matters have not turned out so bad!" They not merely thought much time had still to elapse before the prophetic roll discharged its burden of woe, but a spirit of unbelief had taken possession of their minds regarding the reality of the burden itself; they deemed it but a dream of the prophet's own mind. And there were others, who simply presumed upon the delay they expected to intervene, and, as is said in Amos vi. 3, "put far from them the evil day." They did not deny that a day of evil was coming, but indulged the hope that it might still be at a considerable distance. They were disposed to say, as Ezekiel himself reports their words, in ver. 27, "The vision that he sees, is for many days to come, and he prophesies of the times that are far off." But to them also the prophet was commanded to reply, "There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord."

The incredulous and secure feeling, which is here ascribed to the people of Jerusalem, growing as the hour of destruction approached, is in perfect accordance with the testimony recorded in other prophetical Scriptures. Thus Zephaniah declares the Lord's determination "to search Jerusalem, and punish the men that are settled on their lees; that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil" (chap. i. 12). In a spirit of practical atheism, they had sunk into the conviction that there would be no special interposition of Heaven at all, and that, whatever the people might do, events would take their natural course. But still more expressly Jeremiah, "Behold, they say unto me, where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now" (chap. xvii. 15). That this was said in a feeling of scornful disbelief regarding the evil he had so often foretold, is evident from the vindication he immediately presents for himself, protesting before God, that "he had not desired the evil day," but spake only that which God had put into his lips. And again, in chap. xx., he describes the anguish of soul he experienced on account of the treatment that was given to the word of God, which had nearly prevailed on him to yield to the temptation of ceasing to utter it any more. "I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the Lord was made a reproach to me, and a derision daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But it was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I

was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." No wonder, then, that Ezekiel, in his distant exile, should have sympathised with his afflicted brother in Judah, and should have sought to strengthen him in his conflict with evil, by levelling a word of severe reproof against the vain presumptions and false confidences, which were so offensively rearing their head among the people of Jerusalem. The one prophet did for the other the part of a true fellow-labourer in the service of God. He came boldly to his help in the day of blasphemy and rebuke, and gave fresh support to the cause of righteousness and truth, by proclaiming from another watchtower the faithful, though despised, warning-note of danger.

We cannot but think with wonder, when we look back upon the times of these Old Testament prophets, of the obstinate incredulity and measureless content, in which so many of the people seem to have shut themselves up, alike in defiance of the most solemn warnings of God, and in spite of several lowring appearances in Providence, which seemed to give no doubtful indications of a coming storm. So too, doubtless, thought the next generation of the Jews themselves, when, in the language of Zechariah, they saw how "God's words and statutes, which he commanded his servants the prophets, had taken hold of their fathers" (chap. i. 6). But it is well for us to bear in mind, that the spirit of unbelief and false security, which prevailed so extensively then, is ever springing forth anew, and is plainly announced in New Testament Scripture as destined to form a distinguishing characteristic of the last times. It was a significant question of our Lord, and evidently pointed to the great defect in this respect that should discover itself before the consummation of all things, "when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith in the earth?" Such faith, namely, as he had been speaking of—faith realising in firm confidence the certainty of the Lord's manifestation to put a final end to the evils that afflict his church, and in this confidence waiting, hoping, praying to the last. The apostle Peter also still more distinctly intimates in his second epistle what might be looked for :"There shall come in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world." It will readily be understood

that the danger from this source to the faith of God's elect will always be the greater, the more the time is lengthened out that is to intervene between the first and second coming of the Lord. For time, which is justly said to try all things, in this respect also tries faith, that it silently impairs in men's minds the foundation on which faith rests-the word of God. In common with other things of meaner value, this, too, seems to wax old as time proceeds, and to become, the longer it is in use, the less in power and value. Even already it is looked upon by many as comparatively antiquated, or out of date; the facts of which it testifies, are but faintly descried in the distant past; centuries have rolled away since they took place and were put on record; and the record itself has been so long in existence, so frequently handled, and so fully discussed, that, with those to whom nothing is interesting but what possesses the freshness of novelty, the sacred volume, so far from being able to nourish and support a living faith, has itself become stale and dead.

