vii The Prophecies of Ezekiel. 127 



There is also a remarkable and seldom -quoted 

 passage in the Prophecies of Ezekiel, where the 

 Prophet teaches that those who truly repent of the 

 sins which have alienated them from their God, 

 and are converted, and assured of forgiveness and 

 restoration, nevertheless cannot, will not, and ought 

 not to think and feel about their sins as if they had 

 not been committed : 



"Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 

 And I will save you from your uncleannesses : and I 

 will call for the corn, and will multiply it, and lay 

 no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit 

 of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye 

 shall receive no more the reproach of famine among 

 the nations. Then shall ye remember your evil 

 ways, and your doings that were not good; and ye 

 shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities 

 and your abominations. " ] 



There is a still more remarkable passage in the 

 same prophet, which carries the same lesson yet 

 further : " The Levites that went far from Me, when 

 Israel went astray, which went astray from Me after 

 their idols ; they shall bear their iniquity. Yet 

 they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having 

 oversight at the gates of the house, and ministering 

 in the house : they shall slay the burnt offering and 

 the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand 

 before them to minister unto them. Because they 

 ministered unto them before their idols, and became 

 1 Ezek. xxxvi. 28-31 ; see also xx. 41-44. 



