Can the people of Israel depressed and forlorn as they are, be restored to their own happy land? Can these bones, dry and scattered in confusion in the valley, can these bones live? O! Lord thou knowest. Thus saith the Lord to these bones, ye shall live, and thus to the people of Israel, ye shall be restored. By what miraculous power shall these bones live? Not by any remaining energy or lingering life in themselves, behold they are very dry: but I saith the Lord, I will lay sinews upon them, and will bring up flesh upon them, and will cover them with skin, and thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. And by what miraculous power shall Israel be restored? Not by their own power, or their own might, or their own wisdom, but by my spirit saith the Lord of Hosts. "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. Therefore, prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God; behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord."

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This is obviously the primary application of the vision; and the prophesy so delivered was in a few years after, perfectly accomplished. "In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah ; and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, he is the God which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God, that is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem."*

The vision before us applies also to the great final restoration of the Jews to their own land, which by the same power, and against the same, or even greater apparent difficulties shall in due time assuredly be accomplished. Thisis distinctly the subject of the conclusion of this chapter, which cannot be applied to the restoration from Babylon, inasmuch as under the figure of two sticks becoming one in the hand of the Prophet, the united restoration of Judah and Israel (the two tribes and the ten) is clearly foretold: whereas Judah alone was brought back from Babylon. A better restoration is in reserve, to prepare for that day, when it shall no longer be said " bless the Lord who brought up his people from the land of Egypt, neither bless the Lord who restored Judah from the land of the Chaldeans." But thus it shall be said " bless the Lord, who hath brought again, and restored the remnant of Judah, and the dispersed of Israel, from the north country and from all the countries whither he had scattered them in the day of his fierce anger."

It may also be applied to illustrate the grand doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, when in the exercise of that mighty power whereby Jehovah subdueth all things to himself, it shall be fulfilled to the letter; the trumpet shall sound, the graves shall be opened, the pavement on which you now stand shall burst from its place, dry and scattered bones innumerable shall unite bone to his bone, God shall give them bodies as it hath pleased him, and there shall start from the bowels of the earth, and from the bottom of the sea, a prodigious army, some to the resurrection of life, and some to the resurrection of damnation.

II. But the application of this vision on which I would at present particularly dwell, is to the conversion of sinners from darkness to light, from death to life, from the Babylonish captivity of sin, to the glorious liberty enjoyed upon the high mountains of the spiritual Israel of God. Marvel not, my brethren, that I say unto you, ye must be born again, that ye must be quickened from death unto life. The scriptures of truth declare concerning us all, even our whole species, that we are by nature in a state of spiritual death: that we are without God in the world, and because nothing but the enjoyment of the presence and favour of God deserves the name of life in an immortal creature, we are dead while we live; therefore it is written of us that we are living in sin, and also that we are dead in sin. This is a faithful saying, and receives a ready instinctive acceptation from all those (in all ages) who are taught of God.

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Man is a fallen creature, ruined by disobedience to his God. This ruin took place in the person of the first man, and involved in it all his posterity. This is a weighty assertion, and I would not pass it over without proof, that is, without showing that it is plainly stated in the scriptures. I do not at present address myself to those who require any additional proof, but to those who profess to receive as perfectly conclusive every unequivocal assertion of the Word of God. Byoneman sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all man, for that all have sinned. By one man's disobedience many were made sinners.* Man, therefore, is by nature a sinful creature. Before he is born, or has done any good or evil in his own person, he is a sinful creature. "Conceived in sin," saith the scripture. Sinful not in the branch only but in the root, not in the stream only, but in the fountain also. And as the fountain is, so is the stream; that which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and man's fleshly nature is thus described in the scriptures, "earthly," "sensual," "devilish." As soon as he is born, the works of the flesh begin to show themselves in him. As soon as he can use his fingers, he steals with them. As soon as he can use his tongue, he tells lies with it. As soon as he can make use