Homilist Ezekiel 3:22 And the hand of the LORD was there on me; and he said to me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you. I. SEASONS OF DEVOUT SOLITUDE ARE NECESSARY IN ORDER TO FREE US FROM THE CORRUPTING INFLUENCE OF SOCIETY. 1. Society has a tendency to stir and strengthen the impulses of our animal nature. 2. Society has a tendency to produce habits of superficial thought. The spicy anecdote, the volatile language, the feathery and the flippant — these are the popular wares. 3. Society has a tendency to destroy the sense of individual responsibleness. 4. Society has a tendency to promote a forgetfulness of God. The lamp of piety will soon flicker and expire in the gusts of social influences, unless we retire to devout solitude for fresh oil to feed its waning fires. II. SEASONS OF DEVOUT SOLITUDE ARE NECESSARY IN ORDER PERSONALLY TO APPROPRIATE THE GOOD THERE IS IN SOCIETY. The conversations of the noblest circles, the most renovating principles of the most Christ-like discourses, will all prove worse than useless if their good effect is allowed to terminate with their first impressions. First impressions, of a holy kind, if they are not cultured by devout reflection, will not only pass away as the early dew goes off in the sun, but will carry off with them something of the freshness and the sensibility of the heart — something that will render the spirit less susceptible to other good impressions. In devout solitude, and nowhere else, can the faculty of discrimination rightly do its work. Here, the mind has its "senses exercised to discern good and evil." The two opposite elements, alas! are so mixed together here, so compounded, that a rigid and searching discrimination is required to separate the chaff from the wheat — the dross from the gold. In the presence of God, evil and good dissolve their connection, and appear in their own distinct essences. The night is divided from the day. Now without this discrimination there can be no true appropriation. In devout solitude, therefore, I can turn the universe to my service; aye, even make enemies serve my purpose. III. SEASONS OF DEVOUT SOLITUDE ARE NECESSARY IN ORDER TO QUALIFY US TO BENEFIT SOCIETY. Nature and the Bible teach that our bounden duty is to "serve our generation" — to endeavour to improve the condition of the race. Three things seem indispensable, and these are dependent upon devout solitude. 1. Self-formed conviction of Gospel truth. Alone with God you can search the Gospel to its foundation, and feel the congruity of its doctrines with your reason, its claims with your conscience, its provisions with your wants. 2. Unconquerable love for Gospel truth. The man only who loves truth more than popularity, fortune, or even life, can so use it as really and lastingly to benefit mankind. In devout solitude you can cultivate this invincible attachment to truth, and be made to feel with Paul, who said — "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ." 3. A living expression of Gospel truth. We must be "living epistles." Our conduct must confirm and illumine the doctrines which our lips declare. It is said of Moses "that the skin of his face shone while he talked with God." But in seasons of devout solitude, our whole nature may grow luminous, and every phase of our character coruscate with "the deep things of the spirit." (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee. |
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