Ezekiel 46:9

Ezekiel's temple is designed to set forth the order, grandeur, and beauty of the Church in its vigour, and the life that shall go out from it in floods all over the world. What can be meant, then, by declaring regarding the temple that those who go in by the south door shall go out by the north, and that those who go in by the north shall go out by the south. A man may enter either by the north door or the south. There is perfect liberty here. But there is no liberty as to what he shall do after that. The rest is fixed. Absolute restriction begins at once. He shall go right through. He shall make for the "over against." Has not this a very plain meaning for us? We should not sit still at that side of religion which first attracted us, not keep going back over the old ground, but strive to go through the whole breadth of religion. Every man who enters on a religious experience must go from that first experience to the opposite experience.

Let us turn this thought in three directions,—Truth, Worship, Life.

I. Truth. The truth of God has many sides, and there are truths which stand as opposites; whole classes of truths stand as opposites. A healthy religious life seeks to lay hold of both of these. (1) Religion embraces truths that are mysterious and truths that are clear and plain. The plain truths need the vast and unsearchable to give them force. Your soul wants a most important part of education, if it has no experience of lying defeated and prostrate before the great ultimate mysteries. From the side of the mysterious, then, reach over to all the plainest and simplest things. One may have studied the mysteries long and not know. A man may know the stars better than his own fields. From the side of the plain reach over to the great mysteries; come out of your house and your workshop, and stand beneath the vast concave and wonder. (2) There are truths of theory and truths of practice. Let the one class be added to the other.

II. Worship. Worship has many sides. It also abounds in opposites. Such are sorrow and joy, hope and fear, prayer and praise, supplication and promise or resolve. How frequent it is for men to cling to one side of worship. (1) How many enter at the north door of entreaty, and never really approach the south door of joy and praise. (2) There are those who find it easy to be glad and grateful. They imagine that the sacrifice of sorrow is one they are not called to bring. He that does not know the secret of grief must be very much on the surface of things. If he wants to get down into reality, he must set himself to those thoughts that produce penitence.

III. Moral and spiritual life. (1) How common it is to deny feeling, and exalt conduct and action. But feeling, which many depreciate, is the proper basis of action and conduct. (2) Devotion and righteousness in like manner stand over against each other. If any one feels himself more inclined to the one side than the other, he should earnestly and resolutely resist this and press over to the other side. Let the praying man become practical, the practical become devout. To oblige oneself to strive for the opposite would initiate the most wholesome line of effort, and bring on great and wholly unexpected results. It would expel many a doubt, brace up many a slack life, and clear many a horizon.

J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox, p. 210.

References: Ezekiel 46:10.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 136. Ezekiel 47:1-8.—S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 32. Ezekiel 47:1-12.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 102. Ezekiel 47:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1054. Ezekiel 47:8.—Ibid., vol. xxxi., No. 1852.