years into the captivity of Jehoiachin, before Ezekiel began his prophetic ministry; while the twenty-two years of Ezekiel's prophetic life (named as its minimum length) probably extended somewhat beyond the close of Jeremiah's.Again, Jeremiah had to do with the mass of Jewish corruption-with the very worst class of her princes and people; while Ezekiel had only the better part-base, indeed, but yet not the basest-the captivity having been made, under God, itself a sifting process, to destroy and otherwise eliminate the vilest portion, and to save the more hopeful and less contaminated. Jeremiah came constantly in contact with kings on their thrones, the wicked and weak sons of the good Josiah, and found his trials intensified exceedingly by these relations of prophetic messenger from Him who fills the infinite throne of heaven to those base but proud men who disgraced their little seats of power over God's covenant people.-Ezekiel's mission lay among the people and their elders and head men, but no proud and morally rotten thrones lay in his way. The Lord had broken down that barrier to a spiritual reform of his people.Jeremiah and Ezekiel both prophesy not of Jerusalem and the Jews only, but of other and contiguous nations also, and each of them for the same general reason. The Lord involved those other nations, to a greater or less extent, in the same fearful calamities which subverted the Jewish kingdom. They had been guilty of the same great national sins, and, therefore, must needs share the same fearful doom. They had even given the Jews their own idols, and must now bear the responsibility of this sin before the Most High God and before mankind. Some of them had maliciously exulted over the fall of Jerusalem, and had thus drawn down upon themselves the vengeance of Israel's God; and in general it was a time of retribution on the guilty, idolatrous nations of the age. Hence, vengeance having begun at the house of God, it might fitly be asked, "Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Pet. 4: 17, 18.) They could not go

altogether unpunished. (See Jer. 25: 29, and 49: 12.) Hence, the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel both speak of these fearful judgments on Ammon, Tyre, Edom, and Egypt, to which list Jeremiah adds Babylon and many others. The main objects of these prophecies seem to have been to assure the Jews that their own God shaped the destinies of all these heathen kingdoms, and that he had his own plans in mind beforehand, and, therefore, could predict them. through his servants; but especially to impress them with a more deep and vivid sense of God's sure retribution on guilty nations for their national sins. This sense of certain retribution would be of the utmost moment in its bearings on their own case.

No complaint lies against Ezekiel for any lack of order and date in his several prophecies. His book may be comprehensively divided into two equal parts. Of his fortyeight chapters, the first twenty-four bear to the same point and treat of the same general theme, being addressed directly to the exiles, recounting their own sins and those of their brethren in Judea, especially in the line of idolatry and heart-apostasy from God. The second portion is more miscellaneous, embracing prophecies against other nations; and then, in the line of God's jealousy for his own insulted name, there shines forth his glorious purpose to avenge himself upon his enemies, and to purify and save his own people. The book closes with far-reaching, magnificent prophecies of ultimate victory on Zion's side over all his foes, and of unsurpassed efficiency in the institutions, the truth, and the Spirit of the living God, now become gloriously present among his people.The subdivisions of these parts will appear as we proceed.

Remarkably we find in Ezekiel all the varieties of style that appear within the entire range of the Hebrew prophets. He has pure visions, clearly indicated to be such by the language which introduces or closes the record; e. g., chaps. 1, 8-11, 37 and 40-48. He has symbolic actions, also indicated

in the record itself; e. g., chap. 4, 5 and 12. He has similitudes, as of the vine-tree, chap. 15; of the watchman, chap. 33; and of the shepherd and his flock, chap. 35. He has also parables, as in chap. 17; an elegiac song in highly poetic costume in chap. 19; extended allegories in chaps. 23 and 24; and, finally, plain, unembellished prophecy coupled with solemn admonition, or with tender, hope-inspiring promise. His style does not often lack elegance; never, force. He has remarkable power in grouping a mass of somewhat minute details in a way to heighten the effect exceedingly. Witness his portrayal of the horrible impurities of idolatry in Jerusalem and Samaria, chap. 23; or his description of the commerce, the splendor, and the fall of ancient Tyre, chaps. 27 and 28.-His spirit and style have elicited the admiration of able and learned critics. Havernick speaks of him as "coming forward with all abruptness and iron consistency in an age when prophecy was most rare. Has he to contend with a people of brazen front and unbending neck? He possesses, on his own part, an unbending nature, opposing the evil with an unflinching spirit of boldness and with words of consuming fire." "The glow of divine indignation, the mighty rushing of the Spirit of the Lord, and the holy majesty of Jehovah as the seer beheld it, are remarkably reflected in his writings. The lofty action, the torrent of his eloquence, rest on the same combination of power and consistency-the one as unwearied as the other is imposing."-Hengstenberg also gives his glowing testimony to the same points: "The Lord began to fulfill his good word, given to the exiles through Jeremiah, by causing Ezekiel to appear in the midst of them, who raised his voice like a trumpet and showed to Israel his misdeeds; whose word, like a threshing machine, passed over all those sweet hopes and purposes and ground them to the dust; whose whole manifestations furnished the strongest proof that the Lord was still among his people; who was himself a temple of the Lord, before whom the

