Ezekiel 7:1-4

There is somewhat very striking in the manner of the Prophet's opening this Chapter. It is like an alarm, rousing up and imperiously demanding attention: and not unsimilar to what our Lord represented in the parable. At midnight there was a cry made, behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. Matthew 25:6. Reader! it is always midnight in that soul that is living in a careless state! But I would ask the question of the Reader, (I mean the awakened and truly regenerated Reader), doth it not strike him, as it doth me, that in the midst of these alarms, there is still discoverable somewhat of divine love? Methinks, it is the expostulations of grace, mingled with the just rebukes of a much injured Lord. Under the frowning countenance of the threatened dispensation, we can, I think, discern strong features of mercy. See similar passages, Ezekiel 20:1 throughout. Hosea 11:8.