"There was a noise,

followed was truly remarkable. and a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above." Still, however, there was no breath in them, no principle of vitality, no capacity of sensation or motion. But a second time the prophet prophesies, as he is commanded, and the effect is a change still more wonderful than the former. "The breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army."

In explanation of this visionary transaction, we are informed that the bones were intended to represent the whole of Israel in that dispersed and wretched condition to which their iniquities were to reduce them; and that the resurrection of the bones was intended to represent the restoration of the house of Israel to their own land, and their re-establishment in a state of great temporal comfort, and of great religious prosperity.

This remarkable prophecy relates to the "whole house of Israel;" and it refers to a period when David, or the Messiah, was to preside over them and protect them as their prince and shepherd. It was not fully accomplished, then, at the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon; it must refer to a restoration far more glorious, which, though future, is now, we trust, not distant.

Interesting and instructive as it might be to regard the prophecy in this aspect, it is not in this view that I propose at present to consider it. The scene here described is exemplified not less strikingly in what, by nature, is the moral condition of the whole human race; and the resurrection of the dry bones affords a most appropriate emblem of the glorious transformation

VOL. II.

X

which is effected when sinners are "quickened from the death of sin to a life of righteousness." It is to these subjects that I intend to apply the passage; and taking it in this view, I would, in dependence on Divine aid, solicit your attention to the important truths which it naturally suggests.

I. It reminds us that the natural state of mankind is a state most depressed and most helpless. It is a state of moral desolation, and of spiritual death; a state aptly represented by the dry bones in the valley of vision. Spiritual, like natural life, is distinguished by two grand characteristics, a capacity of action, and a capacity of sensation and enjoyment. But in their natural condition, men display no aptitude or inclination for spiritual employments or spiritual pleasures; no disposition to serve and obey their Maker; no desire after his favour and his intercourse.

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The bones seen by Ezekiel were very many, as well as very dry :" and a similar assertion might be made respecting mankind, contemplated in reference to their spiritual capacities and functions, and to their immortal interests and destinies. The generations of human beings who have successively peopled the islands and continents of the globe, appear to us a "multitude which no man can number;" and yet of that innumerable multitude not an individual but is naturally alienated from the life of God, "dead in trespasses and sins." Look to the heathen world, and mark the condition of its inhabitants-the condition in which the majority of the human race have existed in every age. Not only have they lost universally the knowledge of the true God; the religious systems which they have fabricated for themselves are so many compounds of absurdity, obscenity, and cruelty;

in their general conduct they violate habitually the plainest and most important requirements of morality; and amid the fearful prevalence of ignorance, and error, and wickedness, there is not a tribe or nation that is evincing an anxious wish, or making a welldirected effort to return" and seek the Lord, if haply they may feel after him and find him." Even in regions illuminated by supernatural revelation, and where the means of spiritual life are enjoyed, the inhabitants show, by no equivocal tokens, that they are naturally blind to "the beauties of holiness," insensible to the value of celestial and eternal things, dead to the ennobling employments and the exalted pleasures of religion. Are they not invincibly prone to" set their affections on things on the earth," to immerse themselves in sensual pleasures, and in low and grovelling pursuits, and to "mind" nothing but "earthly things." We address to them the proclamations of religion; but to these proclamations, alarming though they be, many are utterly deaf, so that we might address them with almost as much hope of success to the trees of the forest, or the rocks of the mountain; and when we set before them the inestimable blessings of salvation, are we not like those who should set the richest delicacies beside the sepulchres of the dead?

Meditate attentively, brethren, on this subject, that your minds may be suitably affected and impressed. It is a painful spectacle to look on a friend or fellowcreature blotched by ulcers, or convulsed and distorted by racking agonies, or reduced to a skeleton by pining sickness," meagre and pale, the ghost of what he was." It is a spectacle little less affecting which the human body presents, immediately after that mysterious and fearful change which we call death, and to which change pain and sickness are the appropriate harbingers.

The arms and the limbs, which were once so strong and active, are now powerless and motionless; the eyes, which sparkled with intelligence and affection, are fixed in one ghastly stare; and "the human face divine" exhibits the incipient ravages of that corruption which will soon render it an object too hideous to be looked on, even by those who often gazed on it with admiration and rapture. It would be a spectacle more shocking still, if, in some burying ground, the mansions of the dead were to be suddenly uncovered, and to disclose their contents, presenting every gradation in the process of putrefaction,-bodies which the recent stroke of death has just converted into pallid corpses,-bodies whose "flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust, and the skin of which is broken and become loathsome;" and skeletons, the bones of which are already loosened from each other, and beginning to moulder into powder.

Such, however little as we may think of it, such is the spectacle which our world presents to the eye of omniscience and of infinite purity. What other aspect can it exhibit to him "who is glorious in holiness," than that of a lazar house, the inmates of which are universally afflicted with loathsome and malignant distempers; or a charnel house,-a place of skulls,—a place "full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness." Such are the scenes and objects employed in the divine word to furnish similitudes of the spiritual maladies and the spiritual miseries of mankind. It represents them as "unclean," and "vile," and "abominable;" as "diseased," and "without strength;" as dying, and dead. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness; but wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores." "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."

"The

Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God." " And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." I remark,

II. That the word is the appointed means of quickening men from this state of spiritual death; and this passage reminds us of the remarkable change in the moral state of mankind, which may be effected merely by the preaching of the word.

In the preceding verses, we are informed that, after Ezekiel had surveyed the valley of dry bones leisurely and attentively, he was commanded to prophesy upon them, and to say unto them, "O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." He prophesied as he was commanded, and the consequence was a most remarkable change. "There was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone." Now, my friends, I do not say that the primary design of this part of the vision is to represent, but I say that it does fitly and strikingly represent, the commission given to the ministers of Christ, and the transformation which may be effected on the moral state of the world, merely through the preaching of the word. "The word of God, the truth as it is in Jesus," is the grand means prescribed by heaven for arousing sinners from their natural state of spiritual torpor and death, and for quickening them to spiritual life, health, and energy. Insensible, then, though they be to their immortal interests; deaf or dead as they are to the calls of religion; hopeless as may seem the attempt to arouse and quicken them, it is the duty of all who are put in trust with the gospel to imitate the conduct of Ezekiel, and to "prophesy upon the dry bones, that they may live." "Whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear, we must cry aloud to them, and not spare."