"Son of man, behold, I am about to take away the desire of your eyes with a fatal blow. But you must not mourn or weep or let your tears flow. Sermons
I. SUDDEN AND UNEXPECTED. The Lord took away from the prophet the desire of his eyes "with a stroke." How touching is the prophet's record! - "At even my wife died." It is the simplicity of truth, the simplicity of submission, which speaks in this language. The terms Ezekiel employs show how great was his love and attachment to his wife; all the more was this sudden bereavement a shock of distress and anguish to him. Similarly swift was the stroke of retribution and ruin which came upon the Jewish metropolis. Notwithstanding repeated warnings and threatenings, the Israelites would not believe that their beloved Jerusalem, "the joy of the whole earth," could fall before the mighty conqueror from the east. But their confidence was misplaced, and their pride was destined to humiliation. The death stroke came, and it came with the sharpness and suddenness which corresponded with the prophet's bereavement. II. SEVERE. No affliction which could befall Ezekiel could be so distressing and so crushing as the loss of his beloved wife. In this it was emblematical of the blow which was about to descend upon Jerusalem. "Behold," said the Lord, "I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth." Patriotism, historical associations, religious pride, and other elements of feeling conspired to render their metropolis dear to the sons of Abraham; and its destruction and the dispersion of its citizens could not be contemplated by them without the liveliest emotions of anguish and anxiety. No heavier blow could fall up. on them than this. Distress, as of the bereaved and desolate, must needs take possession of every true Hebrew heart, when predictions of Divine wrath were fulfilled, when the heathen entered and possessed the sanctuary of Jehovah. III. INEVITABLE AND IRREPARABLE. Life is in the hands of the Lord and Giver of life. When he recalls his gift, his creatures can do nothing but submit. So Ezekiel himself acknowledged and felt; it was God who deprived him of the desire of his eyes. The dead return not to their place, which knows them no more. This fact gives keenness to the sorrow, whilst it aids submission. Ezekiel's fellow-countrymen were to learn that it was the Divine purpose to inflict upon Jerusalem the last indignity. No human power could avert, and no human power could repair, this evil, any more than such power could save or restore the life which the Creator resumed. A new career might indeed open up before the people of Israel, but the old career was closed peremptorily and irrecoverably. IV. CRUSHING EVEN TO SILENCE. Ezekiel was bidden, when his bereavement came upon him, to refrain from weeping and mourning, and from all the outward signs of grief. Distressing and difficult as the command certainly was, it was obeyed. And the prophet's obedience to it was significant. When the day of Judah's trouble came, it came in such a manner and with such circumstances accompanying it that the survivors and spectators of the national calamity were rendered speechless through grief. Their experience reminds us of the memorable language of the psalmist, "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it." There is a time to be silent. When the hand of God is heavy upon those who have resisted his laws and rebelled against his authority, they have nothing wherewith to answer their righteous Lord whom they have offended. It is for them to refrain from complaint, which in such a case would be merely blasphemy; it is for them to bow beneath the rod; it is for them, in silence and in speechless bitterness of heart, to repent of all their sins. It is the Lord: "Behold, here am I; let him do to me as seemeth good unto him." - T.
So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded. I. OTHER SORROWS MAY HAVE NO EVIL, BUT EVEN GOOD IN THEM; THIS IS ESSENTIALLY AND ETERNALLY EVIL. In a bereavement, in a national calamity, as also in bodily sufferings and many social griefs, it is manifest there may be no moral wrong. There may, indeed, be the highest moral good. But sin is, in its essence, in its indulgence, in its outcome, utterly evil, an object of nothing else than commiseration, loathing, and hatred.II. OTHER SORROWS ARE REMEDIABLE; THIS LEADS TO DESTRUCTION. III. OTHER SORROWS MAY COME DIRECT FROM GOD; THIS IS EVER IN DIRECT ANTAGONISM TO HIM. IV. OTHER SORROWS HAVE TO DO WITH MEN IN THEIR RELATION TO OTHERS; THIS WITH HIS OWN INNER BEING AND HIS RELATION TO GOD. Conclusion — 1. Rightly weigh your own sorrows. 