treating them, as thus renewed and sanctified, to the richest outward tokens of his favour and goodness.1

Keeping in view the distinctive character of the prophecy, as now explained, no difficulty can be found in regard to its particular expressions. Thus the expression in ver. 23, “I sanctify my name," is at once seen to refer, not to what this name is in itself, but to the reflection given of it in his people. It had been profaned by their wickedness and misery; it must again be sanctified by their returning to holiness and blessing. For God is sanctified when what he is in himself becomes apparent in the world, especially in those who stand nearest to him. So also, the expression at the close of the same verse, “when I sanctify myself in you before your eyes," for which many critical authorities, both ancient and modern, would substitute, "before their eyes," namely, those of the heathen--this expression creates no difficulty to a person who enters thoroughly into the import of the passage. For, it points to the fact, that Israel, as well as the heathen, needed the manifestation in question of Jehovah's righteousness. It must be done first before the eyes of the people, who by their depravity had lost sight of God's real character; and then what was seen by them experimentally, would also be seen reflectively by the heathen who dwelt around. This twofold perception of God's character is also brought out in other passages of our prophet; as in chap. xx. 41, 42, " And I will be sanctified in you before the eyes of the heathen, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah." Finally, the mention, in ver. 25, of clean water to be sprinkled on the people, as the means of purification, can only be understood symbolically; it does not refer to any mere external rite, or to any specific ordinance of the old covenant, such as the Lustration-ceremony with water and the

1 Such appears to be the leading design and purport of this prophecy. Hengstenberg, in his Christology on the passage, has viewed the matter as if it was God's faithfulness to his covenant that was at stake, which required that a seed of blessing should still be found among the people of the covenant, notwithstanding all their sins and defections. That certainly is true, but, as Hävernick justly remarks. not the truth under consideration here. The heathen did not reproach God for want of fidelity to his own covenant; for in truth they did not know what that covenant really was or required. This was precisely the thing to be made plain; God must let them know that here holiness was everything, and that by the possession or the want of it all his outward dealings must be regulated.

ashes of the red heifer (Rosenmuller, Hengs.), or to the ablutions connected with the consecration of the Levites (Hävernick). It is rather to be viewed in reference to the purifications by water collectively, which were all, in one respect or another, symbolical of the removal of impurity, and the establishment of the worshipper in a sound and acceptable condition. This was no more of a merely formal and outward character in Old Testament times, than it is now, as we may learn from the whole tenor of this prophecy. It was by their moral pollutions most of all, that the people of Israel had profaned God's name and drawn down his displeasure; and the purification, which was to undo the evil, and again to sanctify the name of God, could be nothing short of a conformity to God's own righteousness, which throughout all ages is the same. The whole of the water-lustrations of the Jews were symbolical of this purity of heart and conduct; and in referring to them here, the prophet simply expresses in symbolical language a great spiritual promise: the Lord would make Israel in reality, what under the law was outwardly denoted by a sprinkling with clean water. He gives himself, indeed, the interpretation in the verses that follow, where the change is described by the Lord's imparting to them a new heart, and putting his own Spirit within them. In short, the peculiar blessing promised for the future was their being raised to the participation of God's holiness, precisely as in the past the great evil was their having become morally so unlike him.

The last section, as was noticed before, is merely a gathering up of the general result, with some reference to the impressions it was fitted to produce upon the minds of others.

Ver. 33. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I shall also make you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins are built. 34. And the land that is desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was desolate in the eyes of all that pass by. 35. And they say, "This land that was waste is become as the garden of Eden, and the cities, ruined, and deserted, and destroyed, sit fortified." 36. And the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I, Jehovah, build the destroyed, plant the deserted; I, Jehovah, speak and do. 37. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Yet for this will I be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them; I will multiply them as a flock of men. 38. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, so shall the ruined cities be full of flocks of men; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

The general meaning is, that the purpose of God was to accomplish an entire change in the outward, as well as the inward con

dition of his people. They would be as remarkably distinguished for prosperity and blessing, as they had been for distress and desolation; so that even the passing stranger could not fail to notice the happy revolution that had taken place in their circumstances. But still not as a matter of fixed and inevitable necessity; nor in any way that might supersede the obligation resting on themselves personally to seek and serve the Lord. Hence the intimation is made at ver. 37, that for this the Lord would "yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." On former occasions, he had refused to be inquired of by them (chap. xiv. 3; xx. 3), that is, sought after in such a manner as to be found ready to perform what was expected, because the inquirers were not in a condition to receive any token of his favour and blessing. Only, therefore, in so far as they attained to a better condition, and stood morally on right terms with God, were they warranted to look for the happy and flourishing state described in the promise. And the higher always they rose in the one respect, the higher also might they expect God to raise them in the other.

