As a rule, God is extremely patient towards human rebellion. He reproves and remonstrates and warns long before the executioner appears. Yet sometimes he departs from this course, by a summary act of vengeance. The penalty that follows some crimes is swift and sudden. The Chaldean nobles who laid an impious snare for Daniel were soon overtaken with judgment. When Herod accepted the profane flattery of his courtiers, he was soon consumed with inward disease. Ananias and Sapphira had scarcely completed their falsehood when the sword of the executioner fell upon them. At times God starts out of his secret place, and suddenly vindicates his outraged majesty.

I. MARK THE FLAGRANCY OF SIN IN PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. In all probability these twenty-five men were the heads, or princes, over the twenty-four courses of the priests, while Jaazaniah and Pelatiah may have held a yet higher rank in the temple. It may be that Pelatiah was high priest or ruler of the temple. Certain it is that they were "princes of the people."

1. Their position was one of vast influence. Their opinions would be accepted as the opinions of the people. Their example would be widely imitated. To a large extent, they would influence the life and conduct of the population. As they had the privilege of access to God, and possessed the means of knowing his will, the people would, as a matter of course, look to them for guidance. Profanity or infidelity among the chief priests would speedily infect the Hebrew flock. Hence, for others' sakes, it behoved them to be prudent, devout, and circumspect.

2. Thy had turned Divine warning into ridicule. This seems the only satisfactory way of explaining their boast, "We dwell securely." "This city is the cauldron, and we are the flesh." Jeremiah, who still dwelt in Jerusalem, had seen, in a vision from God, "a seething pot, and its mouth was towards the north." The heads of the priestly order had parodied this, had treated it as an image of self- security, instead of as an omen of danger. As if they had said, "Be it so! This city, with its bastions and gates, impregnable as brass or iron, is a cauldron, and as the flesh is safe in the cauldrons, equally so are we!" They laughed at every intimation of danger. In the teeth of a hundred warnings, in the teeth of a score of defeats and overthrows, they persisted in a conviction of safety. Like fools of other nations, they "made a mock at sin."

3. This senseless hardihood led to aggravated crime. One sin soon breeds a thousand others. They, who had the administration of justice, abused their office, and ruled with a sword of terror. Either by excessive lenity, in not repressing crime; or else by excessive tyranny, human life was held cheaply in the city. Death was a common occurrence, and excited no horror. Civic strifes abounded. The number of the slain increased, and these princes were responsible for the foul deed. They were the persons who "had filled the streets with the slain." The stains of human blood were upon their skirts.

4. The exact measure of their sin was known. Not an item in their evil deeds was unknown nor unregistered. They had tried to conceal their misdeeds, had endeavoured to minimize their offences, were attempting to persuade themselves that Jehovah did not trouble about such matters. But imagine their surprise and confusion when every iota of offence, ay, and every secret evil thought, was fully laid out in the bill of attainder. The amount and degree of each man's guilt is allotted with scrupulous exactness.

II. OBSERVE THE PROPHET'S COMMISSION. Ezekiel was employed by God to convey the last remonstrance to these princes.

1. ,Elevation of mind is needed to fit men for reproving sin. "The Spirit lifted me up." We live, for the most part, on such a low level of spiritual feeling, that we must be "lifted up" in order to see the real wickedness of sin, in order successfully to remonstrate with sinners. Nothing can really "lift us up" to a nobler life but the power of the Holy Ghost.

2. Knowledge is given to men for use. No sooner was it revealed to the prophet who were the ringleaders in the nation's sin, than at once the Spirit said to him, "Prophesy against them, O son of man." Here is work for man which the cherubim cannot do. It is the prerogative of man that he can gain access to the understanding, the judgment, the reason, the feeling, of his fellow man. Therefore God uses men to convey his messages of grace and admonition to guilty men. All the knowledge of Divine things which we have is given us for the advantage of all. "No man liveth unto himself."

3. Divine command and Divine strength are given at one and the same time. When the voice said to Ezekiel, "Speak!" "the Spirit of the Lord fell upon him." Duty and ability always go together. God has Never given to man a command which he was unable to obey. When God said to Moses, "Go forward!" God knew that the sea would divide at the fitting time. When Jesus said to the man with a withered band, "Stretch it forth!" he knew that along with the effort would be imparted new strength. Some duties may appear formidable to a man who forgets the promised cooperation of Divine grace. But whenever a spirit of faith possesses a man, he can say, like Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." In a very terse prayer did an ancient Father in the Church express this truth, "Give: and then commuted what thou wilt."

