From such obscure peoples as the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, who - except for their occasional association with Israel - are quite aside from the world's history, the prophet passes to deal with Tyre, one of the greatest and most commanding cities whose deeds and fame adorn the annals of mankind. The Ruler of men does not, indeed, allow the meanest to defy his authority with impunity; his sway extends to the most insignificant of peoples, of tribes. But on the other hand, the proudest and the mightiest are subject to his control, and, when rebellious and defiant, must feel the weight of his irresistible hand.

I. THE GREATNESS OF TYRE. The elements of this greatness, the causes which conspired to produce it, were many and various. There may be noticed:

1. Its commanding maritime situation. Partly upon a rock, partly upon the mainland, Tyre sat - a queen. To the east, the north, the south, were countries which poured their produce into the Phoenician port; before her, to the west, were the waters of the great sea, upon whose shores lay the great states and cities of the ancient world. Tyre was thus the highway of the nations.

2. Its commerce. This was carried on with all the known countries accessible to the Tyrian fleets. Her supremacy upon the sea gave Tyre a foremost position among the nations; her adventurous mariners not only visited every port of the Mediterranean, they passed the Pillars of Hercules, and traded with "the islands of the West."

3. Its wealth. Every nation paid tribute to Tyre. The exchange, the mart, of the world, it acquired and retained riches scarcely equaled.

4. Its splendor - such as is described by Ezekiel - was the natural result of the opulence of its enterprising merchants and sea-captains.

5. Its political power was out of all proportion to its territory, its population; its alliance was sought, and its hostility was dreaded.

II. THE ENEMIES OF TYRE. These were many and formidable. It is a sad symptom of human depravity that unusual prosperity should excite general dislike, jealousy, envy, and ill will. "Many nations came up against Tyre, as the sea causeth his waves to come up." But some of these adversaries Tyre could treat with derision or contempt. This was not so, however, with Babylon. A different type of civilization and national life was no doubt exhibited in the great kingdom of the East; but the population and armies of Babylonia were enormous, and the resources of the kingdom all but inexhaustible. When the King of Babylon turned his arms against Tyre, brave and powerful as was the regal city by the sea, there was no disguising the fact that the time of trial and of danger had come.

III. THE SIEGE AND CONQUEST OF TYRE. It is matter of history that the prophet's predictions were fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came up against Tyre, and, notwithstanding its boasted impregnability, laid siege to it, and directed against it all the vast military resources of his kingdom. For long years the siege was maintained. The besieged, having open communication by sea, were able to withstand the assaults of the enemy; and it was only the patience and indomitable perseverance of the Babylonians that gave them the final victory.

IV. THE DESTRUCTION AND DESOLATION OF TYRE. A more striking and detailed prediction than this was never uttered; and never was prediction more strikingly and literally fulfilled. The downfall of Tyre was complete. The walls and towers of the city were broken down. The rock upon which she stood - a stronghold of defiance - was left bare and desolate. The nets of the solitary fisher were spread where magnificence and revelry had reigned. Tyre became a spoil to the nations. Her dependencies were vanquished and destroyed with her; in her they had trusted, in her favor they had basked, and in her ruin they were overwhelmed. The destruction and desolation were in awful contrast to the light and glory, the splendor and power, of bygone days.

APPLICATION. The time of national greatness and prosperity is to any people a time of trial. Then especially does it behoove a nation to beware of pride and self-confidence. For the rebellious, contumacious, and ungodly there is assuredly retribution prepared. The King of all is God of hosts, and he never wants means and agencies to carry out his own righteous and judicial purposes. Resistance to God is vain; it can last but for a short time. And every nation must learn that the Lord is God alone. - T.

That vengeance belongs unto God is emphatically declared in the book of God (Romans 12:19). And exemplary is the vengeance with which the Almighty has from time to time visited, not only those who had either arrayed themselves in hostility against Himself, His Word, or His servants; but those who had, without His sanction, either assailed or oppressed His people Nor individuals merely, but assemblages of men, — nay, cities, — and even nations, have often, in a sudden and calamitous overthrow, borne memorable testimony to the truth of these remarks. My text refers to an occasion of the kind. The Tyrians, so called from their chief city, Tyre, but also known by the name of Phoenicians, were at one time the most commercial, most opulent, and, at the same time, proudest people of the oriental world. Shipbuilding was prosecuted to a vast extent at this celebrated place. The carrying trade, too, of most of the mercantile world was in the hands of the Tyrians; besides which the city was the grand depot for the rarest and richest productions of distant nations. Gold, spices, and precious stones from Ethiopia, and the coast of Arabia; — emeralds, fine linen and embroidery work, coral, agate, and wool of delicate hue as well as texture, from Damascus and other parts of Syria; — chests of cedar for bestowing fragrancy on splendid apparel, and splendid apparel itself in ample quantity, from Mesopotamia and other bordering countries; — wheat, honey, oil, and balm, as well as wrought iron, steel, and aromatic gums, from various quarters of Palestine; — silver, iron, tin, and lead, from Tarshish, a place itself of considerable maritime trade; — brazen vessels, and, alas! slaves, from Ionia; — lambs, with other creatures used as provisions, from Arabia; — and ivory from sundry parts of the east: — all these commodities, useful, ornamental, costly, elegant, and various, brought in abundance into Tyre, were sold in her fairs and markets; whence they were exported, or otherwise dispersed, into different and distant countries, cities, and provinces. The consequence was, that Tyre spread itself till it was nearly twenty miles in circumference; containing, 'tis probable, nearly one million of souls. Further, such was the luxurious prodigality that sprung from the opulence which flowed in upon Tyre from her vast commerce, that not only were the people very generally clad in costly stuffs, dyed of the richest hues — among the rest the far-famed Tyrian purple — but even the very sails of their ships were "of fine linen, with embroidered work from Egypt." This minuteness in description has appeared scarcely less than necessary to a proper comprehension of the force of that declaration in the text: "I (God) am against thee, O Tyrus." Having learned from the detail how commercial, great, and splendid, how strong, opulent, and well-peopled a city Tyre was, we can easily deem how it was that the Tyrians, lifted up with pride, and full of self-confidence, had, in their hearts, set at nought the power of Almighty God, thinking that their mountain stood too strong for even His arm to shake. It was, in effect, we conclude, through such a spirit as this that they vaunted themselves over the Jewish people, and spoke scornfully of Jerusalem; though fully aware, at the same time, that the former were under the special patronage of God, and that the latter was the most favoured seat of His majesty and glory on earth. Such, then, as has been described, was the famous city of Tyre when the prophet Ezekiel was commanded to denounce it as marked out for particular judgment by the Most High. The reason is given in verse

