i. 5-8. _The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no
soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying
sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither
mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your
cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour in
your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by
strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in
a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a
besieged city._
By these powerful figures the prophet sets forth the moral corruption
and its impending calamities of the people to whom he ministered.
[Note that in vers. 7, 8, the prophet speaks as if the future were
already present; so clear and vivid is his view of it.] +I. A whole
nation may become morally corrupt.+ Vice may defile and degrade all
classes of society. +II. The natural tendency of national corruption
is not to abate, but to spread and increase.+ Vices are "_putrefying_
sores." As in the body physical a disease or wound in one member may
poison the whole body, so in the body politic the vice of any one
class tends to spread through all society.--These two considerations
should lead us--1. _To pray constantly and earnestly for our
country._ "Christian England" left to itself, and unrestrained by
Divine grace and mercy, would soon become as Sodom and Gomorrah.
2. _Not to be selfishly indifferent to the sins of the classes of
society to which we do not happen to belong._ This were as foolish as
it would be for a man to give no heed to the fact that his
neighbour's house was on fire, in forgetfulness or the other fact
that fire spreads; or as if in the body the head were indifferent to
the fact that the foot had received a poisoned wound. 3. _To put
forth earnest efforts for the repression of public vices._ Mere
passive reprobation of them will be of no avail. Nor can we
reasonably hope that time will abate and lessen them. No; these
"sores" are _"putrefying;"_ and if the body politic is ever to be
restored to moral health, they must be "closed, bound up, and
mollified with ointment." In some cases this "ointment" must be moral
suasion, in other cases legal coercion. This principle is already
recognised in regard to cockfighting, the sale of indecent books and
pictures, &c. +III. In a modified sense, the declarations of our text
are true of every human being.+ The doctrine of "total depravity" has
been preached in such a manner as to discredit it, and statements
have been made in exposition of it which would imply that every child
comes into the world as wicked as Nero left it (not only depraved in
every faculty, but in every faculty totally depraved!) This
representation of the doctrine is contrary both to Scripture (2 Tim.
iii. 13; 1 Pet. iv. 4, &c.) and to fact. But our rejection of this
exaggerated form of it must not lead us to reject the doctrine
itself. Our whole personality has been "depraved"--debased and
deteriorated--by sin; the whole man--his affections, passions,
understanding, reason, imagination, and will--has been impaired by
the "fall;" just as by certain diseases _all_ the functions of the
body are disordered.[1] The natural tendency of this inborn
corruption is not to lessen with increasing years, but to intensify;
as a matter of fact, _aged_ sinners are always the vilest and most
malignant. These facts--1. _Disclose man's need of a redemptive power
external to himself._ Our moral corruption is not like one of those
minor diseases which are best left to "nature;" it is like a cancer
or a malignant fever--if it is left to run its course, it will kill
us. There is in us no _vis medicatrix_ capable of overcoming and
expelling it. If we are to be restored to moral soundness, it must be
by a Power external to us. 2. _Should lead us to accept with
gratitude the proffered help of the Great Healer._ We all need His
help. Without it we shall grow worse day by day. His help will avail
for us, however desperate may be our case; as it was in the days of
His flesh physically, so it is now morally and spiritually (Matt.
iv. 23, 24; xiv. 36). +IV. Moral depravity brings on physical
misery.+ The desolation set forth in vers. 7, 8, was the natural
consequence of the depravity denounced in vers. 5, 6. By an
everlasting and most righteous decree a bad character and a bad
condition are linked together, and can be only for a very little
while disassociated. This is true both of nations and individuals.
Sin inevitably leads to sorrow. Of this fact we have ten thousand
evidences in this present world. Hence also the realm of unrelieved
wickedness in the realm of unmitigated woe. Were man always
reasonable beings, the fearfulness and the certainty of the
consequences of sin would be sufficient and prevailing arguments for
repentance and amendment of life. Let them prevail with us (Ezek.
xviii. 30, 21).