apparent temple, which still stood at Jerusalem for a short time sunk back into its own nothingness; a spiritual Samson, who, with a strong arm, seized the pillars of the temple and dashed it to the ground; an energetic, gigantic nature, who was thereby suited effectually to counteract the Babylonish spirit of the time, which loved to manifest itself in violent, gigantic, and grotesque forms; one who stood alone, but was yet equal to a hundred of the scholars of the prophets. The extent of his influence appears from the fact that the oldest of the people were accustomed to assemble in his house in order to hear the words of the Lord through him-a sign of the public and formal acknowledgment of his spiritual dignity in the colony."Christology, vol. 3, pp. 459, 460.- The general style of his symbols, especially in his first and tenth chapters, is largely Chaldean, and, so far forth, is due to his Chaldean surroundings. The Jews for whom he wrote, residing in Chaldea, had become familiar there with these modes of representation. The Chaldeans who might read his writings would readily appreciate the beauty and force of these symbols. His own mind had felt their power as presented in Chaldean works of art. Hence the divine Spirit revealed himself to the prophet's mind in these symbols because they were, in that age and to that people, a readily intelligible and even forcible mode of representation. They were almost the language of the common people. If obscure to us, their obscurity is mainly due to their being a foreign tongue-a sort of symbolic speech which had its home in the valley of the Euphrates, and in the age of proud Nineveh and Babylon, but which has long since ceased to be a living tongue. The recent disinterment of so many sculptures and various works of art from the ruins of those cities affords us a pertinent key to the significance of these symbols and an ample explanation of their appearance in the prophecies of Ezekiel.*

*Those who have read Layard's Nineveh, or who have made them

The style of representation in this first vision is, in part, Jewish, and, in so far forth, will be illustrated in the notes.

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selves familiar otherwise with the modern discoveries in the ruins of ancient Nineveh and Babylon, will readily recall those figures, either sculptured or painted, of a composite character, made up of selected portions of various animals; e. g. "winged, human-headed bulls (Layard, p. 85); "gigantic winged bulls;" "small winged lions" (p. 32); a figure with the head of the lion, the body of a man, and the feet of a bird" (p. 229). Or, again, "a human body clothed in robes, with the head of an eagle or a vulture; a curved beak, half open, disclosing a narrow-pointed tongue; over the shoulders, the usual curled, bushy hair of the Assyrian images; a comb of feathers rising on the top of the head; two wings springing from the back; and in either hand was the usual square vessel and the fir cone-the former supposed to be significant of gifts bestowed by the gods; the latter, being specially inflammable, may have symbolized fire-an element associated, in oriental minds, with the qualities or the home of the gods." Layard suggests that "this effigy probably typified by its mystic forms the union of certain divine attributes" (pp. 45-47).—Again, on pp. 51, 52, is an extended description of a second pair of winged, human-headed lions, the human shape continued to the waist, with human arms and with the legs of a lion; twelve feet in height, and as many in length; expanded wings sprang from the shoulder and spread over the back. A knotted girdle, ending in tassels, encircled the loins. All was found in a state of perfect preservation.-Of these figures, Mr. Layard expresses his views and reflections thus: "I used to contemplate for hours these mysterious emblems, and muse over their intent and history. What more noble forms could have ushered the people into the temple of their gods? What more sublime images could have been borrowed from nature by men who sought, unaided by the light of revelation, to embody their conception of the wisdom, power, and ubiquity of a Supreme Being? They could find no better type of intellect and knowledge than the head of the man; of strength, than the body of a lion; of ubiquity, than the wings of a bird. These winged, human-headed lions were not idle creations, the offspring of mere fancy; their meaning was written upon them. They had awed and instructed races which flourished three thousand years ago" (p.52).