_He measured a thousand cubits._ CURIOUS THINGS IN LIFE This chapter is a chapter of measurement. Everything is meted out, as it were, by so many cubits and inches. The voice is very dogmatic:--“This is the north side” (Ezekiel 47:17); “This is the east side” (Ezekiel 47:18); “This is the south sid... [ Continue Reading ]
_Waters to swim in._ WATERS TO SWIM IN I. The first thought of the text concerning the Gospel is this, the idea of abundance. 1. The abundant provision for the removal of sin and for making us accepted in the Beloved. Here is blood most precious, removing every spot, and a righteousness most glor... [ Continue Reading ]
_These waters. .. go down into the desert._ CHRIST AS A RIVER IN THE DESERT Though manhood seems to be a dry place, a salt and barren land, yet in the case of this Man it yields rivers of water,--numberless streams, abounding with refreshment. I. Nature’s drought does not hinder Christ’s coming t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Every thing shall live whither the river cometh._ THE LIFE-GIVING FLYER I. Its spring (Ezekiel 47:1). The river had its spring out of sight; the fountain head was invisible; but it proceeded out of the sanctuary of God. How pointedly this tells of the Holy Spirit, the river of the water of eternal... [ Continue Reading ]
_But the miry places and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt._ THE DANGER OF A FRUITLESS POSSESSION OF RELIGIOUS ADVANTAGES This vision of Ezekiel unrolled the map of the progress of the Gospel. The scene on which he looked down--so dark, so sterile, so lifeless--i... [ Continue Reading ]
_It shall bring forth new fruit according to his months._ OLD TRUTHS AND NEW FORMS It is one proof of the divinity of the Gospel that, while maintaining its own character, unaffected by the changing currents of human speculation, it still adapts itself to the new conditions with which it has to dea... [ Continue Reading ]