I desire to call attention to portions of Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah; namely, the ninth chapters of each of these books. Humiliation is ours on account of failure -manifold, multiplied failure: confession naturally flows from a humbled people; these portions strikingly show the acceptability to God of confession from such: They also show, each one of them, some truth peculiar to itself, in addition to the point common to them all.
After looking at them, we may turn, a little more generally, to the testimony of Scripture upon this subject. It is one, I conceive, which is very closely connected with the glory of God, as with the peace and safety of our own souls in such a day as this. If walking with God and led by the Spirit of Christ, in a day of profession great and wide-spread, consciousness of our own failure in testimony for God ought to have humbled us, and demands confession from us.
Ezekiel 9
ZE 9{It pleased God to set Himself once in headship to a people upon earth. Jehovah was supreme in government as King, and was pleased also to avow Himself as the God, of the nation Israel. National religion was then Divine. Jehovah had- taken a nation, as such, to Himself, and had His place of worship there as the avowed God of that nation. They failed at the very outset, in making a calf and in feasting before it; and so forfeited, at once, all claim to the blessings of the relationship. God, however, was pleased to try whether they would enjoy the blessing, as the free gift of Himself as Head, spite of the failure. Their history shows how they would not do so-and how, even, all the judgments which their continued willfulnesses brought upon them, were ineffectual to awaken them to an abiding sense of God's patience and mercy, and great goodness. Without giving up His claim over Israel-rather upon the very ground that He would not give it up-the Lord transferred the seat of power in government upon earth from Israel to the Gentiles.
Government had from the days of Noah, when God put the sword into Noah's hand, been an ordinance of the Lord for blessing upon earth-His means of keeping evil in check. This same ordinance was acted upon afterward, though differently applied, in nations. While God was present as King, ruling in Israel, the nation was of course all-mighty, and the power all-wisely used for His own glory. But He could refuse, as He did, to keep Israel at the top of all nations, the only invincible people that ever really existed; and could plunge them under the stream of their own transgressions, by making a deposit of power for supremacy upon earth in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. In such case, the beast's heart would show itself in the use made of the power, as Divine Wisdom had shown itself in the use of the power while leading Israel out of Egypt and into Canaan. In raising up Nebuchadnezzar, and giving Jerusalem into his hand, God did show that His tenure of Israel was separable from their possession of the land, or having the privileges of supreme power and access to a temple where He dwelt. The seat of power was in a dynasty or series of dynasties raised up from among the nations; but thus also separated from the mass of nations into a place of responsibility peculiar to itself, and not resting upon all nations. Israel was still the Lord's nation; but the king that could reign righteously was not come, and the seat of governmental power among the nations was not in Jerusalem. The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which were brought away from Jerusalem into the land of Shinar, and brought into the treasure-house of the god of the king of Babylon. The temple was thus spoiled; for Israel had dealt as treacherously with the Lord as the God of Israel, as they had with Him as their Ruler. After this, and after the restoration (to which we will refer presently), of both return to the land and renewal of worship, and also of dwelling in Jerusalem, we find the Lord opening to His servant Ezekiel the horrid evil of the Jews in Jerusalem, and the judgment of the Lord consequent thereupon.
Ezek. 8 shows us what the council-hall of wickedness was in the holy city of Jerusalem. The Lord shows to His servant Ezekiel the temple, as the high court of wickedness. The Lord's word is, that to provoke Him to go far away from His sanctuary, they wrought abominations—idolatry—figure-worship—the seventy men of the ancients offered incense in thick clouds, every man in the chambers of his imagery, saying, " The Lord seeth us not; He hath forsaken the earth"-the women wept for Tammuz-and, between the porch and the altar, five-and-twenty men worshipped the sun-and the house of Judah, having filled the land with violence, returned to provoke the Lord to jealousy, and even put the branch to the nose.
The Lord was not owned in the temple of His grace, though there. He announces then to the prophet, that He will deal in fury with the people, and that His eye should not spare, neither would He have pity; yea, He would not hear them should they cry to Him with a loud voice.
Such was the crisis where we find the ninth chapter of Ezekiel's prophecy. In the midst of judgment the Lord remembers mercy. His prophet who had sought to walk with Him and to serve, is admitted to the privilege of knowing what the Lord is about to do, and used of the Lord as the means for recording before man the wonderfulness of the ways of the Lord in His dealings with men.
"He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
"And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.
" And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that 1 fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me."
