_Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations._ VILE INGRATITUDE I. Let us consider our iniquities--I mean those committed since conversion, those committed yesterday, and the day before, and today--and let us see their sinfulness in the light of what we were when the Lord first looked upo... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite._ HIEROGLYPHICS OF TRUTH I. Man is essentially religious. Religion in the heart of man is something that pertains to the land of Canaan. It has not been invented by man, or created in his soul by human science or culture: it is not a product of e... [ Continue Reading ]
_None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee._ EZEKIEL’S DESERTED INFANT I. A survey of the misery of man’s estate. The verse presents to us an infant exposed to die. All the common offices that were necessary for its life and health have been forgotten. 1. At... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine._ TWO IMMUTABLE, THINGS Biographies are generally interesting, if they are biographies; that is to say, if the events of the person’s life are truly told; but the most interesting biography to... [ Continue Reading ]
_I clothed thee also with broidered work._ THE CLOTHING OF GOD’S PEOPLE See with what matchless generosity the Lord provides for His people’s apparel. 1. They are so arrayed that the Divine skill is seen producing an unrivalled broidered work, in which every attribute takes its part and every Div... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou hast also taken thy fair Jewels of My gold._ THE DEGRADING NATURE OF SIN Manton says, “If you saw a man labouring in filthy ditches, and soiling himself as poor men do, would you believe that he was heir-apparent to a crown, called to inherit a kingdom? Who will believe in your heavenly calli... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have stretched out My hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee._ THE TYRANNY OF SATAN To be “delivered unto the will of them that hate us”--this seems given as amongst the most oppressive of calamities--the judgment which Go... [ Continue Reading ]
_How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things._ THE WEAK PLACE Three great errors of the day will stand corrected if due attention be paid to our text. I. That a man’s life may be irregular and yet the man’s heart be good. Here is a man who has little or no sense... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pride, fulness of head, and abundance of idleness._ THE CONFLICT IN A LUXURIOUS AGE 1. We must be on our guard against the suggestions of pride and self-complacency, by endeavouring to form as humble an estimate as possible of our own powers and works. We cannot better the world but by bettering... [ Continue Reading ]
_Neither hath Samaria committed half thy sins._ SINNERS COMPARED The sins of one people may be greater than the sins of another; all sins are not equal, nor all sinners equally guilty. Jerusalem’s sins exceeded Samaria’s and Sodom’s; they were not half so great sinners as she was. The more mercies... [ Continue Reading ]
_That thou mayest. .. be confounded in all that thou hast done._ THE HUMILIATION OF SUCCESS The argument of this passage is very original. The prophet reaches past all limitations to the universal grace of God, and not so much by way of revelation as of inference. He has spoken of Israel’s past--ho... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will establish My covenant with thee._ GOD’S PARDONING MERCY I. The way in which God reveals His pardoning mercy. “I will establish My covenant with thee.” The covenant of grace is the grand repository of the redemption of man. It comprehends all the items, all the particulars of Christ Jesus o... [ Continue Reading ]