Homilist Ezekiel 37:11-13 Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost… I. SOUL RESURRECTION IS A MATTER OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. Man has no choice in the question of his bodily resurrection. He can do nothing towards hastening or delaying it, preventing or effecting it. Not so with the soul. Its moral condition is dependent upon itself. "Arise from the dead," is the voice of eternal justice as well as of redemptive mercy. II. SOUL RESURRECTION IS A GOOD IN ITSELF. It is the prisoner leaving the dungeon and his chains, and going forth a pardoned and reformed man, in the full play of his freedom, to enjoy with a grateful heart the blessings of life, and to discharge with a right spirit the duties of his sphere. It is the diseased man, leaving the dark chamber of suffering, and going forth, with renovated health and invigorated frame, into the fields of nature, in the opening spring, to breathe that new breath from God that is quickening all nature into life. III. SOUL RESURRECTION IS THE GRAND END OF ALL GOD'S DEALINGS WITH MEN. In every event of Providence, in every page of history, in every verse of the Bible, in every dictate of reason, in every throb of conscience, in every sorrow, and in every joy, His voice to the soul is this, "Arise from the dead": — Break through thy grave of carnalities, prejudices, corrupt habits, into the life of truth and love. IV. SOUL RESURRECTION INVOLVES THE HIGHEST AGENCY OF GOD. The Divine power, which will be employed to call up at last the teeming myriads of the buried dead, is nothing in grandeur, compared with that Divine energy which will be put forth to wake the dead soul to life. In the former case, the mere fiat or volition will do it. God has only to will it and it is done. But far more than this is employed on His part to raise the soul. For this purpose He has to "bow the heavens and come down," assume our nature, and in that nature reason out to us the arguments of His almighty love. V. SOUL RESURRECTION IS THE ONLY PLEDGE OF A GLORIOUS BODILY RESURRECTION. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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: we are cut off for our parts. |
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