2. Rightly deal with the world's sorrows. Pity their poverty, heal their sickness, but most of all grieve for and contend with their sin. 3. Rightly value the Saviour's mission. (Urijah R. Thomas.) I. THE WOMAN — THE WIFE. "At eve my wife died." To the pure and noble and thoughtful, no sorrow can be greater. Where the wife is what God intended she should be, the helpmeet of man, the loss here stated is without a parallel. "At eve my wife died": not my crops were blasted, or my cattle killed or taken away, but my wife, the best part of myself, the light of life's darkest hour; the one that buoys up the man when all others throw on heavier burdens to press him down. My wife! What dreadful significance! What fulness of meaning! Many a man has been lifted to the highest places, and has been transported into fullest conditions, by the wisdom, piety, and thoughtfulness of a good wife. Young men sinking into debt, danger, and degradation have lifted up their heads above every flood when they have taken the float of a good wife — thus proving that "scanty fare for one will often make a royal feast for two." There are thousands in the Church today, or in heaven, who would certainly have made shipwreck of faith but for the firmer trust and steadier piety of a devoted wife — when the strong man has been weakened by the hard struggle of life, the weak woman, strong by devotion and radiant hope, has held him up in her heaven-derived might, till the man has regained his strength. The prophet is here called to pass through a most painful experience, and the terms used are touching. His wife is spoken of as the "desire of his eyes," and the "taking away" is to be done with a stroke. Not a gradual fading away of the life and love, with all the touching farewells and hopes of future meeting which characterise a death bed, but by one fell stroke the desire of the eye, the joy of the heart, the flower of the garden, the sun of the home, the star of earth's hope, shall be taken from him. The Lord frequently brings judgment near the heart, that He may plant His mercy in the heart. He kills for the purpose of making alive. The desire of the heart is often taken, that the heart may desire a Diviner portion. Note the time. At "eve," not in the morning ere work began, nor at night when the weaknesses of old age had rendered life a burden and death a release. But at "eve," after the toil but before the rest. Work accomplished, but not enjoyed. How like this now. Many a good wife who has toiled and struggled and denied her own needy appetite for the sake of husband and family, has lived just long enough to drag the household to the top of the hill; and when an easy plain way appeared in view, and a season of rest gilded the sky, she has fallen dead — not with the weight of years, so much as with the burden of hard work and heavy care. II. THE MAN — THE HUSBAND. The sublime self-possession, the equanimity of the prophet, the forgetfulness of a loss so great and a sorrow so deep, seem altogether beyond the range of common men, and can only be viewed in the light of a purpose as mysterious as it is beneficent. The Lord apprised him of his loss, but forbade the assumption of those signs of grief which characterise the obsequies of oriental countries. "Forbear to cry." Revised Version renders it — "Sigh, but not loud." The margin reads — "Be silent." Grief in the heart cannot be wholly quenched; it would be against nature to expect such a thing; but those extravagant signs of it were what the Lord corn, rounds the prophet against. This wonderful state of soul under an affliction so bitter may seem to some both unnatural and sinful. It win be a sufficient reply, perhaps, to say that exceptional circumstances defy ordinary modes of interpretation. We act wisely as we suspend judgment upon individual actions in the abstract, and consider them in the fight of surrounding circumstances and Divine purposes. We are now in the presence of a great soul whose vast proportions defy all the narrow measurements of popular conventionalism, and is a standing reproof to those mere appearances of grief and simulations of sorrow, and those extravagant habiliments of mourning, which are too often deeper than the grief they are supposed to represent. The full beauty and the whole worth of the Ezekiel conduct expresses itself in one word, "Obedience." To blame the prophet for what he did is to blame the Almighty who commanded it. It was at the bidding of the great God that he bare with such magnanimity so tremendous a loss. "He that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city" (Proverbs 16:32). The man who can hold in check, and keep in obedience to the high behests of heaven, all the powers, passions, and tender susceptibilities of the soul, has reached an altitude far beyond the level of common mortals. Look at this grand old prophet whose wild eye flings off the tear, and decks itself with the full blaze of the day of God. There he stands in the attitude of strength, dressed for action, and not muffled for lamentation. If, then, you can attribute the prophet's spirit and conduct to weakness or inhumanity, it must be because we view the same things from different standpoints. I confess that, personally, I am awed into littleness in presence of a soul so great. To my mind, the whole thing is explained, and, the mystery cleared up, in the doctrine of a future life. Deny this, and death is an unmitigated