2. Jerusalem had been taken and sacked by Nebuchadnezzar; but this should have been far, very far from ministering to the Tyrians occasion of self-gratulation and triumph. Yet did the latter not confine themselves to the manifestation of a selfish and brutal joy at the misfortunes of their Jewish neighbours — to a mere rejoicing over the circumstance that the trade of Jerusalem would from that time flow in Tyrian channels. There is but too full evidence of the fact that they went further than this — that they became ready purchasers of all the spoil which could be wrung from the unhappy people; and, not content even with thus abetting the cruelty and rapacity of others, bought with avidity the wretched Jews themselves — bought them in great numbers, and either kept or transferred them as slaves. "Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus." On the particulars of the denunciation that follows, a very long and awful one, I need not dwell. My design next carries me to view the accomplishment of those predictions of vengeance which Ezekiel was thus commissioned to pour forth against the devoted city. "Passing," says a celebrated traveller, "by Tyre, from curiosity only, I came to be a mournful witness of the truth of the prophecy that Tyre, the queen of nations (queen of the sea, too, was she styled); that Tyre, the queen of nations, should be a rock to fishers to dry their nets on: two wretched fishermen with miserable nets had just given over their occupations." "On the north side of Tyre," says another traveller, Maundrell, "there is an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle; besides which you see nothing here but a mere babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, etc.; there not being so much as one entire house left. Its present inhabitants are only a few wretches harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting themselves chiefly upon fishing; who seemed to be preserved in this place by Divine Providence, as a visible argument how God has fulfilled His word concerning Tyre." Has not God then shown Himself indeed "against Tyrus"? Be it our endeavour, next, to inquire into the use which we should ourselves, with God's help, make of this interesting piece of Bible history.

1. First, then, we may the more clearly discern the force of that scripture that "vengeance belongs to God" alone; to whom it must be left to repay evils or injuries done, derived, or wished against His people. The people of God are to repose their cause in the hands of God. And why are they so to act? Why, when the injuries which they receive are great and unquestionable, may they not themselves endeavour to take an adequate revenge? Because the truly religious temper, which only God can approve, is a temper that can have no affinity with a revengeful disposition. Neither is the retribution that God inflicts at all allied to revenge. It is the righteous chastisement of a lawgiver, whose statutes, holy, just, and good, have been inexcusably transgressed, and His authority set at nought, by those on whom the visitations fall.

2. We are taught from our subject that God will not fail to avenge, as far as shall be proper, His people, of their inveterate and irreclaimable adversaries.

3. We are taught by this scripture the severity of the Divine vengeance, when once the long-suffering of God has reached its limit, as well as the absolute impossibility of anyone's escaping or avoiding the terrible effects of the aroused anger of the Almighty Jehovah. Long may His patience be tried, ere that holy anger be excited, but when once kindled, how resistless and destructive is its power. Dreadful, truly, is their condition who, being still in their sins, have God "against" them. Alarming would be the danger of that traveller who, unarmed, should discover a lion advancing towards him, in a path out of which he could not turn to escape the terrible beast; with which again, personal contest would be to all appearance hopeless. Yet would some possibility of escape in such a case exist. Aid, unknown to the stranger, might be at hand. To another object, a different kind of prey, the attention of the savage creature might be drawn off. Presence of mind, aiding the happy execution of some sudden thought, might render the jeoparded stranger victorious, or put him in unlocked for safety. Nay, the lion might, unstung by hunger, or with the magnanimity that some have been fond of ascribing to this animal, allow the other, unhurt, quietly to pass him. Such things have indeed happened. But no probabilities exist — no possibility exists, that he against whom God cometh as an avenging adversary, will be able to avoid encountering Him, and perishing in the encounter. None. His purposes change not; their execution nought can hinder. And as for God's not troubling Himself about the evil that He cannot but see — think what is His own character. First, is He not of an infinite wisdom, purity, and holiness? Then think what He has done for sinful man, when a believer, repentant, and reformed; not because of man's own merit in being such, but when he is such; — given to him, that is, everlasting life in happiness and glory. Think of these things, and then let common sense answer the question, whether this all-holy and all-beneficent Being will or will not take notice of — will or will not tremendously punish — the unbelieving, impenitent, and unholy?

(W. M. Wade.)