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dependence, and more easily now than ever? Are you sure of this, that the blessed Comforter is not now moving upon your minds, and that if you gratefully fall in with his influences, you will not find that his strength is made perfect in your weakness? O it is your absolute dependence on almighty grace that is all your hope. Desperate indeed would be your condition if you were thrown on your own resources. "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me." It is but to feel that you have perfect weakness, and yet have Omnipotence to lean upon, and the work is done. Will you demur if you have such sufficiency and such resources? will you hesitate? O what sorrows will come upon you, if you continue to defer this great salvation! What! sinners of Britain defer the great salvation? Favoured with such an unbroken series of Sabbaths, and faithful representations of the Word of God, will you hesitate? What an hour will that be to some of you, dear hearers, when with your voice convulsed in the agonies of death, you call to mind that the harvest is past, and the summer is ended, and you are not saved! Others there have been (you have seen them -we have all seen them)-others there have been who postponed the work just as you are doing now-postponed the work till to-morrow; but they delayed too long; they delayed to their everlasting ruin. Thousands upon thousands now beyond the reach of hope, were once sinning just as some of you now are; were once in the house of God halting between two opinions, as you are now halting; were once resolving to seek pardon, as you are now resolving; but they vacillated a moment too long, and sunk into the lake of fire. O that I could persuade you to decide to-day! By the freeness of the divine mercy, ineffable mercy, by the tenderness of Jesus' love, by the grace that rolls from his cross, by the freeness of his great salvation, be persuaded now to betake yourselves to this fountain of living waters.

Do you say, "Not now; I cannot make up my mind so suddenly as to-day." Well, be it so take the responsibility yourself; let it be so. Shall it be tomorrow? "Why no; I cannot pledge myself," I hear you say. "To-morrow! it is too soon." Well, shall it be the next Lord's day? I hear you reply, "I scarcely hope to become a Christian even in so short a period as that." Well, brethren, make an end of this business: in the presence of God, and under your own fearful responsibility, fix your own time. Shall it be before the close of another year? "Ah," I seem to hear you reply, “I may not live another year and then where shall I be? O that I could become a Christian now; it seems to me the time has come." Well, come to Jesus now: the time has come. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come, and he that heareth says, Come." "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

THE VALLEY OF VISION.

REV. H. BLUNT, A.M.

TRINITY CHURCH, SLOANE STREET, WHITSUNDAY, 1885.

"Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon thess slain, that they may live."-EZEKIEL, Xxxvii. 9.

HAVING frequently, upon this holy day, endeavoured to set before you the Scriptural proofs and testimonies of the great and important doctrine brought before us by our church, I shall to-day content myself with one of the many collateral and incidental corroborations of this high truth scattered through the word of Revelation.

The incident from which the text is taken, occurred in the prophet Ezekiel, during the time of the Babylonish captivity, when the Jews, carried away as prisoners from their native land, were, as a nation, politically degraded, and were lying hopeless and lifeless, for the loss of their kingdom. Hear the remarkable account, as given by the prophet himself, in this chaper: "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about; and, behold, there were very many in the open valley, and, lo, they were very dry." We learn from the eleventh verse of the chapter, that these bones represented the whole house of Israel, who in their despondency were exclaiming, "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost." And the vision was vouchsafed for their great encouragement, that they might know that there was mercy and deliverance in store for them; and that they should yet, once more, again rise from their present state of political thraldom, and take their stand among the nations of the world: while, in all probability, there was, as regards the people of Israel, a still further scope contemplated by the vision; and this was, the period of the spiritual regeneration of the conversion of the whole house of Israel, in days which are still future, and which shall assuredly arrive, when all Israel shall be brought to the knowicage of our God, and of his Christ.

In this view, and confining ourselves to the literal interpretation of the vision, it is a very striking and instructive one. But our intention is, while proceeding with the incident before us, to leave its primary intention, thus briefly touched upon, to your own consideration, and to dwell upon those points of peculiar spiritual interest, which renders it so proper to the service of this day.

Proceeding, then, with the vision, we read, " And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." Behold, then, in the vision before us, first, a most affecting picture of the state of all men by nature; and next, a most remarkably accurate and instructive representation of the usual method which the Almighty takes for the deliverance of his people out of this state of spiritual bondage and spiritual death, into the glorious liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free.

First, can there be a more scriptural representation of the state of the natural man, than these " dry bones of the valley?" Is not the whole world thus full? Are not all as hopeless and lifeless with regard to spiritual. things by nature? And are not the efforts of natural men to awaken and enliven them, just as preposterous as they would have been to re-animate the dry bones in the prophet's vision? Surely if the general description in the Word of God be true, no one can doubt this. While, therefore, the man of the world looks with complacency and delight on every large assembly of his fellow-men, although congregated for the most unprofitable of purposes, the Christian cannot behold it without fear and anxiety: it is to him what the valley of dry bones was to the prophet. And mingled with his other fears comes the apprehension lest this be indeed the field of death, which obliges him, when looking on such a scene, often to ask himself, "Can these dry bones live?" Is there any man who can so influence these persons, who appear now to live only to the follies and sins of the world, and appear dead to the best interests of their soul, dead to eternity, as to call them forth from this state of spiritual apathy and slumber and fill them with spiritual life, making them the humble, lowly, unworldly, self-denying followers of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Most remarkable is the answer which the vision supplies us. In the face of all difficulty-nay, and what must have appeared to the prophet an absolute impossibility, a positive absurdity, had he permitted himself to reason upon the subject-he is enjoined by God to begin at once, and to preach to these dry bones. "O ye dry bones," he is commanded to say, "hear the word of the Lord." What a hopeless task! How well might Ezekiel have objected and expostulated, and inquired, "Of what avail to call upon these poor, insensible relics of mortality as if they were possessed of life and of reason? The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee." Such would have been the wisdom of the world: but the prophet's wisdom was of a different order; it was the wisdom of a child of God; and that wisdom is in every case the same to hear and to obey; for he immediately adds, “So I prophesied as I was commanded."

