SERMON XXVI.

THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES.

LINCOLN'S INN, 1ST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.—June 13, 1852.

EZEKIEL XXXVII., 1—3.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about. And behold there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, "Son of Man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord God, Thou knowest."

WE are naturally curious to know whether two contemporary prophets ever conversed with each other. In Micah we found such evident indications of sympathy with the mind of Isaiah as warranted the supposition that he was his pupil. I cannot trace any signs of a similar relation, or indeed of any personal relation, between Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Though they were passing through the same crisis; though they had both to witness the evils which were destroying their nation; both to share its miseries; though the false prophets were the common enemies of both; yet their circumstances, their character, and their work were entirely distinct, in some points even contrasted.

Serm. XXVI.] THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS.

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Their very differences however show us that they were both alike prophets and priests.

The Book of Lamentations exhibits the spirit of the individual man Jeremiah more transparently than his longer book, which is so mixed up with historical details, with anticipations of a ruin not yet accomplished, with hopes, however faint and soon dispelled, of a national repentance. Most of those whom the prophet had denounced were banished or dead. Men could talk no more about the temple of the Lord, could boast no more that the word of the Lord was with them; the vessel which the potter was shaping had been broken in pieces. The sadness of the prophet, which had been checked sometimes by indignation, sometimes by the consciousness of a word which must still be spoken, of a work which must be done, became complete and absorbing. Heretofore his intense sympathy with his country might seem to be qualified by his lively apprehension of its crimes; now both feelings were blended into one. When he looked upon the desolation of the city, there sat upon his soul a weight of sorrow and evil, as if he were representing his whole people, as if there was no wrong which they had committed, no evil habit which they had contracted, which did not cling to him, for which he was not responsible. And this was no imaginary fictitious state of mind into which he had worked himself. God had made him inwardly conscious of the very corruptions which had destroyed the land. If he had made any fight against them, if they did not actually overpower him and enslave him, this was God's work and not his; the promise of the covenant made with his fathers, which was as good for every one as for himself, was fulfilled to him. And now he was realising the full effect of this discipline.

The third

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HE IS THE PRIEST STILL.

[Serm.

The Lord is

hope in Him.

chapter of the Lamentations, beginning "I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath," contains the climax of his experience. In the memorable passages which follow, the history of a life is gathered up. "I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord; remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance. This I recall to mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, he is filled full with reproach. The Lord will not cast off for ever; but though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men."

Any thing more individual than these utterances it i impossible to conceive; and yet is just by these that one understands the sacerdotal work to which Jeremiah was called. There was no longer any temple. The priests well as the princes had been for the most part carried away by Nebuchadnezzar. But there was a man walking about in the deserted city to which the twelve tribes had come up in the midst of the ruins of the holy place into which the sons of Aaron had gone with the memorial of their names on their breast-plates, who really entered into the meaning