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behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when he beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them from above. This part of the vision is understood to refer to the preparations made by the Jews for their return from captivity. Consequent upon the proclamation of Cyrus, which may be regarded as the noise heard by the prophet, there was a shaking, a general movement or agitation among the dispersed Israelites, then a concourse of the scattered tribes to the places respectively appointed for them, then a reorganization of them according to their families, the order of which had been disarranged amid the many disasters and vicissitudes of their captivity. Still, however, "there was no breath in them." Though thus assembled, and in order, and in apparent readiness for their return, they were still under the power of their enemies, still unable to move one step homeward without permission, still disqualified from the exercise of any independent political power, and still liable, at least for any thing they could do to resist it, still liable to be detained in hopeless captivity, and entombed in the grave of everlasting political death.

Such, thus far, appears to be the primary interpretation of Ezekiel's vision. It has been generally considered, however, as admitting an ultimate application, unknown to the prophet perhaps, yet not improbably designed by the Spirit which inspired him, and now opened to our view through the clearer light which the revelation of Jesus Christ has shed upon the spiritual condition of mankind. The vision, in its direct application, refers to the fortunes of the house of Israel. But the history of the house of Israel presents a striking parallel to the history of God's spiritual people; and in this view, when we adapt the vision of the prophet to their spiritual state, we are not chargeable with unsettling the simple meaning of Scripture, by representing it as having a double, and therefore a doubtful meaning; but we consider it as having an immediate reference to the Jews, and admitting, of course, an ultimate reference to the religious world, of which that nation is a declared and a visible type.

In our present discourse, therefore, we shall, in the first place, direct your view to the scene of spiritual desolation and death now contemplated by the prophet; and, secondly, to the prayer which, under the inspiration of the Almighty, the mournful and gloomy scene prompted him to prefer: "Come from the four winds, O breath, or, O Spirit and breathe on these slain, that they may live."

I. Let us then direct your view to the scene of desolation and of death now contemplated by the prophet.

Without again recurring to the primary import of the vision of the slain, we shall consider it descriptive of the spiritual condition of mankind, in as far as it is typified by these peculiarities in the

condition of the house of Israel. If you look, then, to heathen lands, or even to what may be called heathenized districts of Christian lands, still you may see what Ezekiel beheld in the first part of his vision, as it were a valley full of dry bones-millions of human beings-not merely lost to the finer sensibilities, and rendered incapable of performing the functions of spiritual natures, but destitute of the very form and semblance of a spiritual existence, living without God in the world, altogether incapable of love for his excellencies, regardless of his authority, and if not ignorant, yet practically unmindful of his existence. This, however, is not the particular scene in the vision of the prophet which gave occasion to the prayer in the text, nor is it that scene in it which accords most closely with the condition which we occupy, and presents itself most prominently to our observation. In consequence of his prophesying, these bones were now knit together, bone to his bone, and were formed into a skeleton; nay, they were covered besides with sinews, and flesh, and skin, and had thus acquired the shape and semblance of living men. But still there was no breath, and consequently no life in them. Now, look around you on the field of the Christian Church. There, as the result of the preaching of the Gospel, and of a partial acknowledgment of its claims, and an external compliance with its invitations, you may see a shaking among those who were once as dry bones, and many covered with the sinews, and flesh, and skin of a credible profession, having the form, and the finished, and health-like form too of a spiritual being, while yet one might venture, with all charity, and without inspiration, to say of many of them there is no breath in them. This, brethren, is no visionary scene. Alas! it is an awful and a sad reality. Before, and around, there lies a valley, widely extended as the visible church, almost full of slain, full of the dead and lifeless forms of spiritual beings, deprived of spiritual existences by the fatal power of sin.