4. The plainest reproof is the greatest kindness to men. Every accusation of God is laid by the prophet before these guilty men. It is a false friendship that conceals any part of the truth from our fellows, especially from relatives and kindred. Smooth words are not always the coin of affection. We read of one "whose words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords." Very wisely did David say, "Let the righteous reprove me; it shall be a kindness." It needs an abundance of wisdom, and a deep well spring of love, to speak the whole truth to an erring friend, if we would win him back to paths of virtue and piety. The centrifugal force of duty is often greater than the centripetal force of kindness. Had Eli been more firm and faithful with his sons, he might have saved the ark of God - ay, the whole nation - from disaster. We must "speak the whole truth in love."

III. SEE THE ATTENDANT ENERGY OF GOD. "It came to pass when I prophesied, that Pelatiah died."

1. How foolish is carnal security. Walls that seem made of brass or granite are weaker than paste-board, unless they have God behind them. Foundations built by men are built on nothingness. Belshazzar conceived himself secure because the enormous walls of Babylon were about him; yet "in the selfsame night was Belshazzar slain." God's weapons of offence can penetrate easily all the poor defences of men.

2. Man's opportunity is brief. It is an act of mercy that God allows any opportunity for escape. Such favour is seldom ever shown by an earthly king. Yet sin so blinds men that they imagine the reprieve wilt last forever.]t does not accord with God's wise and gracious plans to announce when the reprieve shall absolutely close. Often it closes when least expected. The day of salvation is the passing moment - the fleeting now.

3. The retribution of God is sometimes summary. Men often persuade themselves that some change of circumstance, some lengthened illness, will precede the final stroke. They lean upon a broken reed, an empty shadow. "God seeth not as man seeth." He had seen that Pelatiah had reached a climax of sin, had received this special messenger with haughty scorn, was hardening his heart under this new reproof of Ezekiel. Hence to lengthen out his day of grace was waste of mercy, was to encourage others in sin. Therefore it was better that the scene of trial should suddenly close. The Lord smote him that he died. "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."

IV. MARK THE BENEVOLENT SOLICITUDE OF GOD'S SERVANT. The sudden death of Pelatiah corroborated the truth (,f Ezekiel's message, and vindicated his claim to be Jehovah's servant; nevertheless, in this Ezekiel rejoiced not. He was more concerned for his Master's glory than for his own, more anxious about Israel's well being than his own advantage. He could consent to be set aside, exiled, slain, so long as Israel's rower and fame could be restored. Such generosity of nature is the best qualification for a true servant of God. They who are most like God are the most fitted to do God's work. Moses and Paul were eminent examples of this self-disinterestedness; best of all, Jesus the Son of God. - D.

The spirit told Ezekiel that the princes were the men that devised mischief and gave wicked counsels to the city. How often have we seen this prostitution of great mental power and great official authority through the service of evil! Imagine the picture of five-and-twenty men, the princes of Israel, all given over to the conception of evil policies and the execution of selfish designs! We shall miss the whole purpose of Divine revelation if we suppose that evil is local, or that it is confined to the ignorant and the poor. Evil is universal: it is in the thrones of the nations, as well as in the hovels and huts of poverty; the king has wandered as far from the standard of righteousness as has the meanest subject of his crown. Education when not sanctified is simply an instrument of evil. Great social station, when it is divorced from the action of a healthy conscience, only gives a man leverage, by the working of which he can do infinite social mischief. Moral security, therefore, is not in circumstances, but in character. When princes are right and just, wise and patriotic, it does not follow that the people will follow their example, or reproduce their excellences; but when the princes are of a contrary mind it is easy to imagine how their great influence may contribute vastly to the spread of wrong thinking and mischievous action. Religious apostasy means social anarchy. When the princes ceased to pray they ceased to regard human nature as of any value: slaughter became a pastime; heaps of slain men were passed by as mere commonplaces, and the whole city became as but a cauldron in which the flesh of men might be boiled. But God Himself says He will make this use of the city; He will make it a cauldron, and they who supposed it was a place of security shall find what uses providence can make of human arrangements. The Lord says that He is proceeding on account of the sins of the people, saying, "I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them." The empire of the mind is supposed to be the exclusive property of the individual: what brother can take out of his brother's heart all the thoughts that live there? What man can read the mind of his dearest friend, and be as familiar with that friend's motives as he is with that friend's conduct? The mind can shut out the closest observer, yet the one observer that it cannot exclude is the living God. The things that come into the mind determine the real character of the mind of man, Conduct is but a short measure by which to estimate a man's character.

(J. Parker, D. D.)