This also is the obvious duty of the minister of God. If he were to judge for himself he would be often hopeless of success, when he considers what is oftentimes the state of his audience while he preaches (as he often must) the great and glorious truths of the everlasting Gospel to a people lying in darkness and the shadow of death. But so far is he from feeling this, that although no human being can think more lightly than he of the power and efficacy of his own endeavours, he entertains the fullest confidence of success as regards every soul to which he is in mercy sent. He acts upon an express command to go and prophesy to the dry bɔnes; to preach the Gospel to every creature peaceful or hostile, or deaf, or dead.

He knows, further, that the revealed Word has declared, "It pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe:" and accordingly he goes down in faith into the valley of dry bones, and carries with him the word of life-that word of which the unchangeable Jehovah has declared, "It shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish the purpose whereto I sent it." And thus armed with the word and with the promise, he cares not how dead or how dry be the bones; but he takes his stand, and, in the language of the Prophet," prophesies as he is commanded;" comforting and encouraging himself with this single declaration of his God-" Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."

Now let us again turn to the vision, and mark the first faint appearance of the prophet's success among his extraordinary audience. He thus continues: "As I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone." When the prophet commenced, all throughout that desolate valley wore the appearance and the stillness of death; there was neither voice nor motion. Strong in faith he persevered: and as he preached the bones began to move. There was first the rustling upon the ground that marked that the bones were in motion; and then the rattling that would be occasioned whilst each bone was once more attaching itself to its kindred bone, and building up the restored and perfect skeleton.

Hear how the spiritual effects keep pace with the natural. We observe in it the first symptoms usually visible when the Gospel is preached to them that are dead. It does not long sound over the valley of desolation without some adequate effect for never is the word of life sent except where the Lord has a people to call, and to awaken, and to convert, and to edify. There is soon seen a shaking among the dry bones. Some are observed to tremble beneath the power of the Gospel, and to cry out with the jailer, "What shall I do to be saved?" Others are at least temporarily aroused and excited, their prejudices shaken, and their slumbers interrupted. There is a moving to and fro: a new subject of conversation has been introduced. So that even in those instances (alas! there are many such) when the effect extends no further, this at least is done the silence of death is broken, the perfect insensibility to the sound of the Gospel is at an end; and though it be but a melancholy thought if it extends no further, than to increase their condemnation, and to be a savour of death unto death, still at least the dry bones are moved, and in many cases a skeleton army is summoned forth.

More however than this (thanks be to God) is usually effected, and more than this was effected by the prophet, for he thus continues: "And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above." Here the transformation was complete; the whole man was reconstructed; bones, and sinews, and flesh, and skin, were perfect. But still there was something wanting; for the prophet affectingly adds, " but there was no breath in them." Here, then, let us observe, the next step in the spiritual application of the vision. The faithful preaching of the Word of God at the command of God will often not only cause a shaking among the dry bones, but further their assuming the appearance of life and health to which we are endeavouring to call them. We continually witness this-the Word of Truth has such an effect, that, even when we are not brought to spiritual life, we assume all the outward forms of godliness, attend upon every ordinance

which a true Christian can attend upon, adopt his habits, swell the ranks of God's professing people, and to the eye of man are not only almost, but altogether Christians. The sinews and the flesh have come up upon the dry bones, and given all the appearance of vitality. What, then, do they want? What are they destitute of? Alas! we are compelled to exclaim with the prophet, respecting all these, "There is no breath in them."

This must have been a point most trying to the prophet's faith in the vision before us. He had called together these slumbering relics, and at his bidding the semblance of life had been restored to them but now, as David says, he was" at his wits' end." It was no more he continued to prophesy; all he was permitted to do had been done. The form of men had been restored to those that lay motionless and helpless, an exceeding great army, but only to curse the valley with a more melancholy picture of mortality than that from which he had just restored them.

While the prophet was waiting for fresh direction, and feels his utter inability to proceed, the Word of the Lord came again unto him: "Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them. and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." You will observe a striking peculiarity in this passage, namely, that the prophet is no longer directed to prophesy, or speak to the bodies, as in the former part of the vision, but to "the winds," or "breath" (the word is the same in the original), which should once more reanimate them. In the spiritual intention of the vision how plain a direction have we here for the ministers of the Gospel. It is not enough that we urge upon you duties, and precepts, and doctrines, and promises, and calls to repentance, and invitations to spiritual life; there is yet another, and an equally important duty for every minister to perform, who desires to see the fulfilment of his Lord's most gracious declaration" The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." This most essential duty is, to prophesy, or to speak unto the spirit; to pray fervently, faithfully, and constantly, that the Third Person in the ever-blessed Trinity may breathe upon these slain, that they may possess something more than the mere semblance of life, and, in the language used by the Almighty himse' in the interpretation of the vision in the fourteenth verse, that he may put his Spirit within them that they may live." It was when this was done, and not before, when the breathing Spirit had breathed upon the slain, that the prophet pronounced that "they lived, and stood upon their feet.”

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So is it, brethren, with ourselves. You may do much too in outward appearance, have all the semblance, and all the propriety, and all the beauty of spiritual life. The bones may all unite together; the external covering may be most carefully adjusted over them: if the breath be absent all is vain: you do not live; nay, even worse than that, for it may only tend to mock and to delude both us and you with the appearance of life where life is not. Most true and most important is that declaration of our God, that "if we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of his." It is just in proportion as we are guided, and directed, and strengthened, and sanctified by the Spirit of God, that we are now among the number of his true and acknowledged people, and

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