sorrow and an irretrievable loss, without a ray to relieve the darkness or a prospect to cheer the soul. (M. Brokenshire.) (A. B. Davidson, D. D.) John Bright sat mourning in his sitting room; life was cold and drear to him, the body of his young wife lay dead in the room above. Richard Cobden, clear-sighted, enthusiastic, and withal practical, came to his friend, and said: "You have your sorrow; there are more sorrows in the world than yours; your opportunity has come; people are hungering in this England of ours. Come with me, and we will never rest until the Corn Laws are repealed." I am not making a political application of that utterance, but we do know that England was wretched and hungry, and that the lot of the poor was sadder than it is even today. That lion-hearted pair went out and fought in the midst of obloquy, misunderstanding, contempt, and persecution, until victory crowned their efforts, and in 1846 the tribune of the people and his friend rejoiced over their victory.(R. J. Campbell, M. A.) Sorrow is here set before us not as personal chastisement, but as part of the prophet's training for his work. Duty is often incompatible with the indulgence of personal sorrow. Business arrangements, public obligations, engagements that must be fulfilled, often summon men from the house of death; sorrow must give way to necessity.1. The prophet's insight necessitates a discipline of peculiar sorrow. In some states of the body men's sensitiveness is acute even to suffering. They see too much, their hearing and sense of smell are too keen. In other states of the body the perception is too intense; the feeling of time and space and weight is enlarged till minutes prolong themselves, and vast abysses open out, and there is a sense of overwhelming pressure. Poets. philosophers, who see in all around them the moving of an eternal life, are not, light-hearted men. To the prophet, who sees not only life everywhere, but God; who recognises not order only, but moral purpose; who sees the infinite holiness and the unerring judgment: there is oppressiveness even in his joy. But he must see the largeness of God's designs and the certainty of His operation before he can proclaim them; the word of the Lord is to him a burden before it is a word. The prophet sees, moreover, not only God, but man; he has insight into the human heart, its self-will and wickedness. 2. The prophet's relation to men involves a peculiar discipline of sorrow. He utters his message, and it is disregarded. He is treated as a vain dreamer, a raver; then as an actor, whose skill brings together affecting images which may relieve the tedium of an idle hour. There is no distress so great as to have earnestness thus trifled with; to feel for men an apprehension which they will not share. Moreover, it exposes the prophet to severe strokes from God. God will arouse men; if the prophet's words cannot make them thoughtful, He seeks to touch them by the prophet's sufferings. The common saying that a man's life is more efficacious than his teaching, is of wide application. 3. His discipline of sorrow fits the prophet for speaking to men in another way: God had a remnant in Israel, a remnant who should be won. If you are to comfort mourners, you must have seen affliction; you must know the smart of the wounds you seek to heal You desire to strengthen the faith of the doubting; one way of doing this is to fight your own doubts and gather strength. You would appeal to the tempted; you must know what temptation means, must vanquish the lying spirit, the worldly spirit, the spirit of unrighteousness; in manic a battle, hard "pressed and. sorely won, must come the skill you seek. (A. Mackennal, D. D.) Homilist. I. The departure of dear friends by death IS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE GREAT GOD. Death is not the result of accident, necessity, or any chemical or mechanical force, but of the will of God. This doctrine teaches three practical lessons.1. The grand aim of life should be to please God. 2. The grand aim in bereavement should be to acquiesce in the will of God. 3. Our grand impression at every deathbed should be that the Lord is at hand. II. The departure of dear friends by death is THE SOURCE OF GREAT SORROW. Sorrow for the dead indicates — 1. Something good in human nature. It always springs out of love, and love is Divine. 2. Something wrong in human nature. "As by one man sin entered into the world," etc. Man loves because he is human; man's love turns into agony because he is sinful. 