himself. Hence this vision teaches us how God looks upon such sins as those, among his own covenant people, within his very sanctuary, and also how he discriminates between the innocent and the guilty; by what marks he knows and points out the innocent, and with what unsparing vengeance he punishes and even exterminates all save those who bear his mark. The glorious personage, present to the mind's eye of the prophet in this vision, is the same who was seen on the movable throne in chap. 1, bearing essentially the same description as in chap. 1: 26-28, all begirt with fire, and with a resplendent radiance as of polished brass; the word rendered "the color of amber," being the same as in chap. 1: 4.-The impression of being transported through the air is not unknown in the phenomena of dreams. How closely analogous this case of prophetic vision may be to the experience of dreams, it is impossible for any to say save the prophets themselves. Let it suffice us to rest in the fact that He who made the mind of man must have ample means for making any impression upon it which he may wish to make. —“The door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north IS THE TEMPLE. This "image of jealousy" is an idol image which provoked the jealousy of Almighty God. The thought looks toward the second command, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," etc.-"thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."- --In the last clause of verse 3, the Heb. for the last word is supposed by Gesenius to mean, "which sells the nation into bondage." Our translators supposed the word to be only another form of the verb for being jealous. Neither sense is bad. Some of the ablest modern critics still adhere to the view of our translators.

4. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.

5. Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

6. He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

The "vision seen in the plain" refers to chap. 3: 22, 23. Here he meets again the same glorious personage as there, in the form of the ancient Shekinah. This personage speaks to him and leads him on through the scenes of this vision.- -Standing in the temple at Jerusalem and looking toward the north, he sees at the temple gate, near the great altar of burnt-offering, this idol-image which provoked the God of Israel to jealousy. His divine Guide calls his special attention to this first abomination.The clause, "That I

should go far off from my sanctuary," speaks of those abominations as compelling him to abandon his temple and give it up to destruction. This was a vital point-the more so because the Jews presumptuously assumed that God could not let the city be destroyed so long as his temple stood there, but must protect the city for his temple's sake. See Notes on Jer. 7: 4. It seems never to have occurred to them that such abominations would compel the Lord to abandon his temple and give up both city and temple to destruction.

7. And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.

8. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. 9. And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

10. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.

11. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.

12. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth.

There is now opened to the prophet's view a secret "chamber of imagery," the walls of which are covered with delineations of all unclean beasts and insects, portrayed here as objects of idolatrous worship. This species of idols and the manner of delineating them were obviously Egyptian, borrowed from that land where almost every known animal was included among their objects of reverence and worship. It would seem that this base form of idolatry was kept somewhat back from public view, in the secret chambers of the temple. These seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel were obviously the Jewish Sanhedrim, the well-known supreme council of the nation, always chosen from the elders of the people. It was their sacred duty to suppress all idolatry; yet here they are in their retired chambers with every man his censer in his hand to burn incense to toads and snakes-to every base and abominable creature! To aggravate the case yet more, there stood in the midst of them, probably as president of the council, Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan. This Shaphan appears in the history of Josiah's great reformation as a true and noble man; also in the life of Jere miah as the father of Ahikam, that prophet's powerful friend. See 2 Kings 22, and Jer. 26: 24. If Jaazaniah was now at the head of the Sanhedrim, and if he was also the son (and not the grandson)

of Shaphan, he must on both grounds have been at this time far advanced in years, and for this reason his sin in this idol worship was the greater and the more appalling. Shaphan was somewhat advanced in years when he appears prominently in Josiah's reformation; i. e., in this king's eighteenth year; full thirty years before this vision. It was, therefore, for many reasons a strong case that Jaazaniah, the son of the good Shaphan and now the president of the Sanhedrim, hoary with years and perhaps trembling on the brink of the grave, should be leading on his younger brethren of this great council in these most base and debasing idolatries. Alas! how were the noble fallen! And how manifestly hopeless of reform must the nation have become!- -The Lord saw their deeds of darkness and revealed them in vision to his prophet. "Son of man, hast thou seen?" Take note of it, for it testifies to the deep and hopeless corruption of the whole people!- -Observe what they say. "The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth." This was at least the language of their heart-that inner thought with which they cast off all fear of God and all just sense of his presence. Perhaps the Lord does not mean to say that they openly taught this doctrine to others, or even publicly avowed it; yet even this would not be incredible, and if true, would only evince their confirmed moral hardihood and infatuation.-Rosenmuller cites from Ammianus Marcellinus, a Latin historian, to the effect that the Egyptians practiced precisely this form of idol worship in subterranean recesses, sculpturing on house-walls many kinds of fowls and of wild beasts which they designated with hieroglyphic characters.