Do you not behold this wide-spread scene of spiritual desolation? Then assist your vision. Take the glass of the Divine Word, and, through that unerring medium, contemplate the scene before you, and then will you be able to detect upon those very beings who move around you, in all the vivacity of their animal, and in all the vigour and dignity of their rational existence, the unequivocal symptoms of spiritual death. You will then perceive that they are insensible, inactive, and impotent in all the powers and principles of the spiritual life,-that, while their souls and their bodies are still united, by which their earthly existence is sustained, an utter disunion has taken place between God and their souls, in consequence of which their spiritual or religious life is become extinct. Nothing can be more explicit and unequivocal than the language which we find in Scripture expressive of these truths. The whole Christian revelation presupposes the fact that

mankind are dead in sins; and its declared de- | ritual death. sign, and its actual effect, is to raise them from this death, and to make them alive unto God. "I am come," saith the Saviour, "that ye might have life." But this surely was not to impart to us a possession which we already enjoyed, but to inspire us with the breath of a new life. He has expressly declared that "he came that the dead might hear his voice and live." To the subjects of his gracious power it is said, "You hath he quick-when the author of your spiritual life, and the ened," saith the apostle to the Christians of Ephesus, “you hath he quickened (or made alive) together with Christ." But this surely was not merely confirming them in a life, whose principles and powers were already in being, but actually calling into life and activity those spiritual principles which, previously to the call of the Gospel, had been utterly dormant and dead. They who were thus quickened were described as having been indeed dead in trespasses and sins. Scripture history confirms the same mortifying and melancholy fact. From the hour of Adam's disobedience, we may discover in him the sad symptoms of spiritual death. The life of the soul is sustained by union with God; yet we see Adam, like a self-destroyer, flying from the divine presence; and in him have we all died. The sinful nature which we derive from him has caused an entire separation between God and our souls, which is death to the soul; and all who are in a state of nature, all who have not yet been quickened and made alive unto God by Jesus Christ, are addressed in the language of Scripture as being sunk in the sleep of death: Awake, thou that sleepest," is the summons of the Gospel to every unrenewed son of Adam. "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

We do not suppose that ye are all in the state of nature dead in trespasses and sins, God forbid! But those who are made alive will not be least apt to discern the scene of death around, and the memorials of it within you. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, you are quick to discern the things of the Spirit. On comparing your present with your former selves, you can remember when you lay in the stillness of spiritual death;

feelings of your spiritual nature, and the scenes and employments of your future duration, were all absent from your thoughts, and feelings, and anticipations; and still, on judging of your spiritual health and vigour, you may painfully feel, that the pulse of your new life beats faintly; that though alive, ye have but a little life; that it is often borne down by spiritual languor; that the law in your mind is often overcome, as by a stronger principle, by the law in your members; and that, it is still evident by the comparative faintness of your spiritual impressions, by the comparative feebleness of your spiritual desires, and by the comparative inactivity and inefficiency of your spiritual exertions, ye are only in a state of revival, and still young and immature in your life | with Christ.

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We are aware that the prospect which you behold, in looking in the light of those Scriptures upon the spiritual state of mankind, is one which it is painful, and which therefore you are naturally reluctant to contemplate; and you are, perhaps, more willing to consider the unsightly spectacle as the effect of the false and disfiguring medium through which you have viewed it, than as the fair and just representation of the scene which you contemplate. View it, then, through another medium. Employ the light of reason; and if you guard against the influence with which prejudice would disguise or distort its representations, it will disclose to you the same prospect of spiritual desolation.

To assist the distinctness of your view, consider well what you are directed to contemplate: it is not dead bodies, but dead souls; and the symptoms of death in them, are not, as in bodies, total insensibility and inaction, an entire cessation of feeling and desire, an utter incapacity for rational and intellectual exertion, but insensibility, and inactivity, and impotency, in as far as relates to spiritual and divine things. Look around, then, or confine your prospect and look within you, and say, whether you do not see, and do not feel, these mournful and unequivocal symptoms of spi

