(Ezek. 14:12-21.)

Ezekiel, as we know, uttered his prophecy outside the land, though the captivity was not complete. Jerusalem had been captured, the land was in the hands of the Gentiles, and the final consummation was about to be reached. If there ever was a time calling for prostration of spirit before God, in all the reality of penitence, both individual and national, it was then. Alas, the people but manifested the absolute alienation of heart and life from God-a state of complete hopelessness, because they were wedded to their sins, they had "set up their idols in their hearts." With such complete apostasy, there was no hope for the nation; it was ripe for judgment.

It was in this connection that the Spirit of God declares that all connection with the nation as such is broken off, and He can only recognize individual faithfulness. He selects three representative men, in different circumstances, and widely separated in time from one another, and declares, " Though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness."

There is an evident contrast here with the state of Sodom, prior to its fall, when Abraham, in intercession, secured from God the promise that He would spare it if ten righteous were found in it. It was Abraham, and not God, who set that as a limit, for the patriarch ceased to intercede further, "and the Lord went His way " (Gen. 18:33):The same prophet also whom we are now following speaks of Sodom as the younger sister of Jerusalem (ch. 16:46-50).

It is interesting also to notice that each of these men, while exercising faith for himself, was instrumental in rescuing others. With Noah this was notably the case. He was the leader of the only remnant that escaped the flood that came upon the entire world. Daniel also was an intercessor, and through him the wise men of Babylon were rescued from the king's wrath, his brethren strengthened in their testimony for God, and the pledge of later national restoration given. ' Even in Job's case there was something of the same kind, for he interceded for his friends, and secured their acceptance before God.

Now the prophet declares that even such men as these could not be deliverers; they must stand alone. If there were any lingering hope in the heart of the people that faithfulness on the part of a few would atone for the sins of the nation, it was dissipated by this solemn word. It is similar to what had been declared through Jeremiah. "Though Moses and Samuel Stood before me, my mind .could not be toward this people "(Jer. 15:i). How hopeless then and how final must have been their heart departer from God.

Times and dispensations change, but the truth of God remains the same. The professing church has, alas, followed Israel, and with more light has gone further into absolute independency of God. His glory has departed from it, corporately, and while He ever blesses individual faithfulness, and owns the desire to obey His word in the few who still hold it fast, yet the united testimony has gone, never, alas, to be revived.

There is room, thank God, for individual faith, and a quiet testimony of the few. For such, without doubt, the history of these three men must have special significance. They are brought together from most distant times and scenes, apparently at random. Yet we know divine wisdom always has a purpose which it is ours to search out. May we learn some lessons, then, from these three men.

Noah lived, morally, in the end of the world. The end of all flesh had been reached, and, so far as man was concerned, nothing but judgment remained. But grace must have its resources even in the darkest hour, and we see its provision of shelter from impending judgment. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and during all the time the longsuffering of God waited, he testified of the world's sin and of God's mercy. Little enough fruit, it will be said, resulted from his long witnessing. But there are two facts to consider. Many must have died during the hundred and twenty years, and how many of these may have hearkened to his warnings, and turned to God ere it was too late. It is not for us to speculate, but we remember how God spoke at a later and somewhat similar time about Nineveh, of the multitudes who did not know their right hands from their left (Jonah 4:ii). May we not believe that possibly some from the multitudes of the ungodly were turned to Him through the preaching of Noah, and were taken away from the judgment to come ?

The other fact is beyond speculation. Noah's preaching was believed by his household. He carried them all with him into the ark. Contrast that with Lot, and his testimony to his mocking sons-in-law, his wife, lost on the very brink of Sodom, and his daughters apparently lost after they had escaped the corruption of that wicked place. Is it not worthy of consideration that Noah could thus influence his own family?

But this suggests the fitness of naming Noah as the first remnant character we are to consider. Judgment was before him. He accepted the shelter provided of God, and in the long years, when judgment lingered, he bore his testimony in the face of an ungodly and mocking age. Is not that the position of God's remnant in these days ? For us the coming of the Lord is a blessed hope, but for the world it is the end of probation, and the beginning of doom. Our testimony is to be to the certainty of that judgment and to God's merciful provision against it. No one can truly maintain a testimony in these days who does not emphasize the near approach of judgment. May we not add that nothing is more uncommon and distasteful to man than such testimony ? This is in itself a solemn intimation of the nearness of the end. There will come mockers in the last days saying, Where is the promise of His coming ? Our Lord also likens the indifference in Noah's day to that of the time just preceding His coming.

Beloved brethren, is this our testimony, not merely upon our lips, but so real that our families believe it ? How searching is this. But such was Noah; he bore witness to a soon-coming judgment from which he was most effectually to be sheltered.

Daniel follows next, not in order of time, for Job far antedated him, but there must be some reason for his having the second place. There is something remarkable in his being mentioned at all, for he was living when Ezekiel wrote. When we think of the simplicity of his faith, the firmness of his separation and the clearness of his testimony, we are not surprised that even his contemporaries had been struck by it. What an honor, unsought surely by that lowly man, to be known for his devotedness and subjection to God, and thus to be associated with the faithful of all time. Beloved, do we so live that our names, even if unknown here, are entered upon the rolls of that "goodly company " who have in all time stood for God ?
Daniel was a captive, not only a witness to ruin impending, but a partaker of that ruin. He had been carried to Babylon to be a servant to its king, and the honor of the beloved city, yea, the honor of God, was in the dust. But his faith was as vigorous as though he were living in the brightest days of Joshua's or Solomon's government. He was as careful not to defile himself at Babylon as at Jerusalem. For him the will of God was just as real as it ever was, and to be as implicitly obeyed. For him too the promises and power of God were unchanged, and he rested in. them implicitly. The key to his entire history is found in his Nazariteship. He walked in separation from his surroundings, and therefore had power. This explains too his understanding of what was in the future for the kingdoms of the world. He maintained his separation, and therefore his testimony. When the time of persecution came, he was not found wanting. He could go into the lions' den as calmly as he went to prayer, and for the same reason-God was with him.

The Lord give us to be true Daniels, in these days of the world's supremacy ; to maintain our separation at all times and at all cost. May we be in that attitude of loyalty to our Lord that will not compromise His truth no matter what suffering it involves. Job suggests other thoughts. There was no stir of preparation for a flood in his life, nor did he have to maintain a separate walk and testimony in the midst of an ungodly world, as Daniel. The current of his life had run as smoothly as possible, until the time of testing came, and that was exclusively an individual experience.

For this reason there are some lessons of special importance which appeal to our consciences strongly. The prominent thought in Job's history is the nothingness of human goodness. He was a righteous man to begin with, and all Satan's malice could not alter that. He maintained his integrity through it all. But God used his troubles and the harshness of his friends to prepare him for an unfolding as to his character of which he had not dreamed. He is brought into the presence of God, and there learns his vileness and nothingness, as he had never before. He learns the lesson and comes out of the furnace purified. It is this lesson of no good thing in us that we have to learn in the inmost depths of our souls, if we are to be truly God's remnant. Painful, humbling it is, but who that in any measure has been in Job's place has failed to get the blessedness of it ? We can conceive of one being harsh in bearing witness of coming judgment :a separate man may have a tinge of Pharisaism about him ; but if he has reached the end of himself in the presence of God, he will be neither harsh nor censorious, but a broken vessel for the Spirit of God to use as He sees fit.

The Lord lead us, beloved brethren, into these things, that we may in these days of hopeless darkness, still maintain His truth, according to His nature, and His desire for His people.