3. Something wanted for human nature. (1) (2) III. The departure of dear friends by death SHOULD NOT INTERFERE WITH MORAL DUTY. 1. Because indulgence in sorrow confers no benefit on others; the fulfilment of duty does. 2. Because indulgence in sorrow injures self, and the fulfilment of duty does good to self. 3. Because indulgence in sorrow does not suspend the claims of duty. (Homilist.) I. THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF DEATH IS GOD. The secondary causes may be any of the thousand ills that flesh is heir to, but God says, "I take away the desire of thine eyes with a stroke." "The Lord is at hand" in every death scene. II. THE DEATH OF A WIFE IS THE CAUSE OF GREAT SORROW. This world is called a "vale of tears," and rightly so; and if there is one place where tears flow faster than any other, it is where a loving wife and precious mother lies cold in death. Where there is most love there is keenest sorrow. III. THE DEATH OF A WIFE SHOULD NOT INTERFERE WITH THE HUSBAND'S DUTY. Though we may feel our hearts breaking, though all sunshine seems shut out, and the world can never be the same to us again, yet the full discharge of life's duties should be the most pressing thought. A sorrow that unmans us is evil. Duty-doing is grief-assuaging and God-honouring. (Homiletic Review.) 1. Some loved object of human relationship whom with "the body you worship." 2. Some dazzling dream of ambition that with the mind you grasp at; or, 3. Some ideal condition of spirituality that with the soul you aspire after. II. WHY IS THE DESIRE OF THINE EYES THUS TAKEN AWAY AT A STROKE BY A WISE AND JUST GOD? 1. To wean you from setting your affections too much upon perishable, disappointing earthly objects. 2. To develop in you the passive virtues of patience, fortitude, etc., which men are so prone to sacrifice to the active virtues, such as courage, etc., which they are compelled to display in the battle of life. 3. To make you look to eternal love, to eternal grandeur, and to eternal happiness to be realised hereafter in the presence of God, as alone calculated to satisfy the aspirations of your own immortal spirits. III. IN WHAT SPIRIT SHOULD YOU BEAR THE LOSS WHEN THUS THE DESIRE OF THE EYES IS TAKEN AWAY? 1. Not in a spirit of passionate anger against the Creator for taking away what was His own to give or take away. 2. Not in a spirit of repining, tearful melancholy, weeping fruitlessly for "the things that might have been." 3. Not in a spirit of sullen and voiceless despair, sorrowing "as one without hope." 4. Not in a spirit of affected stoical indifference, gnawed as to the inward heart by the bitterest disappointment, and careful only to hide from the eyes of men all outward signs of sorrow or chagrin. 5. But in a spirit of gentle resignation to, and of full trust in, the providence of God, exclaiming with the patriarch of old, "The Lord," etc. (R. Young, M. A.) 1. The conjugal relation is a very tender and sensible one. It is natural, it is right, it is commendable in a gracious husband to consider and regard his wife as the "desire of his eyes"; as the most valuable of earthly objects. 2. The stroke of death will assuredly part them. Whatever situation we are placed in, however prosperous our circumstances, however successful our pursuits, however harmonious and agreeable our tempers and dispositions, however weighty and numerous our cares, however advantageous our mutual counsels and assistances, and however reluctant we may be to a separation, the stroke will come, and will break in pieces this tenderest of all connections known on earth. 3. Such a stroke is peculiarly painful and calamitous to the surviving husband. It closes forever those dear eyes which have always been observant of what might contribute to his welfare; it gives a fatal dash to those capacities which have been united and exerted in a manner and to a degree scarcely possible in any other, to alleviate her partner's distresses, and advance his joys, as if those joys and distresses of her husband had been her own; it disconcerts their most pleasing schemes, though formed with the most perfect harmony of which mortals are capable, and though pursued with the most glowing ardour. It ought to silence all our murmurings, and excite a holy, humble resignation, to hear our merciful God and Father say, "The stroke is from Me." "Is it not lawful for Him to do what He will with His own?" What He does, and why He does it, we are frequently ignorant now; but, so far as it will contribute to our happiness, or be necessary to justify His proceedings, "we shall know hereafter." It will probably constitute one part of the happiness of saints in heaven to review and admire the dispensations of a wise and gracious God towards them while upon earth. II. A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON THE STROKE OF DEATH, AS IT RESPECTS MANKIND IN GENERAL AND BELIEVERS IN PARTICULAR. 1. Respecting mankind in general.(1) The stroke of death separates the soul and body from each other, and lays the latter in the dust.(2) This stroke is the consequence of sin.(3) It is a stroke that makes no distinctions among men. Grandeur, power, and dignity have, in this case, no respect paid them.(4) The stroke of death removes those on whom it falls from all the pleasures gad enjoyments of time.(5) By this stroke we are deprived of all opportunities to prepare for heaven.(6) The stroke of death is a certain stroke, that calls us to the judgment seat of Christ; in consequence of which our eternal state is irrevocably determined.