The Green Forest tribune., 1911-09-29

Nebuchadnezzar from Jerusalem; when 10000 were carried to Babylon with King Jehoiachin.
 The prophecy of this lesson was written B. c. 5O2. five years later.
 The first 24 chapters of Ezekiel, concern ing the destruction of Jerusalem were written during the years 592-5SS. B. c. 5SS was the beginning of the last siege of Jerusalem which ended in its complete destruction.
 PLACE-The Book of Ezekiel was writ ten at Tel-abib (- CornhilD on the river Chebar, one of the large irrigating canals of Babylonia, running across the plain between the Euphrates and the Tigris.
 Ezekiel's name means God strengthens" He was a priest, the son of Buzi, probably a family name. He was also one of the greatest of the prophets. He was probably 30 years old when he began to prophecy in B. c. 597, which would put the date of his birth in Josiah's reign, about the time Jeremiah began to prophecy, and five years before Josiah's great reformation and the finding of the book of the law
 He was a married man; and the sudden death of his wife was made by divine instruction a lesson to the peo- pie. He went on with his work with a broken heart, but an unbroken pur- pose" He was man of power and courage, holding his face as adamant against wrong but attractive and per suasive in encouraging the people to hoir
 He was a man of great imagination, using simile, allegory, parables in ac- tion, symbols, symbolic actions. He saw visions, and dreamed dreams. He had spiritual experiences. But he was also the most practical of men. Ezekiels model heroes were Noah. Job, Daniel They all had lost their world, but Noah inaugurated a new world; Job ended by seeing God ip the whirlwind." Daniel did great things for his native country in his new country. Ezekiel was an exile, but in that exile was a mighty force in the renewal of his native land.
 The God of Israel was an invisible God, without any representation to the senses. It was hard for the peo- pie to realize his existence and his presence. It is hard for us, but much harder for them. The temple and It's ritual were an aid. Gods works in nature were his manifestation. The visible effects of obedience, and dis obedience, were revelations of Gods nature. But times of trial and dis aster at first hid his face from them as storm clouds hide the sun.
 Hence in this darK period Ezekiel was taught to express Gods presence, power, glory, goodness, providence, by apocalyptic symbols, i. e., by symbols which expressed ideas, but could not be put into any pictorial form which might lead to idolatry The first chapter is a vision to these symbols to make God real to the people; as to Job God made himself known in the whtrlwind and the storm.
 Nothing Is more suitable than that the voice of God should come from the whirlwind. For air, wind, is one of the chosen symbols of God working through his holy spirit. as at Pente cost. It is invisible, as are the great natural forces of the earth
 The prophet was presented with a Hebrew roll, the form in which their books were made, and was bidden to eat 1t. The roll represented the word of God, his message to Israel. The prophets eating the roll meant that he was to become so saturated with Gods message that 1t would become a part of his very being This gives us some guidance in forming a prop CT estimate of what is involved in in spiration. The prophet is to absorb into himself what is given him from above, and then give it out with his own lips and in his own language.
 Tt was in my mouth as honey for sweetness that is it was good in it. self. But afterwards it became bitter to his people, so that God made his face as adamant harder than flint, fol all the house of Israel were impudent and hard-hearted
 Ezekiel welcomed the watchman on the walls. He went from trance to action, coming out of the trance, like Peter on the housetop when he went down to the messengers of Cornelius And I went in bitterness of my spirit" sharing with God his righteous indignation against Israel, or the bitterness of having to deliver such an awful message as he uttered in the following chapters, to his friends and neighbors and country. men. So that when he came to them, he remained there astonished, in a stupor of grief, seven days.
 The watchman's duty is clearly set forth. He must warn the people of their danger as by the voice of God While his business was to warn, the results were with God and the free will he has given his children.
 God warns us in love in various ways that we may not go heedlessly on to our ruin. He gives warnings in our bodies, by sicknesses, pains and weakness, against courses that will ruin the body, and to teach us to pre- pare for death. God gives warnings to the soul, by the bangs of con. science, by troubles and affiictions, to keep us from losing our souls He warns our country. by disconte1t, in ternal commotions, by strikes, out breaks, anarchies, war, against the expressions. inequalities, luxury, ire ligion, injustice, which will bring final I