prophet " in the midst of the valley which is full of bones." We hear the wind sigh through the grass which covers them; we raise our languid eyes, and fix them on the monuments of mortality; we "pass by them round about;" the world, with all its splendour, and toil, and gaiety, vanishes from our sight; and we are drawn, by an irresistible impulse, to contemplate, with undivided attention, the gloomy scene, in which all we have admired or valued here must inevitably terminate; on the " very many bones in the open valley," deprived of every principle of life, and become "very dry."

In these moments of melancholy thought, when all the occupations of men seem insignificant, and for no end; when the labours or the enjoyments which fill up the space of our " few and evil days," seem only to deceive us with false hopes, or to give us a taste of happiness which must speedily pass away; when the beauty of creation itself is lost to us, and the sun which shines above our heads seems only to "light us to the tomb;" what, I beseech you, is the only inquiry which we are anxious to make, the only information we are willing to receive? The voice which spoke to the prophet is then heard to speak in every human heart, and to utter the words of incalculable import, "Son of man, can these bones live?" The reply to this solemn inquiry will not, in that hour, my brethren, be the careless trifling of the sophist. The lofty mind of man will not then stoop to play tricks with its own ingenuity; but the eye of nature will be raised to heaven, burning through its tears, and the voice of the heart will cry aloud to the Father of existence, and will seek from him the knowledge of the

destiny of man, "O Lord God, thou knowest." The gloom of the grave is no darkness to thee; thou breath. est into man the breath of life, and thou takest it away; thou alone canst tell whether his being may be renewed! It is thus we may interpret the reply of the prophet; and it is in this manner that light begins to break in upon the obscurity of "the valley which is full of bones." With what gratitude are the first rays of that celestial light then hailed! and how eagerly does the soul apply for still farther illumination to that living source whence alone it can flow! How many doubts and misgivings are dispelled, when the God of nature is once fairly recognized! and, when the appeal is made to him, how willingly does he insinuate the prophecy of immortality!

“Again he said unto me (continues the prophet), Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live." The same words of prophecy which were at this time heard by Ezekiel, were likewise heard by many wise and good men of the heathen world, who, like him, wandered in the Spirit of the Lord through the valley of bones, and from that cheerless scene of desolation, were, like him, prompted to lift the eye of faith to the Father of their being. Whenever the words of faith were uttered, "O Lord God, thou knowest ;" whenever the material veil was for a moment raised, and a glimpse was caught of the eternal throne of God, then the rays of prophetic hope dawned upon "the shadow of death;" and nature herself, independently of immediate inspiration, could foretel the rise of the immortal form of man from the sleep

of the grave. The evidences arising from the attributes of God; from the dignity of the human mind; from the analogies of nature, then crowded in with an increasing force; and even in those dark ages, which "the Dayspring from on high had not visited," could assume the high tone and firmness of prophetic assurance. It is thus delightful to find, that in no age of the world did God leave himself without a witness; and that the loftiest truths of religion rose, as if of their own accord, in the minds of the contemplative, from amidst the very horrors which seemed to bury and overwhelm them.

"And as I prophesied there was a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone." I will not, my brethren, trust myself to repeat the astonishing description which follows; when the visions of prophecy assumed the appearance of present reality; when the prophet at once beheld what before he had only imagined; when the dead were raised up in multitudes around him; and when an "exceeding great army" rose from the "dry bones." It is more important for me to say, that what this vision was to him, the Gospel of our Lord is to us; that, to the Christian, the prophetic hopes of nature assume the evidence of reality; that in his hours of meditation in " the valley which is full of bones," the truths of his religion speak from the silence of the grave; that he then seems to hear the Captain of his salvation calling to the four winds, and bidding the earth give up the accumulated dead of ages, and to behold " the exceeding great army of the faithful," which, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, shall obey the call, and shall follow their leader

into those mansions which he has already gone to prepare for them.

The allusion here made to the gospel appears indeed to be obvious and striking. "As I prophesied," says Ezekiel at the very moment when the eye of man was anxiously turned towards his future being; when the contemplative and the pious were eagerly accumulating the evidences of their immortality, and were rousing up every principle of faith, he who obtained a victory over the grave, made this great truth obvious even to sense; and wherever his followers carried the glad tidings of his resurrection, the day-spring from on high was immediately shed abroad over many a nation which had " sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death."

It is thus, my brethren, that I have endeavoured once more to lead your attention to the loftiest and most interesting truth of religion. There are times, we see, when nothing short of this truth can give the slightest interest to the human mind; when the sun loses its light, and all nature is dead and gloomy without it; and when the only consolation the heart can know is contained in the answer to the solemn question, " Son of man, can these bones live?" The answer to that question is found by those only who listen to it in the spirit of the Lord; who, in the lowest depth of their affliction, or in their gloomiest meditations on the fate of man, can yet lift the eye of hope and of piety to the Father of nature; and, while their own thoughts are dark, can yet say to him, " O Lord God, thou knowest." From minds thus prepared, my brethren, all the doubts of nature, or of a vain philosophy, will speedily pass

away; the lights of reason will illuminate their path; and the stronger beam of revelation will, even now, seem to disclose the celestial life and immortality which are lurking unperceived for a time under the " many dry bones" in the valley of death.

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If there are times when this lofty doctrine alone can afford us a gleam of comfort, there is no time in which it ought to pass entirely from our thoughts. There is in fact no time of our mortal existence in which we are not passing through "the valley which is full of bones." We are now treading upon the bones of our fathers; and the feet of our children will soon pass over ours. this a world then, my brethren, which ought to claim all our affections? Is it meet that our " abiding city" should be here? and, instead of pursuing without ceasing those advantages which must terminate here, shall we not en. deavour to tread in that path of steady goodness which leads so surely into a brighter and an eternal abode ?

This path is found without any difficult or perplexed inquiry, by him who will seek for it in the spirit of the Lord, and will here, too, say with the prophet, Lord God, thou knowest." Even those who are dead in trespasses and sins, thou, O Lord God, knowest how to restore. To this moral resurrection the prophet at last alludes, and thus closes the profound doctrine which he had unveiled..

" Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold they say, our bones are dried and our hope is lost; therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and will put my spirit in you, and ye shall live. Then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and have performed it, saith the Lord."

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