of Ezekiel, where the expressions occur so often, “He shall surely live,” and “He shall surely die.”  We have no right to refer these to a mere extension on the one hand, or a cutting short on the other, of the term of earthly existence.  The promise of living long in the land, or, as in Hezekiah’s case, of adding to his days fifteen years, is very different from the full and unreserved blessing, “Thou shalt surely live.”  And we know, undoubtedly, that both the good and the bad to whom Ezekiel spoke died alike the natural death of the body.  But the peculiar force of the promise, and of the threat, was, in the one case, Thou shalt belong to God; in the other, Thou shalt cease to belong to him; although the veil was not yet drawn up which concealed the full import of those terms, “belonging to God,” and “ceasing to belong to him”:  nay, can we venture to affirm that it is fully drawn aside even now?

I have dwelt on this at some length, because it really seems to place the common state of the minds of too many amongst us in a light which is exceedingly awful; for if it be true, as I think the Scripture implies, that to be dead, and to be without God, are precisely the same thing, then can it be denied that the symptoms of death are strongly marked upon many of us?  Are there not many who never think of God or care about his service?  Are there not many who live, to all appearances, as unconscious of his existence as we fancy the inferior animals to be?  And is it not quite clear, that to such persons, God cannot be said to be their God?  He may be the God of heaven and earth, the God of the universe, the God of Christ’s Church; but he is not their God, for they feel to have nothing at all to do with him; and, therefore, as he is not their God, they are, and must be, according to the Scripture, reckoned among the dead.

But God is the God “of the living.”  That is, as before, all who are alive, live unto him; all who live unto him are alive.  “God said, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;” and, therefore, says our Lord, “Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob are not and cannot be dead.”  They cannot be dead because God owns them; he is not ashamed to be called their God; therefore, they are not cast out from him; therefore, by necessity, they live.  Wonderful, indeed, is the truth here implied, in exact agreement, as we have seen, with the general language of Scripture; that, as she who but touched the hem of Christ’s garment was, in a moment, relieved from her infirmity, so great was the virtue which went out from him; so they who are not cast out from God, but have anything:  whatever to do with him, feel the virtue of his gracious presence penetrating their whole nature; because he lives, they must live also.