But may we not fear, that there are some among so many, who still lie among the slain; who, like those who were seen by Ezekiel, in the second stage of his vision, having the sinews, and the flesh, and the skin upon them, adorned with a Christian name and profession, supported by a formal observance of Christian ordinances, have yet no breath, no principle of the spiritual life in them? Ye formalists in religion, whose Christianity is but a dress, which you assume on the Sabbath, and lay aside when it is over ye admirers of your own virtues, whose morality is without godliness, and whose virtues, therefore, are as the body without the spirit-turn your eyes inwards and say, whether or not this is your case. Do you discover there the views and feelings of beings spiritually alive? You are capable of receiving an impression of reverence from power, of admiration from wisdom, of pleasure from beauty, of love from goodness and grace, when these attributes of character are displayed in created beings; but do you derive similar and stronger impressions from these varied and supreme excellencies as they are manifested in uncreated and infinite perfection in the character of God? Does the contemplation of Divine Majesty and power impress you with profoundest awe? Does the thought of His divine wisdom fill you with adoring wonder? Do the beauties of His glorious holiness, inspire you with sentiments of deepest humility and loftiest esteem? or, do the riches of his goodness, and mercy, and forbearance, inflame you with feelings of most ardent love? Or, must you not own, that you are unimpressed, and almost unimpressible, by any view of the divine perfections that the name of the Eternal Jehovah can sound in your ears, and can be taken into your lips,

is your trust? He is your Saviour also. That he might be known to you in this character he gave his own Son to death, and is now, through him, announcing himself as ready and willing to bestow upon you an everlasting salvation, and to make you partakers of his eternal kingdom and glory. Yet what requitals do you make him for this incomprehensible love? Are you moved, and melted, and transported by it? Are you all eagerness, and anxiety, and industry, to seek and to secure an interest in the blessings it bestows? Or, alas, though some are thus affected, are not others of you conscious that you set no just value on the love of Christ, and that you despise and neglect his great salvation? And can this state of mind consist with spiritual life? It is not conceivable how it should. Where there is spiritual life there must be spiritual affections, and love to God and to the Saviour must be kindled in the soul. There must be spiritual appetites, and it will hunger and thirst after righteousness as its proper support. There must be spiritual desires, longing for spiritual pleasures as alone adequate to satisfy them; and as every being tends towards its perfection, there will be spiritual anticipations, looking to God as its sufficient portion, to heaven as its everlasting abode. And if, therefore, you have no experience of these affections, and desires, and hopes, and employments, how can you otherwise account for the want of it, than as the mournful effect, the unequivocal evidence, of spiritual death?

without exciting one deep, one serious, one affec- | your gratitude? He is your Protector, but where tionate emotion toward Him-that you experience a strange impotence to apprehend the idea, to realize the existence, or to lift your souls to the love of Him whose presence pervades, and whose power sustains all things, and in whose nature dwells every attribute which, in your own judgment, ought to command your adoring reverence, and your supreme affection? And if all this is actually descriptive of your case, how is it to be accounted for that rational creatures, who receive such vivid and just impressions from the contemplation of created objects, should remain unmoved and insensible, though surrounded with the most striking evidences of the grand and the lovely attributes of God? How, but by supposing that though naturally alive, they are spiritually dead. If a man should show himself past thought and feeling about this world-if, while its people looked at him, he looked not back upon them-if, while they moved about him, he regarded not their presence, -if, while they addressed him, he attended not to their voice-if, while they loaded him with their benefits, he acknowledged not their care-if, in short, he interfered not with the business of the world, and seemed alike insensible to its enjoyments and its sorrows, we would surely say of such a person, that he was dead to the world, whatever semblance he might have to a living man. And as surely we say respecting all who are thus strangely unimpressed by the glory and the majesty of God, and by the wonders of his power and of his grace, that they are dead to God that sin, as their destroyer, has slain them, having caused the separation of their souls from God, who is the only source and support of spiritual life.

