Page 176 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

170 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.

tliou hast said, These two nations and these two coun­
tries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas
Jehovah was there: therefore, as I live, saith the Lord
Jehovah, I will even do according to thine anger, and
according to thine envy which thou hast used out of
thy hatred against them; and I will make myself
known among them, when I have judged thee. And thou
shalt know that I am Jehovah, and that I have heard
all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against
the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate,
they are given us to consume. Thus with your mouth
ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your
words against me: I have heard them/’ (Yer. 10—13.)
Is there no immediate lesson now from these declara­
tions ? Is there no analogy in Christendom ? I believe
there is, and one little considered or conceived among
those w ho are bitterly jealous of what is really accord­
ing to the word and Spirit of God at this day. They
too forget that God is of a truth in His saints, and that
their gathering to the Lord’s name in dependence on the
Holy Ghost’s presence and action is the way in which
to shew our faith, and walk faithfully in this respect.
Yet it would be hard to say what is so hated and
dreaded by worldly Christians, yea, even where they
are real if indifferent or opposed to the truth of God’s
assembly. This is not surprising in the clergy of all
sorts, who naturally dislike what condemns their own
position and existence as wholly unscriptural. It
applies to all who support and defend a state of things
which scripture proves unjustifiable. A bad conscience
rouses the evil of the natural heart ; and no words are
too bitter, no insinuations too vile, against those who