St. Paul bids, we submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, never bowing down to the idols of Babylon, nor becoming bound to its wealth and honours. So may we live in this world— in it, but not of it-like the captives who were good servants to Nebuchadnezzar, yet still loved Jerusalem.

LESSON CVI.

THE ABOMINATIONS IN THE TEMPLE.

B.C. 594.-EZEKIEL viii.

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.

Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.

And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.

And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, and with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.

He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

1 hen he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O Son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east ; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O Son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

:

COMMENT.-Again came to Ezekiel that marvellous vision of the Brightness of Heaven. The Likeness glowing with light, which he can only compare to amber or to flame, was, we may not doubt, as before—the Son of God. "The brightness of His glory, the express image of His Person" (Heb. i. 3), the Angel of His Presence, God Himself, the Word speaking to man. He is the same as St. John, 600 years later, beheld glowing with the like brightness. "His feet like unto fine brass, like as if they burned in a furnace." But when St. John saw Him, it was to know him as the Master he had loved on earth, and with the marks of the wounds.

Ezekiel seemed to himself to be lifted up. We may suppose that his body remained in sleep or trance among the elders, but his soul was borne back to Jerusalem, to the Temple itself, that there he might see and understand why the threats put into his mouth grew more and more severe. There stood the glorious Temple of Solomon, with the rising sun touching the gilded pinnacles, as when pious kings and priests adored there. But what stood at the gate of the inner court, namely, that of the priests? An idol. Ezekiel does not tell us what idol; he only recollects the second commandment, and has no name for it but "the image of jealousy that provoketh

to jealousy." Then he is bidden to make a way, as it were, into a secret chamber. Here painted on the walls were creeping things— the beetle, the snake, all manner of reptile forms, such as the Egyptians were wont to paint on their walls, as may be seen even now. Seventy elders, led by one who must have been a man of consequence, were burning incense to these degraded beings-trying secretly the debased rites of the Egyptians after whom their soul craved. Out again into the court, and there, within the gate of the Court of the Priests, sat the women of Judah, mourning, Tyrian fashion, for Tammuz, the god of the Summer, whom heathen Phoenicians called lover of the Earth. With her their women bewailed his yearly death, and watched for his return with the new year. The fable came to the Greeks as that of Adonis and Venus. It was a story of the Seasons. But oh! the folly and insolence of weeping for the fancied Tammuz in His house who had promised that spring and summer, seed-time and harvest, should never fail ! Egypt and Tyre have sent their share of idolatry, and here, at the door of the holy place, with their backs to it, were five-and-twenty men, acting as Persian sun-worshippers, each holding a tamarisk branch to his nose, and adoring the rising sun! Truly, as had been said to Judah by the mouth of Jeremiah (iii. 11), they were worse than their heathen neighbours, who, at least, were constant to their own deities, while the Jews adopted each what pleased their corrupt fancy among the gods of their neighbours. When the Temple was thus defiled, could God be expected to spare it?

And to us, whose hearts are the Temples of the Living God, the lesson of Ezekiel's vision may be best brought in these lines:

What if within His world, the Church, our Lord
Have entered thee as in some temple gate,

Where, looking round, each glance might thee afford
Some glorious earnest of thine high estate,

And thou, false heart and frail, hast turned from all
To worship pleasure's shadow on the wall;

If when the Lord of glory was in sight,

Thou turn thy back upon that fountain clear,

To bow before the little drop of light

Which dim-eyed men call praise and glory here;

What dost thou but adore the sun, and scorn

Him at whose only word both sun and stars were born;

If while around thee gales from Eden breathe,
Thou hide thine eyes, and make thy peevish moan
Over some broken reed of earth beneath,
Some darling of blind fancy, dead and gone;
As wisely might'st thou in JEHOVAH'S fane
Offer thy love and tears to Tammuz slain.

LESSON CVII.

THE MARKING OF THE FAITHFUL.

B.C. 594.-EZEK. ix.

He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.

And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.

And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side;

And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:

Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women : but come not near any man upon whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.

And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?

Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.

And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.

And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded

me.

COMMENT. He who had shown Ezekiel the corruptions in the Temple now calls aloud for the avengers. Six men came-the seventh in the midst alone did not bear the slaughter weapon, but in his girdle was the small case, filled with ink, used by scribes. They stood by the great altar of brass in the Court of the Priests, and the glorious appearance that Ezekiel had seen upon the Cherubim came to the door of the Temple, whence it would soon depart. Then came from God Himself the commandment of mercy: Set a mark upon the forehead of all who mourn for the sins of the city. So the Angel of Mercy marked them. But the six Angels of vengeance slew old and young, man, woman, and child, who bare not that mark of safety, beginning with the sun worshippers in the sanctuary. So should they direct the work of the fire, the sword, the hunger, and the deadly sickness when the siege actually began. So had the destroying angel slain the firstborn in every house when the two streaks of the Lamb's blood did not mark the doorpost. So again did the Son of God foretell that when Jerusalem should be again destroyed, and the courts of her sanctuary defiled with the blood of her priests, not a hair from the head of His own should perish.

And it is a remarkable thing, noted by the learned who read this book in its own tongue, that the letter T, or tau, is used for the word "mark," so that the words run- "Set a T on the foreheads;" "Come not near any on whose forehead is the T." And this Hebrew T was made more entirely like a cross than even our capital letter is ; and thus the words are really a further prophecy of the cross that marks the Christian's brow. This was the belief of the whole Church of old, and all the more for what St. John saw, when looking on, not to the ruin of Jerusalem, but to the destruction of this world :

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

The faithful are sealed again, and in their foreheads, to mark them to be spared in the Day of the Lord. Well may St. Paul bid