Look again into yourselves, and search whether ye can descry within you the affections, and desires, and habits of beings spiritually alive. Perhaps you may plead the original constitution of your nature as the cause why you do not receive those impressions from the contemplation of the unseen God, which you derive from the intellectual and moral excellencies of your fellow-creatures around you. But not to allege, in opposition to this, that some are actually susceptible of those impressions, a fact which refutes this pleaded incapacity of human nature-it will surely be allowed, and cannot indeed be denied, without denying altogether our possession of a religious nature, that the relations in which we stand to God ought to be associated with suitable affections and conduct. Well then, do you really cherish those affections, and maintain those habits, which become your religious relations? God is your Father, but where is his honour? Are your hearts impressed with filial reverence, or warmed with filial affection? God is your Lord, your Lawgiver, your Judge; but where is your dependence, your respect, your subjection? Are your souls filled with awe of his sovereignty, and your lives regulated in obedience to his laws? He is your Benefactor, but where is

In this light how much more melancholy and how much more hopeless is the scene which lies before us in the living world, than was presented to the prophet in the valley full of slain. To think that many who maintain a Christian profession, who are regular in the observance of Christian ordinances, who are active in the support of Christian objects, and who enjoy among their fellow-men-who cannot discriminate, in many cases, between the actings of the natural and the spiritual nature-a name to live while they are dead, dead in sins, dead to God, dead to the proper functions and proper enjoyments of their spiritual nature, so dead as now to be insensible to the wretchedness of their condition, and yet possessing the dreadful capability, and threatened with the awful danger of suffering the punishment of everlasting death! to look on this scene with a proper impression of its reality is enough to affect us with deepest sorrow, to overcast our mind with darkest gloom. Surely, if there be hope concerning this thing, if we can view it, as within the range of possibility that these slain should live, it ought to awaken all our most ardent desires, and to engage our most active endeavours that they may be quickened and made alive. And, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, their state is not hopeless. Once they were as dry bones, but now they are covered with flesh, and sinews, and skin. This commencement of the work may encourage the hope that He who hath begun will complete it. If they

shall remain without life they might as well have been as dry bones still, and while, therefore, we consider their Christian professions and their Christian privileges as tokens for good, it becomes us to join, in the prayer uttered here over the slain, under the direction of the Almighty, "Come from the four winds, O breath," or O Spirit, "and breathe on these slain that they may live."

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The blessing most appropriate to the condition of the multitudes of the slain was restoration to life, and the prayer of the prophet for them was accordingly that they might live." In like manner, the proper subject of our prayer, in behalf of those of our fellow-creatures who are spiritually dead is, that they may be restored to spiritual life; that their deadened sensibilities may be made awake to all the proper feelings which the contemplation of God, in the various views of his character, should excite; that their unmoved hearts may be suitably filled with those affections, and desires, and pleasures, which are characteristic of the new creature; that their dormant energies may be all quickened into vigour and activity, so that they may yield themselves unto God as those alive from the dead; and that thus the final perdition of their nature may be averted, their present dishonour done away, and their eternal glory be secured. Such, briefly, was the subject of the prophet's prayer, and such, also, ought to be the subject of ours This prayer, observe, is addressed to the Spirit, "Come from the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe on these slain ?" Although Christ is our life, in that he procured life for the world, it is the doctrine of Scripture that the Spirit is the immediate producer of the life which Christ has purchased. It is stated expressly that the Spirit quickeneth; every soul, on being made alive unto God, and an heir of his kingdom, is said to be be born of the Spirit; and while the promise of life is addressed to the dead, the Spirit is revealed, at the same time, as the agent, by whose inhabitation in them this promise should be fulfilled; "For thus saith the Lord, I will put my Spirit within you, and ye shall live."