Surely it is better to fall into the hands of the Lord for judgment than into the hands of man. He is merciful-wills not the death of the sinner-and, as the Judge of the whole earth, wills not that the righteous should be as the wicked. In this case the judgment, holy and just, yet little when compared with the sin, was about to be poured out: they that should execute it stood ready to do so, but grace stayed the blow till inquisition had been made for those who, in the scene, had separated themselves from the evil-such must be marked for preservation. In what was their separation marked? They sighed and cried for all the abominations that were wrought around them. The distinctive mark was not "who have not done likewise," or "who have protested or done their utmost against such sins," but "that sigh and that cry, for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." It is remarkable, in one who is in the midst of evil, as an expression of similarity of spirit with the Lord, when decreeing judgment, and saying, "I will not
pity nor spare." "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them."
The Spirit of an insulted despised God about to take judgment in wrath will, as in any one who has the mind of the Lord in the midst of the doomed scene, oft sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done around them. The blessed Lord wept over Jerusalem. "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side!'
Ten righteous persons in the city would have saved the city where Lot dwelt. When it was destroyed, the Lord remembered Abraham, and saved- Lot and his two daughters; while a tremendous judgment upon his wife marked the value of implicit obedience upon an escaping people.. In this chap. 9, while the Lord said he would have no pity, and charged those that executed the sentence (ver. 5, 6), " Let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women:.. and begin at my sanctuary." They that had the mark upon them, as to be spared, were those that sighed and that cried. The prophet's zeal and love for that which on earth bears the name of the Lord, led the prophet, on receiving the revelation, to a kindred expression. " And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?"
If that which bears upon it the Lord's name in our day, is looked upon by any as in any sense the Lord's house, or responsible for His glory, have such hearts to sigh and to cry for the Worldliness, and carnality, and idolatry found in it-have they hearts as loving it to fall on the face and intercede for it that the moldering and crumbling which is going on in it may be stayed. Sure I am that they who talk of it as the Great House, and believe it morally incapable of meeting the Lord's claim may well tax their own hearts with the questions, Do I indeed sigh and cry for the state of that which is dead to God upon earth?-do I love the members of Christ body, the church, and intercede for them amid the desolations around?
No hard spirit of judging others-no using of the light of prophecy for individual self-exaltation and contempt of others, are consistent with such a position. Entire separation from the evil (from the spirit as well as practice of it) is imperative-is but self preservative-when the Lord's judgments are in hand: but if we have Christ's Spirit-while we purge ourselves from all idolatry (1 John v. 23); while we seek to bring every high and lofty imagination into captivity (2 Cor. 10:44(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (2 Corinthians 10:4)); while we guard, with all anxiety, against human plans, human energy, and every energy save the Divine-let the heart be free to pour forth earnest affections and feelings; let it be large and tender-if it might be so, as large and tender as was the blessed Lord's in His day. I speak not for the sake of the effect upon others; but for our own sakes, and for the sake of the honor and glory of the God whose we are and whom we serve, and for the name's sake both of our Lord Jesus who has called us, and of His Spirit who leads us.
I fear greatly we are not sufficiently clear from the evil our own selves, to have the full display of the broken spirit of the sigher and cryer-of the zeal of the servant of the Lord.
Daniel 9
AN 9{In this chapter we have as deep and beautiful an expression as ever flowed from the heart of a mere man: it flowed, in all its tone of deep abasement, out of a soul that had just gleaned from the prophetic page promises of mercy about to dawn.
" In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto -the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
And it led to a fuller revelation (of the Seventy Weeks) being made to the prophet direct from God.
"And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him. And He hath confirmed His words, which He spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth: for we obeyed not His voice. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
"O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and. cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name."
Blessed is the recognition, here, of the character of the Lord (ver. 4); of the entire failure of the people (ver. 5); of their perverseness against multiplied testimonies (ver. 6); as is also the unfolding of what magnified and made more striking their sin, together with the appropriation of it all-the sin of all-to himself [Daniel] in common with all Israel, wherever any member of it might be found (ver. 7-14); and then how freely flows forth the fervent supplication! (ver. 16-19).
Such ought to be the effect of the perception, through faith, of God's being at hand to fulfill the promises of His free grace. And where such living sympathy with the blessed Revealer above, and the people revealed to below, exists-surely the first taste of prophetic testimony, embittering the belly as it may, will lead on to fuller and deeper understanding of the hopes which await us.
