Ezekiel 22:17-22

The figure here is very striking of dross, the refuse of the coarser metals, brass, iron, lead, and tin; whereas Jerusalem in her holy days had been of the purest gold. The very streets were full of silver as stones in the days of Solomon. But, alas! it must be now said with the Prophet, How is the gold become dim how is the most fine gold changed? 1 Kings 10:27; Lamentations 4:1. Reader! think what a striking representation this is also, in a spiritual sense, in the ruin wrought in our whole nature by the fall! Think also, at the same time, how blessed the change wrought in the circumstances of the Church, in the recovery of His redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ.