SCRIPTURE READING EXERCISE—NOTE 3.

THE PROPHETIC BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. (Continued.)

SPECIAL TEXT: "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."—EZEKIEL.

NOTES.

1. Ezekiel: "The author of this book was a native of Jerusalem, and, like Jeremiah, of priestly descent, a member of a family of some standing in the city. When, as would appear, about twenty-five years of age, and after he had seen some service as a priest, he was carried away captive to Babylon along with Jehoiachin and other noble Jews in 599 B. C., and before the destruction of Jerusalem (II Kings xxiv: 15). He must have been a witness of the plundering of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, as recorded in II Kings xxiv: 13, and his prophecies give evidence of a familiar acquaintance with its structure (chap. viii: 5-16, etc.) His place of banishment was Tel-Abib, on the banks of the river Chebar, about 200 miles north of Babylon. Here he settled with his family, and here he established himself as the prophet of the captivity, his house being the rendezvous of all who mourned over the dispersion and sought for the restoration of Israel." (Bagster Bible Helps, p. 39.)

2. The Book of Daniel. Perhaps no book of prophecy is more bitterly criticised than the Book of Daniel, and certainly no book is of more prophetic value.. Its prophecies concerning the rise and fall of empires, with the final supremacy of the kingdom of God as a universal empire, renders it at once one of the most important of prophetic books.

"Porphyry, the assailant of Christianity in the third century, asserted that the book of Daniel was a forgery of the time of the Maccabees (170-164 B. C.), a time when confessedly there were no prophets, written after the events as to Antiochus Epiphanes, which it professes to foretell; so accurate are the details. A conclusive proof of Daniel's inspiration, if his prophecies can be shown to have been before the events. Now we know, from Josephus, that the Jews in Christ's days, recognized Daniel as in the canon. Zachariah, Ezra, and Nehemiah, centuries before Antiochus, refer to it. Jesus refers to it in his characteristic designation, 'Son of man,' Matthew xxiv: 30; Daniel vii: 13); also expressly by name, and as a prophet, in Matthew xxiv: 15 (cf. Matthew xxiv: 21, with Daniel xii: 1, etc.); and in the moment that decided his life (Matthew xxvi: 64) or death, when the high priest adjured him by the living God. Also, in Luke 1:19-26, 'Gabriel' is mentioned, whose name occurs nowhere else in scripture, save Daniel viii: 16; ix: 21. Besides the references to it in Revelation, Paul confirms the prophetical part of it, as to the blasphemous king (Daniel vii: 8, 25; xi: 36), in I Corinthians 6:2; II Thessalonians ii: 3, 4; the narrative part, as to the miraculous deliverances from 'the lions' and 'the fire,' in Hebrews xi: 33, 34. Thus the book is expressly attested by the New Testament on the three points made the stumbling block of neologists—the predictions, the narratives of miracles, and the manifestations of angels." (Commentary, Explanatory and Critical, p. 620.)

A Sample Scripture Reading. At this lesson we introduce the scripture reading exercise referred to in our introduction, and as an illustration of what is meant we give the following as an example of such reading:

The Reader says: "I have selected for this reading the first nine verses of the 19th Psalm of David, universally conceded, I think, to be one at least of the most beautiful psalms of this very remarkable collection of Hebrew poetry. (Reading):

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Let us contemplate a little so much of this Psalm as we have read.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge."

If that could be said of the heavens in the days of David, how much more abundantly can it be said now, when the few thousand stars visible to David's unaided vision, our modern telescopes have to our vision increased to more than forty millions of such stars! Each, as is supposed, a sun, the center of a planetary system—when thus we contemplate the heavens, truly they "declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handywork!" and "day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge!"

Mark how David notes that the heavens speak a universal language:—"there is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." The special revelation to the Hebrews might be locked up from some parts of our human race for centuries in the mystery of the Hebrew language; but in the heavens, as David contemplated them, there is a universal language, a world book—spread out in glory for all men to read, and somehow or other, all men have read it with more or less clearness, and have arrived at the same conclusion with the Hebrew prophet,—"the heavens declare the glory of God." Paul must have felt something of this when he exclaimed, "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." So that he concludes that the ungodly are without excuse, by reason of this revelation found in the creations of God—the heavens that declare God's glory. Then notice how David glides from the contemplation of the heavens to the contemplation of the law of the Lord—"perfect, converting the soul;" the "testimony" of the Lord which is "sure, making wise the simple." The "statutes of the Lord that are right, rejoicing the heart;" the "commandment of the Lord" that is "pure, enlightening the eyes." The "fear of the Lord" that is "clean, enduring forever;" the "judgments of the Lord" that "are true, and righteous altogether." Such a scripture prepares the mind for devotion, and is a worthy introduction to the act of worship. (End of reading.)

This kind of exercise is intended to run through the remainder of the lessons of this year, and every week someone should be appointed to come to the following week's lesson prepared with a scripture reading, which should be delivered as above, that is, read with reflections, and comments, to which it gives rise.