men, and performed their part on the stage of time, he saw that all vital moisture had departed from them, and that in death they were very dry. Every vestige of life had fled, and no germ awakening the hope, or prognosticating their return to life, could be seen in them. To nature, and to reason's eye, they seemed the irreclaimable trophies of death.

While the prophet's eye rested upon them, and he was musing, in sadness and sorrow, upon their dryness, the inquiry of the Lord fell upon his ear, "Son of man, can these bones live ?" The question he felt far too difficult for him to answer. He shrank from hazarding an opinion; declared such knowledge too high for him; and threw back the responsibility of saying whether these dry bones could live upon the Lord who had proposed it, "O Lord God, thou knowest."

Upon this he was commanded to prophesy upon these dry bones, and invoke them to hear the word of the Lord; and tell them that the Lord would cause breath to enter into them; that he would lay sinews, flesh, and skin upon them; make them live and know that he is the Lord. In prompt and profound obedience to this high and strange behest of heaven, the prophet proceeded to the work; "For," says he, "so I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone." In the prophet's voice there seemed the omnipotence of God; for as it rolled over that valley in which were piled up heaps

of dry bones, dismal for its silence, awful for its stillness and accumulated tokens of death, there burst forth a noise. Influences new, mighty, and portentous seemed to be in operation; a mighty principle of life seemed at work in the realms and citadel of death. The dried remains of mortality felt its power, and began to shake under its influences. It entered these bones strangely, miraculously, communicating to them the power of action and the power of recognition, enabling them to move, and, amidst the confused heaps, unerringly to recognise their fellows, and to come together to a second and everlasting union. Now was heard the thrilling rattling, now was seen the wonderful stirring of the very dry bones, in strange commotion, each with apparent eagerness seeking his fellow from among the vast multitude, and when found rushing together with impetuous fondness, like ardent lovers, who had long been separated. "Bone came to his fellow bone," till each and all had found their previous companion, their previous place, till every human skeleton was perfect. And while the prophet gazed upon these bones, no longer in confused heaps but regularly arranged in their places, as they had been in the days of life, articulated skeletons, lo, the sinews came and bound them all together; bone was again knit to bone, with sinews stronger than before, with sinews immortal, and flesh came upon them, and skin covered them. And now, to the prophet's eye, the valley was full, not of dry human bones, but full of

perfect human forms. There they lay, all completefresh, beautiful, lovely-like so many hushed in sleep, enjoying refreshing repose, waiting in their slumbers for the bright dawning of the cloudless morn, to enter upon the activities of existence. But fresh and beautiful though they looked, clothed in their new flesh and skin, and blushing in more than pristine loveliness, yet there was no life in them.

Again the voice of the Lord fell upon Ezekiel's ear, saying, "Prophesy unto the wind, and say unto the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." The word here translated breath, wind, signifies wind, breath, soul, spirit of man. Each of these is essential to the life of the body, and each of these-not only in the Bible, but in common phraseology-is frequently used as expressive of life. Since the original word has such a variety of shades of meaning, the particular shade must be determined by the sense of the passage in which it occurs.

Now the word wind here doubtless signifies the soul or spirit of man. I believe all interpreters agree in this. The four winds must signify the four cardinal points whence the wind blows. In this sense this expression is used in Scripture. It denotes then far remote and invisible places, places not seen, not explored by mortal eye. It has been remarked, that breath has the same meaning as wind: it signifies spirit, soul of man, as is manifest from the tenth verse,

where it is said that breath or soul entered into them; that is to say, that the spirits in the remote places serving God, at the divine call, returned and entered into the reconstructed or resurrection body. Now, if this interpretation be correct, then, stripped of all shades of Hebrew fertility of language, and rendered in plain English, it would read thus: "Then said he to me, Prophesy to the souls or spirits (that is, to the souls or spirits of these lifeless bodies), prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirits or souls, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the north, south, east, and west, come from the remote and invisible places where ye now dwell, O souls, and enter into these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the souls came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." The bones, now clothed with flesh and skin, the bodies which lay in beautiful perfection, yet lifeless, were again repossessed by the revoked soul, and reanimated by the living principle, stood up, an exceeding great and glorious army-beautiful, resplendent in the divine freshness of their young resurrection.

Hitherto the prophetic style has been kept up, as if all in this vision were literal; the bones literal, the sinews, flesh, skin, souls, all literal, and the souls entering into these bodies, and their rising and standing up, literal. This has been done, not in ignorance that all this has been allegorized, and that the allegorizing has led to very different explanations. Some of

these allegorizers have said that the dry bones symbolized the Jews in Babylonish captivity; that the publication of Cyrus on behalf of the Jews was the shaking of the bones; that the edict published by Darius, in the second year of his reign, removing impediments out of the way, was the clothing of these bones with flesh; and that the mission of Nehemiah, with orders from Artaxerxes to complete the building of the temple, was the entering of life into them. And surely, beyond all controversy, this is allegorical enough; so highly allegorical that its extravagant absurdities are its own refutation. A people in captivity symbolized by dry bones! Edicts of men in authority, by sinews, flesh, and skin! And a command to build the temple and city, by spirits entering into human bodies! Surely this is an interpretation so palpably erroneous, that it is unnecessary to enter into any argumentation to refute it. This is a manner and mystic style of which we have no authenticated instance of the Holy Spirit speaking to the children of men. And besides all this, the Spirit's own interpretation of the vision refutes it, as we shall afterwards see.

Some have made this vision symbolical of Israel's conversion to Christianity. To this view there are also strong objections. It makes dry bones a symbol of unbelieving Jews; flesh and skin a symbol of—it is difficult to say what, holiness, or something else; breath entering into them, conversion or regeneration. Others, again, contend that this is a prophecy concern