Such promises as those contained in this chapter cannot, therefore, be taken in an absolute sense; they must be understood to some extent conditionally. They reveal the kind propensions of God towards his people--what he is disposed and ready to do toward them, rather than what he will for certain accomplish at any one stage or period of their history. So far the word contains an absolute element, as God certainly pledges himself to make provision for securing, in a larger measure than formerly, a proper regeneration of heart and conduct in his people, and also for giving palpable proof of this in their more flourishing and prosperous condition generally. The goodness of God was certainly to manifest itself for these ends; but it would do so to the full extent represented, only if they continued in his goodness. In the case of God's threatenings, even when most particular and express, it was always possible by a change of mind to the better to escape the evil; according to the word in Jeremiah, "At what instant I speak concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy; if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them" (chap. xviii. 7). And there is no reason why we should not expect the same

rule to hold in respect to the promises. Here also there would be but a partial realization of what was announced, if the spiritual condition on which it proceeded, was not complied with, and those to whom the promise was given, set themselves to resist the grace of God. The possibility of their doing this is plainly implied in the accomplishment of the promise being so specially connected with their inquiring of God concerning it; and it was still more distinctly indicated in another passage, where they are commanded to do for themselves what the Lord here promised to do for them: "make you a new heart and a new spirit" (chap. xviii. 31). As much as to say, Do not expect the good as an absolute and inalienable heritage of blessing; like all spiritual blessing, it stands inseparably connected with your own earnestness of purpose and diligence in working.

The question, no doubt, may still be asked, Since God himself undertakes to give to Israel as a people the new heart and the right spirit, on which all depends, how could there be any failure of what was promised without unfaithfulness in God? The question, however, touches on the secret things, which belong not to us, but to God himself. For it may as well be asked, why is there only a partial renewal in the case of any individual Christian, seeing he has the Omnipotent Spirit dwelling in him? Or why, since the Lord promised the Spirit to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, is the world still so imperfectly convinced? Had the Spirit continued to work universally, as he did on the day of Pentecost, or with sinners individually, as he did in the case of Saul of Tarsus, the world would long ere now have been converted to the truth of Christ. But somehow there are elements at work, and ends higher even than salvation, though closely connected with it, which still limit, though they cannot altogether prevent, the realization of the good unfolded in the promises. Were we to look simply to the good exhibited there, we might have expected to see in Israel before the coming of Messiah, a people all righteous, and a land replenished through all its bounds with fruitfulness and blessing; as, after his coming, we might equally have expected to find a church instinct in every part with the Spirit of life and holiness, and ordinances of grace operating with resistless might to the diffusion of light and blessing in the world. But in both respects alike the good promised on the part of God is qualified by the

evil that works in the world; and, though the good must ultimately triumph, because it has Omnipotence on its side, yet till the last issues of Providence are brought in, we may still expect it to be to some extent countervailed by the intermingling evil. So far, then, the matter admits of an explanation, and that of a kind fitted to abase and silence man, as it charges on his own culpable negligence and waywardness, whatever shortcoming may appear in the good that is realised, as compared with the larger good that is promised. But when we rise to the higher region of Divine grace, sovereignty, and power, and begin to inquire why these operate no farther, or no otherwise, than they do, we soon reach an insurmountable barrier; for, with our present imperfect powers of discernment, we have no way of explaining, how the good that is in God, the good even that is expressed in his promises of blessing, should not prevail more effectually than it does over the evil that is in man. In this respect, God gives no account of his matters; and remembering that we now see but in part, it becomes us to be silent, or to say only with our blessed Lord, "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight."

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE VISION OF THE DRY BONES RESTORED TO LIFE AGAIN, AS SYMBOLICAL OF ISRAEL'S DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

THE preceding prophecies have unfolded, in all essential particulars, the future salvation of Israel as God's covenant-peopleon what conditions it was to proceed, and in what respects it was to develop itself. "The prophet's eye," however, to use the words of Ewald, "still dwells upon the manner in which it is to unfold itself, and beholds with rapture how it arises, how it grows, how it becomes insuperably great. Three stages here present themselves in vivid colours to the vision of the prophet: 1. The new awakening of the people, the resurrection of the dead (chap. xxxvii. 1–14); 2. Then the re-union of the formerly hostile members of the community, through whose contentions