The position, occupation, service, life, of one connected with the people of the Lord, have a Divine futurity stamped upon them. If we are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, how shall we best share the character of Him from whom that Spirit has come to us? The glory of God-His purposes of grace (which the failure of the people cannot set aside)-deep shame as to the failure, in every part of it, of that which we find ourselves connected with-failure in the presence and in contrast with such purposes of grace-shall they not form the heart and mind and life, and give distinctiveness of position, occupation, and service to those that have them? May the Lord grant that the icy hardness of His people now may be judged by themselves in the light of His presence and love; in the presence, too, of the failure as much deeper in that which was placed of God as His witness at Pentecost, as its privileges and blessings and responsibilities were higher than those of Daniel's people.
What a place was Daniel's in his day! The nation of the Lord under judgment of the Gentile statue-himself in the highest part of the oppressor's court, through faithfulness to God-placed there to receive and speak out and record the Lord's thoughts of judging that which, used by Him as a means of judging Israel, had exalted itself and sinned against Him. The people of the Lord are not of Babylon. Of another origin, their interest is in that which its existence and power reproach. If they keep themselves unspotted from the world, they will find light as to good things to come their portion, and testimony to it their duty. But they cannot separate themselves from what is of God, and they must bear its shame as their own before Him.
Nehemiah 9
EH 9{The grand subject of the book of Nehemiah is, the restoration of the city to dwell in, at the time of " the restoration."
When the wall was finished in the twenty-and-fifth day of the month Elul-.the work was obviously wrought of God-the doors were set up, and the porters, singers, and Levites appointed, and the care of the gates and walls appointed (chap. 6). Then came the reckoning of the genealogies (chap. 7). In chap. 8 we have the reading of the law to the people. A joyous feast, though the hearts were broken, followed (ver. 9-12): then the feast of tabernacles, with its gladness (ver. 14-18). Chapter 9 begins with-The twenty-fourth day of the same month there was a solemn assembly of the people, with fasting, and sackcloth, and earth upon them; and the day was spent in hearing the law of the Lord read, and in confession and worship. The Levites, Jeshua, etc., called to "stand up and bless the Lord," etc. In the recital, for the people, of their outpouring, we find a remarkable tracing-out of the acts and ways of the Lord from the beginning, mixed up with the dark contrast of the returns Israel had made to Him. The creation (ver. 6); the call of Abram, and the change of his name, and gifts to him (ver. 7, 8); the mercy to Israel in deliverance from Egypt (ver. 9-11); His dealings with them; the pillar of guidance; Sinai; the Sabbath, the law, the manna, water, the promise of the land (ver. 12-15). From ver. 16 we have Israel's returns for such goodness-proud dealings, stiffened necks, refusal to hearken, return in heart to Egypt; God's graciousness; the molten calf; God's patient continuance of mercy through forty years, and in their entrance into the land, and blessing and multiplication in it-to ver. 25. Their wickedness (ver. 26); judgment and deliverance (ver. 27); wickedness, judgment, and deliverance (ver. 28); the contrast of the character of the Lord with that of Israel in His triumphing in grace over their ways (ver. 29-35).
Verses 36-38 give the peculiarity of the actual position-
"Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it: and it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it."
Though the Lord's people, they were, through sin, in the hand of an adversary, and had to own that it was of the Lord's grace that they were permitted even thus to be in their land and in the beloved city, Jerusalem. How fallen that city from what it was in the days of Solomon! How different the aspect and position of the people from the time when under the Prince of Peace! As to themselves, their state was, though one of restoration, humbling enough: to their hearts as Jews, to whom the promise of the Messiah belonged, their position had deeper and better blessing: it was, in that point of view, not the comparison drawn between Shushan and Jerusalem-or between Jerusalem in its actual state and in a past state of glory-but it was the renewed taste to their souls of the unwavering faithfulness of God to His promises: to Him Jerusalem was still an object of delight- the city of the great King-His self-chosen city of habitation-metropolis yet to be, of the whole earth.
In the presence of all this goodness on His part, and evil, vile requital, on theirs, they renewed the covenant with the Lord-to walk in his law as given to Moses (chap. 10:29), and to be a separate and peculiar people to Him (ver. 30, 31., etc.).
How should the slipped feet of a fallen people get a firm footing in renewed blessing, save by humiliation and confession-by the recognition that, spite of their own evil doings, the Fountain of Goodness remains pure, and that God can shame man by pouring out blessing even in the midst of failure-blessing, however, of this kind, it will always be found, is of such kind as points onward to the glory to come, and which cannot be rightly enjoyed apart from the anticipations of what is to come. Let its connection with that which is to come be forgotten, and the heart must feel its contrast with what is gone before, or the presence of thorns of judgment which still remain. But if pointing onward, how shall the glory to come be thought of, be brought to mind, and be better tasted through the present mercy! And can this be, without deep self-loathing and humiliation being produced in the soul? Sure I am, that those who look into the glory to come, or look to Jesus as He is, will find enough to make them bow the head, as having had their hearts already bowed down by the taste of the rich, full, free, unmerited grace which presents such scenes before them as theirs-their very own -on the bright to-morrow of the Lord.
