.

obligations laid on them by their relation to their Maker, the corruption may be demonstrated without the slightest exception; for you cannot find the solitary instance of a man who has by nature any love of God or any hatred of sin, or any desire after holiness. This, as we believe, is the fair statement of the doctrine of human depravity—a depravity which does not prevent the play of much that is amiable, and the circulation of much that is estimable between man and man; but, in consequence of which, all men are alike indisposed to the having God in their thoughts, and alike incapacitated for seeking His favour.

And when the Bible would set this doctrine before us, it employs undoubtedly strong figures, but not stronger, if the case be examined, than are warranted by the facts. Thus, as you are all aware, there is no more common representation than one which supposes men in a state of death, morally dead, and therefore totally disqualified for the functions of spiritual life. We may admit that this looks, at first sight, like an overcharged representation; and men accordingly are very loth to allow its correctness. They know that the soul has vast powers and capacities, and that she can exert herself mightily in investigating truth. They know also that the faculties and feelings of the inner man are far enough from torpid, but possess much of vital energy. Hence they see not how, in a moral point of view any more than in a physical, men can justly be called dead; and they suppose that, in this instance at least, the figurative language of Scripture is to be explained with many deductions and allowances. But we are scarcely disposed to admit that the language is in this case figurative at all. We believe that the soul, considered relatively to that other world to which she rightly belongs, betrays precisely that insensibility and that incapacity of

action which characterize a dead body in reference to the world of matter by which it is surrounded. If the body be reckoned dead, because it can no longer see, nor hear, nor speak, nor move, there are the same reasons why the soul in her natural state should be reckoned dead; for she has no eye for the light of heaven, no ear for its melodies, no taste for its pleasures, and no energy for its occupations. The soul is as insensible and powerless with regard to the world of spirit as the dead body with regard to that of matter; why then should we not use the same language, and declare the soul dead? and that too with no more of a figure of speech than when the term is applied to the inanimate corpse? The soul may be quite alive so far as this earth is concerned, for she may be able to seek with the greatest ardour whatever it can offer; and nevertheless be quite dead so far as heaven is concerned, for she may be totally incapable of either pursuing or desiring what is invisible and eternal. And hence we conclude that the representing unconverted men as "dead in trespasses and sins "1 is not the drawing an over-harsh or exaggerated picture, but rather the delineating, with great faithfulness, that depravity of our nature which was a consequence on Adam's transgression. This depravity is total, when men are viewed relatively to God, whatever it may be, when you consider them in the relationships of life; so that they are dead in regard of their immortality, however alive as citizens of earth.

Let then the world be surveyed by one who knows and feels that men are destined for eternity, and what aspect will it wear if not that of the valley of vision through which the prophet Ezekiel was commissioned to pass? On all sides are the remains of mighty beings, born for immorEph. ii. 1.

1