I know of nothing more wonderful than God's way of refreshing the hearts of his children by gospel after gospel. Just as in the world's history, when some old faith languishes or dies, some grander, larger faith steals into the hearts of men and takes its place, so to each man's life, when he has been faithful to his earlier visions, come new hopes, new duties, and higher aspirations. Just as Peter in his despondency, bred of his narrow Judaism, saw, let down from heaven, the symbols of a wider gospel, wherein was neither clean nor unclean, how often is it given to faithful souls, when some cherished creed, some old duty or hope, is losing its quickening power, to receive some fresh illumination, which brings new strength from God! Let us be watchful for such visi tations to our souls. It may come to you in the speaking solitude of prayer, or after some task well done, or where some friendly soul communicates to you its deeper life-secret. So God shall strengthen you oy letting you move on from the exhausted fountains of your past, and go from strength to strength, as, like the tired mountaineer, you see the horizons widen round you, and, forgetting the things behind, press forward with joy. into the larger place. THE LILY AND THE PINE. I FOUND a lily near my door, Which bloomed an hour, then bloomed no more; And her pure-hearted perfectness My heart did bless. I saw, high up the mountain cold, O hour of sweetly-breathing life! EZEKIEL'S VISION. I. "Now it came to pass, ... as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. 19. "And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. . . 24. "And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host.... 26. "And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne.... 28. "This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake."- EZEK. i. IN the visions of Ezekiel the spirit of prophecy borders upon madness. His message breaks in upon his soul clothed in symbolism as gorgeous and terrible as that city of Babylon in which the Hebrew captives, by the river of Chebar, sat down to mourn. The Assyrian chariots and cherubs sweep stormily through the prophet's dreams: their cloudy shapes are full of sound and flame and swiftness. Yet above the terror and lamentation, above the blazing wheels and the noise of their wings, above the "great waters" and confusion of strange tongues, Ezekiel, the prophetpriest, beholds at last the throne of God, the divine glory, and the rainbow encircling all. Sometimes out of the record of these visions, so mysterious, so extravagant, come strains of clear spiritual truth, which strike upon the reader's heart as a human, friendly voice, which one might hear across the smoke and roar of a battlefield. We learn that, out of a great despair, a brother-soul saw the heavens. open, and looked upon God. God. This people, Israel, captive by the river of Chebar, this nation of forlorn hopes, which rose out of its ruined glory to a vision of the Most High and ever-merciful God, speaks to us by its prophet-voices in words that will never die. The captive's song, the captive's vision, the faith that is born of sorrow, the courage unconquerable that is given to the children of God when every earthly hope is faded,— such are the treasures, such the messages, that are contained for us in this wonderful Bible, and in almost every book it holds. This vision of Ezekiel, then, fantastic in its form, and full of images as uncouth and barbaric as the age from which it sprung, contains precious instruction. We see the Man of God confronted by a situation in which all the traditions of his fathers, all the faith and worship of his youth, seem useless and false. He had believed that God could deliver Israel from all extreme harm, and now the city of David is no more. He had worshipped with the priesthood of the sons of Levi, and now the temple in Zion is polluted and overthrown. Ezekiel, the young priest, by the river of Chebar, has before his eyes a world more strange to him than the remotest city on earth could now be to any of us. Babylon, "the glory of the Chaldees' excellency," with her star-gazing and idolatry, her sensuality, splendor, and tyranny, seems to him altogether cruel, godless, abominable, incomprehensible. It does not concern us now that there were good men even in Babylon, that there was mercy in her kings, and wisdom among her scholars. Ezekiel's situation as a captive there resembles that of some pure-minded, devout youth who should be suddenly set down in this city of ours, in a position which allowed him to see only what is shameless, cruel, and unjust in this great machine which we call civilization. He seemed to see a whole population violating all that he held sacred, practising openly vices which he despised, scorning his simple religion and puremindedness, and following after a religion and a life which seemed to him wholly monstrous and wicked. Yet, after all, this Babylon was a success. Her cruel armies came back with victory and plunder. The sapphire skies and all-beholding stars still shed their holy light over the shameless palaces where Babylon covered herself with jewels, and slaves poured forth the perfumed wine. We may well believe that the spectacle bewildered, but did not charm or cheer him. The wine-cup of tyrants seemed to brim over with blood. The precious ointments, embroideries, and soft array, the music and the feast, appeared to his devout and manly soul as the wages of sin, or as the false, painted beauty by which a deadly enchantress entices her victims to their ruin. How modern it all is! What an eternal type of the spiritual in man confronting with bewilderment and horror the successful achievements of worldliness! |