Ezra 9
ZR 9{As the great work of Nehemiah, the governor, is the rebuilding of the city, so the great work recorded in the book of Ezra, the scribe and priest, is the previous rebuilding of the temple.
The second chapter shows (ver. 61-63) the presence of the children of the priests, and the decree as to those who could not spew their genealogies; (68-70) the offerings, of the chief of the fathers, for the house of the Lord; (chap 3:2, 3) the setting of the altar, point of access to God, upon its base and the offering of burnt-offerings; (4, 5) the keeping of the feast of tabernacles, and of, all the set feasts and ordinances; (9-13) the
setting forward of the workmen in the house of the Lord-the laying of the foundation of the temple-and the different effect it produced on those present, according to their experience; then (in chap. 4) the various acts of opposition of the adversaries, round about, to the workmen by feigned friendship (2-4); by hired counselors (5); by accusations (6); then by accusation of the city, as a rebellious and bad city (7-16); with the king's answer, and its result, the work stood still.
In chap. 5, we have Haggai and Zechariah prophesying (verse 1); Zerubbabel and Jeshua beginning to build the house of God (verse 2). This moves fresh difficulty, but it could not cause them to cease, for the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews. The opposition of Tatnai, the governor, had, however, tried their faith. His letter to Darius drew forth, from the God of faith, an answer from Darius (other than the adversary desired) that the people did well to build, and were to be helped in every way.
Note, here, that Tatnai did but his duty as caring for his master's interest; and that the sanction of Darius, as given, while it spoke of present mercy from God, told of Israel's failure and captive state (chap. 5:3, to chap. 6:13).
The power and value of the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah is again referred to (verse 14); as, also, the building and finishing of the House, "according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes" (verse 14). The dedication of the house is kept (ver. 16, 17); and the passover and feast of unleavened bread (19-22).
Here (in chap. 7) Ezra is introduced in full, with his description and commission from Artaxerxes. In chap. 8 we have his deliberate gathering of the chief fathers (1-14); of the people and priests; his seeking and obtaining Levites (16-20). Then, his renewal of strength in humiliation and confession, " Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated of us." His giving in charge what had to be conveyed (24-30); with the record of their journeying mercies, safe arrival, etc. (31-36).
This brings us down to chap. 9.
"Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, 'the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass."
This gives the burden of the confession. The effect upon the prophet is very deep; as ever ought to be the case, on the discovery to a holy mind of an ungrateful return having been made to the God of mercy (see ver. 3-5).
The confession follows.
"And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bond-men; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. Now, therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth forever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this; should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O Lord God of Israel, thou art, righteous for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this."
And the prayer was heard, and the confession accepted: for in chap. 10 we find the hearts of the people brought to recognize the evil and to seek to remedy it.
What distinguishes earth of these prophets' testimonies to the value of confession is plain enough.
EZEKIEL, Prophet of God's Strength. He sighs and cries for abominations wrought in the temple in Jerusalem; prays for a remnant to be spared.—No direct answer in full till chap. 11:17-21.
DANIEL, Prophet of God's Judgment. His confession takes in the sins of all, whithersoever scattered; prays for restoration of the sanctuary, city, and people.-Answer: The end of the evil is decreed and measured.
NEHEMIAH, Prophet of God's Comfort (in the restoration of the city). Confession, in a resume of the detailed thread of God's goodness, and their sins from the beginning till then; the covenant signed with the Lord.
EZRA, Prophet of God's Help. The temple rebuilt; confession of the defilements; the strange wives and mixed seed put away.
The confession in these four cases is not "of" man or "to" man; neither is it the bewailing of the individual inconsistencies of the confessor. It is in each case the simple and heartfelt sympathy with both the glory of a gracious God and the sorrows of a failed erring testimony, in which their own lots were respectively inseparably bound up; the utterance of a spirit-led servant, or servants, of God. Had they been walking carelessly and heedlessly themselves, they never could have breathed such thoughts; and because occupied with God's glory and their companions blessing, their own hearts were kept from wandering; for both may be true. Present failure unfits for present sympathy with God and His people; and present sympathy with God and His people preserves from individual failure.
(To be continued.)