Thus it is that natural men judge of God's word, as if, like their own productions, it were subject to wasting and decay. They know not that this word of God, being the expression of his own eternal nature, has in it what lives and abides for ever, -what is as new and fresh to the heart of faith still, as the very moment when, ages ago, it proceeded from the lips of those who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Then, along with a prevailing ignorance or forgetfulness of this great truth, there is the fascinating influence which is apt to be wielded over men's minds by the onward movements of society in knowledge and civilization. Here they find an attractive contrast to the stationary character of the ground and objects of faith. For everything in this lower field seems constantly in progress, and big with hope for the future. It is deemed incredible, that while such vital powers are at work, and such a career of advancement is in prospect, God should lay a sudden arrest on the vast machinery, and wind up the affairs of the world by bringing in the fixed and final issues of eternity. Nay, the belief of a personal God, separate from the workmanship of his own hands, and capable of suddenly introducing a state of things altogether new, is, in many quarters, fast giving way. In a new and peculiarly subtle form, the old carnal and idolatrous tendencies are reviving, impiously commingling the Divine and human,

identifying the creature with the Creator. And, judging from present appearances, there is too much reason to conclude that, precisely as before Christ came to execute judgment upon Jerusalem, a rage for worldly saviours was one of the reigning delusions of the time, so as the period draws on for his coming to execute judgment upon the world, a like rage will prevail for a worldly gospel,-one that will seek to confound heaven and earth, God and man, and, in a manner, possibly even more daring and presumptuous than in the Papacy, will dispose man to "exalt himself in the temple of God, and show himself that he is God." What need, then, for those who would escape the condemnation of the wicked, to look well to the foundation of their faith, and to see that this stands not in the wisdom of man, but in the word of God! How careful should each be to dwell beside the fountain of Israel! For times of trial manifestly are coming, in which they only who are taught of God, and kept by the power of his Spirit, can expect to resist the swelling tide of delusion, and maintain even the appearance of godliness.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FALSE IN PROPHECY, ITS CHARACTER AND DOOM.

A VERY close connection exists between the subject of this chapter and the one immediately preceding. The former had denounced the false expectations of the people respecting the safety of Jerusalem; this denounces the persons who were the chief instruments in feeding these expectations. And in this case, still more directly than in the other, Ezekiel stretches out the hand to Jeremiah, and comes forward as a second, though perfectly independent witness, to reiterate and confirm the testimony already delivered in substance by his fellow-servant in Judea. One of the sorest trials- and, indeed, one of the most baffling difficulties Jeremiah had there to contend with-arose from the false pretenders to the prophetical gift, who were corstantly delivering, in the name of God, messages which tended only to foster prevailing sins, and to lend the appearance of a

"Mine heart within

Divine sanction to the popular delusions. me is broken," he says, in chap. xxiii. 9, "because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man." It is more than probable, that most of these false prophets were perfectly conscious of the fraud they were practising upon the people, and laid claim to Divine communications only as a pretext for more readily securing their own selfish, though shortsighted purposes. But it seems evident, especially from what is written in Jeremiah, that there were, at least, some who had become the dupes of their own delusions, and were fully as much fanatics as knaves. A crafty diviner, who plays upon the credulity of others, for the sake of his own gain or aggrandisement, will always be careful to make his announcements run in such a strain, that while they obviously tend to feed the desires and prejudices of the persons he addresses, they at the same time furnish no clear and definite grounds for detecting his hypocrisy. And whenever such vain pretenders to a supernatural insight into the Divine will begin to hazard deliverances, which admit of being distinctly falsified as well as confirmed by approaching events in Providence, we may be sure that the spirit of fanaticism has risen to the ascendant in their bosoms, and that, if they deceive others, they have themselves already been deceived.

Such, unquestionably, was the case at Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah. Not only were there persons, in considerable numbers, who prophesied falsely, and gave forth general assurances of continued peace (Jer. v. 31; vi. 14; xiv. 13), but there were also those who, in the most confident tone, held out the promise of specific events in the immediate future, and fixed the period of their fulfilment. Thus Hananiah of Gibeon said to Jeremiah, in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and of all the people-"Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, which Nebuchadnezzar took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon. And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the Lord; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon" (chap. xxviii. 2-4). No man in his senses would have ventured on such a circumstantial prediction, unless he had