Now this prayer, addressed to the divine Spirit, and who, as if invoked to the mightiest effort of his power, is entreated to come from the four winds, and thus to concentrate, as it were, his divine energy on the work of giving life to the dead, it is our duty to prefer in behalf of multitudes around us dead in sin. Such a prayer is the dictate of spiritual nature in those who are themselves spiritually alive. The state of death in which they see others lie, and their conscious inability to impart life to them by their own powers, leaves them no alternative but to pray. It constrains then by all the power of their Christian benevolence to seek relief from their own helplessness in entreating that the Spirit may come with his almighty

power and breathe into these slain the breath of a new life. While the sight of death in others pains and distresses them; while the possession of life in themselves delights and rejoices them, they cannot but desire that death should be de

stroyed and that life should be diffused. And what is more natural than that they should convert the desire which they cannot fulfil into a prayer to the divine Spirit who is able, and who, in answer to believing prayer, is given to accomplish it? And now, brethren, is this our habit? Is a desire for the spiritual life of our fellowcreatures the earnest and decided disposition of our souls, expressing itself in the manner which nature dictates, and which duty enjoins? If not-if, while we see those who are connected with us by the ties of a common nature, and those even, perhaps, who are connected with us by the ties of kindred, bearing upon them the sad symptoms of spiritual death, we are not moved to compassion, and, though commanded and encouraged to pray, utter not one earnest petition for the quickening power of the Spirit to breathe upon them that they may live, what must we conclude concerning ourselves? The multitudes of slain, seen and wept over by the prophet, evinced and felt not any sympathy for one another. May not this suggest to us the true cause of our want of sympathy for dead souls? Does it not indicate, with an alarming certainty, that we are yet numbered among the dead?

But if, on the other hand, this has been the prayer of our heart,-if, mourning over the desolation of mankind, and believing in the quickening power of God's Spirit, we have been anxiously imploring the exercise of this power in our own behalf, and in behalf also of others, this may betoken the existence of that life in our own souls, of which, alas! so many around us seem to be deprived; and while it animates our gratitude to the Father, who hath quickened us with Christ by his Spirit, let it not lessen our anxieties, or lead us to sin against the Lord, by ceasing to pray for them. Rather let it quicken our benevolence and enliven our zeal, and lead us to take up with greater frequency, and growing fervour, and increasing faith, this prayer in behalf of our fellow-creatures, that God, by his Spirit, would quicken them from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. In particular, let us, like Martha and Mary, apply with importunity unto the Lord of life for those of our kindred and friends who are still among the dead. Let parents apply to Him for their children-children for their parents-friends for their friends—and every man for all men-and then may we hope that our earnest, united, and persevering prayer, like Ezekiel's, will receive a gracious answer, and that of those who lie around us as lifeless corpses, 66 many shall live, and stand up upon their feet, an exceeding great army."

CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

Christian Perseverance. In spite of every discourage. ment, in spite of all opposition, in spite of the severest to prosecute the duties of our profession. Nothing hardships, and the most tempting allurements, we are will justify us in becoming negligent or idle; and far less in faithlessly or pusillanimously abandoning the

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prayer, and being put to bed, he used to bid me good night, and say, "Now, Mamma, put out the light, and shut the door;" when he went quietly to sleep.

When not more than four years old, he felt great delight in being taken to church, where his intelligent countenance, and fixed attention, attracted the notice of those near him; and at that early age he remembered any Scripture quotation, or little portion of the sermon which happened to strike him.

At this time he would often admonish his elder

engagements which have been authoritatively imposed | till Dr L. and I retired to rest, after saying his little upon us, and to which we have solemnly committed ourselves. There may be difficulties, but we must surmount them. There may be enemies, but we must overcome them. There may be temptations, but we must resist them. There may be distresses, but we must bear them. There may be persecutions, but we must encounter, and endure, and withstand them. We must be ready to suffer the loss of all things; “to pluck out a right eye, or cut off a right hand; to part with life itself, rather than renounce a cherished confidence in the cross of Jesus, or return again to the sins we have forsaken, or fail in the uncompromising discharge of any of our mora! duties, or desert the ordinances by which God is honoured and our spiritual improvement advanced, or do any thing which amounts to a dereliction of that holy service to which we have been called by divine grace, and to which we have been consecrated by our own voluntary deed. From this service, and from all that is essential to it, nothing whatever,—be it violence or be it allurement, be it the pain to which it may subject us, or the gratification which it forbids us, -nothing must ever be allowed to detach us, till He to whom it is rendered, shall be pleased to release us from our toils and our sorrows. It is thus we must be stedfast and unmoveable.-REV. ANDREW THOMSON, (Discourses.)

