Bible Commentaries

Ezekiel 40:3

Speaking, in Frondes Agrestes ( 57), of humility and love as associated with the symbolism of the reed in Scripture, Ruskin invites his readers to "observe the confirmation of these last two images in, I suppose, the most important prophecy, relating to the future state of the Christian Church, which occurs in the Old Testament, namely, that contained in the closing chapters of Ezekiel. The measures of the Temple of God are to be taken; and because it is only by charity and humility that those measures ever can be taken, the angel has "a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed ". The use of the line was to measure the land, and of the reed to take the dimensions of the buildings; so the buildings of the Church, or its labours, are to be measured by humility; and its territory, or land, by love."

Ezekiel 40:4

None can move this world unless he stands upon another.

—Coventry Patmore.

The objective element has its place, and a very large place, too, in Christian preaching; the minister of the Gospel, announces the Gospel; he has to relate not his own private history, but the wonders of God; only, he relates these with his own soul; it is on that soul, as on a living focus, that the rays of truth fall, to strike thence on other souls; and these truths, which ought to have become a part of himself, reach his hearers as an emanation of his being, real and personal at the same time, objective and subjective.

—Vinet.

All important truths have been the result of solitary effort. None have been discovered by masses of people—it is fair to suppose they never will.

—Beckford.

Reference.—XL4.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No1578.