(7) The time of this stroke is very uncertain. God only knows when it will fall on me, or on any of you. It is sometimes very sudden; and it may be so to any of us. Happy, happy the man who is always prepared for it. 2. Let us consider this stroke as it respects the true believer in particular.(1) The stroke of death translates them from a world of darkness, ignorance, and confusion, to a world of light.(2) By the stroke of death the saints are removed from a world of perplexing controversy and contention, to a world of harmony and peace.(3) This world is continually a state of temptations and defilements; but the true believer is, at death, delivered from it and translated to a state of purity and holiness.(4) The stroke of death delivers the saints from a state of fear and anxiety, and removes them to a world where these shall be known no more.(5) In the present state the children of God are frequently beheld with scorn and contempt by vain, unthinking men of the world, as their Saviour also was in the days of His flesh, and as His most eminent followers and servants have been in all ages. But the stroke of death takes them away from the scorn and derision of men, and they are translated to a world where they shall be advanced to real honour and dignity.(6) This is a state of toil and labour, But when the stroke comes of which we are now speaking, the saints shall be called to eternal rest.(7) While the saints are "at home in the body, they are absent from the Lord"; and consequently deprived of much felicity which is reserved for them; for "in His presence is fulness of joy," etc. And when they are delivered from this corrupt and degenerate world, this joy and these pleasures shall be theirs. III. WHAT PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS ARE DEDUCIBLE? 1. Hence we learn what is the one thing needful, and the folly and danger of neglecting it. Nothing will answer every purpose in life, death, and eternity but the knowledge and enjoyment of Jesus Christ, and salvation by Him. 2. Let me assist your inquiries respecting the way to enjoy this great blessing, and so to be prepared for the stroke of death. 3. From this view of death I call you to praise a merciful God, who has given His dear Son to deliver us from the fear of it, and recommend the blessed Jesus to you all, as your only, all-sufficient support and deliverer in your last trying moments. 4. The pitiable state of those who are practically preferring anything else to an immediate preparation for death. 5. Let all true believers, from hence, lift up an eye of faith, and take a pleasing view of that blessed world where the stroke of death shall be known no more. 6. Be diligent in improving the present moments for God. Employ all the members of your bodies, exert all the capacities of your mind, and all the superfluities of your earthly possessions, to support and advance your Redeemer's interest. Adorn it by a holy conversation; and recommend it to others by every prudent method." 7. Act as in continual expectation of death. 8. Is anything of equal consequence with dying safe? (D. Taylor.) 1. They are various; being derived from different sources.(1) Consanguinity, or oneness of blood (Acts 7:26).(2) Affinity, or matrimonial alliance; such are the most endearing and indissoluble connections of Life (Matthew 19:5).(3) Friendship, or union of hearts, formed by mutual benevolence (1 Samuel 18:1).(4) Piety, or an affectionate concern to promote each other's salvation (Philippians 2:20). 2. They are justly desirable. They are so, because our present state is a state of —(1) Ignorance, and society is favourable to the attainment of useful knowledge (Proverbs 11:14; Proverbs 15:22).(2) Weakness and danger, and society affords help — in bearing burdens — performing duties — and resisting enemies (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).(3) Affliction, and society is productive of mutual comfort (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Psalm 133:1).(4) Probation, and society promotes our eternal interests. This it does by rendering us capable of extensive usefulness (Galatians 6:10); by preserving us from apostasy (Hebrews 3:12, 13), and by exciting us to holy diligence (Hebrews 10:25). Hence we should recollect our obligations to God for relative comforts. Our subject also teaches us the wisdom of employing our social influence for pious purposes. II. THESE ENJOYMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO THE STROKE OF DEATH. 1. The stroke of death should be expected by us all. However useful to society, beloved by mankind, dear to God — all must die (2 Samuel 14:14; Ecclesiastes 3:21; Hebrews 9:27). 2. We should seriously prepare for the stroke of death; because death is awfully important in its effects. 3. Our preparation for this stroke should be habitual. We should immediately seek this preparation, and very carefully retain it, because the time when this stroke will be laid on us is to us unknown (Matthew 24:44). 