SABBATH REFLECTIONS.

WRITTEN AT SEA.

"And God remembered Noah."-GEN. viii. 1.

LIKE Noah in the ark,

Upon a boundless sea;
So, floating in this bark,
O Lord remember me!

Thy promise is enough,

Thou wilt me ever guide;
Let life be smooth or rough,
In Thee I will confide.

What though I'm now alone,

Nor wife nor children here,
Thou sitt'st upon thy throne,
To that we can draw near.

Yes; if we parted be,

Still trusting in thy Word,
We're safe on land or sea,
Within the ark, our Lord.

ROBERT SKEEN.

brother, then a sprightly, thoughtless child, between five and six years of age. If Thomas was guilty of any little error, he would say, "Now, Tommy you are pleasing the devil just now-remember there are only two ways; if you choose the one you will be happy, but if the other, you will be miserable." On one occasion, when he fancied his brother had acted ungenerously, he said "Tommy, go and read the motto on grandpapa's snuff-box, 'Do as you wish to be done

to.

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Even in his childish amusements, he never seemed to lose sight of more important objects. One day hap pening to see his younger brother Walter playing with the contents of a Noah's ark, which he had received as a present, he remarked, " These animals are very beautiful, but although men can make many strange things, they cannot make them live or move; it is only God that can do that." On another occasion, going up stairs to his grandmother's room, when there happened to be no one with her, she said, "Have you come up to see me, John, because you knew I was alone?" He answered, "No, grandmamma, you are not alone; God is always with you, though you do not see him."

Having seen a child, whom he occasionally visited, amusing himself with a pack of cards, on his return home he mentioned the circumstance to me, and inquired what was the use of them. Being informed that they were made for the amusement of ladies and gentlemen, many of whom spent much money, and a great deal of time, on the games in which they were used, the loser often getting very angry with the gainer, he exclaimed, "Is it possible, Mamma, that grown up people play themselves with pieces of painted paper, like little chil dren?" He afterwards frequently recurred to the subject; and when he was older, being told that there

RECOLLECTIONS OF A DEPARTED CHILD. had been individuals who were devoted and habitual

BY A WIDOWED MOTHER.

THE following extract is taken from a very interesting little work which has recently been published, under the title of "The Pious Brothers."

From the earliest dawnings of reason, my beloved child displayed uncommon tenderness of conscience, and was under a deep and abiding sense of the presence of God. His feelings were naturally keen, and his affections remarkably strong; his love of truth so exemplary, that I cannot, from his earliest infancy, remember one instance of his having been guilty of falsehood, or even of prevarication.

gamesters, spending the whole of their time and fortune, and even sacrificing life itself, in consequence of such pursuits, he expressed astonishment almost amount. ing to incredulity, it being scarcely possible to persuade him that accountable creatures, who had so many important duties to perform in a short and uncertain period, and such a variety of rational and interesting methods of employing their hours of recreation, could seek or find pleasure in such occupations.

During his father's lengthened illness, this dear child studied to give as little trouble as possible; and when it pleased God to remove his beloved parent from a world of sin and sorrow, John's feelings were evidently deep, though not loud. At that time, though only five years of age, he made many remarks, displaying a depth of pious feeling, and a clearness of judgment truly as

He was free from those superstitious fears so common to childhood, insomuch, that when only two years and a-half old, happening for a time to sleep in my room, which was on a flat of the house entirely unoccupied | tonishing.

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