13. He said also unto me, turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

14. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the north; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

15. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

This form of idolatry was Syrian, Tammuz being probably the celebrated youthful Adonis, over whose untimely (supposed) death, the Syrian damsels held an annual mourning. As the legend runs, Adonis was subsequently found alive, or restored from the dead, whereupon their mourning turns to exuberant joy. Foul and licentious practices followed. "The finding again was the commencement of a wake, accompanied by all the usages which in the East attend such a ceremony-prostitution, cutting off the hair, cutting the breast with knives, and playing on pipes." (Smith's Bible Dictionary.)

16. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty

men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east.

17. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and lo, they put the branch to their

nose.

18. Therefore will I also deal in fury; mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Here are twenty-five men, their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces eastward, worshiping the sun. As the other special forms of idolatry were Egyptian and Syrian in their origin, this is nationally Persian, yet was in most ancient times widespread, and very probably was the earliest form of idolatry. Job refers to it, chap. 31: 26-28, "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon, walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand; this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God above."- -The revealing personage now appeals to the prophet to say if such base idolatries can be accounted a small thing. Especially considered as practiced by the house of Judah, the ancient covenant people of the living God, ought He not to be jealous for his holy name, and take vengeance on such sinners?

-Nor was their sin limited to idol worship. Under the influence of idolatry, the people had become grossly immoral. They had "filled the land with violence"-the usual phrase to indicate assaults and murders. Idolatry is the legitimate mother of extreme immorality. It discards the fear of God, and breaks down all the restraints that come upon the minds of men from just views of the great, the pure and the ever-glorious Jehovah. Thus it opens the floodgates of human depravity. "Putting the branch to the

nose

is thought to refer to a Persian ceremony, practiced in their worship of the sun and of its symbol, fire.- -For all these grievous sins, the Lord will surely scourge and punish his apostate people; he will not spare; and however imploring their cry, he will not hear! There is a time for prayer; but, that time once past, there comes another hour which is not the time for prayer. Woe to the sinner who waits till then ere he lifts up his beseeching cry for mercy!- -As bearing on the fearful doom of the incorrigibly wicked in the future world, this testimony from God himself is fearfully in point to show that there is a time when cries for mercy will be unavailing. If there come such hours in the lighter judgments of time, what must we not expect amid the far sorer judg. ments of eternity!

CHAPTER IX.

This chapter continues the subject of the chapter preceding. The prophet is shown in vision how the Lord discriminates between his friends and his enemies, to spare the one and to slay the other without mercy.

1. He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.

2. And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter-weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in and stood beside the brazen altar.

These men represent the executive agents or ministers of the Lord's providential government over the city. The object of this vision is to set before the eye of the prophet the fact of God's retributive judgments upon the city, and the manner in which his agents perform their mission. -The "man clothed with linen" is not attired for slaughter. Linen, so commonly worn by the priests, would have been out of place on the men who bore the slaughter-weapons."- -It was the custom of official scribes to attach their inkhorn to their girdles.The executioners take their stand first beside the brazen altar, to begin their work at the point which best indicated the great sin of the people—the desecration of God's holy altar.

3. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side.

4. And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst. of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

This "glory of the God of Israel" I take to be the Shekinah of the Mosaic economy (see Ex. 29: 43, and 40: 34, 35, and 1 Kings 8: 11). Its resting-place was over and upon the cherubim whose outspread wings covered the mercy-seat or lid of the ark of testimony. This removal to the threshold seems to have the twofold object; (1) of indicating that he was soon to withdraw from this desecrated and doomed temple; and (2) of placing himself in nearer proximity to the executioners of his vengeance as if to supervise and direct their movements. Chap. 10: 18 notes the return of this Shekinah to his usual position.- -The godly men of the city must first be discriminated and marked before the wicked are slain. So