4. The saint's recovery from this stroke should be anticipated, by faith in God's promises (Hosea 13:14; Philippians 3:21), and hope of renewed communion with saints in heavenly glory (1 Thessalonians 5:8-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17; Revelation 1:18). This reminds us — III. THE STROKE OF DEATH IS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF GOD. 1. The death of our pious friends is only a removal; it is not annihilation — they still live with God (1 Thessalonians 5:10), and to Him (Luke 20:38). They are taken away from toil, sorrow, and danger (Revelation 7:16), to complete rest, happiness, and security (Revelation 14:13). 2. They are taken away by God; by God heir proprietor, who had a right to dispose of them (Matthew 20:15); by God their rewarder, who has taken them to crown them (2 Timothy 4:7, 8); by God our benefactor, who kindly indulged us with their society (1 Timothy 6:7) Hence His hand in their removal should be piously acknowledged, both with resignation and gratitude (Job 1:21). (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) II. A DISSOLUTION MUST TAKE PLACE, AND WE ARE TO EXPECT EVEN THE NEAREST AND DEAREST FRIENDS SOON TO BE TAKEN FROM US. All the mutual offices of love and friendship must cease. All the pleasures and benefits arising from their society must be suspended. No longer can we take sweet counsel together, and go to the house of God in company; no longer unite in our prayers and praises at the family altar. III. THE STROKE WHICH SEPARATES BETWEEN FRIENDS AND KINDRED IS SOMETIMES SUDDEN AND UNEXPECTED. Not a few even in early life, and to all appearance in the full possession of health and vigour, are in a moment struck by the arrows of death, though they themselves and their friends had presumed that they had years to come. It would be our wisdom and happiness often to think of this, not only to quicken us in preparing for our own dissolution, but to prepare us for the loss of our friends and kindred, and engage us to improve the opportunities we have for our mutual benefit while they are continued; and to prevent that immoderate attachment to them which would be the source of excessive grief and surprise on their sudden removal. IV. IT IS GOD WHO TAKES THEM AWAY. "Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke." In which words the Lord calls his attent on not only to the event, but to Himself as the agent. And He is equally the agent in the events which befall us and our friends, whatever be the instruments or second causes. That it is God who takes away our comforts as well as gives them is what none can doubt who have any just acquaintance with His holy word and believe what it teaches. We are there told, in general, that all things are of God, that a sparrow does not fall to the ground, and much less any human being, without our heavenly Father. "Behold," says Job, "He takes away, and none can hinder Him." Such a stroke ought to be felt, and it may be lamented as a heavy affliction. But when you consider the hand from whence it comes, you will see reason not only to submit, but to adore; and duty to Him requires that you should. V. GUARD AGAINST IMMODERATE GRIEF. Were it not for the hope of the Gospel — the hope of a blessed immortality beyond the grave — death would indeed be a most formidable object. When our friends leave the world, if we believed that there was an utter end of them, and they sunk into an eternal sleep, the thought of parting with them would be terrible. But if, when our dear friends die, we are fully persuaded that they live to God — if, when they are taken from us, we are well assured that they are gone to be with Christ, which is far better — we can have no just cause to mourn on their account; and if we have a Gospel foundation of hope that we are following them to glory, and shall ere long meet them there, whatever reason we have to mourn our own present loss, our sorrows ought to be mingled with joy.Conclusion — 1. Let us bless God for those dear friends and relatives who are deservedly the desire of our eyes. 2. Let us remember how precarious the continuance of them is, as well as of all earthly enjoyments, and be prepared for the loss of them. 3. Nor let us forget that this change is as likely to be effected by our removal as by that of our friends. 4. Under all the afflictions of this mortal life, and especially amidst our sorrows for our departed friends, let us bless God for the comforts of the Gospel; and let us never cast them from us, but by faith make application of them to ourselves. (S. Palmer.) 1449 signs, purposes The Jews Make all Ready for the War; and Simon, the Son of Gioras, Falls to Plundering. That the Ruler Should not Set his Heart on Pleasing Men, and yet Should Give Heed to what Ought to Please Them. The End How those who Fear Scourges and those who Contemn them are to be Admonished. How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. " The Seventh Commandment Ezekiel |
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